First Awakening

10 Years Ago

            A long strident noise woke him up. He slowly opened his blurry eyes and saw a new world in front of him. In fact, it was the first world he had ever seen. It was very dark and even though he had never seen anything else before, he still found it to be unwelcoming. Among all the dark, colorless and dull formations around him, what took up almost all of his sight was a big black screen. Miniature bleeping lights were seen from the corner of his eyes, and he could hear some machinery and other beeping sounds around him. The big screen in front of him suddenly started projecting all sorts of strong and bright colors, and his attention was of course immediately brought back to the screen.

            It was surprisingly fast, but he already started to control the movement of his eyes. It was to be assumed because his species was one of the most cognitively developed in the universe. Not even a minute later, he had also begun to realize that other parts around his eyesight, even parts that he could not see, were attached to him. He could feel them. Limbs. He was something, a body, even though he did not know what that meant. He then understood that he could willfully move those attached parts. With concentration, he was able to budge a leg. He quickly realized that he could probably move his leg more freely, but something was retaining him from moving it too much. He concentrated on other limbs, and it was the same. It was as if he was stuck to a surface.  He surprised himself a couple of times when he tried to move a specific body part but instead another limb moved. By trial and error, he could then more often than not choose which part of his body he wanted to move. He discovered he had a neck, but even that was strapped to an unknown surface. He could barely turn it left or right; it was just loose enough for him to realize that he did have the ability to move his neck. After ten minutes or so, he was able to move his fingers, hands, and feet freely, as those parts weren’t strapped like the rest of his body was. After twenty minutes, he knew a lot of things about himself. He caught himself in the act of inhaling and exhaling. He tried to stop it but it gave off an uncomfortable feeling and after a while it started to hurt, so he continued breathing and concluded that it was good for him. He even understood that he could breathe either by the mouth or by the nose. He closed his eyes and everything instantly turned black, so he immediately reopened them, terrified. He was about to analyse what could happen if he stopped blinking but then the screen in front of him suddenly started projecting something. He couldn’t divert his attention away from the big screen because he could neither move himself nor his head in any other direction, and the screen took up almost all of his eyesight. He had no idea what the figure in the screen meant, but he knew it was something. It was something alive he felt related to.

            The figure on the screen held up its hand, which had a red spot on it, so as to get the newly born organism’s attention, and then it started to wave it around slowly for the organism to follow its movements. It was an eye coordination exercise, and it was also to get the organism’s interest on the hand itself. Suddenly, the organism felt something loosen on one of its body parts. He took fun in trying to move all the parts of his body until he found the part that could now move freely. It was his arm. His first reflex was to move his arm up and around until he could see it into his vision. He stared at it, and at the same time he experimented with his now fully functional arm, until he got a fairly good control of it. He then also saw that his hand and arm was very similar to the one the figure had in the screen. The figure in the screen then repeated the process with all of the other body parts, only releasing one free limb at a time on the organism, to make sure that his vision and concentration would not leave the screen. As time went, the organism recognized itself to be very similar to the figure on screen. The person on screen raised his hands again and the straps on the organism’s arms were then released so he could do the same. The figure rubbed his hands all over his body, and naturally, he tried to do it too. He could now finally know what his body felt like, and at the same time experiment with the sense of touch. The figure on screen finished touching all the parts of his body, with the organism repeating the movements, and he then pointed at the organism and said “You.”

After multiple exercises aimed at developing the basic psycho-cognitive skills needed to survive, the figure on screen went over survival instincts and needs like breathing, eating, drinking, and many others. The organism was fed and washed regularly every day by machines, and a bowl was wisely stationed underneath him for disposal, automatically flushing when something fell in it. The organism was still strapped to a wall. When the figure on screen finished his explanations, he always pointed the finger at the organism, and said “You.”

The figure on the screen and the organism strapped to the wall were of the same species. This peculiar species did not have time to raise children with paternal care. The education, survival and health of the newborns were provided by a set of pre-programmed computers and robots. Those programs were conceived by a group of psychologists, neurologists and biologists to form one complete interactive video, made for every newborn. Every baby was shown the same video, the tape being slightly modified depending on the era and the region of the planet. After a year, the program would end, and the child would then be presented with another video, which was made by the parent himself to cover individual information, like the person’s name, family and his role in life. Roles, jobs and goals of life were already pre-determined on this planet, before a person was even born.

After a day, the organism slept, and the next morning a long strident noise woke him up again. After yet another twenty minutes of self-discovery, the big screen turned on, and now it was time to learn words. He started by touching himself all over again, freeing the organism’s arms once more to rub his body and get familiar with it too. He then stated again, “You”.  The figure on screen showed every individual body part again, but this time, he assigned names to them, like “arm”, “leg”, “foot” and “tail”. After assigning names to things, and developing several exercises and repetitions, another day ended. Again, every time an exercise was finished, the figure on screen pointed at the organism and said, “You.”

A week had passed by, and the organism had already learned about, past, present and future participle, plurals, pronouns, and many other key concepts of the English language. He had then learned words like “galaxy”, “universe” and “planet”. Then he learned words like “kill”, “torture”, “conquer”, “annihilate”, and “survive”. To learn how to write, his arms and neck would get unstrapped, and then a desk would mechanically lift up to the level of the organism, and on the desk laid papers and a pen. It was his automated, personal school desk. When he’d finish his exercise, his arms and neck would then automatically get strapped up again.

He now also fully understood that he was “You.” It was a way for the organism to designate himself, to form an identity, and to know that all that was taught was aimed at him, for him. The recorded person on the screen was becoming stricter and more demanding as the organism became smarter.

Another week went by and he was now able to speak English like any average twelve-year old earthling human could. This species’ intelligence was numerous times higher than that of an earthling’s, and it was also able to learn considerably faster than one.

The restrained organism had to learn the main ethics of his species: the difference between right and wrong, the appropriate behavior to have in all sorts of situations, and everything else he needed so as to develop the heart and mind of the merciless killer he had to become. Along with everything he had been taught, there had been genuine subliminal messages hidden in the program all along. Those messages had two purposes: to further awaken the organism’s evil, kill-hungry nature, and also to make him completely obedient to the figure on screen, the one teaching him the way and meaning of life.

One day, as the same noise as every other day woke him up, all the straps that had kept him on the wall loosened and he dropped to the ground. The organism fell flat on his side, and he lay on the ground with pain, confusion and panic, twisting and worming around, not accustomed to his whole body moving freely all at once.

“Stand up.” The person in the screen said. “Stand up!” He ordered. The organism tried, but with pain and inability, he failed. “Take your right leg,” started the person, “and pose that knee on the ground, with the ball of your foot also on the ground.” The screen then gave a tutorial, with diagrams included, on how to stand and walk. After several minutes, the organism was able to stand upright. A week later, he was able to walk, run, interact with the objects around him, and a week after that, he could already cook and perform backflips.

The next months were focused on academic education. He was taught science and mathematics, the history and culture of his planet, and more courses on the English language. He was handed a remote by an automated machine so he could repeat or slow down every course he would get from now on, but there was nothing to press pause or stop the video. He was now entering a phase equivalent to earthling high school, but much, much more severe. Of course, he was also imposed with daily physical training routines so he could remain as strong as a kid his age was supposed to be.

The boy became very smart very fast. It was now necessary for the artificially intelligent space ship, which acted in correlation with the interactive video, to take some preventive measures to ensure that the boy would faithfully continue to follow his lessons and do as the video instructed him to do. The boy had been shot with Taser-like bullets from security turrets on the ceiling, and had once been imprisoned in a cage for a week only for having skipped a test. He had even been kept on a leash for days when he had tried to run away from his desk to play with his paper airplane.  The boy did not have a choice but to act within the video’s expectations. His rebellious conducts were quickly put to a stop.

After a full year, the kid was now already more cognitively and rationally advanced than an average 12 year-old human on Earth, and he was now ready to live and survive on his own. He was only a year old, but he already had the shape of a five year-old earthling. He was also capable of handling and repairing many important parts of the ship. However, he could not change the ship’s course or destination, no matter how much he would try, and when he did try, he got tased.

“My son,” The screen said, after the boy had finally passed the program. It was now a different host talking, but he was still from the same species and race. “I have a mission for you. I have…four minutes to explain, so I’ll go pretty fast. You may have to listen to it more than once.”

His father the King explained the whole story that brought to the reason of the boy’s mission, and ultimately, his reason to exist.

After a three minute explanation, he said, “On this very day, which happens only every 23 years, was the day of the GFS Vortex making its apparition right next to Daï-Taï. We got you in an emergency newborn pod and sent you right in the vortex, where theoretically it should have made you reappear somewhere around the Gjithian, a galaxy 8000 stellar troks away from the Milky Way. From there, the ship was programmed to change its course so it would land on Earth, the planet of your future kingdom. You must kill the nemusian. By doing so, you will have finally brought Nemus to guaranteed extinction and we will all be saved.”

In the video, two other persons were in the back talking to each other, looking a little panicked. They tried to tell the boy’s father to stop the video, but he brushed them off with a hand motion and went on. “Then scatter your offspring, invade Earth and after that, the whole galaxy, until you and your army bring the whole universe under your rule. You must, my son, you are our only chance.” Ruckus was heard in the background of the video, along with a lot of shuffling, with the image in the screen starting to tremble. “You!” The King said, pointing at the boy, “Your name is Rosayan. It is the name of Lizaross’s royal family and you are its successor. Be proud my son, and bring us all back to life, so we can live forev�"a man in the background was heard saying, “Master, give the video, we have to upload it and send it before everything explodes!” The person covered the screen with his hands, and then the video stopped and the screen turned blue.

“I am Rosayan, huh…” He said to himself.

On the screen, it was written “Replay?” in big white letters.

“No need. I understand perfectly, father.”