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The Adam Project

The world has ended but the future can be saved

By G. Dean ManuelPublished 3 years ago 17 min read
1
The Adam Project
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

When I woke up, I knew the world had ended.

BUNI (Biointegrated Unified Nanite Interface) looked at me with his wide marble eyes. He was in the form of a former toy of mine, one my parents had built for me, a lopsided stuffed rabbit doll with its tongue lolling from its mouth. He was bigger than I remember and spoke strangely. One of the perks of having nanotech engineers as parents is you get cool toys like stuffed bunny rabbits that talk. "Subject Adam. Status: Active. Good morning, Adam. How was your sleep?"

How was my sleep? I didn't know how to respond so I dodged his inquiry with a question of my own. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Query answer: One hundred and seventy-two Earth years," BUNI replied.

I paused, waiting for the shock of the pronouncement to catch up with me. I knew I should have felt something but I didn't. Not in any real sense. Everyone and everything I had known, my whole world was one hundred and seventy-two years gone. It should have devastated me. But here I was receiving the news calmly. "What is the status of the Green?" I asked, though I knew the answer.

"Query answer: The Green has successfully completed terraforming the planet and has deactivated. This is why you were activated."

The Green. Our world's shining achievement and our downfall. Our planet's history was one written in blood. Any country that wished to last was an Industrialized War Complex. Or they had been, I reflected. They were gone now. The Green had scoured them all away. It was a beacon of hope in a world that had none. And nothing stopped hope. Ha. Maybe it is inappropriate to joke but then again, no one was left to judge me.

The Green was a miracle of nanotechnology. Tiny robots that were little bigger than molecules, designed to terraform inhospitable planets to sustain

Then someone asked, "What would we be taking to the stars?" It was a good question. What would we bring to these new planets? A life full of love and happiness? The general consensus was a resounding no. We would just end up infecting the universe with the same hatred and intolerance that fed our Industrialized War Complexes. Now they say it was an accident but I know better. Someone released the Green on our planet. If it had been an accident, they would have been able to be stopped. Someone had sabotaged the programming. Someone had wanted to spare the universe the virus that was us.

It was a marvel to see. The Green was a cleansing wave that washed over the planet. Nothing was safe. It started with the removal of organic material. I watched at a monitor with my parents as people were... consumed. Broken down into component parts. My parents estimated that it would take less than a week for the Green to successfully end all life on the planet.

Mother and Father began working furiously. At first, I thought they were working on a solution to the Green. I began to suspect that they were a part of whatever organization had wanted the clean slate. They didn’t seem at all surprised and it seemed that they were prepared. Soon, I found out what they were working on: me. They had built me a body composed of nanites to upload my consciousness into. The nanites would form a neural net where my consciousness would reside. I looked like me. Well, I was a bit bigger. Basically, the same twelve-year-old that I had been, just upgraded, I guess.

New information flooded my brain. Along with an upgraded body, I was given access to a wealth of information. I was a repository of a world’s worth of knowledge.

I had a mission, though. I needed to get to SWORD (SouthWestern Organism Research and Development). It is where I would meet my other half and restart life on the planet. The plan was that once the Green had done its job, I would be activated. I would seek out SWORD and combine with the EVE program to restore animal life on the planet. It would not be a short process. Eve and I would combine and our nanites would become a retrovirus that would seek out the world's indigenous population, mainly one-celled organisms, and implant DNA sequences. Eventually, they would evolve into a variety of different lifeforms.

The reason they chose to use two children (yes, EVE is a child also) instead of automating the whole process is a bit more sticky. It came from our parents’ belief that life should be born of the union of two souls. But, for a clean slate, those could not be adult souls. They needed to be innocent of the world's folly. ADAM and EVE.

“Are you ready, BUNI?” I asked but it was a stall tactic.

“Query answer: I was created with the express purpose of being prepared for this moment. My programming has not failed.”

I thought I sensed a bit of indignation in BUNI’s response even though it was delivered with the same measured tone. I smiled. I wouldn't say it but I was scared. Much less than the situation warranted but afraid nonetheless. Once I opened those doors I would know if the sacrifice of a billion lives had amounted to anything. And if I would continue on to my end.

“Query: Should I initiate door unlocking sequence?” BUNI asked, unaware of the emotional struggle I was having. He looked up at me with calm, patient eyes.

“Yes,” I said tightly, for some reason not wanting to show my fear to my childhood friend and toy. He turned and extended a data prod towards a port near the door. A few seconds later, a recessed whirring sound could be heard. It would take a few minutes but the door began to finally open. If I still breathed, I would have been holding my breath. One hundred and seventy-two years was long enough for almost anything to go wrong.

The facility where we were housed was underground. So, the door opened into a cavern that contained an elevator. We stepped on to the platform and BUNI once more manipulated the data port. The elevator exploded silently into motion. I was glad my new existence dampened my emotions, I remembered being extremely claustrophobic. It barely made me anxious as the elevator ascended through minutes of unrelieved rock walls.

Finally, the platform shuddered to a stop. My pulse should have quickened. Something. Anything. But nothing until I saw sunlight. Golden. Pure. I practically ran to the cave entrance. As soon as I hit the sunlight, it was like something flipped. I realized it had. The nanites had been running an energy-saving program but with sunlight, they were activating more fully. A HUD display came to life in my field of view with all sorts of readings. Long story short, the planet was perfect for sustaining life. And the view, it was absolutely breathtaking. The world that once was a thing of concrete and silicon had been made anew. In the old world that was, trees were a rarity. But spread out in front of me in its awesome glory was a virgin wilderness that extended as far as the eye could see!

I took a deep breath… and was disappointed. My new body, as advanced as it was, did not taste the purity of the air. Instead, I got a readout of air quality. No doubt, it was impressive. The planet’s atmosphere had recovered almost completely from the Industrialized Military Complex. It wasn't the same as tasting it, though.

I tried to mask my disappointment. I was in a brand new world and shouldn't let something so trivial dampen that. Where once had stood hulking towers of glass and steel now rose trees, haunting and majestic. Where once concrete streets and paths had dominated the landscape, now lush and verdant vegetation held sway. The wind howled and I could just imagine all the lively scents it carried, even if I couldn't smell them.

“Well, there should be words but I have none. Plus it is only you and I to hear them anyways, BUNI.” There would be no more stalling, I was excited. With the sun on my face, I felt more like myself than I had since I woke up. I realized that as more of the nanites were coming back online, they were adding their processing power to the overall neural net, allowing more of his programmed consciousness to the fore. I never really thought about what it took to make up a human. The processing power was immense… Nature was amazing.

I took my first step into this New World. When nothing happened, I took my second…

Machines hummed to life. A dark, red mechanical eye awoke and scanned the area. Its computer brain scanned the available data, ascertaining why it had been brought back online. Subject ADAM was active. It began the process of preparing subject EVE for his coming. More machines winked to life, starting the programs to bring back life on the planet.

“Query: Adam, I do believe there are fruits over here if you wish to try them,” BUNI said in his electronic voice.

I sighed. BUNI had been offering me different vegetation for the last day and a half. I had been excited at first, until I realized that the taste receptors of my new body were rudimentary at best. I could taste the basics: salt/no salt, sweet/bitter, hot/cold. The many nuances that food holds were now denied me. “No, thank you, BUNI. And can you please start talking like you used to?”

“Linguistics modified. But, Adam, you must keep up your strength.”

“I’m made of nanites now. Eating is unnecessary.”

“Ah. I was unaware that you had ascertained your new situation. Adjusting accordingly.” And that was that, BUNI stopped asking me questions like that.

We had been traveling for almost a week. It was wondrous. It was primordial. I could almost imagine giant lizards stomping across this world, great thunder lizards. Dinosaurs. But they were in the ancient past. This was the future. One that I had to rebuild. I began to feel flush. Slightly queasy.

“Adam, is everything alright? I am getting some very odd readings from you.” BUNI asked, robotic concern written across his lolling tongued rabbit face.

“I…” I started but my voice trailed off. I knew what was happening. I was having a panic attack. It was all too much. The weight of the future rested on the shoulders of a twelve-year-old. No matter that those shoulders were constructed of metal now.

“Adam, give me your hand, please,” BUNI instructed.

I gave BUNI my hand. He took it into his stuffed paws. I could see something flash across his eyes for half a second then I began to feel better. The panic receded, like a wave pulling back. It was still there but had been dulled.

“BUNI, what did you do?” I asked, only slightly curious.

“I reinitialized your emotional dampeners.”

“Oh,” was all I said. We continued on from there. The world had become less vibrant but I did not know it at the time. It would be another week before we reached SWORD…

The proximity alarm sounded within the tiny complex. Subject ADAM was on approach. The red eyes flicked over to the front gate monitor and it burst into picture. There Adam and BUNI stood, BUNI manipulating the door mechanism. The red-eye fed the last few instructions to its operating system, those last tasks that needed to be done before the installations were dissolved.

I waited at the door patiently. SWORD was an unassuming building. It looked more like a utility shack than the last hope of humanity. The door finally opened with a swish of stale air. Inside was a simple room filled with a capsule and a red-eye that extended from the ceiling on a long, robotic arm. Inside the capsule was a girl. Eve.

I stepped inside and submitted to a scan by the red-eye. Once it had confirmed my identity, it fed the data into the system. With this final bit of data, the capsule began final preparations to release its occupant. I felt a faint tug of apprehension. Nothing disconcerting. Without much fanfare, the capsule opened. A small part of me objected to this, that there should not be any gravitas to this situation. Just three robots watching a capsule open.

Out tumbled a little girl. She looked around with wide, frightened eyes. She swiveled between BUNI and the red-eye before settling on me. “Wh-where am I?”

I smiled. Or at least I hoped I smiled. “You are in the SouthWestern Organism Research and Development facility. SWORD, for short.”

“That’s where my Daddy works.”

“Worked. They all died about one hundred and seventy years ago.”

Eve recoiled as if she’d been slapped. I cursed myself; it had been a dumb thing to say and in such a cold manner. I should have known better. “I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me. Were you aware of what they did to you?”

Eve looked up at me with distraught eyes. She merely nodded her head. She began to cry. I stood there awkwardly waiting for her to finish. When she was done, she looked up at me. It was odd how the tears were produced and then reabsorbed by her skin. I was sure that the tears were comprised of nanites and were just being redistributed within her system. “Are you Adam?” she asked.

“I am,” I said simply. I didn’t trust myself not to make another stupid comment that may set off another fit of hysterics.

“I thought you were going to be my age!”

“How old are you?”

“Eleven.”

“I’m twelve,” I said.

“You don’t act like you’re twelve,” Eve said, a bit petulantly.

“I am, though.”

Eve shrugged as if to say it didn’t matter. I began to suspect that she was struggling with something. I decided that the direct approach was probably not the wisest course of action. I decided to wait until she decided to share. A few minutes passed and she finally looked up and said, “I don’t want to do this.”

It took me a moment to realize what she was talking about. “But that is what we were spared for,” I said in my best commanding voice.

“I don’t want to die,” she said and stopped me in my tracks.

“It is…” I started but looked in her eyes. Duty meant nothing to an eleven-year-old. At least not this one. It shouldn’t matter as much to me, I realized. I looked down at my hand and realization dawned on me. She and I were on a different level.

“Your fear of death is completely natural. BUNI can help you with that. He just needs to adjust your settings,” I said, matter-of-factly.

She recoiled once more from me. “We aren’t robots! We’re kids! They can’t just reset us!” she cried, giving BUNI an evil glance, “We are people, not robots. At least I am.” She gave me a scathing glance as only an eleven-year-old girl could do.

“I think you are correct, Adam, I could adjust her emotional dampener and that should correct any distress she may be feeling,” BUNI said.

“Any distress? That’s called being human!” Eve cried.

Adam found himself torn between the two. What BUNI said made sense but what Eve said held weight. It was easier to go on with the emotional dampener blocking the worst of his emotions but was that actually fixing anything? “I…” he started once more.

“I don’t know about your Mommy and Daddy, but mine told me that I was on an important mission. That I was going to save the human race. They said that I had to do it because I wasn’t a robot, I was special. That we had something that no robot ever had,” Eve said.

“A soul?”

“Yeah, that’s it,” she said, excitedly, “He said that robots are great and all, but the human race needed to be born from two people that feel! Can you see the problem? I’m afraid to die and instead of helping me, you want to shut me off. I want to feel and I want to do this but… I can’t do it if I’m the only one that feels.”

I looked at Eve, at how determined she was. What she said made no real logical sense but it still made sense. It resonated somewhere deep inside of me. I knew what I had to do even though it would be difficult. I stuck my hand out and said, “BUNI, deactivate my emotional dampeners.”

I had imagined he would have given me a quizzical look but BUNI was a robot. He followed commands. He turned off the dampeners that had been suppressing a great flood of emotions for a week. I was standing directly in their path when the wave broke over me.

Eve was amazing. She comforted me and I tried my best to comfort her. I can admit that she was much better at it than I was.

I don’t know how long we stayed that way. She cradled me in her tiny arms, holding me with a strength that was belied by her tiny form. I cried a tiny nanite river of tears that was quickly reabsorbed by my cheeks. After the tears, we sat in silence.

Eve was the one who broke the silence. She stroked my hair and looked down with a mischievous twinkle in her eye and asked, “Do you want to go outside?”

I chuckled. I’d already been outside but Eve had not. But, truth be told, I was just as excited to explore our new world with her. I had not truly experienced it yet, not with the full extent of myself. I nodded excitedly.

So, off we went.

And what a world it was. We explored our environs. At first, we kept ourselves close to the SWORD installation, never admitting to each other that we felt safe close to it. It was our connection to our old life, our safety net. But as the days wore on into weeks, the need for that connection faded. The wonders of our new life took us and soon enough we walked away from SWORD and didn’t look back.

We played tag around trees the size of towers. We lay atop mushrooms as big as houses and were dazzled by a night sky so black that millions of stars could be seen. We frolicked in fields of flowers as large as windmills. We became scientists discovering new life, explorers discovering new lands, knights defending kingdoms from imagined dragons.

Our hearts filled with wonder, then slowly, shyly, they filled with each other. It began with furtive glances of eyes that darted away when caught looking, bashful smiles perched on our lips. Through the magic of time, those transformed into soulful stares and stolen kisses under the shade of monolithic boughs. Soon, our new world expanded with this new shared experience.

Our weeks turned into months, then our months to years until one particularly fine day, with Eve relaxed in my arms, sitting idle near a babbling brook, she looked up at me and said, “Adam, I think it is time.”

I knew immediately what she meant. I thought that I would have felt fear but there was none. Eve and I had found something deep and real over the years and I was ready to see what else life had to offer for I knew that it didn’t end here. This whole world would know we existed even if they did not know our names or faces.

We went back to SWORD, a place we hadn’t been in years. BUNI greeted us as soon as we came through the door. We informed him of our decision to continue with our mission. He merely trundled off and made the necessary arrangements.

When the time came, Eve and I held hands and looked lovingly at one another. I watched her as our bodies broke apart into their component nanites and combined. The very last thing I saw in this world was my Eve’s smile as my eyes broke apart. We both ceased, at least in this form, with smiles on our faces.

Our nanites dispersed throughout the world. They sought out life, from single-celled organisms and up, and implanted the DNA sequences necessary to give life back to this planet. It might take millennia but eventually, humans would once more walk upon the earth. And those humans would know, somewhere deep, that they were born of the love of two people.

science fiction
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About the Creator

G. Dean Manuel

I'm just your average Joe that likes to write fiction in his spare time. I work at Subway, have a girlfriend with LUPUS, and have been homeless. I'm half Filipino/half white, born in the Philippines but I moved to the US when I was young.

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