“Don’t worry Mr Jasiel, they won’t be gone for long. We’ll have your son back to you shortly” the leader of the group said matter of factly. “In the meantime, let us discuss the nature of truth, and what it means to the noble peoples of Atlassian.”
“What have you done to my husband?” Ben demanded of the men.
“He’ll be with us again soon. When your son arrives you can have a nice reunion — if you cooperate with us that is.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Well, we all know the Jasiel family sits low on our social stratum. You may disappear, without a single query from your fellow citizens. Even if it is noticed, I dare say none will mind.”
“Sir, the trio has escaped.” An officer said before Ben could reply. “Their dragon was too fast for our drones. It seems they may have even acquired an illicit cloaking technology.”
“Very well. Men, bring the prisoners. Tomoyo and Nakomoto have the boy, and the boy has the bone. I’ll inform the Guardians and then meet you at the cells. Prepare them for questioning.”
Ben tried to complain as he made to evade the officers heading towards him, but a strobe of light from the leader’s helmet crumpled him, instantly rendering his struggles useless.
Eighty clicks from his home Alvis and his captors soared above the wastelands outside the city. The dragon dipped suddenly, making it’s way towards a narrow crack in the side of a slope. The sides of the cave rushed past as the droid dropped into the crevice, not slowing until it gracefully skimmed across a black lake, coming to a stop by a pitch-dark shore many leagues below the surface. Nakomoto made a gesture and an orange light faded in, giving the impression of a subterranean sunrise. Tomoyo leapt off the beast and offered a hand to Alvis, who took it gingerly. “What will happen to my parents?” he asked timidly as he stepped onto shore. “Don’t be afraid. My sister and I will return to the city at once and retrieve them” said Nakomoto, steering the boy into a space that combined laboratory, workshop and living quarters.
“You’ll be safe here, Francis will look after you” Tomoyo added, as she assessed a collection of matte-black objects and selected a tiny winged tube. At the mention of his name Francis the droid wheeled from his corner into the space proper. “It’s a Pleasure to make your acquaintance” the bot whistled, extending a telescopic tentacle towards the boy. Alvis shook it limply, preoccupied with concern for his parents. “Fear not young one, we’ll be back with your Dads soon, you have our word.” The pair remounted the cybernetic monster. With a flap of it’s wings they were racing back up the chasm and into the sunlight.
Back in the urban center, the Jasiel’s were slowly coming to beneath a massive stream of floodlights. “’In the future, the youth of the world will find the real unnecessary and lose themselves in the beauty of the unreal’” a woman in a purple hood quoted. “Carl Sagan the great astrologer said that.” Josuel shuddered. Unlike most in Atlassian, he had some knowledge of scientific history, gleaned from the data stacks used to train the nation’s AI. He considered the Astro-Theology espoused by the Guardians way off the mark, and was sure that Sagan would be repulsed by the abomination. Josuel thought it an atrocity to reason, but knew that if he ever communicated this it could mean a long ride on a rocket into an infinitely longer void.
“How tough it must have been, in those Dark Ages, when knowledge was scarce, condemned to mere pages” the purple hood continued.
“Praise the stars for the chain, for it freed us from our brains, it taught us how to live, so that we might teach the same” another one sang.
“Wouldn’t you agree gentlemen?”
“It cannot be disputed that the chain has it’s benefits” Josuel said cautiously, caught between his understanding of the Guardian’s cultist ways and his anger at the circumstances. “However, though our chain is decentralized across Atlassian with a node in every home, you only allow it to contain information that conforms with your teachings. Is this not just centralization with extra steps?”
“Mr Jasiel, surely you jest! What is the point in a chain that contains untruths!? How would the chain function if any old sod could append any old God!”
“But sir, you and I seem to have a different understanding of the truth — I’ve just spent the day dissecting the chain to eliminate all mentions of -”
“That’s quite enough Jasiel! You know as well as I that that brute your son uncovered is a fraud! It threatens Atlassian’s very order, the way we’ve done things since our founding. Do you desire a return to the Acheronian times of old?”
“But you are masking the truth! The truth of the discovery, whatever it is, and whatever that means. You claim the truth is what we can all agree on, that the chain’s purpose is to disseminate all of our knowledge. But when you refuse to allow us to communicate anything outside what the Guardians teach, this ‘truth’ of yours is no longer what we but what you agree on!”
This gave the elders pause. After centuries of control and social, political, and theological consensus the leaders had lost all knowledge of debate. Any aptitude for true criticism had been lost generations ago. Their leader thought to send for a teacher, for they at least would occasionally brush up against a stalwart student who refused to bend, but she thought twice and decided to try a different tack. “Getting straight to the point gentlemen: we need the bone. Your son’s little keepsake could spell doom for our lands. We will not allow this lunacy to threaten our hard won order.”
“What bone? Alvis said your bots got to him before he could even brush away at the soil.”
“I’m sure he did. But our preliminary analysis indicates that the creature’s mandible is missing. We must recover it at all costs. This foolishness has gone on long enough.”
“I beseech you. Don’t harm our son.” Ben pleaded.
“Fear not gentleman, the codes of Atlassian forbid it, even in this, a most trying time.”
“Far be it from me to tell you how to do your jobs, but surely you’re tracking Alvis’ chip.”
“Your son’s companions seem to have found a place out of the reach of even our most mighty antennae.”
The men paused at this impasse, Ben and Josuel out of concern for their son, the Guardians for their carefully constructed order, balanced so fine upon their manufactured ontology.
High above the group, a winged demon skulked. Tomoyo and Nakomoto glanced at one another, exchanging a brief nod, and Tomoyo dropped the matte-black tube over the side. It sailed down towards the correctional institution as the dragon and it’s riders zipped away. Moments later a blinding mushroom bloomed over the landscape.
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