The Trial

As beautiful Blue slept on my chest, determination rose in me.

“Activate,” I said.

The tiny Sensoback button came from my pocket.

“Quarter-size commands.” A glassy menu appeared. Were we were being spied on, after all? You have to take that chance. 

I studied the list again. A lot was greyed out. I noticed a little bar. “Connection status?” ‘Connection currently poor and variable,’ came a written response at the bottom of the menu.

‘Assign’ and ‘Feedback’ were still available, along with ‘Distort’. I noticed ‘EMP’ also – that was marked in Beta and wasn’t explained. I noticed ‘Total Transfer’ and…no, the other options were minor.

I’m just going to have to play the cards I’ve been dealt. I deactivated the Sensoback, shut my eyes and tried to enjoy being in the Now with Blue. I drifted off again…

…before being awoken with a splash of water. The guards were howling at us, kicking at us.

“Here’s your complimentary shower! Enjoy it – it’ll be your last!”

Then, they marched us out, back into the building with the chair of peeling paint. Blue was flung in the corner, banging her head off the wall. Anger flared inside me. Leave her be!

Olsen entered; a twisted smile worn on his bitter face.

“So, you see – I’m not a total monster. You had your time with your girl. I hope you appreciated it. I’m going to enjoy today. I’ve been looking forward to it, so much, for so long.”

I said nothing. I just looked down.

“I hope you considered your reply to me. I feel…it shall be interesting. Perhaps you need something to concentrate your mind. You know we’re very happy to hurt the girl.”

“Okay. Okay. Just let me compose my thoughts…Activate my brain. Upload my mind...”

“Here. This is the script you will read from later.”

A page of printed text was slapped in front of me. The gist of it was, Adem had never made it through the Greater Wars. Sochiro Kazikawa created a symbol which would be a fairy-tale for the New Society to buy into. A society conditioned to turn its back on its human, animal origins – the real part of humanity.

‘And this was because Kazikawa feared that element of humanity that had abused him. The Four Zones and the New World Order had come about because of his weakness, his refusal to accept the pain given to him. He failed to learn his lesson: Survival of the Fittest. A perfect society could only be deemed perfect in accordance with how it suited its inhabitants. And given the nature of Man – the nature denied, ignored, conditioned out of us: Society is an Abomination, and Adem is the biggest Abomination of all!’

I was to confess to being an actor, playing the part of the ideal Adem, and Dr Fisher was my puppet master. I had duped the people willingly, for financial reward, and the heroic freedom-fighters of Zone 1 had seen through this and captured both of us.

“Well? Quite entertaining, yes?”

“Like all the best lies, there has to be truth in it.”

“Oh, you can’t say it’s a lie.”

“It cuts both ways. What you say isn’t incorrect –”

“– Go on. I’m listening carefully. You’re the only person capable of having this debate with me, so at least give me that.”

“What you claim isn’t incorrect. Adem did die, in a way, a long time ago, and the world of his died too. Ironically, you want that world to come back again. Do I? I’m not sure.”

Olsen nodded at me to continue.

“I am not the physical Adem I was. You can call me fake – although partly I was regrown based on my own DNA, so I’m not even a real fake. And for a long time, yes, I hated myself because of that, maybe more than you do.”

“What changed it?”

“Realising that it doesn’t matter. Not one iota.”

“Of course it does matter!”

“Maybe in your Darwinist thinking, I’ve somehow sidestepped Natural Selection. To me: it doesn’t matter. That’s what counts, ultimately.”

“You survived and seven million died, just because your dad knew some rich eccentric. How is that Natural Selection?”

“You’re right, it’s not. I did. I never asked to. Yet here I am. So, what’s so great about natural selection?”

“It’s everything! It defines all life on this planet!”

“I’d suggest you are confusing a process with the end goal. Natural selection isn’t the end goal, just as you say the technology is the end goal. Olsen, you have just…substituted one false God for another. And that is a very human thing to do.”

He paused. “Sophistry!”

“Do you believe in God, Olsen?”

“I believe in the natural way things are!”

“You believe that Sochiro Kazikawa created a society to avoid pain, to avoid the negative things about humanity?”

“The evidence is there for all to see.”

“But you’re not looking at all the evidence. You’re biased. Even a man from 2025 can see it. No – I can feel it.”

He laughed. “What does feeling have to do with it?”

“A lot. Anyway. You’ve cherry-picked your arguments well. It’s a very convincing manifesto to get others to buy into your way of thinking. I’m wondering – is the script aimed at the New Society? Or more at the rest of the Sect…”

He smiled grimly. “The cream must rise to the top, for the good of humanity.”

“Oh, and that’s why you are doing this. Not for personal power – for the greater good, right?”

“I’m not you!” he said.

I sighed. I never thought I could talk him round, anyway.

“It’s not what you say. It’s what you don’t say, Olsen. That’s what makes it a lie.”

“Oh?” He looked deep into my face. “Enlighten me, Jesus. Make me repent.”

“I’ve no wish to convince you of anything. All I wanted to do was to listen to you. And you’re still not telling me about –”

“– About?”

“You. But I guess that’s your choice.”

“Enough! You’ve said what I said is a lie. So, make your case. Choose your fate.”

“Okay. This is what you are not saying. Human beings aren’t just animals. We developed way beyond that. At the same time, the other part of us needs to be acknowledged, the incredible potential we all have, the stories we create for ourselves –”

“– Ego!”

“I thought you wanted to listen. Sure, ego is involved, but there’s so much more than that. Compassion. Cooperation. Wanting to improve. Wanting to evolve. Yes, avoiding pain, when it’s not necessary. But why do people still accept death, and merely prolong life, when death could be eradicated? Why can people still choose to go off the rails? Why has the Sect been tolerated, when you easily could have been eradicated and exterminated a long time ago? If this was 2025, you would have been interned and waterboarded by now! Tell me why –”

“– It’s because society is too soft!”

“Society is far from soft. There’s nothing soft about people getting to know themselves. Wars and cruelty didn’t just come out of animal instincts. Animals don’t attack their own species, unless it’s necessary. No, it came out of misunderstanding ourselves, and that’s why Sochiro Kazikawa prioritised therapy and counselling. To avoid the unnecessary pain that we bring to each other, to ourselves. You’re looking at it all from the outside in. Try the inside out.”

I looked at him straight. “There’s always pain. Your way, there is pain. By just being alive, there is pain. There are degrees of pain, but pain is pain! I feel for you brother! Look at the pain you have chosen unnecessarily, and now you want to swap everyone’s pain for yet more pain? Can you not see your sheer folly, the madness in what you do?”

He was stunned.

“I have no desire to convince you. All I desire is you see your own pain you are creating. Put it down. And deal with the real pain, accept the pain that’s always there. But that’s your choice. I’m done.”

He looked at me. He was different.

“What do you want?”

“Please let Blue go now. That’s it. That’s the only reason why I’m here. Then, whatever happens, happens. Thanks for listening to me.”

He nodded to a lackey, who unclipped the collar from around Blue.

“Go.”

“No. I’m not leaving without Adem,” she said quietly.

Olsen looked at me.

“You’re going to tell me that I have successfully subjugated my woman, or something?” I smiled at Olsen. “Nothing to say?”

I looked over at Dr Fisher. “Nothing to say, too?” He looked at me in a weird way, but didn’t speak. “I thought as much.”

“You…will make that confession. Nothing changes.”

“It’s done,” I smiled at him. “A confession has just been made. Finish upload.”

“What?”

“Allow me to say one more thing: EMP.”

There was a massive thump.