NOTE: This is a bit long (5,000+ words), so make sure you're comfortable and got something to drink before you start. And this is soft sci-fi, so don't complain that this couldn't technology can't work; it's only in there to tell the story, not to inspire future scientists. Also, I'm looking to submit this to an anthology, so if you see any grammar/spelling/tense errors I've missed, it would be kind of you to point them out. Thanks, and enjoy!
---------------
“…and to my loving wife, I leave the rest of my estate, but you are to only use the money to fulfill any dream you have had, as long as you are the creator of the end product.” Margaret read this part of Michael’s will again, for the hundredth time, in the hope that she would be able to figure out what he would want her to spend that money on. It was that last part that made her unsure of what he wanted. It was also the reason why she kept thing of what he wanted her to do, not what she wanted to do.
“As long as you are the sole creator.”
All of her dreams and desires were crushed when Michael died. The police said that he was dead before the Maglev stopped, but as an engineer, Margaret knew the physics involved. From the way the people on platform said he tripped, to the speed the train was at, to the way his body was recovered, she knew that Michael was conscious for a few agonizing moments as the train came to a halt…how he was left limp on the track…how he was must have wanted so badly to stand up… to see Margaret…
She placed her shaking copy of the will down on her work desk and stood up. “I can’t keep thinking about this,” Margaret said aloud, “I’m going to go crazy.” She covered her face with her hands, trying to block out the memories of the funeral, of what the security cameras showed, of their wedding, of their courtship, of their first kiss, of the first day they met, of everything, just so she would not cry, so she would not have to fight the demons constantly clawing at her stomach, tying it into knots and forcing her to spend days motionless in bed. She wanted to forget how much she loved him, how much he loved her, how disappointed she was, how disappointed she is, that they never had a child together…
“Wait,” she whispered, “I know what he wants me to do.” Margaret was strangely calm now. Now with a purpose, she had no need for the useless emotions she had felt moments ago. Quickly she went to work at her computer, shaping the initial blueprint for her and Michael’s baby.
-------
For weeks Margaret drafted her baby, her hands flying along the screen, connecting this module to that power converter, that internal cooling system to the lithium crystal circuit. Diagrams and measurements flooded the screen, and many more waited in the wings, hoping to be used eventually. She barely left her chair, and when she did, it was only use the projector to view her creation in full. She worked all day and night, until exhaustion took over her, leaving her to cuddling with her life’s most important work.
Margaret spent hours a day in front of the Drawing Board, trying to get the baby to function properly. After the simulation came back with no failures, smile appeared on Margaret’s face for the first time in weeks. Finally, the design was finished – every physical aspect of her child was complete. Now all he needed was the code to make him live.
The following weeks were spent trying to develop his brain, programming what he needed to do to survive. Where he needed to go, how that part moved, how he could learn about what he wanted, what he desired. Margaret feverishly typed in the sequences of code into the Hub, watching computer simulations of what the baby would do with this program.
And after five months of arduous, intense work, Michael and Margaret finally conceived a baby boy. Margaret smiled contently as she backed up all of the files onto the small white Memory, the indicator light flashed a soft blue to acknowledge the completion.
Picking up her Drawing Board and gliding across the floor, she went to the intercom and commandingly said “RAY!”
A lucid voice came back. “Yes Margaret, what can I do for you?” A faint whisper of electronicism carried over the speaker with the polite words.
“RAY, I need you to make sure that the construction area’s outer doors are sealed. I’m going to be working in there for a while. Oh, and can you make sure that all of the materials on this Memory are around?”
“I will do that Margaret. May I ask, what are you building?” The calm voice responded.
Margaret nodded for a moment, thinking of what to say. “I’m… I’m building Michael’s and my baby.” She felt strange saying it aloud, as if the idea of it was crazy. But it was completely sane; it was a union of Michael’s money and Margaret’s ideas, and it was as precious as a child to Margaret.
“Oh, this is wonderful news Margaret! I know that Michael’s death has been hard on you, but I knew that once you put your mind to working on something, you would feel much better.” Margaret inserted the Memory into the slot below the speaker to allow the computer to analyze the diagrams, codes and lists. “And your project is even better than I expected. May I ask, would you like me to also call for a construction team? This seems to be a rather complex baby.”
Margaret turned her head from the intercom, a distant look in her eyes. She stared off toward the Drawing Board, but Michael stared back from behind the schematics. A shiver ran through her body as she held off tears long enough to speak “No. I’ll be building it myself.”
---------
Months passed with Margaret working determinedly on her child, doting over him as she slowly pulled him together, piece by piece. Materials were brought into the workshop daily, only to be quickly consumed by a saw, a plasma cutter, a laser welder, a soldering iron. Wires were coupled and attached to circuit boards, metal was cut then connected then cut again, hydraulics were put into place and tested again and again.
Margaret put as much effort into building her baby as she had into designing. Rarely a moment went by without her hammer away on that piece, bending this piece, connecting those pieces, slicing through these pieces. She worked through the tedium of manual labor, trying to finish her child as soon as possible, even if it killed her. Margaret barely ate, never showered, and only slept long enough to worry whether she’ll finish on time.
And then she was done.
The large steel bowl sat in the middle of the construction area, looking like a large bird’s nest. It was a hundred and fifty feet across and thirty feet deep at the center. The walls of the bowl were only a foot thick, but contained all of this large child’s organs. The blood vessels, the joints, the muscles, the stomach – it was all enclosed in there.
But the baby did not have a Brain.
The glass dome arrived soon after the completion of the bowl, and months after the project began. The dome was the centerpiece for Margaret’s baby, as it contained all of the most vital parts of it. It was magnificent - the glass curved sensuously, starting nearly a hundred feet above. The glass billowed down to the ground, taking up seventy-five feet in either direction.
Finally, dirt and plants were shipped from Earth, while she bought hundreds of gallons of water from the Spiritus, Mars. Genetically created animals were birthed just for this project, and they all met the strict requirements necessary to live in their newly built habitat.
Carefully Margaret directed the soil into the bowl, filling it two-thirds of the way. Then, she sowed her grass seeds throughout the bowl, and tested the irrigation system again. Once Margaret was satisfied with the thick brown soup, she put in the trees and fauna she imported into it, making sure that they had plenty of room to take root and grow. A dozen trees, three dozen shrubs and bushes, hundreds of flowers, all planted inside her baby.
This newborn now had a Brain.
Margaret waited a little while more, allowing the flora to connect with the soil in their unique symbiotic relationship, before she introduced the tamed animals to her son. He was precious, he was special, he was unlike any son before him. He was the future, he was the present, he was the past, all in one electronic Floating Island.
Ten months after conception, the baby was born.
“RAY,” Margaret said, stumbling over to the speaker on the wall, “RAY, can you bring me to my room?” She could barely stand, teetering on the verge of physical and mental collapse.
“Right away, Margaret.” Ray responded calmly, a hovering chair gliding up to the exhausted new mother, allowing her to fall into it. “Might I say, Margaret, your baby is quite beautiful.” But Margaret did not hear a word; she was fast asleep, trying to recover from her labor pains.
--------
Margaret awoke two days later, still groggy and tired. Carefully she emerged from her den and made her way to her baby.
The beautiful newborn was fast asleep in the construction area; blue, orange and green lights speckling the gray outer hull. Peacefully, they faded on and off, emitting their soft luminescence over the other machines. The wildlife inside calmly paced their new home, still getting used to their new, magnificent body. Simulated wind caused the trees to sway and the fauna to rustle. Margaret could not help but to be amazed at what she and Michael had created.
Margaret took a few cautious steps towards the newborn, paused for a moment, then continued her path. A smile crept over her face as she neared her son. She went up to her baby and caressed his sides, feeling the warmth emanating through. She gazed at the top of the glass dome, stretching so far above her, so far above anything she has ever done. Even though she could not see inside of him, Margaret knew that the plants and animals were thriving and ready to expand and grow and create and move.
RAY’s soft electronic voice chirped in over the speakers. “Your baby is very beautiful, Margaret. May I ask, have you picked out a name for him yet?” Margaret stood at the base of her baby, contemplating what he was, what he meant to her, what he meant to Michael. There were a few more moments before Margaret spoke.
“LYLE. His name is LYLE.” She said before turning to face RAY’s terminal. “It stands for Living Yet Lifeless Entity.”
“That is an interesting name choice, Margaret,” RAY responded, “May I ask, how did you arrive at this name?”
“LYLE is my son, my baby.” She began to take steps towards RAY. “He can breath, he can move, he has an active brain far more complex than any computer can ever hope to have. He is a living being to me, his mother. And yet, he’s just a pile of metal and circuits thrown together with some dirt in it. He won’t get a job, he won’t make any friends, he won’t even be able to talk to me. And because of this, no one out there will think he’s alive. They’ll just see heap of machinery, say ‘how pretty’ and continue their lives. He’s dead before he could even be considered alive.” Every word was imbued with ferocity; intensity radiated from her eyes. She was directly in front of RAY’s speaker, her face mere inches from the cover.
RAY, not accustomed to seeing Margaret like this, hesitated before speaking, unsure of how his question would be received. “I do not mean to offend, Margaret, but may I ask, what is the purpose of your son, LYLE?”
Margaret backed away a little, slightly surprised at the question. Wasn’t his purpose obvious? She looked back at RAY, anger flowing from her weak body. “LYLE has a purpose. He is going to create. He is going to bring joy to an entire planet. He will revive a dead planet. He is going to be the savior of a world. You see, once he has matured, once his Brain is functioning like it should, LYLE will land on a planet that barely has a microbe on it, and remove his dome, allowing his Mind to roam freely across the planet, and give it life, revitalize the dry soil. He’ll be considered a god to the creatures that come from him, and rightfully so.”
Never has Margaret felt so much passion for any project like she has for this one. But this was her son, and she knew what he is, what he was going to do, and no one was going to tell her otherwise. She knew exactly what LYLE was capable of, and was going to help her child reach that potential, no matter the cost.
RAY broke the silence in the hope that the usually collected Margaret would calm down. “May I ask, Margaret, when will LYLE’s maiden voyage be?”
“Next week. January 2nd,” Margaret said, not missing a beat, “I need to get all the supplies necessary for his journey.”
“But Margaret,” RAY responded, slight confusion seeping through his electronic voice, “I have already supplied you with everything you requested for LYLE. He has everything he could possibly need for a journey of any length. May I ask, Margaret, why do you need more supplies?”
“Because, RAY,” Margaret said, a sobering seriousness cast over her, like the air before a sudden thunderstorm, “I’m going with him.” Without a chance for RAY to protest or question, Margaret shut off his Voice Box and shoved a Memory into RAY’s slot. She leaned in close to the microphone, her breath dampening the wall around small inlet. Deadly calm, she instructed RAY, “Now, you’re not going to say anything against what I’m doing. I am going to leave, no matter what you say. I will guide my baby for as long as I feel necessary, and I will be back when he doesn’t need me anymore. That could take a year, ten years, it could take my lifetime. But I plan on seeing my child grow up to his full potential. Get everything on that drive in this construction area and ready to go by January 2nd, or I’ll cut you out of every wall on this station, by hand if I have to.”
Margaret left the Memory in RAY as she strode way, leaving his Voice Box off.
---------
Margaret confidently walked into the construction yard, her purple nylon suit hugging her body. Confidence and purpose shone in her every movement, a light that has never been there before. Everything about today was new and exciting for Margaret. But this was a different kind of new and exciting. This was not some project that was changing the world, or some experiment that would revolutionize science. This was a new future, not just for her, not just for her son, but for the universe. LYLE was going to make, create, produce something no one, and no thing, has every done before. Something entirely unique, something so singular, that nothing, that no one will be able to accurately duplicate what LYLE will do. And this knowledge that she built what will one day be considered a god made Margaret feel something she has never felt before, and will never feel again. And this day will begin her and LYLE’s journey to fulfilling that destiny.
“RAY! Is everything ready?” Margaret asked as she lined up at the port to the small craft. She slipped on her helmet and tightened her gloves and boots, making sure she was ready to guide her son.
Ray paused for a moment, running a quick scan of the ship and the supply list before saying “Yes, Margaret, everything is exactly as you requested.” A touch of melancholy floated along with his words.
Not breaking her routine, Margaret clamped on her helmet and began to make sure the connections were tight as she responded “Good. Get the ship started.” She said over the microphone in the helmet. Margaret was satisfied with her suit and walked into the ship. With a deep rumble and a long shiver, the spaceship shook itself wake, lighting up the expansive cabin inside with a brilliant white light. The twin rectangular engines slowly warmed up to a dazzling shade of emerald green. Margaret leaned over flicked a few switches in the cockpit, before going back outside to talk to RAY.
“RAY,” Margaret said, losing the façade of an in-charge space captain, “I want you to know that I might not be coming back.” She paused, looking down as she collected her thoughts and emotions. She looked up and continued, “I want to thank you for everything you’ve done for me, my husband, and my child. I… I really appreciate it. I want to take you with me, but I can’t. I need to raise LYLE on my own. I created him, and I’m responsible for raising him. I want you to stay here, and help whoever else comes along.” Margaret pursed her lips and looked off to the side, trying to muster the courage to continue. Then she got half of a smirk, and looked back towards RAY’s terminal, “You know, I based LYLE’s virtual architecture off of your’s. So, I guess a little bit of you will be coming along anyway.” The smirk went away, and a tear appeared. “Goodbye, RAY.”
“Goodbye, Margaret.”
And with that, Margaret went into the ship and sat down in the pilot’s seat, surrounded by buttons, levers, and switches. She pressed the right combination to get the ship off of the floor and turned towards the door. She looked out of the window back towards RAY. RAY sat silently, his terminal emotionlessly facing the other end of the construction area. She sighed and nodded her head a little before turning back to her mission. She pulled a few levers and pressed a few buttons and the massive inner doors opened up. LYLE, as if attached by a rope, followed obediently behind Margaret’s ship, hovering above the floor, then silently gliding forward. Mother and son waited together as the chamber decompressed. Now Margaret turned to LYLE, sitting patiently, his Mind full of plants and animals that sleepily stirred as her child moved. A slight smiled appeared as she imagined what this fantastic journey was going to be like.
--------------------
Out in space, Margaret raised LYLE into a beautiful young man. She nurtured him, watching him float along in tail, making sure he was alright. She constantly sat behind her computer, checking the readings that came in. She monitored her child’s vitals, seeing if this part or that circuit was functioning properly. Tirelessly she labored to guarantee that her baby was growing and maturing properly.
LYLE contently floated along behind Margaret’s ship, happily following its mother, wherever she led him. LYLE’s mind continued to grow and expand. What started out as a small cluster of trees and shrubs grew to a thick, dense forest that was the very definition of life. Animals pranced in harmony throughout the jungle, blissfully enjoying their island. They did not care that they were a billion miles from the nearest planet, or that they were the Brain of a child-machine; they just grew and played and unknowingly prepared to be spread to an unknown and dead planet.
Twelve years after LYLE was born, Margaret finally got the readings she desired. It was time for LYLE to go out on his own, to find a planet, and share his Brain with it.
Margaret sorted through files and screens on the computer, searching for a reason why her son should have to stay just a little while longer. She triple checked all of the readouts on his systems – his mechanics, his code, his Brain – but they all said that LYLE had matured. Margaret even inspected him by herself, and could not admit that anything was wrong.
Every indictor said that LYLE did not need his mother anymore, and yet, Margaret could not allow her son to go off on his own. What if something happened to him? What if he doesn’t find a good planet? What if he malfunctions and his Mind dies? A million questions ran through her head as she looked out at her son, playfully sitting in the void that surrounded him. She paced the cabin, not wanting to accept the obvious facts. She looked back out at LYLE to watch him comfortably suspended in space, him Mind peacefully moving about. She knew that it had to be done.
After almost thirteen years of effort, toiling day in and day out to not only create her son but to maintain him, and make sure that he was a healthy and strong young man, Margaret did not want to leave him. This was not just her own project; this was Michael’s project too. This living piece of engineering majesty, this testament to love and life and creation, this amazing being of metal and dirt and blood and leaves and electricity and silicon and everything, meant more to Margaret more than any kind of recognition she received for it. He meant more than just the joy it brought her to look out and see her son obediently behind her. He was Margaret’s son, her only son, and the only son she will ever have. He was going to alter the course of an entire planet, changing a world forever and for the better. And Margaret wanted to be around to see that. Yet, she also knew that LYLE could never complete his mission without cutting his tether to her.
Margaret looked out of her window at her son, floating in the sky over Somewhere, not entirely sure of where he was going to end up, but knowing what he was going to do when he got there. Without being able to express a single emotion, Margaret knew what LYLE was thinking and feeling.
Margaret pressed her hand against the glass and swallowed the hard lump in her throat. She imagined LYLE was doing the same. Her lip quivered. Tears grew in her eyes. She imagined LYLE continuing on and finding a nice planet to settle on. Her breathing was staccato. She faked a half smile. She imagined LYLE opening his Brain and spreading it across a planet. Without removing her hand from the glass and her eyes from her child, she forcefully threw the lever, releasing LYLE from her ship. She imagined LYLE being happy wherever he went. She tried to imagine herself happy wherever she went.
---------
LYLE continued to drift through the cosmos, drawn unknowingly towards some mysterious planet, some immeasurable distance away. But LYLE did not care. LYLE peacefully accepted this fate, and actually enjoyed it. He knew that he had to go somewhere to complete his mission, but he did not care where that was. So, he continued on, floating away like a wayward ship lost at sea.
For years LYLE drifted like this, no one around him to guide or help. Margaret was long gone, off to a planet years away, and the vacuum of space pushed everyone else away. He just continued forward, alone. But LYLE did not care that he was alone, because his Brain continued to grow and expand until it pressed against the outer edges of LYLE’s glass skull, ready to explode and pour into the universe right then and there. The animals and plants yearned to be free, hoping to be out of LYLE’s Mind and onto the world, and this made LYLE happy. He knew that as long as his Mind grew, that he would have a place to retreat whenever he felt like an outcast.
Finally, LYLE flew into a solar system. This system contained hundreds of planets, slowly following their elliptical patterns around the massive Blue Giant sun. Every world had their own color, reds and pinks and blues and greens and purples and golds and silvers and whites and oranges and yellows, all with a hundred different shades. Like floating Christmas ornaments, the planets hung marvelously in rings, all waiting for LYLE to land on them.
LYLE began to search through the multitudes to find the perfect planet, the planet that would be able to handle his Mind, to be able to cultivate it and allow it grow. LYLE zipped through the system, starting with the outer planets, scanning the atmosphere and dirt below to figure out if this was the right place. He kept moving on, finding a different problem with each planet; this one had too thick an atmosphere; that one had too arid of a soil; those three were covered in ice.
He finally made it into the middle of the system. Coldly, he looked down at this next planet, calculating the average wind speeds and humidity, amongst other things, just as he did with every planet before this one. LYLE found his flaws in this planet, and coldly, just as with all of the other planets before this one, left to find another suitable home. As he floated on, an asteroid hurtled towards LYLE. Quickly, he made an attempt to avoid the spinning rock. He slide vertically, but it was not fast enough; the shooting star clipped the bottom of LYLE, causing him to begin flip and spin uncontrollably. He fought to right himself, using everything he had to get back to where he was, but he continued his wild spiral across space, unable to stop his turbulent descent in a place where he could not fall.
Finally, LYLE was able to right himself. His Brain was shaken, but the animals seemed to enjoy the ride, and invigoration spread across LYLE’s Mind. The animals stretched and fluffed themselves, more ready than ever to escape the ever narrowing confines of LYLE’s dome.
LYLE did a systems check. His hull was fine, a little dented, but nothing that worried him very much. His hardware seemed intact; all of the wires had remained connected, the motherboards and powerful chips and not loosened or came undone, the gears and hydraulics all kept their original positions and shapes and grease. The programming had not lost a single line of code, and each one functioned perfectly. So, not sensing any danger, LYLE continued on, searching for his planet.
Months passed as LYLE looked for his world to conquer, unable to find a suitable planet that would be able to handle his Mind. Finally, LYLE reached a planet that was ready to what was contained inside of LYLE’s Mind. Brunette waters weaved across the land and lapped against sapphire shores. Beautiful snow capped mountains rose out of the shattered desert, while soft green clouds obscured vast expanses of tan earth. This planet was alone and empty, while LYLE was alone and full. This would be day he would fulfill his mission, the reason he was created, the goal he spent years attempting to complete.
LYLE moved into orbit around the planet, and, when the proper place to land was established, he began his entry into the planet. As his orbit drew closer to the planet, excitement, or possibly trepidation, grew within the Mind. The animals moved around their enclosure, pacing through the quivering grasses and shivering trees. But when LYLE thought that his mission was successful, his fifteen year pilgrimage had reached the Holy Land, LYLE’s internal sensors bellowed intense screams. His Mind shrieked and howled, shaking and fighting against the ground, against the glass. Everything was in pain, crying out for it to end. LYLE quickly turned around and ran from the pain, and the beauty.
In the safety of the vast expanse of outer space, LYLE ran a diagnostic test on himself. Every system was yelling in pain, and LYLE had no idea what was wrong. He continued to search, deeper and deeper he went, until he finally discovered the problem. Dismayed, LYLE saw that the protective layer around LYLE that prevented heat from entering was damaged, right where the asteroid stuck. Without it, LYLE could not descend on a planet with an atmosphere. This beautiful planet could accept LYLE, wanted to accept LYLE, yet he was unable to approach the desolate planet waiting to be populated.
Alone, broken, and disheartened, LYLE drifted on, searching for a new planet that would accept him. A planet he could land on without getting hurt. Circling the solar system like a small bubble in a drain, he continued his search.
LYLE drifted, finding planets that allowed him to enter their atmosphere. Yet, every single one of those planets were ugly; surfaces pockmarked with craters and canyons and caves, black sands mounding around dark green oceans, dirty yellow clouds hovering a few hundred feet above. These planets could not sustain LYLE’s Mind, let alone deserve to have LYLE’s Mind roam across the planet.
So, LYLE continued, probing the solar system for the perfect, mythical planet. He floated past world after world, disgusted with each one, disgusted with himself. LYLE was desperate to complete what life expected of him. He tried to solve the problems he encountered at each planet, trying to find a way to live with the faults, trying to find a way to keep living. But nothing could stop the depression from becoming ingrained in his circuitry as his every attempt to merge with a lonely, lifeless sphere was met with rejection.
LYLE slowly became more dejected, losing his faith in life. LYLE continued on, barely scanning planets anymore, hardly caring about what happened to his now restless and overgrown Brain. The animals inside were overcrowded, at the verge of attacking each other. The plants were coughing and choking on the thin air, and starving from the lack of nutrients in the soil. LYLE’s Mind cried and howled in agony, wishing to be freed upon a planet, any planet. Yet LYLE could not, did not acknowledge that his Mind needed to be free. He merely continued on, slowly circling closer and closer to the massive star in the center of this system, looking for perfection.
----End----
Yes, I know that there was some "random" capitalizations. That was done on purpose, as those are the commercial names of those things. Also, do you think it needs to be split into 2 parts because of the length, plot, metaphors/symbols, etc (I'm thinking between the construction and the raising, if need be)?
Gender:
Points: 1333
Reviews: 19