Zero and Other Fictions (20 page)

“But what I want to say is that all of these ideas are possible explanations derived from limited information. What's the truth, then? What are the origin and future of humanity? I will reveal this ancient mystery now.

“Long, long ago, when the earth was just a dull clod lying idly by, all sorts of strange animals crawled over its surface. It is clear that had it not been for outside interference, the animals would have maintained their original forms to this very day. Take, for example, the apes and lions in the forests of Africa. Despite the vastness of time or even the brilliant theory of the evolution of species, the apes would still be apes and the lions, lions thousands of years hence as they were thousands of years ago. The ants of today are identical to those of hundreds of thousands of years ago. If there was no outside interference, then why is it that one species of ape—man—evolved at an astonishing pace when all other species seem to have been fixed and not evolving? Well, what do I mean by outside interference?

“At one end of the universe is a planet on which lived a form of intelligent life. One day, tens of thousands of years ago, the planet dispatched a fleet of spaceships to cross the Milky Way on a mission. One spaceship, owing to mechanical difficulties or some other unknown reason, found itself lost on earth. When the aliens disembarked, they discovered that they had landed on a beautiful, though hopelessly primordial planet. Their ship was beyond repair, and the fleet had abandoned all hope of locating any survivors and was on its way home. Under these circumstances, the lost aliens had to think of something in this ridiculous place. Fortunately, the primordial planet produced countless species of animals and concealed rich mineral deposits. But the lucky survivors and their advanced instruments were not able to come up with a means of returning home to their highly industrialized civilization. What were they to do?

“After many discussions, a large, long-term and time-consuming, nearly perfect plan was decided upon. The first step in this plan was to start from the very beginning. They selected several species of apes and operated on these simple beasts surgically. Thus a controlled mutation occurred: a simple
Homo sapiens
prototype was implanted in the mind of a remote human ancestor. After that, the birth of the true human, able to reason, assess, engage in animal husbandry, and make tools followed. With environmental adaptations, man began to migrate and establish villages, and finally inhabited all parts of the world. In response to special regional conditions, unique cultures appeared. As populations increased, culture continued to develop until it reached a certain stage. Competitive behavior resulted from increasingly frequent contacts among populations and the overlapping of living environments. The early competition acted as a constructive stimulus. Perhaps the aliens intended to produce this stimulus in a surreptitious fashion by, for example, implanting certain suitable ideas in the subconscious of a few exceptional individuals.

“When the stimulus reached the point of explosion, war occurred. Although war brought disaster, reduction in population, and material destruction, it also indirectly achieved the goal of allowing the new to supersede the old. In order to reduce the destructiveness of war, the aliens then created the various faiths as well as idealism in the guise of religion. Naturally, this was through a number of famous wise people. These chosen earthlings came up with towering theories overnight. We can point to a number of ideas that changed the course of history as proof. The process of producing these ideas is mysterious and difficult to explain. The founders of many religions, for example, claim that their original ideas came to them in their dreams or through divine inspiration. Many important scientists have also explained that their discoveries happened unexpectedly, through a stroke of genius or a brainstorm. Therefore, on the heels of a major war, a leap in human civilization can take place. Time advances, and sometimes, in order to solve a problem or simply to check the record, the aliens have appeared at a certain point in a certain age. Contemporary witnesses often record in their histories, ‘the god visited' or ‘celestial phenomena occurred,' or ‘Apollo stood on the western horizon,' ‘amid thunder, God led Moses across the Red Sea' and the like. In recent times, with increased population and mobility, each unique culture reached maturity, the Greek, Egyptian, and Islamic, for example. Through the blending of these formed cultures and through cultural cross-fertilization, a living, moving modern civilization was produced.

“The aliens occupied a controlling position, but out of view behind the screen. They created regional conflicts and brought about the unification of many important factors such as blood lineage, language, religion, and custom. Then, selecting representative peoples or those with potential to develop, they helped them to achieve certain things culturally, such as the improvement in production preceding the industrial revolution, or relying on Bacon to help bring about the scientific revolution. The outbreak of the First World War helped to increase the speed of industrialization of several advanced countries. This was followed shortly by the Second World War, and the resultant losses and damage from the conflict, which dwarfed the first, were astonishing, but also allowed the second wave of industrialization to reach its peak. In the thirty or forty years after the war, scientific and technical developments surpassed all those from the previous history of humankind. But then a huge problem reared its head: when industrialization reaches a certain level, world wars will always end in common ruin. At the same time, population pressures, environmental degradation, and the breakdown of reason all served to propel us toward global Armageddon.

“At that time, in order to reduce the stimulus on man, the aliens stopped appearing and designed Nanning. We have reason to believe that Max Kristen was not an earthling. After Nanning began to play its given role, the earth at a given time lost 90 percent of its undesirable population and 80 percent of its second-class construction. Then came the final stage of industrialization, which was unlike the previous three stages in that it was better planned and more precisely controlled. Its goal was the establishment of a pure and highly mechanized civilization, in which machines would gradually replace human beings. According to reliable data, the world's population is declining annually. We have learned of some factory workers being eliminated. They suddenly and mysteriously vanished. Many technicians replaced by machines also disappeared, their whereabouts unknown. These are frightening circumstances. We believe that if people do not do something quickly, a day will come, and in the not too distant future, when the whole human race will disappear from the face of the earth. The only thing left will be a hightech factory controlled by aliens or machines that will be capable of producing the means of crossing the Milky Way. We believe that the aliens do not possess the ethics, character, or goodwill that they gave the people of the earth. As far as they are concerned, humanity is just an incubator to produce machines; we are nothing more than white rats in a lab. This is an age-old hoax—the meaning of human existence is nothing but a bad joke, and God's will is … just a pat on the backside when everything is accomplished.”

Du paused, his eyes fixed on the stunned Xi De. He slowly drained his glass and continued:

“We are in no way resigned to this fate. Although we are tools, we are in no way resigned to being used and then discarded—this is the existential imperative of the Defend the Earth Army.”

The room grew silent as the sound of Du's voice faded. They looked at each other, their eyes filled with sadness and hopelessness. After a while, Xi De could be heard flipping through the old documents. They were the investigative reports of the Defend the Earth Army research conducted over many years. Xi De's expression changed repeatedly under the light of the lamp.

Finally, the sound of turning pages ceased.

“I'm willing to join you,” said Xi De, pronouncing each word distinctly.

 

 

The following day, Xi De met the core members of the Defend the Earth Army in the same place. They came from different work units. One of them, who appeared to be from the opposite shore, had sneaked into the Administrative District.

In the presence of these comrades, Xi De took a simple yet solemn oath to the army. After this, Commander Du affixed a false and transparent fingernail to his hand.

“If captured, swallow this fingernail and you will be able to destroy all of your brain cells in a matter of a couple of seconds. This is the glorious martyrdom only the comrades of the core group are honored to possess,” said the commander. “Ordinary members of the army are normally not qualified to know our secrets. Most of them are young and can be roused as a group when needed.”

“Commander, what is my duty at present?”

“Your duty at present is to make a move when the time is right or to keep an eye out for disgruntled colleagues. It's not your responsibility to recruit them, because convincing others to join the Defend the Earth Army is difficult. All you need to do is report to us and we'll do the rest. We also feel that your posting to the industrial city is temporary and that there is a good chance you'll be recalled to Central City. This is very important, because the security measures in Central City are much tighter than here. We have lost a lot of comrades there.”

“Why is Central City more heavily defended?”

“The Third Industrial City is perhaps on their list to be eliminated,” said the commander. “The Steel District, for example, can be eliminated as steel is no longer needed—when all steel buildings have been built or when a new alloy is created that can render the labor-intensive steel industry obsolete.”

“I have one question that I'd like to ask the commander,” said Xi De. “Is the regional committee already controlled by aliens?”

“That's quite possible. Although we have not been able to infiltrate the highest levels, our observations suggest that not one member has made a public appearance in the last ten years and the images on television are in all likelihood always the same ones.”

“What about Chairman Mo Zhao?”

“I would hazard a guess that he was probably the first to be secretly replaced, because after the incident at the Central Train Station, I never again saw Liana or heard anything about her.”

22

One year later, Xi De of the Defend the Earth Army was recalled to Central City. When the head of the Bureau of Resource Analysis met his old subordinate, he took a close look at the face of the young man before him. It was uncommonly firm and mature, with two intelligent eyes. The chief sighed and said:

“Welcome back to the bureau. We're giving you Ge Shu's job.”

“What about Ge Shu?”

“We found out that he couldn't handle it.”

Xi De returned to his dorm. He moved around in the room that had been Ge Shu's. He thought of all that had happened that year and had a vague feeling that some mysterious force had compelled him to experience all these unusual things. He was now a member of the Defend the Earth Army, charged with the important mission of saving the entire human race. The chances of success were near zero, and the way ahead was paved with innumerable hidden dangers. From Du he had acquired an overall understanding of the structure of the new world, something only graduates of the Superior Academy who had received political training knew. But the more he understood, the weightier grew the state of affairs. The upper level of the new world was so tightly closed as to be impenetrable. The Supreme Committee that wielded ultimate power was headquartered in New York. Of the twenty committee members, half were standing members and half were holding concurrent posts as chairmen of the ten regional committees. Regional committees had a total of sixteen members, eight of whom were standing, eight of whom were holding concurrent posts as heads of the ministries of domestic affairs, resources, security, education, industry, agriculture, coordination, and scientific and technological development. The mid-level structure of each ministry was strictly hierarchical; the officials of each level, without exception, contacted their superiors through a computer network, and all administrative orders from the top were, without exception, distributed via computer. For example, the officials of the Ministry of Resources could ascertain via computer the actual situation of a meeting in any subordinate office or in any committee in, say, Resource Analysis. But the officials in Resource Analysis, for their part, did not have access to anything from higher up. They were under orders not to contact their superiors and other offices at the same level, because the use of information technology had replaced any sort of face-to-face contact. Therefore, it was impossible for any sort of class struggle to occur. If revolutionaries were to charge into an office, they would be confronted with an array of complicated and mysterious devices, none of which they would be able to operate. If they wanted to issue an order to occupy, they wouldn't know where to start. If they wanted to locate a high-level official, they wouldn't know who it was or where he lived. Even blowing up the entire section would be of no use because the high-level official would be safe at home and participating in an urgent televised conference from his living room, and via a wireless network would dispatch troops to suppress the revolutionaries. Therefore, in the new world, the definition of revolution was: the capturing of all organizations at the same time by similar numbers of professionals of roughly similar technical ability.

The next day, Xi De made a special trip to the academy to see the old professor, but the people there told him that Kang Zaoshi had died six months earlier. His belongings had all been sent to the incinerator and his ashes had been laid in the Building of Eternal Rest. Xi De made his way to the fifty-floor building, took the elevator to the twenty-third floor, and located the professor's name on a drawer mounted in the wall. He stood in silence for several minutes. He felt he was standing in front of a huge bookcase. Death momentarily became an immense joke, a senseless nightmare. Then he left the building without so much as a backward glance.