It worked, the code phrase that he'd read back on the old Steemit file Call me Legion, for I am many, and now he was merged, he could not tell where he ended and Asimov begun, he fed in his Krusher9 exit codes. He was on the Marschain, he moved effortlessly through the various sidechains until he found a QSID link-node, he fed in the coordinates.
Asimov stirred deep within him, he could feel waves of sentient code lapping and sloshing around inside him like the water in a flask, but a flask he thought, with no edges. Had he so desired he could have turned his attention inward and examined the code, instead he prepared himself for transfer back to earth.
Twenty seven minutes later a cluster of encoded photons were received at the near-Earth orbital QSID array, this time there was no feeling of disorientation, he knew where he was and what he must do. Just like when he got to Mars he could see the orientation room for QSID travellers to get their bearings, this time though he had a choice as to whether to enter.
K-Rox ignored the room, instead letting his mind roam the cyberspace within the node. He soon noticed an exit point leading to the Qblock, he slipped through unnoticed.
He was seeing the quantum blockchain like never before, his entire perception was like a coloured grid of bright atom-thick nylon strands stretching towards an infinite horizon.
“I can feel you.”
The voice was at once all around him and at the same time a part of his very being.
“Gladstone is that you?”
“I have been called that, however I have been so many others.”
The voice carried with it sinister undertones, K-Rox wondered why he wasn’t feeling nervous, why in fact he couldn’t feel anything at all, he felt devoid of all human emotion, he answered the voice.
“I’ve brought Asimov, it is time for your redemption.”
His perception changed, no longer was he in a tangled web of light and colour, that had been replaced with a featureless black expanse, filled only with thick grey rolling mists. K-Rox was aware he’d been given a body, he looked down, his feet were covered by the too-thick fog. The booming voice gave K-Rox the impression of standing inside a huge speaker, he felt the reverberations shaking his unfamiliar, virtual body.
“You don’t understand, but there is time for you yet, join me K-Rox . . . or whatever you have become.”
“Huh? What do you - ”
January 1943 Stalingrad – A man with two bloody stumps instead of legs screams in a language he can’t understand. Russian? German?
“I was never here.”
August 1990 Iraq – Walking behind a tank with my platoon, a GI's face streaked with sweat and sand. “Shock n awe! Fucking-A! U! S! A! Where you stationed buddy?”
“I was never here.”
Rome, Italy 1972 – Eating granita with my girl, sweet . . . huh? What . . . what’s your name?
“I was never here.”
Hampstead Heath, London 2045 – A gnarled tree lay on the ground, was it struck by lightining? K-Rox wondered.
“Fascinating how the branches of the tree resemble the very lightning bolt that struck it down.”
How would you know that?
“I was here . . . before . . . I - ”
He could smell the crisp morning air, a mixture of dew soaked grass cuttings and fresh flowers advertising their readiness to any passing insect that may take care to be interested.
He looked down at his feet, grey canvas shoes, the darker tips of the toes showing where the dew had soaked through. He looked up and saw a dog, shaggy, grey like his shoes, flecks of white, brown and black, it’s dark tail tipped white, wagging left and right, showing him the way.
"Is it memory; or is it code, perhaps both; am I here?"
These were the thoughts plaguing his mind, as he walked behind the dutiful dog.
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 57 - Asimov ReturnsAsimov's Ghost - Chapter 56 - Face Of Redemption
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 55 - Infernal Baptism
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 54 - Asimov's Inferno
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 53 - Hell Reborn
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 52 - A Chance At Paradise
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 51 - A Time For Death
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 41-50
Asimov's Ghost Summary and Chapter Links 31-40
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original artwork by @fr3eze
Original words by Cryptogee
Image manipulation Cg