2400 AD

Love

In his apartment Callum couldn’t stop puking.

It had come to this: Gideon was just as guilty of murder, treason, and mass extinction as the Xenocon soldiers. Just as guilty as Suiderland and Kendall.

Callum dropped into a corner while Aramis and Feldspar looked on.

“Callum, Cleo is here,” Connie announced.

“Tell her to go away.”

“I’m afraid she does not wish to leave. She says she will remain at the door indefinitely until granted access.”

“I don’t want to see her. I don’t want to see anybody.”

“I will convey the message.”

Who else knew about Gideon? So many questions. No easy answers. Why had Gideon done this?

“Callum, Cleo says she has no intention of going away. She wants to help.”

“Help? How on earth could she possibly be of help to me? What’s done is done.”

“Shall I grant her access?”

“Tell her I’m not ready, to come back another time.”

“Yes, sir.”

A few moments later he heard a voice from across the room.

“Don’t blame Connie. She granted me access even though you don’t want to see me,” Cleo said softly as she approached.

“What the? Connie, I told you to tell her to go away!”

“I’m sorry, Callum. It looked as though you needed human contact. Your demeanor scared me.”

“If I can’t trust you, Connie, who the fuck do I trust?”

Cleo said, “Try me.”

Cleo had always given him accurate advice. She had never turned her back on him. If any, she was the only friend he had at Denizen.

“It doesn’t change the fact that Gideon is a liar, a killer and a fraud.”

“And you love him, Callum.”

Callum remained silent.

“He’s a soldier, just like you and me. Our lives are touched by circumstances beyond our control.”

“You have no idea what he has done, Cleo.”

“I don’t want to know. I do know that he is respected and loved as the leader of this facility. He brings sanity to our world.”

“It goes deeper than just this place. Much deeper. There is no salvation in following a man who has no conscience.”

“If it means anything, the doctors have told me that Gideon is asking for you.”

“There is nothing to talk about.”

Cleo knelt before him and stroked his hair. “That’s just anger talking. He’s our leader. You have to see him eventually.”

Callum looked at her with tears in his eyes. “How could I have fallen in love him? Why couldn’t I have just said no? He took me into his world, showed me happiness and trust, now there’s nothing. He’s a psychopath.”

“Oh, Callum, that’s so not true. Give him a chance to explain. You owe him that.”

***

Two days.

He refused to leave his apartment for several reasons; he’d lose his sense of emotional control in the presence of others, he’d want to see Gideon and that itched at his heart every second.

His humanity. He sometimes feared rejection. Sometimes failure. Sometimes he possessed a fear of offending. A fear of running dry. He also tended to be afraid at times. And sometimes he was lazy, unproductive. He made excuses. Sometimes didn’t listen to advice.

And he loved Gideon.

Spending two days hiding away from that fact just made him more and more human. He drank. And drank some more. Spun around in circles. He didn’t shower. He was torn between what Gideon had done and what Gideon could still do.

Gideon was dangerous and he held all the power to make him so.

Still, on the third day, like Jesus, he rose from his slumber and made his way towards the infirmary.

Gideon didn’t see him standing there in the doorway.

“You look much better,” Callum said, smiling.

Gideon whipped his head around to face him. “Callum?”

Callum approached his bedside.

“Doctors want me here until tomorrow.”

“They told me.”

“You didn’t come for two days.”

Callum held his breath.

Everyone needs to have someone who cares. No one likes to know they are alone. Gideon was no exception.

Gideon reached out for his hand. “You didn’t shave.”

“No excuse for that. I should have.”

“No – you look amazing.”

“I didn’t come because I’m torn. You’ve torn me to pieces. I don’t know what’s right and wrong anymore.”

“I can explain everything, just not now.”

“I know.”

“Callum, is it true?”

“Is what true?”

“You said you love me. Did you mean it?”

“Every word.”

***

A week later Callum watched Gideon as he lay sleeping. Earlier he had made a hot bowl of soup and placed it on the bedside table. He couldn’t concentrate on much, except for the person in his bed. Eventually he fell asleep and only woke up when he felt a hand on his arm. He opened his eyes and found Gideon standing before him wearing a black leather jacket and a pair of old jeans.

“Hey man, you shouldn’t be out of bed,” Callum said with a change of tone. His voice was softer, gentler than before.

“I’ve been lying for a week. I think I deserve some time out. I found some old jeans and this jacket, do you mind?”

“Not at all. You look good.”

“If I had anything to wear I wouldn’t have…”

“It’s okay. No need for excuses. I made you soup, it’s probably cold by now,” he said, pointing to an empty bowl. “I see you found the bowl. Did you at least warm it?”

“Cold is good enough for me. I was hungry.”

“I’ll take it away.” Callum reached out to pick up the bowl, but Gideon placed his hand over his and pulled it back. He didn’t let go.

Callum stared into his eyes.

Gideon fell onto his haunches to be level with him. He reached out with his free hand and touched his face.

“I know I don’t deserve you. You are good and kind...”

“Stop...”

“I need you to listen. Everything that moron Suiderland told you is not all true. There are things you should know.”

“You created a program that destroys. You’re a Kine. You worked for Xenocon. You killed people, Gideon.”

“Yes, I did all of that, and more. But I’ve changed, Callum.”

“A leopard can’t change his spots.”

“Please, listen to what I have to say.”

“Words aren’t proof.”

“At least give me the opportunity to state my case. You owe me that.”

“Why do I owe it to you to listen to anything you have to say about anything?”

“Because I love you, Callum. I’ve loved you from the moment I saw you. And I can’t stand all this hate coming from you.”

“You love me? You’re incapable of love, Gideon. All you know is war and fear. All you’ve ever known is destruction.”

“You said you love me.”

“Yes. I love you so much it hurts. Still, no words can explain away the fact that you are a murderer.”

“All I ask is that you listen. Please,” Gideon whispered, his mouth trembling with emotion.

Callum sat silently, gazing into Gideon’s eyes intently. “I’m listening.”

Everything about his husband and children was true. There could be no doubt about that. He had worked for Xenocon in the early days and was brought in by his husband to create databases of all South African citizens based on color. They were going back to the Apartheid system of the late 20th Century. The country had lived in a free democracy for 400 years. The Apartheid system all but forgotten. Just a blip in the history books. During the early years of democracy, tensions were high after Nelson Mandela left prison. The people of the nation banded together and like rocket fuel, boosted themselves into a four hundred year era of peace and harmony.

Everyone wanted to be South African.

Gideon came to Xenocon as a regular staff member and knew that was wrong the day they told him to create the database.

Reluctantly he began. He created code and manipulated the binary system. Specifically the bioinformatics, a programming specialty that uses computers to analyze DNA structures.

He purposefully included byte code to intermediate between multiple operating systems using virtual technology. He threw machine code out the window.

But then, something happened.

The Boolean data changed.

It changed in the disassembler code.

The disassembler program converted a compiled program into equivalent assembly language code, commonly used by hackers and security researchers to break copy protection or understand how viruses work.

The change meant that no one could trace or retrieve the original source code language. The algorithm started evolving on its own and ultimately changed the class structure of the program and developed an endless loop.

The program took on a life of its own. It kept on repeating the same instructions repeatedly and became an event-driven program, bypassing the specific order of the code. Instead, it responded to the user’s actions.

And that’s how he created the anti-simulation program.

The GUI, or graphical user interface corrupted itself and only carried out specific commands from the user. Words like create, or destroy, vanish and appear were understood. It was able to inherit and copy an object and still make a second copy.

But the part that changed the most was the operating system. The program that controlled the computer.

It now fed off human frequency that it could detect in all the spectrums.

He had to stop the madness of racial hatred.

And all he needed to do was sit in front of the computer and think about destruction.

He knew that Mzansi would be a major port of call for survivors.

He knew that the world would be plummeted into a dark age.

The climate would change.

People would die.

“All I had to do was think. Notice a strong frequency and blame it on Xenocon. I had no idea that Toba was about to erupt, and its frequency was the loudest. The strongest. I sat in our apartment and waited until midday when the frequency was strongest, travelling in the heat of the sun’s light. My head buzzed, softly at first. A few seconds later it had risen to a crescendo. I screamed and screamed, grabbed my head. I wanted it to stop but it wouldn’t and I collapsed. When I woke up, it was over and Toba had erupted. The Mariana trench lifted. Millions of people died when the San Andreas fault collapsed. And I was in the middle of it all.

“In the next few weeks I planned my escape. Fled Xenocon. Placed all the blame on their systems and the sim that I had created. I walked the dark streets and watched as everyone stared blankly while standing in queues waiting for a place to stay or food to eat. The ragged and the homeless, some foreigners looking to start a new life, all wearing paper masks. They were dead. But I was alive. And since then I’ve been in a permanent state of atonement.

“One which haunts me every day of my life.”

“How did you get into Denizen?”

***

A gritty bar with its windows sealed off from the dust, on the far side of Tshwane, served the only beer in the area. Cold enough to drink in the smothering heat of the Toba dust cloud. A boisterous drinking hole with a snooker table and dance floor. Lately it had turned quiet. The music had died.

Gideon sat on the far side of bar close to the snooker table. His mask on the counter. Hands shaking. Everything he had known before Toba, gone. He wished he could shake the guilt. No matter what he did, it lingered like a dead beetle hanging off a spider’s silky web waiting to be devoured.

A man placed his mask beside Gideon’s. Gideon looked up from his memories and found a clean-shaven man staring right back at him. The man smiled, nodded a greeting. Ordered a cold draft in a large glass mug.

The man’s shoes shone even in the dim light of the bar.

“A tragedy, that’s what this is.”

Gideon didn’t say a word. He couldn’t. He would never part with his secret. No one would ever know he was a Kine. He would find a way of packing all of this behind him, no matter how difficult.

“You lost someone dear in all of this?” The man asked.

Gideon nodded. Not only had he lost Paul and the children, he had lost his soul somewhere in there too.

“Wife?”

“Husband.”

“My condolences.”

“You didn’t know them.”

“Respect. No harm in that.”

Gideon didn’t understand how there could be any morsel of respect left in the world. His voice shook. “Look at those people out there without shelter because everywhere is full and they’re starving because there’s no bread and cold because of this damned fucking eruption. Respect! You think they have respect? The word doesn’t mean anything anymore. We’re living on a planet of fools. Don’t you get that? Our planet is rejecting us like some...some foreign thing in our bodies. It’s rejecting us and we’re helpless to do anything about it...”

The man stayed calm. Didn’t say a word even while Gideon ranted, even while he drank tankard after tankard and cried real tears that could just as well have been the blood of millions of people.

He didn’t hear the man saying, “We know who you are. We know what you are. There are more of you.”

He didn’t hear the man because Gideon passed out, his head fell onto the man’s shoulders.

And when he woke up, he was inside Denizen.

***

At Denizen he built the anti-simulation labs, the simulation pods. Helped humanize Androids. And save humanity.

“Jesus, Gideon. You created a fucking mess,” Callum said.

It’s the best explanation I can give. Denizen became my home. If I didn’t come here, the Solarians at Xenocon would have killed me. How do I continue to atone for the horror I created. Please, tell me. I live with the memories. I don’t sleep at night. I cry inside because no tears will spill from my eyes. I survived for all these years knowing that what I am doing now, is right, and just, and merciful.”

“And Lillian?”

“I’m her son, that’s a given. Yes, I am a Kine. Not proud to be one, but I am one still. I can’t get rid of that. No one knew. Only Kendall and myself. Children who have developed the power of the Kine need to be taught how to control frequencies. They need to understand the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. Until then, I haven’t succeeded. Until then, death and destruction will lead the way. Until then, we might all die in the process. But I’m willing to die for this cause. History will record what I did, but it will also record what I didn’t do if I don’t bring peace and harmony.”

Callum sighed deeply.

“And Suiderland? How did he get to create the Androids?”

“They were working on prototypes even before I joined them. There was nothing I could do. I wanted to jinx the program, but never got to that.”

Callum touched Gideon’s face gently. He closed his eyes, drowning in that touch. “Do you know how crazy all that sounds? Have you thought for one moment that it was Toba’s time? That you didn’t destroy anything but yourself. That’s how the earth works. I don’t have to tell you that. I don’t have time to go into the geological processes of our planet. But you need to start thinking that this, this entire process is part of a natural arc of repetition, and Toba will erupt again and we’ll be dead by then. It’s a natural thing and not your fault at all.”

Gideon nodded. And suddenly, after many years, tears fell from his eyes. Washed his cheeks. Fell to the floor.

“I can’t fight this alone, Callum. I love you.”

Callum reached for his face and brought it up to his lips. They kissed softly, their lips like feathery pillows touching. Gideon instantly felt more than just a stirring in his groin. His mind told him this was right. This man, Callum Ingram was perfect for him because both of them were flawed. Both had their good days and bad days. Both lived in the moment.

But lips weren’t enough. Touch. This moment was all about touch. More than just touching hands, this was the kind of touch that explored.

Gideon moaned and stepped back from the sharp pain as Callum’s hand swiped across his stomach wound.

“Sorry. Sorry. I forgot.”

“Careful. Be gentle.”

Their next kiss was loud and hard and wild. The leather jacket flew across the room. Callum’s trousers seemed to have a life of its own because he didn’t even notice when Gideon removed the belt and unzipped him.

Gideon’s nakedness was overwhelming. His skin a golden tan. Clean. Glowing. His nakedness wasn’t just physical, it meant more than that; he could trust again. Callum’s nakedness meant the same.

They spent the entire day making love. At times it felt like lust: both took turns penetrating the other, both took turns tying each other to the bed. Both took turns worshipping the other.

At the end Gideon remained inside Callum. Spent, and beaming in the afterglow of their lovemaking, Gideon lay with his hands above his head, a smug smile on his lips.

“I haven’t felt so good in years, “Callum said.

“Tell me your story.”

“It’s boring.”

“Nothing about you is boring.”

“Jason was beautiful, but pompous. Far too confidant. But he wasn’t ready for us. Together. I think he had a complex about his height. He wasn’t tall, but he wasn’t exactly short. Gay guys were attracted to him and more than once I’m sure he was attracted to them. Don’t get me wrong, for all his misgivings, he wasn’t promiscuous.”

“What happened?”

“Usual story of betrayal. I loved him with all my heart, until the day he left without so much as a note. I walked in the rain for a long time. Didn’t go anywhere in particular. Found myself on a park bench. Just sat there. Dumbfounded. I couldn’t even cry I was so numb.”

“He never came back?” Gideon hugged him tightly, stroked his hair.

“Nope.”

Then Callum stood up and led Gideon to the center of the room. He pressed a button on the remote and a holographic image of an oceanic sunset surrounded them. They were on a beach somewhere. The sand beneath their feet felt remarkable.

Gideon stood behind Callum, holding him close to his body. Both watching the sun set.

Gideon whispered in his ear, “I want to teach you the Tango.”