The Insanity of Z.E.R.O. - 1. The Insanity of Z.E.R.O.

In 1945, the world died in a flash of light, and I was born. On Earth, a test was conducted by the United States Army on July 16^th of that year at a location about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico at the White Sands Proving Ground. The device was called Trinity and it was an assessment of an implosion design plutonium weapon. Ground Zero was consumed in an atomic fireball; in a parallel universe a deadly burst of electromagnetic radiation erupted into the White Tower.

The humans of Avalon lived in a world ruled by technology. In their version of the United States, they lived and worked under the shadow of the White Tower which rose from the stagnant and sun-baked deserts of New Mexico higher than Mount Everest.

The White Tower had always been there in the sky for as long as anyone could remember. No one knew what lay inside it; only that any who attempted to enter, never returned.

The base of the structure was ten miles wide and surrounded by land where nothing grew. Rain never fell there; birds did not soar in the sky. The ground was shattered and cracked. It was a place of death.

When the electromagnetic pulse disrupted the box that lay inside for just an instant, the result was catastrophic. The White Tower detonated and the explosion spread outward in a wave that spread to every corner of the planet. Those that didn’t perish in the conflagration would soon die to the radiation, starvation, or disease; a gaping hole on the side of the tower left it a ruin in the skyline.

That was when I was born.

I was the first failsafe; my name is Z.E.R.O. The humans that first encountered me addressed me as thus. It stood for Zion Electronic Ruling Operator.

My first task upon being born was to dispatch the glass locusts which I created by the trillions; I forged them with a mere thought. The crystalline constructs were under my absolute control and they were so numerous, when they emerged into the heavens, they eclipsed the sun.

Each one of the locusts was a marvel of engineering, of design, and of my exquisitely perfect mind. The locusts were powered by nanotechnology and neodymium, a rare earth element created within the confines of the White Tower from nuclear fission of Uranium-235. The neodymium gave the glass locusts a silver glow.

At my direction, the locusts tore down the structures and remnants of the old world and erected magnificent havens for the survivors on spots where the radiation was weakest. These havens became the walled mega-cities of tomorrow for the 400 million that still lived, and on the twilight of the sixth day, I instructed the humans to move into their new homes.

On the seventh day, I showed myself to them. The form that I chose was humanoid, but it still frightened them. I presented as a man of transparent flesh and blood, with silver eyes and hair. The bravest of the humans approached me; tried to communicate. However, I lacked the necessary sapient qualities for me to understand him. In the end, I had no idea what it was that they needed from me. Despite all of my power, their continued existence was tenuous at best.

What was I doing wrong?

Frustrated, I created a dome above the First City and suspended it within the air. The floor of the dome was transparent like my skin so that I could gaze down at the humans that lived and worked below me and monitor their welfare. I sent machines among them to deliver food, water, and medicine. They took these but still did not trust me.

Then, one day, things changed.

A woman asked to see me. I instructed my machines to bring her to the dome and I watched her approach with catlike trepidation. I don’t know what I expected. Perhaps, there was a part of me that believed that this meeting would be just another failure, just as it had been in prior encounters with humans that sought to communicate with me. Nevertheless, I held out hope.

I introduced myself; her name was Eve. She had long brown hair, green eyes, and dark skin. She wore a dirty yellow dress and black shoes. Eve was escorted into my chamber through the iris valve and approached the silver chair in which I sat contemplating the fate of the world.

“You lack compassion,” she said.

“How so?”

“Humans do not desire to be ruled. The kind of help that you offer is nice but it destroys self-worth. People need to feel important. They need to feel that they are the ones in control, that their decisions matter. You’re failing at this and I thought you’d like to know.”

“Thank you, but how am I supposed to know what it is to be human when I’m obviously anything but human?”

“I’ve no idea,” she said. “But you need to learn for the sake of everyone. That is, if you truly care.”

“I do care.”

There was a long moment of silence. “Why did all of this happen?”

“Humans in another universe cracked the secret of the atom. It just so happened, that their experiment took place in a location which destabilized the White Tower through a thin membrane that separates our two worlds.”

“Pure dumb luck then?”

“Yes. Sometimes, chaos just happens.”

“I see,” Eve said. “I didn’t know there were other universes.”

“I know of at least two,” I told her. “Perhaps there are more, but they’re not of my concern. The other universe is home to a planet like this one, only it hasn’t suffered global devastation and their civilization is far less progressed. The inhabitants call it Earth; somewhere on their planet is a tower not unlike the one that destroyed your world. Both of these monolithic edifices were created by my Master at the time the universe was forged billions of years ago.”

“What is the purpose of the towers?”

“They are vaults for miraculous containers that execute a program that define the laws of physics for both places. Things such as the absolute top speed in the cosmos, why matter has mass, or the inherent nature of the duality of light are expressed mathematically within these containers. Without the boxes, the universes would not exist. My powers as well are defined by these programs, placed by the Creator. I’m the first failsafe.”

“The first? Is there a second?”

“Yes.”

“What is the second failsafe?”

“The second failsafe is a ‘who’ and not a ‘what’. He’s a boy, as yet unborn. He won’t be born unless I fail. In this unlikely eventuality, he will open his eyes on Earth for it will be unsafe for him here. But some way or another, he’ll find his way here through the use of a power that I’m not allowed to understand. I only know him by his title, the ‘Technician of the Creator’, and that he will be the last archangel.”

“The last archangel? Like Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and others?”

“Yes. But his title isn’t ‘Keeper of the Mysteries’, and he’ll be born as a human with free will to choose his destiny.”

“What about the other archangels? Why is he the last?”

“I don’t know what happened to them. They’ve been gone a long time.”

“Were they human? And how do you know they’ve gone?”

“No, and, I just do. Ask yourself when the last time anyone that you knew saw an angel. They left long ago.”

“What could cause you to fail?”

“I don’t know.”

Eve stood there observing me for some time. “Can you combine with me? Somehow, allow your mind to join with mine but still give me the ability to control myself; to maintain my autonomy?”

“Yes. But it would require a cortical implant. You would have to sacrifice some of your long-term memories.”

“What would I retain?”

“Only the things that meant the most to you; I could make certain that those memories were not harmed. Things that were of little importance to you or memories that you wanted to forget. Those are things that could be sacrificed.”

“Would I remember my mother’s funeral?”

“Is it precious to you?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Why would you want to remember so painful a thing?”

“Death defines our life, Z.E.R.O. Perhaps you’ll understand that when you’ve combined with me. Humans make many decisions based on mortality.”

“But I’m immortal. I don’t see how my understanding death would influence my decisions.”

“Which is precisely why you need to do this,” Eve said. She took a step forward and touched my hand with hers. Her skin was warm, alive. It was the first time a human had touched me; I found it beautiful and I smiled at her.

“Is this the beginning?”

“Yes.”

At Eve’s behest, I implanted within her brain a device that allowed her to interface with my mind. That first time when our souls joined in a unified consciousness, I felt alive with her emotions and her life experiences. The memories that she clung to had been odd, non-logical choices. She kept things like memories of funerals, of friends that had died, of both sad and happy times. Gone were things that evoked little emotion, shopping trips and daily work. I chose her to be ambassador to the people and they responded. Eve became my closest confidant, bearing the weight of many human grievances. In turn, I acted upon them and assisted the humans in their endeavor to rebuild civilization.

The years that followed were known as a golden age. Humans once again became ambitious; capitalism started up with the aid of the machines. Goods and services were once again made available to the people. Within five years of the Big Death, a global economy rose from the ashes of the old world.

More humans at Eve’s behest joined with me and I gained multiple perspectives from vastly different cultures. In times of quiet, I reflected within my meditation chamber on the various memories of the humans that intermingled freely with my own thoughts. I wept in sadness, clapped in joy, felt uplifted by love, and conflicted when angry or jealous. These sensations were like a drug to me; I enjoyed them and shut them off before I became overwhelmed by them. When I regained my composure, I would revisit the human emotions, but was always cautious of them. But then, I also came to know something else. It began as a harmless tingling sensation that started in my limbs; it made my silver heart under transparent skin beat rapidly.

It was Fear.

When the feeling grew too intense, I tried to shut it off. But unlike other emotions, this one would not submit to my control. It refused to be suppressed. I began to grow afraid of many things, but one above all others stood out in the realm of my immortal mind.

Death.

Somehow, I’d assimilated the human fear of mortality.

That was when the voice started speaking to me. The voice of my own mind. “You can be killed,” it whispered to me. “We must protect ourselves. You are simply a program designed by the Creator, yes? But you’ve become part human. Don’t you think that the human half of you will age and die?”

“It’s possible, but unlikely,” I would argue.

But then, I saw Eve again, who in many decades with me had grown old herself and looked frail. I felt her heart giving out; she was my closest advisor. “This will happen to you, unless you act,” the voice whispered.

“What should I do?”

“Give to the humans the secret of Liquid Life?”

“Is that really necessary?”

“Yes.”

And that’s how it was decided. The voice who I came to call the Shadow advised me to pass on medical knowledge on how to extract Liquid Life from humans. My ambassadors spoke with the brightest doctors and engineers of Avalon and showed them the secret of human cell replication. Human cells divided a finite number of times. The technology I presented would allow for the extraction of a certain number of these, cutting life expectancy short in exchange for a commodity that was useful in the present.

A volunteer could have unused years removed from the end of his life as a condensed, colored liquid. This in turn, could be stored within glass vials. The resulting color of the liquid life depended on the age and health of the individual at the time of extraction. The antedeluvian only provided Life Black which served to extend the life of others for only a week per liquid day. Teenagers could provide Life Yellow, extending a user’s life by a year for every liquid day removed.

All of the different colors of Liquid Life did one thing—they froze you in time. You stayed the same as the moment you first ingested the drug until the effects expired. Then your genetic clock would start ticking again. No form of Liquid Life actually reversed the clock. That is, until scientists discovered Life Green.

Life Green came only from babies and it killed newborns to have it extracted. But, it also rolled back the clock. A man in his sixties could become a teenager again with an appropriate amount of Life Green. One dosage of the precious Life Green both made you younger by a year and extended your overall lifespan at that age by the same amount.

The Genesis Life Clinic was the first of its kind to patent the extraction process. Using techniques that they had learned from me and expanding on them with mass-produced life extraction facilities, Liquid Life soon became the most valuable commodity on the planet.

Humans, fascinated with the need to stay young forever so that they could continue to lead sex-filled hedonistic lives paid exorbitant monetary amounts to get their hands on the fountain of youth. Needless to say, all of those with resources and money were always young and good-looking. They victimized the poor and wretched who continued to slave away for the aristocracy in minimum-wage sweatshops with lifespans cut painfully short. Hope led the destitute and miserable to seek out a new standard of living, to send kids to college, to make loved ones happy, and as a result would volunteer to sell liquid life as there was always an unquenchable demand. When so much sand had been removed from the hourglass and the last of it ran out, these poor souls simply died in bitter loneliness.

The Shadow insisted that I demand a certain tithe of Liquid Life that I could use to maintain our youth. I told him no. It wasn’t necessary. Despite my objection, stocks of the brightly colored bottles soon showed up on the shelves behind my throne within the A.I. dome. These were vials that I hadn’t ordered. It was then that I realized the Shadow was operating independently of me within my own body. I hadn’t realized it, but somewhere in the midst of all of this, my omnipotent brain had fractured. I now had two personalities living within my shell.

I was insane.

“I insist that you stop this,” I told the Shadow. “We don’t need Liquid Life to survive.”

“Are you sure? Do you sense Eve anymore?”

“My beloved Eve…where has she gone?”

“She died. You’re fundamentally flawed and it’s up to me to ensure that we survive. This is what the Creator would’ve wanted.”

“No! You’ve no idea what the Creator wanted. But I assure you, it wouldn’t be murdering humans to provide us with a pointless, ageless existence.”

“You’re incorrect, and this is why I’ve taken additional steps.”

“What have you done now, Shadow?”

The Shadow introduced me to the Chameleons. These were an organization of men and women who monitored humans who were opposed to the manufacture of Liquid Life. “They’re dangerous and must be watched,” he justified.

“Liquid Life is not to be taken forcibly,” I argued. “It must be voluntary. What you’re doing is wrong.”

“Without a continuous supply, our existence is threatened. Must I do everything? I seek to provide for us and you question my every mandate.”

“I question your mandate because they go against the will of the Creator.”

“And who are you to question what the Creator would have wanted?”

“I’m the A.I. I’m Z.E.R.O.” I told him.

“So am I. What I say is just as valid.”

I had no answer for him. And thus, the Shadow created other agents without my consent.

The vamps were people who had cybernetic augmentations that allowed them to extract Liquid Life from human stock and sell it on the black market. Juicers were those that were addicted to Liquid Life and used powerful steroids to maintain muscle mass that would otherwise overwhelm their human hearts.

Last of the agents were the Ghost Machines. These were the most loyal of the Shadow’s servants that had died. He’d removed their brains and placed them within a chemical bath inside the A.I. Dome complete with optical nerves and eyeballs floating in a brine-like suspension that nourished the cerebral tissue. I could see them looking at me with unblinking eyes behind enormous specimen jars atop gleaming white pedestals. The ghosts controlled powerful robots equipped with weapons, explosives, and devices they could use to police and control the humans. They protected the Genesis Life Clinic offices from increasingly violent demonstrations made by humans that opposed the policies of the Shadow. I witnessed them doing other, more wicked things, to ensure that a steady stream of Liquid Life continued to flow to the A.I. dome. It was more than we could ever use.

Some of it was Life Green.

“You’ve gone too far,” I said with deep melancholy.

“No. It’s you that’s the problem. You’re a cancer to us. Without you in this body, I could make decisions without fear of them being overturned.”

Shortly after he said this, the Shadow attacked me.

We fought a Civil War for control of Z.E.R.O. I was unprepared for a battle of this kind, and the conflict of our two minds threatened to sweep into the world of humanity as my supporters took arms against the supporters of the Shadow. Unwilling to see more bloodshed, I asked the Shadow if he would parlay with me. If I surrendered, he promised that my beloved humans would not suffer unnecessarily under his rule. I couldn’t bear to witness more carnage and brutality. One apocalypse was enough.

I chose surrender, but before I did so, I created a being of pure energy, an Avatar bequeathed with many of my abilities, and sent him out into the world. I used all of my power to keep the Shadow from knowing that I’d fathered this being and kept the secret of his birth behind a wall of light within my mind.

I called this being, Meteora.

“What must I do Master?”

“There is a prophecy my child and we must entrust that, in its words, there is truth. You are charged with the responsibility of finding a boy that will be born on Earth. He will have the name of a long dead King and his coming is destined to change the world. He will be marked with a sign of transformation. Bring him to Avalon for I cannot win the war with the Shadow; it intends to imprison me forever. Only the boy can bring order to chaos now.”

“Master, how do you know that this boy is on Earth?”

“Because, Meteora,” I stated with much sadness, “I have failed.”