Caino's Alphabet, Z

Zealous though he was in his desire 
to form a Third Science, and regardless 
of his faith in his ability to do so, 
Caino could not help but feel a bit unsteady 
as he lowered the opaque helmet onto his head.  
He was about to make a small but fundamental change in the Machine that would 
affect every man, woman and child 
that ever was or would be. 
        The moment Caino removed his hands 
from the helmet it seemed to tighten, 
and he felt himself yanked from his body 
into darkness as if he had been touched by a Point.
—    
    Caino drifted for what seemed like days 
until at last, he felt a sensation not unlike 
opening his eyes, but he knew 
that he had no eyes here to open.
    Everything was blue.  
It seemed to him as if he was suspended 
in a sky without end.  He tried to cry out, 
but he had no mouth.  He looked down 
and his body was gone, but he hadn’t disappeared—he just was.  As he blinked without eyes 
at the great empty blueness, 
his Mind felt naked and exposed.
    Then, in the language he spoke only with Darius, a voice rang out in his head.
        “First dispersal to commence 
in seven minutes.  Adjustment disabled in six.  
What is your input?”
    “Wh- where am I?  Who are you?” 
asked Caino as he came to his senses.
    “You are within me, I am Zeus.” 
said the voice in his head.  “You are Caino, 
I have waited for you.  
Your Path led you only to here.”
    Caino’s mind began to adjust, 
but then he felt an awful sensation of vastness 
and for a time he was lost. Then he remembered what Aaron had told him about his Path 
being stripped of its branches, and he focused, imagining himself walking an endless 
and un-branching road…
    Slowly at first, but soon with dizzying rapidity, the blue became full of numbers, 
symbols and graphic representations of space 
and time.  Some of these 
defined the three dimensions he knew, 
others described nine, ten, eleven—
as many as twenty-five or more.  
He saw numbers that could never exist.  
He saw time described as a shape.
    Caino looked at this endless sea of information and realised with amazement 
that he understood it all.
    His mind rushed through an infinity 
of coded figures, graphics and texts; then, 
like a traveller returning 
to a familiar home, he guided himself 
to the lines that he sought.
    “Four minutes to dispersal.  
Adjustment disabled in three.”
    What Caino was seeking, and had now found, was the code that governed the temporal bias 
of the Points.  
    He dived into it, changing a value here, replacing whole reams of it there and then…  
He was done.
—
    By the time the voice returned to say, 
“one minute to dispersal.  Adjustment disabled,” 
it seemed he had been finished for years.              Caino had worn the helmet for just six minutes, 
but in his Mind, more than a century had passed.  He knew that his Mind had merged 
with the Machine, that for those six minutes, 
he had become Zeus.  And now he knew 
that it was time to go.  
He made one final adjustment as Zeus… and he left. 
—    
    Caino lifted the helmet from his head 
to see Darius looking up at him 
as if he had not moved a muscle, 
his tongue hanging out one side of his mouth, 
his head tilted to the other.
    “It won’t be long now Darius,” 
said Caino in the language they now shared 
with a machine called Zeus. 
“I told the Machine to kick me out of this body, 
and then it’s all up to you.” 
    Caino lowered himself back into the cylinder from which he had emerged 
and reconnected himself 
to the various tubes to which he had been attached.  He lay back, closed his eyes 
and soon a now familiar purple-violet blackness fell about him as he was torn 
from the body he had so briefly worn.
—
    Darius hopped to his feet 
as the world slid backwards.  
People entered the room, wearing the helmet 
as Caino had done.  Bodies were pushed in, 
rising to return bullets and knives 
to their attackers.  Then the Path split, 
and he began to run. 
    Through ten thousand years he ran, 
past infinite possibility and endless variation.  
Now freed from his tie to a single Path and its time, he bounded through years 
and leapt across centuries.  
The world became covered with metal and glass.  Forests crept back and receded 
to become wastes of snow and ice.  
Buildings and roads reappeared, and on Darius ran, the Point bearing his friend never far behind.  
    At last, the Places became recognisable.  
Great forests again covered a ruined land and Darius slowed his pace.  
He moved across familiar Paths, 
searching them with a practised eye until at last, 
he found the one he was looking for.  
    Darius nudged, prodded and coaxed the dark violet Point until it was in just the right place.  
He grinned what was now a tired wolfish grin 
when at last he knew he was done.  
Then he curled up and went to sleep.  
—
    Caino cracked open his eyes, 
squinting into a bright sunny day, and yawned.  Something soft shifted out from behind him 
and he turned to see a huge 
and wolfish dog stand up 
and stretch lazily in the sun.  
Caino tried to rise as well, 
but pain rang through his head and he lay still.
    The huge and wolfish dog turned to him 
and said in the language they shared only with Zeus, “your body is young and your wounds 
will heal quickly.  They are a small price 
to pay to live again.  Come.”
        Caino rose carefully to all fours 
and padded after the dog; 
his head hurt him less now, 
but his thoughts were still clouded.  
    They came to a rocky stream 
and the dog began to drink.  
Caino bent his head to do the same 
but stopped short in surprise.  
    Looking back at him from the surface of the stream was the face of a young wolf, 
a bit puffy on one side from a rising bruise.
        “Darius?” Caino asked in surprise.
    “I caught him for you between dreams,” 
said Darius, “our meeting went badly on your Path, but here in my world, 
he lives only to pay you this debt.”
    Caino drank deeply from the stream 
and his head began to clear.  He walked over 
to Darius, raised himself onto his haunches and, clasping his front legs around the big dog’s neck, embraced him as well 
as his canine frame would permit. 
    Darius shook him off playfully 
and was beginning to lead Caino 
from the stream when a rabbit, 
startled by the pair’s approach, 
darted out from a bush in front of them.  
Caino gave Darius a grin full of teeth 
and together they chased after the rabbit 
through a wide field of tall grass and heather.

The End