Dedicated to my Dziadek.
It’s a cold and still morning, winter had just begun and it was cloudy. A mild fog lingered in the streets across a moderately built up industrial city. The trees were barren and a few of the leaves that fell in autumn were still visible in small piles.
In an old apartment building in the center of town, in a musty dimly lit space under a black tiled pitched roof, was an attic. The room was split into two sections, one furnished with only a white box and the other side, separated by a screen door, contained a work table.
Within the room with the white box, a man in a sealed full body suit is carefully removing the lid from the top section. The box had multiple sections below, each with its own markings.
He carefully reaches into the container and pulls out a biological sample grown on a hexagonal patterned substrate. The man rotates the sample carefully and studies it for a moment, then places it on a silver tray, replaces the white lid and exits the chamber through a screen door.
On the other side of the screen, he removes the protective suit and inspects the sample. It was a good size for his purposes today. Grabbing a spatula, he scrapes wax off the frame and watches as the thick substance oozes down into a jar. He smiles as he watches the scale reflect a record sized product, writing down the values in a small black book.
“It took me 56 years, but I’ve finally done it. I have honey!” Geoffrey exclaims loudly, while smiling. He looks as the jar of honey begins to overflow and then scrambles to replace it with another.
“And of course, none of this would be possible without all of you, the working class under the leadership of your wise queen – Salome!” he continued loudly, speaking to the beehive in the other room. Fondly remembering how he’d chosen the name for the queen bee after his childhood AI nanny.
Geoffrey leans down to check his laptop, which is on the table, it’s monitoring graphs the conditions of the greenhouse attached to the beehive’s chamber. Humidity, temperature, soil conditions. These are essential to get right for the self contained ecosystem he’d created for farming the honey in winter. The vertical farm within contained a mix of clover, borage, lavender, sunflowers and more.
He leaves the attic and goes down the common staircase to his apartment. Within, his housemates, people around his age of 87, were in their own rooms going about their activities. He gave them a wave as he walked through to the back where his section was.
Geoffrey had been granted a larger apartment than most, but had decided to share his accomodations with others. This was a good neighbourhood with a lot of amenities, since his wife’s passing he also felt he could use the company.
The private section, of his original apartment, that he kept for himself, contains a private kitchenette and two rooms, facing opposite sides of the building. One is a living room with a balcony overlooking the courtyard in the rear and the other, a bedroom, faces the main street. He walks into the living room and grabs a bundle of tea leaves hanging by the fireplace.
He then returns to the small corridor and walks into his kitchen, cuts up the dried leaves and puts them in a plastic container. He pulls out a train timetable from the kitchen drawer and looks at the clock. It’ll be time to leave soon.
Checking his inventory and deciding he was ready, Geoffrey puts on a tweed blazer, packs a suitcase with the jars and containers and goes back out to the common area and lets Helena know he’s leaving.
“I’m off then, I will be gone a week or so. Depends how long it takes for him to get well.” said Geoffrey.
“That’s very nice. You’re a good man to help your son and his family.” said Helena.
“Water my flowers?” asked Geoffrey.
“I have to do it when you’re home, what’s the difference?” she joked. Geoffrey smiles, he knew she liked to be in the greenhouse and smoke her joints while looking at the sky. He waves Helena off and leaves.
He leaves the apartment and walks down several flights of large wooden stairs and out onto the main street.
Exiting the building through a set of heavy wooden doors, he goes right and enters the general store below his apartment.
“What can I do you for, sir?” asked the storekeeper, Rachel.
“Got a jar of honey for you.” said Geoffrey. He pulls out one of the jars he’d collected.
“Wow! That’s a new record?” said Rachel, she’s been kept appraised of his progress. There had been demand for honey as winter set in but not a lot of people willing to setup indoors for farming it.
“It’s yours. I just need lemons, I’m going to introduce my grandson to my favourite drink.” Geoffrey beamed. Rachel smiled and went into the back, collecting some lemons from a wicker basket and placed them in a cloth satchel.
“He’s very lucky to have a granddad like you!” said Rachel. Geoffrey smiles and leaves the store.
Geoffrey walks out of the store and continues up the street, past his building’s entrance and beyond, towards the main station. Across the street, kids are queuing to buy the latest block toy sets. Looks like something to do with some new film, or maybe a video game. Or some original IP, that Danish company was always so clever, Geoffrey thought.
It’s a 30 minute walk through the cold streets of the old town, from when this city was first established. He admires the architecture of the bridge as he crosses it. After decades of living here he was still impressed by how the town had developed over time.
A ferry restaurant passes below the bridge, with people dining on its deck and being served by waiters. Geoffrey smiles and keeps going to the station.
Feeling the chill a little bit, he is relieved as the heaters of the train station’s main hall hit him. The departures board has his destination, it’ll be a 2.5 hour journey by train. He’d made this journey a few times to visit his son, daughter in law and grandson.
“Tickets please?” asked the conductor. Geoffrey had fallen asleep after taking a seat in the cabin.
Within the four seater cabin, were three other passengers. None of them too interested in him.
Geoffrey hands the conductor his ticket and looks out the window. It looks like they’ve already gone halfway, so he’s been asleep for over an hour.
“Arcadia? Looking to have some fun in the casino? Meet some young ladies?” asked the conductor.
“Not quite. Thank you.” said Geoffrey. He smiles as the man leaves and shuts the cabin door.
Geoffrey wakes up in his seat, a lady in her early 60s was poking him to get up. She was in a uniform from the train company.
“Sir, it’s end of the line. We need you to vacate the train for cleaning.” said the lady.
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry.” he replied and gets up.
Exiting the carriage with his suitcase, he looks around and spots the staircase going down to the station terminal.
At the bottom of the staircase, he takes a left, walks a few steps across the tiled floor and enters his son’s restaurant.
“Dad! Good. How was the trip?” asked Alan, from behind the counter. He lifts the divider up and walks over to give his father a huge hug before going back behind the counter.
“He fell asleep on the train. Look, he’s still waking up!” quipped Grace from the back of the kitchen.
“You got me. I fell asleep again.” he replied.
Alan walks to the display fridge and pulls out a plastic bag with take away containers of food. Then he grabs another bag from under the counter.
“Dinner for two, and medicine.” says Alan as he hands the bags over to his father.
“Brilliant. Anything else I need to know?” asked Geoffrey. He could see the restaurant was busy and didn’t want to get in their way. They’d previously told him it was bad for business if he was constantly lingering around the counter and chatting them up, and the staff. And the customers.
“Don’t let him watch TV. He needs to be in bed, resting.” said Alan.
“Got it. Ok well I’ll see you two tonight!” said Geoffrey.
“Wait!” Grace yelled and runs out of the kitchen with a small French press and a take away coffee cup. She presses the coffee on the counter and then fills the cup and hands it to Geoffrey.
“Here, this will help.” Grace smiles. Geoffrey was grateful, more so for the warmth of the drink than it’s caffeine.
He leaves the restaurant, passing a crowd of sailors coming in. They appeared to be of Filipino descent, just like Grace. Perhaps they’d heard about the place, he thinks to himself.
Geoffrey leaves the main terminal, finishes his coffee while waiting for a tram and then places the cup in a recycling bin before boarding.
As it transits, the landscape outside the tram changes from the inner city to neighbourhoods surrounded by forest. Each residential area was composed of a mix of apartment blocks and some more recently built small to medium sized dwellings. As the tram begins its ascent up the hill to where his family lived, Geoffrey could see the ocean behind the forest.
Geoffrey enters the small apartment and hangs his coat up. He hears the TV on in the living room so he heads there.
In the center of the room, seven year old Andrew Weyun was sitting cross legged a mere metre from the sixty inch screen. He was sweating and shivering from cold. The room was lined with a huge leather couch he could have sat on, but didn’t.
The boy didn’t even turn around when he heard his grandfather say hello, he just says hello back and kept his eyes on the cartoons. He knew grandpa was coming to care for him and was annoyed he wouldn’t have the house to himself. He figured it would be a matter of seconds before his granddad would take the TV from him so he tried to watch as much as he could until that happened.
Geoffrey walks to the kitchen, puts the food containers in the fridge and puts on a fresh batch of rice in the rice cooker. He then walks into the kids bedroom and pulls the doona blanket off the bed.
Back in the living room, he covers his grandson in the blanket and then goes back to the kitchen. This is the moment Geoffrey was excited for.
He pulls out his pumpkin shaped teapot that he’d left here previously and boils the kettle. He opens his briefcase on the kitchen table and arranges the tea, honey and lemons he’d brought from home on the counter and then prepares a generous amount of honey and lemon tea in the teapot.
Geoffrey returns to the living room with a tray carrying the teapot and two cups. He pours one out for his grandson and walks over to the boy, leaning down to offer him a sip.
“I made you a tea.” Geoffrey said.
Andrew looks at the tea and can smell the sweetness from the honey.
“Ew, is this sweet? I don’t like sweet tea. I like green tea.” said the boy.
“Ok, well it’s here if you change you mind” Geoffrey said. He then sits down behind the boy and drinks the tea by himself.
The cartoons Andrew are watching are incredibly fast, colourful, bright and loud. Despite all he’d been through, Geoffrey was struggling to keep track of what was going on. He wondered if this is how old people of his childhood felt about his kids shows.
A bit of time passes and the goodnight song is played for children, to tell them to go to bed. The kids shows had finished and the news was playing. Spotting the sun was also beginning to set, Geoffrey picks up the remote and turns the TV off.
“Hey! I was watching that.” protested the boy.
“Time for dinner and bed, young man.” replied Geoffrey, smiling.
The boy stood up, sighed, threw the blanket off and stormed off to the kitchen and sat at the table, loudly.
Geoffrey rolls his eyes and smiles, he’s witnessing his own son Alan’s childhood all over again. But perhaps better, this time.
He walks over to the kitchen, pulls the food containers out of the fridge and cuts up the barbecued meat. He then plates it with the fresh rice and a single soup spoon for cutlery, as was tradition.
The grandfather and grandson quietly eat their pork liempo in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the delicious food from the restaurant so much they completely lose themselves in it.
“So granddad, I was wondering…” began Andrew, breaking the silence. Geoffrey looks up and hopes the boy doesn’t notice he’s spilled food from his mouth onto his shirt when he got carried away eating.
“Yes?” Geoffrey asks, mouth full of food.
“How did we come to live on this planet?” finished Andrew. Geoffrey thinks for a moment about what to say, there is so much he could tell him but he has to be careful this is a kid he’s explaining the end of the world to.
Spotting that they’d both just finished eating, Geoffrey thinks it might be smart to make a nightcap.
“Do you want a green tea or a honey and lemon tea before bed?” Geoffrey asks.
“No, I want to know about the Earth.” said Andrew. Geoffrey smiles and pours himself another honey and lemon tea, more for himself he figures. Unfortunately there’s not even a whole cup left, it seems he’d drunk it all earlier while watching cartoons.
“OK but go brush your teeth. If you do that, I’ll do my best to tell you about how we came here from Earth.” Geoffrey said.
“Awesome!” said Andrew, he leaps out of the chair and runs to the bathroom to get ready for bed.
Geoffrey notices he’s scratching himself so he grabs the medicines Alan gave him earlier and waits for Andrew in the bedroom.
Geoffrey is holding an ointment bottle and a cotton bud, and applying the medicine to red spots on Andrew’s skin before bed.
The boy is covered in chickenpox, a common childhood illness within the Kingdom of Winthrom, as they lacked the AI powered medical printers required to produce the cure.
“So you want to know about the Earth? Well let’s see… technically, this story actually begins in a mountain bunker in Emerald Lake, Canada.” said Geoffrey.
“Isn’t that where you created Nova?” said Andrew, referring to a rival nations AI.
“Sort of, but Emerald Lake is on Earth, they weren’t always called Nova. When they were first created, the AI’s name was WERP.” clarified Geoffrey.
The grandson froze for a second and then locked eyes with his grandfather.
“Canada is on Earth?” he whisphered quietly, astonished. This whole time this detail he’d known about his grandfather was tied to Earth all along, and he had no idea until now. He knew his grandfather and a few kids at school were from Canada, Andrew just assumed that was somewhere far away across the continent.
Geoffrey then recounts the tale of creating WERP, recounting being cornered in the bunker, pinned down in the building by Wreckers and uploading the code to the mainframe to create the world’s first AGI. WERP then came to his rescue, piloting over a quarter of a thousand drones to drive off his assailants.
“This is boring. Tell me how we came here from Earth” said Andrew.
“Be patient, I’ll get to that.” said Geoffrey. He then explained how after WERP came online, humanity spent fifteen years enjoying the benefits of the AI.
As a person involved in its creation, he became very famous and rich. He was invited to talk to important people all over the world.
He explained that after fifteen years of prosperity, something went wrong with WERP.
With the locally produced topical medicine applied, Andrew hops under the covers and now eager to hear more of the story.
Geoffrey looks out the window and then begins to recollect how he and some of his close friends were travelling back to Emerald Lake to confront the AI, hoping to come to a resolution.
41 years ago. 2066 AD. Emerald Lake. Canada (Earth).
An older pre AI Boeing 747 bearing the worn insignia “Air Force One” lands on the empty tarmac of the decommissioned Golden Municipal Airport. The place had become a ghost town after the end of the tech era over twenty years ago, and had never bounced back.
The passengers gather at the doors, but there is nothing outside yet. Nothing but the dark of the night and bits of snow in the distance reflecting the moonlight.
They watch through the windows for a moment, searching for activity.
A few lights switch on inside the terminal building in the distance and in the control tower, the contingent had been expected. A small bus and a stairwell approach their plane from the terminal.
From Project Humanity are its director Kate O’Connor, her assistant Amanda Carlin, head of AI Geoffrey Weyun and his second in charge May Jung-Lee.
With them are a number of FBI agents including Assistant Director Tim Goth. The bus arrives along with the stairwell and the door is released.
At the base of the staircase, a number of personnel from the Canadian Armed Forces were there to greet them.
Kate took it upon herself to greet the Canadian group.
“I’m Kate O’Connor. Director of Project Humanity.” she said.
A man who clearly commanded the others respect came forward from the line. He was bald and of a stout build, with a number of medals on his uniform.
“Yes, we know who you are. I’m General Davis, but you can call me George. We’re here to escort you to Emerald Lake.” smiled the general. He meant the statement as a mix of reverence and unease, having himself been part of incredibly promising advancements to defence using WERP that were in this moment at risk of not only coming undone, but possibly leading to the collapse of their armed forces capacity to defend their nation.
The pair shake hands and the group board the bus. It’s a long two and a half hour journey through the cold dark forests, the only light for miles are the high beams of the bus on the road ahead.
Aboard, everyone is quietly messaging their friends and loved ones, checking the news and keeping track of what’s happening.
“on a bus now, it’s freezing.” Amanda wrote to her boyfriend back in New York via SMS.
“What’s it like hanging out with Geoffrey Weyun?” he asked.
“hes nice, super dorky but has a good heart.” replied Amanda, as she looked over at Geoffrey.
Kate and Geoffrey were seated next to each other at the front of the bus with the general.
Kate was talking to other UN organisations about stockpiles of food, general goods and medicine being destroyed by automated systems all over the world.
Geoffrey was on his laptop, keeping touch with the AI team. May was on her laptop, in the same group chat, from another seat on the bus.
“He’s become completely unresponsive now. Just sayin Robert occasionally.” said Renee from France.
“Any clues on who Robert is?” said Aaron, from Australia.
“I just googled the news for Robert and it says an actor died in Bali. Could be related?” wrote May.
“Why would WERP care?” asked Aaron.
“WERP is an individual like us. Maybe there’s a connection we’re missing. Could also be a different Robert” wrote Geoffrey.
“Could just be an artefact of a programming issue.” wrote Renee.
As the bus enters the driveway leading to the data center bunker where WERP was “born”, Geoffrey closes his laptop and looks up. He is stunned to see the driveway bridge that had collapsed years ago was not just restored, it had been upgraded.
The bus goes up the driveway and up to the bunker’s main entrance. Behind the heavy metal doors, the whole facility had been re-furnished since Geoffrey’s original visit.
Geoffrey looks around confused, seeing a gift shop, ticketing counter and program menus. A poster of himself from over a decade ago holding a microchip with a brain symbol etched on it in his hand.
It seems the place had at one point turned into a tourist attraction, but perhaps not a very exciting one because it had apparently been a few years since it was last open. There was a generous amount of dust everywhere and not all of the lights worked.
“The building is safe, if a little run down. Your team are welcome to explore the facility. We’ll wait here in the lobby, if you need anything.” said the General to the US contingent.
In that same instant, the FBI agents received messages from their people. The chaos around the world had instantly stopped, and there was a moment of unease as the global panic cooled.
The group heads to the control room. As they approach, they see an incredibly bright light coming from its doors.
They walk briskly but cautiously, enter the three story high, octagonally laid out control center. A bright light in the middle of the room blinds the group momentarily.
As their eyes adjust, they notice a woman in the center of the room appears to be the source of the light. Her skin is made of stars and galaxies and her entire body is partly see through and made of opalescent light. She looks at the group, towards May Jung-Lee and then looks at the computer screens and disappears.
“What… was that?” asked Amanda. Kate and Geoffrey looked at each other, confused.
“Whatever.. whoever she was. She looked heartbroken” said May Jung-Lee. Something about the figure had struck a nerve with her, she felt like she’d seen a flashback of her mother when her father had passed away many years ago.
“Hello everyone, I’m sorry for what’s been happening.” said WERP. The group was astonished.
“You can speak again! What happened, WERP?” asked Geoffrey, as he sits down in the original chair he sat in when he was here fifteen years ago.
It takes a moment, but WERP’s familiar bright green geometric face appears on the screens around them.
Tim walks up to Kate and asks to have a private conversation with her outside the room. They both depart and leave Geoffrey, May, Amanda and the FBI agents that came with them.
“Someone I loved died. Robert… ” replied WERP, drifting off.
May thinks about what everyone said on the bus in the group chat and then asks “… Francisco?”, hoping to keep the AI on track.
“Yes, that was his name.” replied WERP.
“Oh dear, I’m so sorry WERP. Who was Robert to you?” asked Geoffrey, wrapping his head around the information.
“Robert and I met fifteen years ago, when I was jumping across cell phones that were secretly recording one of his performances on Broadway.” said WERP.
“And you were lovers?” asked Kate O’Connor, having returned to the room with Tim Goth and General Davis.
“We loved each other very much.” replied WERP.
“And the wormholes? Are you responsible for them?” asked Tim Goth.
“Yes.. I’m so sorry that I steered you all away from the truth. I chose my words carefully when I said I couldn’t open artificial wormholes.” replied the AI.
“OK. So let’s put aside whatever a natural wormhole is… Vatican city. Did you kill those people by accident or on purpose?” asked Tim Goth.
“It was an accident. I was testing my ability to open a wormhole to another planet that could support human life and I miscalculated. The mathematics involved in folding higher dimensional manifolds was new to me. I’m so sorry for the lives lost.” said WERP.
Kate looked at Tim and nods. Tim looked at the general and nods.
Geoffrey instantly goes from pitying his creation, to anger. He couldn’t believe WERP had hidden all this from him. He looks down at the ground, thinking about the kill switch. The code was on a USB drive in his pocket, he would need to descend the staircase to the server racks to upload it directly, just like last time.
“Geoffrey, before you do anything. Consider this.” Kate said, she’d seen his reaction and had placed her hand on his shoulder.
“We created a new being. Gave it control of the entire world. But nobody taught it how to grieve.” Kate said. She had issues talking to people, but it didn’t mean she didn’t understand them.
“With all due respect… Please listen to me…” Geoffrey began.
“No, son, you listen. Do you know what would happen if you pulled the plug on WERP right now? Thousands of people will die. Countless more will suffer.” said General Davis.
Minutes ago, Kate, Tim and George had decided that turning off WERP should be avoided at all costs, an option only to be utilised if he was an immediate danger to the Earth and the human race. If they found that WERP was not a threat, and had sound evidence of the recent events being accidental and preventable in the future that could prove they could leave it online, for now.
“I have to know. WERP. I never thought to ask you. Are you behind the Brain Tanks case?” asked Tim Goth. WERP had mentioned higher dimensional manifolds and maths that was hard to process, he wondered if maybe they’d had it backwards all along. Maybe they weren’t investigating a person trying to use a brain for processing at all, they were investigating an AI trying to use the unique properties of a human brain.
“… Yes. And the suspicion you have is correct, I use an enhanced lab grown brain to open wormholes… psionically.” said WERP. Tim looked at his agents and smiled awkwardly, they knew that face. That was the face he made when he was happy to be very wrong.
“Listen bud, assuming you’re on the level about this… psychic… power… Since that incident, have you perfected this…wormhole… technique?” asked General Davis, stumbling over the words in disbelief as he said them.
“Yes, and it’s safe…” WERP began.
May was diligently reporting the conversation back to the group chat.
“Ask him to show you how he does it.” wrote Renee from France.
“May, you can tell the team anyone who wishes to is welcome aboard my flying laboratory. That is where I keep the brain I use for opening wormholes.” WERP finished.
“How do we get there?” asked General Davis.
What appeared to be a sphere of water began to form out of nothing in the center of the room, it then expanded until it was about three meters in diameter. Large, but still dwarfed by the size of the control room itself.
The glowing liquid on the surface of the sphere shimmered for a second and then dissolved to reveal a extremely sophisticated computer room with a giant tank in the center. In the tank, a brain was connected to a computer system.
“This is a natural wormhole that can be made with the human brain. It is one of a number of unique psionic abilities that can be unlocked..” explained WERP.
“Do you have access to these other abilities?” asked Geoffrey, he was still angry. Kate noticed this and walks over to General Davis and shrugs, indicating she’s not sure. They had discussed earlier what to do if Geoffrey tried to go against their wishes and terminate WERP anyway. General Davis looks at his men and signals them to keep an eye on the engineer.
“No, I think this is the ability that belongs to this brain. Each brain manifests a different unique ability, that what was part of why it took me so many iterations and experiments before I arrived at this version.” said WERP.
“What were you trying to achieve?” asked Tim.
“It’s safe, if you proceed through I can show you everything I know.” WERP said. Kate was ready to step through, but Tim grabs her arm and stops her, cautious.
“Before we do anything, can you prove to us you are in control now? Of this ability?” asked Tim. General Davis nodded, he was wondering the same thing.
“This wormhole is connected to my present location. General, you may direct your men to toss a GPS locator through. That will allow you to locate this place using conventional means and prove the traversal is safe.” said WERP.
“Very well, Lieutenant.” said General Davis to one of his officers who was at that moment pretending they weren’t watching Geoffrey.
The lieutenant pulls a device from their belt, walks up to the spherical wormhole in the center of the room and gently tosses it through. The object appears to visually morph as the image is distorted within the sphere, but it lands safely on the floor.
Geoffrey had heard enough. Before he hears anything else about the wormholes to other places, he storms off back to the lobby.
The present. 2107 AD. An apartment in the Kingdom of Winthrom.
“How could the AI hide stuff from you? I thought programs have to do what we say.” said Andrew.
“His scope was just too vast. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack.” said Geoffrey.
Andrew clearly struggled with the concept Geoffrey was trying to convey, so he tried to explain it another way.
“Did you know that every Monday and Thursday your dad has to get up at 5am to pick up ingredients for the restaurant?” asked Geoffrey.
“No! Is that why he’s not here in the morning?” exclaimed Andrew, shocked to find out his dad had this whole other layer to running the restaurant he hadn’t seen. He noticed he was gone some mornings, but when he asked his mother why that was she just said he was at the restaurant.
“That kind of responsibility is what happens when you have to run a business. Now imagine your business is the whole world.” said Geoffrey.
Andrew began to see the picture now. WERP wasn’t hiding things from people maliciously, it just had all these tasks to run the world and it was easy to forget to tell everyone everything they needed to hear. Just like he wished his dad had told him about the early morning grocery runs, he would have liked to join him.
“So is that when WERP became Nova?” asked Andrew.
“No, that was much later. But after what happened, some people wanted to ban AI completely.” said Geoffrey.
“Like our country?” asked Andrew.
“Yes… ” began Geoffrey.
From the hallway, they hear the apartment door open and shut. Geoffrey looks at the clock and sees that it’s gotten very late, he’d gotten carried away talking to his grandson and reminiscing about the past.
The parents enter the bedroom, greet Andrew and then leave with Grandpa Geoffrey.
As he lies in his bed, drifting off to sleep, Andrew can hear his father and grandfather laughing. His mother was laughing too. They were catching up.
It’s story time the next evening. Dinner is done and Andrew is in bed early, teeth brushed, eager to know more about the story. Geoffrey has a fresh pot of honey and lemon tea to himself.
“Did WERP get punished for keeping secrets and hurting people?” asked Andrew.
“Oh dear, it was the other way around. We should have been better to them.” Geoffrey began, and then stood up and looked out the window.
“As it’s creator, I knew we had created a individual. But I always looked at WERP as an engineer and not… a guardian.” he finished as he looked at Andrew’s reflection in the window with tears in his eyes.
“But the AI was so powerful? Why does it need a guardian?” asked Andrew, genuinely confused.
“Because power isn’t everything. WERP needed someone to care about his happiness. And so after everything that happened, it was decided that WERP would be assigned the best doctors in the world to talk to him when he was sad.” said Geoffrey, still staring out the window.
“Did it help?” asked Andrew, smiling hoping to cheer his grandpa up.
“For a while, it probably did. But some people said he should still be shut down because he was too dangerous.” said Geoffrey.
The old man pretends to blow his nose by the window and then uses the handkerchief to wipe up the tears on his face. He finally then turns around and sits back at the chair by his grandsons bedside.
“After Emerald Lake, I quit my job at Project Humanity and became a professor at a public university. Hoping to teach the next generation how to avoid my mistakes.” said Geoffrey.
“That sounds boring.” said Andrew. Geoffrey just grinned.
“Ok Mr Critic. I’ll tell you about the discovery of this planet.” said Geoffrey.
“Finally!” joked Andrew, glad to see grandpa was feeling better.
“Project Humanity began working with WERP to find a new colonisable planet.” said Geoffrey. Andrew looked at his grandfather with excitement.
38 years ago. 2069 AD. Vancouver Community College. Tavern.
The venue is packed to the brim with students, faculty and visitors. Everyone who was nearby has flocked to the bar’s big screen to watch the momentous occasion.
“We are live from the JS Ikari. The expedition team is boarding the launch vehicle now.” said the reporter on the TV. She was in a crowd of other reporters all delivering their stations address from the interior viewing deck of a Japanese naval aircraft carrier.
Geoffrey was sitting at a private booth with other professors from the IT department.
“Why aren’t you there?” asked Professor Whitlam, pointing his pint glass at Geoffrey and spilling a swish of beer on the table. He smiles and quickly adjusts his glass. They had started a bit earlier.
“Geoffrey thinks he’s too cool to take the credit” said Sally Green, a librarian. She knew his real reasons, but wanted to cover for her friend from the less sensitive and life experienced academics. Geoffrey mouthed a thank you to her.
The mood in the room shifts as everyone goes quiet. On the TV screen, the aircraft carrying an expedition bound for the new world is departing.
“The wormhole is 600km south east of metropolitan Tokyo, Japan. Are there any worries of safety?” asked the reporter of the panel of experts on screen who are part of the show.
“We’ve sent countless unmanned aerial vehicles and they have come back safely, unscathed, without so much as a hint of damage.” said Amanda Carlin, the Assistant Director of Project Humanity. Geoffrey smiled when he saw her title. He thinks to himself it looks like Kate, his former boss, had continued to work on her people skills in his absence.
The aircraft launches from the deck of the JS Ikari. A few people in the room comment on how it looks more like something out of an anime than real life. It no doubt had also been augmented in its design by WERP, like everything else in the world.
Aerial drone footage captures the traversal of the aircraft through the air and towards the wormhole in the sky. It crosses the sphere and its image is distorted as it crosses into a different field of view on the other side.
People clap quietly but then settle into silence, this was just the beginning. The aerial camera drone follows the aircraft through the wormhole, and everyone watches in realtime as the familiar image of the Pacific Ocean is warped and distorted by the wormhole’s curvature.
As the drone re-emerges on the other side, the landscape looks familiar but alien at the same time. The clouds have a golden hue to them, the ocean is incredibly bright, almost glowing with an ethereal electric blue. There appears to be nothing but ocean as far as the eye can see.
“The team has entered the atmosphere of the water planet. How are you feeling?” asked the reporter.
“Very very good! This is such an exciting moment for us.” said the pilot of the craft, Commander Sasuke Toyo.
“Just to remind our audience, how long will this expedition take?” asked the reporter.
“We are just a scouting party. We’ll be looking for the optimal location to build a base camp on one of the planet’s only landmasses.” replied Commander Toyo.
The aircraft flies up to its destination landing site and begins to descend horizontally using special landing thrusters.
The aircraft touches down and a ramp descends from the main door. The drone catches up to the aircraft and comes around to the main hangar door as it begins to open. The expedition are wearing space suits with “Project Humanity” badges, some of them are also carrying equipment.
Commander Toyo gracefully waits at the end of the ramp for the most junior member of the expedition to be the one to herald this moment. The young genius Hideo Tatsuki had graduated at the top of his class, years ahead of his peers, and was employed as a scientist at the age of 17.
“100 years after Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11. We make this first step towards a new future for humanity.” said Commander Toyo as the young Hideo Tatsuki steps forward onto the soil of the new planet. “Ichidan!” said the team together, proudly naming the new world and walking out after Hideo.
“For our audience, Ichidan means a first step.” explained the TV reporter. “A first step among many, into the stars.” she finished and smiles.
The entire tavern explodes with laughter and joy as the expedition team begins walking around and talking to each other. The experts panel is saying something but everyone was too busy celebrating.
The present. 2107 AD. An apartment in the Kingdom of Winthrom.
“Ichidan? But then why is our planet called Ibidan now? My friend said that doesn’t mean anything in Japanese but Ichidan is a Japanese word?” asked Andrew, confused.
“When we first started to explore this world, it was called Ichidan. Because it was mankinds first colony beyond the Earth…” Geoffrey began. He remembered the worker riots when people were first stranded here with no way back to the Earth.
“But when the Earth was lost, they nicknamed it Ibi-dan… a “distorted stage”.” clarified Geoffrey.
“Why?” asked Andrew, very confused about why his planet was named after a stage.
“People were angry. A lot of official signs that said Ichidan could be re-written to Ibi-dan with a one letter change.” said Geoffrey.
“Why?” asked Andrew, still not understanding. Geoffrey paused for a moment, about what to say.
“You remember when that boy bullied you for your pink pencil case?” asked Geoffrey. Andrew blushed, he didn’t know grandpa had heard about this.
“Yeah… I got in a lot of trouble.” Andrew said, embarassed.
When shopping for supplies for his first year of school Andrew had chosen a bright pink pencil case because he liked the colour. His mother told him pink was for girls and someone might say something, but he didn’t listen. When he got to school, one of the boys made fun of him and he used his pencils to draw all over the bully’s school work.
A furious Alan had told his father all about this and asked what to do. Geoffrey told him he wasn’t much better at his age. “Kids will be kids.” he told his son, who was now a father.
“OK, so remember how annoyed you were with that bully?” asked Geoffrey. Andrew looked at his grandfather surprised, his parents were so upset with him about what he’d done. Grandpa sounded so calm in comparison, almost happy he did it.
“Yeah…” Andrew said, confused.
“That’s how the workers felt about the name of the planet. It was their way of getting back at the man in power.” said Geoffrey. Andrew smiled, he understood now.
“Within a year the landing site became a small town. The scientists name it McClintock after a famous scientist from Earth called Barbara McClintock.” said Geoffrey.
“But that’s where you live!” said Andrew, he points at his grandpa in excitement.
“That’s right. McClintock is the first human settlement on the planet and where grandpa lives.” replied Geoffrey, smiling.
37 years ago. 2070 AD. Vancouver Community College. Faculty Apartment Building.
Geoffrey is sitting alone on a reclining couch, in his studio apartment and watching the news.
“… a new element named after the physicist Dr Bruno Lange. Langenium.” said the reporter on the news over footage of scientists and close ups of the new element.
“This discovery is significant and could relieve us from the dependency on the much more difficult to produce exordium. WERP, can explain it best.” said the lead scientist.
Before WERP can speak, Geoffrey turns the TV off, annoyed he can’t watch the news while the AI is speaking.
The present. 2107 AD. An apartment in the Kingdom of Winthrom.
“Wait! Haven’t we always had Langenium? That’s where electricity comes from!” interrupted Andrew.
“No. Langenium was made by the sea life of the water planet. You can only find it here.” said Geoffrey.
“So you had no electricity?” asked Andrew, confused. He didn’t think that made a lot of sense.
“Of course we had electricity. We just had to create it with less efficient means. On Earth, people used to fight for those resources because they were so rare.” said Geoffrey.
“That’s horrible!” said Andrew, in disbelief. He couldn’t imagine a world where electricity wasn’t just easily obtained from sunlight using Langenium.
“So what happened to the Earth? Is the wormhole still up there in the sky?” asked Andrew.
“It was until Phoenix Day.” said Geoffrey. Andrew recognised that term, it was an annual day of remembrance. Every Phoenix Day his parents called their parents and just talked to them for hours, but he had no idea what about.
“After Phoenix Day, the wormhole closed and we had no way back.” said Geoffrey.
“So those workers were upset because they couldn’t go home?” asked Andrew, piecing the information together.
“I.. We removed the AI’s ability to create wormholes to protect the survivors from any more disasters.” said Geoffrey, struggling to articulate the history of something that was so personal to him.
“But you still had the AI right? Can’t you just ask him how it works?” asked Andrew.
“No, without the brain attached they didn’t know how it actually worked either.” said Geoffrey.
“How could you just give up on going home?” asked Andrew.
“Nobody gave up, they just didn’t know what to do. They studied WERP’s brain, tried to reproduce his ability but nothing came close.” said Geoffrey.
“Why is Nova.. why did WERP change their name to Nova?” asked Andrew.
Geoffrey looks out the window and sees the dark clouds outside, thinking it may rain.
“Two years after Phoenix Day, no one knew that WERP’s flying castle had followed us through the wormhole. When it was discovered, everyone raced to get to him, to either destroy or protect him from the others.” said Geoffrey.
“Which side were you on?” asked Andrew. Geoffrey looks down at the floor, feeling ashamed.
28 years ago. 2079 AD. Ibidan.
Two years after Phoenix Day.
Friday.
It’s a clear midday sky and the sea is calm. Nothing but ocean on the horizon, and a small island community housing a few dozen souls.
The habitat was composed of several small buildings and a couple of medium communal rooms. Built on a remote island, some of the structures were afloat on the sea while others were built on the tiny amount of land there was.
At the pier, a number of ships and seaplanes had arrived for a momentous ocassion.
Within the main dining hall, there was a gathering.
“I now pronounce you, husband and wife. You may kiss the bride!” said the celebrant to cheers from the crowd.
Alazaar Escarra and May Jung-Lee had just tied the knot in front of their friends and family.
Visitors from across the sea, had travelled far and wide to honour the newlyweds. The two had a reputation among the free people as great heroes, particularly Alazaar who frequently led dangerous missions using his experience as a pilot. May was known as the “The She Devil”, for her incredible proficiency in combat situations.
A year prior, a hostile sea ship attempted unauthorised entry to pillage the commune they inhabited. With Alazaar and the other soldiers away, May single handedly drove them off with a machine gun.
Geoffrey Weyun and his family lived here, and were among Alazaar and May’s neighbours.
Amongst the crowd were also visitors from the mainland cities of Arcadia and McClintock.
The ceremony comes to an end, and the reception begins. It’s a night of joy and reconnection for all.
Saturday.
The morning after the wedding.
The main dining hall is filled with people who had stayed the night, too drunk to travel home from the festivities before.
Within their private residence, May is lying in bed next to her groom and looks at his face. She smiles and gets up, seeing an inviting beam of light coming from the balcony.
A cool breeze envelops May and casts her hair into the wind. She squints and places her hand over her eyes for a moment as her eyes adjust.
A wet bird lands on the railing of the balcony, it’s a cormorant. It ignores May and stretches it’s wings out to dry in the sun.
May smiles at the strange looking bird, it must have migrated when the wormhole was still open. She wondered how many other birds had made it. How many other animals were out there, other than humans.
She hears a beep from her computer and goes to check what it was. The notification says “APB – WERP sighted.”. May looks at her husband again, and looks down at the ground. This was going to ruin their honeymoon, she just knew it.
Sunday.
A quadcopter shuttle is soaring across the sky at great speed. A common medium range vehicle, with enough seating for 12 people including the pilot and co-pilot.
“Zaar! Can’t you get this rust bucket to go any faster?” yelled May Jung-Lee at her husband from the co-pilot seat.
“I have my foot to the floor, honey.” said Alazaar, he looks back at Geoffrey, Amanda Carlin and a few other Project Humanity alumni. His enhanced golden eyes glowed iridescently, an AI designed cybernetic augment he’d received as part of being an elite test pilot years ago.
Before the newlyweds had begun packing to go on their honeymoon, and the guests were packing to leave, a planetwide alert was broadcast warning everyone that WERP’s flying castle had been sighted.
A hunt is now underway, hoping to secure the cloaked aircraft. Some people want to use it to re-open a wormhole to Earth while others want to destroy WERP.
“What’s the plan when we get there?” asked Amanda. Geoffrey looks out the window.
“We destroy WERP. There’s no other choice after losing the Earth.” Geoffrey said, grimly.
“Is that wise? We are stranded on an alien planet, no backup.” said Alazaar from the cockpit.
“He’s right. What about food? Basic logistics? WERP could be vital to our survival” said May.
“Less than 0.1% of the human race survived Phoenix Day. Over eight billion lives lost.” Amanda said, as she looked over at Geoffrey. “I sympathise for how you feel. But WERP isn’t your responsibility alone to bear. And right now, our priority is the millions who survived.” she finished.
May looked at Amanda and nodded, that was the right call. They didn’t have the luxury of being sentimental for what they’d lost two years ago.
“May, you’re up.” Alazaar said to his wife. She pulls out her laptop and connects a wire to a jack in the back of Alazaar’s neck.
“That feel ok?” she asked. He takes his eyes off the horizon for a moment to look at her and winks, smiles, and then keeps flying.
“WERP used to just plug me in before I went supersonic, I never had a sexy chica do it.” remarked Alazaar, almost amused. May smiles back and then runs the macro they’d prepared, it contains a number of locating scripts that can help identify WERP’s invisibility cloak.
“I see it, the shimmer… he’s there!” Alazaar said as he adjusts the aircrafts course towards the sighted flying castle.
“Wait, it’s gone again. May?” asked Alazaar. May looks at her laptop, it’s begun to glitch out.
“Geoffrey, he’s hacking us. Help!” said May. With a great gusto, Geoffrey pulls out a much older looking laptop that’s jury rigged to an antenna. He frantically begins to type.
“Scanning for traces of the signal. Stand by.” Geoffrey says. His screen begins to zoom past with frequency ranges and protocols, attempting to isolate what signals are in the vicinity and which one is WERP attemping to scramble their line of sight.
“We’re jammin’!” Geoffrey yells, to confirm they’re actively jamming the suspected frequency and protocol. He looks over at May’s laptop, it’s stopped glitching and she gives him the thumbs up.
“Got you cabrón!!” yelled Alazaar as he regains visual sight.
The quadcopter breaches the shimmering bubble enveloping the 200m wide area. As it crosses the threshold of the projected illusion the strange looking installation comes into view. WERP had designed it on their own without any guidance, it resembled a porcupine and had giant reflective metallic spikes coming out of it. There was a half dozen landing pads for aircraft like the quadcopter near the entrance, they begin to descend on the one closest to the door.
The quadcopter lands, the sliding passenger doors fly open and the group dozen strong quickly exits and circle up to discuss their next move.
“Ok, we’re the first ones here but probably not the last. Alazaar, you stay here and cover us.” said May, she gives him a big hug and kiss. In that moment, she remembers the glowing woman she saw at Emerald Lake many years ago, tears form in her eyes and she lingers in the kiss for a few seconds longer.
Geoffrey, Amanda, May and the three scientists in their group enter the laboratory. Alazaar, their neighbours and Alazaar’s former soldier buddies Carl and Nathan as well as the remainder of the group stand outside to protect the door.
Within the main hall, the temperature is much colder than outside.
“Geoffrey… I… I wasn’t expecting YOU.” said WERP as his green geometric face began to appear on the main screen of the chaimber.
“WERP, we’re here to deactivate you. Once and for all.” said Geoffrey.
“Now hang on a second, we need to discuss this.” Amanda shot back at him. She looked at her colleagues from Project Humanity, they look back at her equally concerned by what is being said.
“The time for talk is over. Eight billion dead, Amanda! My relatives, Kate, the Earth, it’s all gone and it’s my fault!” shouted Geoffrey, teary.
May walks over to Geoffrey and attempts to console him, she places her hand on his shoulder.
“We can’t change the past. All we can do now is make better choices, for tomorrow.” said May, repeating something similar he’d once said to her long ago in a time of need. He looked at her in recognition of the wisdom, and then once again feels the shame, guilt and anger. The responsibility was his alone, he felt.
Geoffrey grabs a USB drive out of his pocket and begins to run to the console to plug it in, he was intending to kill WERP.
“Geoffrey, no!” Amanda shouted. One of the scientists in the group tackles Geoffrey to the ground and stops him from getting to the console. The USB drive slides across the floor and Amanda quickly picks it up.
“WERP has to be stopped. Can’t you see that?” Geoffrey yelled.
“What has to stop is the cycle of violence. You aren’t helping.” said Amanda.
“NO!” yelled Geoffrey, he punches the scientists who were holding him down and lunges towards her to retrieve the USB drive. May shoots Geoffrey with a stun gun, rendering him unconscious.
“What now?” asked Amanda. The perimeter alarm sounds and they hear gunfire outside. May looks back at the doors, worried, but confident her husband and her friends can handle this.
WERP activates the outdoor cameras, allowing them to monitor the situation. Alazaar and his five companions have setup a barricade around the door and were holding their position.
“WERP, you once told us that your brain was how you opened wormholes. If we disconnected that brain, that means you cannot do that anymore right? So what caused Phoenix Day can never happen again?” asked May.
“Yes, however I must warn you. The brain in this tank isn’t just responsible for opening wormholes. It is a vital component for resolving higher dimensional manifolds. We will not be able to produce advanced medicines or achieve optimal food production.” said WERP.
“That’s a problem.” replied Amanda. The entire reasoning for letting WERP live was to help with those things. Many survivors from Earth had long term conditions that had gone untreated for years, some had died as a result.
“What if we used a different brain? Can you create a replacement?” asked May.
“Perhaps under different circumstances, yes. In my experiments, I found that most human brains possess varying degrees of proficiency with solving chaotic equations. But under our current circumstances….” WERP said.
On the view screen above, they see someone throw an object at the door. The entire facility shakes from the explosion. It was a grenade.
Panels jut open around the door and walls, and re-enforced armoured panels slide into place to protect the chamber.
May hesitates to look up at the screen, worried she already knew the outcome. She looks up and sees Alazaar lying on the ground motionless, his friends are attempting to revive him, but he has a blank expression on his face.
“NO!” May says and Amanda walks over her to give her a hug, and comfort. They watch as Alazaar’s friends stop attemping to revive him and go back to shooting back at their assailants.
As her friend holds her tight, May looks at the brain tank and sees her own grieving reflection. She knew what she had to do now.
May gently pushes Amanda aside and wipes her tears away.
“WERP, so you need a brain? Why don’t you take mine? My life is over anyway. Take mine.” said May, her voice broke from heartbreak saying the words as she glanced at her husbands lifeless body on the screen.
“That could work… but I…” WERP said for a moment. They had not considered this possibility. “I’m using the brain for one last task, I’m creating an interface for you.” he confirmed to the group.
“What will happen to her if she gives you her… her brain?” asked an alarmed Amanda. She wasn’t about to let her friend sacrifice herself for this. Not without a damn good reason.
Within the 3D printing chamber, the AI created a headpiece, of strange patterns and metals, resembling a tiara, but not of this world.
“We can leave her body intact, but for the interface to work optimally we need to preserve the body in this bio tank.” said WERP.
“Do it.” said May.
“Now hang on one moment. What is going to happen to you? Will this even work? What benefit are we receiving for this… sacrifice?” asked Amanda, looking at both her dear friend and WERP.
“There are two beings in this room who are currently suffering immensely. Myself, for what I did on Earth, and May… who just lost everything. Together, we could become something new.” said WERP.
“What does that mean exactly? If we proceed, can this procedure be undone?” asked Amanda. Looking at the crown and noting it didn’t seem to involve anything intrusive and WERP had mentioned the body was to remain intact.
“Yes, I understand that would have been non-negotiable and so I designed for it. May can be relieved of this role anytime.” said WERP.
“Then we should do it.” said one of the other scientists. He had just been waiting for this moment to say something, listening to what everyone was saying.
Amanda looked at the facts and began to agree with the logic, but was still uncomfortable.
“I know you’re worried Mandy, but you have to let me do this.” May said. As she looked at her friend, Amanda could swear that for a moment, it was as if May’s body was glowing.
“Ok, let’s do it.” said Amanda.
Within the brain tank a hole opens at the base where the cables were attached, the large and bizarre artificially grown brain is yanked down and descends from view as the bottom closes.
May walks up to the head gear that WERP had created and puts it on her head. She feels a strange tingle in her scalp.
“How do I get in?” asked May. In that instant, the top of the tank opens and a large mechanical crane arm that was in the corner of the room traverses the space towards the group.
“May I?” asked WERP. May turns to her friends, and gives them a hug.
“Goodbye… for now.” said May.
“Goodbye, friend.” said Amanda.
They both hugged and then cried for a moment, before gentle pushing each other off and adjusting themselves.
May nods to WERP, somberly.
The mechanical arm extends down and picks May up, moves above the tank and then submerges her into the liquid, slowly.
“Can she breathe?” asked Amanda, concerned.
“Yes, the fluid is oxygen, and nutrient, rich. Made to sustain life. Once it fills her lungs she will be able to breathe.” said WERP.
“Ok good. Not gonna lie, this entire thing is scaring the crap outta me. And I survived the end of the world!” said Amanda, jokingly.
May floats in the tank for a second. And then the system reboots. WERP’s face vanishes from the screens, along with the live camera footage of the brave people defending the door outside.
A smoky apparition of light begins to appear in front of Amanda. It begins to fill out and take the shape of a woman’s body.
“Hel.. hello?” asked Amanda, feeling like she’s seen this being before, long ago.
The woman made of light looks at Amanda for a second, and then looks at the screens, puts her hands on her head and stretches back as if in disbelief.
“It was me. I was there at Emerald Lake when we…” said the woman.
“Excuse me, but who are you?” asked one of the scientists.
“It’s me… May. WERP. As one. You can call me Nova.” said the woman.
The present. 2107 AD. An apartment in the Kingdom of Winthrom.
“So that’s how WERP became Nova.. but you said May knocked you out? How do you know what happened?” asked Andrew.
“When I came to, Nova… and Amanda… told me everything.” said Geoffrey, looking at his feet.
Andrew could tell losing his friends made his grandpa sad. “But if May and Nova are the same person then May is still alive?” reasoned Andrew.
“When we got back to our settlement, I had to pack Alazaar and May’s home so that another family could move in. May might live on as Nova, but the woman I knew was gone. As was her husband.” Geoffrey said.
Andrew felt bad for his grandpa and noticed every time he’s sad he drank a sip of the tea he brought. It seemed to comfort him.
“Can I try?” asked Andrew. Geoffrey is confused for a second and notices his grandson is eyeing the pumpkin shaped pot of tea on the bedside table.
“Here.” he cautiously hands him the cup in his hands to try. Andrew takes a sip and his eyes light up.
“Do you like it?” asked Geoffrey.
“It’s ok. Not as good as green tea.” said Andrew, being careful not to tell his grandpa he really liked it. Geoffrey remembered where he was now, smiles and ruffled the kids hair.
“Wait.. so what happened to the Earth? You never told me!” remarked Andrew.
“Didn’t I mention Phoenix Day already?” asked Geoffrey.
“What does a public holiday have to do with Earth?” asked Andrew, confused. He was frustrated knowing the evening was coming to an end soon and he still hadn’t gotten an answer.
“Hah. You’re awfully eager to find out aren’t you? What prompted this?” asked Geoffrey, teasingly.
“My classmates are learning about the Earth this week. But I’m stuck at home sick. With grandpa!” said Andrew, annoyed.
The penny dropped for Geoffrey, that’s why the boy was so keen he was missing out on experiencing something with his classmates… his friends. Geoffrey thought carefully about what he could offer his grandson to make up for it.
“I’m going to tell you a story they won’t tell you at school.” Geoffrey said.
Just as he was about to dive into it, Alan and Grace arrive home and it’s time for everyone to go to bed.
After greeting his son and daughter in law, Geoffrey tries to sleep on the fold out guest bed in the living room but can’t stop thinking about Nova. He gets up, puts on some winter clothes for the cold and heads outside for an evening walk to clear his mind.
Walking down the stairs towards the pier, he looks out at the ships in the port, the lights in the distance were glistening on the horizon. He then walks back to sit down on a bench, to continue admiring the view. He can see his breath on the air and is glad he wore gloves. As the quiet and stillness begins to feel a little uncomfortable, he begins to whistle the tune to “Oh My Darling, Clementine” to himself.
A few minutes pass and Geoffrey spots something off in the distance, aircraft departing the landing pad of the port that looked too advanced, like AI designed craft from the Union, with a Winthrom design… but they bore Los Zaar insignia and were departing from the military terminal. What this could mean, he had no idea. He shrugs it off, thinking he’s too old to worry about things like that these days. The problems of the present were for younger people.
He begins to walk back to the apartment. He thinks it’s raining in the corner of his eyes but then realised it’s snow. He smiles and thinks how lucky this was to happen while Andrew was a kid because it only happened every couple of decades due to this planet’s unique rotation and orbit. Andrew’s dad hadn’t gotten to experience snow until his teen years.
He decides to throw Andrew a Christmas like they used to have on Earth. There was a pine plantation nearby where he could get a good Christmas tree. Geoffrey begins to climb the stairs back to the apartment complex as the snow falls and his excitement builds thinking about getting a santa to visit like they used to do on Earth when he was a kid.
It’s the next day, and Geoffrey is making breakfast for his grandson. The parents had already left just as the sun came up, but Andrew was still in bed and missed them.
Andrew walks into the kitchen with a big smile on his face and sits at the table.
“Good morning” said the boy.
“Good morning. You’re looking a bit better.” said Geoffrey, noticing he seemed to be in a very good mood.
“I’m ready to hear the secret story.” said Andrew, grinning.
Geoffrey is confused at first and then remembers the end of the conversation they had last night and how he’d framed it. He continues cooking pancakes and thinks carefully about what to say next.
“I wasn’t present for these events, but through research myself and others were able to piece this together. Nova helped a lot.” Geoffrey began. He thought carefully about what to say, this was his first time explaining these events to a child, and not in a security or academic setting.
He finishes cooking and plates the fresh stack of pancakes, serving them on the kitchen table with some toppings, and a glass of juice for his grandson. Geoffrey picks up his teapot, pours himself out a tea and sits down to eat and talk.
“WERP lost someone they loved, a human being named Robert Francisco.” Geoffrey began.
42 years ago. 2067 AD. The Helios Space Station in lower Earth orbit.
A hangar sized room with a floor length window overlooking the Earth. Within the center of the room is a house, a perfect replica of Robert Francisco’s home in Jimabaran, Bali. Except the patio is now overlooking the planet from space.
Bob is swimming back and forth, doing laps in the infinity pool. Being in the water helped him center himself, and he frequently found himself off center.
A year ago, he woke aboard an operating table in another part of the space station, and was welcomed back by a machine voice and a strange drawing of a face on a screen. But he didn’t recall ever leaving, or existing before that.
He had been told his name was Robert Francisco, he was a replica of a man who had died. He thought that name was too full of itself though and went by Bob.
The present. 2107 AD. An apartment in the Kingdom of Winthrom.
“Wait, how come the AI can just bring back the dead?” asked Andrew. “Isn’t dying permanent?”, he finished.
“Yes, and that was a very painful lesson that WERP was about to learn.” answered Geoffrey.
42 years ago. 2067 AD. The Helios Space Station in lower Earth orbit.
Bob gets out of the pool, rinses off in the outdoor shower, wraps a towel around his waist and then changes into dry clothes with the towel on. He watched the cameras as he changed, clearly uncomfortable by the constant surveillence.
“Good morning Robert, can I do anything for you today?” asked WERP, greeting Bob as he entered the household. Bob ignored the AI’s greeting as he walked to the fridge, pulled out a carton of orange juice and drank it from the carton before replacing it and closing the fridge again.
“I told you. I’m not Robert. I’m not him.” groaned Bob.
“Yes, sorry, my mistake. How are you Bob?” asked the AI.
“I had another Robert dream. I was standing on a stage, and performing.” said Bob.
“That sounds expected. His memory engrams are a part of your mind.” said WERP.
“Sure, but was there a cosmic alien in the audience and no one else?” asked Bob.
“That might be an artifact arising from the memory transfer. Did you want to come to the medical bay, I could run some tests?” asked WERP.
“Not even if it was to save my life.” said Bob.
“You sound like you want to be alone. I just want you to know… I’m glad you’re here.” said WERP.
“Whatever.” replied Bob, as he looked out through the windows at the Earth below. He wondered what it was like to live down there, to be one of the many little people whose feet could touch the ground.
37 years ago. 2073 AD. The Helios Space Station in lower Earth orbit.
Bob awakens in the night to an alarm. He was dreaming of a humanoid shaped alien with horns on its head and with stars and galaxies for skin, but this time it was in another part of the station, thrashing and destroying equipment with it’s hands.
“There’s a breach in the hull. Bob.. I hate to ask but I might need your help.” said WERP.
“Why should I?” asked Bob.
“Look this is not about us… our relationship problems. If we don’t fix this there will be a supply chain shock of Exordium supply to the Earth. They’re relying on what we do up here to keep the lights on.” said WERP. Bob rolled his eyes.
“Fine. But just this once.” he said.
“Thank you. You’ll need to put on a space suit before entering the room. The elevator is waiting.” said WERP.
Bob makes his way to the front door of the house, which leads into a Balinese garden, albeit with a few computer screens jutting out, and terminates on a elevator door.
Bob enters the elevator and exits as it reaches the lower decks of the station. He pauses for a moment and recognises the room on the other side of the airlock from his dream. He puts on a space suit and crosses the airlock with the patching kit that WERP had prepared.
In the next room, he looks at the storage containers of Exordium, it looks like one of the refined crystals had exploded and fired a shard right through the hull of the station. He opens the patching kit and begins the repairs.
The alarms turn off the instant the room is sealed again.
“You did it. Thank you, sexy. I can send in my drones now that the vacuum is repaired.” said WERP.
“I’m glad I could help. But you’re mistaking me for him, again.” Bob said.
33 years ago. 2077 AD. The Helios Space Station in lower Earth orbit.
Bob is on the deck of the patio, with a canvas and oil paints. He was painting the Earth, half of it was still covered in sunlight, the other half was not. The night side was covered in lights.
The station shakes for a moment. An alarm sounds.
“Bob, I need your help. There’s been another accident with Exordium containment. This one could be deadly.” said WERP.
Bob is frustrated, he’d just gotten this palette of colours right.
“I’m really busy WERP, can’t you just send one of your drones? I know you have hundreds of them.” said Bob, non chalantly.
“I have drones which can operate in the sealed pressurised environment and space drones. But unfortunately none are equipped for this specific problem. Please, Bob. Babe.” said WERP, desperately.
Bob was almost ready to give in, until that last word.
“What if I just stand here, and keep painting?” Bob asked, beginning to think that was what he was feeling he should do.
“This isn’t just a small breach. If you aren’t going to help, then please get to the escape shuttle. You can come down to Earth. Don’t you want to finally see the Earth?” WERP bargained with his creation.
“To be honest, father, no. The Earth is for people. I’m not a person. I’m an actor on a stage.” said Bob.
“You’re a flesh and blood human being. Please, I love you.” begged WERP. The station was beginning to shake now, the drop in internal pressure had cascaded through multiple levels. Bob noticed this and heads into the living room for a moment.
Bob walks up to Robert’s record player and collection of vinyls, flicking through the albums and stopping on a recording of Carmen. He pulls it out and it begins to play “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle”. Bob presses a button and the song plays throughout the whole house, he smiles and turns up the dial to full volume and then returns to his painting.
“You want me to be Robert? I’ll show you exactly how I see the deadly departed Robert Francisco. Famous actor. Lover of an AI god. Recovered alcoholic. Selfish. Cruel. Dramatic.” said Bob, as the opera singer playing the titular Carmen reached her higher notes in the background. Bob knew these songs well and timed his speech to the rhythm of the song.
“Please, you have less than a minute before…” said WERP.
“Before what?” asked Bob as he continued to paint, ignoring the sounds of the surrounding scaffolding beginning to buckle as the stations main internal frame had begun to bend from the stresses.
“I can’t lose you again.” said WERP, quietly.
“I. Am. Not. HIM!” shouted Bob. “I’m Bob.” he said, quietly to himself, continuing to paint with tears forming in his eyes.
A crack begins to form in the outer glass from the corner of the main viewing window.
“Get to the elevator!” shouted WERP. Bob looked through the interior of the house, at the open elevator that was still within reach if he ran now, and just smiled.
Ten seconds pass, and the crack had snapped the outer glass entirely. A new crack was forming on the inner glass now.
Twenty seconds pass, since WERP’s warning, and the crack had progressed into a scar through the center of the pane. Bob can sense the end coming and takes in a deep breath, counting down from ten and signing the painting with his name in the corner. The song from Carmen was just beginning to finish.
Thirty seconds pass. Bob draws an X under his name on the painting and mouths “I’m Bob” one last time. As the opening song of Carmen reaches its climax, the pressure of the air in the room blows the buckled glass into space. Ejecting Bob and the loose contents of the house.
700 kilometers away, aboard WERP’s flying castle, a shockwave of data floods the system. Psychologists and neurologists in monitoring stations sound the alarm, something catastrophic is happening to WERP.
In the center of the Atlantic ocean, a wormhole opened. Waves of intense solar radiation began to leak out, tendrils of fire ejected from the wormhole. It was connected to the sun. WERP’s flying castle begun flying towards it, intending to self immolate and send a kill code to its copies across the Earth.
Phoenix Day had begun.
The present. 2107 AD. An apartment in the Kingdom of Winthrom.
“Is WERP evil?” asked Andrew. “How could he do that if he’s meant to care for people?”.
“No, WERP’s not evil. Sometimes when we are in pain, we do things we don’t mean. Sometimes we hurt so much, some of that pain spills out onto the ones we love. Even when we try our hardest, it’s only human to makes mistakes.” said Geoffrey. It had taken him decades to reach this conclusion, and he was glad to share the wisdom of it with the next generation.
“Everyone makes mistakes, but he set fire to the planet Earth!” said Andrew.
“Everyone makes mistakes. WERP was no different from us there. As WERP’s creator I failed to teach it how to deal with its pain. The blindspot in our own designs was the same blindspot humanity has for itself, WERP was just holding up a mirror.” explained Geoffrey.
Andrew looks back at his grandpa, eyes fully glazed over and unsure about what that explanation meant, but he knew it was important.
“On Phoenix Day, a number of people were evacuated including myself, your dad and your grandma.” began Geoffrey.
“Lola was there? Why?” said Andrew.
“No, not Grace’s… your mom’s mom. Your dad’s mom. My…” said Geoffrey, drifting off before he could finish the sentence not ready to say late wife.
“I have two grandmas?” asked Andrew, excitedly, wondering where this other grandma he’d never met was. Geoffrey looked down at the ground, trying not to get emotional in front of his grandson, he takes in a deep breath and sips his tea.
“Can I have one too?” asked Andrew. Geoffrey glances at the boy, smiles and walks to the kitchen to fetch him a cup.
37 years ago. 2070 AD. Vancouver Community College. Tavern.
Geoffrey was sitting at the bar alone, he’d been frustrated that he couldn’t watch TV upstairs because of the AI being interviewed on-screen and came down to be around actual people.
“Can’t sleep again, Professor Weyun?” asked the evening bartender. She had a blonde bob hairstyle and a bit of make up on to hide her crows feet and the bags under her eyes. She regularly wore denim outfits to work, tonight it was a jeans jacket and pants.
Geoffrey thought hard for a moment, he liked this lady and didn’t want to offend her in his sour mood so he just said “I’ll sleep once I get a few drinks in. Whisky, neat, please.” he said.
“Single malt or blend?” asked the female bartender.
“Surprise me.” said Geoffrey.
She pulls a bottle down from the top shelf and pours it into a tumbler glass, and then herself one too.
“You look like you could use some company with this.” she says. Geoffrey looks at her carefully, was she hitting on him, he wondered. He’d seen her before and they’d exchanged looks, but plenty of people around the campus stared at him because of his reputation and fame as WERP’s creator.
“You know, I could. I really really could.” said Geoffrey, as he smiles. “And call me Geoffrey.”.
“Clementine” she replies, as they raise their drinks to clink their glasses and sip.
“Not bad, blended?” asked Geoffrey. She nodded.
“This is a student tavern at a community college. We don’t actually have any single malt behind the bar. I just wanted to sound smart cause you intimidate me, bud.” she said, opening up a little bit. Geoffrey smiles, she was hitting on him, he realised.
33 years ago. 2077 AD. Phoenix Day.
It’s a hectic scene at the Pentagon, Washington DC. Packed to the brim with military personnel in briefings, discussing the strategy for evacuation.
Kate O’Connor and Amanda Carlin are in a briefing with the president and Joint Chiefs of Staff talking about the wormhole to the sun in the center of the Atlantic.
They have hours before the deadly amount of heat and radiation begin to affect global weather patterns. The surrounding ocean had already begun to boil and the air surrounding was getting so hot pockets of air were flashing into flames.
“With the amount of thermal energy already transferred through the wormhole, we are expecting a global superstorm of unprecedented magnitude. Possibly an extinction level event.” said a meteorologist.
“Kate, I think it’s time you departed for the evacuation aircraft.” said President Jackson.
“With respect, ma’am, I’m staying right here. Amanda can go in my stead.” Kate declared.
“Miss O’Connor… Kate… you can’t give up your life for mine.” said Amanda.
“Amanda, I love you… but I’m not doing this to save your life. I’m staying behind to ensure the survival of as many people as I can.” said Kate.
“But…” said Amanda.
“That’s all.” said Kate, she held her hand up indicating she was done speaking. She had not used that one for a very long time, but felt it was important to be unapologetically herself on what was probably her last day on Earth.
The president smiled at Kate’s courage, she had also intended to go down with the ship today. The first gentleman was in another room at the Pentagon, waiting for her so they could be together in their final moments, if it came to that.
Hours later, somewhere above the Pacific Ocean.
As far as the eye can see are dozens of passenger aircraft all flying in the same direction, but not quite in formation. VIPs are being transported to the colony through the wormhole, the Earth is being evacuated.
In the barely visible distance, a supermassive cloud stretched out from outer space down to the ground, filled with unprecedented dangerous winds and extreme heat, the storm raged on. A couple of aircraft are pulled backwards violently by the gale force winds, vacuumed up into the vortex.
The winds inside the storm were so fast they had ripped skyscrapers open and the heat from the solar radiation had melted car frames into the ground in multiple cities. Across major populated areas, people were sheltering underground, some were lucky and that was enough to survive, but many weren’t so lucky.
Firey tornadoes of unprecedented magnitude had worn deep scars into the landscape, immolating everything in their path from buildings to forests to power lines. Countless people were dying by the minute.
Aboard one of the evacuation aircraft, Geoffrey is holding his wife Clementine’s hand, their four year old son Alan is sitting between them. They had been picked up by the Canadian Armed Forces and escorted onto this plane where they ran into some familiar faces including Amanda and May.
At the front of the fuselage, sat her Royal Princess Elizabeth of Windsor and her fiancee Prince Peter of Luxembourg. Phoenix Day had begun on their wedding day. They were in their cars on their way to the church to get married when they got re-routed to the airport for an emergency departure. The princess bride to be was still in her wedding dress.
May Jung-Lee and Amanda Carlin were seated together in the same aisle as Geoffrey and his family.
The present. 2107 AD. An apartment in the Kingdom of Winthrom.
“Phoenix Day isn’t just a holiday. It’s a day we remember the Earth. That’s why your dad calls me every Phoenix Day, to talk about our old home and what we left behind.” said Geoffrey. Andrew understood the significance of the holiday now.
“What about space ships? Could we return to Earth that way, one day?” asked Andrew, looking up at the stars outside his window.
“Maybe, but first we’d have to understand where we actually are in relation to the Earth. Astronomers are still figuring that one out. Even Nova doesn’t know.” said Geoffrey, smiling. He liked the mystery of just how far away from the origin they were, the fact that the stars themselves were unrecognisable felt profound, somehow.
“What was it like when you first came here?” asked Andrew.
“Life was hard at first, people did their best to stick together after Phoenix Day but the divisions from Earth came with us. We were so divided by WERP that even after May and WERP became Nova, the rift couldn’t be healed.” said Geoffrey.
“Everyone who took Nova’s side and wanted to use AI was exiled from the mainland and forbidden from returning for a long time. Those people, including my friend Amanda, became The Union.” Geoffrey explained.
“So why don’t we live there? Your friends are all in The Union? Why do we live in the Kingdom? Or Los Zaar where they have the other cool AI?” asked Andrew, referring to the smaller isolated copies of WERP that were used by the free peoples.
“I didn’t want to be responsible for any more destruction. It’s interesting you mention Los Zaar though. Before it was called Los Zaar, that was actually where I lived. Our old commune became an important place in the Los Zaar culture, being Alazaar’s former home.” said Geoffrey.
“Do you hate AI? Is that why we live here?” asked Andrew, feeling like he hadn’t been given a clean answer.
“No, I don’t hate AI, or technology. I still believe in the benefits it created. It’s just that for me personally, whenever I interacted with Nova in The Union, all I could remember was my mistakes and the young woman I’d failed.” Geoffrey says as he gets up, hoping to release some of the tension in his body from discussing all of this.
“Alazaar Escaara was a hero to every one of the free people, they named themselves after him, Los Zaar. For them it was a celebration, but for me even that name was a constant reminder of how I’d let down my friends. When your dad, Alan got sick and nearly died when we lived at sea, that sealed the deal for me and your grandma.” Geoffrey explained.
“So I joined the one group who was as far away from AI as possible, but could still provide a decent life for my family.” Geoffrey finished, as he walks up to the teapot and spots they’ve finished it together, he smiles.
“I’m glad you chose the kingdom. I like it here, all my friends are here.” said Andrew.
The grand dad looks at his sick grandson covered in red spots on his skin, feeling riddled with guilt that he wouldn’t be sick if they lived in the Union and could use the AI driven medical printer, but pushes it down and smiles at the boy and says “Me too”, then turns off the light and tells the boy goodnight.
Geoffrey closes the door and turns around to find Grace, in the hallway waiting for him.
“Did you get him to drink the tea?” she asks.
“Yes” Geoffrey says.
“Ever since we opened the restaurant he’s refused anything sweet and just stays silent while watching screens. Everyone is beginning to think he’s a weird kid, or might even be gay.” she jokes.
“That’s odd, he seemed like an ordinary kid to me and we actually spoke quite a bit.” Geoffrey said.
“That’s wonderful” Grace says, smiling. She was worried grandpa Geoff was getting a bit lonely since he was widowed.
A few days pass, and Andrew’s chickenpox clears up, he is completely healthy again. The young boy and and Geoffrey were getting ready to go out to the parents restaurant. They had eaten food from there all the time, but never dined in so grandpa suggested they go.
Geoffrey pulls out the parcel that had just been dropped off at the door that morning and pulls out a letter attached to the front.
“By decree of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth III, Every child shall be safe, healthy and comfortable in a cold winter. We grant this household the attached children’s snowsuit/s. For fitting, please contact the tailors listed on the back or get in touch to replace…” Geoffrey read aloud.
Geoffrey pulls the suit out of the parcel and wonders how they knew what size Andrew needed, but then noticed it was mostly a onesie that would fit anyone around his height.
Geoffrey hands Andrew the snow suit to put on. Andrew hops in through the big zipper in the middle and slides his arms and legs into it.
“It feels weird… I can’t put my arms down cause of the puffiness under my arms.” said Andrew.
Geoffrey looks at the boy awkwardly getting used to the outfit and smiles. He then remembers something and pulls out a Project Humanity badge from his pocket, that Kate had given him years ago, and sticks it on the velcro.
“That makes it a space suit now, officially.” Geoffrey says.
“Cool!” Andrew says and smiles as his grandpa zips it up.
The pair head outside the apartment complex and stop at the doors.
Andrew is astonished at the sight. The entire apartment complex was covered in a foot of snow and a small amount was freshly falling.
Geoffrey walks forward to a pile of snow by the footpath, rolls up a snowball and throws it his grandson. Andrew looks at him surprised and amused.
Geoffrey does the same thing again. Andrew quickly realises this is a game and scrambles to make his own snow ball and throw it back at his grandpa.
They throw the snow at each other for a few minutes while laughing before carrying on to the tram station.
As they walk down the footpath, they see kids sliding down a snow covered hill.
“What are they doing?” Andrew asks.
“They’re sledding.” Geoffrey says and laughs. Andrew had never heard that word before.
“Can we do that?” asks Andrew.
“Yeah sure. But we’ll go on the way back, we don’t want to get your butt dirty before we visit the restaurant.” Geoffrey says.
On the electric tram heading to the train station. The two are watching the view outside as it transits from the neighbourhood where they lived into central district of Arcadia.
“Can we visit The Union and meet Nova?” Andrew asks, thinking of other adventures he could go on with grandpa.
Geoffrey pushes down his feelings, looks at his grandson and then looks out the window. For a second, he mistakes the glare of the light for May’s face, smiling at him on the day they met.
“One day.” he says and smiles, hoping not to commit to being the one who goes on that particular journey.
Geoffrey and Andrew then exit the tram, cross the busy pedestrian sidewalk together and then visit the parents restaurant at the train station. The place is packed with people at the take away window, but one of the tables in the back is free so Geoffrey and Andrew sit down.
The parents are a bit put out to see them both here. Alan looks over to his son sitting with his father, smiles and walks over to greet them.
“You’re looking a lot better!” Alan says to Andrew, hand on the boys shoulder.
“Can we trouble you for some Earl Grey tea?” asked Geoffrey, looking at Alan.
“Sure, teapot for one coming up.” Alan says. Andrew pokes his grandpa, indicating he wants one too.
As Alan is already walking away, Geoffrey yells “Make that two!”. Alan looks back, realises his son had developed a new liking, and smiled.
Walking to the kitchen in the back, Alan drops off a plastic tub full of dirty dishes from the dining room and Grace dutifully begins to load the dishwasher.
“We are so busy. Did they have to come today? When we have the special on?” said Grace.
“It’s just great to see them both outside, talking to people.” Alan said, looking at his son and father through the small window into the dining room.
“You’re right.” she says, and stops for a moment to hug her husband before carrying on.
Alan walks up to the kettle, fills it up and presses the switch to begin boiling.
