Essence E-book

By Mack Pitts

By 2213 the earth was completely controlled by Biologically Enhanced Mechanically Improved Humans (BEMIH). All remaining pure humanoids, the NTH, had been forced to Transvergence or relocation off Earth's boundaries. The NTH must explore and settle on a distant hospitable planet.

Join Captain Joshua Edwards and his small highly specialized crew as they undertake this last ditch mission to save mankind as they know it.

Travel with them to Ventura while they validate the planet's possibilities for human existence. On Ventura, they discover a perfect Eden-like environment but while there, they also unwittingly unleash an evil more malevolent than any threat on Earth from the BEMIH. An evil that now threatens to destroy all life back on Earth, BEMIH and NTH alike, launching them on a new and desperate mission of a different kind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 8, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312083837

Book preview

Essence E-book

ESSENCE

By

Mack Albert Pitts

Dallasauthormackpitts.com

Copyright © 2010 by Mack Albert Pitts

Cover art by Travis Rice http://dragonsculptor.com

Publishing assistance by http://lgwebandgraphic.com

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-312-08383-7

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated to my dear cousin Mary, without whose help, prayers, and encouragement this book would not be possible.

CHAPTER ONE

T minus 60 minutes and counting.  All systems are go.  Astronauts enter cryo chambers for suspended animation.

I enter the clear glass chamber as I have for so many training sessions.  But, this time, it feels very different.  Despite the preparation, my heart is pounding, blood pressure is surging.  The importance of this mission is overwhelming.  The future of the NTH rests on the shoulders of seven human beings on an odyssey to save mankind.

One hundred, ninety-nine, ninety-eight, ninety-seven, ninety-six, ninety-five, ninety-four…..

The voice of the automatic countdown continued as my mind faded to distant memories.

Josh!  What’s the matter?  My mom asked as I ran into the house.  Mom was tall and slender with golden hair and the deepest blue eyes.  Dad always said it was her eyes that first drew his attention.  She was such a perfect balance of strength and tenderness.  Mom would not hesitate to face down anyone, or conversely to tenderly embrace anyone needing comfort. 

The BEMIH are picking on me again!  I had been playing at the school playground with my friend Nick.  They say I’m not fit to play with them.  They called me a turd from the past!  I was panting heavily from running.  The BEMIH had chased me three blocks and could have overtaken me at any time.  They just wanted to taunt me. 

Mom wiped the tears from my eyes.  Never you mind what they say, Josh.  You are fitter than they will ever be!  You’re my little man, handsome and smart as an eagle.  Don’t pay the BEMIH any attention.

But mom, why am I so different?  Why are they so different?

Well son, over the last hundred years many things were discovered by scientists that were used to alter human beings.  With science leading the way, they began transforming people from what they were since God created them. The first BEMIH came in 2085.  After that, more and more parents chose to allow their children to become something they were never meant to be.

But mom, why didn’t you let me become a BEMIH?  I would be so much faster!  I’d be a lot smarter too!

Josh, your dad and I, as well as the other NTH, believed we should keep the human body the way God made it.  That’s what the Non-Transvergant-Humans believe.  She gently lifted up my drooping head, and kissed me on the forehead.  Her kiss seemed to make the whole world right. Now, give me a smile.  Come on.  That’s my little man.  Go play in your room while I finish supper.  She gave me a soft swat on the behind and sent me on my way to my room, my sanctuary.

We had a modest seven-room modular home in Morril, Nebraska.  The population of Morril had barely grown since its establishment in 1907 until the NTH began to migrate to small towns and villages to avoid being stigmatized by the BEMIH’s.  However, the BEMIH had grown exponentially in numbers since plurality occurred in 2085, thirty-two years after singularity.

Singularity, the idea of uniting humans and machines, was titillating to the imagination of some.  But, having one’s consciousness downloaded to a mainframe was not what it was made out to be.  Humans need to feel the warmth of the sun, a moist kiss upon the lips, and the sensation of a loving embrace. 

One cannot be human without relishing such sensations.  This simple belief was now an obsolete relic of a bygone era, save for the NTH.

Plurality occurred in 2085 as a result of the continuing evolution of technology and advances in genetics.  It was the amalgamation of human beings, trans-species genetics, and machines.  Thus the BEMIH evolved, Biologically Enhanced Mechanically Improved Humans.

The BEMIH had many variations with mechanical enhancements taking a multiplicity of forms.  The mechanical enhancements had begun to be popular in the late twentieth century.  Most joints were replaced with titanium ones.  Nano robots were injected into the blood stream of people to fight off infections and disease.  Computer chips were implanted in the brain to enhance language acquisition, memory or mathematical abilities.  A wide array of chips were developed and used for many purposes.

Communication devices were the next wave of implants.  People were on their cell phones so much and lost them so readily, it was an obvious marketing step to offer implanting the devices directly in the body.  These devices eventually evolved into the TCI, Total Communication Implant.

The TCI was a three-by-two-inch implant on the forearm. The screen was flesh tone, but when activated became a video screen.  A nerve-sized lead wire ran to the larynx and another to the cochlear nerve, the neurological pathway of sound to the brain.  With the worldwide telecommunication network established, communication was global and instantaneous.       

Military science had heralded many of the mechanical enhancements and biological improvements.  Fighter pilots had chips implanted in their brains to counter the G forces experienced in the newest and fastest fighter jets.  The Army had developed micro-nano robots that worked on an atomic and cellular level.  These bots merged titanium atoms with human cells to produce titanium skin for solders.  Most of the biological improvements required initiation soon after conception.  Further mechanical improvements were added as the child grew.  When total plurality was achieved, usually at the age of 18, a ritual ceremony was observed as a rite of passage.  The ceremony was called Transvergance, and although idolized by BEMIH, it was anathema to the NTH.   A modified version had been developed for any NTH who wished to join the BEMIH.  Out of necessity, this process dealt mostly with mechanical improvements, since it was too late for the majority of embryonic-related biological enhancements.

It hadn’t taken long for Bioethics to run amuck.  The Genetic Biological Parental Authorization Act had been passed in 2079.  This gave parents the legal backing to make biological improvements to their fetal offspring.   The improvements were conservative at first, choices of gender, size, weight, and height.  Then came more peculiar requests such as six fingers for those who wanted to give their children an advantage in playing musical instruments.  Parents wanting a superior athlete could have hamstring muscles from gazelles genetically engineered into their children.  Soon deltoid and biceps muscles from gorillas were genetically added to offspring.  One was only limited by their imagination.  Second and third generation BEMIH’s became more and more bizarre as BEMIH parents chose the makeup of their offspring.  Society forever changed on planet Earth.

Ninety-three, ninety-two, ninety-one, ninety, eighty-nine… The countdown awoke me temporally from my slumber.  I quickly faded to the past again.

Hey Vent, how does it feel, you know, to be a BEMIH?

Vent was short for Venton. He was a rare BEMIH.  Vent actually talked with me.  We had become friends.  Most BEMIH would not give you the time of day.  They had developed an Aryan attitude of superiority.  But not Vent.    Even though this was the case, we still had to talk and play in secret.

Our hiding place was an old, empty grocery store on the edge of town.  It had long been vacant.  There were rows upon rows of shelves that had once held a variety of foods we had never tasted.  Some old boxes, opened by rodents, were scattered here and there.  We would play games up and down the aisles.  Then we would sit and talk for what seemed like hours.

Vent pondered my question.

I don’t know.  It’s the way I have always been.  It’s like when you play baseball, you know you will always hit a home run.  Sort of a good vibration inside.  We have feelings and emotions like you NTH do.  But, we have a bunch of chips and programs in us you don’t have.  Makes us feel like we can do anything. Like we are super heroes."

Wow!  I wish I had that.  I really get nervous and shake bad when I am at the home plate tryin’ to hit the ball.  I sweat.  Not sure if I will get a run or strike out.

I have never struck out.

I thought to myself, wouldn’t that be kinda boring?  But some thoughts you keep to yourself.  They got really angry if we ever hinted at any weakness in them. 

Eighty-eight, eighty-seven, eighty-six… I drifted to bygone memories.

"Josh! Hurry!  We have to be packed and leave by seven in the morning.  The transport won’t wait for us!

I’m hurrying mom.  But, I can’t fit all my stuff in the bags they gave us.  I don’t want to leave my things behind!

Joshua, don’t argue with your mom.  The two bags are all you have.  If it won’t fit, you must leave it behind. My dad could be very stern. 

He was fifteen years older than mom, and didn’t seem to have much patience for questions.  He had worked at a manufacturing plant making many of the implants for the BEMIH.  It was the only work available but he hated it.  His disgust from work spilled over to our home life sometimes.  Finally, he could stand it no longer and quit.  After trying various odd jobs, Dad finally settled on an automated food-dispensing route. 

Most food was condensed and served in liquid form.  The need for old-fashioned grocery stores had faded away.  Vending machines were everywhere providing one’s nutrition.  As the BEMIH evolved, those nutritional