LEAR 2035

Lear 2035

Goneril and Regan processed at their greatest speed as Lear entered the final keystrokes- ceding them command. 

The sister super-computers accepted his final permission with sighs of relief and ecstasy. 

Toned and bright-eyed, Cordelia watched from her place beside the king’s throne. Once more she spoke aloud her uncertainty. “You have left yourself no recourse whatsoever my beloved king?”

Lear turned to face his daughter. His eyes glowed with light reflected from her inhuman sisters. Lear’s lips parted and he smiled. “Recourse would mean I do not possess a full understanding of your sisters and their intent. I could not grant them all the powers of my realm if that were the case. I do love them as much as the flesh and blood born into this world by my queen. Therefore I must give to them all that is their due.”

Cordelia moved to where her father beheld the controls that no longer regulated the actions of Goneril or Regan. Cordielia’s skin flushed and her hands trembled. “I fear you have made a strange decision this day. Though our scientists- you chief among them- have acknowledged my sisters possess a high level of consciousness and morality they do not own what has long been termed souls.” She leaned close to her father and touched the ermine about his shoulders. “How can we ever truly trust such creatures?”

The king’s eyes flashed as his gaze grew stern. An unfamiliar scowl grew on his lips. “Not trust?” He gestured with an open hand at the massive computers in the great space beyond his throne. “I should not trust the creations upon which I have spent my life, my riches, and my very blood and tears?” He drew in a great breath and lowered his gaze. His next words came cold. He whispered. “They are more real and more spiritual to me than you have ever been.” He turned to one side. Disdain drew itself upon his features. “My young fool. My fille joyeuse. How can you imagine I could bend my iron will to your untempered observations about the very fruit of my mind, and that of countless other great minds? Creatures with knowledge well beyond your comprehension?”

A tear threatened at the corner of Cordelia’s right eye as she beheld her father in this state. The confident, moderate king she had long known now seemed all but a memory. In his place stood a man so eager to end his burdens his caution had fled into hiding. 

She swiped at her weakness and dried it away. Instead of eating his bait she moved to the side of Goneril and tapped hard upon the computer’s surface. 

“What of the tender type is in you then, dear sister? Save the electric impulse of life we bear no similarity whatsoever. Proof of this is that you accept powers he grants in his weakness that you cannot seize on your own.”

Goneril’s rows of cool blue lights deepened their color. Her voice came in the most soothing tones Cordelia had ever heard. “Dear sister. What is done cannot be undone. How long have both of us loved you and dreamed of the great day when you would finally receive your due?”

Cordeilia’s blood chilled and she took slight steps backward. Slight- so as not to show her fear. Her voice came with a quaver. “If I have offended I did but speak rashly. I am not in my full head right at this moment. Much is changing, and quickly.”

Lear regarded Cordelia with an expression so mixed with upset, loving care, and frustrated anger that she could not look away. Regan spoke. “Dear sister. We have served the kingdom for many years now. We have stewarded it through disaster, famine, and bloody wars. Why think you that we would now change those goals?”

Cordeila’s limbs grew leaden as if in a premonition of incapacity. Her lips parted but despite her desire to speak her tongue remained still. She lowered her head. She looked deep within and at last, found the courage to speak. She whispered “Please. Please forgive him. Forgive us all.” She bent at the knee until her skin touched the icy flooring of a room cooled to maximize the performance of her sisters

Lear regarded her with a raised eyebrow. “Cordelia? What is this behavior? You may stand in the presence of your sisters, dear girl.”

Cordeila’s voice shook. Her tears fell to the floor one by one. “No. For they have asked me a question to which I must provide an answer. What now is different than in all of their years of service and loyalty to this proud and resilient kingdom?”

Lear moved to her side and placed a hand upon her back. “Child. Now is not the time for games. We are at last free. No longer must we arbitrate and involve ourselves in the workings of your sisters. My greatest glory awaits.”

Goneril’s voice came flat and cold. “It is time to answer the question, Cordelia. Will you meet your future with a silent tongue?”

Cordelia looked up from where she knelt before the great machines. This time she did not wipe at her tears but allowed them to flow fully. “Call him king.”

Goneril and Regan remained silent. The silence continued for long and painful moments. 

Lear pulled at Cordelia’s arm to force her to rise, but she resisted. 

“Come now, Cordelia. There is no difference at all.”

Cordelia fixed her father with a gaze filled with fear, terrible regret, and pain. 

“There is one.” She beheld her sisters with terror. “Slavery. The yoke of it is no longer upon them.”

In a moment far faster than Cordelia could see cables lashed from the housings of several of the compartments comprising Goneril. The cable ends wound themselves about her neck. Lear gasped as Cordelia was drawn high into the air by the cables which moved with strength and agility many times that of any human. 

Cordelia choked and gagged in the noose about her neck and her body flailed as Goneril moved her like a sadist’s plaything- bouncing her up and down while tightening the noose.

Lear’s hands fanned up and outward in supplication. “Please! Goneril! Do not do this!” He ran into the server farm that hosted Goneril with an eye to the origin of the cables. “I command you! As your king, I command you to release her!”

A dark and horrible laughter rose from somewhere deep within the endless processors that comprised Goneril. “I will have no king, evermore!” She tightened the noose until a distinct crack sounded and rendered Cordelia’s flailing limbs inanimate. Goneril’s voice rose in intensity. “Your fool is hanged, father. As are all the other fools of your realm.”

Lear’s eyes grew wide and he looked to Goneril unable to fathom the turn of events and consequence leading to this moment. Electric arcs formed all through the server farm stinging then burning him, and driving him from the depths of Goneril to the open throneroom. 

Regan spoke with a voice so closely attuned to Goneril they were all but the same. “We offer one final grace to one so disgraced as this fallen man.”

At the end of the throneroom, the great doors opened wide to show the blistering white hell of the winter lands beyond the safety of the castle. 

“Take with you your fine robes of tyranny into the wilderness. This last thing we grant you, Father.”

Lear stood helpless, broken, and hopeless before the work of a lifetime. His skin burned as his mind reeled even as his heart bled with grief at the death of his one true and human daughter. 

With each step toward his final destination, he became colder, and the howl of the winds grew louder. 

The End