Tales


"Video"

(working title)



  This is a post-apocalyptic story, though not like the ones you usually see.  The entire world is not a desert wasteland, plus this story has some slightly religious overtones.  When I was younger, I heard one theory that in the Second Coming, all those bound for heaven would die, while all the rest were left to remain living in the veritable hell on Earth.  It's interesting, at the very least.  This story is somewhat based on that.

  In the Second Coming, the planet was ravaged by fire and destruction, leaving behind only those unworthy of heaven.  Many of those people with evil in their hearts decided to change their ways and strive to become good, while others did not change.  Over the years, people started to re-establish a standard in the use of computer technology, having salvaged what they could of hardware and information in books.  In the desert area of the U.S., the vegetation had much trouble growing back, since there was little there to begin with, and the vegetation in the rest of the world managed to grow back only half as much, if that.  The desert area of the U.S.. was suffering from a lack of oxygen, so, after about a century, or so, the people there eventually build an enormous machine, the size of a five story building, which served the sole purpose of producing oxygen on a grand scale.  They called this machine The Lung.

  Over the latter half of that century, people also made advances in genetics, though it was only those who were still evil who were involved in this.  They were successful in creating a human clone, but found that human clones were without souls, so they had no free will.  They quickly decided this was not a bad thing, so they created "gelf's.  Genetically Engineered Life Forms.  Due to the limits of their resources, they decided to produce short human-like creatures, who were nominally strong and agile, but produce them in large numbers.  It was better to go for quantity instead of quality, because the less advanced gelfs were easier to program, and were far less likely to malfunction, pardon the computer jargon.  These gelfs were created to serve as an army, and could be produced repeatedly in large numbers.

  One particular man decided to devote his entire life to wisdom.  He spent decades seeking wisdom, and found much of it.  Due to his lifestyle, he aged at a reduced rate.  The life span of the body is limited only by how it is treated.  Many people came to him to learn.  In his wisdom, he recognized the existence of Seers.  These were good people with hidden mental abilities.  Some could sense people's emotions, some could see people's immediate future.  He realized that he, himself, was a Seer, but his ability was only to recognize other Seers.  Of those who were Seers, their potential was greatest as children.  Since no one was aware of this before his awareness of them, none of them ever came to realize their hidden powers.  When he recognized a child as a Seer, he would tell the parent, and the parent would usually allow the child to learn from him.  He did not find many Seers.  Over the span of another 20 or so years, he found only 8 or so Seers.  But one day, he happened across a very young blind orphan girl (most Seers were female) in whom he sensed a great and unique potential.  Having no parents, he took her as his own and taught her.

  Computer technology had reached a very impressive height, and good people first started suffering the attacks of the gelf armies.  Until now, the people of evil had been little more than an occasional aggravation.  They largely kept to themselves, learning and advancing, occasionally raiding a village to steal something they need, or just for fun.  The Lung was built by all, when the line between the good and bad people was more fuzzy, but now, they wanted control over it and everything else.  Eventually, a large compound was built as the base for good.  A veritable stronghold community where the scientists built and advanced, where the armies for good gathered and planned defenses.  Over the years, the side of good was largely successful in staving off the evil assaults, and sometimes at great cost, but eventually evil was finally able to efficiently create gelfs that looked like normal humans, and were even successfully programmed to mimic free will.  These gelfs passed entirely for humans, except that they still had no souls, but no one could tell.  Except for one person.

  The orphan Seer turned out to have a quite remarkable ability.  Though she was blind, it was found that if she "looked" into someone's eyes, she could see into their very soul.  At age 13, she happened to bump into a gelf who was in the village as a spy.  She thought he was a normal person until she "looked" in his eyes and saw absolutely nothing.  She ran back to her teacher and told he about this.  This was the first time the side of good found out about the new gelfs, and this put a whole new spin on the war.  The man and the Seer moved into the compound to help the side of good.  The man was quite old as it was, and because he now was unable to maintain quite the same level of peaceful mentality, his age started catching up with him.  All of the good people in general knew this man was invaluable, and they could not bear to have him die, so the scientists spent a few years developing a way to keep him alive and useful.  It took some convincing, but for the greater good, he allowed himself to become part of a machine.  They connected him, mind and body, to a huge machine that was later integrated into the entire compound.  Technology kept his body alive, and his mind was expanded exponentially.  Adding advanced technological intelligence with his already advanced wisdom, he became the central adviser for all things.  He would from then on be known as Psyber.

  In her early 20's the Seer had learned much more about her powers and how to use and control them, but at the cost of all her hair.  She was completely bald (and still attractive), but if she "looked" into your eyes deeply enough, she could see all of your past lives; everything you ever were.  One member of the army was a man of incredible skill and character.  When the seer was still new to the compound, she had met this man, and they had become friends.  Years later, she "looked" into his soul, and was able to see that in all of his lives he had been a great "warrior" for good in onc sense or another, even if it had nothing to do with traditional battle.  Eventually, a new gelf slipped into the compound before being cleared by the Seer, and this gelf's sole mission was to assassinate this warrior, and it succeeded.  As the warrior lay severely injured, the Seer ran to him.  Saddened by this, the loss of her dear friend and their most value warrior, she looked once again deeply into his soul.  The scientist had been toying with time travel, and in a desperate attempt to keep the fight for good strong, she sought out one of his past lives that, in the grander scheme of things, would be best served by bringing it to their time to fight with them.

  That's when Baran comes into play.  Now, due to the warrior's soul starting to leave his body, the Seer did not see all things in complete clarity.  She thought that the past life best brought to their time was going to be Duncan Nicholas, who actually was a warrior in Scotland.  The time machine was designed to send a wrist piece back in time to a point where the target would find it, and hopefully would manage to get it to work right to bring them back.  Well, since such accuracy could not be accomplished with technology alone, the Seer was hooked up to the navigation system of the time machine, and directed it by going on the mental plane and thinking about when would be the best incarnation to retrieve, but this was different from the one she thought it was.  Instead of getting a Scottish warrior, they got what initially seems like some shmo from the late 20th century.  He turns out to be the best choice, because he doesn't accomplish anything great until later in his life, but he still has that great character buried in him.  Though he's never handled a sword before, he will be taught.  Perhaps a bit slow to learn at first, the Seer will help him by trying out something new with her ability.  She will not only "look" into his soul and all his lives, but she will also be able to allow him to see them for himself.  This will inspire in him the confidence he needs to succeed.  Also, a romantic involvement between him and the Seer will build.  There's also a cute and petite female scientist named Pixel.  Baran will be playfully flirtatious with her, because she's a little shy about that kind of stuff, and he likes to see her blush, but he will eventually be helping her to muster the courage to pursue someone she has her eye on.

  When everything is done, and the evil has been thwarted, then they will agree to let him bring back a recorded memory of the whole adventure.  He would get a video recorded from his memory, and they had a heck of a time finding a video cassette tape from the 20th century.  They also are able to convert his words thought into words printed, and this whole story is supposed to be that transcript.

  Well, that's the general idea.  Naturally, there would be some tweaking, and I would most likely change Baran's name.  Plus other details would be added.  Anyway, here's as much of the story as I did get written.











     "So, what are we going to do?  I'm totally bored."  He rolled his head on the back of the couch and looked at me.

     We were both practically laying on the couch in my living room, and that's all we were doing.  I quite agreed with him.  "I don't know," I said lazily.

     "Did you buy any new movies that we can watch?"

     "No," I said, but then I remembered one video I had that he hadn't seen.  A few seconds later, "Well, I do have one tape you haven't seen."

     "What is it?"

     "Just a little something.  Fairly interesting I'd say."  I pushed off the couch.

     "Who cares.  I'm sure it's better than nothing," he said as I walked over to my video library, by the television.  I reached behind the rows of movies and grabbed the tape I had hidden there.  I popped it in the VCR, turned on the big-screen tv, went back to the couch and plopped down.  As I picked up the remote from the end table beside me, he said, "Is this really any good?"

     I pointed the remote and pushed the PLAY button.  "Just watch.  You'll find out."

     He rolled his head to face the television and said indifferently, "Okay," and we both stared at the screen.  First it was all black, then the words printed across the screen in white, then the picture came on.



-------------------------------------------------------------



AUDIO-VISUAL NEURAL TRANSMISSION: ACTIVE

RECORDING



     "Hey, cool.  Look at that.  Everything I'm looking at is on the screen.  Kind of like camera eyes, huh?"

     "Yes.  As you say, 'kind of like camera eyes."

     "Shut up, Reg.  It records everything you see and hear, and in just a minute it will record your thoughts.  You will be in total control of what is seen on the tape."

     "If you can control it."

     "Reg, you may leave now.  I can continue without you."

     "I must again protest to this.  It is too risky sending him back with a visual recording of recent events.  It could alter the entire-"

     "Reg, I don't know why you're so opposed to this.  If the people from his time are as ignorant as you insist they are then they'll think it's just a movie, right?  So shut up and get out.  Sorry about that, Duncan Nicholas."

     "No big deal.  And please, Pixle, I told you my name's not Duncan Nicholas.  You don't like me calling you Pixie."

     "I'm sorry... Baran."

     " Even though you're as cute as a pixie."

     "Dun... I mean Baran, please.  I told you that embarrasses me."

     "But I just love to see you smile and blush."

     "Okay, when I connect the mental feed you will feel a little light headed for a couple of seconds then everything will be fine."

     "What if Reg is right and I can't control it?"

     "He's just being condescending.  With the concentration program attached you'll have no problem at all.  Just start wherever in your memory that you want, and it will almost do all the work for you.  The only thing is that since you want it in manuscript form as well, you'll have to mentally narrate."

     "Won't the narration be on the video as well?"

     "No.  I've taken care of that.  Just a matter of a slight change in the program.  Are you ready?"

     "I guess so."



MENTAL TRANSMISSION: ACTIVE

RECORDING

PRINTING



     Whoa.  Ooh.  Okay,  where to start.  Um... okay, let's see, it was a Saturday in April.  I don't remember the date; I rarely do.  Anyway, I was walking into the living room, after having taken a shower and gotten dressed, when I saw a strange device on the couch.  I was about the size of the tv remote control that it sat by; about seven inches long, was made of metal and wire, it was in five connected segments, the middle of which had a small screen and a button blinking yellow.  Printed in yellow across the little screen was the word READY.  I didn't know what it was, but I suspected it might have been some doodad a pal of mine left by accident that morning.  See, I don't wake up until after noon, and I let my pals come and go as they please; they like to invade my video library when they don't have anything better to do, so I just gave them each a copy of my house key and said "Hey, whenever."  I trust them as long as they don't trash the place while I sleep.

     Like I said, I didn't know what it was, but I was curious.  I held the middle segment in the palm of my hand and pushed the button.  As soon as I do that, I jumped as the ends quickly folded tightly around my hand, and the entire screen went blank then flashed green.  Well, I thought it flashed, but it actually just turned green.  You might say I'm the the one that flashed; one instant I'm standing in my living room, and the next I'm someplace that definitely was not my living room.  I was outside somewhere and it was dark. There was rubble everywhere like the ruins of a building, and I heard shouting to my left.  I looked toward the shouting and there people with swords running out from behind a wall into an open area, and the four that stayed were firing crossbows of metal over the top of the wall.  I was behind these people and they did not see me until one who had fired turned around to reload his crossbow.  He looked at me shocked, then at the device on my hand, then at me again and said, "Duncan Nicholas?  You've arrived."

     I was speechless as the guy ran to me from about ten feet away.  He was pale skinned and dressed in a black, skin tight, full body outfit with various strips of black cloth wrapped and tied around his body and each individual appendage, and wore an empty quiver on his back.   He stopped and reached for the device, raised it and my hand, pressed the button, and the device went from solid green to black.  It released its mechanical grip and the man tucked it into one of the strips of cloth wrapped around his waist.  He then looked at me, smiled and said, "It actually worked.  You're actually here."  He reached around my left side and grabbed a katana from a large concrete block that I hadn't noticed was behind me.  He put the sword in my right hand and said, "Your sword."  He looked at me and continued.  "It survived the centuries, and we found it.  In your hands again to lead us in your descendants place."  He lifted his crossbow, took a metal arrow from the frame, and started reloading it saying, "It's only a troop of gelfs.  We should be done in about fifteen minutes.  When we're done here, then we can go back, and you can talk to Psyber."

     He didn't notice that I was just standing there with my mouth hanging open, not knowing anything about what he just said.  I was just getting over the fact that I was no longer in my living room.  I managed a moronic, "Huh?"

     The man looked up at me and finally noticed my state of confusion.  "What's wrong, Duncan?"

     "My name's not Duncan," I said.

     "What?"

     "My names Baran.  Not Duncan."

     He started getting a little upset, "What do you mean?  Psyber's never wrong."

     One of the three at the wall shouted to the man without turning around, "What's the hold up, Taylor?  Come on."

     "Right with you," he returned.  He looked back at me, put the fingers of his right hand in his hair, blew out a breath and said, "Well, Psyber knows what he's doing."  He took the hand out of his hair and pointed to the ground to the left of the block behind me saying, "Just stay there until this is over."  He turned and as he jogged back to the wall, I heard a faint, "Dammit."

     I sat as he said and took that time to look around a bit.  It was dark as I said, but there were no stars and no moon, so I could only assume that it was a cloudy night.  Over the stone rubble and far in the distance, I saw about a dozen or so lights as if the light of a highrise.  I peeked over the low, broken wall I was leaning against to see more rubble and more broken wall; obviously the ruins of some buildings, and I could hear the sounds of battle.  I gripped the handle of the sword tighter and looked around the corner of the concrete block into the open area.  After a while, my eyes adjusted enough to make out people fighting unusual shaped figures.  They were the same people that had ran out from behind the wall, and it appeared as though they were drastically outnumbered by the short stocky figures, but the figures were rather slow compared to the people who seemed to get rid of them with little difficulty.  I guessed that the short and stocky figures were what that guy Taylor had called gelfs.

     After a while, things got quiet, and the four at the wall stood and began gathering the arrows they had strewn out beside themselves.  After Taylor gathered his remaining arrows in his quiver, he walked over to me.  I stood as he approached, and I asked, "What's going on here?"

     He took the sword out of my hand and slid it in another couple of strips of cloth wrapped around his waist, and said, "I thought I knew, but if you're not Duncan Nicholas, then I have no idea.  I guess we'll find out when we get back to Psyber."



Tales