Xero

I was alone in the dark, yet I could see everything beyond the curtain clearly with these eyes that were not my own…

The dark-suited man approached the podium, clearing his throat and straightening his tie, making sure to maintain a brisk pace and a façade of confidence as he prepared to take his place on the stage. At that time he made sure not to acknowledge the thousands of pairs of eyes attached to the anxious and angry faces that followed him to his destination at the center of the stage. He placed his hands on the sides of the platform and took a moment to look out upon his audience before he began. It was a classic bit of showmanship. Prolonging the silence for a little longer and staring gravely into the masses for dramatic effect.

“We live in a dying world, gentlemen,” he began. “This world, which over the millennia, has been polluted and has had its resources exhausted by mankind. We have caused the extinction of myriads of species of plants and animals, and now it is our turn to suffer the same fate! What I offer is an opportunity to save not just ourselves, but what is left of our planet. I am not playing advocate to the Devil nor am I attempting to play God. No one did this to us… We have done this to ourselves!”

He was clearly creating tension in the room. Heads were turning, a few scattered murmurs could be heard, and chairs were creaking as people began to shift in their seats uncomfortably. He had their attention now.
“Imagine a world void of sickness or famine; a world where not only humans, but all sentient life can achieve immortality; a world where the mechanical can unite with the organic and contain a human soul. The world that I am proposing to you gentlemen today is not just a vision to be achieved in the next half century or even the next decade; no, the world that I propose is in our grasp now! With the technology we have available to us we have successfully merged man and machine!”

The curtain was finally lifted and I stood there, naked and on display before the shocked onlookers, like a new attraction at a carnival. Some of them were clearly expecting this part of the presentation, but many more appeared horrified by my appearance. I couldn’t blame them.

I was once a five-foot-six, fair-skinned, red-headed man of average build and some would say below average attractiveness. I was a middle-aged, lonely, humdrum banker. I always wished to be a greater man. I wanted to be faster, stronger, smarter, and better looking. But now, as I stood locked in place by the titanium restraints onto the magnetized platform that had been inserted into the floor specifically for me, preventing me from turning and fleeing from the invasive, critical stares, I longed to be me again. To be who I once was. To be what I once was.

I now stood at eight feet tall with armored plates and joints merged with various parts of my pale flesh, amber orbs fit into my eye sockets, and small metal spikes protruding from my chest, chin, and neck. I was thankful that I was at least given some boxers to cover my now deformed genitals. I felt like Frankenstein’s monster, and judging from the tension from the crowd (which I could literally see from the bio-scans that were feeding through my new eyes), I believed that the people who looked upon me could very well turn into an angry mob…

“This is not just grafting mechanical prosthetics to a man or another man in a mechanized suit,” the man in the suit continued. “This is the future of what we call the ‘cybernetic organism’. What I’m talking about is an organic being and cybernetics being combined in not just the basic physical sense on the surface, but on every level—including cellular and psychological. Using nanotechnology, we have fused probes with the nuclei of human cells that are capable of replicating at a geometric rate to basically transform the body inside of a mechanical shell into a perfect machine. While the cells of the human body are engineered to divide only a finite number of times before the body begins to break down, the probe allows newly developed ‘cyber organic’ cells to be produced infinitely which means the human body can then be sustained forever. The machine on the outside becomes an extension of the mind and body of the person on the inside.

“While the man benefits from the machine by being nearly invulnerable to any form of physical or biological attack and becoming instantly adaptable to any environment, the machine benefits from the man by gaining a permanent sentient mind to guide it and allow it to function properly in any environment, in addition to a permanent power source, an organic fuel, if you will. Gentlemen, I’m saying that this can in fact become a true symbiosis of man and machine.”

The murmur among the crowd grew louder now and the penetrating stares from the thousands of pairs of eyes before me were all trained on Yours Truly even as the dark-suited man continued to speak. I caught snatches of the whispered conversations with the words “monster” and “aberration” filling every other sentence.

“These temporary bodies of flesh and blood were bestowed upon us by our Creator as temporary vessels for our souls. It has often been said that it is the human spirit that makes man superior to machine, while it is the calculated precision and immeasurable power of the machine that often trumps man. But I am asking, why can’t we have both?”
There were no guards or ushers at the doors. Groups of people were leaving the auditorium now. They were filing out quickly, some silently and others in clear outrage. There were more shouts of “I refuse to live if not as a real human!” and “To die is the natural order, but that thing is neither natural nor supernatural. It’s simply horrible!”. These people were only in the minority though. Hundreds more remained in there seats, both intrigued by the presenter’s words and disturbed by my presence.

“There is no need to turn away from this blessing. Our God-given powers of choice and ingenuity have been our greatest weapons, but now these same powers could become our salvation. If you so choose, this masterpiece of man’s own ingenuity could save not just the human race, but the world! All life as we know it can be saved starting here, gentlemen! You can fund our research and be given the keys to immortality for yourselves, as well as your wives, sons, and daughters.”

I suddenly felt relief as the restraints loosened and the magnetized platform’s resistance disappeared. I was able to move freely again! This must have been planned for some kind of demonstration. Apparently, seeing me in action was enough to illicit audible gasps and more whispers from the crowd.

I simply rolled my shoulders and neck and flexed my arms. The “cyber organic” cells had already spread throughout most of my body, but the human muscles still remained…for now. I’d only gone through the procedure about a month ago. I was changing faster than I’d expected. Faster than the suits who’d convinced me to participate in their “secret, revolutionary research” had even anticipated.

“This may be viewed as a ‘monster’ now, but inevitably this could be a model for the future of all life on Planet Earth. As you can see, this brave, noble individual who you see before you is among the first of many who will continue to carry the legacy of the first Adam and transform the world so that it may thrive into a new Eden for all. We can have peace and everlasting life here on Earth. This is not a revolution for U.S. military technology, but a revolution for all that live. This is a solution that has been desired by not just the men at our company but by all—”

And that’s when the first of several gunshots rang out. I should have been able to detect the gun, but I didn’t. I was able to see the first bullet as it soared toward the man behind the podium and I was fast enough to react but… I just didn’t know what to do. Indecision was the only invisible force that caught me, but it was fear that encircled every other person in the room. Everyone in the room instinctively ducked and scattered; everyone in the room except the single armed man who stood in one aisle of the auditorium and me.

My head darted in the direction of the shooter’s intended target. The man in the dark suit was squatting and leaning against the podium. He was low enough and slim enough to be completely hidden from the assailant’s sight, but he was not protected by the wooden piece of furniture between him and the weapon. Not that it mattered.

I could see the blood running at the corner of his mouth and I could tell he was breathing irregularly. With the bionics that now replaced my eyes, I could see the bullet inside of him that had penetrated the right side of his chest and the one that had punctured his lung. He didn’t have long. He turned his head in my direction and our eyes met. It was odd, but seeing a stranger dying was enough to move me.

I looked out into the crowd as the shooter was preparing to turn and flee. In a single bound I cleared the stage and half of the auditorium, landing gracefully in the aisle where the attacker had stood only a few seconds before. In two more steps I closed the distance between myself and the fleeing man. In one swift motion, I grabbed him by the back of his collar with my right hand and twisted him around to face me. Before he had time to raise his weapon again my left hand snapped up and caught hold of his wrist, snapping it as my strengthened fingers tightened around the flesh and bone. The gun clattered to the floor. I then drew my left arm back, tightened my hand into a fist and struck the man squarely in the center of his chest. The bones of his chest collapsed in from the impact before he was launched backward through the open doorway. He was dead before he hit the ground on the other side of the threshold. I saw the fear reflected in his eyes, my own reflection, just before that final blow. I didn’t really care.

It was my human side that compelled me to act in that instance. To feel rage and to desire justice for a murder was clearly human. But it was something else that was a part of me now that allowed me to do what I did.

Chaos ensued around me. While some of the people stopped to draw their camera phones out to snap one final close-up of me, myriads of them flooded the other aisles, making sure to avoid me as they pushed through the exits.

They were trampling the body of the deceased shooter in their panic. Only a few paused long enough in the doorway to step over the man I had killed, but no one bothered to try to identify him. Not one of them stopped to inspect the dying the man onstage.

These people had seen all that they needed to see. And so had I. What I was observing now was human weakness in the form of fear. This same weakness that overrides the strength of human compassion and justice in the most dire of situations. This same weakness that would compel others to become the very thing that they had learned to fear on this day… me.

In the coming days, the media would label me and others like me. Just as God had named the first man He created, so man would name their newest creation. We were not just a product, but a new race. We could no longer be called “Adams” because we were more than human. We transcended beyond the common weaknesses of men. Our relationship to machines would inspire the name from binary code. Our new race would be called the “Xeros”.