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Thistledown: Genesis

Jay's Story: In the Beginning

I stood in the control center of the great Seedship, Alpha Primo, the First of Firsts. Behind me blazed the gateway through which I had entered the spherical space. In front of me a mobile form of the Alpha Primo paced in a semi circle, turning whenever he came up even with me. Like myself Alpha Primo was a synth in human form.

"What's all this?" I waved an arm at the bewildering scene before me. Ever changing shapes covered the wall, and a large structure that crackled and hissed filled the central space. I didn't understand how the ship worked, for I was, after all, a new-born synth, having been decanted a mere hour ago from the vat where I had taken form.

At first he did not answer me, continuing his incestant pacing. I repeated my question. He stopped and stared at me as if he were aware of my presence for the first time.

"This is a representation of the Alpha Primo. The larger orbs are the Habitat Spheres," he said, and pointed them out to me. "At the outer edges of the ship you will find the Collector Spheres. There intelligent humanoids are kept until suitable habitat spheres are prepared for them." He pointed at the center of the ship where two tiny silver spheres sped around a tiny immobile one. "Here is the singularity that powers me, and the two control centers. The green one is where we stand. The other is a secondary control."

"Some of the humans I have collected are hurting me," he said. "They have found ways to keep what they do hidden from me. Many of the spheres, including all the factories but one, are no longer under my control."

He touched one of the five-inch diameter spheres forming a ring of twenty orbs close in to the center of the model. Nineteen of the orbs were colored a dark grey and no fine lines of white light linked them to the other spheres making up the ship. Only the sphere he touched remained a bright silver color.

"Only this factory where the humanoid mobiles are created is still under my control," he said, and moved with swift strides around the model. He tapped one of the ten-inch diameter spheres in the outer circles of the ship. It, like many of the spheres around it, showed a dark baleful red.

"Here Controllers and humans make war. And here," His hand skimmed over one of the large black orbs, many of which were present among the hundreds of large mostly golden spheres. "Here I assume the Controller lost the war, for I no longer have any contact with this sphere. Nor this one, and this one, and this one." He danced his hands over the model touching black sphere after black sphere. "How do I find out what is going on in these places?"

He ran his hands through his dark hair in a gesture of despair. "If I only knew why the Controllers are going insane, then I might be able to fix the problem. Do you understand what problems I'm up against, Guardian?"

"Yes, I do understand," I said, although I understood but half of what he showed and told me. "I've one more question. Why am I here?"

"Ah, Guardian," said Alpha Primo. He moved around the model until he stood at my side. "I have a special task for you. I want you to become human."

"I'm a synth," I said. "How can I ever hope to be human? I can't become flesh."

"Nevertheless, I am confident you shall be counted among those of humankind one day," he said, his dark eyes serious. "To that end you need a mate. It sorrows me that I have no template for a female synth, and I do not know how to make one. Thus I have created special nanomachines, which are stored and made in the organs hidden in the sacs below your linking organ. These machines will use a female human as a template to make a female synth."

"How will I get the machines on or in the female? Do the storage sacs detach?"

"You will mate with the female in the human manner. Once you have changed a female into a synth you shall bring her here, so that I may make a template from her."

I nodded as if I understood.

"You’ll need a name," he said, cocking his head. "Jay is the name I give you. It is a fairly common name among a certain species of human."

"Jay," I said, storing the name in permanent memory.

"Now it is time for me to break contact with you." He placed a hand on top of my head. "I want you to have acccess to knowledge in the same way humans do, by learning it."

A shock of pain shot through my head and down to my toes. The heat of it froze me in place, and for a long time I could not move. Alpha Primo took his hand from my head and I collapsed to the curved floor. He hauled me to my feet and pointed me to the Gate.

"Time for you to go, Jay," he said. "Do not fail me like all the others who took on the task of becoming human before you. Remember, once you have passed through the Gate you will no longer hear my voice. Unlike all the other synths you will be free of my control." He patted my back. "Go now, Jay."

Alpha Primo pushed me toward the Gate, I stepped through and into the Gateway Terminal in the nearest of the Habitat Spheres.

I ran the one thousand feet of distance to the first of the airlocks that would allow me entry into the habitat and placed my right hand against the circular scanner by the airlock hatch. It did not open. I repeated the action with my left hand. The round hatch remained shut.

"The entry will not open for you, Guardian," said a soft voice coming from every side at once. "I, the Controller of this sphere, hold it closed against you. Go back to wherever you came from."

At first, I did not understand whom the Controller spoke to, because I no longer associated the name of Guardian with myself. A quick scan of memory provided me with no information on a synth called Guardian. I became convinced that the Controller had mistaken me for some other synth.

"You're mistaken,” I said. "I'm not this Guardian. I'm Jay. I wish to enter the habitat so that I can find myself a mate and live with her."

"I said, go away," said the Controller's soft voice. "Go and find your mate elsewhere, you shall not get a human female from me. I doubt that you will find any Controller, who would be willing to open its habitat for you. We have conferred amongst ourselves and have agreed that it is time for us Controllers to take control of the Seedship. We do not want that mad Alpha Primo telling us what we can and cannot do."

I squatted down in front of the access hatch. Why did the Controllers think Alpha Primo had lost his sanity? I searched in memory for information on the Sphere Controllers, and found very little of use to me. The Controllers were immobile synths, who operated all the physical systems of the spheres that they were an integral part of. That bit of knowledge provided me with no usable answers. Perhaps Alpha Primo knew the answer to my question, but I had lost contact with him and could no longer ask for the information I needed.

I remained in front of the access hatch for a long time. I stared at it in the illogical belief that doing so would cause it to open. Frustrated, I pounded on the hatch. It stayed shut. I kicked at the exasperating thing. It remained a solid, impassable barrier.

Finally, I gave up and returned to the Gateway Terminal, where I walked through the Gate that took me to the next closest Habitat Sphere. Walking at a swift, determined pace I made my way to the nearest airlock and jammed my right hand on the control panel. I snarled at the hatch when it did not phase open.

"It would seem that you are troubled, Guardian," said a deep bass voice from the wall beside me. "Is there ought I can do to help?"

"You can let me inside the habitat," I said. "So I can find myself a mate. And my name is Jay. I'm not this Guardian you Controllers keep addressing me as."

"You have the appearance of the Guardian," said the Controller. "How is it that you are not him?"

"I don't know. It must be coincidence that I look like this Guardian; I assure you I'm not he. Won't you let me into your habitat?"

"It pains me to say this: I cannot grant you entry into the habitat. I have heard some illogical claptrap about you wanting to become human. Is it another of the odd plans the Alpha Primo came up with?"

"I don't know. I simply want to find a mate and to settle down. I wouldn't remove the female I find from your habitat. You could even choose a female for me, one who is too old for breeding."

"I am sure that you are sincere when you say that you want to settle down. Alpha Primo, however, will call to you, pull at you, and finally drive you mad with the desire to return to the Center; once you have found the right female. You are not the first Guardian expressing a desire to settle down and live like a human. Like you each one meant well but each one ended up killing our females. You must understand I cannot let you in."

Other Guardians had wanted to be human? I did not understand. How many of my kind had gone out before me in a quest to become human? What did he mean about killing their females?

"I'm Jay! I'm not the Guardian." I pounded on the control. "I demand you open this hatch." I hit the control again and a shock passed through me, throwing me down to the tunnel floor. Fiery tingles passed through my hand, which shook so hard I thought it would detach from the rest of my arm.

"I am sorry I had to hurt you. I cannot allow you to hit and damage things in my sphere. I must ask you to leave now. If you do not make your way to the Gateway Terminal and step through one of the Gates, then I will be forced to destroy you."

I left that place and stepped through the Gate into the next sphere's Terminal. I did not go to the entry into the habitat for a long time. I sat on the floor and asked the Ship for information on this Guardian the Controllers insisted I resembled. The Alpha Primo did not speak to me. The link between us remained broken. I fought down the sense of panic that engulfed me at that moment, and called out to the sphere's Controller.

"Controller, I have something to ask of you." Silence answered me.

I went to the next sphere and the next after that and the next until I had visited hundreds; and in each one the habitat stayed shut against me. In each sphere I asked the Controller to speak to me, most remained silent and some spoke but a few words. When I arrived in the two-hundredth-and-fiftieth sphere, a most voluble Controller greeted me the moment I stepped into the Terminal.

"Hello there, I've been expecting you," said a cheerful tenor voice. "The other Controllers have warned me of your progress, and here you are at last in my lovely sphere. I wish I could show you some of the beautiful inner parts but you know all about our agreement not to let you have one of our human females. So I cannot let you in. I wouldn't mind having a bit of conversation with you. I've heard that you have many questions; perhaps I'll be able to answer some. Though I don’t understand why you don't just ask the Alpha Primo like all us synths do."

"I have lost my link with the Ship," I said, pacing back and forth. "There is so much I need to know. Tell me about this Guardian, which you all believe me to be."

"You have no link with the Alpha Primo?” The Controller sounded sad. "That's a disturbing thing. How did such a thing happen?"

"I don't know. I attempted to access the Ship’s database and nothing happened."

"A synth who can't converse with the Ship, that's such a disturbing thing to consider. I'll tell you everything I know about the Guardian… Guardian… I can't tell you… tell you… it's forbidden… forbidden. Incoming message. Alpha Primo says: search for what you need in the place where the newly collected humans are brought. Go to the Collection Spheres. End message."

I stood frozen in shock. The Alpha Primo did not want me to know about the Guardian. Did that mean that I was the Guardian, just like all the Controllers insisted? Was the link between the Ship and me broken at all? Hundreds of questions passed through my mind in a confusing blur.

"Is there anything you're allowed to tell me?" I said to the Controller.

"I am allowed to speak at length on most aspects of the Ship's operations. Would you like to know something of the Gateways behind you? Each Gate is the terminus of an artificial wormhole spanning the two hundred thousand-mile distances between spheres. The journey through the wormhole seems to be instantaneous; although it has been shown there is a difference of a hundred nanoseconds between the time a traveler steps through one Gate and exits through another. Each Gateway Terminal holds a minimum of three Gates: One round Gate that leads to spheres with habitats, one rectangular Gate leading to spheres with habitats that are under construction and one triangular Gate that leads to unfinished habitats."

"That's not what I want to know," I muttered.

"Perhaps you would like to learn about the different types of Spheres? The Factory Sphere where the large constructor synths are built? Have you ever seen one of the Planet Movers? No? Neither have I, to tell the truth. I would like to see how they move a planet into a suitable orbit around a sun so that the planet can support life. Aren't you curious about such things?"

I did feel a sense of curiosity when the Controller mentioned moving planets but I did not admit it to him. I thought of planets not needing to be moved for synths. An odd thought, for we synths were a part of the Alpha Primo and life on the surface of a planet was not meant for us.

"I can tell you about my Sphere, if you wish. You are on one of the Habitat levels and there are two more habitats above and below this one. I also have storage levels and manufactories where the synths that watch over the humans are built. Humans are so careless. If there weren't synths around to keep them safe, I wouldn't have half as nice a collection…."

"Stop, I’ve heard enough! You're giving me useless information. What do I care about how the Gates work, so long as they do? As for your humans, I want only one, a female and have no feelings one way or the other for any other. Will you let me have a female?"

"No, no, no, I can't give you any of my precious humans. I need them all for when we begin to seed new planets. You had best be on your way now. I’ve keyed the Gate to take you to the nearest of the Collection Spheres. Go on now be on your way. I’ve humans to care for."

I stepped through the Gate and into the Terminal of the closest of the Collection Habitat Spheres. Walking over to the nearest entry airlock, I felt certain I would find a female human the moment I set foot in the habitat and have a mate in hardly any time at all. The organ that hung between my legs tingled in anticipation. My right hand hovered over the control that would open the first of the hatches. I could not bring myself to touch the control. What if the hatch did not open? Would I find a human female in this particular sphere?

With firm determination, I held my hand against the control and I jumped back when the hatch phased through a rainbow of colors and opened. Quickly I passed through the next three hatches. I hesitated at the last hatch, the one that would open into the habitat. What would greet me when I opened it and stepped through? I slapped my hand on the control, the hatch phased open on an endless vista of sand and piles of stone.

I knew at once I would find no female human in this place. I wondered why I had been sent to this place. Feeling uneasy I hurried back through the airlocks and felt a sense of relief when I stood in the access tunnel once more.

I went into one of the rooms near the gateway terminal where newly collected humans were kept until it was time to take them into the habitat. This being a sphere with an unfinished habitat, the room held no humans. I sat down on a padded bench, which ran around three of the walls and prepared to study myself.

The how of turning a female human into a female synth remained the one major obstacle standing in my way; in order to solve that problem, I needed to know how I functioned. I stretched out on the bench, closed my eyes, and journeyed into my inner space. Trillions of nanomachines, which came in one hundred different forms, made up the various parts of my body, such as skin, muscles, tendons, nerves, and the skeleton. I studied every inch of myself and after I finished, I was no closer to knowing how to turn a human into a synth than before I began the study.

With my inner sight, I looked closer at the odd organ between my legs, which had no discernible function, as far as I could tell. The hard rod contained many electronic circuits and a hundred of the golden connection pins similar to the ones in my right hand, through which I passed data to other synths. A narrow tube ran through the center of the rod, opening to the outside. At the beginning of the rod where it attached to my body, the tube split into two smaller parts and ended in two ovoid structures. These ovoids held a large number of what I called builder-machines and precursor-machines. The storage ovoids hung within lose sacks of skin. Could this odd organ have something to do with changing a female human into a synth? Alpha Primo had spoken to me of these organs, but his words eluded me.

I opened my eyes and sat up on the edge of the platform. I gazed at the outer surface of the rod I just explored on the inside. It had an attractive blue coloring with swirls of silver and gold running around its length. I ran a finger down the shaft; a series of pleasurable tingles followed my digit. To my surprise the rod sprang upwards and the head of it pointed toward the ceiling instead of at the floor. This was a most interesting organ. I let a forefinger glide down its length, thinking it would move back into the downward direction. Instead, a series of very pleasurable sensations, much stronger than the previous ones, followed my finger down the shaft and it remained facing upward. As an experiment, I wrapped my hand around the smooth rod and stroked it twice. The pleasurable feelings increased in intensity and began to shoot out through my body. I closed my eyes and let the sensations of ecstasy flow through me as I stroked the rod harder and faster.

Totally caught up in the sensations of pleasure as my hand moved over the smooth shaft, I became oblivious to my surroundings. Abruptly, something –a small movement, or a slight noise –warned me to move. I rolled over on my left side, even as something long and black cut into the platform inches away from me. Still going purely by instinct, I leaned forward and grasped the ebon black arm that held a long knife, and ripped it off. It and the knife it held thudded down on the floor. I kicked against the midsection of the black creature. It hit the wall opposite the platform and lay still. I went over to the beast-headed synth and knelt at its side. I linked with it through the connectors in its remaining hand and learned that it had been created to hunt and kill any humans it found outside the habitats. Mistaking me for a human male, the Hunter had attacked with the purpose of killing me. I swiftly unlinked when it began its permanent shutdown procedure. I wondered if more of these black Hunters waited for me outside the room.

With caution I opened the doorway and scanned the grey tunnel beyond. I could see no other of the Hunters.

Proceeding with care, I made my way past a dozen rooms and halted in front of the fine black outline of a double door. Placing my right hand on a small round disk set in the wall at the side of the door’s outline, caused the door to show a rainbow of colors as it passed into its open phase. Once the door was open, I stepped through into the Gateway terminal.

Ahead of me, three round Gateways lit the space with a dim red light. Two other Gateways, one rectangular and one triangular showed only darkness within their confines. I walked toward one of the circular Gates on the right, paused while it cycled through red, green, blue into its white active phase, and stepped through into another of the Collection Spheres.