posted July 07, 2007 01:05 AM         

I was with Mom again, and she wanted to take me to some school for my future. I was amused when it turned out to be a police academy. I went in but was relieved when I was told bluntly that they only wanted men there as women messed things up too much. I told 'em as messed up as they were now, that shouldn't really be a worry of theirs and left.

I met an on-line friend outside (never actually saw him in real life) and we threw a frisbee to each other while talking about Princess Leia being able to talk to birds for some reason, and how this affected anime (he knows all kinds of stuff like that).

My roomie and our close friend was there with us (I'm not sure when they appeared), but then we all got pulled with others into this Silent Hill type world. Not exactly like that, but it was scary, and the locals were extremely xenophobic and just barely past Old West in terms of development and technology. Apparently the natives of the Americas in this parallel world called down a curse that destroyed themselves but was now destroying all "non natives," too, presumably led by the spirits of vengeance of the natives. Here I had telekinetic abilities, too, though I wasn't sure what good that would do me. But we managed to take over a sheriff station and put the survivors into jail cells. We weren't cruel about it, and they seemed surprised by our being nice once we had them locked up (they'd started the violence in an attempt to lynch us as demons).

And then we came under attack by some strange people that had primitive but sturdy cars (almost like the first tanks, but not that military-style). We were gonna get holed up and I was the last one out since I could use my TK to throw them back and mess with their weapons. But as I was trying to go in, I got hit with some kinda liquid and I knew I couldn't go back, that it would doom my friends and our prisoners if I did.

Instead, I went with the new marauders. I found that they too were from another world, but not from the one I came from. They were more advanced and had nearly destroyed themselves, including with some nuclear detonations, before they used transformative nanites on everyone. The liquid I'd been hit with had those nanites that were in the process of rewriting my DNA. They said the process takes a whole 2 days and improves many physical and mental abilities. One thing that many wouldn't consider a boon is that it also installed a device that created endorphins when one obeyed and caused pain, despair, and disorientation when one disobeyed. They said it took about a couple of days to a couple of weeks to fully assimilate. Since I had a strong will, they figured it would take the full 2 weeks, but they were hoping that with my intelligence, especially as it increased, it would take a lot less time once I realized the futility of fighting it and embraced what they had to offer.

They were very interested in the world I came from. They realized that my native world was also close to destroying themselves, as they were very near where they were when their apocalypse began that they just barely pulled away from in time. See, while they were expanding into the solar system in their world, their greatest travel had been how to travel to parallel worlds, and they not only felt it merciful to assimilate other worlds ("and give them the peace they long for"), but imperative to protect themselves to invade them first and assimilate them with the same nanites they had put into me before such worlds could open a gateway to their world and spread their disorder.

Interesting enough, IMO, on their world (which I saw in a communal intelligence of sort), their roads were silver in color, named with numbers, and look like an intricate spiderweb. Some even went into the ocean (as protected tunnels), but immersion in water was dangerous to them as it interfered with the nanites for some reason (so...no surfing, swimming, or anything like that, at least without extensive coverings).

What was weird is the love I felt for them, and the love I felt from them. When they assimilate, they try to get entire groups to avoid conflicts of interests in the new recruits, and failing to assimilate all a "recruits" loved one's, they try to keep them separate long enough for the assimilation to be complete before sending them off to their former loved ones and embrace them with the love of nanites.

Their MO was also that they tried assimilating centers of law first. EG, in my world, they planned to assimilate CDC (Center fot Disease Control) along with federal agents and anyone else they needed to (the aides and family of politicians before the politician himself, if necessary) to declare quarantines of towns. Then under the guise to checking for an infectious disease, they'd infect the said towns and military bases one by one. "That's brilliant," I said, "most people will WANT the government to check them, and, as usual, the government will create the problem that they're thought to solve, and no one will realize it before it's too late!" They were pleased that I liked it, but also reminded me that they'd done it many times before, and yes, it worked, every time. And that by infecting humanity with the nanites, that they were CURING humanity.

When I asked why they didn't bring some of their advanced tech with them, they said that always happened later. They were scared that otherwise, the non-initiated/infected could steal their tech and possibly use it to find the means to fight them or undo the transformations. So it was establish bases using the local tech (other than the nanites, natch), and once the majority of the military/government/civilian population was assimilated, THEN the advanced tech was brought in to deal with the loose ends. Very efficient. They'd done it many times, and it was most optimal.

And the majority of humans in my world would love them for it, and not just because the nanites would produce endorphins in their brain in exchange for obedience. Most people WANT everything centrally controlled into conformity. And most people seem to me to WANT to be drugged into happiness, whether they do it illegally, or they do it legally (as they're so mystified by why they're not happy though they do everything that they think they're supposed to do). Those nanites would give them a world they wanted: the ultimate central government, an end to war and crime to be replaced by peace and drugged happiness (as long as you do what you're told, then you're happy...very, very happy). They'd all be loved and cared for for the rest of their days. If the power at the top was abused, then what of it? That's like now, only the nanites made sure that something worth while was given in exchange. I had to admit, it sounded seductive. But maybe that was just the nanites speaking.

And then my friends showed up in a posse to rescue me. I was torn between my loyalty to the nanites and my human associates. Despite the pain (as my love for my human friends also created a similar endorphin rush to help them, and discomfort in hurting them--thus the conflict that the nanite-people often had to deal with initially in new recruits), I turned against the nanite-humans and ended up soaking them and their vehicles with an inflammatory liquid, though I got hit with it, too. Once I got out, I dosed the frisbee and set it on fire and flung it toward them, with pretty much destroyed their encampment. Given the freshness of my nanites and that the team leader was killed, their control over me was broken, though I was still enhanced with the nanites. I was hopeful that with the nanite enhancements & data recorded into them, I might be able to figure a way back to our world.

There were a few stragglers, but we easily took them out. But as we were completely victorious, I was suddenly flooded with doubts. Did I do the right thing? Sooner or later, they'd find their way to my world (and would control over my mind be reestablished if that happened?). And should the nanite-humans never make it to my world, and should my world also not develop something very similar, then did I just condemn my world to endless war that eventually gave way to a horrid nuclear dark age or even extinction of humanity?