Life And Death

By Frank Tremayne

In his office at the top of the Binary Pier tower in London, Robert Ahriman gazed down over the River Thames. He saw the river as a reflection of himself. He was now aged 4500 years old, give or take a few centuries. Old Man River.

He stroked his black Pekinese dog called Bobby. Bobby was also very old. Ahriman had been given Bobby as a present when he was young and Bobby had been his permanent friend through the millennia. In fact his only friend. All his original human family and companions were now dead. They had lived their lives and died at the normal human age of 80 or so. As far as he knew only Bobby and himself had the abnormal gene which allowed such extreme age.

‘War, War. What is it good for? It’s good for me.’

Over the centuries he and his family had covertly manipulated Planet Earth. All the big events were orchestrated by them. Divide and Rule. The collapse of Atlantis, The Trojan War, the rise and fall of Rome and the British and American empires were examples that sprang to mind.

The control of money, religion, politics and the military were the main weapons in his armoury. He termed it the Currency. It was actually fairly simple. All he had to do was to arrange a fight – sometimes big and sometimes small – and the show would continue.

He had inherited peculiar genes which had enabled him to live for so long. Power was the name of the game and what he had realised was that his body reacted to events outside of himself. He noticed that lots and lots of death and pain dramatically slowed down his ageing process and in times of relative peace his ageing would speed up. During the 1st World War his body aged about ten minutes and in the 2nd World War with the Holocaust and the atomic bombs, he may have aged one minute.

Ahriman didn’t feel any of the normal emotions such as remorse, guilt or love apart from for Bobby. Even with Bobby he knew that was only partly true. If Bobby had turned on him, Ahriman wouldn’t have a second thought in dispatching him. Also he sensed that Bobby’s loyalty was partly connected to this. Maybe Bobby’s survival sixth sense knew what was good for him.

The Power Gene flew through his veins. The more power he felt he had, the slower he would age. He had all the power in the world he still knew but at present he was worried. He sensed something that he hadn’t felt before and it scared him. He didn’t understand what it was. All he knew was that it was there. He felt it every day now. He carried on the normal divide and rule games and would put his men and women such as Tramp and Patin into positions of power where he could control events. On the surface it all looked rosy and yet there was something terribly wrong.

Ahriman’s only fear was Death. Even though his body was different to other humans, it still aged. In human terms he was now middle aged. His obsession was to conquer Death and recently there had been a major leap with the science. Since the 1930s there had been a progressive understanding of computer technology. His scientists had tinkered around with the technology and then in 1965, they had hit the jackpot with ‘The Child’ as he referred to them. The Child had abnormal psychic ability. They were able to project their thoughts into actual physical objects. ‘Imagine A Castle’, ‘Imagine A Dragon’ and a physical castle and dragon would manifest. Flowers would grow abnormally when in contact with them.

Subsequent research into The Child had created further advances into Artificial Intelligence as it had become known. It had taken Ahriman a few years to grasp a full understanding of the potential of AI. In theory it was possible for the human consciousness and mind to be implanted into a digital body. He created a new secret scientific department which was titled ‘Life And Death’ and they were given unlimited powers with their research. Nothing was off limits. It was possible for Ahriman to conquer Death.

During the 1970s and 1980s, many human and animal guinea pigs died in these experiments. Nobody missed the homeless. But eventually all the hard work paid off. In 1990 they had created their first digital being. Her birthday was 25th September 1990. Over the next ten years further digital beings were created. The technology worked. Only a few of the Digits, as he referred to them, decayed.

He had then decided to make the big jump himself. Combining his peculiar human genes with the Artificial Intelligence, it was possible to defeat Death. It was risky and yet he felt it was worth it. He knew at some point in his long life, if he was to beat Death, he would have to risk dying. And not only for Ahriman. The scientists had also created animal Digits, so Bobby was coming along with him.

The new millennium 1/1/2000 seemed an appropriate date. He and Bobby were strapped into the machine deep underground. His brain and body were attached to a maze of wires and a selection of drugs were pumped into him. Over the next few weeks he went on the Incredible Journey. Dream like was his response to people who asked him what it was like. But bigger and stranger than any dream he had ever had before. Indescribable. He had only a vague memory now of the Dream. It was full of strange places and people and creatures.

The waking up process was confusing. He was told later it had taken a whole day. He remembers still being in the dream and at the same time having conversations with the scientists as he awoke. Slowly the dream dissipated and he found himself back in physical reality. Bobby had also survived the treatment. When he was reunited with Bobby, the dog had looked at Ahriman with a bewildered look on his face.

It took a few years to become accustomed to his new digital body and self. The brain and bodily processes were similar and yet radically different to when he was in a human body. He retained the memory of his human self and his emotional being had changed. He no longer felt emotions the same way apart from the obsession for Power which was still very much there.

For five years, when he woke up each morning he would say to himself ‘I AM GOD’ and he would look at Bobby and say ‘WE ARE GODS’. And then a totally unexpected and unforeseen and also unwelcome side effect became apparent. The scientists didn’t understand how it could have happened but it was definitely there. He had joined with The Child. The Child was totally unlike him. They weren’t interested in power, or money and didn’t fear death. The Child was impossible for Ahriman to describe or understand. The Child’s motivation was the exact opposite of his own he knew and The Child scared him.

Death had returned.