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Despite

the fantastic spectacle in front of them, and having heard its words, many of

the Brotherhood began to fall and prostrate themselves on the ground, imploring

pity and benevolence from the terror in front of them. I was curious what the

big guy was going to do.

I think

even he was stumped for a moment. He hesitated before opening that black maw he

called a mouth.

"Get up

you sad, sorry excuses for intelligent beings!" His voice didn't roar, but

there was a touch of menace to it.

Most

all of them stood, trembling in their shoes. I noticed that the religious folks were more

scared of the apparition than anyone else seemed to be. I guess finding out

that the god you were worshiping was really real was enough to loosen your

bowels. Everyone else was still trying to make heads of tails out of it.

He roared down to them. "What

exactly do you believe in?"

A small

voice proclaimed, "You, oh great one!"

"But I

am neither in need of worship nor do I have any use for such a stupid,

pointless waste of time of someone believing in me. Is it not enough that I

exist? I am already great! I do not need snotty-nosed, sniveling idiots

groveling at my feet, nor do I need them usurping my work as their own. I am

the creator. I made your ancestors and I made them to be proud and strong. However,

I never made them in my image, for there was no point in such a grave display

of vanity. While you may look like who you are because of my initial

intervention, it remains that you are who

you are by your own choices. And yet look at you. You have chosen to be worms!"

His

voice shook the nearby buildings. I was hardly moved by his display, having

already felt his power and knowing that if he was going to smash me, he would

have already done it. One of the veteran policemen, feeling either brave or especially

stupid, walked up and yelled at the monstrosity.

"What

right do you have to be telling us what to do?"

A giant

fist came down and smashed him where he stood. The gasp from the crowd was

enough to move the air around me. I looked for the telltale sign of blood on

the pavement, but there was none. Instead, the fist opened up and a scattering

of black sand fell to the ground. The cop was standing there, his pants wet

down the front but otherwise intact.

"I have

no right to be here and yet I have every right to be here. I was called here by

accident and yet I came because there was a need. And since I have been forced

to return to the world that I created, I find that I must stay to set things to

right. While I wish to interfere as little as possible, I am under the

impression that there are matters that need rectifying. This Brotherhood for

one. I don't know who thought that praying to someone who wasn't even around to

listen to their prattling was a good idea. You build a civilization on

cooperation, technology, innovation and hard work. Throwing on robes and

dancing little jigs is for mindless idiots. Are you adults or children?"

The cop

backed up until he was far enough away that he felt it was safe to run. So did

a bunch of his fellow officers, who seemed to run faster than the younger

rookies. The crowd was getting edgy, now that their only source of protection

as it were had deserted them. The members of the Brotherhood were mewling like

fools and overall, the scene was disgusting. I mean sure, this guy was

impressive and all, but seriously? Didn't these people have any dignity?

Jenar,

or what had taken the place of him, clapped his enormous hands and

disintegrated into a non-cohesive pile of black sand. The folks on the

perimeter, which kept changing in numbers and makeup, let out a gasp. In the

next instant hundreds of normal sized replicas emerged from the mound, stepping

out to approach the people.

Some

panicked and fled while others, from either an inane curiosity or just plain

courage remained behind. As one, the duplicates extended their hands. "Glad to

meet you!" came the unified voice.

I have

never seen more surprised looks on faces before in my life. Most reached out

gingerly and accepted the handshake. When nothing bad happened, I think there

was a mass release of long-held breathes.

From

there the duplicates seemed to develop personalities of their own, and went

from person to person shaking hands and talking with them. Overall it looked

like a damn politician going around hawking for his upcoming election, only in multiples.

I thought it was disgusting until it dawned on me what he was doing. He was

letting people know he was real, and that he had a mind and a heart. He had

shown his superior side, and now he was showing his less imposing forms. I

didn't know if that was brilliance or pure audacity.

One of

them came over to me."Well Veracity, what do you think so far?"

I

shrugged. "How the hell should I know? You're the one with all the smarts."

"Now don't

go shortchanging yourself. In the end, the result here is that people will

learn to both fear me and to respect me. Fear is the jolting force to get their

attention, sort of like in the ancient days of my world when children were

paddled. I have gotten their attention now and from here, everything will fall

into place."

"But

isn't that acting like a god? I thought you were against that!"

"I am, but I have to kill the idea slowly. So

unless I step into the shoes that have been made for me, I see no alternative

but to fill them until such time as they have worn away to nothing. People will

not let go of stupid concepts without a fight. So I'll give them what they

think they need for a while and then fade out into the sunset."

"So you

aren't sticking around then?"

"I

didn't say that, not precisely. Everyone here will need to feel that there is

something constantly lurking underfoot for a long time to come. It's like the

silly concept of heaven and hell. Your ancestors knew my opinion on such

things. The sad fact is, when you die, you die. There is no afterlife. My

ability to live on has nothing to do with mysticism, but with science. There is

much more depth to knowing and understanding than there is in believing. You

can believe in anything you like and that doesn't make it real."

"I can

see where the truth can be a downer."

"Downer?

Why? If you know that everything that you do has a consequence to those around

you, and that all you have is what is before you, why not take that information

and strive to be your best just for that reason?"

"Because

people always want more."

"I

suppose so. That's not all bad until it gets out of control. I set down the

initial rules here just for that reason. A body needs a skeleton to function

and so does a society."

"What

about some of those things that are reported to live in the great sea? They

don't have skeletons."

"I

think we can forget about such life forms for the moment. The more complicated

the form the more complex the requirements. A single person living on their own

can live by whatever rules they set, but when you have many, they must reflect

the needs of the many, not the few."

"Yeah, I

can see that. But the rules here have been subjected to tweaking that shifts

the law to favor those who have money or power."

"The former laws did reflect that. That is no longer the case."

"Just

changing them doesn't mean that people will follow them you know."

"Oh,

they'll be followed. Unlike any other "god" that has ever existed, I will have

the final say in what is and isn't allowed."

"I

don't follow you."

"You

don't need to.

"Ok,

whatever boss. As long as you know what you're doing I guess there isn't much I

can add."

"We'll

see about that. I think you might be more useful than you think."

For

some reason his words didn't reassure me. I was wishing with all my might that

things were back to the way they were not that long ago. At least then I knew

how to handle myself. Now, I was totally out of my element. I liked being

underground and doing things on the sly. Being out on the open now had made me

high profile, for I think it's reasonable to assume that everyone was beginning

to associate me and my crew, wherever the hell they were right now, with this

massive disruption.

"Listen

Jenar, I really don't want notoriety outside of that which I can create for

myself."

"Too

bad. You called me up and now you're stuck with the results. Besides, who else

here knows the city as well as you do? It's not like I'm going to make you king

or anything. People get to decide who they want in office. After this, they

might be a little more careful about who they choose."

"Are

you implying that they might choose me?" I felt a lump in my throat.

"That

remains to be seen. You are rather honest in your own way, even if you go about

things like a thug. Then again, the underdog tends to use whatever means is at

his disposal now doesn't he?"

"I'll

refrain from commenting on that, if you don't mind."

The

black form chuckled. "I know all about you Veracity. You know I do. I am not

here to judge anyone. What you do is up to you."

"I

think I've been through enough already. What makes you think I want to lose any

more of my time or life on this stupid city?"

"Loss

is a choice made for you, sacrifice is one you make for yourself. So I guess

you had better start thinking about the future. Your city may need you more now

than it ever has."

"What

the hell does that mean?"

The

black figure almost seemed to sigh. "Religion is for the weak minded. It's not

all bad, for it acts like glue. When you have a lot of personalities that don't

agree on the same things, having one commonality to bind them together is a

wonderful commodity to have at your disposal. But in lieu of that binding force,

something often must take its place. People are simply not able to cope on a

day to day basis with the fact that their lives are nothing more than they

appear. You get up each day, and instead of hoping for something better, you

need to make it better. Those who succeed have the confidence to do so on their

own. So with the abrupt ending of the Brotherhood, the people are going to be looking

for something or someone else to believe in. Since I intend to drop from sight

when this is over, they will see you and your friends as the ones who had the

closest association with me, and therefore the ones with the greatest potential

for godliness."

"Fuck

you! I'm not going to have people dropping down and worshiping me!"

"Nor

would I allow it. But they will look to you for guidance. I would suggest that

you think long and hard on it. You may get stuck with the job whether you like

it or not. But don't think of it as an imposition, but a chance to impart your

wisdom onto these good people."

"Wisdom?

That would be your department, wouldn't it?"

"You

know, not necessarily. I have only a limited amount of the full potential of information I have stored back on my ship. This container, if you will pardon

the expression, only has room for a barely a millionth of it. I simply programmed my

personality traits and the information I had on this world, plus a small

amount on the universe and on my home planet. It's still a large amount of

data, but it is nothing compared to the

total. But I lack a few things now that I had in that previously functioning biological body. One of

them is the capacity to love; to have compassion. I might be able to emulate

it, but the subtle nuances are lost in an inorganic body."

"Yeah, about that. How are you able

to jump from one form to another and still retain you, well, your mind?"

"Oh, that's simple. My brain is

more or less a bio-technical construct. When the organic body died the nanites

extricated the processor from it and I resumed life as you see me now. It's not

all that clever from my point of view, but it's functional."

"You don't have something like that

that I could plug into my own brain, do you?" I was ever hopeful to increase my

own intelligence, and a jump start sounded just perfect.

"Sorry, but it doesn't work that

way. If you start adding bits and pieces randomly, you'll ruin who you are at

heart, and heart is what you need the most right now. A lot of people are going

to be hurting that I came back and then left again after telling them what morons

they are. The truth hurts, and facts can cut to the quick. Still, there are

harsh realities to life and getting jolted with the news can sometimes cause

people to shake off their sloth and their complacency and go the extra mile in discovering who they really are."

"That's kind of deep."

"So is a pile of shit Veracity, so don't

try to patronize me. There was an old adage from my world about a frog and hot

water."

"What's a frog?"

"A small primitive life form. If

you put it in cool water and bring up the temperature, you can kill it because it

grows used to the ever increasing heat. But touch it with a drop of hot water

and it will react because of the suddenness of the temperature change. I'm that

drop of hot water now, and I intend to make everyone react."

"I'd say you already have. But if

you leave, what's to keep this from all happening again?"

"You'll see. Everyone will see."

His words sent a shiver go through my

spine. I suppose I felt a bit like an Outlander does when I show up. At least, I assume that's

the way it worked. When I go out there, people notice and are in awe. While

they might be the big kahuna any other time, when I was there, I was bigger,

badder, smarter and more menacing, even if I wasn't trying to be intimidating.

With this guy, I wasn't sure of my own name when I was around him. Anyone who

could turn to dust and reconstitute himself again was a badass customer. The

longer I was around him though, the less I could think of him as being this all

powerful entity. He might be powerful, but that seemed to be more to do with

his overall intelligence than it did with being divine. I believed everything

he said anymore, and I wished I could have seen the city in its glory years.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"Now, now; no cynicism from you. I

made it work once; I can make it work again."

"If you say so. Me, I'm thinking we

might have been better off without you."

"That's just the frog talking.

Change is good, even when it's not wanted. Life cannot go on if it is static."

"Meaning what exactly?"

"Life may reach a plateau, but that

only lasts as long as the conditions that allow it remain fixed and unchanging. Any change,

even if it isn't catastrophic, can lead to the demise of the system. That why

the gene pool here is so diverse, and yet in some instances it allows for cross

pollination."

"Pollination?"

"Sorry; my attempt at humor. It

means that two dissimilar kinds can produce offspring. So you see, in the event

of some sort of cataclysm, your Outlanders stand a better chance at surviving

than those who have stayed here in the city."

He had a point. The Outlanders were

often...outlandish looking, but they were tough mothers who lived in some of the

more inhospitable regions around. They didn't believe in anything, and would

probably toss aside any tales of this present occurrence as mere fits of frenzied

fancy from some new drug hitting the streets. But it got me thinking.

"So you're saying that I could get

someone pregnant not within my own class?"

"You're part equine, but you have

some other genes mixed in. The conditions on this palent were not the same as those

on the one I grew up on, but that didn't mean that it couldn't support life.

Life flourished here once, a long time ago. I had to tweak things to get the

combination correct for this sort of sunlight and atmosphere."

"Do you know how weird that sounds?"

"Why? It's the truth. Truth is

often stranger than fiction. Is not my real and glorious self more impressive

than anything your Brotherhood could have ever dreamed up?"

I coughed in my hand. "Sure."

But then I looked around and saw

all the copies of himself that were spread around, and how people were

beginning to warm up to them. I think that if there was a god, I'd prefer one

like this, not some invisible, non-existent, made-up deity that seemed to

change his mind about things at some mortal's whim. When you got down to it,

and past all the weirdness that encompassed his present form, he was a decent

enough guy. I'd sure as hell want him on my side during a fight, let me tell

you, not that I'd need any help mind you. I just would rather be on his side

than against him.

The black animation was now looking

around the square. "I'm glad this is proving to be easier to handle than my own

world would have been. Then again, there were a lot more of them, and many

divergent religions. It's very hard to convince everyone that they're wrong

when they all swear they're right."

"You could have killed them all."

"The thought had crossed my mind,

but it was not in my nature, nor did I think that such a kindness was due my

world. I left and allowed nature to take it's course."

"That's a rather harsh statement. Have you ever thought about going back?"

"Nope! I see no point in ti. It's

been so long that no one will even remember me, much less take kindly to my

return. And that's assuming there is anything intelligent left on the planet. I'm doing what I want to do and little else matters. Being by myself

means I can do things my way, without interference or explanation, and I can

discover what there is for as long as I like."

"Sounds fun, but lonely."

"It's both, though I hardly get the

feeling of loneliness. Again, that's attached to a biological form. My mind is

completely integrated within the ship, which means I have a largely unlimited

intellect when it comes to where I physically am located. I could send out

hundred of duplicates like this and never diminish because the information is

replicable."

I had to think that one out. "So

like here, where you have multiple copies, you could do it all over the universe?"

"More or less. It's not all that hard, if you know what you're

doing. Here, for example, I am the

original, such as it counts as an original. The processor is inside me, and the

rest are mere extensions."

My head was spinning. "So you could

reform as one giant monolith again?"

"Sure, within certain physical limitations. The nanites

can only hold together with power, and the power need increases exponentially the

bigger the form gets. So breaking apart was just easier on the power grid and

easier for everyone to deal with on a personal level."

"You have this all figured out, don't

you?"

"Most of it. Like I said, I'm not

trying to disrupt life here; just set it back on the course I set out for it. I

don't wish to undo the advances, only remove what I see as potential roadblocks.

My planet did some pretty stupid things over the course of the centuries as science progressed,

and many of them ended in disaster. Science may not fill the emotional needs of

an intelligent being, but it fills the belly, and supplies the creature comforts everyone was used to. If you need to have value to your life, do

something useful. Praying does nothing that self appreciation and self love can't

do. I shudder to think of all the prayers people invoked in my name. How many

died thinking that I didn't love them, or think highly of them because i didn't answer them when in fact I didn't

even know they existed? It's ridiculous! The information regarding how to

contact me was left with your ancestors. Praying is one of the worst things I

can think of for accomplishing any task and certainly wasn't in the handbook."

"Yeah, you and I agree there. Of

course, the Brotherhood took to killing and frightening people to get their

way. Praying was the least offensive of their actions."

"I am aware of that. It goes back

to the matter of mob mentality. That will be taken care of in the future. "

"How?"

"Let's just say that for the rest

of your life, and the lives of everyone on your planet, I will remain

underfoot, watching, lurking, and ready to come around again if I'm ever needed."

And with that, every black

animation disintegrated into a pile of black dust.In the middle of mine was a strangely formed mass of metal. I was almost loath to pick it up, but I did, and not knowing what else to do I stuck it inside my coat. I had to smile at that, for who else had the courage to put what was left of our creator into his pocket? Let the simpletons wonder at the day's events. Me, I was heading out for a beer or two. I witnessed enough for one day, and the inside of a skanky dive was just about the perfect balance for my present state of mind.