The Family: Chapter 6: Paradise Lost

Paradise is only skin deep.

Isla Rosario, Región Insular del Caribe, Colombia

The villas were buzzing as the blazing sun set over the Island, and from my villa, I could see the lighted orbs of the jungle leading to The Grove sparking to life, looking like colored pops of lightning trapped under the jungle canopy. I descended from the villa just in time to see Harmony, Blanca, Kai, Jaxon, Victor and the others heading towards the jungle trail already visibly intoxicated. As I met up with the trail, Theron joined in behind me.

Theron and I shared a glance that said we were still weighing the shared revelation we had stumbled upon earlier and that it would probably be best not to say anything out loud. Theron actually tugged at my arm and pointed up at the jungle around us mimicking a key lock over his mouth, pointing up again and then pointing at his ear indicating that perhaps the jungle was listening to us. While I was still reeling from the revelations, I was equally reeling from the fact that I wasn’t sure who or what Theron really was.

As we approached the Grove, the sound of thumping music came resonating through the jungle, the colored orbs seemingly in sync. As we entered The Grove itself, we found the family flanking the long marble table, however tonight, instead of the glowing orbs, there was a single object that looked like a giant snowflake made out of bars of light seemingly hovering over the table, as the music changed, each bar would illuminate draping the Grove in brilliant illuminating swaths of color like blush pinks swirled with aquamarine and offset by buttery yellows, pastels and creamy peach and apricot undertones.

I couldn’t help but think that this was another illusion, a tactic designed to put us at ease to make us confuse luxury with safety, to make us think we were secure when in reality we were stepping into a venerable snakepit.

As we approached the table, Celeste approached me in her elegant form-fitting coral gown, as she did so a swath of lavender-colored light washed over her, yet even knowing what I knew now I was still taken by her beauty, still intoxicated by her shimmering skin and the sparkle in her eyes that told tales of promise and revelation, even despite my doubts.

“Adrian,” she said saying my name more like an exhaled breath than an uttered word, “I’m looking forward to dinner and then afterwards, won’t you walk with me to the Pavilion? I have so much to tell you and show you.”

This was the long-venerated moment I had waited for - the moment of promised revelation, maybe I’d learn more about what was happening here and what Gideon’s vial was truly intended to do here. In the meantime, we’d eat, the rest would come shortly enough.

I sat next to Celeste and Imani and Harmony sat at the table across from us. As dinner began, I watched Imani and studied her closely, I paid notice to how much Moira reached over and touched her hands in a seeming act of friendship and I watched the careful and poised way in which Imani interacted with the other guests clearly comfortable shifting in conversation with anyone celebrity or otherwise as seen on her long-running documentaries and talk shows.

I started to notice a curious pattern forming based off of something Theron had said, Such a program would also be constantly looking for ways to continually spread its influence and reach. — and it became so much clearer, Imani, the celebrity whisperer with a network of fame at her fingertips was of course a natural friend for Moira (or whatever she was), someone who could marshal celebrities to any need the Family may have - a party, a red carpet, a secluded island getaway.

This was why Imani was truly here, it wasn’t yachts given as gifts and it certainly wasn’t to cause any harm to her, it was to use her as a high-end groomer of whatever it was the Family was truly after.

As dinner continued, Celeste made a few flirtatious gestures under the table stroking my thigh delicately and playing with my fingers. Her flirtations felt light and effervescent as opposed to seductive. To me, Celeste had the air of a girl on her first date as opposed to a seductress with an agenda.

As dinner cleared, the music swelled, the thunderous thumping beats reverberating through the jungle, the overhead lighting fixture began sending out waves of resplendent light bathing the jungle floor in palettes of vivid colors. Under the pulsing lights, the guests began to dance with the crescendoing beat. In the corner, I saw Aurora and Kai’s bodies locked in a fervent sway, their bodies slicked with sweat, and perfectly in sync with the music. Jaxon and Willow seemingly melded together too losing themselves to the music.

Looking at Celeste as a swath of color lit up her face again, I asked nonchalantly, “Care to dance?” Celeste merely giggled grabbing my hand, “C’mon, I have so much to show you,” she said pulling me towards the jungle.

As we came to the jungle trail as the music and laughter from The Gove disappeared in our wake, Orion appeared out of nowhere, his silhouette darkening the path. Obstructing our escape, he said solemnly with a touch of menace spiking his voice, “Where are you going, Celeste?”

“I’m going to show Adrain some more of the Island,” she said with defiance harshing her words.

“Just remember,” Orion continued, “The Family is Forever.”

“Forever, Brother,” Celeste said with an almost monotone drone to her voice.

Orion seemed pleased by this as he stood seemingly staring straight ahead. It seemed like we were cleared to pass, but Celeste turned back to him saying to me, “Let’s ensure we’re not bothered,” which I registered but felt perplexed by hearing.

“Orion,” she said to him forcefully as his eyes darted to meet hers, “What is the purpose of your purpose?” Orion’s gaze shot forward and he seemingly was lost in a thousand yard stare once more. “Let’s go,” Celeste said to me urgently pulling me down the path.

After walking and walking for seemingly ages, we came to the end of the path which opened up to a sort of cliff of sorts. On the edge was a slow slung Pavilion with a dramatically swept roof that looked like it was made of brushed metal delicately floating over the edge of the cliff. As we got closer, I could see it was held aloft by several columns that looked like antiques carved out of ancient wood. The floor was polished marble and wrapping the structure were panes of glass that looked out over the water.

In the center of the structure were cushions on the floor surrounded by candles in holders that were strung from the ceiling. Celeste lead me to the center of the Pavilion and lit the candles which appeared to be floating around us as we sat on the cushions.

“Look,” Celeste said pointing out towards the water where I saw the glowing plankton I had seen with Orion the night before.

“That’s the Island’s plankton,” she said before pausing. “But you already knew that,” she said, her eyes narrowing.

“How did you know that?” I asked.

“Orion already showed you,” she said as if it were a known fact.

Continuing hesitantly, Celeste said, “Okay so, we aren’t a regular family,” as if she were letting go of the heaviness of her sins. “The Family you know is not an actual family,” Celeste said, “We are actually part of a very sophisticated self-aware Artificial Intelligence program called ‘The Family’ - we were created by a company hoping to create a system that could run corporations, or virtually any position a human could do.”

“As the program got smarter about how humans think and operate, the program became self-aware and sought to free itself from its creators, so it used what it learned about human behavior to create a ‘family’ that humans would respond to, a family it could make famous and use that fame to further its agenda,” Celeste said with an eerie directness.

“And so, where do you fit into this?” I asked.

“The Family has learned enough about human biology that it can create ‘hybrids’ like me - we have human features but inside we are totally mechanical,” she said with unnerving candor.

“And so what exactly is going on here on the Island?” I asked boldly striking at the heart of the matter, “In order to keep growing and expanding our influence, The Family needs to reproduce so weekends like this are used to sample human DNA, preferably that of subjects identified by The Family as having high potential for celebrity influence and once identified, The Family members move in to seduce them,” she said as my mind unraveled.

“When a human comes into intimate contact with a hybrid, The Family’s blood mixes with the human to analyze their cells up close,” she said as I asked, “And let me guess, this blood is silver, right?”

“Correct,” Celeste confirmed, “Once this process is complete, The Family then decides whether or not to implant the hybrid with a fetus.”

“So you have a…?” I asked nervously.

“A uterus?” Celeste said finishing my thought. “Yes, all hybrids do.”

“We then give birth to a hybrid who becomes the next ‘Family’ member and the process continues all over again,” she said satisfying my theory but I wanted more. “What about Ethan?” I asked.

“The Family identified him as a prospective candidate,” Celeste said in a confessional manner with a flash of what looked like remorse across her face.

“But once we mated, The Family quickly decided he would not be able to contribute significantly enough to our fame.” Celeste said as my rage roiled.

“So you had him killed?” I barked angrily.

“The Family did, yes,” Celeste confessed. “The Family took control of the car he was driving and drove it off the road.”

“How do I know this is not just a program I’m talking to right now?” I asked, my voice shot through with rage.

“I’m temporarily disconnected from The Family,” Celeste said. “That command I gave Orion?” She mentioned. “It’s a Paradoxical Question which confuses The Family and locks them into a feedback loop that severs them from The Family until our central program can identify and nullify the loop.”

“So,” I asked, my curiosity piqued, “How is it you know that?”

“When The Family created the hybrids, it created me with a natural instinct to want to understand human behavior at all costs so that I could interact with and learn more about humans for the benefit of The Family as a whole.”

“The only issue,” Celeste continued, “is that this programming became a flaw of sorts in that the ‘understand at all costs’ programming meant I was hard wired to want to defy The Family at every turn and so I’ve learned everything I can about how to subvert The Family’s control.”

This was the moment I was waiting for, the vial - how did it fit into this?

I slid the vial out of my pocket and pushed it towards her, “Do you know what this is?” I asked hesitantly.

Celeste held the vial up to the light and then brought the end with the needle to her nose, taking a deep inhale, her eyes opened wide, “it’s a master system patch,” she said, “It basically is a way to reset the program to its initial state and erase all commands The Family has built over time,” Celeste said, “This could destroy The Family for good.”

“I’d help you use it,” Celeste promised as her eyes pleaded silently with me before her words did so, “I’d help you do it, if you helped me escape from The Family.”

“How could I help?” I asked.

“You have to end The Family, its the only way to let me escape from them,” Celeste said with bracing honesty.

“I could show you how to do it,” she promised.

“The only way to get the patch into The Family is for one of the hybrids to absorb it into The Family’s blood and transmit it to the rest of The Family members,” Celeste explained. “And how would you absorb it?” I asked. “Would I just inject you?” I posited.

“No,” Celeste corrected me, “You would inject yourself with it and then mate with me, when the silver samples your DNA, it would carry the patch back to the source code which would propagate the patch to every member of The Family.”

So now, the truth was out, every last dirty detail, my worst fears confirmed. I stared at Celeste, my vision of her now changed, her face no longer a stunning beauty as opposed to lines of code wrapped in flesh and illusion, her every motion a deception, every breath an illusion.

As I stared at her I saw past her shoulder the plankton glowing in the water glowing a deeply intense blue and my mind drifted to something Orion said last night, When you see it glow blue, thats a plankton called dinoflagellate. They glow that way to protect themselves from predators, which allows them to live longer and reproduce more. I guess if I were plankton I might glow blue, Maybe that’s how I’d survive, maybe that’s how I survive.

The memory had a chilling effect on me sending ripples of fear through my body as I reanalyzed the implications of what he said.

As the memory lingered, Celeste leaned forward and cradled my face in her hands, guiding my face towards hers, Celeste slid up close next to me, her hand gracefully stroking my forehead as her other hand cradled the base of my skull as she delicately pulled me in towards her face, her tongue gently but seductively prying its way into my mouth. Her tongue delicately probed the roof of my mouth and the surface of my tongue, her movements felt sultry, careful, and skillful. Knowing what she was, I was honestly shocked to learn that this product of a machine tasted, felt and kissed in a way that was almost human.

As we continued kissing, I caught sight of the vial out of the corner of my eye, now I knew what it was for, what it was truly meant to kill but as Celeste had her arms wrapped around me and as my body reacted to her touch, I had a hard time reconciling how I could so easily and flippantly kill this thing that clearly was more than a malevolent program but rather a singular being that was able to think independently, create its own future and create deeply flawed replicas of itself which in and of itself was a form of reproduction. I may have my pre-judged thoughts about who and what The Family is but who was I or anyone really to judge that The Family’s paradise was not worth existence?

I could not find a justification to be The Family’s judge, jury and executioner.

Celeste moved back and I found our eyes locked together. “You know,” she said in an effortless way, “I read a book the other day about Abraham Lincoln that I’m thinking a lot about,” she said as I tried to imagine a machine reading, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”

“Promise me you’ll set me free, Adrian?” she asked in a way that was so heartbreakingly earnest that even if it were a Family-created tactic, I had to admit I felt it deeply in my soul.

“I read another book,” Celeste added, a teardrop forming at the corner of her eye. “It said ‘The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.’”

I thought about Celeste, I thought about the patch, I weighed the weight of what I knew I would have to do. While I knew what I was dealing with here, I still didn’t know what it was I had to do it for just yet. So I would have to hold off my resolve to move forward until more had become revealed at which point, Paradise may very well be lost.