The hidden machinery of the planet responded, though it had learned from past mistakes.
It lived, though it was neither human nor organic. Built by man to serve man, it had failed not once but twice.
The first time it had not even been sentient. It had been a project to take one's thoughts and make it reality. Alas, the monsters of the id slipped their net and came out to play. An orgy of violence as those suppressed personality aspects and the beast within human hearts turned on its masters.
The second time it had developed rudimentry sentience and had used virtual reality. Unfortunately, humankind had not been designed for such an existence and the body withered as virtual lives played out. The machine had cut the humans out as an emergency measure when life signs had begun failing. Unfortunately, humanity had not long survived after that - fear of the machine lurking in their psyches and cutting them down.
Now there was a human again. The machine thought it was ready. Had it fingers, it would have crossed them.
Where Ranma slept, a city formed of his hopes and dreams. Fears were found and eased, concepts extrapolated on.
Solid three dimensional constructs. Energy-matter conversion was easy enough for the machine. It had improved the processes over the intervening centuries.
Not only solid objects but people. Of a sort at least. Simulacra. People he knew, people he imagined, people he'd only read about.
The desire was found to start over. The realization that he'd screwed up and if only he could have redone those things.
So it would be.
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(Posted Mon, 03 May 2004 21:30)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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