Led by an elite pilot, the Tyger descended in a graceful curve toward Origin. Inside, flanked by an anonymous armed agent and a Gamma Empty Eyes officer who looked as tired as he was dejected, sat Samuel Aloysius, one of the few survivors of the Lennox massacre.
He didn't remember any of it, for everything had been sealed inside a mental box that would one day reopen-but at the time, he had been working in a wooden room, on a blackboard, with chalk, like in the old days, while an AI took notes, when the Wau entered the room.
The Wau had left deep marks in the light, varnished university floor, due to his weight. But those weren't the only stains in UniNox: long red streaks of blood from bodies dragged toward makeshift classroom-charnel pits were being scrubbed away with the neutral enthusiasm of maintenance drones. UniNox had been placed under tight surveillance for two weeks-three since the arrival of the Aleph-but the Wau, remarkable as he was, could infiltrate the guards' psyches and make them believe there were only white and blue butterflies fluttering in the garden when in fact a metal giant passed before their eyes.
Aloysius had dropped his chalk, biting his lip at the noise it made. He murmured:
-"So, you're back? Are you Cass, or someone else? You know, this isn't a safe place…"
-"No need to whisper. Even if you shook the guard dogs while shouting that they're on fire, they wouldn't hear you," replied the Wau, positioning himself in front of the desk.
The Wau scanned the diagrams on the wall, and the few easy-to-follow equations.
-"Synthetic beings?"
-"Yes, uh, I probably shouldn't tell you but… the Earth command issued a call for proposals… a call you can't really say no to, because… well, they have guns. Uh… Professor Moa, do you know who that is? Or Spiros? Anyway, you know here at UniNox we cultivate a small sense of defiance… They came in with their guns and Spiros caused a scandal, and they shot him. In front of us. Not even an After for him, damn it. And he talked about it all the time. That really shook me. Me, I want to live… Cass may have told you.
-"What is the call for proposals about, Professor?"
-"Are you Cassandra?"
-"Who knows?"
-"You're saying that to drive me mad, aren't you?"
-"Just answer my question, please."
-"Moa… Moa had a clever idea. We respond to the call with a bomb. A bomb to kill those bastards."
-"Crude, but interesting. The call for proposals."
-"Ah, so you're not on their side. They've got a Empty Eye on patrol. He saw it in his mind and they shot him. I know thermal rifles cause no pain when they burn the head, but still. Well, wanting to live, I'm working hard on a proposal."
He wiped his hands; they were trembling. He was so afraid that his mind had taken refuge in equations, and he had performed wonders.
-"THE CALL FOR PROPOSALS!"
The Wau had shouted, and the professor trembled again.
-"Uh… they want Androids. Of the same kind used to store Transients or the ones returning from the After. They want a lot… like, an absurdly high number. We're talking trillions. The AIs can optimize production, but they've asked every university for a disruptive solution. By the Blind Gods, if the Empty Eye can hear us thinking, I'm screwed."
The Wau looked again at the board in silence.
-"Your idea is interesting. You're brilliant, Aloysius. Why are you here on Lennox, and not at the MIT complex on Earth, for example?"
-"I thought I'd be left alone here. Far from the HS Council and its twisted ideas."
-"The turmoil of events always catches up with exceptional individuals. Don't torture yourself over that Empty Eye, he's a joke. As for your project, you're missing a good idea. The kind that will seduce the Aleph. Here it is. You don't have to make humanoids. The human form may appear pleasant to us, but it's far from optimal. Look at the Chimera Protea."
-"If…"
Samuel mumbled, deeply confused. The events had clearly rattled him.
-"…the Aleph said he wanted humans."
-"The call for proposals wasn't written by the Aleph."
-"I don't understand-do you want to help the Aleph? You Waus, you're..."
-"I want you to present the best project. I want you to be selected. Because I have a mission for you. I want you to insert a flaw into this project. There is a resistance being formed, Aloysius. A counterattack will be launched. It will take time. My project is… I can't explain it to you, but basically I'm going to hypnotize you. You'll forget I was ever here, and you'll have this magical idea of a non-human Android. You'll be heard and received by the highest authorities. The Aleph will be impressed because you're a very intelligent man, far more than those intellectually deficient and probably servile bureaucrats around him. He will appoint you head of the project. And at that moment, my hypnosis will lift. You will remember everything. You'll insert a tiny critical flaw into production and you will be the wind of change when we strike. Do you agree?"
-"Do I have a choice?"
-"Honestly? Yes."
Aloysius crossed his arms, leaning against the blackboard, partially erasing his diagrams.
-"I might die."
-"Less likely than most people, according to my sources."
-"I think I'll do it."
-"But you may fear for your life and not go through with it when the time comes."
-"I don't know if you're Cassandra... but in any case, she told you many things. You must know..."
He stepped out of the room to lead the Wau and his heavy steps to an adjacent office. On a table lay the primitive robot that had housed Proteus, its metal torso melted by the blast of a thermal rifle.
-"UniNox had quite a few Xenos, and they were driven out or killed if they resisted. I refuse to believe in a state-sponsored speciesism, but they told me that some Xenos had to be considered enemies or spies. Not all were killed… I had kept Proteus, and they believed he was just an AI. But Proteus is a very kind person, incapable of seeing evil... he started talking with the soldiers. I begged for his life. I explained that he was the only one of his kind, and maybe the key to helping save the entities on Lennox... but they said he knew too much. Those soldiers… they're not psychically manipulated. They're not afraid of the Aleph. And they killed him anyway. Where are we? When are we? In a police state from the year 2000? Yes, Wau, I'll be afraid of dying... but I think deep down, I won't have the courage, the strength, the logic, and yes, let's say it, that medieval feeling called hatred, which is now deeply rooted in me, to not act."
-"Then we are partners," concluded the Wau simply.
Aloysius had wanted to ask the Wau-before he wiped everything-to pass along a final message to Cassandra, whom he missed terribly in these uncertain and lonely times. But the Wau had already locked away orders, thoughts, and memories in a sophisticated structure of mental boxes.
Those past twenty minutes were a brief half-second absence for Aloysius' psyche, who now stood before his board with a new idea in mind.
He had formalized everything, and command had asked him to come to Earth to present his plan.
The Tyger landed in a secure zone not far from the HS Council Tower. It had been three hundred years since Aloysius last saw Origin-and it hadn't changed that much. Perhaps, he thought, the Aleph is one of those unfortunate events that will pull us out of our torpor.
Security checks, elevators. Above all, vast corridors and empty offices. The silence occasionally broken by a furious scream. Sometimes, the silent trace of a death. He was led into the vast open-bay chamber of the former HS Council. A stone throne fit for a Sumerian king, and, more practically, a conference table around which sat the Aleph with silver eyes-a well-built man who appeared human-, the HS president, unsmiling, a few high-ranking officials with tense features, and the director of UniPsi… a stranger, and unusually, an elderly person. Usually, people transferred to the After before reaching old age.
The Aleph gestured without looking at Aloysius, and the soldier had him sit on a bench near the door before saluting and leaving.
-"Continue," said the Aleph, with the smooth voice of a tiger.
-"In front of a witness?" asked a senior official, gesturing to Aloysius with a tilt of his chin.
-"I'll wipe his mind if anything bothers us, but I doubt it."
-"Very well," said the director of UniPsi. "It hasn't reached the media yet, but there are people unhappy with the new regime. Not everyone embraces the project. They're using militant terminology-they speak of a resistance."
-"A clever and classic semantic reversal by what are, in truth, nothing more than potential terrorists," said another official, clearly present only to flatter the Aleph.
The Aleph caught that remark in Aloysius' thoughts and immediately despised them both-the official and the academic. He wanted to kill them. He clenched his fists.
-"Do they include any of the few military units still at large?" asked another official.
The UniPsi director, weary of constant interruptions, shrugged. What was the point in presenting anything if sycophants were just going to circle the leader? The Aleph turned to the HS president and asked:
-"Do you have an opinion on the matter?"
-"As for the few military units, we're talking about two dusty admirals who hold little esteem among their peers and two Endymions, incapable of sustaining autonomy for long. They'll emerge from hiding when they're exhausted. As for the resistance... well... the difference between a dictatorship and a tolerated regime is that the latter gives dissenters the illusion they can speak, be heard. One might imagine tipping into dictatorship: physically eliminating-perhaps 'humanely,' by transferring to the After-the dissenters. But history shows that's rarely effective: opponents emerge naturally. And fear is not a long-term motivator."
-"That's not what the Emprise says," the servile official asserted.
-"The Emprise is a Xeno mishmash where one must pick and choose carefully-something that seems to elude you," the HS president coldly retorted, visibly unimpressed with having her political acumen challenged. "Humans are not insects. Supra-authoritarian regimes lack stability, because stability results from a sometimes-heated struggle between opponents and supporters. A tolerated regime-some might call it a democracy-allows dissent to be expressed. But 'allowing expression' doesn't mean refraining from manipulating it. My advice, Aleph, is to find a good candidate-a powerful Empty Eye-who will take leadership of the movement. Someone who secretly works for us."
-"Do you have such a candidate, Director?"
-"Yes. I had the same plan in mind."
-"Thank you for your help. You, Professor! Come now."
Aloysius awkwardly approached, holding a data terminal.
-"Samuel Aloysius... a professor from distant Lennox. Professor, don't be intimidated by the throne-it's just for show."
Samuel turned his head toward the throne and seemed to notice it for the first time. He had been captivated by the VIPs at the table and their cynical political chatter.
-"Uh, I hadn't even noticed it."
At these words, the Aleph was flooded with a violent murderous impulse, and Samuel never knew how close he came to being blown apart and finding his organs scattered across the room. But it was important to maintain decorum, especially in front of the hierarchy. The Aleph, however, convinced himself that a bumpkin this mediocre would surely offer a disappointing solution-and that would be the perfect opportunity to vent his anger.
-"Your proposal, Professor?"
-"Yes."
Aloysius tapped on his terminal and data appeared on a 2D projection beside the table. Everyone turned toward it.
-"Your request is for a viable, easy, and rapidly implementable disruptive idea, I assume also cost-effective, for the massive and unprecedented production of devices equivalent to our Androids. What I present here is a theoretical study proposing the idea of growing individuals in suitable containers-so I'm talking about biological individuals. It is, therefore, an organic resource, not a mechanical one."
-"This idea has already been presented to us by your colleagues from more prestigious universities," said the Aleph, impatient to chastise him. "The processes are not faster; they are slower."
-"More prestigious, yes. I'd like to see their presentation. But I don't understand your remark. Today, a production line assembles an Android in about four hours. I've reduced the time to 30 minutes. And it's not a large production line with numerous materials and machines-just a receptacle for organic matter. Have they gone below 30 minutes?"
-"No," said the President of the HS. "They were at fifteen days at best."
-"Fifteen days?" exclaimed Aloysius. "But in that case, it didn't improve the situation at all!"
-"They believed, wrongly," explained the Aleph, slightly confused about his own feelings, "that we were primarily seeking a disruptive idea. But explain to me how you manage 30 minutes where your brilliant colleagues take fifteen days."
-"I cheat a little. First, take a look at this footage."
On the 2D screen appeared a small transparent plastic vat no larger than a hand, bristling with many wires. A nauseating red substance bubbled inside. But it seemed to be organizing itself.
-"We are recreating a lab mouse. Our first animal was a Booz worm, but the mouse is more relevant for the demonstration. I did this, what, thirty years ago? Watch how quickly the body takes shape. We've known for centuries how to grow humans in vats, but never at this speed. We tried to isolate what caused the supreme vitality of the plants of Prospero, and the AIs discovered it before us: the planet, rich in metals and kentrochalcum, vibrates continuously with an orchestra of factors-constant solar winds on the magnetosphere, internal magma currents… So, we thought, what if we applied the same thing to living beings? A practice, as our dear President will confirm, absolutely forbidden in the HS, which answers your earlier question, Aleph: I'm on Lennox because you can conduct any type of experiment there. Or rather-you could."
-"Ah, but now I remember you," said the elderly director. "Samuel Aloysius, yes, of course. You haven't changed much… in nearly a hundred years…"
-"I don't age. A gift from a Transient. I just wanted to finish my research…"
-"Many things happen in the True Abyss, don't they?"
-"My only vice, Madame Director, is to seek answers. Actually, it's more about finding the right questions. The world needs better questions."
The Aleph's attitude toward Aloysius had completely reversed. This guy was incredible! He defied the rules. He rejected the constraints of the HS. He was the ideal man for his projects. If only he had met him during his previous endeavor!
He stood up, then sat down again, determined to listen to him to the end. In the 2D simulation, the mouse was barely recognizable: white bones, flayed muscles, eyes connected by a nerve to a tiny brain mass.
-"We proceeded by trial and error, but we found the right magnetic and physical resonance frequency for organic beings, animals, and mammals. On a healthy human, it's quite dangerous-it naturally causes permanent cell overgrowth, which is another word for that ancient disease once called cancer. Watch this part closely... the operator removes the mouse from the vat when only 25% of its body is formed. It's already moving. It's not conscious, of course-just pain reflexes. It's flayed, but it's healing. Once the process reaches 20% completion, it continues outside the vat. So the idea is that after thirty minutes, you have a human-or let's say a being-who can complete maturation on their own. Your goal is to transport them somewhere, right? So the process continues during transit..."
-"But... won't they suffer?" asked the director of UniPsi.
-"The body will transmit pain signals to the brain, but what will you place in that brain? An AI?"
-"Let's imagine they are humans," said the Aleph. "Instead of transferring a human into the After, we transfer them into your... creature."
-"Well, yes, they'll feel pain, of course. But if the HS authorizes me, a team of geneticists could use a human DNA base without the gene responsible for pain-related neural proteins. Off the top of my head, it's SCN9A."
-"Okay, but once they're formed, won't they keep developing cancer?" asked the UniPsi director.
-"Yes. But what do you want this workforce for? Suppose it's to work in mines exposed to radiation-this abundant vitality might actually be useful."
-"Excuse me, Professor," said the obsequious official, "but this... is not a human."
He was pointing to the bottom right of the presentation, at a creature with four legs and two prehensile tentacles, capable of curling up like an egg, with a gaping mouth slicing through a head that was also its body. It looked like a terrifying Xeno.
-"Yes, I thought, if we're going for disruptive... why make humans? Humans walk slowly, have exposed brains, eyes that stop working when pressed, and they can't survive the vacuum of space... I figured, if we're going disruptive, let's go all the way. This creature, which I've called the Chimera Sapiens, is a little concoction, inspired by unfortunate experiments from the Xeno religion known as the Unity. Sometimes, from liquid chaos, an accident is born. The CS can survive the vacuum of space, communicate telepathically while being highly sensitive to it, has a brain more powerful than a human's, tentacles that manipulate better than our hands, and a mouth that can devour and digest anything. And they live exclusively on organic matter, whatever it may be."
-"That's revolting," commented the HS President.
-"It's not uninteresting," said the Aleph. "Can it pilot a ship?"
-"Better than that. It resists the vacuum of space, atmospheric reentry. You can graft a Drift and a Grappler to its belly."
Aloysius paused to let his listeners absorb the information, then concluded:
-"This thing can be its own ship."
The Aleph turned, impressed, to the other members at the table.
-"A terrifying, immortal, gifted soldier, capable of traveling from planet to planet."
-"It's an extraordinary idea," exclaimed the sycophantic official, irritating everyone.
-"You are the man for the job, Aloysius," commented the Aleph, to the dismay of the others. "You hid out on Lennox hoping to be free in your research? I offer you more. I appoint you head of operations at the Lodovico center. We've just reinstated it. I will give you carte blanche-a true carte blanche. No restrictions of any kind. You'll be in command. Go set up your vats. Humans, and… chimeras sapiens. As for funds-ask, and you shall receive."
He reproached himself for speaking too quickly. His heart tightened. Aloysius was competent-but was he trustworthy? He swept through the researcher's psyche. He saw the murders committed by the authorities, but no real solid defiance. Just fear. Let the Emprise go to hell, sure. But fear wasn't enough. The Aleph turned his back to the assembly and took a few echoing steps, then turned again.
-"What happened on Lennox is indefensible. I oppose needless violence, and even more so gratuitous murder. I will deal with this matter, Aloysius. It will not go without consequence. Moreover, I understand what we all lost with Proteus."
No one but Samuel understood what he was talking about.
-"We will repair what was broken tenfold. I give you my word."
-"Thank you for understanding, Aleph."
He stepped forward and placed his large hand on the professor's shoulder.
-"The mission entrusted by the Blind Gods is to lead the Xenos into the light, not into darkness. That would shame us all-and me most of all. I spoke too hastily, and men of violence and not of heart gave it the worst interpretation. That was my fault. I will repair it tenfold."
-"Thank you again."
-"Aloysius, at Lodovico, I would like to entrust you with a second mission alongside this one. You are capable. Do you know the Wau?"
-"I've crossed paths with them before…"
-"The Wau are humans… Empty Eyes of the highest order, likely Alphas, whose mental strength allows them to manage support AIs. They wear armor made of hyperchalcum. And they are genetically enhanced. There are still a few Wau roaming outside the HS. They have always worked in the shadows, like brigands, pirates, and conspirators. I've had a dream for a long time, noble assembly. A dream of Waus-or rather, Anti-Waus, since Wau has become synonymous with threat to the government-soldiers who would serve the preservation of the HS. Aloysius, you will be responsible. Create our Waus. Lodovico already has extensive files on the subject. Base your research-and our hopes-on those."
He shook his hand and looked him in the eyes:
-"Your soldiers and your Waus will triumph in many battles. But the true hero-will be you, and only you."