Nuklear Age (74 page)
__________
Issue 52 – We Have Reached an Accord
Dr. Genius stared out the wide panoramic window near the Scientific: Communications Panel that overlooked the Earth. A battle on the surface was displayed on one of the Panel’s video screens. The details barely registered to Dr. Genius. They were indistinct images, colors flashing and zooming in the periphery of her vision.
“This is what you meant, isn’t it?” she said aloud, turning to face the body that used to belong to Yuriko and then, for a period of a few brief hours, Psiko.
She thought she ought to have felt some sort of pride for Yuriko’s transformation. In a way, it was Dr. Genius’s plan to do the same for the rest of humanity to save them from themselves. To lift them from their self-imposed mundanity, fear, and loneliness.
But she could only feel contempt.
“Miles and miles away from the nearest living thing, interacting with the world only through a small and limited device. I’m in orbit, I’m at the dinner table of my childhood. I have to use this idiotic computer, I have to use language. It’s been there all along, but I needed these extreme conditions to sharpen my awareness of it. And now I know, I know that I am no different than anyone else. I am no more alone here than they are down there, and they are no less alone than I.”
She pushed herself closer to Psiko’s limp body.
“Of course, I suppose we all have a common ground now. We’ve got you floating around in each of us. Watching. Recording. Voyeur to the gods, eh? Just what medium propagates the wave of your powers, Psiko? What is a mind, what is a computer, what are the television and radio signals you rode across the globe? Is it something to do with the electromagnetic spectrum? That would parallel Nuklear Man’s powers in a way.” She stared into Psiko’s vacant eyes. “Too simplistic. Besides, it doesn’t address the issue of the concentration on minds, databases, information.” Dr. Genius’s gaze went beyond the body before her. “Hm. Information. What is KI if not information? What is a consciousness if not a collection of information that is self-aware. Even dogs and cats know that they are separate from each other and their masters. Perhaps even simpler forms of life have similar, if less articulated, knowledge of themselves. A computer is simply information, as are radio and television signals. But so too is DNA. And what of the other side of the spectrum? Psiko knows the Earth like no one has ever known it. What previously untapped stores of information has she received from our world? And what about its connections with the solar system? All KI is interwoven throughout the universe. How far can she see? Is she already a universal observer? If not, is it a merely a matter of time? If so, is there any reason or means to distinguish her from the universe itself? Would we even be able to comprehend her, or vice versa? Have I unlocked a cosmic horror? A local anomaly? Are there others like her already out there? Too many questions. No. Distractions, really. There is only one question.
What is KI?
All answers will flow from that like an avalanche, an unfettered destruction of ignorance, impossible to stop.”
She turned to face the Scientific: Communications Panel. One monitor was a window to the ongoing melee in downtown Metroville.
“Unless of course there is no humanity left to ascend.” She pushed herself back to the Scientific: Communications Panel. “Nuklear Man seems to have the situation under control, in so much as his antagonists haven’t left the scene. And with Nameless’ team suppressing and/or altering any attempts by the local media to broadcast the event, things may well go in our favor after all. I still worry about that sixth probe. Well, that sixth alien. Where is he? What is he doing?”
The screen with live feed from the battle on the surface flashed white and then filled with static.
Dr. Genius huffed. “Well, assuming the worst, Nameless will no longer be able to control the media from on-site. Luckily, all the local stations use Überdyne owned or manufactured broadcast equipment and satellites. We couldn’t cause a total media blackout without rousing interest or panic, of course, and those are two things I wish to avoid. We don’t need another bout of hysteria, it’d be like Superion all over again. Still, we’ll be able to instigate a few layers of revision thanks to the filters I implemented after that fiasco. A few details about the fight downtown will inevitably be leaked by doing things this way. It’s unavoidable in order to maintain the appearance that everything is relatively normal. But a news report about Nuklear Man battling some force of costumed evil isn’t anything new to these people. They’ll probably ignore it for the most part unless things get out of hand, by which time it’ll be too late. The only problem is that I won’t be able to recreate any truth after the fact. Our explanations will have to conform to the recorded data. It’s limiting.”
She stared into the static. “Let’s see about hooking you up to the Watchtower’s Scientific: Orbital Mapping Cameras.” She whipped out her trusty electric Scientific: Screwdriver and began breaking her way into the Scientific: Communications Panel’s circuitry.
__________
“Well that’s darn unfair,” Nuklear Man said. The Scientific: Field Observation Van had a perfect circle burned through both of its inconspicuous side panels and all the Scientific: Equipment between them. From inside the van, Nameless Technician leaned over to look through the new ventilation only to see the backs of two Dakaels standing between himself and Nuklear Man who was still in his Plazma Beam pose.
“You think that’s unfair?” the Dakael twins taunted.
“Well, yeah.”
“Then wait until you face me!” the huge Kadael finished. He loomed over the Hero from behind and draped him in shadow.
“Wah?” Nuklear Man retorted before Kadael’s two massive fists pounded him waist-deep into the ground with one overhead blow.
“Excuse me, brother,” Kadael said as he waddled past the Dakaels to the Überdyne van.
“Abort mission!” Nameless ordered. He and his crew scurried from the vehicle as the alien touched his hand to it.
The van disintegrated in seconds while Kadael grew larger. He stretched his neck from side to side to limber up, punched a fist into the other hand, and cracked his knuckles. “I’m just gettin’ started,” he boasted with a noticeably deeper voice. The gigantic Kadael made two long strides and stood in front of the semi-subterranean Hero. One tree trunk of a leg reared back. The other villains adverted their eyes. “Nighty night, bright boy.”
“What? It’s not even close to time for my afternoon nap.”
WHAM
!
“Ouch!”
Kadael bellowed.
The others unadverted their eyes.
“I fink I thipped a toof,” Nuklear Man mumbled through a mouthful of Kadael’s enormous foot.
“Kadael!” Variel nonbarked from the perimeter of the makeshift arena that had just recently been beaten into the landscape. “Stop toying with him.”
Safriel, her hands loosely on her hips, leaned to Variel. “Y’sure it’s not the other way around?”
“Silence,” he stated just loud enough for her and the nearby Gadriel to hear.
“I could take him,” Gadriel said as he watched his comrades battle one of their former masters. “You know what’ll happen if one of us beats him?”
Variel would have rolled his eyes if they were capable of expressing anything beyond a stern coldness. “Of course we do. Lord Nihel will give the victor Arel’s power.” He crossed his arms and they were lost within the black void of his body. “I am only letting you four fight him before myself because I find it entertaining. I have every confidence that I shall rise in rank this day.”
“You think so, Var?” Safriel contested. “Even if the brothers don’t beat him, and I know they won’t, he’ll be weakened from the encounter. And then Gadriel and I will be up to bat, as it were.”
“Yeah,” Gadriel chimed. “He thinks he’s so tough with those Nova Powers. Feh! They’d be nothing without the electrical reactions
my
powers are themed on. Arel is an energy morph, the same as I. And since he isn’t fully aware of his powers at the moment, it should be a simple matter for me to meld with his body and take over control of it. He doesn’t stand a chance.”
“We shall see,” Variel said, his voice an intake of sound.
“My plan is to let ol’ Gad here wear him down a little more and then I’ll step in for the killing blow and take the prize.”
“That’s cheating!” Gadriel protested.
“It’s also cunning,” Variel said with a proud nod to Safriel.
“Hell. I’m not going to be someone else’s ticket to success.” Gadriel’s body became living electricity in a brilliant white flash and in the blink of an eye he was rocketing to the battle.
“Impetuous,” Variel observed.
“Not to mention as good as dead.”
“Lord Nihel can always resurrect him. Painfully, I should imagine.”
Gadriel’s lightning body slammed into Nuklear Man’s back and knocked him forward like someone gave him a hard push.
“Hey!” Nuklear Man yelled as he regained his balance and turned around. “No fair shovin’!”
Safriel let out an amused, “Heh. I thought he would’ve at least lasted like a minute or something.”
“Apparently our comrade did not count on the fact that Arel metabolizes energy. His attempt to take over Arel’s mind had as much a likelihood of success as a large bowl of salad,” Variel reasoned, his voice bellowing inward.
“When do I get a piece of the action?” Safriel asked.
“When either Kadael or Dakael falls.”
“Dammit. Dak’s got him on the ropes. It’s no fair he gets to be his own army.”
“Patience.”
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Dr. Genius’s legs stuck out from the Scientific: Communications Panel as she wriggled inside of it to make a few changes. Tools tied down with string bobbed in their weightlessness. The job was half down, or so she reckoned.
Who knows what’s occurred so far? Who knows what’ll have happened by the time I finish?
She heard the beep of an incoming message, only she didn’t know it at first. It took several beeps for her mind to reconcile that there were beeps being beeped even though she Scientific: Communications Panel’s power was shut down so she could crawl into it and mess around with the hardware without dying from high-voltage electrical shock.
The instant she realized the beeps were real, she froze in terror. “What if I forgot to shut off the power?” A moment passed. “Impossible. I would’ve been fried when I redirected the Scientific: Power Couplings.” She crawled out, straightened her lab coat as well as she could without gravity's help, and hit the Accept button.
HELLO, DOCTOR, was typed across one of the screens.
“I should’ve known,” Dr. Genius grumbled. “What’s the matter? Speaking through my mind is too demeaning for you now?”
I’M AFRAID FOR YOU IT WOULD BE THE MENTAL EQUIVALENT OF STARING INTO THE SUN. I AM STILL GROWING, SPLINTERING ACROSS INFINITE POINTS OF VIEW. I THINK I AM SLIPPING AWAY FROM MYSELF. I MAY BE EXPERIENCING WHAT YURIKO DID IN HER FINAL MOMENTS. I MAY BE FALLING APART. I MAY BE MULTIPLE ENTITIES. I AM FINDING IT MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT TO DEFINE MYSELF.
“You know, using nothing but caps is frowned upon. It’s considered to be yelling.”
IF YOU COULD HEAR ME, I WOULD BE.
“I don’t have time for this.”
ONLY BECAUSE YOUR POINT OF VIEW IS TOO NARROW. I CAN SEE SO MUCH. AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HAVE DISCOVERED?
“Of course not. You know that.”
YOUR GOD, IF THERE IS SUCH A THING, IS LISTENING. IT SIMPLY CAN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. IT CAN’T INTERFERE. NOT WITHOUT TIPPING THE SCALES, NOT WITHOUT IMPOSING ITS WILL ABOVE YOUR OWN. ANY ACTION WOULD STRIP FREE WILL FROM AT LEAST ONE OTHER BEING. IT CANNOT, WILL NOT, DO THAT. IT GOES AGAINST THE WHOLE IDEA.
“And yet there you are. Taking an action, sharing with me. Distracting me.”
I NEVER SAID I WAS PARTICULARLY MORAL. OF COURSE, THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE ABOVE. THIS GOD OF YOURS, INSTEAD OF REMAINING MORALLY IMPARTIAL, IS VICIOUSLY MEDDLING. IT INTERFERES WITH COUNTLESS MORTAL AFFAIRS TO SPECIFICALLY DENY THE FREE WILL YOU BELIEVE YOURSELVES TO HAVE. AT THE MOMENT, I’M UNCERTAIN AS TO WHICH IS THE TRUTH.
“Well, I appreciate our little philosophical talks, but I thought you said you were leaving us to our own devices so you could do your recording or some nonsense.”
YES. BUT I THINK I HAVE A CERTAIN FONDNESS FOR YOU, DOCTOR. THOUGH I DO FIND YOUR MOTIVES MISGUIDED AND YOUR WORKS TO BE THOSE OF A MOST TWISTED NATURE, I AM NONETHELESS INDEBTED TO YOU FOR BRINGING ME INTO EXISTENCE BY THESE VERY TRAITS. THIS EXISTENCE, IT’S VERY SOOTHING.
“Soothing. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say they found existence
soothing.”
IT IS A LIMITATION OF YOUR SINGULAR POINTS OF VIEW. FROM HERE, EVERYTHING FITS INTO ITS PLACE. IT ISN’T ORDERED, IT ISN’T RANDOM, BUT IT IS WONDERFUL TO BEHOLD. THE UNIVERSE IS A THING OF STRANGE SYMMETRY, AN UNPARALLELED BEAUTY. IT SOUNDS A LOT LIKE HENDRIX.
“Fair enough.”
EVOLUTION IS A MARVELOUSLY SINISTER DANCE.
“Excuse me?”
EVOLUTION. ALL LIFE, THE WAY THAT YOU UNDERSTAND LIFE TO BE, IS A BY-PRODUCT OF FORCES BEYOND YOUR SCALE TO PERCEIVE.
“You were just talking about God and free will. Don’t these ‘forces’ of yours take something away from that?”
DOES IT? IT’S BECOME DIFFICULT TO SEE CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS AS ANYTHING MORE THAN DIFFERENT FACETS OF ONE ANOTHER.
“Have you finished with me?”
FOR NOW. DOES MY PRESENCE BOTHER YOU?
“Why do you ask me questions you already know the answers to?”
No answer.
“I’ve got work to do.”
__________
“Hey there, Sparky,” Rachel said, her backpack slung across one bare shoulder.
Good ol’ tank tops
, Atomik Lad thought to himself as he approached her.
Especially when they’re a tad too tight
. “Hey yourself, cutie.”
Even more especially with jean shorts
.
“Miss me?”
“More than I would miss my own breath.”
“Well, aim more carefully next time.”
She gave him a playful punch in the shoulder.