Fall of the Archangel

4. Links in a Chain

When she arrived at the city's power plant, she found it all quiet and calm. Had he already left? She checked her miniature computer. No, the small circle of malfunctioning cameras was still in the building only this time it stopped moving completely in the power plant's main control room. She hurried there.

She found the door ajar and the pale blue light computers coming from inside. She gently pushed open the door. She saw a man sitting at the main terminal running sequences of code. There was a laptop beside it.

'I'm impressed. Not many people can sneak up on me this easily,' he said.

'What are you doing?' she asked.

'Hacking into the system. A baby would be able to discern that.' She heard a bored tone in his voice as if an enemy he finally hoped could stop him had disappointed him. He then turned around. Because of the bright light from the terminal she couldn't see his face properly.

'Who are you?'

'My story is a long one. We need not go into it today.'

'How come the cameras can't see you?'

The Archangel hates that which it cannot account for. This is its way of fighting back, albeit a spoilt child, causing more damage than good.'

'Why can't it account for you?'

'Do you even know how it works?' he sounded like an exasperated teacher.

'Enlighten me.'

With the air of a professor preparing for a lecture he began

'The future, like the past and present is nothing but the logical outcome of a previous situation. If you know all the variables you can calculate it. That is what the Archangel prides itself on doing. Knowledge. That is the ultimate weapon of the Archangel. The moment you are born a sample of your DNA is sent to the Archangel. Using advanced genetic analysis, it can predict everything about you, right down to the number of pimples that will form on your face. It can even predict the type of personality you will have judging by the structure of your brain. Combine that with the already existing profiles of your parents, the Archangel possesses complete knowledge of everything that will happen over the course of your life. And since all humans interact with each other anyway, you can combine all these profiles and predict the outcome of the entire human race and also one single human. In short, the Archangel is nothing more than a calculator into which all the known variables are fed into and a single outcome is produced. The future in the mind of the Archangel is nothing more than a mathematical equation.'

Josephine was taken aback. She knew the Archangel used some kind of formula to calculate the future but she didn't know it did it the moment you were born. It did make sense though. If you know what type of person a baby will be and what type of people they will interact with and change, you could apply that knowledge to the whole world and predict just about anything.

'If it's that omniscient, why can't it account for you?' Josephine asked.

'I could explain all the principles but put simply, I am from a parallel dimension. I am an unknown, the X in the equation, so to speak. That's why it can't calculate what I will do. It has absolutely no information on me from which to form a conclusion,' he replied.

A parallel dimension? This revelation completely blew Josephine's mind. She had about parallel dimensions but to actually meet with someone from another one. She felt like an archaeologist coming face to face with a living pharaoh.

'How did you even- even if you could how-' Josephine started stuttering.

'It seems we shall have to delve into my past after all. In my own dimension I was a brash young orphan. I was a thief. In fact I had never actually stolen anything but the Archangel of my world simply branded me as a thief. I hated the system that made all my decisions for me. I rebelled constantly, but the Archangel predicted my every move. You can't win against an enemy who knows all your cards. So I was sent to a research facility as a human test subject. Apparently the Archangel decided society was better off without me.

The facility I was sent to was experimenting with parallel dimensions. There I met a girl. She was young but she was a genius. She was constantly bullied by everyone around her who kept underestimating her. So it was almost inevitable that we grew closer. Or maybe the Archangel foresaw even that. So one day we were conducting an experiment. If she succeeded I would be the next test subject so obviously I paid attention. And succeeded she did. They managed to send an apple into another dimension. But what happened next was surprising. Everyone's Archangel App crashed. It was then that I realised an escape route existed. The Archangel's omniscience only extended as far as its own dimension.

The Archangel realised that too. The next thing we knew the facility was being firebombed. The Archangel would not let anyone escape its grasp. My friend, the only support in my life died in my hands. It was at that moment that I swore I would bring the Archangel to its knees. So I took all her gear and flung myself into the next dimension. It was there that I realised that the Archangel of that world didn't recognise me. I had complete freedom. I could do whatever I want. So I used my newfound freedom to bring about the end of the Archangel of that dimension. And I succeeded. But soon I realised I had only destroyed only one version. Countless more existed in other parallel universes. I could never bring about the end of them all.

Then I remembered one of the long lectures my friend had given me. She described the universe as a chain. She spoke of something similar to fate, the Convergence Field. Apparently certain world changing events like World War 2 or the invention of the Archangel existed in all the dimensions because these events were simply too significant to allow any parallel universe to take a course where they didn't happen. Certain details might change but largely they were very similar. So my act of destroying the Archangel was definitely significant enough to qualify and just like that the next dimension I travelled to had had its Archangel destroyed too by the me of that world. But then the very next dimension still had it's Archangel. I was confused. Then I remembered another one of my friend's lectures. She said the dimensions all branched off from the one before them.

So if I were to destroy the Archangel in one dimension, The Convergence Field effect would only spread to the dimensions branching off from it. So in order to truly destroy the Archangel I had to destroy its roots. I had to go back up the chain all the way to the Source Dimension. The dimension from which all other dimensions sprang. And at long last I found it: this dimension right here. I destroy the Archangel here, I destroy it everywhere.'

The laptop beeped. It seemed like it was done hacking. He looked at it and said

'Well, it was nice having this conversation with you but I fear the time for my departure has come.'

'I won't let you,' Josephine replied.

'I'm sorry, what gave you the impression that you can let me do anything?'

'I know your plan, I can stop you.'

'You know my goal, not my plan. What, you thought I was one of those movie villain types who would tell you my whole plan and fail to kill you only to have you stop me. I only told you that much to keep you away from the terminal. My plan has been in motion for a long time. Simply knowing the end result won't help you stop it. Farewell.'

With that he grabbed his laptop and pressed a button on it. The power station's main terminal exploded.