Part 18

Sunset. The early evening songbirds were only a distant reminder to Madak that he was still on Earth. He had spent the day studying the structure of the ancient Khalbantian creature, and the technology that created it was definitely not of Earthly origin. Bones, saturated with minerals, were enhanced beyond the toughest composites of the ancients’ technologies. Muscles were a single organism - possibly a symbiotic creature that fused the indestructible bones to the alien nervous system. Flexible crystalline fibers interwoven through the muscles and spine led to a central nerve cortex buried deep inside the central carapace.

Since its creation, however, other hands had enhanced the machine’s appearance. Obsidian and silver were attached to the machine. The decorative additions also had some kind of language inscribed, but it was not Khalbantian. These other markings were a mix of strange caricatures of men and animals, in a blocky graphical format. Madak understood that it was a language - he could feel the thoughts locked inside of the icons, but was unable to decipher them fully. It was as if the craftsman was claiming the machine for his culture. Deifying the machine for his people.

The oddest addition to the machine which was that also in this decorative style was what looked like a mouth etched in gold in the center of the chest of the machine. The details were inscribed around an area that was open to a section of the exposed nervous system in the creature.

Odd that a machine of war would have its delicate interior exposed in this way. Madak came to the conclusion that part of its armor must have fallen off at some point, and since it could not be recreated effectively with the technology available at the time, the mouth image was created to confuse the enemy and distract potential attacks.

Madak realized that in order to further explore this machine’s structure and functionality, he had to go beyond personal safety of a simple physical examination and experience the creatures true essence, its operating system. He stepped back.

All tools bear marks that betray the personality of their craftsman. Be it a mass-produced blade, or a hand-carved piece of furniture, a part of its creator is relatively clear to anyone with sensitivity to subtle patterns. Madak stood away from the machine that he had examined so closely, so intimately for the last several hours, and reviewed the impressions left of this machine’s creator and subsequent embellishers.

There was a confidence in the original construction that spoke of many other previous creations by the same hand. The familiarity with the materials was, however, not replaced by some rote manipulation. The creator, and there was definitely only one personality behind the original construction, had an almost religious attention to detail. Problems that arose in the creation of the machine, from joint fabrication to rerouted neural fibers, were solved with simplicity and ingeniousness. There was an innate love that accompanied these decisions.

Madak was frightened. This machine was not a part of the natural balance that he was used to. Animals and elemental energies had ties to the oldest parts of the macrocosm. Inside of these natural essences, there resided a deep sense of stability that could be explored with safety. There were expected patterns in their essences, but not with this creation. This machine had an essence that functioned outside of the natural patterns. Alien. Unnatural.

Madak caught himself. To call it "unnatural" was too simplistic and dismissive. No, Madak had to be focused completely to connect to the operating system.

Although it was constructed by a craftsman that used patterns outside of the Earth, the machine still was something that existed within the macrocosm. Madak simply had to adapt to understand the patterns that the machine operated within.
He took a deep breath.

He softened his vision to take in the creature’s silhouette. The dark grey mass of bones and shell began to shimmer, and soon, the glowing blue lines of the creature’s nervous system and subtle body emerged.

The subtle body of the creature was unlike any he had ever seen. A magan like himself, would project a full-spectrum aura, fading from red to yellow to green to blue and deep violet. The average person may project two or three colors with harsh flares or grey spots hovering around traumatized parts of the body. Diseased people might carry a brownish-green cloud over whole quarters of their body. Animals and plants give off similar patterns that are usually without much distortion.

The human body has seven major nodes in its subtle body that serve to align and balance. They appear as glowing cones along the center line of the body venting outward. The ancient word for them is "chakra". Every person and animal has a variety of intensity to these chakras, depending on their state of being, and their colors are generally all the same. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

This creature had only four chakras, and they all glowed red-orange, fading to yellow. The colors of primal fear, sex, and aggression. These chakras also pulsed with a flickering whiteness that rippled outward in a regular pattern. Madak looked deeper. Within the plane that emitted these red chakras was an egglike form that glowed with a bluish-grey - the color of intelligence. The operating system.

Focusing on this egg, Madak began to see the swirling circuits of light within it. Although he knew the machine was currently set in a passive mode, the swarming lights revealed complex activity. Swirls of blue in varying intensity swam in circlets and shot off in sharp angles, as if tracing the edges of some convoluted three dimensional shape.

The rest of the machine dissolved away and the egg drew closer as Madak focused even deeper and sought the consciousness within. Deep inside the network of blue lights was a tightly woven knot of yellow-green that glowed and ebbed like the chest of a sleeping child. That was the true operating system. Why hadn’t it been activated? Yellow and green are the colors of healing and connections to others. If these colors were introduced to the machine, it may be able to function as a complete creature, with a complete consciousness.

He drew closer. The pulsing did not alter even after he reached out to connect to the soul of the creature, if he could call it that. Quickly, he realized that something was not permitting him to connect. There was a barrier placed around this soul. Someone had not wanted it to manifest through the operating system, but sleep indefinitely. Madak focused on the barrier. Structures like this left traces of its creator, just as the physical construction could. This barrier had the same essence to it as did the scroll translating the Khalbantian into phoenetics. That same person effectively lobotomized this machine-being.

Perhaps it had become dangerous to his plans for the machine. Perhaps his plans for the machine to behave dangerously were not agreed by the conscious soul. Madak thought it best to leave it asleep for the time being, and pulled back into himself.

He looked again at the machine before him and was surprised that he no longer had fear, but deep respect for the creature. Respect, and a sense of sadness. Maybe one day, he would try to release this consciousness from its prison. He would, of course, have to discover first what he would be unleashing. It may endanger the plans Laastra has for this valley.

Madak grounded himself again and left the tent. He surveyed the camp, cast in the bluish-green shadow of the low sun. The not-men in their white robes were lighting the campfires. Madak watched them a little longer. There was muffled laughter from two of them. Madak could see that their faces were not built to smile. One bared his teeth, and the other could only crinkle his nose. While sharing an honest laugh, upon seeing each other’s dishonest faces, their laughs dropped sharply, and they went on their separate ways.

End Part 18