Wake Me In The Future (12 page)

A man had fallen over on the sidewalk, and all around him, screaming, overwrought and confused people were in the throws of panic. He’d been knocked over in the crush and was holding his arms up as a shield against a group of the small alien ships that sped in his direction.

As he looked up at the sky a shadow crossed his face and he closed his eyes expecting the inevitable. He kept his eyes shut tight but instead of the bright flash that he thought would end his life he heard explosions all around him. He slowly opened one eye as if frightened at what he might see.
Was he not going to be killed; instead captured and taken away to be experimented on?

To his surprise the alien spaceships were being hit by something travelling at incredible speed. It was difficult to make out what it was, but the orange, white and green streaks must have been some secret weapon the government had come up with, and it was working, because the small spaceships were exploding!

The man and his fellow Americans had stopped their panic now, fascinated by what was unfolding before them.
At last
, the man thought,
the Cavalry had arrived, thank God
; he knew the US government was bound to have something up its sleeve.

He sat up and began to smile and then fell back as the crowd around him also jumped backwards, out of the way of something that had fallen from the sky.
Oh no,
he thought,
this is it
. But the thing that had landed beside him wasn’t one of the alien ships; it was a large Indian man in a green jumpsuit, smiling and looking down at him. The Indian accent did nothing to mask the perfect polite English words as he grasped the man’s elbow to help him up.

‘We’re here to help you, you’ve nothing to fear anymore,’ he looked up to the sky, and before the American could thank him, or even ask who he was, he took a jump and just as quickly as he arrived, joined his fellow countrymen as the American watched on incredulously. The Indian man flew at incredible speed, like a kamikaze pilot into a disorientated spaceship and exploded.

The American joined the rest of the crowd that surrounded him when they realised what was happening, jumping for joy, cheering, whooping and punching the air in support of these people who were sacrificing their life’s to protect them.

I became aware that this was happening all over the globe, as I saw similar scenes played out over all of Earth’s major cities.

From the explosions that occurred when the members of this Indian army made contact they must have been wired with explosives that I'd never encountered. And it wasn’t long before the threat on the ground was gone, and what was left of this swarm of heroes, flew away, presumably to join another fight somewhere else.

I was then aware of where that somewhere else was, because I was suddenly floating back in Earth orbit and the building sized spaceships were beginning to be attacked by the flying Indians. The large ships were too slow at manoeuvring and the tide of brave people pouring into space reminded me of a swarm of bees on the attack. The sheer volume of explosions began to overwhelm the alien ships and they began to break up under this human bombardment. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

When it had finished, what was left of this army turned as one and flew back to Earth, in the direction of the continent that had birthed them.
What a spectacular scene,
I thought, before the familiar feeling of being drawn back to reality drew me into consciousness.

When I came out of my trance I looked up at my friends. ‘That was amazing – what an unbelievable sacrifice to make for the rest of humanity. But this has confused me even more now. How did that affect the make up of the human race? If most of the Indian population sacrificed themselves as human bombs, how did they make up such a large percentage of the survivors?’

‘Well that’s because you didn’t see the entire story Richard,’ Jennifer said, ‘by the time that scene was played out most of the human race had already been killed by the invaders.’

‘And,’ she continued, ‘those human bombs as you called them weren’t human. What you were looking at was the first versions of the artificial bodies designed for human habitation. India had secretly developed them as a result of their paranoia over possible threats from China. And as you saw, they were many magnitudes more advanced than the cyber-suits we had in our time.’ Jennifer said, referring to the all over body suits that were the common way of people in the 21
^st
century to enter  cyberspace; the virtual reality successor of 20
^th
century television.

‘The Indian leaders had hoped to convince their people to accept the security the artificial bodies would bring them, firstly to use as a robot army against any aggressive act from their mighty neighbour, and then, in the long run, in an effort to secure the continued existence of their race, as an alternative to their own biological bodies.’

‘How did they manage to hide so many?’

‘They were developed in vast underground hangers that the general population knew nothing about, and to where the Indian government moved its population when the threat from space became apparent. They allowed their central computer system to take control of the artificial bodies and move them to the surface where they were left alone by the invaders, who only considered them artefacts of the dominant species. It was a decisive moment in the survival of the human race.

‘But why did they leave it so long before helping the rest of the world?’

‘Their leaders assumed other countries also had secret weapons so only took action to protect their own interests. But the invasion finally shattered Earth’s homocentric notion of the universe and brought all of its nations together, including, and some say too late, the Indian nation. But even so, it was only the overwhelming outcry from the majority of their own population that forced their government to take the action you’ve just seen.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much of the Earth’s population left to save apart from their own. The rest of the world’s populace had been decimated, down to just a few tens of millions. And that’s why from then on the majority of earth was re-populated from the Indian continent.’

‘That’s such a shame really;’ I said ‘we must have lost so much from all those other cultures. But at least it was the Indian race that survived; I can’t think of many other cultures I’d want to trust with the future of the human race.’
Except the French,
the Francophile in me thought.

‘I know what you mean,’ said Earl, ‘but we do have the Indian race to thank for the creation of the multi society system, including Open Society. Their ideas of a decent and respectful social order, and willingness not to impose ways of living on anyone, but accommodate the diversity of human lifestyles, helped shape what we have today. It created the basis of the social model that began to stabilise the human race.’

‘A little too late’ I said. They all nodded.

‘And don’t forget the Indians invented these fabulous new bodies,’ said Jennifer doing her best to lighten the mood by twirling around as if showing off a new dress.

It did lighten the mood and I looked around as if taking in the whole of this new world and said thoughtfully, ‘you know, Helen will think she’s gone to Heaven. This is nothing like we expected, but better than anything we could have ever imagined.’

The others looked at each other when I mentioned Helen’s name and placing her hands across mine, Jennifer said in a more serious tone, ‘Don’t get your hopes up too high Richard. Remember what Ramoon said. Most Cryogens aren’t viable, something to do with the ice crystals forming in their cells. People like us, who were preserved using later techniques, have a better chance.’

‘I can’t give up till I know for sure!’ I almost snapped, but took a deep breath as if reprimanding myself for this near outburst of frustration.

‘In that case,’ said Simon in an attempt to ease the building tension, ‘I suggest we leave it for today and come back tomorrow to get your other senses turned on. You’ve got a nice surprise coming.’ he said smiling at me.

I wanted to say I’d had enough surprises to last me several lifetimes but instead, as I began to follow them to the exit, I muttered to no one in particular, and not very enthusiastically, ‘I can’t wait.’

Chapter 15
– Turning me on

‘So let me get this right,’ I said, as the four of us walked back to the library the following day, ‘I am going to be remotely hooked up to the central Information System so I can access its information?’

Earl nodded as we approached the entrance to the library.

‘Its like Wi-Fi,’ I said heartily, ‘I am a walking Internet machine.’ My mood had noticeably improved since the previous day, and my joviality seemed to be welcomed by my relieved companions.

‘It’s the main way the system learns what your preferences are,’ said Simon ‘otherwise it wouldn’t be able to manage society in the way it does. The link allows it to know if you’re being enticed or cajoled into doing something you don’t really want to do. For example if a group of friends tried to encourage you to visit a casino to gamble but you didn’t really want to, then the system would know, and you wouldn’t be allowed entry. It wouldn’t matter how much you wanted to please your friends.’

‘But that type of peer pressure doesn’t exist anymore thank goodness,’ Jennifer added, ‘because most people accept you for what you are, whatever your dislikes or minor phobias, it makes you….well, you.’

‘So what if I didn’t agree with gambling but still wanted to try it to see if it really was as bad as I thought?’

‘Well that would be possible,’ Earl said, ‘but you’d have to access the system and arrange to experience it on your own at a future date, and with an allocated companion to gauge your reactions. You can also override the system in extreme cases if you actually want to feel uncomfortable, and surprisingly enough, there are quite a few people that exercise their right to do that. In fact, there is a society of exactly that type of people.’

‘I can see that its one way of ensuring no-one finds themselves in an uncomfortable environment but it does seem like a lot of trouble.’

‘Like the trouble of a whole race annihilating itself you mean?’ said Jennifer.

‘Errm…yes,’ was my acknowledgment of her reference to humanity’s failed attempt at survival. ‘When you put it like that I suppose no trouble is too much.’

We continued down the corridor in silence, each of us contemplating our own particular feelings about the fate of the Race, until Simon broke the spell by looking over at me and saying, ‘Anyway, we’re meeting with the administrator who looks after this particular section of the library. We jokingly call her the librarian but I doubt if she’s got any duties we’d recognise as fitting that description. Ankit has already arranged for her to turn all your senses on, so we shouldn’t have to wait.’

‘And don’t worry,’ Earl added, ‘the system can’t read your mind unless you initiate a link, and even if you do, no human has access to the information. The system only detects your feelings and ensures you avoid any unnecessary situations. It’s a pity we didn’t develop something quite as sophisticated as this before the eventual collapse of the race. One simple thing, it seems, could have saved us.’

‘One of the things I find most fascinating about these new senses,’ interrupted Simon, ‘is the way they can help people connect with each other. It’s incredible, if you’re looking for a particular type of person you can initiate a constant scan of your immediate area and it matches you up with people in your vicinity who have similar tastes, interests....and,’ he said with a wink, ‘even comparable libidos.’

‘A sight better than my failed attempts at Internet dating I can tell you,’ Said Jennifer, ‘I’ll never forget that ‘
Sixty nine year old public speaker’
that I got hooked up with, after it converted my ad into Chinese!’

We all laughed.

As we continued to walk down the impressively long corridor, Jennifer, who had to walk faster to keep up with the rest of us said, ‘you’re going to find it great fun accessing all the information Richard, its really impressive. All you have to do is just concentrate on what you want to know and pretty soon you’ll have an answer. It kind of appears in your head; sometimes as a visual or sometimes as a thought. It’s strange, but…..you just know.’

We arrived at what I guessed was the reception area because a bulky looking red seat with large indented arm rests along its side, stood like some kind of beacon in the otherwise empty corridor. A panel of controls sat embedded in the cabinet next to it and another, not so impressive grey chair stood in front of that. As we approached, an attractive official looking Caucasian woman appeared out of a room on our left and said in a business like manner, ‘mister Green, please take a seat and place your arms firmly down into the armrests.’

She settled her own elegant frame into the other seat close to the controls, carefully smoothing her black skirt under her slim legs and looking at me over the glasses that were perched on her prominent nose. Then she suddenly said, ‘that’s it mister Green.’

That’s it!
I thought. I’d been so engrossed at wondering why on earth she needed glasses that I’d not noticed anything happen. Honestly, these people were so obsessed with humanity’s past that it was verging on the manic. I mean glasses! She must have better eyesight than anyone had ever done in my time.

Dismissing me and turning to my friends she added, ‘perhaps you’d better start with something simple, like person location. It’ll work easier if the subject is someone he’s familiar with, for example his contact at the Cryogen lab?’ she offered.

‘Thank you,’ said Jennifer pulling me away, ‘come on Richard.’

When I joined the rest of them in one of the study rooms I was convinced that nothing had actually happened. I didn’t feel any different at all.

‘Right Richard, sit down here and we’ll give it a go to see if everything’s working as it should.’