Future Sphere

By Sophie McKeand

Træ's privileged life in the Dyson Sphere's epic, tumbling waterfall city of Rijeka is upended with the actioning of a Smart Contract woven by xyr ancestors directly into xyr DNA. An unfulfilled contract will internally dismantle Træ's body & mind but xe have spent decades avoiding all familial responsibility and have no intention of being involved with activists campaigning to prevent the 'Sphere from harvesting the solar system's energy, sinking a failing Earth into perpetual darkness.

No longer able to fritter away xyr life sliding between synthetic realities, Træ is forced to confront shocking truths about xyr history, as well as the origins of the AI super-consciousnesses who announce themselves to great fanfare as the last humans migrate to a newly completed 'Sphere.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sophie McKeand
• Release date: Dec 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223715788

Sophie McKeand

Sophie McKeand is an award-winning poet, writer, and sound artist, creating at the intersection of humanity, technology, & nature. She is the former Young People's Laureate Wales and TEDx speaker. She won the OUTspoken Award for Innovation in Poetry, was longlisted for the Poetry Society's National Poetry Competition, and was the recipient of a Creative Wales Award. She is the author of three poetry pamphlets: Prophecy: conversations with my Self (2010), Hanes (2016), and The Slow-Time Traveller (2018), and a full-length hard-back poetry collection, Rebel Sun (2017); she collaborated on an album of poetry & noise, inc. fronting live performances, DRKMTR (2012); devised two shows, Metaforestry (2013) and CRØWOMAN (2018); and has just completed the Copyleft feminist cli-fi series The MthR Trilogy: The Madness of Sara Mansfield (1/5/2021), Prophets of The Red Night (1/5/2022), and Rematriation (due 1/5/2023). Her work has been published widely including Poetry Wales, Planet magazine, Dark Mountain and more. She has performed extensively including at Hay Festival, Uncivilisation, Caught by the River, the Kolkata Literature Festival, and more. Her public commission on a Woodland Trust legacy pole resides in Bute Park, Cardiff, her commission to commemorate the Aberfan disaster was performed on the Wales Millennium Centre's stage by Michael Sheen, and her commission to mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the NHS is installed in the Grange University Hospital, Cwmbran. From spring 2023, to promote The MthR Trilogy, Sophie is taking a fluid show of spoken word extracts from the novels performed with looped field recordings and improvised soundscapes to interesting places in Europe, starting with Focus Wales Festival, then a special recording for Unpsychology Magazine, as well as multiple performances at Stockholm and Gothenburg fringe festivals.

Book preview

Future Sphere

By Sophie McKeand

TRÆ’S PRIVILEGED LIFE in the Dyson Sphere’s epic, tumbling waterfall city of Rijeka is upended with the actioning of a Smart Contract woven by xyr ancestors directly into xyr DNA. An unfulfilled contract will internally dismantle Træ’s body & mind but xe have spent decades avoiding all familial responsibility and have no intention of being involved with activists campaigning to prevent the ‘Sphere from harvesting the solar system’s energy, sinking a failing Earth into perpetual darkness.

No longer able to fritter away xyr life sliding between synthetic realities, Træ is forced to confront shocking truths about xyr history, as well as the origins of the AI super-consciousnesses who announce themselves to great fanfare as the last humans migrate to a newly completed ‘Sphere.

Træ’s pronouns are: xe, xem, xyr.

CH 01

Træ battles to prevent xyr F-Lite mind from sending distress signals to the Flock.

‘This is not the time to lose control’ xe grimace, forcing thrusters to navigate cyborg body above the Dyson Sphere’s epic, watery concave in sweeping motions until xe are level with the highest peaks of the parametric sky-high water-fall-city of Rijeka over a hundred kilometres away. The central star’s heavily filtered heat & light blast with a chaotic fierceness that Træ’s genetically modified, highly melanated skin is accustomed to. Eyes as brown as skin, xyr dark organometal body parts of shins, abdomen, & skull comfortably cope with the sun’s wild brilliance.

As xe programme cooling adaptations to metal appendages, the Flock raises an issue in Træ’s mind: The Central Problem of regulating the sun’s energetic output without destabilising the core remains to be fully solved, an invitation is extend for Træ to join the research & development team headed by super AI, Yr Un Mawr.

Shrugging off these incessant & annoying requests, Træ manoeuvres upwards, metal & flesh jittering as xe fight to hold cyborg body dangerously close to the ‘Sphere’s inner shell at coordinates xe’d calculated as being one of the few micro-points existing outside of the Flock’s omnipresent attention.

The demands on Træ’s concentration for The Central Problem suggest that even this region is now within the Flock’s range, but it’s too late to terminate the mission.

Xe attempt again to disengage from the Flock but the results are inconclusive and so instead Træ’s flighty, unfocused mind becomes distracted by xyr bionic ears tuning into the distant roar of the massive & impressive waterfalls around & beneath which the city of Rijeka confluxes.

Noticing the shift in Træ’s attention, the Flock now reports that one of Rijeka’s largest waterfalls is experiencing a power outage. Using the Focws-Mind to zoom in on 5000-kilometre-high curved, organo-chrome spouts Træ notices it releasing an unexpected deluge of water.

Hearing the Flock’s immediate & terrified chattered response allows Træ to relax somewhat - if xe can’t disconnect at least this will offer a decent distraction.

Scanning the grounds around the waterfall hundreds of kilometres away, Træ zooms in with pinpoint accuracy on a herd of manatee swimming through the long, snaking waterways; the river-cows using paddle-like tails to navigate slower-moving waters in search of lush plants.

Someone will need to relocate them, Træ thinks with mild annoyance at the manatees’ mindless wanderings and immediately the Flock flags in xyr mind a request for Træ to join the transfer team, along with another group working on moderating waterflow who require assistance.

Pushing the deluge of requests away, Træ scans past the impending chaos to something else that catches xyr attention at the border with Sector 005.

A strange anomaly wavers like heat-shimmer or an error in the vision giving the impression that the borderlands are slowly being transformed into a flat, grey, nothingness. Switching to manual zoom, Træ re-focusses and the Flock provides the newsfeeds of conspiracy theories from some unspecified time ago arguing that rogue self-multiplying CreuBots, tasked with populating the ‘Sphere with all manner of stunning and exotic flora & fauna, have mutated to create only a slightly spongy grey now amassing across areas of the ‘Sphere like stormclouds.

These claims were proven false by extensive cyborg, AI & human news reportage and as Træ examines this image in xyr mind it glitches slightly before assuming the more regular, expected vistas of the cities of Sector 005 as aloof & stunning as ever.

No taskforce requests are forthcoming on this issue.

Træ shrugs. It’s not something I need to concern myself with, xe think flippantly and return to more pressing issues.

Træ re-focuses on xyr mission, rapid-firing a series of images to Pr̥thibī on Earth.

Transmitting these images of Sector 004’s stunningly diverse landscapes stimulates an excitement for the ‘Sphere Træ hasn’t felt in years.

‘I wish you could see this in reality.’ Xe convey to Pr̥thibī through the mind-link.

‘Are you so easily distracted?’ The shock of hearing Pr̥thibī’s mocking voice in xyr ear in place of the standard mental imagery hauls Træ back into the present moment.

Nobody speaks on the ‘Sphere anymore, mouthes & voiceboxes exist purely to generate sound, like a musical instrument, no longer are they needed to voice language, most people don’t use them at all. Speaking is considered acceptable only in places such as the equatorial Sector 808 where the plains are so vast that huge swathes remain unpopulated by anything except savage beasts & CreuBots tasked with reimagining and recreating wild creatures that roamed earth millions of years ago.

Irritated at Træ’s lack of focus, Pr̥thibī’s floods Træ’s internal landscape with a deluge of images:

The Earth in darkness; people scrabbling to escape the final search-and-round-up bots deployed; all hope for the Earth extinguished; fear of the unknown; the knowledge that the Earth is dying; terror at experiencing the final breaths of the last trees, plants, & animals who evaded capture, or were not considered important enough, to be included in the rehome missions.

‘Mone Rekho,’ Pr̥thibī whispers with a tenderness so pathetic Træ’s half-human heart almost forgets to pulse.

Almost.

More images flood the connection, this time of Pr̥thibī’s gaunt face, brown skin now ashen from lack of sunlight; wholly white eyes.

Angry at what xe perceive as Pr̥thibī’s play for pity, Træ’s thoughts are gravel in reply,

‘It’s only going to get worse. You’re all going to die down there because you didn’t make yourselves known for collection & relocation!’ Xe inhale deeply, let out a long sigh, gaze out across green forests surrounding bright blue rivers, then zoom in on F-Lites lazily soaring with a colony of griffon vultures on updrafts created by clashes in air of the central star’s heat & the perpetually cooled waterfalls.

‘It’s beautiful here. Everything you could want or imagine. Anything that exists on Earth is now here on the ‘Sphere, but better, and we live longer, more fruitful lives.’

Pr̥thibī ignores Træ’s plea, continues forcefully, ‘The Earth is our mother & father, this place is our home, not some metal ball spinning around the sun. When people wanted to build the ‘Sphere nobody cared. It was even welcomed by many as a potential way to cool the Earth and reverse global heating, but now it has suffocated the entire solar system. The outer planets are dead, spinning away from their dynamic orbits as the light & energy dim. This is an abomination. We will fight it all the way. You cannot ignore our plea. I refuse to release you from our ancestors’ agreement.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Træ’s thought wheedles across time and space.

Pr̥thibī remains unrelenting and an image of a Smart-Contract appears in Træ’s mind causing xem to grimace at xyr double-helix DNA strands within which the Smart Contract sits like a festering sore.

‘Will I ever be free from my ancestors’ idiocy?’

‘Not while that Dyson Sphere monstrosity continues to devour our only source of energy. Why can’t they share? Why isn’t a partial ‘Sphere enough? Must they plunge the entire solar system into darkness?’

Træ rolls eyes at Pr̥thibī’s pontifications, xe could feel sorry for them when they were sad & pathetic, but this rabid activism is off-putting. 

Pr̥thibī, sensing the energy shift from Træ 150 million kilometres away, turns part-blind eyes to a permanently twilit sky then replies with a blazing fire,

‘You cannot forget the agreement Træ, it’s written in your DNA. Our ancestors made promises to each other that if the AIs they created together ever became too unwieldly that we would terminate them.’

‘You can’t terminate something evolved to this extent, ‘Sphere knows you’ve tried enough over the years, but everything has grown exponentially beyond our control or understanding. You can command me all you like but you’re asking for something that I simply cannot do.’

‘Your DNA knows what’s possible, it will find a way. The DNA of your ancestors was woven into the organo-creations at the inception of your ‘Sphere sector, this makes you more of a catalyst than perhaps you even realise. I have faith in that Træ, even though I have lost faith in you.’

Træ glumly thinks loudly, ‘If I could go back in time and unsign that damn contract I would.’

Pr̥thibī snorts derisively, extra-wide nostrils frilling like a horse in Træ’s imagination, ‘Time travel is impossible. Once a door has been stepped through, a choice made, every other quantum potential closes off. Every idiot knows this.’

Træ, forgetting how tuned into the neural pathway link Pr̥thibī is, feels a kick of shame at such a belittling. Xe want to reply loudly that xe don’t give a damn if all the Earth is drowned in darkness once the final sections of the ‘Sphere are solidified. What good will a Smart Contract do anybody then? But Træ also knows the stories of other people’s