Day 130 - Babel - Chapter 26 (1581 words)

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BABEL

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 26

Philip was core to many experiences he could not comprehend, as one of the originals that Looped on the ship and became a node for hundreds of thousands of others. He was losing track of days and hours at a time, especially since the bomb went off and took out so many of the initial individuals who had eaten, grasped and linked so intimately in the first days of being Looped in to everyone he touched. From the original group, the bomb had gone off so close to where they had landed, where they had linked in with the Babel, and they did not need to move from that spot after that, it was unnecessary to travel anywhere, as everyone was now connected perfectly.

The blast had caught out so many of the people in that group, and Philip was still reeling from the loss of Susan in that first step out the door, the draining of her life in such proximity to his, and Darren immediately afterwards. That had been too much for him, too much even with the dampening effect of whatever the Hosts were helping them with, the rush of information and emotion, memories that felt real but never happened to them at all, there was too much to soon.

The plan had obviously gone awry, there were unexpected developments and the sense that Philip felt from the Hosts was that they could not understand why it was so violent a reaction from this man, and from whomever it was that was helping him. They were here to help, Philip could feel it even as he felt the suspicious natures of the nine hundred thousand people he was connected to. Why were they helping, what did they want, were they being softened up for something else, is this blanket feeling of safety real at all? Are they safe, they feel safe but are they actually going to stay that way? Philip felt it all, as did the Looped in Babel, but they felt it more diffusely whereas Philip had it dialled all the way up to eleven on every thought, feeling and sensations that passed through the Loop.

There were only three individuals left from the original group, after Victor had set off the bomb, the trap he had set, there was Philip who was the most ambulatory and uninjured as he had been shielded from the blast by a Bollard, had and thick with soot when he woke up next to it his ears ringing and the muscles in his arms and legs twitching uncontrollably. The explosion had killed forty one people and injured many more, one or two people in the Loop died from shock, not anything more than being emotionally susceptible they could not process the physical feelings that were amplified and broadcast through the Loop.

They had been knocked unconscious very quickly, they did not know why or how that had happened, whether the Hosts had intervened or had some kind of back up safety, fail safe type mechanism to shut down the Loop so this kind of feedback did not kill. They were out cold for hours, when they awoke there was no sign of the assassin, Victor. They knew a lot about his past now, and they guessed much about his position in the city, the memories of Babel who had come across him while scavenging the city centre. They could not connect with him, they could not see or feel anything in relation to him so communication was impossible.

The return to being able to communicate with others on such a simple and accessible level, directly feeling and comprehending each other eliminated the need for language. There were people in the Loop who understood more about the Babel and how it affected the brain, from medical updates prior to falling victim themselves, from hospital and media staff who got access to information that was not made public, it was now open and shared by all. The language centres of their brains were re written, wiped over with a new language like formatting a hard drive for a incompatible system.

They did not need the words, the labels and the cryptograms to pass ideas and instructions, they could comprehend objects and pass them along in their minds before they even got to the labelling stage of assigning values for identification. If a Looped person was looking at a crowd of people and they wanted to identify someone, an individual in that crowd then the person was seen, processed and specified exactly in that split second before you tried to think about how to describe someone, you 'know' them as a model in your head. It was that model that was being transferred as a language-less way of talking.

If you felt something, that feeling could be passed. It made for uncomfortable and honest exchanges but they were also very, very rapid. If you wanted something you could not have, be that a person, an object or experience then your desire was made plain. The blockage was also known, and the following reactions would cascade through not one but nearly a million minds. It was democratised morality and it came back to a simple what's best for everyone sanity. If you wanted something that crossed someone else you were unlikely to get it, if you wanted something that merely offended others then it was the offence that lost in most cases.

As the Looped were being dispersed the groups, the villages and gangs or whatever loose societal structures they were in were being rewritten and reorganised on the fly. Some people were unhappy in one structure, and could see where they wanted to go and who they wanted to be with. The mellowing, the layer of calm and reason that the Host had laid over top made most of the decision making rational. The fights that had broken out when they were in chaos, they solved themselves, like most did.

Among the Looped were people who would never fit in, would never be safe to be around and would always be looking for a way to take advantage and hurt people for their own benefit. They were exposed, but they could not simulate a regret they did not feel. If it was possible they could see things anew, they could change, but there were a small percentage that would never fit and never be a part, a useful part, of the Loop. They were watched, they looked for escapes they knew they could not make and they all looked inwards to the Loop for the next step.

Philip was a node, and he was too close to all of this, the two other surviving nodes, they were struggling physically so much more fell back on him. One of the other two had lost a leg, the wound had grown over and healed in minutes, an intervention by the Host, no other explanation afforded itself, they had to protect the nodes and try and heal the Loop. They needed to expand the number of Nodes and links to other networks.

There were other networks, there were other nodes, they just needed to connect and Loop them in. That made sense, it was an idea that came in from the outside, not from within the Loop, there would have only been guesswork from the Babel, this had to have come from the Host. This was a network, New Zealand was an island nation and so far and so disconnected from the rest of the world. They were the first, they were Loop Zero, and they needed to break the tyranny of distance to connect to new Nodes, to share the load of the Looped and bring in other entries.

This was a small country and a depleted population, a good experiment in getting it right. They could not connect with the others, there was too much water between them, they could not communicate easily across or over water, they needed to physically loop people in, and bring them in gradually. That was why they had the ship above the unpopulated island, the isolated space to bring in the first Nodes, to then use the land ships to herd people into proximity and then Loop them in.

Philip was staring at the future, connecting to potentially billions of others, but sharing the load with so many more nodes like he was. He was the least damaged, the most mobile, he would be the vector by which they could connect with the nearest country to them. How would they get there, the ships seemed to take a very, very long time to get anywhere, but they looked to be faster than boast, and planes were out of the question. No, they were not out of the question at all. There were pilots and flight crew in the Babel, there were people who knew where the jet fuel was stored and how to activate and fly the aircraft, either commercial or military.

Philip was in a car, he did not remember agreeing to it, not exactly, but he was thinking through all of the things they would need to do, how the node connecting would be achieved, and while he was walking to a car that was being started and checked over by some Looped in individuals, the crowd that was blocking the road, parted to make an avenue through the remaining people who were reclaiming the city.