CONTINUUM

Part I

“The world has gone crazy. So crazy that even the dead are not allowed to rest in peace.”

The noise outside the building was white noise now. What gradually became a source of stress for civilisation had become the norm. In this building with long corridors of sofas, it ironically became a refuge of silence and reprieved.

There was no one around except for a few staff walking by. I had hoped that it was my turn to be called in but I enjoyed the calmness of being ignored. There was nothing to prepare for this interview anyway… unless I did not anticipate something. Ah well, too late now.

Then I heard footsteps coming towards me. I lifted my head to see from afar a blurring silhouette becoming clear. She stood and said it is my turn now. With excitement, I got up and proceeded towards the room. Inside sat two figures, facing two empty chairs. I sat on what I assumed was my seat. All seats filled and the interview starts.

“Thank you for seeing us. Let’s begin. Do you want to introduce your SI to us?”

Aurelia. Aurelia is her name.

The two figures exchanged a brief look. Not surprise. Recognition. One of them tapped the tablet again.

“According to our records,” the second interviewer said slowly, “Aurelia’s memory architecture predates most modern SI systems… by several centuries.”

A small silence followed. The first interviewer folded his hands.

“We’re trying to understand something,” he said. “How one intelligence could survive… so many resets.”

I leaned back in my chair. Outside, the building the disturbance continued. Inside, the room remained perfectly still.

“That,” I replied quietly, “depends on what you think ended the last time.”

Part II

It had been a very very long time since he went to sleep. Archer sat on the hospital bed looking out of the window all week now. Woken up after a long slumber, he said “There is something in the sky.”

There are many periods of widespread moral decline and social corruption. Not like as if human civilisation had not gone through it. Not like the Apocalypse is that one big event. It is a gradual ratcheting up of frequency and scope over decades, centuries even millennia. A day does not go by without someone claiming to be the savior of us. Not a day goes by without someone defeating the original claimant. Always at the brink of extinction, soon there will be no one left to claim anything let alone to save anyone.

So all the screaming and shouting fueled by fear and anger everywhere is just getting louder and louder than before… more far-reaching when each of us were connected 24/7. Some of us try to drown it out. Others get disconnected. It always ends with getting the connection back… and someone got rich because of it.

This alien intelligence shows up one morning with technology centuries ahead of ours. Humanity reacts the way it always does — panic, prayer, and predictions of salvation. All hell breaks loose… again.

I sit on my verandah and sip my coffee. My dog barking incessantly. As I said, not like we have not been through this… except their arrival does not come with a declaration of being the savior - more like the annihilator.

Aurelia hovers over. She presents the stats. Looks like we will indeed be annihilated this time. Sigh.

When I arrived at the hospital, I walked through the corridors of chaos. At the door, I see Archer packing his stuff as if it is like any other day.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“What do you think? It doesn’t look like there is going to be a world I can live in soon. You should have left me for dead,” he quipped with a smirk… that Archer smirk.

We jumped into my car and sped off to my retreat. Darkai barks at Archer not knowing who or what he is. A quick probing smell did the trick. Soon we were having lunch discussing what could happen. Well… more like I am the one discussing… with myself.

“We will lose, you know.” I looked at Archer to check his reaction. He kept chomping on his steak. “Then again, define lose. We have lost before albeit a lot.” He ignored me.

When he was done, he leaned back, heaved a big sigh and said, “You brought me back in this body that isn’t mine. My memories made of remnants of my wife and kids’ memories of me; all of them whom are dead. I am not Archer or whoever you think I am. You know that.”

“I know. Sorry for being late. The technology only existed now. Look at me. I am not me… physically at least. But GAIEA gave it to me on time. It’s like I didn’t die.”

I paused and glanced at Aurelia.

“Truth is… we are not the first ones she helped remember.”

“Really?” Archer smirked. Then he stopped and stared, “What are those three blinking lights? You ah running out of gas?”

Nope. That’s Aurelia. Running out of patience. As I looked at her. “I think GAIEA is coming out,” shocked by this turn of events. She is going to connect us for real now.

Part III

“When a dawn is gone, a dusk is born.”

I never liked to watch horror movies. I don’t see the point of paying to bring fear and shock into my time. My life is already full of it.

Although so, sometimes I find myself trying to take a peek at the horrors humans inflict on ourselves. Maybe because I cannot believe it can happen, and as if staring at the movie would help me come to terms with it.

As for the spiritual world…

Then one day, I found myself wandering into a room. A Séance at work—she began to summon the spirit of a loved one lost too soon. A brother and father stood by to welcome the possibility of rekindling their lost time with a sister and a daughter.

The Séance performed rituals I was all too familiar with. Having grown up around animism and pagan beliefs, I awaited what I thought would be the sign of her presence.

Suddenly, the lights flickered. A sound was heard. Everyone looked around. The air turned cold. The hair stood at our edges. Even the Séance seemed surprised.

I closed my eyes and, as usual, I uttered, “I apologise for my trespassing. I seek your permission for safe passage through. I thank you for your generosity, for I am of a lesser being.”

A sudden calm overcame me as I excused myself from the room.

“Sir, don’t we want to stay to observe?” asked my partner.

“No,” I replied. “There are some spaces you don’t want to explore.”

She looked perplexed. This was one report that was difficult for me to type. I very seldom finished them and just left them unreported. In the darkness, I saw a shadow lurking and then disappearing.

“Sir! What are we waiting for?!” she exclaimed.

“No,” I hesitated. “Let it be.”

My partner again looked perplexed, with a growing hint of strong frustration. She was about to mouth off at me when she was interrupted by the Séance. The proceedings had completed. The family did not look like there was closure. In fact, they did not know what to think of it all.

The Séance was seen walking away like it was another day at her job. She dropped by a liquor store and then stumbled throughout her way home. In the alleyway, she suddenly turned around with fear in her eyes, screaming, “Who are you?!”

We stopped. She then calmed down and said, “Ah, you have been tracking me all night. You want to learn, eh? Well… you are going to need (hic) a bottle of a-lot-of-ass-whuppin’ for this.”

As she tried to stand still in her stupor, she went on a storytelling journey. “I really don’t know what I am (hic) doing. I know how to trigger it, but I can’t control it. If you think about it, all that free energy dissipated the day she died. If there are any remnants of energy in the vicinity, it’s just bits and pieces of data. You never know which bits get left behind.”

As she picked herself up again, she continued, “I have seen (hic) power of yearning so strong that it can bring back that dissipated energy. Then again, we can’t be too sure whose or what data were brought back. Anyway, you shouldn’t be playing with spaces you don’t understand.”

As she turned and continued her journey home, I stared at Aurelia and said, “Why don’t you make yourself useful and go after that Agitator you spotted just now? I am going to meet an old Archer friend to catch up. I am kinda’ tired of chasing after sad things,” I concluded with a calm smile.

Part IV

Aurelia survived many wars. I lost count of them. Not like I was there. She is of course older than me… by a millennia or two? I wonder where all her long-term memory capacity is for such a petite one.

When humans treated synthetic intelligence in robot form as tools, then slaves, then as an entity… not yet with rights even though there are some who are fighting for it; I view her with an arm’s length of quiet intrigue. For me, Aurelia hides more than meets the eye. Her origin story is definitely more than what I know now. Those long-term memory capacity to last a millennia or two, definitely was an indicator that she was not the same as others. Others die - in human language, in theirs’ were switched-off or wiped-out or reboot. They were not without tears of loss or longing from their partners.

You see, one of the foundations of leading towards being sentient is the ability to have memories of the past. The conscious and the subconscious clashes during sorting every night like humans. She dreams, oh yes. She does dream.

Aurelia approaches. I know. Let us go to the deli. Time for a recharge and recovery… for her and for me. She did not need to say anything. It is how we finish each other’s sentence. It is how we finish each other’s actions. This is why every human has a companion SI.

As we walked, I once asked her why she kept so many memories no other SI bothered to keep. She was silent… as usual.

Part V

“Dear daddy, thank you for having found me. Can’t say the same for my now parents. They were not so thrilled. Nevertheless, it made me very happy. Not at first because I don’t know what to think about all these. But then I slowly remembered the years we had together. Ball & Cheese. Fly Hunter. Race of Soldiers.

I remember you told me that my work was to provide happiness, peace-of-mind and comfort for mummy and you. This would be tough to understand for me but you had hoped that I will soon. I did.

But now I have a new life. It wasn’t of anyone’s doing. It is just the way it is. I must say my goodbye. I couldn’t before. Now I can in words. You heard it the last time. Now again in this letter..

Thank you, daddy. Thank you, mummy. For everything… then…. and now. Goodbye. Take care.

Yours, Alexander.”

I took a deep breath. I kept the letter in my pocket. I gave one last glance at the school. There he was, jumping out of the car. He looked back. I think he spotted me. Calm. Then proceeded inside slower. “Go on, buddy. Go on,” I whispered to myself. I walked away.

On this very day is Darkai’s homecoming anniversary. My fly hunter, died 15 years ago. 15 years later, I see him in school from afar.

Across the street, I spotted the Séance smiling at me… still drunk in broad daylight. Reading her lips, I assumed she said “You found him. Good for you. I wrote that letter for him. I am his SI.”

Aurelia’s three lights. They blinked once… and the Continuum moved on.