Mostrando las entradas con la etiqueta protection. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando las entradas con la etiqueta protection. Mostrar todas las entradas

miércoles, 17 de junio de 2015

Mjölnir

   From the top of the hill, he looked majestic. It was incredible to see him glide over the water and then fly up towards the sun and then fall, breaking the surface of the lake with his huge body. The creature loved to swim, or so it seemed, and it looked really happy to be there. He looked like a child that meets the ocean for the first time. But he was much larger than just a child. He was more the size of two horses and there were far from any ocean although he could reach one in no time. The people who found him had called him Mjölnir, like the hammer that the god Thor held in battle, the hammer that the gods had created to bring order and stability to a world in chaos. He was that for them, a fantastic creature capable of bringing calm to this world.

 The two explorers that had gone to see him were so amazed that they just stared at him for an hour, never mind the fact that he might fly away in any moment. The locals said he lived deep in the mountains because they were the only inaccessible area of the region. The mountains her were sharp and built by nature like razors. Not any human could climb those and to use any means of transport would be a waste of time because of the magnetic instability of the area, which no one had ever explained. Maybe there was something to mine down there; maybe it was because of him. No one knew. What they knew was that he was, for all intents and purposes, unique. The locals never spoke about another one or a herd of them nor nothing like that. He was alone in the world.

 After a week of the discovery, the scientists had begun to look everywhere in the world with the same circumstances but nothing had come up yet. Maybe he wasn’t alone but they had to help him mate or he would be extinct in a number of years. To be honest, they had no idea how long the lifespan of a dragon was but the general thought was that they could live for hundreds of years, so that gave them some time to organize and look for a suitable mate. They studied him for weeks and weeks and more and more people came to meet him, which was astonishing due to the fact that, in the past, any person that had attempted to get close had died.

 Doctor Lemon was a brilliant biologist. She had discovered many new plants and animals in the deep forests of Indonesia. As for Doctor Samuelson, he was a paleontologist, the one that had discovered the first skeleton of a dragon in China. He was the reason the two of them were granted help from an American institution to go and explore the Razor Mountains and see if its inhabitant was real or not. They had to train hard for days in climbing and trekking and in every sport that could help them pass the mountain range. When they got there, they had to try it several times, risking their lives, in order to finally make the crossing that would lead them to Mjölnir.

The lake was not a place they went to look for him. They had seen it from the range and had thought they needed to recharge their water supplies before attempting to do anything else and the lake was probably made of melted ice water from the mountaintops. It was summer, so the lake was not as large as it could be but it happened to be large enough for a gigantic creature to swim in it. It was so strange, for both scientists, to see the creature so at peace and relaxed. If they hadn’t known any better, they would have thought he was a giant dog or something. Not for his looks of course but for the way he behaved in private, playing around and just enjoying himself.

 They had always been portrayed as savages in every single culture. They have been deemed dangerous and quite vengeful but this one did not seem like that. He seemed nice. Maybe that was because in all of the first week, they didn’t see him spout fire. It was possible that he used it only as mechanism of defense but when they saw him eat a deer, they realized he wasn’t able to do it at all. He was a very large lizard who happened to fly short distances but he had no ability to propel fire from his mouth or nostrils. This disappointed many who followed the investigation but he was, nevertheless, a species in the brink of extinction. The two scientist looked all around the area and found the skeleton of another dragon but it wasn’t its partner but its mother.

 The bones indicated it was a larger animal, with a far longer wingspan and a huge body. It was now easy to see now why they had such a clumsy ability to fly: they were too big. They weren’t like the pterosaurs of the past that were light like birds. These dragons were heavy and had to train their whole lives to be able to fly properly. That’s why no one had ever spotted one. Contrary to belief, they didn’t fly that much, they didn’t spout fire and they lived in an area where the magnetic field was just crazy. The area was soon protected by law, so only scientist and authorized people could come in, dare to cross the mountains, and then just watch him to his things.

 Both Lemon and Samuelson stayed there for a whole year and were the ones who set the rules on how to behave while staying in the area. They would explain to any visitors that they had been very careful for him not to se them or be able to smell them. They used a special perfume that made them smell like plant life so he wouldn’t come too close and attack. People always obeyed because it was more important for them to see him and take pictures than risking their lives in a silly way. But like with everything that goes into fashion, most people soon forgot Mjölnir, after only a year. Lemon and Samuelson were happy that this had happened because they needed to investigate more and see how much time he had.

They gathered saliva from the remains of his meals and some scales that had apparently fallen from him. Maybe he was changing skin like most reptiles or maybe he was sick. They had no real idea and that made them insane. For a while, they had to go back to a proper lab and just try to understand more about him. As they did all the tests and experiments they had to do, they realized it was a very difficult job as there was no other creature like it. Lizards and snakes were only similar to him in small things but, in the larger picture, he was a unique creature. And that worked against him hard because it’s much more difficult to protect something you don’t understand than the opposite.

 It was during that time that a couple of explorers in remote parts of the world found more dragon remains and even fossilized eggs. They were brought to a laboratory for investigation and hoping they could lead to a possible cloning project but that was cancelled when they realized there was nothing they could do with the eggs, except noting it features and putting it in a museum. After six months of hard work, they had come to the conclusion that the dragon was about to enter adulthood. His mother had died at least fifty years ago when he was a baby but only know he was beginning to grow up. That explained, at least partially, his behavior in the lake and the way he did things. He was becoming an adult all by himself and it appeared he would die alone too.

 Then the news came. The locals had found his body lying next to the lake. He was dead. Lemon and Samuelson flew to the area but it was too late, another team had come for the body and, with permission and bribes to the locals, they had managed to take the body in a helicopter and now it was far from the reach of those two scientists, the ones that had discovered him. For months, no one heard one more word about anything related to the creature. But both scientists decided to release a book with their impressions and experiences with the dragon. They thought they should at least be the first to say what he was like and how thrilling it was to discover him.

 The rival scientists released an autopsy report saying that he had died from drowning and that they had found the organ that might have produced the flames every single culture in ancient history attributed to the dragons. The discoverers of the creature published an article saying all of that was false and that there was something they weren’t telling and that they should have been able to check the bodies themselves or at least leave someone else do it. But they never did. And the body was never donated to any museum or organization. People, again, largely forgot about the dragon and about them, even as they slammed scientists without scruples every time they had the chance.


 Mjölnir was dead and the truth was he had died because he had wanted to. He was smarter than people thought and his fly over the lake were just an attempt to understand how to kill himself. He was grieving and because he missed his mother. And he was alone and that wouldn’t change. So he took matters into his own hands and did it. People would have never understood that because of the intelligence factor but that no longer matters. We will never understand.

viernes, 13 de marzo de 2015

200

   They descended from the sky, like rain. They didn’t fall hard on the ground but rather softly, walking slowly after landing. They looked like simple robots but everyone watching knew what they were: androids. The last generation that had been built in the Takashima factories, in what remained of Japan. They were the last remnants of technology as Takashima was the only company still spending so much money on technology.

 People didn’t like that and had tried, several times, to disable the factory. But that had proven impossible. The owners of Takashima had found out how to be independent, not relying on the energy generated by any of the public dams or energy plants. No one knew how although some speculated they had reactivated a nearby nuclear facility or maybe they were harnessing the power of the ocean waves.

 No matter how they did it, the androids were landing in small groups, all over the world. Takashima had been hired, in the midst of chaos, to ensure security wherever they could. Only fifty countries were chosen for the trial run and two hundred androids had been built to be the first to ensure the safety of the people. Those first hundred had the toughest job as humans did not like to be lectured or punished by what people in the slums called “inhumans”. And they called them liked that because they had no visible feelings, no remorse when killing or hurting someone.

 Their job was to protect people but in order to do that; other would have to be eliminated. For the next year, thousands of thieves, murderers, rapists, drug dealers and con artists, among many others, were arrested or killed on the spot if they had resisted. There was no way to escape one of the two hundred when they became angry, if that can be said. Because a machine does not become angry, it just enters another mode in it’s programming and responds only to those directives.

 The people that remained in the destroyed cities began to fear the robots. Small groups of rebels formed but they were always destroyed by the androids, not even having a chance at defying them somehow. On the other hand, the few governments that remained were very happy with these prototypes. They were behaving exactly as they had predicted and, in some time, the occupation of the now empty territories could be achieved with the help of a new generation of androids.

 Because, as always in the world, the powerful are the ones that really control all situations. It was them who paid Takashima Industries to build the robots in a time when money was not abundant. The needed that help because their rule was coming to an end and, effectively, the androids turned the tide in favor, again, of the powerful. The rebels, who were mainly poor and many more, had won several territory and were starting to colonize the remains that the war had left them. But the androids took that all from them in just a few weeks.

 The first two hundred were scheduled to be decommissioned after the first two years but that didn’t happen. Takashima assured the governments that those androids were still in pretty good shape and could serve as a support for the new generation of robots they were preparing in the factory, which had grown to the size of a small city.

 The United States invaded the “empty” territories shortly afterwards, when the second wave of androids was ready. They were another two hundred, better equipped for land and aerial assault. They were more military and had only one directive: obey the orders of their commanders. They did not protect civilians nor guarded for no one’s security. Although more evolved, they were brutes, cybernetic bullies at the service of the oppressor.

 The invasion of the territories was fast. Practically no resistance came from the few inhabitants that had remained, becoming slaves for the enjoyment of the new masters of the land. They formed several small states, each greatly relying in the strength and relentlessness of the new generation of androids.

The first two hundred, however, were removed from the colonies and returned to protect people in what became known as The Core. This was the most part of the northern hemisphere, where the wealthy of the new world were still settled. The androids there protect people, much like policemen and soon became loved by these inhabitants, which grew to like them and trust them. So much they did trust them that children even greeted any android they saw on the street and, as androids that they were, the artificial life forms began developing a relationship with the humans.

 That was not the case, at all, in the colonies. All artificial life was evil. That was what the native inhabitants knew and they were always very careful around them as any sign of rebellion was enough to be killed on the spot, it didn’t matter where it was. Their masters never cared, making the slaves clean the mess that the androids had caused. It was brutality at it’s best and no one dared to challenge the state of things.

 That is except the group that called themselves the Invisibles. No one really knew whom they were or if they were actually human. It was rather impossible they weren’t but slaves, in their quarters, loved to speculate that it was an advanced alien race that had come to save them from their masters. Of course, they were wrong. The Invisible were nothing more than people who had welcomed back their savage ancestry, behaving like animals and living in the woods and forests.

 Many territories of the world had not been recolonized after the war, so many of the survivors had gone into hiding there, slowly becoming more and more animal, losing themselves to nature and trying to forget the technology that they had used in the past. Not all survivors had taken this path and were now dead or enslaved. The Invisibles apparent goal was to be forgotten by the rest of the world, asking them to be left alone and leaving behind all trace of their disastrous humanity.

 The official of the Core knew about them but they regarded them only as intelligent animals, nothing more than a chimpanzee or a gorilla. But the Invisibles had not shed all of their humanity yet. They still had enough to seek revenge. And for many years they planned, away from everyone and everything. They sought to destroy the Takashima factory, once and for all.

 Although they did not speak that much anymore, they knew that this had been their target for a long time and the only logical thing was to proceed with their old plan. Once it had been done, they could go back to the forests and just live a peaceful life in the nature. They had no intention of breaking the rule of the Core, nor of liberating the many slaves of the world. They were a small group and they were going to use that only to avenge their deceased. That was it.

 Slowly, for some years, they travelled the wilderness until they arrived to the ancient country of Japan. That wasn’t the name the Core used anymore, changing the world so much, even the names, for people not to remember who they were. All of those all country names had ceased to exist.

 Takashima Industries was located on a small island, off the coast of Kyushu. The savages waited, scouting the island from afar, planning their strategy with care. The island could only be reached by boat and the place was heavily guarded. So it was best to do it at night. After all, they had dragged with them a secret weapon, which they knew would be essential to their plans. They stayed hidden for some weeks until they had a raft ready to sail closer to the island.

 On the raft travelled only two people: a woman, partial leader of the group, who used to be a scientist and a strong man, who used to be a military officer. There was a third passenger though. It was one of the first two hundred, an android that the Invisibles had defeated in battle, the only one that had ever fallen to them. They sailed the raft midway towards the island and then the woman pushed a few buttons on the back of the robot. The creature lit up and people on the shore could see their plan was working. The android was blind but functional. The man whispered a few coordinates to his cybernetic ear and then waited. The android then stood up and fired a rocket from his hand.

 The rocket flew up and this gave time to the raft to go back to the shore and escape with the rest of the Invisibles. Shortly after, the bomb fell on the factory, fully destroying every single piece of equipment on the island and killing hundreds of workers. It was the end of Takashima Industries as the Core decided to build new androids by themselves, even going as far as torturing the founder of the factory and making him give them all his research on artificial intelligence. Afterwards, he was killed by fire squad, falsely accused of treason.

 The Invisibles returned to the forest, with their android companion, and disappeared for years in the thickness of nature. But they would return again, very soon.