Sigun buckled himself into an interplanetary transport pod that lay on his balcony. The ship was around the size of an Elephant with a shiny, polished metal exterior and curved, almond shape. It was fixed with a state of the art gravitator engine and fully automated operation system. “Martian colony, capital city”, Sigun stated. A soft mechanical pur sounded as the ship powered up, a dashboard of colored lights and data points lit up as two sheets of metal covering the thick viewing window were drawn open. Light poured into the ship’s chamber, revealing an attendant drone which stirred from its hibernation state and ran a quick, preliminary screening of the ship’s hardware and internal systems. Other than the drone, the viewing seat, a stockpile of consumable supplies, and a hibernation chamber, the ship was rather scantily clad.
Sigun rarely used the hibernation pad, most of his trips were simply to the lunar or martian colonies, or, on rare occasions, the Jupiter station, which was in constant orbit around that gaseous, colorful giant. However, there were times when the length of his trips deemed entering the hibernation pad necessary. One of the consumer founder’s, Jegio, had begun the so-called great migration project with the hopes of spreading the consumer race beyond the confines of the solar system, in the hopes of one day arriving at the green pastures of habitable planets. Of course, the ships of that time, and at the present, were unable to travel the light years necessary to reach neighboring solar systems. It was one of the great and few technological barriers limiting consumer greatness.
However, the project of interlinking and space colonies was founded as a proposed solution. In a constant process of expansion, international space stations were being constructed, resupplied, and inhabited. A constant flow of construction drones, supply drones, maintenance drones, and consumer colonists were sent into outer space in an exponentially increasing ring of expansion. Early limitations of gravitator and drone technology had caused the pace of construction and habitation of space colonies and supply stations to be slow, but in the past centuries, previous theoretical thresholds had been broken. Through this exponential rate of expansion consumer’s were expected to soon have a colony on the prized “Planet of the Three Suns”.
Sigun’s craft then propelled into the atmosphere. The spires of the consumer skyscrapers, various metallic domes, turtle shell warehouses, and swarms of aircraft began quickly shrinking. From above it looked like a model, a prototype, god’s plaything, a toy. Soon the consumer aircraft formed the illusion of a smoke or haze of pollution around the city, the entire colony just a speck enveloped by the environmental sector, which itself was made up of abandoned structures extending indefinitely, reconquered by vine tendrils and turned green, crumbling under the slowly gnawing jaws of time. The bright happy blue of the sky shifted to an eerie black and the Earth’s surface curved like a wave. Its oceans and storms, clouds, and deserts were painted on the black canvas of the universe, its fabric sprinkled with white sparks.
Sigun then began approaching the moon, lucky enough to have departed just as its orbital position aligned with his trajectory towards Mars. Great, circular patches of dark shades of grey extended for hundreds of miles on the moon and the hundreds of craters looked like cells seen under an old microscope. The lunar colony glistened on the light grey surface, situated among the valleys, mountains, and other geographic features imperceptible without the use of visual enhancement. It was situated around a large central hall and the height of all the adjacent structures declined in proportion to their distance from this center, causing it to appear like a pyramid.
Sigun’s ship shot past the loyal grey rock, tied to Earth like those fabled rocks of Ise as he hurried towards Mars, which at first appeared like a small flame and slowly grew in size. The white caps of its poles came into vision and the strong, deep red fiery orb hypnotized Sigun, filling him with passion. His mind began wandering and his excitement about the internal display’s update and the consumer convention grew, it had been years since the last update had improved the virtual world’s precision. There was talk that the capabilities of the biological internal display was approaching a terminal phase, a theoretical wall that so similarly recreated the experience of reality that it could indeed be called entirely real itself.
The smooth, light red of Elysium Planitia on the northern half was colored and textured like a saharan dune in juxtaposition to the rough, cratered darker terrain on the southern Terra Cimmeria region. Sigun’s ship descended into the atmosphere and he commanded the ship to glide over the surface of the planet, allowing him to feast his eyes before heading to the site of the Martian Colony, the massive Hellas Panitia basin. His ship passed the behemoth of Olympus Mons and over the volcano’s peak. Instead of appearing like a shark’s tooth with its peak pointing towards the sky, out of the top of the gargantuan mound a great basin was carved, remnants of magma that had flown in years past, creating a bowl so wide it could fit an entire city.
A hemispherical, transparent dome built around the edge of the colossal impact crater sealed an Earth-like atmosphere and an abundance of gardens and greenery. Sigun’s ship descended and landed at the base of the dome and a metallic, funnel shaped appendage locked and sealed onto his ship. A tunnel then opened, allowing none of the Martian atmosphere to intrude. Sigun stepped through the tunnel and instead of floating on his transport pod walked using his feet and the help of an old cane, his altered weight on the surface of the planet causing less strain on his underutilized legs and hips. “S '' was engraved on its handle in gold, etched into a veiny, dark mahogany which extended into a small sapphire fist at its base. Large, dark rocks balanced upon Martian boulders, forming a long, precarious boundary to a path that extended to the entry hall of the colony, a golden red structure matching that ancient, golden gate bridge of lore.
Sigun’s feet sank into the bright red sand as he studied the blue and purple leaves of ferns and trees that lay outside the path, genetically engineered to thrive in the highly toxic Martian soil. The plants captured the light from the pinkish, red sky overhead, spotted by light clouds that looked like the blurry feathers of a dove or snowy owl. Some staples of gravitator water art were on display, and just then Sigun was passing under a stream suspended in the air by a track of floating modules, altering the gravitational field in such a way that the water seemed to be suspended by magical forces, flowing over the canopy of the seemingly alien fauna beyond. The underbellies of pink and yellow dragon birdfish fish could be seen from below, dancing like colorful flags and occasionally breaking out to perch in one of the nearby trees. Tall water formations were shaped like classical greek statues, colored by suspended nanolights and towering over the landscape, renditions of the many of the consumer leaders that had reigned after Jugio. The surfaces of the statues were constantly fluctuating, ripples of waves and currents giving them life as they surveyed the martian colony with stoic gazes.
Around the statues rings passed of sand passed in an out of one another, floating through the air and periodically rearranging into formations both abstract and realistic-- tesseracts, taurusses, deformed noses paired with stretched eyes and lips, complex, mathematically manipulated planes that shifted into the breasts and thighs of a fat woman. The fixed number of grains then stretched apart, forming a hazy hue in the form of a sphere before collapsing down to a dense, dark rock ball. Each grain shifted in tandem with the rest, nanocomputers packed with millions of bits forming a symphony of particles-- the likes that Picasso would have dreamed on canvas.
Sigun was approaching a crimson, red mass of sand. Like a termite mound seen by a leprechaun it towered over the consumer, similar in form to those ancient ancient mounds encountered in the land so called “New World” of protoman. A pair of metal doors at the base of the massive hill were slightly ajar and filled with engravings, and as Sigun passed through, a bowl shaped amphitheater appeared, rows of seats formed circles of decaying radii until they descended onto a flat, circular platform, where a yellow suited consumer with a patch of blue ink on top of his head stood. A column of light covered the central stage, and the rest of the chamber was a pitch black.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
Sigun seated himself and as time went by more and more consumers floated into the amphitheater, filling the empty seats until the last took their place and the doors shut closed with a bang. “All, welcome”, the yellow suited consumer man stated, his deep voice echoing through the chamber. “We are convened on this special day to enhance our inner selves, to move closer to the perfect universe each of us holds within…” The consumers shouted and cheered in camaraderie as a tribal consciousness brought spirit to the air. “It just so happens that the great update will occur as consumer forces have decimated the Sitmian resistance. Their struggle was futile, and their backwards ways have led them into the dirt, rotting among their wicked jungles, fuel for the scavengers!!!”
“Death to the savages, death to the savages!” shouted the consumers in unison, as they clapped their hands together. From time immemorial we have revelled in our creations. The so called light tablets of classical mythology to the so called book and protoman cave paintings, our species has long reveled in our imaginations and creations. It is us, the consumers, that have perfected the ambitions of our forebears, to create art so utterly convincing it is on par with god, a universe in its own right, the internal display and the virtual realm… We have conquered the Earth and our progeny is spreading among the stars, the inner frontier and biology is territory for our minds to use as we wish…” The consumers again clapped in unison and stomped their feets as the excitement continued.
“It is time, time to enhance ourselves once more!”, the yellow suited orator proclaimed with enthusiasm, followed by another round of hoorays. At that moment, wires began slowly springing from the hibernation units that filled the amphitheater and painlessly connected to each consumer’s internal systems. The internal update was soon to occur. “You will see the other side like you’ve never seen it before my comrades! Years of technological innovation, and advancements by drone engineering”, the yellow suited man exclaimed. Sigun began to feel tired as the hibernation fluid entered his veins and, with the rest of the consumers, he nodded off and the internal system’s revamping began…
Jinns was still in the cave when he heard the deep whistle of the conch shell that signaled the beginning of inauguration festivities for the newly arrived consumer. The sound brought back memories of his own arrival at the colony years ago, and as he studied the markings on the cave wall and collected more samples, paint, scenes and images of his past began replaying over and over in his head. Jinns, like virtually every other dohaiden, was an explorer and scientist of sorts, pursuing his passions endlessly. He traveled the land, collected samples of plants, rocks, and other interesting material and studied his findings endlessly, contributing to the dohaiden knowledge base.
He captured the last few images on the cave wall and chipped off a final paint sample into a vial using a small chisel. Jinns began heading back through the cave, and the memories persisted. He saw himself as an infant, test tubes, vials, wires and a flurry of drones passing by him as he lay in a small, padded white room. His early infancy and entire childhood was spent alone, socialized by drones. He imprinted on the machines like a child should to its mother. All consumers were produced from material housed in the genetic division and reared by drones individually. Consumer thought deemed the family an archaic practice, an unnecessary construct like marriage, meaningless, unnecessary, dispensable. The family had been destroyed thousands of years ago. It was only after Jinns arrived at the Dohaiden colony that he observed a mother, father, and child and the intimacy of social life he thought only primitive animals practiced.
His early years were simply memories of cold metal against his skin, rubber breasts connected to a steel skeleton, dispensing a warm serum fabricated from some collection of bioengineered fats and nutrients. His language, vocabulary became robotic. Those childhood days were spent wandering alone, housed in a spacious development chamber which increased in size with each passing year. In infancy the environment was a coffin sized chamber covered by a thin layer of glass. As a toddler the boy inhabited a house like environment with a garden, toy blocks, bugs, plants, sand. Drones always managed the medical, nutritional, and other hazardous aspects of life--- constantly watching over their subjects. In early childhood he was enclosed by an area the size of a mansion, trapped by tall walls he remembered staring at, wondering what lay beyond.
Onto adolescence and the activation of his internal display, discovering the inner world. It was at this time that Jinns first saw the face of another consumer. In his internal display, he was not alone, he had companions, friends, people to interact with. It was the perfect illusion-- he discovered community alone, felt part of a family while his implanted software simulated friendship and togetherness. The perfect irony….
The beginning of the socialization phase, his introduction to adolescent consumers. The walls surrounding his mansion were lowered, each community unit was composed of a cohort of consumers. It was then that Jinns saw himself fractured from the rest, the beginning of a chasm that would spread, a fault that would continue to grow. As his peers became further engrossed in the virtual worlds, he furthered himself, finding solace in blades of grass and bugs, puddles of rain, the bark on the trees. Grey shades on the moon… Where had they come from… Jinns spent time at the creeks and in the environmental sectors contained within the colony. He fell so behind on his internal display hours he had to force himself to engage the inner screen, lest he would not be fed.
Eventually his cohort was released into the greater consumer society. He became further isolated from his peers, spending time alone, engaged outside as his fellows continued moving deeper within themselves… Loneliness enveloped him and he soon entered a state of bitterness, hatred and disgust with the universe. He remembered the night… The consumer’s face like a pig, a fat smile written across his face. Jinns grasped the knife, staring at the creature. He wanted the consumer to beg for its life, to implore him not to kill it, to ask him for mercy. Jinns did not see himself killing anything, the fat body empty, lifeless, more like a plant or tree than a being. The consumer shifted in his seat, enjoying some simulation as Jinns stuck the knife into his throat. The blood began spewing outward as the pig’s eyes opened, thrown back into reality.
The consumer tried to sit up as Jinns stared at the being but it was unable to lift itself upwards, its huge gut impeding any movement. The consumer began choking on the blood that was filling its throat and esophagus, gurgling as the color of its skin filled with a reddish hue. A red stain began growing on the white suit that the creature wore, the blood pouring down its neck and seeping into the special fabric, gaining ground like a dark spill of oil in clean, clear ocean waters. Slowly the creature stopped shifting and the tension in its limbs disappeared. Instead of a feeling of remorse, Jinns felt as if he had liberated the being, giving it passage to a better, more pure place. As Jinns spectated the now lifeless body, a number of drones appeared, hurrying in through the vents and detaining the man, pulling him through a network of tunnels and chambers.
Jinns was approaching the party and signs of festivities were already visible from far off. The beating of drums echoed through the trees, the light was fading away and he could feel the birds falling into a slumber, their minds shifting into other dimensions, small universes, immeasurable like mythological dreams. As he pondered back on the events of his consumer childhood and the night that ultimately brought him to Dohaidu, there was no regret in his heart. He accepted everything and was filled with love and community. He would never dream of harming a Dohaiden, for they were his lost family, the group he felt a part of. Jinns was taken to the lonely mansion on the cliff where he met Tanaka and uncovered his fate, was labelled an outlier and found himself in Dohaidu.
The beats of the drums became louder, beating, beating. Like fire the music filled the air with invisible energy, stirring and exciting a reservoir within him, a force that had come from time immemorial, passed on from an ancient source, a divine bloodline. Endless pastures of creative soil were being sewn among the Dohaidens, a ceremony of inspiration. The dohaidens were shifting around the fire, flashing color as stringed instruments and flutes shined, cups filled and plates stacked with delectable treasure. A round of fireworks shot up into the sky, into bears and great eagles that swam above in orgasms of colors, marching into the night sky.
In the excitement of it all two beings were enraptured in each other's eyes. Some intimate harmony, a oneness, each lost in the other, suffocated by emotion, magnetism. They moved closer to one another, both aware, slowly breathing in the emotional energy as they spoke to one another. Jinns approached the couple. “Welcome to the colony“, Jinns said to Fauni, offering her a warm embrace. The consumer seemed to be in awe as she noticed Jinns long red, viking hair and beard, and the dancing and other festivities going on around her. She needed to be reassured she was not in a simulation, that this was life, organic, pure, unspoiled by electrical corruption. Roask seemed full, healthy, excited with anticipation and emanating a positivity. The disease of consumer society had almost entirely disappeared from the man, and with Fauni by his side, he felt like he was on top of the world.