Science fiction : Neural link

 

Science fiction : Neural link

A young girl, not more than 20 years old, looked at her own reflection on the water as she stood on the bridge of the water body that was neither a river nor a lake. It was a huge gorge, perhaps formed millions of years ago and it was fed by the river that flowed next to it. And there, under the clear blue sky she looked at her own reflection and wondered. About many things perhaps!

Then all of a  sudden she lifted her head and  as she turned left, she started walking towards the right end of the bridge. Leaving behind the gorge and the water trapped in it. Unable to find its way out because after taking a deep look at the gorge and its water, it was difficult to tell how the water from the river flowed or seeped into this gorge, and I am sure even the water trapped in the gorge was clueless about it.

But for now, my attention was neither the gorge nor the water held hostage by the rock solid confinements of the gorge, whose steadiness and foundational strength had been tested by time for more than a million years now. I was more interested in the young girl who had been staring at her own reflection. I was more interested in knowing who she is and how she got here. But from the look in her face I could tell that she was clueless about her own existence because when she looked at the reflection cast on the still water, she seemed to search for something in that reflection, as if it were her own identity that she had been seeking in this reflection. Her own face seemed to remind her of nothing and no one, but the frown on her forehead and the contours on her face confirmed one thing: she was seeking answers herself, and if my guess is not wrong, about her own self.

So, here I am following her in the gorge and I have been following her for 6 months now, when I first saw her in my town, where I had ventured out on one cloudy afternoon, and when it rained I ran to seek refuge under an oak tree. She was already there looking at the rain drops as they fell from the sky and hit the ground, producing hundreds of mini splashes that had stained her lower end of the trouser with black spots. And she was not bothered about these black stains, she was enjoying the raindrops and the wet view, where everything had transformed into a water kingdom like fantasy. As I settled on the opposite side of the tree trunk, she noticed my arrival from the squelching sound produced by my shoes as I sped past the wet and damp ground. 

She was least interested in me, her only interest as of now was the rain, and under the century old oak tree I was the only one not interested in the rain drops. I was more interested in her, though it was my first visual contact with her, and I stood on the opposite side of the tree trunk, yet I felt attracted towards her. Being drawn towards her by the senses of curiosity bearing the feelings of admiration for someone who looked very much like a human being but there was something very different in her that told me she was more than a human being. Of course, I was not thinking of her to be an alien or a beautiful being from the kingdom of fairies. But the energy around the tree trunk was different and I wanted to know why it was so, and to know that, I felt compelled to know who she was.

So, I decided to cover the semi-circular distance to come face to face with her. I did so, but, when I reached there, she had disappeared. As I looked around, she had reached the main road and was walking hurriedly. And my desire to know her made me forsake the leafy umbrella of the grand oak tree and I began following her.

I must have followed her for 20 minutes, when she took a left turn, and entered a narrow, old, forsaken lane. She must have walked ten meters or so, she looked around, then lifted the lid of a manhole, and carefully got into it and closed the cast iron lid.

So, she definitely was not an alien, she was not a fairy from the kingdom of fairies, but I had a reason now to believe that she is someone from the underworld.

I reached the spot, looked at the cast iron lid, kept looking at it for a few minutes, then, unable to resist the need to follow her, I removed the lid and jumped into this underworld. But now I was not sure whether she went left or she went right. I was caught in this quandary when I saw a few bats flying towards me from the left side, so I proceeded in the left direction and hoped to see her somewhere. After wading through the underground drainage system, I reached at a corner where the drainage diverged like a fork, and between these diversions there were two delta like concrete formations, that rose like tables, and on these concrete tables, on one side lay some clothes, a few gadgets and on the other one, was the girl, who apparently was sleeping. So, I dared to go a bit closer, and as I reached very close where I could touch her with my fingertips, she jumped from the table and stood behind me and with some magnetic strap bound my hands, and pushed me aside.

Then after a moment she said, “I have been watching you for sometime now, and I led you here, do not think that you were following me, I was leading you here. So, now you should do what I ask you to do, otherwise, I may be forced to treat you very unpleasantly. You surely will not like it then. Please obey and you shall find answers to your questions. I will find answers to mine. You will have to help me!”

I was still astonished and unable to understand how it is possible that her reflexes are so strong that she instantly jumped, then stood behind me and even bound my hands. All this happened within a few seconds. It was like some super woman act that she executed with so much ease and precision. 

“When you noticed me under the oak tree you realised that the black stains on my lower half of the trouser were getting automatically removed as soon as they were being formed. You also noticed that when I was looking at my own reflection on water, the water where my eyes were focused was moving in circular ripples, and when I turned left and opened the lid of the manhole, before you could realise what I was doing I had disappeared and the lid was closed. Well, it is not magic, it is my suit that is embedded with millions of sensors that are synthetically connected with my neurons, thus enhancing my capacity to think and act at incredibly high speeds. And with these sensors I can generate magnetic pulses and focus them on any target and do whatever I please. So you see, that is one part, the other and most important part being that I have stolen this sensor enriched suit from a scientist who lived in my neighbourhood. He is pursuing me and the state agencies are also seeking me. I need help to escape with this suit, I do not want to surrender it.

Here is a spare suit, I will let you wear it and use it, if you do exactly what I ask you to do. Think about it tonight, and I am sorry you will have to think with your hands tied.”

With this dossier she left me on one of the triangular, raised concrete formations and settled herself on another.

It must have been midnight, when I told her that I wanted to help her and I was willing to wear the suit. Then, she placed her index finger on my forehead and in a meditative state, said, “I can trust you. Here you go, wear it and let me know when you are ready. We will get started right away!”

I wore the suit and appeared in front of her, then she activated something and used some special combinations to make technical adjustments. When she was sure, she asked me to close my eyes and focus on the waves being formed. And as soon as I felt them I was supposed to lock my organic energy with these waves. I tried it for many hours but failed. It was my fourth day and I was still unable to lock my brain with this energy. And when I asked her how she did it, she replied without any astonishment, “According to the scientists my brain had the energy that could automatically sense these waves and with slightest effort I could lock my organic energy with these waves. But I did not know it would be so difficult for someone who does not have the neural wavelength to recognise these waves. But you should keep trying, because according to the scientists, people with lower energy field can also recognise and lock into this energy by training their minds. You said you could feel the extra field of energy created by this sensor-packed suit, so you definitely have crossed the major milestone, now you just need to train your brain to establish a link with these waves.”

I had no choice other than believing her. So, I kept trying and on the twentieth day of my captivity I managed to link my brain with this external energy field generated by this smart suit.

Then she trained me for a few months until she was sure I was able to use it well. 

And it was part of the training at the gorge where she was teaching me how to cause ripples in water and use it by focusing and manipulating magnetic waves. Then if you remember, as she turned, I followed her, and now we are at the top of a rock and she is going to show me something that according to her even the scientist who developed the suit does not know- To become part of the surroundings.

She asks me to observe her keenly, and then, in the next moment she jumped into the water and never re-appeared on the surface. In the next moment, I heard the sound of choppers hovering around me in the mid air making this announcement, “You are surrounded from every side, surrender yourself and you shall not be harmed. If you try to run or escape, we shall shoot.”

For a moment I thought of jumping into the water too and perhaps become invisible, part of water and the gorge holding this water, or find an escape route, like she did Or whatever became of her, I am not sure. That is something only she knows, for me to know it, I just had one choice left, to jump into the water and experience it myself. And the other option was hovering over me in the mid air, where the state agencies along with the scientist were waiting for me to surrender. It was a tough decision. And I finally decided to follow her and experience the thrill called “unknown and never experienced before challenge!”

I looked at the choppers, smiled, and in a moment I hit the surface of the water with a splash, and the last thing I heard was the sound of the choppers and the scientist screaming, “Oh no! Now they can never be found. Never!”

It has been 5 years now, since that incident and my moment of courage, when I jumped into the water. But when I jumped, the girl was waiting for me to see what I would do. As soon as my body touched the surface of the water, she led me to a water channel, and through it we reached a part of the rock formations, unknown to humans, undetected by radars, there, only one form of energy existed, the energy of human feelings and love. And since then we've been together.

We visit towns, we visit the gorge too, but undetected, unseen, only visible to each other, because we have become part of the surroundings and they have become a part of us. 

Now there is no need to run, because there is nothing to escape from. But now we are seeking something, something of our own will of our own choosing. We are learning to become a part of each other and live together in these surroundings that have accepted us as their own part, their integral part. 

This is our short story, and the science fiction, They Loved in 2075, is a science fiction romance that tells a story of two lovers, who live in 2075 and want to feel love, just like humans did long ago. But they struggle to feel human like emotions or feelings, because their excessive interactions with self aware machines have killed their ability to feel and emote like humans. They are humans, but they feel like machines.

It would be right to say that the science fiction novel, They Loved in 2075, attempts to understand how humans will experience love in 2075. This science fiction novel navigates through the possibility of men and women falling in love with machines, without knowing they are robots imitating human emotions. Will you still dare to fall in love in 2075 or will you strive to tell the difference between a human lover and a robotic lover?

This Sci-fi novel tells the story of a man who falls in love with a real woman in 2075. And how he struggles to feel human and keep his emotional composition intact.

This Sci-fi story also aims at revealing why the man chose to love a real woman and not a never ageing and always beautiful woman with synthetic feelings. In 2075, this might be a choice we all will have to make. Especially our children!

Just like I chose to jump into the water. Sometimes, all it takes is the will to jump and dare to believe in what you feel is right. And in 2075, there will be a lot of things that may not be right, and there will be endless things that will be far better than now, but there will always be moments where we will have to dare to jump and not hope for the change, but be that change.

They loved in 2075, is a science fiction novel that envisages the need for this change. And it is good that a scifi novel is promoting good change, because sometimes change does not only come late, but it comes reluctantly. And that is why books referring to this much needed change in the future shall be regarded as messengers sent from the future. To help us create a better and safer future, for the future generations of humans on this planet. 

Science fiction novels are special, and in this regard, They Loved in 2075 is very special, because reading a well written science fiction like this one is seeing the future by proxy.