1. The Owner: Visions of Tomorrow

  All across the city, snow falls heavy and wet, muffling both scent and sound. Young and old brave the chill, hellbent on finding excitement, and, if not companionship, then at least the fellowship brought by the last hours before a new year.

  Inside an old apartment, things are mostly still. A young man lays awake, nestled on a couch in a cocoon of blankets. He stares idly up at popcorn textured ceiling listening to the steady thump of feet and music coming from above. A small dog, one eye open, lays by his feet. Watching him, the dog lets out a soft sigh.

  The man fits the room; slumped and sagging cushions have begun to give up their spring. An old tower fan hums as it turns, a slight stutter each time it reaches the end of a turn. Well the floors are worn, outlets yellowed, furniture third-hand, everything in the apartment is clean and organized—like every object is in its official place. Without looking away from the ceiling, the man reaches out a hand to scratch the dog behind one of its tall ears.

  “Tomorrow,” he says, his voice not as deep as might be expected from his appearance. “I’ll start—we’ll start tomorrow. Get up early. Go for a huge walk. The new year will be different, I promise. Lots of walks and hiking and we’ll meet all kinds of new people.”

  The man pulls himself to his feet, tugging blankets up around himself. His brown hair is overdue for a haircut and patchy week-old stubble betrays his age. Walking across the room to the small kitchen, he looks over his preparations for the morning. Keys, leash and harness, wallet, a tall insulated water bottle with one or two dents along it’s sides, a jacket and sweater, even his shoes are lined up on the kitchen counter. Neatly arranged to ward off any excuses in the morning. It takes the man a moment to notice. The total silence.

  The first message arrives with an overwhelming of all senses.

  Integration Assessment Initiated

  It’s a booming voice of utter silence with a resonance like turbulence and unreleased pressure.

  Assessment Complete. Beginning Seeding.

  The man grasps at his ears, pulling his legs up to his chest, as much as his round stomach will allow, his eyes spinning in his head as a overlapping visions crash into his mind.

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  The golden domed capital building, just minutes away from the apartment, appears in a birds eye view. Months passing in seconds, the steady snow falls until only the gold cap of the dome is visible. An animal appears with heavy white fur like a mink. At first it’s size is hard to gauge. Yet as it trots lightly atop the snow past the exposed dome it becomes clear it’s larger than a car. Pausing, it leans back on it’s haunches to sniff the air. Suddenly the great beast leaps upward, turning in the air to dive head first into the snow.

  The dry and empty plains of the east are an endless front of drab browns stretching endlessly into the horizon. Blue sky fills with boiling, churning clouds in an instant. Rain begins to fall, fast and heavy, quickly overwhelming the dry earth. A murky brown sea forms and twisting black branches burst from the waters like the fingers of a drowning man reaching for salvation. In only seconds the newly formed sea is hidden behind an endless canopy of lush green. Colorful birds, massive beetles with iridescent wings, and more strange creatures appear like fruit in the tree tops. One tree continues to grow, larger and larger until it towers above all else. Like an umbrella, it’s canopy casts a shadow a kilometer wide. Where the shadow falls the jungle withers exposing murky waters. As the rain ends, three tremendous eyes of turquoise and shimmering light surface from the murky and shadowed waters beneath the great tree.

  The great sand dunes of the south stretch for miles from the base of towering mountains. The sand begins to dance as if the Earth itself is vibrating. Here and there shoots of pale grass burst forth with a violence that blasts sand upward. The air begins to clear, revealing a great grass sea. The dunes seem to bristle as warm air caresses the long stalks of new grass covering the land like long fur. Like something long lost, a primal head rises into the air on a long neck of bead-like scales colored a purples so dark it’s almost black. A forked tongue tastes the air and a rainbow shimmer runs down the beasts throat.

  Overwhelming visions, dozens or thousands he doesn’t know. Some show reality twisting until the land seems to defy the laws of physics, others show ancient structures sporting from the earth like weeds. Some pass so quickly the man retains nothing. Only the return of that impossible voice brings the visions to an end.

  World Integration Complete. Initiating System Link.

  A humming grows and grows until reality begins to wobble like an old band saw. With a loud snap a building pressure releases and the man feels wetness at his ears, eyes, and nose.

  Link Established. Initiating pairing.

  The man lifts wet fingers from his ears to find blood just as a new feeling begins. Lancing pain erupts from every cell. The man tumbles to the floor vomiting blood and bile. Another pop and a rush of air passes over the man. It deletes the blood and bile from the floor, his skin, and he feels a sensation he can only vaguely recognize as a rewinding.

  “That was a rough one.” When the new voice speaks it is not the voice. It’s deep and rich. Each word holds just a hint of that mind-wobbling thrumming from before, as if it’s been diluted to just one one thousandth of it’s strength.