From: "David Hearne" Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 14:36:11 -0500 Subject: xfc: The World Is Behind You (1 of 1) Source: xfc TITLE: THE WORLD IS BEHIND YOU (1 of 1) AUTHOR: DAVID HEARNE CLASSIFICATION: Post-ep for "Kill Switch" RATING: PG-13 ARCHIVING: Can go anywhere without my permission Send feedback to ottercrk@sover.net Website is located at http://members.dencity.com/hearne QUIZ FOR THE READER -- Is the "New York Times" critic who called Gillian Anderson "big-boned" a) someone who has never seen Gillian Anderson, b) a drunkard, or c) a big mook? XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX The old woman was knitting when the men broke into her house. An active fireplace's rosy light shimmered on their slick body armor. Gray helmets were clamped onto their heads, and their eyes were covered with visors. The mirrored visors reflected the old woman sitting in her chair. She hadn't looked up when they invaded her living room. She paid no attention to the rifles in their arms. The cone-shaped points of the rifles were pointed at the hardwood floor, but the gloved hands around them were tight. The three men surrounded her rocking chair. She continued to knit a half-finished sweater. "Come with us," one of the guards ordered. "You have no ch..." The woman said, "Command -- itch." The lips below the visors spread apart to reveal grinding teeth. All three men dropped their rifles. They began to scratch at themselves, rolling on the floor and ripping off their armor. Long red welts popped up on their exposed skin. The needles clicked in the woman's hands as she explained what was happening. "I am permanently surrounded by a nanite field. These nanites are invisible to most forms of detection and capable of resisting almost all means to repulse them. I can command them to do many things, including the act of stripping flesh from bones." The three men wailed. Skin and blood gathered in clumps under their fingernails. "I won't have them kill you. You know why?" She received no understandable response. "Because I can't help but attribute good motives to people. Command -- stop." The men ceased their scratching. They looked at the old woman, breathing hard, pale with fear. "Now...just where do you want me to go?" XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX They left the countryside together. As she sat in the back seat of a smooth-rider, the old woman watched the scenery pass through her sight. Three miles of forest surrounded her house. A nanite-rich soil had grown thick trees in all directions. The kind of brilliantly-colored flowers usually seen in South America were blooming in this North American forest. Many of these flowers were poisonous, but there was also a wide variety of edible vegetation. The deer could feast on the long blades of grass and lap their tongues in fresh pond-water. There were more than enough nuts to feed the squirrels and plenty of insects for the birds. Even the beasts with larger needs -- bears and one cougar -- ate well in the old woman's forest. Many of these animals watched the smooth-rider brush over the forest's single passable road. The old woman looked into their unblinking eyes as if to say, "I'm alright." The three men hadn't known that she had been warned by a fieldmouse of their coming. If she had so desired, the entire animal population would have converged upon them. When the forest ended, the smooth-rider entered a long strip of land where only weeds grew from the yellow-brown dirt. Very few animals lived in this plain, but a fair number of humans did. The old woman could see their tents erected alongside the cracked road. Faces aged beyond their owners' years watched the smooth-rider with eyes as thoughtless as those of the forest animals. They were selling old computer parts, discarded toys, wrinkled magazines, their children, themselves. The smooth-rider proceeded on the road until it reached a main highway. The traffic moved at a high pace here, whether the vehicle was one of the tube-shaped windcycles, a truck packed with frozen cattle embryos, or a Holy Transport ferrying worshippers of the Eternal Green Light. However, a smooth-rider could pass them all as easily as an ape swinging from vines. The old woman's ride eventually took an exit off the highway. It ran into slower, more congested traffic which could make even a smooth-rider wait. They had reached Coastal City. It had been a long time since the old woman had been to Coastal City -- or any city. This metropolis could overwhelm those used to the effects of a large population boxed together with steel and pavement. For a person who had been living with forest animals for several years, the initial experience should have been dizzying. The sights and sensations were many -- giant stone faces of corporation founders...delivery workers flapping their plastic wings overhead...the smell of a McDonald's hempburger...flukemen taking a cigarette break on the sidewalk before continuing their work in the sewers...stereo hats speaking in zydeco-punk's frenetic rhythms or trance jazz's stretched chords...police officers with three-hundred-sixty-degree vision...veterans of the Turkish War begging from wheelchairs...department store windows displaying the latest 3-D promotional dramas...rave-mosques...walking garbage cans...erotic dream chambers on street corners...tourists in protective bubbles... socialites wearing coonskin caps...samuri street theater... The old woman's eyes should have widened. She should have trembled before the circus of Coastal City. Instead, she just watched. Calmly. With no change in expression. A clean cylinder of a building was the smooth-rider's destination. After it had parked in an underground garage, the three men stepped out of the vehicle. One of them held the door open for the old woman. She allowed the men to lead her to an elevator. She walked slowly, but with erect posture. The elevator ascended without noise and gave no sense of motion to the occupants. When the doors opened, the old woman saw blue walls. A few chairs and a couch occupied the space between the walls. Straight ahead was another door. She looked at the opposite door, then examined the faces of the three men. After getting the necessary information from their eyes, she stepped out of the elevator whose doors shut her from the sight of the three men. With the same careful yet dignified pace, she crossed the blue room. There was no knob on the door, so she just pressed her hand against it. The door swung back at the slightest pressure and stayed open until she walked through the doorway. Then it closed behind her. She found herself in a room holding a blur. The blur was spread across the large video screens dominating the three walls in front of her. It followed a clockwise path along the walls to disappear behind the black fourth wall. Thin lines of color comprised the blur -- all kinds of shade and tinge. They swerved around the old woman, resembling fast-motion photography of night traffic. She faced the blur. Her expression was still unchanged. Then she heard -- "Buenas noches, senorita." The old woman's expression finally changed and her silence dropped. Both her face and voice revealed shock. "Esther...?" "The one and only. How's it been? The old woman looked around her in vain hope of finding another physical presence. Then she reassumed a face of imperturbability. "So Mulder was right. You did download your consciousness into the computer network." "Yea, verily, I was re-born. I gained entry into the electric paradise." "And now you're immortal." Esther replied with silence at first, then said, "Uh...not exactly. That's why I asked you here, Agent...should I call you Agent Scully or just Scully?" "'Ma'am' would be nice." The electronic ghost laughed. "I don't think so. Technically, we're the same age, even though I sound like I haven't aged a day. What's more, I have a lot more clout than you have." "Enough clout to send some paid goons after me." "Hm. Yeah. Sorry about that. The people who work for me are a little too quick to call in Special Patrol." "And who does work for you?" "A lot of big shots. Government, finance, entertainment...you name it, I've got my non-existent fingers in it. If you want to get on the network...if you want to find some kind of information there...if you want to work out some heavy deal through digital-talk...chances are you will run into me." "Why?" "Because ever since I downloaded myself, I've been growing. I've stretched myself out byte by byte, system by system. This has been happening for the past four decades. The result is this -- I *am* the network now." Scully paused, then said, "Really?" "Well, not in its entirety. Say, sixty-two percent of it." "That's still quite a lot." "Ain't it though? You are now one of a select group aware of this fact. You're also the first person who is going to know my dirty little secret." "You're dying," Scully guessed, the streaks of light flashing against her impassive face. "Yes," Esther said quietly. "I'm dying. Entropy is inevitable, even in this phantom world. Energy degrades. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold, and that rough beast is slouching my way to take a bite out of my ass." "How much longer do you have?" "Well, the process of degradation has only just begun. I figure that I have another decade before I start forgetting things, eating jello, and wandering around in my slippers. After that, I'll have another decade before I'm pushing up silicon daisies." "What will happen to the network then?" "That's why I haven't told anybody else about this yet. When I die, I take my chunk of the network with me. That's a whole lot of stuff going down the drain -- checking accounts, library archives, commerical and personal websites, military information, on and on. There will be a big hole in the world when I leave. Literally." "Is it possible to extract this part of the network from your...self?" "Ah, now you see, that's why I haven't told any of the big shots about this yet. That's the first thing they're going to do. They'll want to save their own particular corner of the network. But that will be like cutting pieces of flesh out of a live human body. It will only speed up the process." "Are there any workable solutions to stopping the degradation?" "Post-poning it, yes, but you could never stop it. Like I said, death is not optional." "Still, you could buy yourself some time." "Oh, sure. I know the name of a few scientists who could help me out in this area. However, I'm going to need your help most of all." "Esther, my knowledge in this area is far exceeded by others." "I know that, lady. You may be bright enough to create that weird forest, but the scientists I'm talking about are real hard-core geniuses. There's nothing you could add to their efforts." "Then why am I here?" "To take my place." For the second time, Agent Scully looked surprised. It took her a few moments before she could say, "That's a joke, right?" "Uh-uh." "You want me...to become you?" "Someone has to carry the ball. This part of the network now requires a human consciousness. It's become necessary for its survival. The question is -- whose consciousness should it be? I pondered that question for a long time and then -- pow! -- the answer hit me in the head. It has to be former FBI agent Dana Katherine Scully." "What kind of logic lead you to that conclusion?" "Because I trust you." Scully tried to speak, but couldn't. "I can't trust the job to any of the powerful leaders I know. Even the best of them have a little shit on their shoes. I needed somebody with a genuine sense of responsibility and a real selflessness." "And I'm the only person in the world with that?" "No. But I was also looking for someone who has taken on heavy burdens before. And your burdens have been among the heaviest, haven't they?" Scully stared into the colorful blur, seemingly wishing to talk with a real face. "You also have the ability to comprehend just how important this is. You won't have any illusions about your job. And, finally...well, I kind of like you." The old woman nodded. "You don't have to make your decision now. Think about it. But I know you, Scully. You don't turn away from a responsibility..." "No. You don't know me." "Huh?" "I've taken on enough responsibilities for one lifetime. I've taken on the whole world. I do not feel obligated to do any more." "Scully, don't you understand what's at stake? The lives of people are inside here..." "The lives of people are out there." Scully pointed at the door. "They are more than just their bank accounts and their recorded files. If you die without getting a replacement, there will be a mess. I have no doubt about it. But people will survive this. They won't lose what's important." "What's that?" "Their memories. What they need will be kept safe in here." Scully tapped her forehead. "You may have forgotten that, Esther." "I haven't forgotten anything. I remember what's it like to be human..." "Then you'll remember we're not bits of information rubbing against each other in an electric ether. We're people who have to eventually look each other in the eye. Those are the interactions that count." "So says the woman who lives in the forest." "There is more to understand about life in my forest than in your world of digital shadows." The blur continued to race past the old woman, but Esther had become silent. Eventually, the electric ghost said, "Okay. Let me offer you a personal incentive, then." With an unafraid expression, Scully said, "Is this where I receive a threat?" "No," Esther said in contempt. "I don't do that sort of thing. Besides, I couldn't force you into downloading yourself anyway. You have to be a willing participant." "Then what's my incentive?" "He might return one day." Scully's head slowly dipped forward. "Don't tell me you've let go of that hope." "No," Scully whispered. "Who knows what might happen in the next few decades? He might come back looking as young as the day he was taken. Wouldn't you want to be around when that happens?" "In your form?" "Better than nothing." The old woman's chin now rested on her chest. She no longer had her proud bearing. "Come on, Scully. Give yourself a chance." Esther waited for a reply. She waited a whole minute. "I believe in God," Scully said. "What's that?" Scully lifted her pale, wrinkled head and repeated, "I believe in God." "Yeah," Esther said slowly. "I knew that. What of it?" "I believe that there is a place where we go after we die. I believe...he'll be waiting for me there. I believe that we will have an eternity to spend together." Scully paused, then said, "I can wait until then." "Ay, carumba," Esther muttered. "That's why I'm turning down your offer...as tempting as it might be." "So, in other words, I hauled your butt out of the forest for nothing." "I would say so. Yes." "Okay, okay," Esther sighed. "Go. Play with your animals and your rosary beads." The door opened. Scully turned and headed for the exit. "Just two questions, though..." Scully halted, but didn't turn back. "Yes?" "I left my flesh behind me. When I die, will I throw off my soul as well? Do I have an afterlife to go to?" "I could never answer that question. Only God could." "I thought so. Then try answering this...do you really believe everything you just told me or are you just a lazy old woman?" Scully looked over her shoulder. "Esther?" "Yes?" The old woman smiled and said, "Bite me." XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX