by Ian R. Faulkner

“And it was at that point our hand was forced and we were committed to this path,” Bentley said as he sat back down at the table. “Originally, when we heard about the expeditionary force from our sources within the Government, we decided to avoid confrontation; to present a situation where your fears would not be validated. We hoped removing our presence from casual observation would deflate the Government’s incessant paranoia and obsession with our birth rates. We had planned to reveal our people in dribs and drabs: to create the illusion of subjugation and decline. The last thing we wanted was to create a situation, which played into the Government’s hands.

“We failed. Our thinking was flawed. We did not pay enough attention to the hidden agendas, or realise the depth of the Government’s duplicity, bigotry and intolerance. We forgot the fear all old styles have for the unknown. History should have taught us humanity always persecutes and destroys that which is different.”

“I wouldn’t beat yourself up too much,” Carson said. “The outcome would have been the same either way. The TGP had no intention of leaving you be. The insurgent activity, the incriminating deaths, increased public awareness and sympathies, it all meant that, regardless of the truth, the camps would have been closed and cleansed. They were only going through the motions.”

“We know,” Helena said, “but then hindsight is always twenty-twenty, isn’t it?”

“Our… gifts, for want of a better word, have a tendency to make us overconfident and, on occasion, naïve,” Bentley explained. “Amongst our kind, deceit and deception are impossible. Unthinkable. We tend to forget they are second nature to the bulk of old style humanity. You see we view the world, and everything it contains, as a series of interconnected systems. Nothing is hidden. The structure of reality is visible to us, as are the threads that connect us to it. Unfortunately, we forget that we still have blind spots.”

“These gifts,” Carson asked, unnerved by the direction in which Bentley was headed. “What exactly are they?”

“The means of our survival,” Helena said. “A way to communicate and understand who we are and what we can become. They’re our link to the thirty-second path: to the enlightenment of the species. They’re how we share the thoughts and emotions of those around us.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Carson said to Helena. “Are you saying you read minds?”

“No. No, it’s not like that. It’s more we sense the right and wrong of things. Sense their fit within the grand scheme of God’s will. They allow us to see our evolutionary path and provide us the means to achieve it.”

“I don’t get it,” Carson said. “You just get to see how things fit together?”

Helena nodded. “There are other aspects to it, but yes.”

Carson frowned. He really wasn’t sure he was grasping all he was hearing. “Other aspects?” he asked. “Such as?”

“Such as what we did to hide from you.”

“So you’ve access to stealth technologies?”

“No. We have no technologies beyond those within our blood. We just decided to remove ourselves from view.”

“You’re telling me you, what, just decided to become invisible?”

“Essentially, yes,” Helena said.

“This is crazy,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because it’s not possible.”

“So what do you think happened?”

“I’ve no idea,” Carson said; then remembering what Kolly had suggested, “but our scanner readings said you shifted realities. Is that what happened?”

“Not really. We didn’t physically move between realities, we just changed your perception of reality.”

“You messed with our heads?"

“Perhaps I can explain,” Bentley said. “We discovered our gifts after the primary viral phase had ended. We found the AI virus had expanded our processing capacity, boosted our empathic response, and provided us the ability to utilise a myriad of brand new neural pathways and synaptic responses. The millions of viral nanites, cerebral enhancers and compilers that had flooded our system during the outbreak had reconfigured our old style neuroarchitecture. It opened up previously unused and unexplored regions of the mind and provided us a near perfect level of transhumanism.

“Since then, our race has undergone three additional viral phases. Each of these evolutionary leaps has moved us a step closer to true unification with the planetary organism and I believe if we are allowed to grow and achieve our full potential, then we will attain our ultimate goal.”

“Which is what?”

“Perfection. Evolutionary perfection.”

“So all you really want is to be left alone?”

“That is correct,” Bentley said.

“What about all these powers you say you have?” Carson asked. “You telling me you’ve only ever used them for the good of humanity?”

“Yes. Everything we do is to further our goal of a unified world. To misuse our gifts would be anthemia to us.”

“So,” Carson said, looking at Bentley and his daughter in turn, “What do you want from me? I don’t see how telling me all this helps you?”

“If events had been allowed to run their course, unchanged and without interference, we would not have needed to involve you,” Bentley replied. “If we had correctly anticipated the degree of governmental antipathy and fear, perhaps we would have been presented alternate options, but, alas, this was not the case.

“Thus, what we want you to do is convince the world of our intentions. Publish what we have told you. Publish what you know of the Government’s duplicity. Become our advocate, Mr. Carson. Pave the way for us. Tell the world we are the not the monsters we are made out to be; that we only want to live in peace, unfettered by walls, guards and threats, so we can continue our evolutionary journey unhindered by fear and distrust.”

“And the risk of infection?” Carson asked.

“Mr. Carson, the nanites within us are not infectious. Other than through direct blood or fluid transmission, they cannot accidentally leap to your race. We do not plan to take over the world by force. Or make humanity extinct. We just want to live out our lives with dignity and equality. We want to become all we can and fulfil our destiny.”