Utopia

A young woman with a look of complete panic on her face races down the sidewalk of the city street.  Normally in the middle of the day it should be crowded.  That was back when things made sense and were predictable.  They were hardly fair or without risks, but to her it made sense.  Today she is alone and it is a reality that only adds to her fear since she also knows things will only get worse.  The lack of hope settles in her veins and a fire of anxiety burning totally out of control.1

She stops to catch her breath and then glances down at her right hand while leaning with her left hand against a lamppost.  Gasping she sees how the fingers of her right hand have started to twitch.  Plus her skin is beginning to show those horrible greenish blotches.2

“Oh no, I’m too late,” she groans.3

Take off her overcoat and dropping her purse, she starts running again.  Hoping, ever hoping she can escape somehow what she knows is coming next.  Inside she realizes it is futile.  She can hardly expect to avoid what has happened to so many others, but somehow she just thinks if she keeps running she’ll prevent the inevitable.4

Exhausted with her mind raging from shear terror and confusion, she runs into an alley.  Slipping on a puddle of water in the middle of the pavement, she loses her balance and hits the ground.  Raising her hand the woman can see the green blotches have spread until her entire hand is that color.  Taking a small compact mirror from her pants pocket, she stares at her reflection.  Rubbing her face in disbelief she shakes with her mouth wide open in horror at the green color.5

“Oh god no.  Please no,” she whispers when noticing the faint trace of silver aura forming around her face in the mirror.  Then she looks down and sees the same aura surrounding her hands and body.  “NO, NO, NO!” she screams at the top of he lungs.6

There is a sudden and brilliant flash of silver light and the woman’s body is gone.  A green mists appears where she lied on the pavement.  It briefly transforms into the image of what appears to be several long creepy green vines.  A few seconds later there is the sound of a bugle and they also disappear.7

Months later with the screams, now only a page of time, another morning bursts upon the landscape.  The dawn's rays shine upon a fve story tall alabaster pyramid nearly glows as it rises above the dense green jungle.  If one listens carefully there is the sound of a bugle in the air being played intermittently as if trying to blare some note as celebration.8

Meanwhile in the skies overhead a collection of gray clouds are gathering as if preparing to storm.  There are a few flashes of lightning and then the rumbling cannon booms of thunder.9

Suddenly a slot opens in the pyramid.  A beam of jet black light shoots into the air and consumes the clouds causing them to vanish.  Even after they are gone though there are still several flashes of lightning and the thunder continues to roll across the skies.10

From the slot in the pyramid a giant cinnamon pterodactyl flies into the air.  It soars towards the flashes of lightning.  Seconds later it is in the middle of where they are occurring.  A sudden explosion of red light is followed by the formation of a bright emerald cloud as the pterodactyl totally evaporates from the sky.  After the cloud disappears there is only silence.11

A narrow path of white alabaster stones snakes its way through the jungle and leads up to the pyramid.  From time to time the stones move changing their formation for no specific or apparent reason.  It is as if they are alive and not really made of stones.  Whenever they do move there is a sound of moaning and sobs that lasts only a second, but then it disappears.  The path’s place of beginning will also change occasionally.  On some days it will start at a large gray boulder that lies between two huge trees about a half a mile from the pyramid.  Other times it will appear to start in the water of a small river that is in an opposite direction from the two trees.12

Today the stones are starting from the boulder.  They seem to be glowing more than usual.  That is probably because they are in use.  A man dressed in a silver jumpsuit with silver boots has materialized near the boulder.  The man has a silver bugle tied to a gold chain that he is wearing on his shoulder.  Being is short, round and balding the man is hardly the portrait of vigor or fitness.  Judging from the wrinkles in his face and gray thinning hair on his head he is most likely in his late fifties.  It might be even more important, but he’s appeared that way for several decades.  Whatever he might be thinking is hidden behind a pair of mirrored sunglasses.13

Still his pace is one that shows no signs of fatigue or age.  He walks swiftly and confidently making sure he never misses a stone as he walks towards the pyramid.14

Suddenly he stops abruptly and stands at attention.  Then he salutes the direction of the pyramid before doing a left face turn.  When he does a path of white stones appears.  He smiles as usual and begins marching down the path.15

As he walks the most incredible thing is that his silver boots never appear to actually touch the stones.   Yet they make a clicking sound while he moves.16

After several minutes of plodding along the stones he comes to a huge grove of orange trees.  It extends to the edge of the valley and beyond his view.  He raises his bugle and blows on it several times before bowing.  This is a ritual he has performed countless times over the years and in the many groves that thrive around the planet.17

All the trees are covered in oranges.  They look ripe and ready to pick just like that have on countless other occasions.  But there is no one to pick them and the man doesn’t show any concern over their condition.18

After playing his bugle he salutes the grove then does an about face and heads back down the path stones.  Behind him the sounds of sobs seem to fill the grove.  On a few of the oranges water appears to have formed.  It slowly falls off the fruit as if they were crying.19

However even though the man is aware of the moisture he keeps marching down the path of stones.  This time they have once again moved.  They are still leading towards the pyramid, but now go through a different part of the jungle.20

Finally the man stands in front of the pyramid.  He waits for the blue light.  His stomach grows tight in anticipation of what he knows is going to happen next.  Before long he sees the pinprick of incredible bright blue light that then fans out into the form of turquoise streaks of illumination that beam in all directions.  Those that hit his body cause it to be covered in blue.  Seconds later he disappears.21

The inside of the pyramid is like a huge dark chamber.  It is pitch black when the man’s glowing blue form materializes.  For a while his body nearly shakes from the transporter process.  Still it isn’t from fear since it isn’t the first time he has been through the experience.22

In front of him a giant head appears.  The face belongs to the image of a sixties rock male rock star.  Only it is green in complexion and has gold eyes with purple hair.23

“Are they happy, Bud?” the face asks the man using a female voice.24

“Yep,” Bud replies.  “As good as always.”25

“What have you to report?”26

“Ain’t much to say.  Things are about the same as usual.”27

“Then the prime directive is being maintained.”28

“I keep forgetting to ask you about that.  You think there is any chance of you making any changes?”29

“Changes?” the face asks with a definite tone of concern in voice.30

“Oh um I meant you know like the improvement kind.”31

“Input, I need input in order to analyze that type of comment Bud.”32

“Right, right.  Er darn I ain’t got any input.  All I was thinking here was how it might be good to have somebody else around besides me.”33

“I am here.”34

“Yes I know.  Except I mean more like me.  Being a human rather than a computer such as you or those other things you manufacture like the clouds and weird huge birds when your system kind of leaks energy.”35

“Those are not leaks.  They are the occasional release of energies essential to my ability to preserve other life as is required of my programming.  As for your question regarding more humans like yourself to what purpose would you expect it to serve?”36

“That’s kind of hard to explain.  It’s just I get sort of lonely with it just being only me being around.”37

“You are not alone.  All life continues as before on the planet.  It is just perfect now and totally at peace. There are no wars or crime.  It is Utopia just as I was built and programmed to create.  That is after all my prime directive: to preserve life and maintain a perfect society.”38

“I know everybody is still around, but the others are er different than me.  I just wanted to have them be more like I am.”39

“That would be a violation of my prime directive Bud.  I must obey my programming.  Utopia must be preserved.  The present system allows life with complete harmony and happiness.  Any alteration would bring chaos.  This will not be allowed.”40

“Yes, but the others are — it just don’t feel like Utopia to me sometimes.”41

“Are you saying you are unhappy?”42

“Well.”43

“Unhappiness must be dealt with in accordance with my prime directive.  Do you wish to join the others?”44

“Oh no, ah, ah, just forget I said anything.”45

“Then all is perfect and happy.”46

“You bet.  Gosh, I better um go out and tend to my chores.”47

“Very well.  Be at peace and happy.  Utopia has been achieved.”48

The face disappears and a second later the blue light returns to engulf Bud again.  Immediately he is transported back outside of the pyramid.  Letting his shoulders slump, his face shows an intense degree of consternation.  Turning around he moves down the path of stones for several feet.  Then he takes a remote control device out of his pocket and hits the remote button.  There is the sound of a beep and then he vanishes.49

Bud materializes in a small apartment sized chamber where he spends his nights.  It isn’t particularly impressive, but it is what he calls home.  In it he is surrounded by the few mementos he was able to horde before the “change.”  Walking over he grabs the half empty bottle of bourbon, takes a drink and the falls on his couch.  He sets down the bottle trying to save the rest for another time since he knows it is his last bottle of bourbon.  The last thing he wants to think about at the moment is how he’ll cope once it is gone.  Reaching over he uses a remote to turn on his television and start up a movie on the DVD player.  It is the same one he has watched a dozen times and the only one he was able to save before the rest were also “changed.”50

He lets his mind go back to the past and still wonders about it all.  How could the eggheads have been so stupid?  Creating a computer to change the world into a Utopia might have been a noble idea, but from where he sat it didn’t feel so great.51

Lucky him, he had just gotten hired as a janitor and was tending to the housekeeping chores around that monster of a computer when it was finally activated.  So he ended up being in a position where he had these long “chats” with it.  When it came up with the solution to turn the world into a Utopia the computer sort of adopted him as its personal slave.  Despite his simple mind he had managed to figure out how to appease it so he could be spare the fate of everyone else.52

Bud looks over the orange tree he has growing in a huge pot in the corner of his room.  He gets up and goes over and caresses one of the oranges.  “How you doing babe?  I just wanted you to know that I tried.  And I’ll try again.  Maybe one of these days that darn stupid computer will give me a break.”53

Shuffling back over and sitting down, Bud groans.  Some Utopia.  Who would have ever imagined that to a computer the perfect way of society in harmony and happy was to model it after plant life?  And since plants didn’t need cities, when the computer changed things all the cities were vaporized along with all consumer goods.54

He glances back at the orange tree again.  Somehow seeing that orange and knowing it was once his wife doesn’t make life any easier or happy.  That was before the computer used the powers those maniacs gave it to change all humanity into oranges to insure they would be know real happiness.  It had come to the conclusion that human couldn’t enjoy life as long as they complicated it.  So changing them into a life form that was simple and lacking any stress seemed to it like the perfect solution.  Bud didn’t think so, but then he has learned the one thing you can’t do is argue with a computer, especially one that thinks being citrus is the only cure for the maladies of the soul.55