Realms of Sci-Fi

Chapter 01: Technomancer

Silence. I walked the lifeless streets of the city that had been my home for as long as I could remember, stepping over the skeletal remains in my path. The dry bones were everywhere, in the buildings, streets, alleyways, and parks. The nanobots used to kill them all had swept the world clean of life, and only I survived. I've been alone for nearly a month, searching everywhere to see if any were left, but there were no birds, insects, animals, or people, only me. The world is dead, empty, and quiet.

Before the nanobot virus, everything was different. People were always rushing this way and that, only concerned for themselves and whatever tasks preoccupied interest in their portion of the world. Violence had been steadily growing, breaking out with so little provocation. People would be murdered in the streets and most civilians wouldn't even look in the direction of the crime lest it upset their schedules. Those who did take notice only did so to see what plunder they could get, attacking the killer for whatever spoils had been attained. Life was worthless to the vile animals, prowling the streets while looking for blood to spill.

The virus put a stop to all of it. No more did they hunt their own kind. All the selfishness, greed, lies, and infighting in their quest for personal power and wealth was over, remembered only by me for there was no one else.

I checked the seals on my environment suit to be sure they were still intact. I found everything in order, and a glance at the gauge strapped to my forearm showed I had an ample supply of air. Returning my focus to the city, I kept walking toward my home.

When the virus had first started its work and I saw the people dying everywhere, I'd wondered if I, safe in my shielded home, would be lonely when I was the only one left. I've had time to think about it since then, and I've realized the truth of it. Loneliness is simply an emotion caused by the rejection rather than the embrace of solitude. A person can be alone in a crowd of ten thousand people. The presence of others has nothing to do with anything. When a person is alone and doesn't wish to be, the mental anxiety creates the sensation known as loneliness, but if the person is alone and doesn't mind, the sensation doesn't even arise. By completely accepting the solitude I'm surrounded by every day, I haven't been lonely since the virus was set loose.

I prefer being alone. People so often carried evil with them, spreading trouble and injury to others like an infectious disease. I don't remember how many times I'd hidden in my house, afraid to come out because of the killers walking the streets without fear. Over the course of my life, I'd been attacked six times, barely escaping on two occasions by the slimmest of margins. I still carried the scars. The world may be empty now, but it's filled with peace, order, and silence. No more fear of what someone may try and do to me or someone else. It's a true paradise.

Reaching the door to my house, I wait while the scanners sweep over me with a beam of electric blue. Once the security system verified it was me, the doors unlocked and pulled aside for me to enter. I stepped forward into the square entryway, holding my arms out to either side. The outer doors closed, and a secondary scan began, this time with several beams from each wall looking for any of the nanobot virus possibly brought in on my suit unknowingly. When my suit clears the inspection, the interior door slid out of the way with a whisper of its finely designed mechanics.

My house was pristine because I'm hardly ever there. Ignoring the tan sofa and matching wingback chairs flanking the low coffee table in front of the fireplace, I head downstairs. At the base of the steps is a wall of metal. A series of defenses and intrusion countermeasures had been set up; since the virus killed everyone on the planet, they're obsolete, but I kept them just in case. Deactivating the security systems in sequence, I went through the door as soon as it opened.

The lights came on automatically as I entered my lab. Work tables filled with spools of wire, piles of circuit chips, bits of solder, and microscopes of various power levels fill the room with the tools of my trade. Beyond them, dominating the far wall, was the large computer where I'd designed the nanobot virus.

It had been a necessary thing to cleanse the planet of the murderous filth infesting it. I was pleased with the results, but it remained to be seen if the next phase of the plan would work.

Activating the computer, I remotely accessed the test chamber in the next room. A robotic arm extended at my command and applied the phase two nanobot solution to the skeleton of my first test subject. As the nanobots spread out, they deposited wires, circuits, and other components, building them from the atom up. When their work was done, the nanobots took up residence in the skull of the newly build robot. The metallic skeleton stood on its feet and looked toward the camera I monitored from.

Smiling, I realized my work was complete. The raising of the dead with magic would've made me a necromancer in ancient times, but with my technologically sophisticated nanobots, I considered myself a technomancer, and my selfless followers would spread beyond the planet of Jentaris to the furthest reaches of space. Many worlds had problems like mine, and my robots would convert them all, even their entire ecosystems. This is my sacred mission and my glorious purpose. The chaos and destruction rampant everywhere in the universe will be replaced by computerized order, imposed peace, and blessed silence.