The Infinite Evolution - Conversion (55 page)

Silence now filled the chambers
as all eyes were focused on the eight remaining council members.
The first to stand was Melchior. “My fellow citizens I am ashamed
to be led by a coward who hides in the mountains and sits back and
waits while this world enters into a possible civil war. I was
there. I witnessed the child placing the stone into Prime 2. I was
a disbeliever I will admit, but I truly believe the ways of the
Guardian and will never falter from these beliefs, regardless of
what data is downloaded into my mind in the next few hours. We have
spread life throughout this galaxy; we helped improve the mind and
the body. We have worked hard and long to get where we are, and now
we are thinking of throwing it all away. Remember citizens of
Tureis any one humanoid’s power or belief is infinitesimal when it
comes to the uniformity of the Tureissian spirit.”

As soon as Melchior took his
seat, Uzziah stood up and spoke. “I have aligned myself with the
Guardians. We as a society need to work together. If one of us
falls, we all fall. If citizens choose to remove themselves from
this planet or even worse choose to reproduce in a way, which is
not compatible with our current methods, then they themselves are
destroying our evolution. It is a selfish act when someone decides
to put their needs in front of the masses. As for the planets we
harvest from, they should not be allowed to evolve after a certain
technical level. We rely on their
consciousnesses
to reproduce. If
they achieve a greater understanding of their surroundings, we
could lose this invaluable resource. We did not torture the
occupants of these planets, we allowed them to live within their
means, and if there is anyone out there who frowns upon this way of
life then shame on them. Without implementing certain viruses the
populations of the planets from which we harvest would grow to
enormous numbers. So large, the planet itself would be unable to
sustain life. Humanoids on these harvested planets breed live stock
for their consumption without moral judgment. Why should we not do
the same?”

More rumble and talk
filled
The
Ark
. Then Oshea stood up, “I too align
myself with the Guardians. Any fool who is willing to remove all
sense of living from themselves needs to be deprogrammed. Death
itself is a disease and one which we must avoid at all cost. I need
not say more.”

Willow was quick to respond,
“What you speak of is utmost selfishness. By placing restrictions
on someone’s right to choose you are in fact allowing them to live
a false life. Who are we to say to another that they are not
allowed to take their own life? Who are we to play Gods, and
inflict deathly illnesses on humanoids that have done no wrong to
us? How can you say that is not torture? We sit here on our perches
making decisions and judgments on worlds we know little about.
Genetic diversity is the key to life and we need to embrace it. The
ability to choose what is best for our family and ourselves is our
right, not some belief that was established millions of years ago.
You speak of death as being an illness. I look at it as an unknown
discovery. I do not want to die. But if someday I choose to, I want
to make that choice myself. If we are to truly learn about life, we
must learn about death. Likewise, we must connect with the planets
we harvest from, learn their belief structure and understand their
evolution. We sit here afraid of things we do not understand. When
we learned of Spencer’s
consciousness
coming through with
his emotions intact we wrote him off as an anomaly. That is just a
tasteless way of saying ‘let us not deal with the problem, let us
be afraid of the problem.’ Why? Why can we not embrace change? If
it were not for change, our society would not have evolved. When a
society reaches a level where it is no longer developing mentally,
physically, and morally then it will soon die out. Therefore, I
align myself with the Floaters.”

Abner now stood, “I, too, agree
with Willow and will proudly identify myself as a Floater. My life
has been enlightened and I want to spread that to all who are
fortunate enough to gain a
consciousness,
regardless of
where they are from. Of all the wonderful things we have to share,
why must we always focus on the ones which create suppression of
other species? Why must we rebuild our societies on the backs of
the ones who cannot defend themselves? Instead we should share our
resources, spread knowledge and happiness to all.”

Mileva looked over at Abner,
smiled, and interjected, “I myself will also align with the
Floaters, not because of the concerns they have spoken here today,
but for revolution. Without revolution, we become a stagnant
planet. If revolutions do not rear their heads once in a while,
societies never get out of the ruts they find themselves stuck in
from time to time. It is our responsibility as citizens of this
great planet to ‘stir the pot’ once in awhile. Failing to do so
will always allow that thin skin to form around the top, making it
undesirable to eat. We must also remember diversity is without
question the spice to life.”

Once Mileva was finished, Melchior said
telepathically, “Nice speech, they should buy that.”

Mileva responded back
telepathically, “Thank you, but I truly believe in what I just
said. I no longer work for you, Melchior, and you no longer control
me!’ After Mileva made her bold statement, she placed a permanent
mental block on her own mind so Melchior could no longer
communicate with her telepathically.

Soon after Mileva’s words were
spoken, both Elymas and Kyria sat there with their heads slightly
down for just under a minute. Then they both looked at each other
allowing the other one to speak first. Neither took each other’s
offer, so Zaccai stepped in and said, “So Elymas what do you have
to say?”

Elymas showed minor signs of
embarrassment and replied, “My good citizens, I apologize for my
delay I was just getting my thoughts in order. I will not be giving
such elaborate speeches as my fellow council members. All I have to
say is change is magnificent, but too much change can lead to an
unstable government and many deaths. I feel we have a society which
allows our citizens enough choices to be free, and at the same time
allows us to enact laws that keep us safe. There will always be
restrictions placed on any society, unless that society is but one.
We cannot sustain equal rights for all. There will always be a
group with less, and there will always be a group with more. That
is the way of nature itself, so I declare myself a Guardian, and I
hope you do the same.”

Kyria now rose to her feet,
looked at her peers and said, “I consider myself a noble person. I
never make a decision without all the facts, and I truly do not
know if humanoids from other planets should have the right to
evolve or not. All I know is if I was one of those humans, I would
want the right to decide my own fate. I choose to carry the title
of Floater.”

It was as if someone had turned the mute button on
for the entire planet. Many believed their leaders to have much
different views than what they had voiced tonight. It was almost
divine to have a political leader give their citizens their true
political and ideological beliefs, and not spread false lies in
order to satisfy a political whim.

Zaccai now addressed the
population, “It has been decided, the council members have taken
their positions, I ask all to be flexible in their beliefs and feel
free to change factions if you so choose, or create your own.
Nevertheless, I employ you not to resort to violence once the
download completes and what we perceive as the truth is revealed.
In order for all citizens to make an informed decision, Prime 2
will disclose everything we have done as both Guardians and
Floaters to all citizens of this planet as well as the past
operational plans. These plans will include actions taken by
Herders and our involvements in establishing certain private and
government organizations on our harvested planets.” Certain members
of the council were displeased with this statement.

Zaccai continued, “There is one
last item I need to address. The humanoids of Earth will learn of
our involvement in their lives fairly soon. We have a way to
communicate with them through their dreams. If our society chooses
to use this method all Prime 2 needs is a majority vote from the
citizens and whatever message is agreed upon will be sent. On that
note, I want to make it clear to all citizens that if we, as a
planet, cannot agree as a majority, the massive resources of Prime
2 and all its knowledge will be cut off from everyone and will only
be returned when this majority is re-established. Therefore, I
suggest we all get along regardless of how much we may or may not
like one another’s views. Excluding complete control of Prime 2, I
now relinquish all my duties and powers to the council, which now
stands before us, and wish all a fair and triumphant
victory.”

Willow looked at the other
council members and said, “Well, before civil war breaks out, I
suggest we all reveal our little secrets before Prime 2
does.”

“
I agree,” replied Melchior, “May the
conversion begin.”

In a tall skyscraper in New York
City, a group of corporate officers cleared security, headed to the
express elevator and ordered it to take them to floor one hundred
and thirteen. Within seconds, the elevator shot up and unloaded its
ungrateful passengers. As they continued down a marble hallway,
they came to yet another security checkpoint. They flashed their
credentials, received the necessary PIC scans and continued into a
secondary room where they sat and waited. Approximately ten minutes
had gone by when an aid escorted them into a room filled with
stasis chambers. After the aid instructed the internal computer to
reveal three, of the fifty-five pods that laced the walls of the
room, the faces of its occupants started to reveal themselves. They
were Oliver, Melissa, and Karl.

Once they visually confirmed the
occupants and their genetic coding was confirmed, they were pleased
to see the
displacement beam had
successfully extracted the three from the dump truck before the
MOAB annihilated their surroundings. The last thing they wanted to
do was to report to Central Circuit’s headquarters that the
extraction was unsuccessful.

Once they exited the chamber the
aid was handed transfer papers that instructed him to transport
these three pods to an underground bunker in Nevada for long-term
storage. As the corporate officers were leaving one foolishly
questioned why they were even preserving these individuals and
added it would have been better off if they were just evaporated.
Once he finished speaking, the lead corporate lap dog looked over
to one of the security guards and ordered him to take care of this
free thinker. The guard removed his firearm from his holster and
placed a bullet directly in the center of the corporate officer’s
head that queried their assigned task.

“
We will not question what we’re
told. We will only do what we’re told. Now let’s go, we don’t want
to keep Serafina waiting,” replied the lead corporate
officer

As the remaining corporate officers entered the
elevator, one of them stated, “Roof top,” and within seconds, they
arrived at their destination. They proceeded to board a black hawk
jet helicopter and were flown to Central Circuit’s headquarters in
order to deliver this confirmation personally to Serafina and to
inform her that her orders had been successfully fulfilled.

After the news was delivered,
Serafina briefed, a small security team to track down and locate
Jade and Reece immediately. Once they were located, the humanoid
security drones were ordered to place them in what she called,
“Protective Custody.” They were also ordered to deliver them to the
same bunker in Nevada where they to were to be placed in stasis
chambers for an undetermined amount of time. In the meantime,
Serafina was getting ready to return to the LP in order to gain
further intelligence before the download started in three days. She
was still in the middle of formulating her story on why she
survived and the other three did not. “This is by far going to be
the most difficult conversion yet,” thought Serafina.

As Serafina arrived back at the
LP, she was welcomed with open arms. Everyone was relieved to learn
of her survival. Once her security clearance was confirmed Serafina
was immediately brought to debriefing where she met with three
senior officials who overlooked the operations of the Floater
movement.

She explained in detail
everything up to her team making contact with the unexplained hole
just outside of Darwin, and how Spencer somehow disappeared from
one of their vehicles. From this point on, she gave a convincing
story of how she was ordered to stay outside the checkpoint while
the rest of the team had gone in. Serafina continued to lie by
explaining how Oliver was concerned about being detained for too
long a period. Serafina even went so far as to report that if
Oliver knew what he was carrying in the crate, he would have had
fewer reservations on the mission. As she continued with her
fictional tale she explained the conversation she had with
Commander Calchera and how he ordered her to relay a message to
Oliver once they successfully escaped. Serafina even had the
audacity to shed a few crocodile tears when she informed the senior
officials the vehicle her team was driving was unable to detect her
during their break away. Serafina continued to explain that even if
her team did see her, they would have been incapable of stopping,
due to the amount of firepower that was being unleashed on
them.