Like a solar flare, I flew

Despite the clarity of that moment, I still found it very hard to believe everything Switch was telling me. If there was truth in his words then I alone can destroy the Holy Family. As the last human born, my brain is programmed with safeguards designed to disrupt the control that they exercise over the whole world.

Switch’s claim regarding Kernel — that he is an older model of the communication drones — is reasonable enough. I’d like to get that from him directly, but at the moment he’s ignoring me, quietly working on 5’s body. According to Switch he’ll be able to repair most of the damage within an hour or two. Trigger thinks that we should escape when dinner arrives, before 90 takes the chance to kill us. Switch argues that if the Holy Family had wanted us dead, we would never have been born.

That sounds true enough to me but it’s not the Holy Family I don’t trust; it’s their son X I fear. That bastard has visited with me every year on my birthday, carefully analyzing me for information. He once told me that if it weren’t for his mother, he would’ve had me recycled at birth. Apparently the Holy Mother has some affection for me, for my life anyway. Because of those special visits I probably know more of the Holy Family than any other living person. The irony of that probably doesn’t escape X either, who would love to see me destroyed.

He told me once of the history of the world, a basic part of history in school, that three centuries ago, the Holy Father had ruled the entire world. The earth had been inflicted with fire from the sky and the oceans, a war that decimated the entire planet. Outside of the borders of the empire lay ruined nuclear wastelands, populated by posthuman mutants. He carefully controlled every resource of the state, following his promise that never again would the human mind be allowed to create such destruction.

But after fifty years of ruling a stubborn people, he gave up the throne, married a young woman to whom he gave the world as a wedding present, saving only the Holy City as his own. She changed the course of history, extending her husband’s methods further, deep inside the human brain. As time passed, she too passed control of the empire onto a family member, her son Xavier, and allowed her mind to be transferred into an immortal set of circuits, her image appearing only at political formalities. Her husband was rumoured to have once done the same, but he now restricts his movements to the Holy City, though no one has seen him in over a century.

Away to the stars...

When the guard came to our cell with dinner, he didn’t come alone, but the two others behind him stood less of a chance than he did. As quickly as the door was opened, 5 and Switch ripped holes through the walls and pulled the guards’ bodies through before crushing each’s positronic brain. The first guard was shocked and immediately moved to call for backup, but Trigger broke his arms so quickly he didn’t even feel it until his head was shattered against the door. Kernel looked at me mutely and smiled approval.

Without saying a word, Kernel led us through the complex and began telling me — through Switch, of course — the truth behind the Holy Family’s power. Their entire method relied solely on their subjects’ minds being absolutely useless. Thus, he explained, the medications prescribed to every human being on the planet and the specialized educations given to every student.

Thinking about my so-called specialized education made me smile. I was originally scheduled to be a communications drone, but somehow I failed a test that made me immediately eligible for the programming department. I realized that if I passed their test, I’d be separated from the havoc I had begun to associate with Trigger. So I purposely failed and was given diagnostics in the rehabilitation center for a month.

Turns out they only wanted me to design the new service robots for one of the friends of the Holy Family. Like I would want to design a machine to open some bitch’s mail for her because she’s too stupid or rich to do it herself. Right. I think I understand the uselessness of all society. Most people barely know how to tie the laces on their own shoes, let alone repair their own neural network when it goes down.

But as for the bit about the drugs, I’m not sure that I can completely agree. I mean, even if I haven’t always taken my own medication, I’ve taken other people’s. I understand Trigger’s obsession with trading medications with people. Their ingredients were originally designed to balance every person’s brain chemistry almost perfectly, weeding out the mental instabilities that are fairly normal for nature. But what the government did not expect was that a drug custom-designed for one person would have a very different effect on someone else. What started out as an illegal but almost religious practice quickly became a commonplace occurrence on any street corner. And just as the prostitutes support the system that keeps them where they are, so does every other human being. That is, of course, why I stopped taking my own medication in the first place. I don’t like having my mind controlled by anything or anyone.

And that is the primary reason I don’t like having an important piece of programming code in my head unknown to my brain. Even though I know my companions are searching for an escape, I know I must find the Mother Mary to ask why those codes are even there.

At this point, I know that if Mary had wanted me destroyed, she would’ve done it herself a long time ago. But if X wanted me dead, he would have to go around her to do it. But that still leaves a question: why does Mary want me to live and her son want me to die? And then: which is good and which is wrong? If X should kill me, it would not be to his benefit unless I am of use to his enemies... or his mother. Either that or it could merely be for a higher reason, to protect the state or something —but why? Why would not reprogramming be easier?

Trigger insists to me that I’ve asked enough questions already and to please shut the fuck up. I hadn’t realized I was thinking aloud so I thank him. Then I realize that we have stopped walking. Switch leans over to me and tells me that if I want to talk to Mary, now would probably be a good time. I must have had my head up my ass a decent mile because there she was in front of me, surrounded by a guard of about thirty 90s.