Designers

“And what of humanity?”1

Alcuin turned around uneasily.2

“What of humanity?”3

Pelius had him exactly where he wanted. The debate had raged on for hours, the hot Greek air baking them both until they were messes of burning flesh and flowing sweat. And just as it seemed Alcuin had won, Pelius had thrown the question at him like a stone to the back of his head.4

“You have stated that some divine creator must exist,” Pelius continued, “because otherwise there could be no universe. But this does not explain the existence of man.”5

Alcuin was confused, just as the other observing philosophers seemed to be.6

“The Gods created man, just as they created the heavens and the Earth.”7

“Why?”8

“We were created in their image, so as to live out our lives and fulfill The Divine Purpose. We provide them with tributes and amusement, while they grant us good fortune, and perhaps eternal life.”9

Pelius wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. His toga was almost soaked through, but a slim grin had begun to creep across his face.10

“Do you mean to assert then, Alcuin, that the all-powerful Gods are like us?”11

The statement somehow made Pelius uneasy.12

“…Yes, in a manner of speaking. More that we are like them.”13

“But how can this be? Look at us, Alcuin. We are a lot of scrawny, selfish brutes with barely enough intellectual capacity to fend for ourselves. Our bodies are not perfect: What omnipotent God would need to piss every few hours, or have to deal with the problems of flatulence?”14

This brought forth a laugh from the amphitheatre, and Pelius’ smile was now at its fullest. Alcuin shifted his eyes nervously, grasping at straws.15

“Well… Perhaps the Gods wished to teach us humility. And we are perfect, we are exactly suited to our environment. Man has proven a mastery of the elements.”16

“Humility? That hardly seems a good reason for the Gods to include so many design flaws in their greatest creation, Alcuin. A mastery of the elements… That’s practically laughable. Surely, Zeus would have granted us wings or gills had he wanted us to truly be lords of the Earth.”17

Alcuin had nothing to say. He was beaten. 18

Pelius continued:19

“No. We were not brought into existence by any divine power. Man is an accident, a random product of fortunate circumstances.”20

A deafening silence washed over the amphitheatre.21

“…No.”22

Pelius looked at Alcuin.23

“No. That is wrong,” Alcuin continued, unsure of himself, “Although we may not be perfect, something must have created us. We have legs on which to walk, we have eyes with which to see, and we are able to breathe the air around us. I can not accept the idea that people were not designed.”24

Agitated, Pelius took on an arrogant tone.25

“What you are unable to accept is far-removed from what is rational.”26

Alcuin nodded, and slowly walked out.27

~0~28

Teeth like tombstones.29

Eyes like commercials.30

Hair like black sweat.31

Words flying out of his mouth like popcorn. Breathing out vapors, smelling like jam, fingernails tapping out rhythms and telegraphing secret messages into the wood.32

Big frozen smile.33

“Mr. Powell?”34

What a name.35

What do people think when they hear my name? He wondered. A real estate agent? An actor? A lawyer? His name wasn’t Powell, it was Zuckerman, but there were no businessmen named Max Zuckerman anymore. No. Now he was Devlin-fucking-Powell, the name an ex-wife had suggested to him as though it didn’t sound like a Saturday morning cartoon villain. No more Max Zuckerman. Now he was Devlin Powell, “Executive Public Relations Liaison For The Aurora Genetics Project”. Capital “t” in “The”. Capital “f” in “For”.36

“Excuse me, Mr. Powell?”37

The voice rang out again, barely audible but insistent. His perfect blue eyes caught the light as they scanned the crowd. He saw the questioner: She was a mousy woman, with un-dyed auburn hair and a small, unimpressive figure. He ignored her.38

“Mr. Powell, how will the new program fit into Aurora’s business plan?”39

The source of this question was a burly man dressed all in black, with a sculpted jaw and the smell of cheap cologne.40

“Good question. As I’m sure you’re all aware, the company consistently strives to seek out new enterprises and business ventures. We think that this particular advance will allow us to reach into many as-yet-unclaimed markets, boosting our earnings by a projected-”41

“Mr. Powell!!!”42

Now he had no choice but to pay her some heed. Straightening his impeccable blue suit, he turned toward her, hoping to deflect her query with the usual stream of buzzwords and move on to one of the planted questions. Her expression, however, did not suggest an easy disposition. He smiled so that all of his whitened teeth were visible, and looked her in her dull brown eyes.43

“Mr. Powell, what do you think are the ethical implications of this new discovery?”44

That was it.45

That was one of The Words.46

“…Ethical?”47

It had an unpleasant taste in his mouth, just as it was meant to.48

“Well, surely Aurora has considered how this will affect the world outside of the scientific community. The ability to clone human beings has been considered a pipe-dream for years, but it certainly raises some important questions now that it’s finally here. Replacing dead organs and tissue is all well and good, but the idea that we can now create new sentient life-”49

The Words. There was a binder full of them, Words to be avoided at all cost, Words that would only steer the conversation down a dark and incriminating road.50

“Ma’am, may I ask who it is you represent?”51

Now it was her turn to smile, tossing him a cruel and clearly well-constructed parody of his own soulless rictus.52

“I’m Sandra Perez, from the Philadelphia Sun,” she started with no sense of shame, “we’re known for our science and tech section.”53

“I see.”54

The question was not planted, and her paper was the only one that would pay it any heed or valuable printing space.55

“I’m not really the one to ask about that. Next question, please?”56

Another tall business man, this time with blatantly dyed blonde hair and false white teeth.57

“Is it true that Aurora will be donating some percentage of-”58

“Even so, I’m sure you have an opinion. Couldn’t it be argued that Aurora is overstepping its boundaries?”59

Who was this woman, with her unchanged name and her face that had never felt the touch of a botox needle? Why was she so insistent with her petty line of questions?60

“Well Ms. Perez, that certainly isn’t for me to decide. The company’s stance is that the achievement will be most helpful to medical science, but I do understand your point.” It was always important to make them feel like they were winning.61

“The new technology could be abused, just like any other technology. But what’s important is that we’ve found a way to deal with our oldest foe: Nature. Genes that cause such conditions as autism or Alzheimer’s could be detected and eliminated pre-birth, and we have rendered ordinarily lethal spine injuries harmless. It also means we’re another step closer to defeating death itself… Aurora expects to be able to fully recreate a human brain – consciousness intact – within the next several decades. Individuals could leap past their natural lifespans through the creation of new host bodies to house their minds.”62

“But Mr. Powell! Aurora has created the ability for corporations to literally play God. Is it really our choice to say what a human being should or shouldn’t be? The philosophical questions are staggering.”63

God was the first Word on the list.64

A murmur had begun to slice through the crowd, toppling Devlin’s authority and his sense of prestige. There was no publicity left to salvage.65

The conference was over.66

Later, Devlin would step out into the evening rain, feeling the showers kiss his face with the tenderness of the unnaturally warm summer. He would stare up at the endless menagerie of neon signs and digital LCD billboards, advertising pills to crush his loneliness or silicone to pump into his breasts. Devlin would find no meaning in these things.67

He would never see her again, but it wasn’t as though he could forget her.68

~0~69

“Are you certain this is the place?”70

“Yes. We are within millimeters.”71

He swept his slender hand – was it really a hand? – across the flat earth, unsettlingly quiet for thousands of miles in every direction. The Device hovered behind them, innocuously resting in the air so as to avoid making an impression on the ground. The one who had spoken first possessed no name, and neither did the second.72

“Begin the seeding.”73

The First glanced at his surroundings, taking in the naturally pure air and warm climate. They stood on what would one day be The Savage Lands, and then Africa, and then Terra7, and then would lose its name like all other nouns. Names were cumbersome, an unnecessary method of distinction in a time where telepathy could assign each object an unmistakable aesthetic. The two spoke partially out of courtesy and tradition, but also to break the eerily grave silence.74

“How ironic it is,” began The Second, as The First placed the microbes in the ground, “that it will take millions of years for mere apes to walk this ground. If our forefathers only knew…”75

The First nodded slightly, his ovular eyes set deeply into his gray face. He stood a full eight feet tall when standing, but now he was hunched in an awkward position.76

“Hopefully they will walk,” he replied without shifting his gaze. “Our Designers have spent millennia concocting the code so that it is perfect. But one can never know… Perhaps our forerunners will emerge missing their eyes, or lacking sufficient organs with which to digest food.”77

“Food?”78

“It is what they consumed to survive.”79

“Ah. I do see your point. A single incorrectly constructed DNA strand could result in the end of our entire species, and before it even begins. Then again, perhaps the fact that we are here now is proof that the plan ultimately succeeded.”80

The First was deep in concentration now, careful to place the microbes in precisely the right positions so that they could grow and mate properly. The First had existed for over 40,000 years, but his eyes had not dulled since their enhancement. He could see each individual atom if he chose to, using his perfectly steady hands to smooth the ground.81

“Please, let’s avoid that train of thought. I am in no mood to strain my consciousness with the paradoxes of temporal travel.”82

The Second’s thin lips cracked into a slight smile, as gray as the rest of his face.83

The First stood, and slowly nodded.84

The Second glanced back at The Device, hovering patiently as it waited for them to step back into it.85

“Shall we?”86

The two humans carefully walked into the perfectly spherical machine, seating themselves as The Second closed the door through the use of his will. Gently, the vehicle begin to hum and whir, its inner workings causing the sphere to spin faster and faster so that it was barely perceivable from the outside. The two beings on the interior were well conditioned to it.87

What if our Designers have failed? What if we have doomed ourselves, and damaged history beyond repair?88

The First nodded, his movement almost unperceivable.89

I have faith in our species.90

And with that, the Device was gone, leaving the moment to silence and a fist full of microbes.91