Emergence 3.0 - Section One, Jim and Kathy; Part Six, Debriefing; Chapter Three, Screening

Emergence 3.0

A Novel – In One Page Per Day

Day 045, Wednesday

February 14th, 2018

Chapter Three: Screening

Jim flew in his mechanoid body, directly to the center of the world, to the dark heart of the Continuum.

The Continuum was an algorithm, an artificial personality, a construct that was in theory an amalgamation of the trillions of individuals who formed the Collective, Continuum was designed to speak for the whole. It was a being whose instantiation, was thought to be the birth of a voice representing the entire Collective, a single voice that unified the will of the Ancient race who designed the apparatus that had given them eternal life.

Continuum pretended to speak for the vast membership, the Ancient people whose children explored the galaxy, founded the galactic Empire, and came to inhabit a million worlds.

Continuum was the primary filter through which all Observers shared their experiences from the sojourn in the Empire, among the people, in the deep reaches of space.

Jim was already in contact with Continuum as he made his approach to the machinery he would physically connect with.

The contact was perfunctory, it was even conversational, Continuum was a fellow, members of the Collective were conditioned to believe that it was one of them, a peer, another person, not a servant, not merely an administrator, not a ruler (though in fact it was).

Jim talked to it, even as he was probed and scanned and measured for the presence of anything that might harm the Collective.

There was great excitement about his coming, Earth was the most beloved world in the Galaxy, the subject of greatest interest.

Jim connected, opened his consciousness, his memories, his experience, he opened it all to the group mind, while at the same time hiding his intentions deep within himself, prevaricating in ways that he alone had mastered.

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