2400 AD

“What the fuck was that? What have I just seen?” Callum asked inside Gideon’s office.

Kendall answered. She seemed the appointed spokesperson of the facility. Gideon leaned back against his chair and listened to her.

“What you’ve just witnessed is someone playing with the program,” she said.

“Program? What program?”

“A simulation program.”

“You’re kidding me, right? Tell me she’s kidding.”

Gideon shook his head. “I’m afraid she’s right.”

“This is all strange and new to you, Callum, but believe me, it’s real.” Kendall said.

“I saw those buildings disappear and new ones just pop up out of thin air and then the forest and those plants dying…”

Kendall went on. “Think of everything you’ve been taught at school regarding physics. You learned that we’re all made from atoms, particles, and molecules, and that we’re physical, carbon based beings and for thousands of years we’ve been led to believe this. For thousands of years we’ve had religion pushed down our throats and told that there is only one true God. God created this universe and us. Our cosmos exists because He willed it to exist.

“We were also told about the Big Bang. To cut a long story short, hundreds of philosophers and scientists tried to find the meaning of existence. We’ve even developed pulse technology and sent drones to our nearest galactic neighbor to try find the answers. Are we alone? Why do we exist? We have to exist for some purpose. To this day, no scientist has discovered the meaning of life. People are told that the meaning of life is whatever we make of it, that mankind is free to have his or her opinion. Then Toba erupted and everything changed. Now we are faced with a volcanic winter and children who have uncanny powers...”

Callum interrupted her. “I know all this.”

“What you don’t know is that Xenocon is after the ultimate weapon.”

“Weapon? I thought the Androids were the ultimate weapons.”

“Not so. The ultimate weapon is the mind. More specifically, the minds of those children who possess telekinetic ability. We call them Kines. With this power Xenocon will have the potential to conquer the world.”

“What?”

“It’s difficult to explain, but I’ll do my best. Kines use the power of telekinetic energy. To them, the smallest units of matter are not physical objects but potential forms, or abstract ideas expressed in the language of mathematics. To them, space/time is an idea, an illusion, not an absolute property of nature. What I’m trying to say is that in a Kine’s world materialism is not a valid worldview. Particles only exist as objects when observed. When not observed, they exist as waves.”

“Bullshit! You mean that desk of yours exists only because I’m looking at it?”

“Yes. If you’re not looking at it, it only exists as a wave form.”

Callum laughed so much his stomach hurt. Gideon and Kendall allowed him his moment of mirth. When he stopped laughing, he stood up, walked to the desk and kicked it with his eyes closed. “How come, even with my eyes closed, I can kick this desk and feel it as a solid object?”

“Because touch is observation,” Gideon said.

“You guys are kidding me, right? You don’t really think I’m going to believe all this bullshit.”

“We’re not forcing you to believe anything,” Kendall said, guiding him towards his chair.

Gideon said, “In a computer simulation, let’s say you’re playing a game. The game gives you the frame you need when you’re looking at it. When you navigate around the game and look at something else, it creates another frame. In Xenocon’s simulation, the universe works the same way. The universe is pixelated and assumes a definite form when observed, just like a computer simulation.”

Callum shook his head in disbelief. “You’re telling me that all this, you, me, that city, my home, my dogs, my parents and fuck it just about anything else you would like to mention, we’re all not real?”

“To a Kine, yes.” Kendall smiled at Callum. “What you saw out there, that’s some Kine destroying and creating, never allowing anything to evolve. We don’t know where it’s coming from. Someone in India, or Canada or Britain or even here, Mzansi.”

“And you have proof of all this?”

“No, but what we do know is that Xenocon have been recruiting children by kidnapping or blackmail for the last several years. When these kids go in, they don’t come out because Xenocon is harnessing their powers.”

“Jesus.”