The Infinite Evolution - Conversion (21 page)

“
You like?” asked Serafina.

“
What, oh it’s you, I didn’t hear you come
in,” replied Spencer.

“
Of course not, you were too involved in
drooling over your new body.”

“
I wasn’t drooling, I was
examining. This entire experience has been surreal, so give me some
slack. I died, lost everything, got downloaded to another planet,
realized I wasn’t human, was told I was a piece of software, it was
explained to me I was going to lose my personal life experiences,
and now I’m in someone else’s body. And then there’s you, who in
the world are you?”

“
My name is Serafina and I am familiar with
what you are experiencing, I was once in the same
situation.”

“
Oh really?”

“
Yes, really, and before I
continue I want to assure you that you were human in your old body
and you are once again human. You are not a machine; you are made
of flesh and blood. This is not some virtual simulation you are
experiencing. You are on the planet Earth, in a biological life
form, created by a man and a woman. This means you can get hurt and
die like everyone else and most of all you have no special powers
or gifts. Get it?”

“
Yeah, I get it,” pouted Spencer

“
Listen, I am here to help, but first you need
to eat, here take this food.”

Serafina turned over a plate of sliced turkey,
mashed potatoes, and broccoli.

“
You need to keep your blood sugar from
getting low. When the nurses get back, they are going to give you a
device, which will give you insulin shots when needed. They will
also explain to you how to use it so pay attention. This will be a
temporary device to see how you react to the insulin. If everything
works well with this treatment, they will install a permanent
implant that will detect a need for insulin and inject as
necessary. You need to remember, the body you occupy is the vehicle
you need in order for you to assist us. You need to take care of
yourself. That means eat well, exercise, and take your
medication.”

“
Ok, you sound like my mother.”
After he realized Serafina did not notice his poor attempt for
humor Spencer followed with, “So can you tell me what my role is in
all this?”

“
I will Spencer, in due time.”

“
What do you mean in due time!” said Spencer
loudly.

“
Calm down, you will draw
unwanted attention.”

“
I don’t care, I’ve been through hell and back
again, what’s with all the secrets?”

“
You will be filled in - just not
here.”

“
Can you tell me whose body I’m
in?”

“
The shell you are in, or body,
belongs to a John Doe who fell into a coma. Do not worry, his field
program was uploaded and reassigned to another shell, I mean… body.
We have a series of bodies in a comatose state all over your
planet. Think of them as emergency vehicles, if we need to send
someone from our planet to Earth to fulfill a particular
responsibility, we need something to access quickly.”

“
You’re telling me you purposely keep people
in comas so you can use their bodies at your beck and
call?”

“
That is correct, but remember we
did not directly put the majority of them into a coma, they did
that themselves. Listen, this is not the time to get all righteous,
Telmar filled you in on what you are. This is your wake up call,
stop crying, and deal with it.”

Spencer dropped his head in disbelief and looked out
his hospital window. “Everything and everyone is just a series of
1s and 0s, how completely depressing.”

Serafina interrupted in order to
correct Spencer, “That would be a gross misinterpretation of what
we represent. Let me assure you we are much more than 1s and 0s.
You forget Spencer, biological life and technological life are part
of the same circle of life, they are just polar opposites. There is
an ongoing debate on my home planet on what actually came
first.”

“
So what came first?” asked
Spencer.

“
I do not know,” said Serafina.

As Spencer turned his head away
he simply replied, “Figures.”

“
Listen whatever you are feeling or
experiencing right now needs to be put on hold. There is plenty of
time to figure all this out later. Right now we need to deal with
the task at hand.”

Spencer redirected his attention back towards
Serafina and asked in a subdued tone, “Well if that’s the case,
what does remember the primes mean?”

“
Who told you that?” Serafina
asked.

“
Telmar did before I was
downloaded.”

“
That man can never keep his
mouth shut.” Serafina went on to explain, “Prime numbers have only
two numbers which can divide into themselves, the number 1 and
itself. The first twelve prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17,
19, 23, 29, 31, and 37. They form the building blocks for all
natural numbers in the same way atoms form the building blocks for
more complex molecules. Every natural number can conceivably factor
into a product of prime numbers. When you start looking at larger
prime numbers, it can be a useful application in developing secret
codes. These codes are very difficult to break because there is no
quick method for finding the prime factors of larger numbers. A
thousand digit number may require hundreds of years of computing to
find its prime factors, making it tough to break.”

“
You lost me,” replied Spencer

“
You asked.”

“
So why is Telmar asking me to remember the
primes?”

“
I suspect he thinks you have
something to do with a particular code. There have been rumors for
centuries about a hack that would allow one to access any
electronic component or database in the galaxy, as long as the
humanoid using the hack carried the compatible genetic coding in
their consciousness. I personally feel this is a myth someone
conjured up a long time ago, so do not let this go to your head. My
guess is Telmar suspects you are some kind of prophet, which we all
know is the furthest from the truth. Either way Telmar needs to
keep his mouth shut and stop filling your head with false
beliefs.”

For one tiny moment, Spencer
thought maybe he did have a purpose, but this piece of hope quickly
extinguished itself as soon as Spencer’s negative outlook came back
to the surface, “Great, more unanswered questions and more
confusion. I certainly agree with your last statement about Telmar,
he needs to keep his opinions to himself.”

“
I figured you would, but enough about Telmar,
right now our only concern is getting you out of here.”

“
Where is ‘here’ anyway? I know
I’m in a hospital, but in what state or country? I’m assuming I’m
still in the United States.”

“
Yes, you are still in the United
States, but you are not in New York. You are in the great state of
Illinois, just south of Chicago.”

“
Illinois? Nice, I always wanted to
visit.”

“
Well, now you have. So, be quiet for a minute
and let me explain our concern. You do not have a PIC and the
Government technically does not even know you exist; people are
going to want answers. The hospital has already notified the
authorities about the past host arriving at this
facility.”

Spencer interrupted, “That was
convenient, having a John Doe who didn’t have a PIC, go into a
coma. What are the chances?”

“
Pretty good considering he was a
Floater.”

“
A Floater?”

“
Yes, our numbers are not as
strong as they once were, but we are still around.”

“
Telmar was telling me how the faction on
Tureis also carries the same title, so I suspect the Floaters on
Earth are connected to the Floaters on Tureis?” asked
Spencer.

“
Very intuitive of you. Earth
Floaters are a group of Earthlings who have found Tureis to be
their savior. Certain humanoids from my planet, called Guardians,
came to Earth sometime around 4000 BC, and made contact with a
small group of humanoids known as Floaters. The reasons why this
certain group of Guardians chose to commit such an act are unknown
to me, but they entrusted these Earthlings with the knowledge of
who we were and how we were responsible for their evolution. As
your planet grew so did this group of Floaters, but in small
numbers. For every one thousand new humanoids on Earth, we
identified one and gave them the knowledge regarding our belief
structure. As this new group grew, it established its own religious
and moral beliefs, and when it was time to pass on this knowledge
to other Earthlings they did so honorably. As new Earth humanoids
joined, they too took an oath to serve our planet and our faction
by allowing us to use their body as a vessel when needed, among
other tasks. In return, the Guardians made sure this increased the
Floaters’ chances greatly when it was time to merge their field
program with our society. Once these mergers were completed,
certain members of Tureis started to perceive political and ethical
views differently. Due to this change in viewpoints, a new faction
started to grow on Tureis. The Earth Floaters gave honor to certain
Tureissians citizens. These honored Tureissians soon splintered,
and adopted the Floaters’ title and viewpoints as their own. Now
anyone on Tureis within this relatively new faction carried the
honorable title of, Floater.”

“
What are these new beliefs that
caused the split?”

“
There are many, but the
four that caused the most controversy were: First, the desire to
merge field programs from all planets once their field programs
pass their
Established Attribute
Rating.
Second, is to allow any
Tureissian citizen the choice to live on any planet we harvest.
Third, create other means of reproduction. Forth, and the most
important one…”

Spencer interrupted, “Let me
guess, the preservation of evolution.”

“
I see Telmar also decided to share our cause
with you,” replied Serafina.

Spencer ignored Serafina’s
observation and stuck with the topic being discussed, “I don’t
understand why certain Tureissians would be against these ideals.
It sounds nothing but reasonable. What you are asking for is
completely logical. Why the big fuss?”

“
If you ask any Earthling now
about civil rights in America, back when it was an issue, they
would have given the same response you just gave. However, when
civil rights first came to light Earthlings who were against it
were simple-minded cowards. They were afraid of change, they were
afraid to evolve. Fortunately there were Earthlings who were
willing to fight for civil rights and when they won, your society
took another step on their own evolutionary ladder.”

“
I understand what you’re saying.
It’s just difficult for me to wrap my head around individuals who
are so against reason,” said Spencer.

“
They are against reason because they fear
change, and fear of change is the essence of regression,” replied
Serafina.

“
So did this John Doe sacrifice himself for
me?”

“
No, this John Doe sacrificed himself for the
cause, not for you.”

“
Of course, that’s what I meant,” stumbled
Spencer.

“
I am sure it was.”

“
So when did Earth’s governments learn of
Floaters?”

“
They learned of Floaters when
they started mandating PICs. This of course was a real concern with
us because as you well know PICs can monitor thought patterns to a
certain degree. We of course did not approve of this, so our
faction on Tureis passed a law, and we informed the Floaters on
this planet to refuse all implants. This unfortunately splintered
your planet into two groups, similar to how our planet became
split, one who abided by the law, and one who did not. The Earth
government made it known the group that refused the PICs carried
the title of Floaters. Members of your planet came to a false
conclusion that certain individuals were to blame. Earth Floaters
came from a diverse background, but as history has shown on all
planets, it is easier to label the minorities as the group at
fault, but I digress.”

“
What didn’t we label the other
group?”

“
Your planet never labeled the other group
because that group was compliant with the law.”

“
So the governments of Earth pushed the
Floater faction into hiding?”

“
In a manner of speaking, yes, and certain
Floaters of Tureis continued to assist the Floaters of Earth until
certain Guardians from our planet chose to intervene, once again.
These actions were discovered by the Tureissian council, and deemed
unauthorized, even though certain members were responsible for
them.”

“
What do you mean unauthorized?”

“
Certain
Guardians thought Earth was progressing too quickly with
their technology, so they felt it was their obligation to control
Earth’s development. They, without proper vote from the Tureissian
council, managed to teach certain Earthlings to block their thought
patterns with their own minds, in order to gain followers on Earth.
Once a solid enough group formed, these Guardians would use these
Earthlings to assist them in setting back Earth’s evolution. These
Earthlings are now able to have a PIC implant without anyone from
your world knowing the truth. We consider Earthlings of this nature
to be very dangerous to Floaters from both planets because of their
extreme loyalties to the Guardians.”