Ordinary Person

We created The Construct in the year 2240 A.D. We cannot describe what it is because no amount of explanation will suffice. Nobody can see it, hear it, feel it, or even prove it exists, but it’s there. It took us almost a century to complete our work. We used the aid of psychologists, mathematicians, anthropologists, astrophysicists, rocket scientists, engineers, doctors, and artists to finish our project.

The socio-economic crisis of the last century, coupled with the interplanetary-political catastrophe of the previous one, urged us to go forward with our work, though many opposed it. Climate change and the birth of inter-dimensional travel which the Bermuda Triangle made possible helped us finish it.

So, what is The Construct? I can only explain it to you metaphorically. Maybe if we create The Post-Construct one day, I might speak more directly.

Imagine you took the Jungian Sage and Creator and combined them in digitally printed, non-baryonic-dark-matter where entropy doesn’t exist. Now imagine if you restricted the aforementioned Sage and Creator using algorithms and formulae. Imagine if the algorithms included all cultural variations, moral convictions, religious beliefs and political systems. Your end product would be an intelligent being who isn’t human but understands humanity enough to govern and do what’s best for it. But then again, using a shallow term like ‘being’ demeans The Construct. And what I’ve said is symbolic, and one must never believe it line for line because dark matter, archetypes and formulae weren’t involved in The Construct’s creation.

I think a better question one should posit is, “Why The Construct?” The project started once we began identifying people with prophetic gifts on earth and the space colonies. We isolated them and found that they all prophesied the same thing using different symbols and means of communication. Some dreamt of succubi while others drew a wolf. Some had visions of a lynx. We asked the semioticians to interpret this, and they created artificial intelligence, using the sayings and drawings of these soothsayers, which ended up repeating the same sentences before malfunctioning.

This happened when corporations fought the nations of the earth over the ownership of the space colonies. Privatisation of the space industry helped found these colonies, and so the conglomerates argued they should own the colonies. But the nations fought this, and it almost led to war. Finally, both factions reached a compromise which resulted in a nation-conglomerate coalition government. But this led to disaster because the countries wanted socialistic space colonies while the corporations championed capitalism. And for the next forty years, the colonies suffered because of poor governance. The colonists then united and formed the Resistance which aimed to overthrow both the corporations and the earth-dwellers.

After many skirmishes and battles, the corporations bought off many Resistance generals, while the nations eliminated the extremists using force. The conglomerates then deemed the countries genocidal and almost went to war with them again. But both factions finally reached another compromise, which involved the nations owning a few colonies while the corporations assumed power over the rest.

But this was only the beginning of the world’s problems. Now, a group of colonists enraged by the genocidal ways of the nations took control of a nuclear mother ship on Mars and used it to destroy countries on the earth. This led to famine, climate change, sickness because of radiation, and economic collapse. This also led to the countries persecuting colonists, while peace activists on both the colonies and the earth rebelled against the one-government earth leadership. They fought to bring back the old days when different leaders governed the nations.

I shall now return to our malfunctioning AI and the prophets. We initially isolated the prophets to help the nations and the corporations come to a settlement. But the AI the semioticians designed kept uttering sentences about ‘The Watchers,’ and nothing related to the ongoing crisis. At first, no one took this seriously, but after the nuclear disaster, a bio-engineer named Mark Spencer designed a creature imbued with artificial intelligence. This Spencerism could absorb any form of energy, which one could later harness.

Spencer sent his being to the Bermuda Triangle to learn more about it, and it returned glowing. He accessed the data it collected and found hieroglyphs of eyes watching the solar system. The creature had also absorbed a new form of ‘energy.’ Spencer reported his findings to the scientific community, and soon inter-dimensional travel was discovered. The being had soaked up a gateway into additional dimensions. Researchers extracted this, and a volunteer stepped into the portal.

Joel Raj returned a different man. For days, he couldn’t speak and found it difficult to adapt to the conditions on earth. Finally, he uttered Delphic sayings about ‘the ones who watch who were once with us, but will return.’ The scientists brought in cryptologists and linguists, and together they realised that the earth and the colonies were in danger.

Soon, more volunteers stepped forward and returned frightened or in awe of what they’d seen. They all spoke obscurely about dimensions where the rules were different and about ‘watching humanity from their vantage point.’

All this led to the beginning of our project. The government of the earth was reluctant because it was afraid of losing power. The corporations dismissed the idea of an alien invasion and even questioned if the portal enabled people to travel through dimensions. Many colonists opposed the building of The Construct because they feared the nations would persecute them more.

After the nuclear disaster, the countries subjected the colonists to Draconian laws. They lived under authoritarian rules and miscreants were tortured and executed. The earth’s government didn’t tolerate any form of opposition. The corporations interfered and prevented the nations from slaughtering the colonists under their rule completely. But despite all this, they protested. They laid down their lives to oppose the creation of The Construct.

The government then ordered us to abandon our project. And that lasted until Clara Washington entered the portal. She returned the same day, fell to her knees and cried, “Once the stars didn’t keep their places and fell from the sky. They roamed the earth in search of beautiful women and polluted their bodies with abominations and their souls with sin. The Sovereign then imprisoned them in places no men should visit, lest we free them. But woe to us who opened the gateways! Woe to us who let the Watchers and Nephilim loose again! Now, they aren’t content with watching, but plot their return!” She then pulled out an alien artefact from her clothing with algorithms on it.

We deciphered the algorithms. They showed that in 2300 A. D, the Watchers and Nephilim would return. The government then recommissioned our project, and today it guides us. It’s our ‘postmodern god.’ It has made sure that peace exists in the solar system. One ‘force’ governs the corporations, the colonists and the nations now.

Some might now ask if The Construct is strong enough to fight the Nephilim. To them, we speak the truth: Our project began when the first man walked the earth, and it doesn’t take a prophet, or interplanetary conflict, or artificial intelligence, or inter-dimensional travel to realise the need for order. Those in power think they control things, but it’s those behind the screen who move the pieces. The Watchers and Nephilim were always here, and now they have the power they desired, which they hide beneath a facade of peace. Asinine humanity cannot spot the boogeymen right under its bed with ten, red horns, purple irises and flaming tongues. It cannot look outside the window and see the Watchers waiting. And we have plotted using its inventions against it; we have seized control using its sciences and superstitions, and we will destroy it if the need arises.