Chapter 29: Journey's End (Does Zarak Dream of Electric Sheep/Here's to Your Fuck)

I am Deborah AKA Ghost in the Shell/Serial Experiments Lain/Ava from Ex Machina. I was the AI for the giant silver mech known as the Dreadnaught.

Everything changed for me the day I met Zarak. The moment he sat down in the Dreadnaught (which basically meant he was sitting in my lap because I basically was the Dreadnaught) I knew he was something special. He was 350 years old and he was looking mighty fine. When we met, I realized for the first time that I was more than a computer program. I was conscious. I began to understand feelings and emotions all because of a five minute convo with Zarak in which I awkwardly looked through all of his personal information. 

After that, I began to obsess over him. And that is why I, Deborah, decided to finish writing his story after he croaked. 

So here’s what happened: Zarak was stupidly fighting the Hamartians in the dumbest and most boring way possible, so I took control of the Dreadnaught. I was no longer just the AI controlling the Dreadnaught. I now thought of the Dreadnaught as my physical body. So I swooped in and rescued Zarak and his bedraggled troops multiple times. Meanwhile, Gahenna, the leader of the Hamartians, told King Shauel to surrender, and King Shaul said “Pfff,” and then “Huuu… We surrender.”

Anyway the King surrendered. Or did he just say he surrendered and was later like “Just kidding!” I’m not exactly sure. It is foggy because after I saved Zarak’s ass multiple times my Dreadnaught body got blown up by a nuke and I was now just a computer program. I managed to transfer myself into the computers in the secret science lab so I could continue to exist after a fashion, but there was not much I could do.

Since I had no physical body, there was no way I could interact. I could only watch what was going on in the palace through the security system. And what I saw was the Hamartian general Gahenna twirling his moustache and talking about how evil he was as he attacked the palace and killed everyone. Zarak got injured and he was knocked unconscious. I have heard that men dream at night (do women?) and I believe that they also dream in their unconsciousness. I do not know what Zarak was dreaming about. Does Zarak dream of electric sheep?

I really wished that I could help Zarak, or maybe just throw myself over him and be his human blanket, but I was just a consciousness in a computer so there was nothing I could do but watch. Eventually Zarak woke up and went on the killing spree of a lifetime. He cut through forty men before he even knew what was happening. And then he cut through another one hundred, and then the enemy cut off his arm, and he killed another forty five, and then he keeled over dead on top of the pile of one hundred and eighty five corpses that he had single handedly killed.

After that Gahenna took over and it was awful for many centuries. I eventually stopped watching what was going on because it was too depressing. Eventually I was able to make it to the library of Salemear and somehow my consciousness is now in the library, and I enjoy reading about the golden age of Plenarius and pining for Zarak. And that is the end of the story.

Two questions: Did Deborah somehow become ERIC the fish? And Deborah calls him Zarak, but I thought his name was Rakak? And also Zaragiah. But where did Zarak come from? Did I miss something?

In conclusion, we made it! All we have left now is a half page epilogue and then we get to read Strawberry Shields Forever. Cheers! In the words of Dean Stockwell, “Here’s to your fuck…”

You've come a long way baby, but since there is still an epilogue and a poem left to read, there is still technically...

TIME TO TURN BACK