Irrelevance

Kim watched from a safe distance as a drone walked across the corridor and began to repair something on the wall. He had been on the run for several days - since his home in the country had been invaded by drones and his family assimilated into the collective. Had it not been for his three sons putting up a fight, he would have been assimilated himself. He was grateful to them for allowing him to escape but he wished that he could have traded his own life for that of anyone of his sons. It was not easy these days to keep one step ahead of the collective - it was everywhere.

He recalled how, in his youth, there had just been of few people connected to the link. Sharing knowledge, gaining experiences from the others connected. But as more people had joined, they required more experiences to satisfy the needs of all the people linked. Eventually every implanted human gave up his individuality and joined the collective permanently. It was easier for them to gain the things they wanted from the others, than to gain them by themselves.

Kim had thought nothing of it, he was not an implanted human so why should he be interested in what they did? But ultimately, everyone in the collective had the same knowledge and experiences as everyone else - they effectively became the one person. They then started to force people into the collective - assimilating them. Kim and several others had fled into the country at this point. He had hoped that the collective would only be interested in people who lived in the city, but he had been wrong.

He continued to watch the drone repair whatever it was it was repairing. Kim could not be sure, but he thought it might be a switching node - a device to relay instructions to drones. If he could get access to it and disable it, all the drones within a two mile radius would stop functioning, giving him time to escape from this area. After several hours waiting to make sure that the drone had returned permanently to his alcove, Kim emerged from his hiding place and quickly ran to the switching node. He had once worked in a factory producing implants, so he was familiar with some of the codes used to send signals to and from them. After a few minutes trying to become familiar with the system, Kim attempted to disable it with the correct code. He waited patiently to see if it been accepted - if it had not, it would not be long before he would have drones bearing down on him from all directions.

More time elapsed but no drones had moved from their alcoves. Kim assumed that the code had been accepted. He would have about an hour before a secondary node would kick in to operation and so he moved quickly through the corridors of the city-building and made his way to the exit. Arriving at the edge of the collective influence was a major relief for Kim - he had spent two weeks hiding inside after accidentally coming across the city while running from the country. He could not be sure if he was exiting at the same point as he entered as the architecture of the collective was somewhat similar no matter where you were. It did not matter, he was just glad to be leaving.

As he walked over the rugged landscape moving further and further away from the collective, he felt much better - his two weeks in hiding were the worst he could ever remember. Somehow it seemed odd that they had not discovered his presence, but Kim was pleased that they had not. He could not recall walking over this same terrain before, so he guessed that he was headed away from the city and the direction of his home.

It was cold, the weather over Kim's lifetime had changed dramatically. He recollected how in his younger days temperatures had been quite warm and it had rained often, now though, it was always cold. Kim suspected that the collective were some how controlling the weather, keeping weather conditions just right in order to keep the drones implants operating correctly all the time. It did not matter that much , he just wished he could go around some days without a coat on.

Kim had been walking for several hours and he was beginning to tire. Unfortunately he could not stop to rest, as he was still too close to the city. If he were detected drones could transport to his position quite easily. Kim looked towards the horizon, he could see several buildings that appeared to be in ruins and beside them he could see several figures moving around. Perhaps he would get to rest after all. As he approached the settlement a man came towards him. Although the man had implants, he could tell he was not part of the collective. It was not unusual for drones to be freed from the collective while they were attempting to assimilate a group of people. If someone managed to damage the implant above their left temple their link to the collective was severed. He held a gun towards Kim, obviously frightened of something, though Kim was no threat to him - possibly he had recently had had a run in with the collective. As Kim approached and the man realised that he was not a member of the collective, he lowered his gun.

Kim greeted the man and told him his name, the man replied that his name was third of five - he was still using his collective drone designation. As Kim and third of five walked back towards the buildings, Kim asked him if he had been in contact with the collective recently. Third said that he had been freed only yesterday, when he had been sent to assimilated the population of this village. Kim could hardly believe that the ruins could have been a village only yesterday, but the collective had destroyed his home as they left with his family, so it made sense.

As they approached the village several more people came to greet Kim. There was a mixture of freed drones and humans who had clearly been running from the collective for quite some time - they were filthy, in fact they reminded him of people he had seem in antique films that portrayed living conditions centuries ago. For people who had been living on their wits for some time, they were still quite friendly. They gave Kim something to eat, he was not sure what it was but he was so hungry that he did not mind. Kim told them of his recent experiences, having had his family taken, running from the collective and everyone sympathised with him as they had all experienced similar situations.

The residents of the village told Kim that they were moving on tomorrow, as it was too risky to stay in the same place for too long. Especially so since they had had a recent visit from the collective, and the collective would come searching for its missing drones before long. Kim asked if he could move with them as he had nowhere else to go and he would prefer to be with them than on his own. They told him that he would have to be prepared to kill drones, as moving in a group presented the collective with a much more tempting target than a single individual. Kim thought about it while he continued to eat. He was sure if it came to it he would be able to kill - but he hoped that he would never be asked to.

It was getting late, the sky was already beginning to darken and these days the temperatures, even during the summer could at night drop to well below freezing. Kim moved closer to the fire that had just been lit, its warm glow comforted him as he looked back over the events of the past few weeks. He could not get them out of his head. Perhaps if his family had been killed it would have been easier, but he knew that they were still alive in a way, part of the collective - responsible for assimilating others now. He realised that to fight the collective was to fight his family and he was not sure what he would do if he was faced with drones again. As he settled down for the night he pulled is coat up around his ears and started to cry. It was the first time he had had the chance to go through the events properly, without the threat of being assimilated hanging over him. He had to let it out, to let them go - so that he could get on with his life.

Startled, Kim awoke suddenly. There had been an explosion nearby, one of the adjacent buildings was on fire and as Kim and the others got up quickly there was the unmistakable sound of transporter activity nearby.

Kim looked up towards the sky, he could see through a hole in the roof the unmistakable sight of a collective transport ship - it must have been taking drones back to the city and spotted the settlement. From it he could hear the unmistakable voice of the collective saying

"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile"

Kim reached for a gun that was propped up against the side of the building and he headed out of the structure to join the rest of his compatriots in resisting the advancing drones.

Outside Kim could see several hundred drones advancing towards the settlement and he headed over to join third behind the ruin of a wall. Kim took up a position on the wall ready to fire at the drones, but as he sought out a target to hit, he heard the sound of more transporter activity. He looked round, over his shoulder to see, to his horror, more drones approaching from behind them. Any hope of retreating was now quashed, Kim and the others would have to make a stand here. Kim began to shoot at any drone he saw - it was easier than he had expected to shot someone, but as the ammunition drained from the barrel of his gun, he was aware that he was not making a dent in the line of advancing drones. They continued to approach, walking at a steady pace - as one fell another took its place and as the last round spouted from his gun they reached the edge of the settlement.

Kim looked round to see some of the outermost humans assimilated by the drones, it was a horrible sight - the men screamed as the drones held them. Kim searched around for another ammunition clip, over at the wall he saw third lying dead, he had shot himself rather than be taken by the collective again. Kim took his gun and instead of trying to hit the drones, he tried to hit the people who were being assimilated. As he fired he did not notice the drones

advancing from behind him and, before he realised what was happening, he felt a gripping hand on his shoulder.

It was over. Kim felt the assimilation tubules pierce his neck and the nano-probes fill his veins. He tried not to scream as they forced themselves up into his head and manifested behind his left eye. But as he concentrated on remaining dignified, an implant thrust its way through his left temple and out onto the surface of his head. At once he felt the connection between himself and the collective form and it became clear to him that resistance was futile.

//agi. [agi@fsmail.net]