Darkness… Is what I expected. Instead everything looks purple. Not fancy royal purple, but more along the lines of being like psychedelic purple. It’s like I’m trapped in an oil leak with various colors of the rainbow flowing around wherever they please, I’m just going to call this place the void because I suck at unique names. I am not sure how long I have been here captivated by the sight before me as everything seems to be a blur, including my mind.
Though I feel unnaturally calm about this whole situation. Who knew I could take death so well. Or maybe I’m not dead? Not really sure what happens after being sucked into a crack in reality.
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(Earth 2080)
The planet Earth no longer holds any resemblance with the beautiful blue sphere depicted in photographs of the past. Instead the clouds in the sky come in only brown and various shades of gray. The ocean still holds blue waters but they are rare pockets, coveted by world and therefore guarded even from viewing. The planet is dying, or more accurately was dying.
In the year 2060 a boy was born, he was not surrounded by heavenly lights or expressed signs of prodigy like talent in anything, but in the future he would be a driving force behind the revitalization of the planet. He grew up poor with his parents, his family were forced into refugee status while within their own country after their farmland was seized by the corrupt World Government during the time when famine and starvation became the leading cause of death in the world. His mother ended up becoming a prostitute to ensure their survival while his father did any job available regardless of the dangers it may have presented to himself. They worked hard to ensure that their son would be able to at the very least live even if as a result they rarely saw him. Seeing his parent’s struggle day by day and night by night all in order to feed him forced the boy to mature far faster than anyone else his age as he disregarded, what he considered evil, Government mandated school for the alternative, the local library. At the age of 5 he had read nearly all of the books available to him earning him the favor of the librarian which granted him access to one of the few working computers of his community. Before being fully able to enjoy the new option available to him he was faced with the death of his mother.
She was raped and murdered in an alley close to their home days after she had gone missing. The young boy was the one to find her slumped against a wall already showing signs of decay.
There was no funeral as they did not have the money to afford it and there was no longer any beauty to setting a casket out to sea due to pollution. Instead the boy and his father secretly smuggled her body to a park the father was working on building a wall around and buried her under the largest tree they could find.
They did not leave a marker or say anything over her grave as a marker would simply give it away and words were not enough to express how the boy and his father felt. However before they left the grave the father with solemn eyes and a hard expression turned to the boy as he said, “Don’t show that face, your mother lived, worked, and ultimately died only so that you could smile. So regardless of what life may throw at you, keep a smile up for the memory of your mother.”
The boy did, he was perpetually smiling from that day on. Even as his father passed away 3 years later he kept smiling. Even as the Government curried favor with him after creating a source of energy from the pollution he kept smiling. It was said that the boy had lost his mind along the way up to his position of becoming the youngest and most brilliant scientist the world had ever seen, but it did not deter the boy turned man from continuing to smile.
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(Underground secret lab within the Sahara)
Buried beneath the billowing sand of the desert a man sits in front of a computer furiously typing away at the keyboard as if his life depended on it. His hair is long and greasy as if to show it has not been washed or cut in months and his clothing wrinkled and stained with what appears to be oil. In all aspects he seems like a deranged beggar and yet a wild smile is on his face as he continues to type. This is me, boy genius, head of something or other for doing the thing with the planet. Regardless of how I appear at the moment I am not mad as the World Government would have you believe, well not completely at least. It is hard to say when I’m in the process of doing what all mad scientists seem to want to do. Create life.
“Done.” I say as I let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the screen in front of me change from lines of code to a countdown timer. “Hahaha! I’m done!” I scream in joy once more getting up from the desk to do a little victory dance. As I watch, the countdown slowly counts the time until my greatest creation is complete. It has taken me 5 years but I have managed to build an artificial intelligence under the noses of those damned politicians. They deserve everything that is coming to them once this is released into the world. It’s not meant to be evil or anything but it is designed to be a judge, jury, and executioner for every person alive including myself. I mean it will be a little more lenient with me because I’m the creator, but I want it to develop into the ruler of this world so I can’t leave any loopholes in its logic or it won’t work.
Time until system completion: 1 minute
Seeing the time on the display put a smile on my face, a real smile, not the frozen one that usually adorns my face. I haven’t been this happy since… Well I’ve never been this happy.
WARNING: Base #12 has been locked-on
“Well shit.” Seems my base has been found, not the first time either but the Government never had any evidence that tied me to them and I did everything remotely usually. This is just unfair, for the first time a father from my community actually decides to witness the birth and they are going to be blown up for it. Though it really isn’t the time to joke I have nothing better to do. Escape? Yeah there is no way in hell considering the Governments liberal use of any new weapon they happen to have on hand.
Time until system completion: 23 seconds
*Haa* I sigh after seeing the countdown from the looks of it I can only hope the weapon isn’t too accurate and I get hit by the aftershock at least that way the AI has enough time to upload to the rest of the world. “Well if there is some kind of almighty being out there in the multiverse let me plead for at least my AI to survive long enough,” I say as I look up to the ceiling with all the religious fervor an atheist can produce.
“HAHAHA! INTERESTING, YOUR WISH HAS BEEN HEARD.”
The voice boomed into my mind making me clutch my head in agony just before a loud crash can be heard that sounded like the breaking of glass but thousands of times louder. I was still trying to hold myself together after the mysterious voice spoke so did not get a clear view of my surroundings but what I did see was enough to leave my mouth agape and wipe away my trademark smile. A crack in the air had appeared within the room, inside of which only darkness laid. Then it sucked everything into it including me, the AI, and well everything.
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(Present)
I don’t remember much at that point because with the pulling sensation came a feeling of my body being quickly shredded to pieces in which I had promptly lost consciousness until I appeared in hippie mind trip where I have stayed.
“Alright I’m bored, I want to do something. Hello! I want to speak to management!” I shouted into the void not expecting any reply.
Sorry I’m not management but you are right. It is time to do something Lee.