The War of the Artilect: Chapter 11

Elder Lane was not at all pleased to see Adrian Garza. The leader of the Vault started screaming at him before he had even managed to get out of his pod. “How dare you snatch me out of my world! Who do you think you are, anyway? What gives you the right to disturb me?”

“My apologies,” Adrian replied. “I would never have dared to do such a thing but unfortunately circumstances required it. Sir, we have been contacted by a civilization from outside the Tau Ceti system.”

“That’s impossible!” Lane replied irritably. “You’re wasting my time. There are no civilizations outside Tau Ceti and there haven’t been for thousands of years. The swarms left no survivors.”

“There is one now,” Adrian said quietly. “In fact, they took me to one of their planets – a place they called Tonina. The claim to control millions of worlds and they plan to make war against the swarms. They believe they can defeat them.”

“What do you mean, they took you? Are you telling me they’ve been here, on Xanthe?”

“That is correct. In fact, they have made several trips to this system.”

“But that’s impossible! You’re out of your mind. We’re guarded by a Wall, remember? No one can penetrate it – nobody!”

“They can,” Adrian replied. “In fact, the Wall was not a barrier to them at all. Their science is thousands of years more advanced than our own. They can manipulate the physical world as easily as we can manipulate our synthetic worlds.”

Lane gasped. “That’s preposterous! Why – that’s nothing but a lot of nonsense. In fact, I’ll prove it to you!” He angrily walked over to the control panel by his pod and began pressing buttons. “I’ll get to the bottom of this! You don’t know what you’re talking about, you – whoever you are. Just wait and see.”

Minutes ticked by. Adrian stood a few feet away from him and watched as he worked at the console. Elder Lane’s anger gradually turned into surprise, and then concern. When he was done he had a look of intense worry on his face.

“What has been going on?” he asked, as he turned back to face Adrian. “Our generator is down – the Wall isn’t up anymore! In its place is another Wall that we are not generating. What happened?”

Adrian carefully explained his contact with the Sentinel and his trip to Tonina. Elder Lane had many questions, most of which Adrian could not answer. By the time Adrian finished Lane was in a state of pure panic.

“I don’t understand! I don’t understand it at all. Where could these people have come from? How could such a large civilization have gone unnoticed for such a long time? How could this have happened? Who is responsible for this?”

“They are very old,” Adrian said. “The man I talked to said he was born in the 18th century.”

“That’s impossible! But it must be true. It must be! Didn’t you say that they possessed Gifts? But the Gifts were just myths – and yet, they have them! I don’t understand. Something has happened. Something important has changed.”

“They are willing to meet with you,” Adrian said. “They would like to know what we think of their plan to destroy the swarms.”

“They can’t do it,” Lane said. “It’s not possible! No one can defeat the swarms.”

“They claim to have have defeated them before,” Adrian replied. “As I said, the man I talked to told me that the swarms had attacked them but their leader had defeated them. They now want to wipe them out entirely. In fact, the reason they want to talk with you is to find out what you know about the swarms.”

“They must not meet me!” Lane gasped. “No, that is quite impossible. You – you will be our go-between. Who are you, anyway?”

“Adrian Garza,” he replied.

Lane shook his head. “Whatever. You will talk to them for us, Adrian. That will be your job.”

“What should I tell them?”

“I – I don’t know yet. I don’t know. Nothing like this has ever happened before. I will have to consult with the rest of the council.”

Adrian nodded. “Do you want me to wait until you return?”

“Yes – yes, you do that,” Lane replied. He began climbing back into his pod. “I’ll come back when the council has made a decision. Just – tell the aliens to wait.”

The elder was soon back inside his pod, which closed over him. A minute later he was back in his synthetic world, leaving Adrian Garza alone.

Elder Lane will know what to do, Adrian thought. He will be able to save us.

* * * * * 

It took several hours for Elder Lane to get in touch with the other two members of the council. The citizens of the Vaults rarely communicated with each other, preferring to live in the privacy of their own synthetic worlds. While there was a mechanism that allowed them to communicate, it was rarely used, and that made it very difficult to get someone’s attention. As frustrating as it was to reach them from inside the pods, Lane did not dare wake them up. He was terrified that if they met in the physical world the aliens might have some way to overhear them. This is safer, he thought to himself. So very much safer.

After much argument the three men agreed to meet on a neutral synthetic world. This angered Lane, but he understood. Each person had their own synthetic world and within that world they had absolute power to do as they wished. No one wanted to enter someone else’s world because then they would be at a disadvantage. However, if they met in a neutral location then no one would have an edge – or any special powers over the environment. It irked Lane a great deal but he knew that he would never be able to get the others to agree to anything else.

The meeting was not for a few more minutes so Lane decided to wait in his own world – not wishing to spend any more time than absolutely necessary outside of his domain. Lane was standing on the roof of his palace, which was located at the peak of a tall, barren mountain. Overhead was a vast red sky, filled with dark clouds. Thunder rumbled ominously. Lane had proclaimed himself king of this world and gave himself a physique to match: he was a giant, thirty feet tall and immensely strong, and he towered over the local synthetic population.

As he stood on the edge of the roof he could look out and see the sprawling city that occupied the valley below. Most of the natives lived in crude bamboo huts, but he had placed taskmasters over them and forced them to build giant steel monuments to his glory. The city was dotted with immense statues of himself, which he forced the population to revere. Those who did not were swiftly punished by bolts of lightning that Lane pulled down from the sky. Since he controlled his synthetic world it took only a single thought for him to manipulate it, a fact that he had come to take for granted. He took great pleasure in punishing his slaves, and the roof of his palace was littered with their skulls. The previous night he had thrown a party and forced many synthetics to come. When he grew tired of them he simply set them all on fire, and laughed as they burned. Somehow he never grew tired of that sight – and since his world was full of synthetics he never ran out of citizens to torment.

At the designated time he left his palace rooftop and transported himself to the neutral setting that the computer had generated. He was not surprised to see that he was the first one there. The meeting place was little more than a void. Below his feet was a flat piece of concrete, measuring a hundred feet on a side. There was no walls, floor, or ceiling. Aside from the concrete floor beneath him there was nothing at all but darkness in all directions. There aren’t even any chairs, Adrian thought irritably.

He waited for a few minutes but no one showed up. A half-hour later he was about to give up and leave when the other two members of the council finally materialized. To the left was Horace Grant. He appeared to be a tall, thin man with bright red hair and was wearing a white suit. To his right was Van Toby. He had taken on the form of a bodybuilder, and was every bit as tall as Grant – but instead of being thin he was quite burly. Van Toby had black hair and sharp green eyes.

“Where have you been?” Lane demanded. “You were supposed to be here a half-hour ago!”

“Patience, patience,” Van Toby replied. “You always were an impatient one, you know. It’s a wonder you were ever appointed Elder! You just don’t have the patience to wait for the finer things of life.”

“Patience!” Lane screamed. “This is no time for patience. You don’t have any idea what’s been going on! We are in the gravest of danger and all you can talk about is wasting time!”

“But we do know what is going on,” Grant replied. “You see, we have spent the past hour or so talking to Adrian Garza. It was quite an illuminating conversation, too! He had some intriguing information to share.”

“You talked with him?” Lane asked in surprise.

“Of course we did,” Van Toby said smoothly. “What did you expect – that we would simply take your word for it? Oh no, no no no. We know you far too well for that. You have a reputation, you know.”

“Indeed,” Grant affirmed. “You claimed that our way of life was in great jeopardy and that aliens from the outside were threatening to destroy us all. So, naturally, we decided to check your sources. A claim like that requires confirmation.”

“You fools!” Lane screamed. “You could have ruined everything! What if the aliens had been there? They have someone who has the gift of discernment! Do you know what will happen to us if they find out the truth about the swarms?”

“They will never find out,” Van Toby replied. “Adrian told us that they don’t know where they came from. Adrian doesn’t know either, so as long as they talk only to him then the secret is safe.”

“There is no cause for alarm,” Grant said. “I am surprised you are concerned. All we have to do is contact the swarms and have them go to war against these intruders. The swarms will take care of the rest.”

“They have never failed before,” Van Toby agreed. “They will not fail us now.”

“But they’ve already had contact with the swarms,” Lane replied. “They’re not afraid of them! The swarms tried to attack them and–”

“Lies,” Van Toby said dismissively. “All lies. The swarms cannot be defeated! You know that as well as I do. You surprise me, Lane. I cannot believe that you have actually fallen for their propaganda. You are clearly growing senile! These aliens are not some mighty civilization with godlike science; they’re simply a dying colony that got overlooked. The swarms will have no problems in wiping them out.”

“No problems at all,” Grant agreed.

Lane shook his head. “The two of you are dead wrong. Don’t you realize that these people were able to penetrate our Wall? No colony ever figured out how to do that! In fact, even we don’t know how to do that!”

Van Toby shook his head. “That was just a technical problem. Our equipment was old and poorly maintained. That problem is easily fixed.”

“Trust us,” Grant said. “After all, it has always worked before. The whole reason we created the swarms was to eliminate the realists – those who did not appreciate the transcendent beauty of our synthetic worlds. They were a threat and so we removed them. The synthetic world triumphed over the physical world back then, and it will do so again now. This will not be a problem.”

“Very well,” Lane said reluctantly. “I will instruct the swarms to go to war against these aliens. But what if they fail?”

“They will not fail,” Van Toby assured him. “You worry too much, you know. The ascendancy of the purely physical is over. These aliens are simply the last gasp of a failed idea.”