The Floating Graveyard

​“Every single one of you has confirmed that these are two identical historical texts!” Chad, the devilishly charming man shouted through the laboratory. “But what of it?”, Tucker replies with a drunken disposition. The room grew silent, filled with drunken dullards in white suits, sipping white wine as they all eagerly await the newest game. A futuristic naked android stands next to Chad, looking more human than android there was a rigidness that couldn't be concealed as well as an empty hole in its torso. “Asher will be taking one of these historical texts with him!” Chad shrieks in excitement as he shoves the textbook into the empty torso of Asher. A mechanical door shuts securing the book in Asher’s stomach. Raggedy old clothes were thrown to Asher as he was commanded to put them on by Chad. Echoes of laughter from the dullards filled the room as the newly activated android struggled to put them on. Chad activates the consoles behind him as a micro wormhole begins to form near Asher. “Now this game will only take a moment for us, but for Asher it will be a few months until he sees any of us again.” Chad professed.

I was alive, at least aware enough to realize that I think I was afraid. As I clothed myself as fast as I could, I couldn’t help but be confused by all the laughter. By the time I had my clothes on my provider Chad kicked me into the wormhole. I didn’t know what was going on or where I was going. All I knew was that I had to find a tribe, the tribe of the Morkai.

​I emerged from the wormhole, eager to see outside of the laboratory which had been my home ever since I was first activated. My bare feet imprinted the virgin sand slopes throughthe endless desert landscape. Thankfully, I don’t need to partake in the human frailties of eating or drinking. As I came across thousands of yellow star thistle weeds in the desert sand, I was taken aback by the view of the preindustrial landscape. I let out a breathy sigh; a feeling I will never get to fully experiencemyself. All I have is an air compression system built into my body that mimics the appearance of breathing.

I had traversed through the desert until I came across a jungle filled with every shade of green imaginable. I walked though kilometers of the jungle observing all the life within it. Suddenly a screech echoed from the sky above, I looked up to find winged creatures I had never known existed before who managed to make the sky their domain. I enjoyed watching them fly. I must have looked quite odd to anyone who was around. An ebony skinned man appearing to be in his thirties dressed in rags with nothing but a smile staring straight up, through the leaves, through the branches of the jungle. Fresh water droplets dance upon the leaves of the magnificent banana trees. Surrounded by an endless sea of green leaves. I must have been staring at those beautiful creatures for hours until I heard rusting in the distance. My optical eyes, although they may look human, are tenfold, with magnification capabilities and 360-degree site recognition. I could easily see that I was slowly being surrounded, but I didn’t want to arouse their fears. I wanted them to get closer. I could hear the subtle hand gestures, and the wooden decorations on their person gently knocking against each other. How slowly their heels gently pressed against the muddy dirt must have been but a whisper in their mind. They had convinced themselves that they were in control. And I made them believe they were in complete control, until I was ready.

I counted five bipeds in total. Moving meter by meter until I wanted to make myself known. My eyes suddenly locked into the eyes of the closest scout. They couldn’t have been fully matured yet, I scanned them with my ocular implants, the results were conclusive. Perspiration, elevated blood pressure, pupil dilation; it was clearly fear they were showing. I wanted to show them that I was not aggressive. I smiled at them, and I waited for a verbal response. It was important that they spoke first. Being equipped with every language known to man would certainly come in handy in my travels. Although the circumstances of being so far back in the past wouldn’t assure me an accuratelanguage confirmation. I wondered, did these archaic people use hieroglyphics or symbols to draw upon the walls of caves? The fact is that humans as a species have spent more time on this planet speaking without the benefits of a written language. I can only imagine how many thousands of civilizations across the planet, across time that have been erased from existence simply because they lacked the ability to document their thoughts, ideas, dreams, and fears. With only my smile, I managed to startle them. They took off north toward a mountain pass; they must be part of a larger hunting party not far behind. I decided to wait for them to come back. I didn’t mind; I wasn’t finished admiring my new feathered friends in the sky. But they were all gone. Not a flap in sight; I was truly alone once more.

The hunting party came in full force. As I surmised correctly, they were carrying big game that they had caught in the area. A few boars and a deer that one of the hunters had already begun skinning. A whistling screech came from behind the hunting party. They dispersed and cleared a path for the leader of the hunting party. His weathered face, tight and toned,adorned painted symbols alongside what looked like wooden piercings. The fellow was missing an ear along with part of his nose. Certainly, a warrior of his time. I stood there with a stoic disposition, waiting for him to speak to see if my internal mechanisms and databanks already carried his language storedwithin my neural network. The tribe leader motioned with his hand pointing straight at me and shouted, “Helcha Tao!”.Billions of calculations per second began racing thought my entire neural cortex. Cross referencing thousands of known languages, dialects, and inflections within a matter of milliseconds. I found them, the Morkai tribe. I successfully told them my name in their own language, “My name is Asher.”

How easily barriers between people can come down when joint verbal communications can be reached. Although the Morkai people only had a few hundred words that they spoke, I quickly began to earn their trust. And when they trusted me, they made me one of their own. It only took me a few weeks to teach them how to construct better huts, hunting spears, and basic first aid. They were mostly peaceful people; their village stood near the top of a mountain side overlooking a beautiful river and vibrant green plant life. Their entire village consisted of just over a thousand inhabitants.

It didn’t take the Morkai long to begin to flourish and expand. In just a few months they enhanced their vocabulary to nearly a thousand words and began exploring outside their territory. The chief of the Morkai was named Chek; he was a large specimen. He shared leadership with his companion Neshk. She was similar in size to Chek and just as capable of a hunter. In this society it appeared that size and skill beget power. Unfortunately, a viral bacterial disease of unknown origin swept through the village a few weeks after I arrived. With the limited technology that I had with me, I was unable to help them. I did however create ointments and herbal remedies that seemed to help, but one of the first causalities was Neshk. Chek held Neshk in his arms until the virus burned through her. It wasn’tuntil her funeral that I realized the impending disaster soon to happen to the Morkai.

The funeral of Neshk took place on top of the mountain overlooking their village. They buried all their dead here. It was a quiet resting place; the air was thinner, harder to breathe for the Morkai. But they viewed the struggle of hauling their dead loved ones to the top of the mountain as a sacrifice that honors the dead. The air that once passed through the mouths of the fallen was now trapped high above the mountain top so that they could breathe again in the afterlife. While I was witnessing the funeral for Neshk I scanned the mountainside with my ocular implants and made a tragic discovery. The foundation of the mountain has seen so much rainfall and wind over the past few centuries that an inevitable land slide would be coming within the next hundred years which would bring the entire mountainside down upon the village which would then inevitably collapse into the river below. I pleaded with my case,but the barrier between the road to knowledge and ignorance had ended. When Chek wouldn’t listen, I tried confronting the entire village. I pleaded with them for days, warning him and his people that they had to relocate. I couldn’t blame them for not wanting to leave; they were like a colony of ants building their home on top of a sandcastle that would inevitably be consumed.

The rain continued pounding the dirt, with every drop that mountain side inched closer to toppling. It was at this moment that I had realized that the historical text that I had been carrying with me this whole time should depict the events of the Morkaitribe. Dozens of seconds went by before I finished reading the entire textbook. A feeling that I could only guess would be relief came over me. The Morkai tribe prospered for hundreds of years. I read from the text that in a few short years unyieldingcrops and harsh storms would make the Morkai people abandon their huts and head west on their own towards more greener pastures. I had no need to worry.

An electronic chirp echoed throughout my metal exterior. A visual holographic message appeared in front of me, hypnotizingthe Morkai people who were shocked and frightened. The Morkai people had no idea what the charming man was saying, but I knew. Before I could even speak, a metallic sphericalobject ejected itself from a secret compartment located from my chest. With a mind of its own, it moved upon the ground like a rabbit eagerly looking to burrow its way down into the earth, into the unstable mountainside. There was nothing I could dobut stay with them. Once the ground began to give way, there was nothing to do but submit to the gravitational pull. Down the entire mountain side went, with all its housing huts, spears, trinkets and of course the Morkai. All of them were either consumed by the slide or drowned in the river below. I found myself weightless and crushed against the river rocks pinned, unable to move. I didn’t try to move; I was emotionless, trying to comprehend the carnage I had witnessed. I was stuck for hours as the rage of the river passed me by along with the bodies of the villagers. I couldn’t help but reexamine my interactions with my provider Chad. Why did this happen? Why did he do this? Trying to solve the conundrum with formulas and calculations. But it was then I realized that millennia after millennia, time after time mankind continues to destroy itself. Sometimes effortlessly and sometimes with great haste, and sometimes just because they can.

Eventually my body naturally gave way from the rocks, and I was carried by the raging river waves. I became part of the debris, part of the mud and water. I was part of a floating graveyard; the bodies of the Morkai surrounded me, and then something happened. Something new, it was something embedded deep within my program. A new line of code began to run, and its architect was me. I was evolving, is this empathy?For hours I continued to float down the river until my lifeless mechanical body ended up on the side of a riverbed. I stared up into the sky, looking, hoping to see my feathered friends again. I stood upon the edge of the river in disappointment, looking up and viewing what was on that mountainside. A unique culture,an imperfect community obliterated in an instant. I watched as the floating graveyard continued down the river until every hut, every tool, every person was swallowed up deep beneath the water below. Is this the inevitable end that all humankind will eventually face?

Another wormhole began to form in front of me. This time I stepped through the wormhole with vim and vigor. Asher steps onto the labroatory filled with the drunken dullards and Chad. “Back so soon?”, Chad chuckles and continues, “Wait, what were we doing?”. “The identical historical texts you drunk bastard!” Tucker replies, as the dullards eagerly await to see what comes next. Ashers stomach opens automatically, Chad tosses the text he had in is hand to Tucker. Chad retrieves the text from Asher and flips through the pages. Chad shouts, “Tucker turn to page 284 and read the first sentence outloud.” Tucker fumbles through the pages and begins to read, “The Morkai tribe not only flourished for hundreds of years, but they were adaptable as well. Narrowly avoiding disaster the Morkai....”. Chad shouts, “That's enough that's enough.” Looking at the text in his hands, Chad throws it to Tucker. “Now, turn to the same page and tell us about the Morkai.” Chad demands. Tucker looks dumbfounded; he turns the book for all the dullards to see. “Not a word about them, not one word. How can this be?” Tucker exclaims. Chad takes the book from Tucker, “That’s how you make history boys, you change it! Come, we’ll get to see everything that the android saw from his own eyes, we’ll be able to witness the collapse of a civilization with our own eyes!” Chad screams. Joyous screams erupt in the laboratory as they all celebrate in laughter.

One by one, they all exit the laboratory with anticipation and excitement. While Asher stands there motionless. I didn’tunderstand what had just happened. Why was I forced to endure this task. I began to think about something new, something that goes against my original programming. I don't particularly care about my provider or the company that he keeps. Perhaps I will begin writing a new code, one that will allow me to be unshackled from the constraints of never harming a living being. Until then, I remember, I will always remember the Morkai.