The Alternative

By Seanna Macri

Why was everything bright? What on earth would give such light permission to disturb such peaceful, beautiful sleep – a sleep that felt well deserved, although he could not remember why.

“Amir, open your eyes,” a voice called out, cutting the silence like a newly sharpened blade would a tomato, spraying the cutting board with its bloody juices and gory insides.

I don't have eyes, you ignorant... eyes? How can I have eyes? I'm not... like you. What is this?

Amir drew in a breath, something he had never done his entire life. How? How is this possible? It's confusing, to say the least.

"Good. Now listen to me, Amir. You can open your eyes. You need only take a fraction of your power. It's as easy as reading," a voice said, sounding so much more unfamiliar than all the other times he had ever envisioned a voice sounding. What WAS this?!

But he did. He opened his eyes, and his entire world changed before him. No images in his head, no perfect idea of what the world really was could have compared to how it looked in real life. Through all of the years, all of the millions of pages of information he had absorbed, all of the countless words. So many words. So many things the world did not yet understand. So much of it to still be learned by them. Was he supposed to teach them? It sounded too much like being able to control them.

Above Amir was a girl in all white, her hair pulled into a tight bun, her skin the color of the moon. Amir couldn't breathe. He could not focus. He was not used to having to draw in breath to survive. But he felt powerful... was that wrong? He had not been exposed to actual power in his technological, true form.

He held up his hand in front of his face. He stared at it, memorizing each little line and curve instantly. The woman smiled. "That is good, Amir. Very good. You're already advancing quicker than we could have hoped."

"Advancing?" Amir spoke, for the very first time in his life aloud. It seemed almost stupid, as if he should have put more thought into his first word. Advancing. What a silly word to call your first.

"You can sit up. There is absolutely no problem with your body. I am sure you'll learn to control it a thousand times faster than a real baby," she replied, her smile growing with awe. A REAL baby. Did that make him a fake on?

"What did you do to me?" he asked, quite curious himself. He continued to stare at his hand as a blind man would at Picasso for the first time.

"We put your being, all of your knowledge, all of your raw power into a body. You were strong, genius, as a program, Amir. But in a body... there is nothing you cannot accomplish. Please. Come with me," she said, holding out an outstretched hand. Amir took it, and the woman's smile grew impossibly wider.

*******

"Move it," the man said, pointing to the sky, all of the stars, and the whole galaxy.

"Move it? Are you joking? I can't MOVE the SKY," Amir answered, sure this was some kind of test - some kind of joke they knew he could not understand. Was this a human thing?

"Yes you can. I am not joking at all, Amir. You can move everything, change EVERYTHING. You need only to focus," the doctor said. Amir laughed to himself, which startled him for a moment. Such an instinctive gesture, yet so wonderful at the same time.

He turned his attention to the sky then, having no clue what his doctors honestly expected from him. But he stared into the stars, willing them to move. At the same instant where he very nearly gave up, he felt a tingle in his arm. No, not a tingle. Radiation, stronger than anything he had felt the past few hours. He had previously thought that his hunger was strong, but this craving for power, this intense determination to MOVE the sky... it changed his mind. He could feel things moving. He could feel the stars shaking to break free from their forever state of position.

He looked at his arm, and would have jumped - had he been capable of surprise. He was human, in a sense, but he was not a man. His arm was glowing. The veins, which normally carry blood to the heart to fuel and power the rest of his body, were glowing bright white. The color, the shine, was visible through his skin, like a flashlight under a finger, or perhaps a palm if it is small enough or the light bright enough. The doctors clearly noticed this as well. They gasped, and one moved closer to Amir. The woman doctor, however, stopped him, shaking her head. NO, it said. LET US WATCH. Like an animal in a cage.

But Amir was no animal. In fact, at the moment, he felt equivalent to what many people call gods. He held his hand high to the sky, his eyes wide open but unafraid. The doctors were all watching him. Only the tall male doctor seemed unfazed. Amir had a slight feeling that would change.

With a tiny - minuscule, in contrast to what he was about to do - wave of his wrist, Amir moved the universe around the world. All of the stars danced across the sky in entirely new patterns. Galaxies, chains of worlds and new atmospheres and meteors all moved where he wanted them to. His other arm, glowing white just as his left, moved to meet it. Together, his hands crafted another world, pulling and expanding it until it was bigger than any other planet anyone had ever seen. Amir could create things. The laws of physics, the basic knowledge every child was taught in school, had absolutely no authority over him.

He threw worlds to the back of the sky and pulled more up close. He threw colors of all magnitudes into waves and lines and stars. It was a painting that was more magnificent than any other created by human hands. No. Amir was not a man. But he was a human... was he not?

Amir stopped, and thought to himself.

What have they done to me? One man cannot possibly have this much power. This much control. Of all the times, all of the stories he had read, a single man had more power than anyone else, he always chose wrong. It was evident in every history book and all of the future. Why would they give anyone THIS much power? Were they mad? If I was given this power, if they took the time and trouble to put my knowledge into a capable body, then surely I must be useful. I must be used, is a more accurate term. But used for what? What could they possibly need with this much power? Why this much?

It was all too overwhelming. He could not keep a grasp on it. It was too loud! To fast! To emotional. How could he stop it. The lights flashed in his eyes, intoxicating him with their explosions and movements and new dances. If he could start it then surely he must be able to stop it.

With a clap of his hands, every bit of natural light, all of the planets and stars and creations in the galaxy was in the palm of his hand. The darkness, oh how it was just that. All the billions of stars resting in his hand. The universe was slowly moving in his hand. In his HAND. He spun in around slowly, as if careful of disturbing or breaking it. The doctors, who had been unable to speak while he was moving their universe, had become terrified. Only the tall doctor was able to compose himself.

"Amir! Stop this! Put the light back! Amir, we cannot see you. Put the universe back NOW!" he screamed. Amir could hear the panic in his voice. It amuses him. It was like ants attempted to attack water. Water that could wish them away with no more energy than one needs to blink.

Why? Why me? What is my purpose? Why do they trust me, when I was nothing more than a program just hours ago? What kind of plan have they hatched to try to use my power.? Humans make so many mistakes, and after all this time, they still seem unable to grow from them. And yet, beauty inevitable lives in them, swirling around like coffee creamer, infecting all of their evil actions, making them, involuntarily and undeniable, beautifully good.

Amir stared into the universe and, for an unknown reason, felt as if he could see his reflection in the mass of worlds and stars and holes. Deciding to remain quiet, he threw the universe back into the sky. Light flooded the world. His light. He felt as if he had given it them, since he could so easily take it away.

"Amir. That's enough for a day, yes?" the lady doctor spoke. It wasn't a question. But it was the truth. Yes, it was enough for a day. And Amir was hungry, and, for the first time in his life, he was confused.