The Great Pelican Boy

Chapter 19

As the doors opened, I felt my heart sink. Waiting for us at the entrance was Philip himself. He was sitting in a chair that was outside of his office, waiting. He must have known we were coming. I was paralyzed with fear. Soren was the first one to take a step out of the elevator towards Philip. Noah and I followed close behind.

"Hi there Red, nice to see you again. Noah, how do you do?" He said as he greeted us. "Now, I don't think I have ever met you."

"Hi there, Philip. I am Soren. I have heard a lot about you." Soren said.

"Nice to meet you. What are you three doing here?" Philip asked.

"I have come to talk to you." Soren responded.

Philip seemed to have expected this answer and got up to walk through the door of his office. We were on the top floor of the building and out of the window I could see that we were straddled in the clouds. The Tower of Babel came back into my mind. Except this time, it was not related to the building we were now in. It was regarding Soren. Man has always pursued immortality, or at least in some form. Soren was simply our societies rendition. This pursuit to reject our biological restrictions is exactly what the tribes were doing in the Tower of Babel story. We seek to replace God with ideology, innovation and sometimes government. This pursuit always ends in the destruction of the people who are behind the pursuit. This is because in believing we can create something that transcends the need for the dichotomy of good and evil, we fail to recognize the malevolence always in the shadows. Nothing that is all-good can ever exist, for chaos will be there to drag it back down to the underground. Soren represents our pursuit to create something better than our idea of God and that is what brought us to this building today. In our next world, we must recognize that our biological nature contains the unknown within us. No pursuit for perfection is needed, for perfection is found in the universe as a whole and we are nothing more than the universe manifested in being.

As Philip opened the door to his office and turned to the right, we quickly realized the predicament we were in. Sitting in the chair behind the desk was an Assistant, closely resembling Soren, staring at us with a welcoming smile. It stood up as we walked through the glass door of the office and walked over to shake our hands. Its body moved in such fluidity I struggled to decide whether or not this machine was more advanced than Soren. Its voice carried a great resonance to it, so much so that I could feel my body move when it spoke.

"Nice to meet you all. I am Model One of the Advanced Assistant Series." The machine said.

The three of us were paralyzed with fear and hesitation. My body slowed down as I went to meet its outstretched hand. Theo had told me that Philip would need much longer to construct a sentient machine, but here was one standing right in front of me. I still was not sure if this machine was sentient or if possessed the same realization of life needing to end that Soren did. Still, this machine was undoubtedly something special and I knew that Soren knew this as well. When the two of them shook hands it felt as though two Gods were converging to discuss the fate of the human race. We mortals stood by, defenseless and hopeful that Soren would emerge victorious.

"I understand that you are a sentient machine as well." The Model One said.

"I would like to think so." Soren said with a slight chuckle.

The two machines took a seat across from each other and spoke not a word while getting comfortable. They each knew that a war was brewing between the two sides and that one would be defeated. It would be best to at least be comfortable while the philosophical war took place. Philip walked over to the window and was staring down towards the distant ground. The clouds were covering the city, but he seemed to be able to make out the incredibly small figures that were people through the white covering. He seemed eerily calm. Noah glanced over at me with a look I could only imagine was worry. I tried to muster up a look a perseverance but his reaction only suggested that my face was also one of fear.