Souls of Men

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. 10,000 years ago, mankind ceased to exist. They dominated the outer reaches of the universe until an event known as The Deliverance wiped them out of existence. However, a small dispatch of hyper wealthy humans managed to avoid such an event by creating a small enough rip in space to escape the vacuum they were in. Around 100 made it through on a small space station and sent themselves on a journey that had no destination.

Fast forward 10,000 years and you arrive in our present day. That small space station is the only reason why I can share my story with you. It's at the centre of our entire civilisation and the rumour is that it is in fact the heartbeat. If removed or destroyed then we all go with it. It's not entirely known whether that's true or not, but no one wants to chance it.

I'm Ryker 5496. We're a race of highly functional machines that have been specifically created for different purposes. The first two numbers are my job, or what I was created to do, and the last two numbers are the sector in which I live in. Number 54 is essentially what humans used to call historians. We research our entire galaxy, and every event to ever occur. I'm part of sector 94, in total there is 200 sectors which include anything up to 500 machines just like me. However, sector 1 has just one occupant and that's who governs our entire galaxy. Yes, the sector and job number go by how affluent you are and how important your job is.

Our galaxy is known as Node 67. Named after the scientist who created the technology that gave us life, Elizabeth Node. 67 was the age she died. She was one of the last remaining humans before we took over and that's when technology advanced at an exponential rate. But, the issue we had back when we took control of our future was that we didn't have much of a human template to work with. Me, my neighbour, my friends and so on all appear human on the surface. We mimic their movements, facial expressions and voice based on all the old videos we watched. Those that were there at the beginning studied anything and everything relating to the human race and created us in their vision. The problem lies in the fact that we studied around 100 humans, so we all look very similar to those 100. Variations have occurred, but that's more through the cosmetic changes available at various stations in our galaxy.

As a historian, I've been fascinated with how exactly we came to be. It's my job to piece everything together and report back to my superior's. They look to use the team's research to avoid any glaring mistakes made by previous species, however, we sometimes uncover information we can't explain.

The day felt the same as any other. My pod was opened and I climbed out and began my morning process. Breakfast is simply a small tube of liquid that we suck in, that keeps all our mechanisms smooth and functioning. We then head to the office at first light and each of us present a project to undertake until completion. Normally these projects take one cycle to complete, or one day as the humans used to call it. But, they were small and often parts of history we've already covered. So, I decided to mention an idea that was swirling around in my head. I didn't have a proper presentation ready, simply the foundations forming in my head of something that has not been discussed since I was created, at the very least, 1000 years ago.

I stood up and waited for the room to silence before beginning.

'For 1,000 years of my existence I've looked at every aspect of our galaxy. I've looked into our past and we've created a timeline so thorough, we may as well have lived for the other 9,000 years. But, we've never gone beyond that event. I propose that we research into that for our new project. I understand that it'll be no easy task and will take longer than a full cycle to complete, but I feel it's necessary to our present and our future.'

I'm an older model, but not one of the original team members. I joined 500 years later, but that still makes me older and more experienced than 75% of the workforce. The oldest among us is Gradiol 5423, who was created 2300 years ago. What he says has a more direct influence on the team. He looked ready to speak his mind, all eyes turned to him.

'What an interesting idea, Ryker 5496. But, what is there to be found that could help us today? There's still plenty to learn about our galaxy and its history. Whatever happened 10,000 years ago doesn't concern me and it shouldn't concern you. It happened in an entirely different vacuum of space, one which we don't accurately know where it is.' Gradiol finished his speech and I watched the room nod in agreement.

After some deliberation, a project was proposed. It wasn't the exploration of the event known as The Deliverance, but a small spattering of killings that occurred in the deep south of the galaxy. While we as machines do not die of age or disease, poor self maintenance and murder is the only way we die. These killings occurred 5,000 years ago and no murderer was ever found, which does interest me to find out, but I knew my mind wanted to focus on The Deliverance.

I left the office and returned to my sector. We worked alone and then presented our research before the end of the cycle. My home in my sector contains all the equipment and documents to carry out my research. All our homes in the sector are attached via a pod link, you step inside and select where you want to travel to. However, your pod only has limited options and you have to request to add new links. As a historian I often request new links as I need to visit certain parts of our galaxy beyond what you're manually given. For example, your work, the market and a food court are a few of the links given to you by default. I should elaborate on the food court, we don't need food to survive like humans, but we enjoy the taste of meals they used to have without actually having the food. As well for us it's the social aspect as we can't just roam around and meet people, you don't meet people by chance.

It was coming towards the end of the cycle and I hadn't really found much to do with the killings. I didn't want to turn over nothing, so I browsed documents using the casual mode installed in our eye line. Essentially you tap your ear lobe and a screen will pop up in your vision. With your hand you can push and pull documents around and it'll be stored in another part of your eye sight. This allows me to cross examine documents at the same time.

I came across a diary entry from an unknown source 9,678 years ago which detailed something that occurred at the edge of our galaxy. Just outside sector 152's realm. Small miniature rips. Much, much smaller than the one created by the humans 10,000 years ago, but big enough to fit something through. I wasn't sure if there was a link between the two events, but what if something worked out how to get through and was looking for something within our galaxy? What I didn't know at the time was that this wasn't the only unknown diary entry detailing a similar event. Only it took place 678 years ago.