“Then we are all agreed?” the Lector asked, turning the subject back to the planetary item on the agenda. There were only a few weak rebuttals from some of the more recalcitrant members, indicating that the Lector’s decision was a mere formality to ratify a choice that all had made independently. “So be it,” the Lector said; humanity’s search and development of planetary resources would cease.
“Are you sure you understand what we’ll be doing?” the shiva technical asked as it lowered old Hugh into the rig and attached the crown to his head. “You won’t feel any pain once the anesthetics cut in, but you will remain conscious. I’ll need your cooperation to guide me through the initial setup.”
Hugh glanced at the multilimbed assembly that reared over him: The Surgical Hospital Invasive Virtual Assembler, shiva for short, was an automated brain surgeon that would disassemble his brain and free the mind it enclosed, another wonder derived from the contents of the Message.
In a few weeks his stored consciousness would be joined with the others who had renounced their human form within one of the nearly immortal bodies floating in open space. These had been produced in great numbers after their possibility was defined by the Message: Bodies that were internally fueled, virtually indestructible, and highly mobile, capable of existing unprotected even in deep space, carrying their thousands of souls whither they wished. Within the bodies’ community he would share mental space with Marlene and others of his extended family who had gone before. The pod to which they belonged would be departing the solar region soon and he did not relish remaining behind, captive to the charity of others.
Hugh took a longing look about him as the technical adjusted the restrictive harness encasing his skull. If Marlene and the others had willingly gone through this then he could do so as well. He tried to shift his body’s weight away from his bad hip, leaning heavily to his right. If it wasn’t for the fused vertebrae in his back, the result of several operations years before, he could be sitting upright instead of having to tilt to one side or another. Still, that operation hadn’t been nearly as bad as the ones on his knees and shoulders that attempted to ease the pain from the gradual deterioration of his cartilage that left bone rubbing on rough-edged bone. For the last eight years he’d had to limp along with a damn cane all of the time and couldn’t even bend over to tie his shoes. Well, it could be worse. When he was younger he thought that he would be long dead before he reached this age, and feared that outcome. Now, closer to the end, he found that he didn’t fear death so much: After all, he’d seen the transformation of humanity from the first arrival of the Message to this final disposition, the departure of the last natural man in all of England, if not Europe and maybe Africa as well.
Oh, he’d seen his share of sadness and grief, but no more than the normal ration given to most; the loss of family and friends, giving up the house where he and Marlene had lived for so long after it had decayed beyond recovery, and, after a few hundred years of stubbornly resisting, finally leaving the empty community where he had worked for the warmer and only slightly more populated one of the nursing home. With increasing speed then he had surrendered control of his decaying body to the sad restorative attempts of the increasingly automated medical community until continued procrastination was futile. He’d been approaching this transformation point asymptotically for a long time. Now, with the departure imminent, it was high time there was a break in the plot line. “I think that I’m ready now,” he said, regreting the loss of his mortal shell despite its failures and problems.
“Yes, I believe that you are,” the technical responded in a sympathetic sounding voice, although Hugh knew that it was incapable of really understanding anything human. “Close your eyes and relax for a moment.”
There was a whirl of machinery as he felt the delicate sting of needles piercing his scalp. “I’m ready to start,” the technical purred as Hugh’s scalp tingled for a moment before all feeling stopped. Only the whine of the shiva’s saw told him that the technical was removing the top of his head. He never felt the long probes going into his brain. “Think of something blue,” the technical murmured softly. “Good, now something sweet,” the instructions went on until they lost relevance and Hugh forgot his body.
It was the last stop of their pilgrimage before leaving. The planet rotated in space, a faded gem set in a diamond-speckled Universe. Here and there on her surface were patches of bare soil where nothing grew, scant evidence of a growing civilization’s impact on nature’s bounty. In places the mantle had been removed to allow the underlying magma to escape, a one-time source of energy for an impoverished planet. Vegetation was extending from the temperate and tropic regions into the abandoned cities and towns, slowly regaining its rightful places. The ravages of civilization’s transgressions were fading as the planetary complex of interlocking systems returned to a balance of sorts.
The humaniform complex that had once been Billy, Jerry, Freddy, and Hugh, and innumerable others, finished their multifirequency contemplation of the small green globe that had once been someone’s home. With equal measures of homesickness, regret, and shame it recognized the similarities of Earth, its own mistreated blue marble of a world. This tiny green world was where the creators of their original Message had started. Here was where their benefactors had reached their own limits before deciding that it was time to move on, grow up, and mature into their possibilities. “Must we really abandon something we love so much?” it sadly inquired of itself, thinking of the many lovely worlds it had known.
Yes, other portions of the humaniform resonated as it turned away to face the larger universe that awaited, there comes a time when we must put childish things behind us, and wondered why the image of a soft bunny flitted momentarily through their mind.