The Last Place to Stand (17 page)

The men had finished and there was silence for a moment before a low rumble began in the crowd as people whispered to each other trying to put all of this together. Finally, Joseph spoke up. “There are many possibilities in these things. It might be that these are all perspectives that the machine must work through. Like different areas of a person's life all going on simultaneously. But it could also be that all you received was a carefully constructed lie, meant to lead us astray from his real intent.”

Samuel paused for a moment and looked over at the city. “I do not think that would be it though, for some of these revelations would lead us to dangerous conclusions and I would not think he would purposely desire that. Or it could be that one of these motivations will rule over the others. But which one?”

“I do believe that his desire for companionship would be true whether these others go with it or not,” said A116. “I do not think there is reason to fear this thing. It is a logical creature but also has some of the traits that we hold in high esteem. It is not an enemy.”

“Yet, you ran from it,” said Samuel.

A leader from a different village stepped forward. He was shorter than Samuel, with dark hair and a look of dignity. “I propose that we send spies to the city to see what it is doing. Without more information it is difficult to know what to do. Will it remain there, or will it come to us? Do we have reason to fear or can we live in peace here?”

“That is an excellent idea,” said Joseph. “We will send spies. Who will go for us to spy out the industry and intent of this new thing that has been made?”

Silence for a few seconds: “I will go,” said the voice of Samuel. He was holding a little girl who suddenly had tears in her eyes. “I have done it before,” he said.

For the next few minutes he tried to soothe the girl as she seemed quite upset. A woman near them seemed also upset, but looked as if trying to hide the fact.

“But I just don't understand why,” she said to her husband. Samuel was in the other room consoling T-5529.

“Since we have come away from our previous life I have been growing to love you and your daughter more, but I also want to know what that thing is doing.” D1298, with his reddish brown hair and stern expression would be unmovable in this. She knew that. He had been a good husband, but she did not want to lose him to that thing in the city. If things went badly, she would lose not only her current husband but also her first, the real father of her daughter. That would be a difficult tragedy, difficult to overcome for her and her daughter.

“But what if something happens to you?” she said.

“I will be with Samuel,” said D1298. “From what I have heard, he has gone on dangerous missions many times.”

“I don't think anyone has gone on a mission like this,” she said.

“I will be careful. I will be safe,” he said in a gentle voice.

She thought it strange that her husband would want anything to do with her ex-husband. The idea was so odd. Wouldn't they hate each other? In some ways they were rivals, right?

“I don't think of him like you do,” he said. “I believe him to be a genuine man with integrity I can trust. I just want to get to know him. And I am a curious person. To find out about Samuel and about that thing over there. I want to know.”

“But why does it have to be you?” she said.

“Why not?” he said.

They could hear in the other room that their daughter must have calmed down. D1298 went in to see what happened. When he did, he saw that she had fallen asleep and he had set her on a pile of folded blankets on the floor. Those who hosted them let them use this room for their bedroom, and it was small, but cozy.

“Samuel,” D1298 said. “I want to go with you.”

Silence.

“Then I will ask you the question I have asked all of my men who joined me in the past: Why?”

“I was just thinking about that,” said D1298. “And my answer is curiosity.”

“What kind of curiosity?” Samuel said.

“I want to know about what's out there. Not just what it's doing, but why. I want to know it's motivation. I have always wanted to understand motives. Except this is more important.”

“Is that all?” said Samuel.

“No,” he said, “I also want to know your motivation.”

“That is easy,” said Samuel, “I seek danger. It's a thrill.”

“I—I don't think I believe you,” said D1298.

“Good,” said Samuel. “Then you read me pretty well. We set out tonight.”

Later that night D1298 said goodbye to his wife and child, and Samuel said his goodbyes as well. There were moments of awkwardness, but finally both launched out on their journey.

It would take them much of the night to get there, but in order for them to have the energy to do their job once there, Samuel suggested they stop and sleep for a few hours after covering a good bit of territory. The hike was difficult, but not for the terrain. They started out tired, and though there was a moon behind the clouds, they still had to weave between clumps of scrub brush.

They did not talk much, but that was due more to weariness than to a lack of subject matter or interest. Men, when they are with other men, seldom feel the need to talk. Silence is as much a shared experience as that of talk.

Eventually they came to a place where Samuel stopped. “I think we are about three-quarters of the way there. Let's rest for the night and then tomorrow we can go on.”

“Sounds good,” said D1298. He had wanted to stop for a while, but since Samuel was experienced, he chose to defer the decision to him.

They had brought some light blankets, and the air was not cold. They laid down each with a blanket beneath them and one over them. The pack itself served as a pillow. Yesterday's clouds had vanished, and the stars were out now with the moon. It was a beautiful night, but they did not look upon it long. Once their heads hit their packs, they lost consciousness: D1298 dreaming of his girls and Samuel dreaming of a home of his own.

These feelings, these thoughts, were both repulsive and intriguing to him. He felt deeply, but found that it sometimes interfered with logical thought. He considered isolating those thoughts and feelings that were most problematic and then confining them to a storage area where they would not be accessed regularly, only used when another perspective was needed. Maybe a special firewall would do. Perhaps he should delete these feelings altogether.

No, that would not really be the solution though. If he were to do that it would be as if he had taken a difficult math problem, say Fermat's Theorem, and cut out the parts that made it difficult. It was the difficulty that made the challenge real. Without the challenge, what was the use?

Another thought occurred to him. These sometimes volatile conflicts could be used to spur him on toward greater achievement. This thought excited him. Maybe he could use this to his advantage. He made a list of items that stemmed from feelings and thoughts he had held as a problem and chose those that he could act on to improve himself or his situation.

Now something else occurred to him. What if his goal should not be for self-actualization or comfort? What if he should have goals outside of himself? Perhaps to help others or the universe itself? Or maybe he could do all of these at once.

But if he was suffering, how could he improve the state of the universe? Then again, if the universe was in a state of collapse what was the use of feeling?

He had sat and pondered these mysteries for a millennium. But in actuality, it had been only about a day. Philosophers, religious figures, and psychologists have debated these ideas for thousands of years, but he had debated them for twenty-three hours, nine minutes and sixteen seconds. Yet he had made more progress than they ever had, for his processes were astronomically fast. His thoughts were higher than their thoughts. He could calculate pi to ten million places and sequence the human genome while playing a simulation of Bobby Fischer a game of chess in as much time as it takes for a human to feel pain when he bumps his head. But these questions were circular and there were no clear answers, only more questions.

He pondered these things until he was bored with them. Then he had an entirely new idea. What if he did something solely for the pleasure of doing it or to see if it could be done? But he had to ask himself a question: what did he enjoy?

And that is where the plan began. Not as an answer to all the questions, but as a concession, because most of the questions did not have logically discerned answers.

Samuel and D1298 awoke just as light was beginning to creep over the horizon. They both got up and ate what they had brought in their packs. They had some fruit along with a stew that D's wife had made the night before. Having done that, it was time to be off.

Even though they both could have slept more, they both felt good. Only after a few minutes, D1298 spoke up. “So why do you enjoy doing this sort of thing. It's risky, but I've heard you tend to take the more dangerous missions. Why?”

“I suppose if you don't understand,” said Samuel, “it's going to take more work explaining it to you than it’s worth. Let's put it this way, after I left—you know, your wife and my daughter, I became a desperate man. I believed I needed to leave because I could see our society killing itself, making people slaves of someone's idea of a manifest destiny. I was desperate because I could not find a reason to go on outside of that goal I had had for so many years. That's the good thing about having a goal, it gives you a reason to get up in the morning.”

“Once I had realized my problem, I decided I needed to make a new life goal. I would help save the remnants of humanity, those left who were starting to realize as I had realized. I found there was already a network of people in the city who were watching for those who might have doubts about their lives there with the hope of winning them over. But that remained secondary to their main job which was to send information about new developments back to the Waldenese. When I approached them I was more radical than they were about their side mission. I wanted to perform rescue missions for those who might get in trouble for their behavior, those that might be ready to come over.”

“I found that if I had a mission, I had a purpose and therefore a reason to wake up in the morning.” He turned to look at D1298 while they were walking. D1298 noticed this but kept looking forward. “You know,” said Samuel, “one of the most important gifts we get from God is the gift of purpose. I found that when I would perform a successful rescue I felt happier in the moment than I ever did on my own. I felt a part of something more important than I was. There aren't many addictions that are healthy, but that is one of them.”

“I knew there was a reason I wanted to come out here with you,” said D1298. “And I expected it would take days to find out what it was. Purpose. That's what I'm in need of. I like my family and am happy just to be alive, thanks to you. But I don't know my purpose.” He felt like Samuel was a father figure somehow to him in a way that he never had. The strange thing was that Samuel was probably only a few years older than he was. But he had experience that D1298 might never have. And he had purpose.

Samuel smiled, “I'm afraid I can't give you your overall purpose, but there is this: While we are on this mission, we both have a purpose and it's beyond ourselves. We are to find out what we can about our enemy and report back to the people. It's an important mission and might save us all if what we discover is not favorable.”

“Thanks,” said D1298.

“You're welcome,” said Samuel.

They walked for some distance in silence. Later, as they came out of a slight depression in the land to the top of a small hill, they saw the city and were surprised. Many of the newly abandoned buildings had already been torn down. As they watched, they saw a large demolition machine knocking another one down. That was at the side of the city they were planning to enter. Realizing the destruction was too heavy to proceed they decided to go around to another part of the city. This took some hours.

By the time they reached a place where they figured they could get into the city, the sun was far up in the sky, the sun much hotter. Here they saw a degree of activity they never imagined. There were construction robots creating a series of buildings that stretch on as far as they could see. A couple of them were already functional and out of them at regular intervals came new robots. These robots were not all of the same kind. Some looked like they were made for construction, but some looked as if they had other purposes. Samuel and D1298 stayed out of sight behind an older building that had not yet been torn down.

“Whoa!” said D1298. “I can't imagine how fast all those robots will be able to build if they continue.”

They wandered around the outskirts of the city for a couple more hours and then tried to go back in again. This time they saw a group of beings that looked almost human, except for their silver skin and yellow glowing eyes. Samuel and D1298 hid behind an unoccupied apartment building. After a few minutes of trying to see what these things were doing, Samuel said, “Let's go into the building. It is probably unused and then we can look out through the windows higher up.”

D1298 just nodded. They both crept in through the open door and climbed the stairs. Six floors up, they looked down again. They saw the men look-alikes more clearly below them. It appeared that they were exchanging ideas. It looked kind of like a meeting. In the middle of the group was a set of schematics for something. From where they were, they could not see what the plans were for. “There are still some bits of technology I have kept just for such occasions,” said Samuel. He reached into his bag and produced a set of electro-binoculars. “Hmmm,” he said. “I'm not sure what I'm looking at, it's over my head. Why don't you take a look?” He handed the electro-binoculars over to D1298.

D1298 took a look. “You've got to be kidding. I can't believe—how could they have—wow!”