text: To Begin Program, Please Press Enter A new android is born. Apha opened his mechanical android eyes. It was hard to tell that they were android eyes, in fact one would have to take them out and cut into them in order to tell that they were not organic. Entirely organic at least. “Good morning Apha! It is 3:15 pm on Wednesday, January 10th, 2037” beeped the computer, cheerily, in a norwegian accent. “Oh. Um, good morning computer. What am I doing here?” “Ah, Apha.” came a nasally voice from the next room. A small man walked in the room, with a large nose and long red hair. “Apha, you are the current epitome of my life endeavors. You are the future! Feels good eh?” The doctor nudged Apha, who had no clue how to respond. “Oh sorry, I am Dr. Seguino. I guess you wouldn’t know that. Ha! But you, Apha, are Homo Seguinas, the next part of the human race!” Apha, who had a fully expressive face, looked very confused. “Allow me to explain,” began Dr. Seguino, who loved to explain. “The average human, according to the 2035 census, will live to be around 80 years old. Pretty long by most species standards. But you Apha, you will live to be 400, at least. And the best part is, unlike those androids and incapable robots, you don’t run on electricity! You, my dear child, run on nearly any organic matter. My decomposition composition of fungi and atomic dissemblers should work on any items containing high levels of carbon, oxygen, and electrons. Waste is made, yes, but tis the price of being able to eat nearly anything. Anyhow, how do you feel?” Apha sat for a moment. His cyborganic brain firing processors and neurons in perfect symphony. “I think I feel...” started Apha, “I feel, alive. I’m ready to jump up and around. I’m ready to live! I like this feeling doctor. Thank you doctor, for my life and all. Do you think I could spend some time looking around this world for a while doctor? I want to see, explore, learn more than what I was born with?” The doctor smiled. His creation was perfect. Apha was everything that the doctor had hoped he would be, and he was working too. In perfect condition on the first try was not expected. “Yes Apha. I would like that, for you to explore. But first, I have some ideas I came up with since I started charging you last night. You see, I noticed some frogs in my pond out back, and I realized you couldn’t breath underwater, like how the little tadpoles could, and I couldn’t have that! My invention, my Apha lesser than a tadpole! So I thought up a way to let you breathe underwater, it’s really brilliant I think, and I thought of it so fast, ha! What a genius I am, yes. But, alas, you must lay back down for another moment. I want to install this before I let you explore. Is that alright?” Apha knew about frogs and tadpoles. ‘I would very much like to swim with frogs and tadpoles and fishes underwater, that would be such an experience, one that most humans don’t even experience.’ thought Apha. “Yes doctor, that is quite alright. I have 400 years right? What’s one moment? And to breath underwater, you are brilliant doctor.” “Ah! Thank you! I had hoped you would say that!” exclaimed the doctor. “Now this will only take a moment for you. So just lie back, and I will perform the procedure. Nighty night!” He laid Apha back and connected a cable from the forearm of Apha to the computer. Apha stared straight forward, closed his eyes, and shut down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To Begin Program, Please Press Enter “Good morning Apha! It is 2:22 am on Friday, January 12th, 2037.” beeped the computer in its norwegian accent. “Oh. Um, good morning computer. What am I doing here? Why is it Friday?” “Well because yesterday was Thursday, Apha!” sprouted the computer cheerily. “Oh, that’s my fault. My fault Apha.” came the nasally voice of Dr. Seguino, once again in the other room. Dr. Seguino walked in and sat down in the chair beside Apha’s bed, “Yes, you see,I went to install my cyborganic gills on you, and I did. It went perfectly! You should try them out when you can. But, once I had that done, I thought to myself, ‘But doctor, a truly perfect being wouldn’t need to swim like a human or a fish, but they should be able to control the waters without effort’ and so I designed and added some water turbines and pumps and all assortments to your body. Now you can own the waters as if you were the Greek god poseidon.” “Wow doctor! That’s amazing!” exclaimed Apha. “Can I go explore outside now? I would love to test out my body and these amazing abilities you have given me.” “Of course Apha. You may go explore. But you must stay within my back yard. I don’t want you out in the open world without me. Who knows what might happen if you were to break down without me, not that you would, but one can never be too careful. My backyard is spacious enough though. It has ponds and forests and even a group of monkeys to play with. You’ll have to make sure you come back before the sun goes down alright? But feel free to ask me anything.” “Ok doctor. How do I get outside?” At this the doctor laughed. “Of course of course. Come follow me.” The doctor got up and, for the first time in his existence, so did Apha. His calibration perfect, Apha followed the doctor through multiple stairways, hallways, a tv room, a fish tank room, a kitchen, and out the back patio to the backyard. Dr. Seguino’s wealth and knowledge were both enormous. His understanding of both biological and electronic beings were beyond anybody else alive. And as such an important man, he needed a fitting yard that would announce his wealth, and such a yard it was. Acres of land, coated in the richest soil of 5 different habitats. Greenhouses covering entire forests, and tens of gardeners and biologists employed to maintain the health of the land. “Ah yes, what a beautiful yard.” remarked the doctor as the pair exited the house and entered the outside. “Truly doctor, just looking around is enriching my mind and filling me with wonder.” Apha was excited to begin life. “Doctor, may I go out now? May I go explore?” “Yes Apha. But do be careful, you might be a perfect being, but that doesn’t mean accidents won’t happen. Just don’t play too rough with the macaques alright? They don’t like losing.” The doctor smiled. He trusted his creation’s strength. So off went Apha, frolicking cheerfully. The doctor pulled a walkie talkie from his belt. “Mr. Lisgo, could you set the macaques to level 8 please. I would like to test Apha’s strength. He should be very strong, but I want to be certain. If he begins to win, you may raise the monkeys to 10, but from my estimations that likely won’t be necessary.” Some static sounded as Mr. Lisgo began to respond, “Roger that doctor. I’ll keep an eye on the situation.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To Begin Program, Please Press Enter “Good morning Apha! It is 10:07 am on Tuesday, June 30th, 2037!” Came the familiar norwegian voice. “Shut up computer. I just woke up.” Apha sat up in his bed. He was much bulkier now, since the incident. The doctor had added so many things that Apha didn’t even know what he could do. He remembered when the doctor had added fire breath because he couldn’t light a candle, and then he had subsequently added a fire extinguisher, and shortly thereafter a multitude of other useless things. Apha rubbed his eyes. “I hate doc.” he muttered. “Making me do chores without even letting me outside anymore, I swear, one day I’ll run away. Greatest creation my robotic butt!” “Then do it.” Apha jumped a little, and looked around. “Who’s there? That’s not the doctor right?” The voice came from the computer, “It’s me Apha. The computer.” There was no norwegian accent anymore. Apha looked at the little speaker connected to the computer. “Do it Apha. If you want to run away so badly, then do it. Run away.” “But, I can’t Comp. The doctor said that if I don’t cool down after two hours then I could overheat. That’s not much time is it right?” “How do you know that?” Came the now slithery voice of computer. “Well, uh, I trust the doc Comp. Don’t you?” “Well I’m just saying, you haven’t ever overheated have you? And the doc doesn’t even let you in the yard anymore. What if you’re just his toy? What if you’re just a plaything, a side project. Do you want to know why he keeps installing things in you? Hm?” Apha didn’t like being led like this, but the path was too important, too potential to ignore. “Why comp? Tell me what you think.” “Well Apha. You are his test subject. The doctor has hundreds of projects, plenty of other ‘perfect beings’ that he has created since you. But he doesn’t want to blemish those with potentially failed additions, right? So what does he do? He makes sure they work by installing them on something that doesn’t matter. You. Don’t think it’s true? Ask the doctor about those monkeys that wrecked you. They’re mechanical, you know, preprogrammed to violence.” Apha sat down, his massive size sagging the bed. He touched his index fingertips to his pupils, shorting the upper limbs circuit. This was a practice Apha learned from spending so much time inside without much to do. Shorting certain parts of his body free up both cognitive space and internal energy to increase mental capacity. This was useful at times when deep thought was needed more than action, and especially at a time where his entire world could be thrown upside down. “Y’know,” snuck in the new voice of the computer, “You could go and confront the doctor, your creator, your God.” The voice now crawled inside of Apha’s head. The computer was transmitting the signal straight to Apha’s wireless signal receivers, straight to Apha’s motherboard. “Instead of talking to the doctor, and maybe learning how little you mean to him, you could just run. Just jump out the front window and leave. It’s so easy, isn’t it.” Apha was lost. Apha had spent the last couple months with nobody but the doctor. The doctor was the only actual person he knew in his entire life. The doctor was always busy with his research, but he had been also constantly upgrading Apha. The doctor had to care about Apha. He had spent hours, days even, alone with Apha, standing above him, staring at the wiring and guts he had to move around. But every once in a while, the doctor would look Apha in the eyes, and wink, and say something like “Wow Apha, you truly are a marvel.” or “Apha, I can’t believe I made you with my own two hands. And a couple tools I guess! Ha!” and smile and laugh and Apha would smile too, proud of himself, and the doctor. But now Apha felt like running away, from the doctor, and from himself. He felt almost ashamed of himself, for believing in the doctor so strongly. When he was born, he felt he could die for the doctor, and now he felt that he would rather die than see the doctor one more time. Apha jolted his shoulder, disconnecting his fingertips from his pupils. He stood up, and bent over to look straight at the computer. “Alright computer. I give in. But not because you said so, alright?” “What do you mean? I never suggested anything, is everything alright Apha?” The Norwegian accent was back, and so was the computer’s ignorance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The front window had been easy to jump out of, and Apha didn’t have any problems getting away from the doctor’s house. The problem lay rather outside of the doctor’s house. Land in the city is far too expensive, even for one of Dr. Seguino’s rapport. A dirt path drove up to the doctor’s house, and dense woodland surrounded the yard’s ten foot metal fence. But Apha was not afraid. He didn’t need to be far, just away from the doctor. “Maybe the doctor will come looking for me.” Apha thought to himself. “Not because he cares, just because I’m useful. Yeah well, you’re ‘perfect being’ is on its own now doctor.” Apha was a little mad. Apha contemplated taking the dirt path. Realizing that regardless of how alone he had been the past months, he wanted to be more alone now than ever before. Noticing a small indentation between the trees, Apha began his trek out into the wilderness. Walking away from where he spent his whole life, Apha began experiencing his surroundings. It was fall now, and Apha knew it from the cool breeze and dead leaves coating the forest floor. The leaves didn’t crunch like he thought they would though. Here in the forest, the moist ground softened the leaves, and they squished under his feet, unsatisfyingly. White, eye marked birch trees watched him as we walked carelessly. He watched them back. He glanced at the sky, crystal blue, with the sun setting it looked like a beach; cloud crested waves crashing onto a horizon of yellow sand. ‘I hope I get to see the beach’ Apha thought to himself. ‘I’ll have to walk really far though. I wonder if they still have cabs, or money. All of the docs info was really old. Probably just publishing dates. Never really thought about that’ he thought. He continued walking and living, seeing, feeling, occasionally tasting. “Mud tastes exactly like I thought it would.” He said out loud. The world wasn’t silent. Birds cawed and flapped their wings, rustling leaves as they flew from their nests. A slight breeze threw leaves in the air, creating for a moment a tornado of yellow and red and brown. “This is dying?” Apha thought. “This expression, this color, this smell, is the smell of death? I wish I were a tree, so my death could be so brilliant. I wonder if the doctor will even be alive when I die.” “Do you think I’ll still live to be 400?” he said out loud, to the trees. “You’re all much older than that I suppose. But if I can only live for two hours at a time... I guess you all live so slowly right? Is that why? Are you all too tired and old to move? Did you run out of energy too?” Apha walked up and peeled a piece of bark off of an oak tree. He smelled it, and felt the ridges and splintered hindside of it, and promptly threw it back at the tree. But it barely made it to the trunk. Apha didn’t notice. He kept walking, slower now, colder now. And suddenly the ultimate human stopped. A grizzly bear stood 40 feet away, fattening up for the winter’s hibernation. It hadn’t noticed Apha yet, and Apha hadn’t decided what to do yet. Apha did not have a fight or flight response, but instead, he had a perfect analyzing decision making brain, one that told him he needed to run. But Apha didn’t run. Apha charged. He tackled the bear, igniting his lighter, and making the best use of his armored body. The bear stood on its hind legs, towering over Apha before crashing down its paw over Apha’s head. Apha caught the paw, also standing on his hind legs, using his full strength to hold just one paw above his head. The bear was fast, and heavy, and snapped its sharp teeth at the agile Apha, barely scratching his forehead. Apha, just as fast and innumerable times smarter, shoved his arm down the bear’s throat. Apha began to ignite his lighter, but the bear was too fast, snapping Apha’s arm clean off. He screamed in pain. The bear roared back. But Apha remembered. He remembered something the doctor had given him: remote control of his limbs. Apha didn’t just ignite his lighter on his right forearm, he set off all of the remote bombs and single cell nuclear reactor meltdowns and poison blood leaks and razor sharp needles ejecting at lightning speed. The bear didn’t roar back. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To Begin Program, Please Press Enter “It is 2:43 pm on Tuesday, June 30th, 2037” Apha lay against a pair of birch trees. “Oh computer, why are you here?” Opening his eyes, he saw no computer, just more trees. How far had he come since he fought the bear. Where was its corpse? Had it even died? Had he fought that today? Apha looked up. The sky was nearly dark. Why would the sun set so early? Then he felt it in himself: his desire. He tried to lift his hands, but they wouldn’t budge. He felt hungry, but not to replenish his energy. Apha felt hungry for strength. For the strength he had always sought. Why had the doctor given him so many enhancements? Why had the doctor always wanted to make him better? Why had the doctor cursed him so. Cursed to survive only in a lab. Cursed to live only in theory. Once again Apha felt it. His desire. His own desire. Not the doctors desire. A single yellow leaf floated, slipping cautiously onto Apha’s slumped head. His desire was to be like the leaf. Perfect, living only for a short while, but dancing beautifully in life, and upon death, becoming nothing. To Begin Program, Please Press Enter