“Tell me, Albert: how can anything you see be improved by the construction of power plants, or scars of hot asphalt? Or fields of oil drills devastating the ground? Or perhaps wholesale slaughter to sustain a lavish trade enterprise? Does the Earth miss your glittering constructions of steel and glass, your oil spills, or your endless heaps of non-biodegradable waste?”
It was hard to tear his eyes away from the sights. It was only video, feeds from solar-powered drones that scanned the planet, but to him it was just as nourishing as food. It was something he needed, something necessary for his survival.
It was where he belonged.
Maria sat in front of the massive luminous screen covering the entire wall. Her gaze was fixed on him, studying as though trying to peer into his mind and flush out all of his secrets.
He reluctantly met her gaze. “I won’t be going back, will I?”
“No.” Sympathy welled in her eyes.
“What about the others? Everyone linked to the Neuroverse? Do they even have a chance?”
“There’s always a chance.”
“When? When do they get to return to Earth?”
“When they find it in themselves to stop destroying one another.”
“And who makes that decision? Deis? You?”
“They make the decision themselves.” She tapped translucent keys on the console in front of her. A hundred images sprang up on the screen, each displaying different scenes, but all revealing something Albert had sorely missed ever since gravity tore him away from time and space.
Other people.
They laughed in family gatherings, they cried in dark apartments. They danced at hazy night clubs, they emptied magazines of bullets at each other in humid jungles. They conquered snow-capped mountains, they died in vacant alleys. They traversed heavy traffic through towering cities, they walked barefoot along muddy pathways. It was all so familiar. So conventional.
It was life.
“This… is the Neuroverse?”
“Yes. It is a reflection of what existed before, as well as a window into new and different existences.”
“How different?”
“Fantasy worlds. Uncanny powers. Myth and legend, all made as real and believable as a day job and weekend barbecues.”
The screens changed to scenes of knights battling on horseback, serpentine dragons winding across the sky, a woman with a glassy staff raising her arms to the heavens, a warlord dining in front of a burnt-out field full of men and women impaled upon sharp stakes.
Albert shuddered and tore his eyes away from the last scene of carnage. “Why the break from reality? What’s the point of subjecting people to something obviously not authentic?”
“Reality is simply undoubted belief in one’s existence and surroundings. And trust me, these are more than programs designed to placate sleeping minds. The Neuroverse is real in every sense of the word, complete with authentic sensory engagement.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Do you? You’ve experienced dreaming, haven’t you?”
“Of course I have.”
“Then you’ve been repeatedly subjected to engagement with what you would consider a false reality.”
Albert shook his head. “A dream is just a dream. Nothing close to reality.”
“Think about your most vivid dreams. Before awakening, your mind accepts what is presented as real, no matter how unlikely or impossible the situation. The mind perceives what it experiences as real because it is engaged in the same way as it would be in real life. There is no discernable difference. As for why, the Neuroverse provides a unique study of the human experience. It allows us to unchain the fetters of ordinary existence and see how people will react. What sort of civilizations will emerge when otherworldly scenarios are accessible. In this way, we can gauge the temperament of a whole generation of humanity, whether or not they can change themselves when reborn in an entirely different element, free of the shackles of the past.”
Albert turned to the magnificent view outside, where Earth seemed to beckon to him. “Obviously we have yet to prove ourselves.”
“Correct. No matter what the setting, no matter what the circumstances, every presented scenario ends up on a similar course. Those with power dominate those without. Greed, hatred, and lust dictate mankind’s actions, instead of wisdom, benevolence and acceptance. Wars, famine, disease, and pollution abound. Different origins, but the same story, over and over.”
“We deserve the chance to prove ourselves in reality. Not in artificial worlds. No digital facades. Just us. You can’t tell me we haven’t earned the right.”
“Have you?” She rested her chin on her folded hands and examined him like a specimen on a lab table. “After your rash actions, your complete lapse of reason, you truly believe you’re in a position to make such a conclusion?”
Albert turned his gaze away. “I’m just a man. You can’t condemn the whole of humanity based on the actions of one person.”
“One person who changed the world. Actions that pushed humanity to the brink of extinction.”
His fists clenched when he raised his head. “I had no idea what would happen when I tried to come back. I didn’t take the time to think things through, all right? I was desperate, unstable—”
“Excuses, Albert.” Her stare was unforgiving. “You alone are accountable for your actions. Own them.”
His voice dragged out as though reluctant to speak the words that would condemn him. “You’re right. I should have known. I had the time. Time on the other side to understand the notion of wormhole travel. The Denizens freely shared their knowledge. I understood the consequences.”
“Where did the wormhole first take you? After your ship was destroyed?”
“A station traveling through space. A lot like this one. It was—” he paused and slowly scanned the room. “My God. It was this station. No wonder this all looks so familiar.”
“You were here? In the future?”
“Yes.” He stood and gazed around, shaking his head in disbelief. “It had changed over time. Additions were made. Upgrades installed to create a vessel more organic than mechanical. But I recognize it now. This station is just the backbone of the station in the future. I was here, hundreds of years from now. Maybe thousands. They had built a portal inside. A gateway for space travel.”
“Who was here, Albert? Who did you see?”
“They called themselves the Denizens. They were humanoid in that they were upright and had similar limbs and structure, but they were completely different. Much taller. Leaner. Long faces, large eyes. Some of them had wings. Wings like dragonflies. They were… beautiful, in an eerie sort of way.”
“Amazing.” Her lips parted and her eyes glazed over as though she imagined the scene. “After all that time outside of Earth’s atmosphere, humanity must have adapted in kind, altering their physical forms over the ages. Or perhaps the Denizens were synthetic, controlled by human minds that had long since outgrown their fleshly forms. Either way, the idea is fascinating. How did you communicate with them?”
“The station. Its system…” he paused. “Deis, I suppose. A latter version of him, anyway. He supplied a communicator that allowed me to interact with the Denizens. They feared me, and what my arrival meant. Yet they were insanely curious, asking nonstop questions about the exact circumstances of my arrival. The wormhole was an error, you see. They were attempting to create a bridge to return to Earth, but they didn’t anticipate crossing through time as well. There was much alarm about the tunnel they opened, and they were determined to shut it down as soon as possible.”
“Leaving you stranded.”
“Yes. I would never be able to return. Their calculations indicated it being safer if I simply vanished from my plane of existence than to try to send me back and risk further damage to the spacetime continuum.”