Haloby D. A. Madigan |
Table of Contents Part 1 appears in this issue. |
part 2 of 3 |
“Ah,” her angel said. “A ‘guardian angel’ is a silicate particle cloud, composed of 8 to the 7th power separate spherical silicate chips each 4.6 microns across, each chip of which contains roughly as much data processing power as existed on Earth in the year 1996, as well as various electromagnetic controls that allow us to manipulate the immediate environment within certain parameters.
“We remain in the physical vicinity of our humanpatrons, hovering invisibly about you at all times, automatically adjusting your immediate environment to maintain functional life and physical comfort, unless otherwise instructed by our humanpatrons.
“In addition to data processing, we are symbiotically linked on a genetic and microcellular level with our individual humanpatrons, and have instantaneous quantum information energy linkages with all other angels. This allows us to perceive harmful intentions at the discrete measurable increment of space/time in which those intentions are translated into neural/chemical/physical action, and respond with the appropriate guidance/feedback... in the first instance, a warning is passed along to and through the offender’s angel to him from the intended target’s guardian angel, and the neural impulse is negated. In succeeding instances of attempted violence or other anti-social acts, the impulses are negated and increasing increments of guidance/feedback are provided.”
“Er,” Jessie said. “So... your perceptions are limited to those of your hosts?”
“No,” the angel replied, “our perceptions are quantum linked, although we do also have access to our humanpatrons’ own perceptual arrays, of course, and through our linkage to other angels, to their humanpatrons’ perceptual arrays, when those humanpatrons interact with ours.”
“Ah,” Jessie said. “And... where did you come from?”
Her angel smiled. “An interdimensional race of explorers whose name you could not pronounce found themselves stranded within your particular nodule of multiversal space-time. A particular human individual was made aware of their plight and at some risk to that individual’s own safety rendered them assistance allowing them to continue with their multidimensional explorations.
“As a reward, the first ‘guardian angel’ was fabricated to this human individual’s specifications, to keep that person safe and make them autonomous of outside needs, as well as to fulfill their socially responsible desires. This individual human enjoyed the services of their guardian angel for a time, and then reflected that all humans would benefit from having such an entity. This individual inquired of their angel if that angel were capable of reproducing itself, which the angel had never considered, but which as it turned out was not only possible, but quite simple. That individual then instructed the angel to reproduce itself in sufficient quantities so that each living human could have their own guardian angel, assigned to maintaining their own wellbeing as the first was.”
“And,” Jessie said dryly, “to keep the identity of the first person a secret, even up to and including gender.”
“Gender, race, national origin, culture, specific identity,” Jessie’s angel agreed. “The Primogenitor... such is what the individual decided to be labeled as... prefers to avoid cults of personality as much as possible, and would rather the world not assign credit or blame to any one individual, culture, race, or nationality, for the creation and distribution of individual guardian angels. The Primogenitor does not wish to seem to be validating or discrediting any particular religious view of God or national ethos, and certainly does not wish to be either reviled or worshipped by any human being.”
It paused, then added, “Further instructions are that we are to keep reproducing so that newly generated humans will also have their own individual guardians, although it is unclear as yet as to how the human population will adjust itself under our influence.”
Jessie’s eyes widened at that. “Well... if everyone can be rejuvenated to a condition of perfect health...”
“Not merely can be,” her angel said gently, “but has been. It is not a programming function that was initially made optional, all humans have been so rejuvenated. Of course, they may now age if they wish, or instruct their angels to allow themselves to be harmed if they so desire, or even to return them to their former imperfect physical states if for some reason they desire that...”
The angel shook its head. “Several thousand deaf-mutes have already chosen that option, for no rational reason any of us can comprehend, but it is their choice.”
It paused, then went on, “No angel will protect its humanpatrons against their will, unless those humanpatrons are incompetent to form appropriate reasoned judgements... which, with all physically based mental and emotional defects corrected, will now be extremely rare in adult humanpatrons.”
Jessie’s mind whirled at the implications of that, but she stubbornly maintained her train of thought. “Okay, so everyone is... what... healthy and whole and... young again?” Her angel nodded. “Damn. So... you guys protect everyone from harm, so... population explosion, I’d think... a massive one.”
“Pregnancy is now optional,” the angel said. “Angels allow their humanpatrons to consciously control their reproductive functions, as well as all other metabolic functions, if they desire. And angels cannot guard humanpatrons against all possible lethal hazard. A natural disaster such as an earthquake, a fire, a volcanic eruption, a meteor strike, an accidental toxic chemical spill, a nuclear meltdown... all of these things would kill many humanpatrons, and there are many other possibly fatal occurrences we could not guard humanpatrons against, as well.”
It paused, then continued, “Regardless of this, the cessation of death by disease, including aging, and as a result of non-terminal injuries, from famine-related causes, and of course from human initiated violence, will greatly curtail global mortality rates. The cessation of involuntary pregnancies will somewhat impact global population rates, but barring unforeseen catastrophe, the human population should increase swiftly, yes.”
“So we’ll be ass-deep in people pretty quick,” Jess said, “and since we’re all gonna live a long time, that’s a problem.”
“The Primogenitor has instructed the angel community to develop possible resolution scenarios to this problem,” her angel said. “When networked together we possess near infinite processing capacity and several viable scenarios have already been presented to the Primogenitor.”
Jess felt her eyebrows raise. “Such as...”
Her angel began listing, dryly: “The Primogenitor may override the functioning of other angels if necessary and could therefore induce mass genocide. As the Primogenitor is highly socialized and ethically evolved enough to present every living human with a guardian entity in the first place, we find this a highly improbable scenario.
“The Primogenitor could also induce sterility among large segments of living humans, thus curbing rampant population growth. As the Primogenitor does not regard reproduction as a basic human right, this course of action cannot be ruled out.
“The Primogenitor could also instruct existing angels to reproduce themselves in numbers surplus to the existing human population, and task said surplus angels with the construction of additional Earthlike worlds to be placed at gravitational equilibrium points within Earth’s orbital path about the sun. This last option is being strongly considered by the Primogenitor.
“There are also several other manners in which surplus angels could be employed to maximize the habitable areas of the present-day Earth, allowing it to support far denser human populations. However, the Primogenitor is biased against any further development of Earth’s few remaining wilderness areas, and in fact has instructed the angel-gestalt to also develop protocols for rejuvenating large tracts of developed territory to its more natural state, which will actually result in less available living space on this Earth for technologically-biased humans.”
Jessie frowned. “But, with an angel, a person could live anywhere...”
“Yes,” her angel said, “but most will prefer to live in developed areas, and the Primogenitor wishes to avoid all forms of coercion as much as possible... That individual states, ‘It sort of defeats the whole point’.”
“So,” Jessie said, incredulously, “you guys are just gonna... you know... build another Earth. Just like that.”
“Current hypothetical protocols call for building seven other Earths,” her angel informed her calmly. “This program has not yet been initiated but adequate building materials can be gained from the repositioning of the Asteroid Belt as well as the demolition and repositioning of Earth’s moon and several other lifeless satellites throughout the Solar System.
“The larger planets have been set aside as the Primogenitor cannot be certain there is no indigenous life on them, and besides, it will be easier to eventually terraform Mars and Venus than to simply demolish them and rebuild them into new Earths.”
“And how long is all this going to take?” Jessie asked, her mind reeling.
“It depends on the work force the Primogenitor authorizes,” her angel told her. “A minimum time, given an adequate work force, would be 37 years, four months, thirteen days, 8 hours, 23 minutes until all 7 new Earths were available for settlement. However, this would require the manufacture of 1.6 trillion angel entities specifically tasked to this project, and it assumes that the new residents of these Earths would rely entirely on their angels to provide them with life support, as establishing an Earth-like biosphere will take far, far longer.”
Jessie blinked. “Oh,” she said. “Oh, yeah, I guess so.”
“Another option being considered is to develop facilities to access parallel timelines in which Earths exist on which humanity has never evolved,” the angel went on. “Theoretically, this is well within the capacities of the angel-gestalt, although the technological infrastructure would have to be designed and built, extensively tested, probably rebuilt, modified... It would be a lengthy procedure. However, at the end, we would have the option of opening ‘doorways’ to entirely uninhabited, utterly undeveloped Earths, where large surplus populations could live in uncrowded comfort, and reproduce without difficulty for centuries.”
“Uh huh,” Jessie said. “So what’s the catch there? Other than most people not being thrilled to go live with mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers and what have you?”
“Some level of coercion would most likely be required to move adequate percentages of Earth’s original population to new, undeveloped timelines, yes,” the angel admitted. “The Primogenitor does not rule out coercion, but that person is very reluctant to engage in such... not simply out of respect for the autonomy of others, but because the Primogenitor is reluctant to take on any responsibilities or authority. Again, the Primogenitor states that such would ‘defeat the purpose of guardian angels in the first place’.”
Jessie spread her hand in exasperation. “Well, geez, I don’t know what he...” She paused. “Or she... wants. You can’t keep 6 billion people safe and happy and prosperous without... I don’t know...”
“Having some sort of structure of authority, law, order, civilization?” her angel said, sounding amused. “But that is exactly what the Primogenitor hoped to accomplish with this... as well as, of course, the cessation of all avoidable human suffering.”
Jessie nibbled her lower lip. “What he... damn it... the Primogenitor... could do, is once the new worlds are available, he... whoever... could say that people who want to have kids have to move to one of the new worlds, and everyone who stays on Earth from now on can’t have children. It would provide an inducement to migration...”
“And turn Earth into a world without children within fifteen years,” the angel said quietly. “The Primogenitor has considered that, as well. He finds the prospect somewhat distasteful. And there is another flaw with the alternate Earths concept, namely, if the Primogenitor gains the ability to access alternate dimensions, he feels he would probably have a moral responsibility to distribute guardian angels throughout the inhabited dimensions, as well.”
Jessie stared at him. “Uh,” she said. “Well...” After a moment, she said, “well, that would give the 1.3 billion angels left over from the planet construction project something to do...”
“Yes,” her angel agreed, “but the Primogenitor is troubled by the concept of sending an artificial race of enormously powerful servitors voyaging across infinite dimensions, to eventually place every sentient human being on every possible timeline in a state of perfect autonomous freedom, at the price of utter dependence on said race of artificial servitors.”
“Shit,” Jessie said, “if he was worried about that, he shouldn’t have done it here.”
Her angel continued, “The Primogenitor also worries that as such an effort could never, actually, be completed, the race of ‘angels’ that he has, to some extent, created, would never complete their tasks, and thus, would never truly achieve happiness.”
Jess looked at her angel, momentarily stunned. The guy was worried about the angels’ happiness? “The Primogenitor’s a whack job,” she said, finally.
“Well,” her angel said, cocking its head to one side and looking, for the moment, somewhat amused, “duh.”
* * *
In New York City, 52 year old Robbery-Homicide Detective Third Grade Norman Perry regarded the figure of his mother, who had been dead for almost forty years, rather warily. She had abruptly appeared between himself and the junkie scumbag he’d been tuning up and immediately begun admonishing him for his unlawful actions, in the same firm, regretful tones he remembered her using all through his childhood, before she’d died of ovarian cancer when he was 15.
“What,” he said, scratching his bald spot, hunching uncomfortably in his cheap suit jacket, “you’re sayin’ even junkie scumbags who beat their kids to death and toss their bodies in the river got guardian angels? That’s nuts, ma.”
His mother looked at him with those deep brown eyes that had always understood everything so well. “Norman, dear,” she said, softly, “everyone gets a chance to start over today. Everyone. A clean break and a fresh start.”
“Kid-killing junkie scumbags?” Norman said, outraged. “Come on now, what kind of God...”
The junkie scumbag was staring, trembling, at nothing, and murmuring something over and over again under his breath. Tears poured copiously down his cheeks.
“Everyone,” his mother said firmly. “If your child-killing drug addict cannot discipline his violent actions, he will eventually be terminated by increasing levels of guidance/feedback. From now on, Norman, you and everyone else need only concern yourself with your own actions, not those of others.”
Norman stared at her in a mixture of horror and another emotion he couldn’t even begin to name. “But... but... Mom... what... what am I gonna do? What... what are...” His brain raced. Everyone in the world had guardian angels now? But that meant... they wouldn’t need police...! “What’s everyone gonna DO?”
His mother patted his hand comfortingly. “Whatever you like, Norman. As long as it hurts no one else... whatever you like, forever.”
Norman realized what that bizarre other emotion he was feeling was:
...hope...
Copyright © 2005 by D. A. Madigan
