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Join Date: Sep 2004
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Altered Verdict
This is the first story I've ever really put some effort into and I found I really enjoyed doing it. There are some grammar issues here and there with past/present tense for one but it shouldn't be too bad anywhere. I also thought that I didn't spend enough time illustrating the setting but I'll leave that for you to decide...
Altered Verdict
Candor. A small city running along a smaller river. Not a very interesting setting if you ask me but I guess you didn’t so that’s fine. It’s what the place stands for that’s important so what it looks like shouldn’t matter, right? Even knowing that thought, it’s still such a depressing place, especially today.
Candor is its own country, founded by my father to be free from prejudice against certain areas in scientific research, mainly genetics. My father, the first Altered. My father, the one who doesn’t need a name. My father, the ‘god’ of science. My father… He died only a few years ago, all I know’s that it was during some cyborg experiment. Always took things a few steps too far, guess that’s what this place’s for though… Such a depressing place.
The one good thing I can say about it is that the river’s nice. The Alters say they’re above wasting time here so it’s always quiet. Even though the city’s chaos is just a 5 minute walk away, it’s perfect tranquility here. Sitting against a large tree a few feet up from the shore waiting for a fish to throw a rock at, perfect. Except every once in awhile when an Alter will find me and accuse me of slacking off, and then tell me how I shouldn’t even be in Candor in the first place. Damn Alters and their little city.
“Ah, there you are!” said a man’s voice from back down the path a little.
“Ya, ya, I’ll be gettin’ back to work in a couple minutes…” I said without looking back. Slouched down against my tree a little, getting a bit more comfortable or maybe in defiance a little. Doesn’t matter though because it didn’t discourage this guy any; he just kept walking towards me.
Waiting for him to come over and give the familiar little speech I get from these damn Alters about working harder, I threw my rock into the water thinking of it as one of them. It sank without skipping once, what a terrible day. There weren’t many good sized rocks for skipping in this small forest either. Well, there were tons in the river if you didn’t mind getting your feet wet.
When he finally made his way over, he sat down next to me and just stared into the river. I was in shock, this wasn’t right. What happened to the all-too familiar stare-down and get-to-work speech? Almost seemed like this guy wasn’t an Alter, which couldn’t have been true, I’m the only one ever to enter Candor without any Altered genetics and that was only because I was a certain someone’s son. For a place called Candor, they certainly have a lot of prejudice against us humans.
“Beautiful place, eh?” I said with maybe a bit too much sarcasm. Like an Alter’d understand beauty anyway…
“Yup, it’s why this city was built here you know? Figured the city would get so busy that it would be needed.” he said in a familiar voice. A familiar voice… Who could it be? Alters all sound way too similar to tell apart from their voices or their faces for that matter but that’s something I try not to tell them. Seeing the face might help but I didn’t intend to move to get a good look, not after all the work I put into getting this spot so comfortable. Screw it, I’ll just ask; I’m sure he won’t get too upset if I do know him.
“So, you’re one of the First then?” I asked slyly, or what at the time seemed to be clever, these Alters can see through anything I throw at them. The First were the first generation of them, the ones who built the city.
“What? You don’t remember me?” Oops. “You hate that much that I never had you made into one too?” That’s where I snapped, he had me now, I had to get up and take a look at him.
“Dad…?” I asked quietly after I had shifted my weight enough to see him.
Then his small all-knowing smile came. I shifted back to my spot, not quite finding it again but close enough for now, and put my straight face back on. It wasn’t the first time he’s come back from the dead… “Another media stunt or do you just enjoy making me mourn?”
“Na, they really thought I was dead this time. Can’t blame them though, I was under for a couple years. Good thing they didn’t decide to cremate me, eh?” He’s always had such a dark humour.
“So what happened to your cyborg thing then?” I asked with a smile. It was nice to have him back, even if I knew he was just going to ‘die’ again within a couple days. “And why didn’t you come during my shift and not during break?”
“They told you it was a cyborg this time? Very imaginative aren’t they? It’s too bad they won’t just tell you the truth. We have to get this whole Alter/non-Alter thing taken care of soon, it’s starting to get a bit too far.” Starting? Maybe a couple decades ago.
“Well, looks like break’s almost over. You doing anything in about 8 hours?”
“Don’t worry about it, I got you off your shift, we have something important to talk about.” This would be about the place where you’d get a creepy shiver run down your back. Must be pretty serious if he managed to get me off today, that was like a capital offense to Alters. Getting fired’s the first thing I thought of but they wouldn’t have sent dad for that.
“My project – what I was working on a few years ago was a time prediction device. Well, at first it was just meant to be a super-telescope, to map out every single atom in a very large portion of the universe but I saw its potential the first time I heard of it.
“Once you have that much information mapped out, it’s just a matter of applying a bunch of physics formulas to each particle and then we sit back and watch history unfold! Or reverse it all and go back if you want…”
Decided it was about time I cut in before he really gets carried away with this. He tends to go a bit too far with details, it’s an Alter thing. “I’ve heard that theory before but how’d you ever manage to get enough computer power to pull it off?”
“Right to the hard part, eh? You really have a talent for shortening stories… Should get you to start teaching some of my colleagues.” Like Alters would even sit down in a class taught by a non-Alter but I admit it would be fun.
“Anyways,” he continued quickly noticing I didn’t take his joke the right way, “we turned a brain into a computer. It took a few lab rats but we managed to get everything stored in them and then networked everything through mine so I’d get to experience this first-hand.” Not that I expected anything different but it’s always a shock when talk of using human lab rats comes so easily. Even though it’s why this country was founded and I’ve been around it my whole life, it’s just disturbing. Altered logic is very cold, accurate but cold.
“So how was it? Without any details of course. I wouldn’t want to know if you saw anything about me.” I personally don’t want to know the future; it would be too much like cheating but not actually gaining anything. If they think it’s from some kind of logic, they can just think that. Something about the future having to happen maybe?
“Ha! And to think, they all thought you’d be begging me to tell that stuff! I’ll have to shove that in their faces later.” I had to grin at that, it’s always to show off to an Alter, even if it’s dad doing it for me.
“The trip was chaotic, to say the least. I’ve gained new respect for why you come here so often. I had only a couple years to explore an infinite amount of possibilities along the next few thousand years and to see every detail of the last few thousand years. I’d love to have gone back further but it was all we calculated would be accurate for how much of the universe we could map. Suffice to say, I found a few interesting things.” Noticed another oddity at this point, his hand started shaking. First he got me off of work and now he’s edgy? Something’s definitely off today. For the first time in a very long time I felt cold, very, very cold. Even after being around Alters as long as I have, I never felt anything like that. A bit ironic since the only reason I understood what was happening was because I had been around Alters for so long. Damn, I’m starting to confuse myself now. Dad’s getting edgy, I’m getting confused and there’s this shiver that won’t go away. What a bad day this is turning out to be.
Then he got up and sat down in front of me, right in between me and the river. Right in between me and my tranquility: my peace of mind.
“I learned that for us to live, you have to die.” he said calmly. My eyes shot open, I was scared. I couldn’t move. The chill was gone, it was a snowstorm. This has to be a joke, I know his sense of humour can get a little dark but this was a bit overboard. I felt my heart beating sitting down in front of my tree, waiting for him to start laughing. Just me, him, the tree and my heart beating away. Everything else disappeared.
“Come on,” I started talking slowly, trying my hardest to keep my voice level, “you’re starting to talk like ‘them’.”
“Them as in Alters you mean?” He slowly drew out a large hunting knife. “That’s exactly the problem, you see? How you have started this little anti-Alter movement of yours.” Laying the knife on the ground with a sigh, he paused before continuing. A knife can’t do anything to an Alter; the damn things are way too quick. The only that I can hurt with a knife is myself. The tree pressing harder and harder against my back, there was no doubt that I couldn’t get away. He knew what he was doing and in his twisted Alter logic, he thinks it’s absolutely necessary to do this. Damn Alters…
“You’re going to pass this mentality onto your son and he’s going to set off an anti-gravity bomb which though intended to destroy only this city will tear apart a large piece of this galaxy.”
“So I’m being killed for something an unborn son is going to do? A son born from a woman I haven’t even met yet?” This is insane; I should have left this damn city long ago. And since when has the anti-Alter movement been started by me? They were the ones pushing me too hard, knowing I couldn’t meet their standards. Alters… Damn them. Why isn’t it them that we’re killing? They’re the one’s that deserve it, being all high and mighty up above us humans. “What ever happened to freedom? Equal rights maybe?”
“First of all, freedom doesn’t exist. It’s an ideal we wave in front of pets before yanking back on their leashes. Our bodies are made of many cells which form a prison of flesh and fate we can’t escape until death. Most can’t see this but I have. I’ve stuck my head out of this cage to have a look around, there’s just another larger cage waiting out there. And then equal rights you say? I thought I taught you better then that. It’s a matter for non-Alters to bicker over while we advance ourselves.” That’s the first time he’s ever seriously said ‘non-Alter’ or even implied a difference between us. “I thought when I decided to leave you un-Altered I’d be doing you a favor. At the time, we we’re taking a lot of heat from those damn non-Alters so I decided I wouldn’t force it onto you. I made a mistake, and I’m sorry for that but now’s the time to fix it.” Sounds like asking about justice wouldn’t help things along much either.
“This isn’t cool,” I said starting to lose hope, struggling for words, “it’s evil, you’re evil! Get away!” I jumped to my feet, glad to get away from my tree and started running up towards the city. That scene was starting to get a bit too hot for me with all the killing talk going on.
“Anyone can answer what evil is,” he started yelling as I ran, running after me but keeping a distance, “though this does change from time to time. There are times when even all manner of torturing is not evil and others when it is. If there are exceptions to a definition however, it isn’t correct. The important part to consider in this is when lies are told. If you can understand when it is acceptable to lie, you will have understood what evil really is. I have never lied to you and am not now, you know and understand why I’m doing this, I know you do else I wouldn’t be able to. How does this make me evil? I have seen this conversation many times over the past few years; I saw what you were thinking each time.”
As I came into sight of the gate into the city I understood what he was saying and fell to my knees, looking to the sky as he walked up beside me. There were at least a hundred Alters standing in front of the gate, in a large semi-circle around me, all armed and ready to shoot.
“Believe me when I say, I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t required.”
“At least let me know the name of the son whose sentence I’m serving.”
He tried offering the knife to me again. I refused but it seemed as though he expected I would.
“The kid,” he started while walking away, “I don’t know his name. Since you’ll be dead, he won’t be born and since he won’t be born, he won’t be named. Even the time prediction device isn’t strong enough to tell me about things that will never happen. Fiction is just another subject I leave to you non-Alters while we advance.”
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