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Joined: December 31, 1969, 08:00:00 PM
Location: Kaukauna, Wisconsin (USA)
"The Knowing" Challenge
By:
Dean Giles
The hum of the Integrator grew as my body slid into the encasement cubical, the sound echoing like a rasping hellhound.
I was securely strapped, lying on my back confined to the machine. Is there really any need for a blindfold?
The transition stage locked into place with a slight jolt and the humming died down, quickly replaced with a sloshing sound.
In the darkness my breathing was heavy and I fought hard to contain my panic. Will it discover my darkest secrets...? What if it hates me?
Could it kill me and take over my body, masquerading as me...? am I completely out of my mind?
Calm down, relax, you’re okay. It’ll be fine, just like the simulations.
The encasement fluid seeped through the guts of the Integrator, gurgling like a hungry predator. The solution must have a perfect balance or the Essence will die.
Silence. The silence was worse, triggering a primal fear. With no senses to anchor me to reality my mind created visions, visions of death.
Calm down Johnson, you know the drill... just relax.
The silence began to waver, replaced gradually by the sound of pressurised air. The hissing signified the first stage of transition where the Essence melded with the liquid. She was at her most vulnerable in gas form and couldn’t survive for long.
The temperature dropped and the Essence’s complex molecules began to slow as it condensed into a liquid - coalescence was imminent.
What if I’m too weak and can’t accommodate the symbiont...
Think positive! We have their guarantees, and think of the benefits - the knowledge of a thousand cultures.
I imagined the churning solution just inches from my face and the Essence preparing for our joining in her own mysterious way. I heard the distinctive clunk of the heater engage. The liquid was heated and rapidly turned back to gas, and she was released.
I breathed in deeply, like they told me to, and the gas quickly filled my lungs. I tried to ignore the harsh odour, like sulphur, it tasted poisonous.
Will my mother recognise me? Will she still consider me her son...?
Of course she will! They explained the relationship, it’s complementary – nothing is forced. You’re on top of this... all in a day’s work.
Rubbish! They’re just using us for our bodies – we’re just a tool to them...
Calm down and relax... remember why you agreed to this. It’s an opportunity. I am an ambassador, I am history!
Wait, listen.
Quietly at first a deep groaning at the edge of my hearing grew into something else, a voice, a chanting that lingered for a moment too long, like a thousand suppressed screams converging into a horrific symphony. It grew and grew until it consumed my world.
A feeling of agoraphobia overcame me. New emotions entered my mind, thoughts and priorities that were utterly alien to me. I was touched by a mind that was vastly deeper than my own, yet rigidly narrower - it was like staring into the vast depths of a bottomless lake.
With much effort I focused my mind and anchored myself inwards, I concentrated on me, my individuality, I knew I had to or I would lose my mind to this thing.
Movement stirred deep within the chasm and gradually, the whole world seemed to shift. A bodiless face fabricated from the surroundings and rushed towards me. A million tiny fragments came together, endlessly shifting patterns converging to emulate her face.
The face was long, her jaw line pronounced giving the Essence a cold look of authority. Her expression was readable, well emulated.
She looked pained, and I felt the emotion as my own. Quickly it changed to anger. No, she was furious.
‘How dare you deceive us?’ she demanded, my senses danced on the knife edge of her rage.
I tried to recoil, to run, but she was always there following me through every avenue of my conscious mind.
‘You cannot hide from me,’ she screamed, millions of fragments shifting into flames of hair.
‘Please... stop,’ I managed. ‘I don’t understand.’ Every inch of my being was ablaze with pain.
The Essence seemed to calm a little, the hideous face softening slightly against the pitch black encasement of my minds eye. ‘I am the Essence Ellnica,’ she said. ‘Why have you tricked me?’
‘Speak, human.’
My training had not anticipated a reaction this extreme, I felt utterly alone. ‘I have not intentionally tricked you, Ellnica. Please, protocol did not prepare me for this. Why have you reacted this way?’ Will she kill me?
No, think about this logically, she must have a reason for-
‘Human, you claim to be a uni-existent being, yet I enter a body that is already complete. There is no place here for my kind. Why did you keep this from us?’
‘You’re mistaken-‘
‘Do not mock me, Human. I can see your thoughts. I can see that you are already joined.’
‘No, you’re wrong.’
‘Then who is it that you commune with, man?’ she said. ‘Who is this other that you rebound your fears against?’
It took me a moment to understand what the Essence meant, but how to explain... ‘This is how we think – it is only I.’
‘Human, I can see the symbiont in residence. You are mistaken if you think this is a natural part of you.’ The Essence’s collective face changed, its expression became soft, wise even.
I felt her penetrate my memories, searching for the truth. I had nothing to hide and opened my mind to her.
‘Perhaps, human, it is your kind that has been tricked.’
Sympathy crossed her face as she accepted my ignorance. ‘I must leave,’ she said. ‘We cannot be three.’
The End