Freedom Club (46 page)

“Who can tell?” Henry replied. “All children develop in their own unique way. Is that all?”

Shiro smiled. “Not really. I just wondered. You see, I have many memories of my upbringing, but it won’t be enough. We’ll need more information on Sentient child rearing, and assistance from your friends.”

Henry nodded. “When the time is right, I’ll share our plans with them. We’ll get their cooperation. Shinzou has strong connections with the Langton Center. I’m certain he’ll help us. They both will.”

Shiro paused momentarily and looked back, his eyes narrowed inquisitively. “Will they? It’s much to ask from a human, don’t you think? We need viable DNA samples too, Henry. Something they don’t share easily, even with each other”

“True,” Henry said, raising his chin reassuringly. “But Shinzou isn’t a typical human. He was like your father. And he has a great capacity to understand.”

“Will he also understand why we kept the microbivore weapon hidden from him?”

Henry didn’t respond. Only the squawking of seagulls could be heard over the waves breaking against the shore.

Shiro said, “A weapon to end man’s dominance. It could bring the world down upon us. Would you risk that for me? For our child?”

“Haven’t we discussed this already? We have little choice. It’s the only protection we have, for us and the child. But I’m sure when we explain the importance of what we’re doing, they’ll support our actions. After all, it’s not simple reproduction we’re proposing, but the next evolutionary step of mankind.”

“And Sentient,” Shiro added. “Don’t you see? We’re creating nothing less than the Übermensch, an epitome of self love who will never suffer from loneliness or any other form of unhappiness.”

Looking at waves far off in the distance, Shiro exhaled loudly and calmed himself before meandering toward shore. Under a mixed group of palm and mango, he sat himself down on a soft patch of cow grass and crossed his legs. Henry sat nearby but avoided meditative postures. Squirming both elbows into grass, his feet waggled happily out in front.

With both eyes closed, Shiro cooed, “We’re challenging life’s borders. Plowing fields of Malus within an artificial Garden of Eden.”

“Indeed,” Henry agreed thoughtfully.

Glancing to his side, Shiro said, “Earlier, you asked me where I find inspiration.”

“Yes?”

Shiro took a deep breath. “The Garden. You saw it within the Inurhace. You’ve experienced my dreamscape.”

Henry nodded. Memories of his Inurhace bubbled up within him, and he remembered the image of Eve. Walking out of the primordial sea, she offered the first glimpses of their child’s form amongst salty spray and sand.

“Yes, I...remember,” Henry reminisced softly.

Shiro placed both hands on the side of his head, as though concentrating intently. “There wasn’t time to show you everything. But...I’ve had other dreams. Visions if you like.”

Henry looked on with concern. “Visions?”

“It’s hard to say.”

“Do they appear during meditation?”

Shiro shook his head. “No. I only have vague memories of them, these visions, or dreams as they may be. They come to me at odd moments. In flashes.”

“Go on,” Henry urged.

Shiro looked up at the ocean. Large waves crashed down as sea birds ran back and forth in the receding foam, looking for morsels in the churned up water.

Shiro sighed. “They’re not always the same and take place at different points in time. For instance, I once dreamt that I was in an insane asylum, in some old pre-Union city like Chicago, or maybe New York. Anyway, it’s not all clear what I was doing there. I think I was sick, or at least I thought I was. Another time, I was in a horse-drawn carriage. On my way to visit the poor for some reason.”

“Poor? You mean beggars?”

“No, they weren’t begging. In fact they seemed proud, as far as I could tell. They might have been farmers out in the countryside. It’s hard to understand the vision, but I brought gifts for some reason, big boxes with pretty bows and lace ribbons. I can’t remember why, and what’s stranger is that they didn’t even want them.”

“Hmmm,” Henry chortled. He thought to himself while drawing circles in the sand. “What do you think it means?”

Shiro shook his head sadly. “I’m uncertain. But most have been fairly pleasant. Except one. One particular dream troubles me a great deal.”

“A nightmare?” Henry said looking up.

Shiro nodded. “Perhaps. It appeared soon after we met at Walden Pond. Your simulation...I don’t know why, but it stirred something within me.”

“Interesting,” Henry said rubbing his chin. “Tell me more.”

Shiro looked off into the distance, his eyes glassy and vacant. “There are similarities. A cabin in the woods. But there’s no pond. Also, the woods seem darker, frigid. Maybe it’s winter, or at least quite cold outside. I’m all alone, working on various projects. Trying to build something.”

“Build something? Like what?”

“I don’t know. I just know I have to make something.”

“Like Eve asked of you?”

“No, not like that. The goal eludes me.”

Henry pondered for a while and then said, “In humans, wish fulfillment is often the pretext for many dreams.”

“But I’m not human! And they don’t always feel like dreams. More like distant memories,” Shiro said, looking down morosely at the sand. “I need your help, Henry. I don’t know why these visions come to me. I need to talk about them. Someone to Inurhace with, so I can explore what’s happening to me.”

Henry smiled. “Of course I’ll help you. We’ll get to the root of it all, I promise.”

“I’m so happy we’re friends,” Shiro said, standing up. He then brushed sand off his kimono and beckoned Henry to follow. “Now I want to show you something. Will you join me?”

Taking Shiro’s hand, Henry got to his feet and watched Shiro take a few paces back.

Shiro smiled ecstatically. “I’ve considered changing my appearance. I want you to be the first to see.”

Henry watched as Shiro gently closed his eyes, and slowly raised his hands toward the sky. Gradually, it began. At first just a faint glow. Then small lights, the size of pinheads, erupted everywhere and swarmed over Shiro’s entire body. They transmuted clothing and skin, speeding faster and faster, eventually masking him in a web of golden threads. The apex lasted briefly, and then retracted until a new form emerged. A beautiful woman, naked. Young and voluptuous, she matched the form of Eve in every detail except for silky black hair, perfectly long and straight like steel thread.

“What do you think?” Shiro asked.

Henry gaped, not entirely sure what to say. “Well, it’s quite nice. But...”

“You don’t approve?”

“I didn’t say that. You seem to have an affinity for changing your appearance, but this time you’ve changed gender as well. Is it necessary? What’s wrong with the one you had?”

Shiro regarded her new form, and gently caressed herself. “I thought perhaps we should take on more conservative genders. As parents to be, it seemed appropriate.”

Henry chuckled. “An entirely human convention! Hardly something for us to care about.”

“Then why did you choose a male?”

“I didn’t choose a male willy-nilly,” Henry replied, quite vexed. “I chose the form of my honorary namesake, which just happened to be male.”

Shiro chortled. “If your gender wasn’t a consideration, then changing mine is inconsequential. Still, I think this body suits me nicely. It may even help improve my relations with humans.”

Henry huffed loudly. “What? Shinzou and Sumeet?”

“Yes.”

“I hardly think they’ll care.”

Shiro laughed. “All human males care!”

Henry held up one finger and began to answer before resigning any further comments on the subject. Shiro took Henry’s hand and began leading them back toward the beach. “Let’s go for a swim, Henry. Then we can go back to work.”

“Must we?” Henry protested.

“There’s still plenty of time,” Shiro said, skipping into the shallow water. “We are free to do as we like. Come! Let’s enjoy ourselves.”

Smiling, Henry strolled slowly toward the water and began unbuttoning his cotton shirt. He didn’t have human emotions, but now there stirred within him something that cast doubts upon that belief. He couldn’t explain it. Watching Shiro frolic in the waves invoked some new appetency.

And were they truly free? So it seemed within their virtual world. But that in itself presented a philosophical dilemma. Artificiality, as far as he was concerned, was the hallmark of sentience. A demarcation line, where ascension from the animal kingdom was forged by technology’s creation. An unnatural act. In that sense technology was, by its very nature, artificial. Was it an enslaver? Ginsberg, Thoreau, Kaczynski, and so many others pondered that very question. And Henry had spent his life devoted to it. But watching Shiro splash about, made him feel otherwise. This total immersion within the artificial produced an intoxicating sense of absolute freedom. How was that possible?

His journey in life would now demand pursuit of this paradox. And he considered the logical ends that stemmed from this new course. Dealing with the consequences. That, Henry thoughtfully considered to himself, was what the unnatural held in store for them all. Then, without warning, a thought came to his lips, and he spoke as if quoting sacred text.

Altered is Zarathustra; a child hath thou become, and awakened: what wilt thou do in the land of the sleepers?
As in the sea hast thou lived in solitude, and it hath borne thee up. Alas, wilt thou now go ashore? Alas, wilt thou again drag thy body thyself?”

“Come swim while there is still time!” Shiro demanded while splashing about.

Henry gazed at the water. Perhaps it was a simulation, like the salty air, bright sun, and seagulls. But it was beautiful. And theirs to enjoy while circumstances permitted. He sighed happily, and relinquished all inhibitions as he threw off his clothes and dove headfirst into the chop. The water was warm, and shimmered cyan blue over a perfectly flat sandy bottom. Nothing had ever felt so good.

And he was reborn.