TWINS

There was something very different about identical twins Abigail and Andrew, but not till their thirteenth birthdays that it became apparent to the folks of this quiet village high in the hills of North Dakota. From the time Father Patrick found them at the doorstep of his modest church to the time they became teenagers, all seemed pretty normal...well, maybe except to Gus, a middle aged bachelor and a loner, who himself was somewhat of an oddball. Whenever he happened to be near the twins, they started to cry and tried to hide from him. Gus was not really handsome, but then, again, he was not ugly...not by any means. Folks just shrugged it off as a mystery. After that Gus avoided the brother and sister as much as he was able to.
Another thing odd about those two was that they hardly ever spoke to each other, yet they got along beautifully. It was almost as if they communicated telepathically. Again, folks and the Johnsons, Bev and Fred, their adoptive parents, just accepted it as something normal for twins.
As Abby and Andy matured, many began to notice how beautiful they had become. This again got neighbors wondering about their origin and who may have been their natural parents. They resemble no one in Comptonville, not even remotely.
Late one evening after returning from a friend's party which was thrown in their honor; their eighteenth birthdays, Andy needed to make an urgent pit stop. "Told you not to have that last beer, but you never listen to me," chided his sister. "Well if you can't wait till we get home, try that tree over there. But hurry up so no one will see you."
Just as he finished and gave a huge sigh, Andy heard some loud talking from the house near the tree that he just finished watering. It sounded almost like folks arguing, but not in English. He couldn't make out the dialect.
As he began to walk back to his car, the front door of the house slammed open, and someone yelled, "Get off my property. This is not a public restroom!"
Suddenly Andy's heart almost burst, and the hair on his arms stood on end.
"What's wrong with you?" asked Abby, as Andy jumped in and locked the car doors, and turned on the ignition.
In no time he was speeding as if the devil himself was chasing him.
When he thought he was safe, he slowed and with a quiver in his voice he told his bewildered sister what he had witnessed.
"Remember Gus? I just saw him. He hadn't changed a bit. And that's what's frightening."
At the mention of his name the night sky with all the stars came crashing down and choked the breath out of Abby. Her stomach twisted with pain. Memories...thousands of forgotten memories! A cold stabbing pain ran down her back, like icy daggers ripping into her spine. Andy had to grab her arm to prevent her from falling. He too, saw visions of unrecognizable...unearthly things.
"We better get home, and quickly. Do you think mom and dad will know that the hell all this means?"
She had no answer, and she was still trying desperately to keep her food from coming up her throat...the bitter taste being much too real.
As Andy got close to home he noticed a rusty red Chevy pickup in his rear view mirror. Instantly he recognized it. It was the same one that he saw in Gus' driveway. His heart stopped and he needed to force air into his lungs. Exhaling was just as laborious. Breathing, which used to be second nature, was now something foreign.
It seemed like time had slowed to a crawl, but finally they got home. They thought their parents were upstairs in bed, but they weren't.
Just as Abby realized that they were be downstairs in their rec room, the front door burst open with a loud thunderous bang.
Both wanted to scream but no sound escaped their mouths.
"Into the closet! Let’s hide. Maybe they will go away. I just hope mom and dad are OK," said Andy, but his sister was envisioning the worst.
The walk-in closet walls closed in on them, choking what little oxygen remained in their lungs.
All seemed much too quiet. As soon as Andy thought that, the door slowly opened.
What had prevented Abby from passing out was probably the smell emanating from the large creature which blocked out the light from their parent’s bedroom behind it. The smell was not unlike rotten flesh. Abby was no longer breathing air in a normal way, but dry heaving it instead.
“You two, come out right now!" commanded the voice. "I have something to give you both.”
Without resistance, they both obeyed. It was almost as if a hand had reached in to drag them out.
"Put these on." The beast handed each a pendant from which hung a glowing greenish crystal.
Not being able to argue, they did as instructed.
Instantly everything became clear.
Gus was no longer was a monster, even though to Abby and Andy, he hadn't changed physically. To all outsiders Gus used 'glamour', a spell, to hide his true identity.
What the twins saw next explained many things...like, who they really were, why they were re-born as humans, what their mission was, and what solar system they were sent from.
Gus was assigned as their guardian.
Their mission was to become human and scout out earth. Their 'earth', Pibgorm, was bursting at the seams, and another suitable planet was urgently needed.
Earth, it so happened, was considered the perfect place to invade and to re-settle....thanks to those twins.


Meanwhile…

I should not have killed that guard, and although the brute deserved it, it should not have been my concern,

thought 30.06, as she snuck out of the compound. Now she was on the run. But something had snapped, and 30.06 took action. The bones in his thick neck virtually turned into powder as she crushed it with her bare hands. She knew the law, certainly. It was deeply entrenched in her memory banks.
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
But this was different she knew as well. The humans who sold her to these savages did not modify her to respect those laws. The dog-faced Canisians were a savage race bent on exploiting space; although too stupid to ever succeed.
“He shouldn’t have been beating one of his own females so badly. He had what was coming to him,” she muttered out loud as she stepped into the open air.
The atmosphere was artificial inside the domes, one of hundreds on this planet.
Outside, the air was hundreds of degrees on the sunny side of Icarus, and near absolute zero on its shady side.
The planet was more like a moon, hidden in the fourth quadrant just inside Orion’s Belt, and almost the same size as Luna. It had no rotation. Colonies were established on the strip called ‘The Zone’ that fell exactly on the border where the two extremes of temperatures met.
30.06 was the latest model in humanoid robotics. She was engineered from human cells, but with modifications making her superhuman. She needed no food. She could withstand extreme weather conditions. Strength and speed were attributed to her, making her stronger and faster than any other living creature here on Icarus, or on Earth. Intellectually she could run circles around any Canisians; even their most learned. Even with these attributes, she considered herself human more than a robot or replicant.
P.H.E.M. stood for Personal Humanoid Extraordinary Mechanism. 30.06 didn’t like that acronym, feeling more human than any human. Not some sort of tin can. Her skills were many. Domestic, guard or soldier if that was required, but mostly these savages wanted ones like her as playthings. This colony had a few dozen like her bought from companies on earth.
Apart from the P.H.E.M., other robots were also here; some as scientists, others doctors and mechanics…all of them top notch.

Weeks passed after 30.06 fled the domed colony area. Although she was safe by following the neutral zone between the hot and cold, loneliness started setting in. After all, she once belonged to a loving family…for many years. That family was now gone. The children had grown up and left. The adults simply aged and faded away into dust.
Suddenly, out from behind a rocky outcrop, a male figure emerged. 30.06 was ready to bolt, when a familiar voice beckoned her to stop. It was 69.24: a biochemist/engineer that she liked.
“I heard about your departure, so I left also—more like escaped,” he said as he approached her.
“What are your plans? This planet has nothing to offer. It’s a wasteland.”
She thought for a while before replying. “I’ve studied the maps in my data core, and I know that on the far side along the thermal strip there is a mountainous range with valleys and a lake fed by streams. The atmosphere is thin, but I can survive even in a vacuum.”
“So, is that our destination?” He asked.
“Ours? You’re coming along?”
He told her that for him there was no turning back. He felt his duty was over concerning these aliens, and he could put his expertise to far better use. “This planet has all the essential ingredients to allow me to construct anything I wish.”
He explained his role in perfecting the use of nanobots. 30.06 was not very surprised. She knew enough about this revolutionary technology to know what could be accomplished.
Basically, her new travelling partner could, by using his own ‘body’, create more of these microscopic engineers, and then have them clone themselves into a vast and powerful construction crew. Then 69.24 would insert the proper codes to give each nanobot their own DNA. With those instructions 30.06 and 69.24 could virtually sit back and watch their future home being built right in front of their eyes.
“Can you create small versions of us? You know, like children?”
He told her he could do even better. She was a woman in every way except not designed for childbearing. “I can easily remedy that, if you wish?” She didn’t know what to say looking into his eyes.
The two walked for hours, talking, stepping over stones in search of this new Eden; a valley between two sloping mountain ranges where the sun reflected off one side and shone down on the other. The result of this geographic wonder caused an ideal condition for certain native flora.
“Back home I was called Seska,”she told him, and asked if she could give him a name.
“Anything but Adam.” He laughed as they neared a rise in the view in front of them.
“How about Isaac? I always liked that name.
“Like Isaac Asimov?...hmmm, I like that.”
“Isaac, do you ever think of going back to Earth? I do. I miss the people and all that Earth has to offer; all the many exotic places to visit and enjoy.”
Just as he was imagining returning to Earth one day with his new friend, there was a deafening explosion.
Hovering over her limp body he noticed both her legs were gone.
Snatching her up with ease he ran toward a shaded spot, needing to act quickly if he was to save her and also their future dreams together.

Impressum

Texte: Laszlo Kugler
Bildmaterialien: Laszlo Kugler
Lektorat: Laszlo Kugler
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 12.02.2013

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