Punishment

by Guerin Zand

  “Ok, ok. I’m getting up. Stop yelling.” I grabbed my robe, put it on, and covered up. I was wearing my boxers, but I didn’t like the way Seca was looking at me.

  Prima entered the room. She saw I was out of bed, so she leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed. She looked at me like a frustrated mother. They dragged me out to the kitchen where I grabbed one of the bar stools and sat at the kitchen bar.

  “Here.” Prima handed me a bag with a couple of spiced buns in it. I grabbed one and started to eat it.

  Both of them were watching over me like a couple of mother hens. “Aren’t you two going to have anything?”

  “We already ate, Guerin.” Seca grabbed a stool and sat next to me. Prima was leaning against the wall, her arms crossed again, just looking at me.

  I finished my meal and took a sip of coffee. They were still just watching me, and it was starting to bother me. “What are you two doing here? I don’t need babysitters.”

  “Your daughter said we should get you up. She was worried about you.”

  “Since when do you and Prima take orders from my daughter?”

  Neither one of them answered. Seca grabbed my arm and yanked me off the stool.

  “What now?”

  “Let’s get you in the shower. You’re a mess.”

  “I don’t need any help in the shower. I’m a big boy and I can do it myself, Seca.”

  “I’m sure you can,” she answered sarcastically.

  I left them in the kitchen and I went and took a quick shower. I grabbed a clean set of boxers and put my robe back on. I combed my hair and went back to the kitchen to finish my coffee. The twins were still there.

  “Guerin, you need to get dressed.” Prima was actually trying to order me around in a tone I’d never heard from her before.

  I grabbed my coffee and headed back out to the living room. I set my coffee down on an end table next to one of the couches and I laid back on the couch. I brought up a Three Stooges video on the viewer. Maybe I’d binge watch a season or two.

  Prima sat on the couch next to me and pushed me back deeper into the couch. She put her hand on my shoulder. “You’re just going to lay down and watch videos?”

  “Maybe. I don’t want to do anything today. Can’t I just relax?”

  “We can help you relax?”

  “I’m not in the mood, Prima.”

  She flipped open my robe and stared at my boxers. She looked over at Seca. “He’s right. He’s not in the mood.”

  “Very funny, Prima. Look, I appreciate whatever it is you two are trying to do but I just want to take it easy today.”

  Maria walked in from the front entrance. I quickly closed my robe back up.

  “What’s going on here?”

  “Nothing.”

  Maria raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

  “Yes, really. Would you mind calling off the babysitters?”

  “You’re still not dressed, Dad?”

  “I’m as dressed as I plan to be. Why don’t you and the twins go and do something? There’s a Three Stooges marathon on and I just want to veg out and take it easy today.”

  “There’s always a Three Stooges marathon playing here, Dad. I told Sid and his family we would join them at their compound for lunch, so get dressed.”

  “You go. You don’t need me to accompany you.”

  “No. They expect you to be there. Don’t be such an ass.”

  “Tell them I’m hungover. They’ll understand.”

  “You have an hour and a half to get up and get dressed. If you’re not dressed by then I’ll have the twins dress you.”

  “Well, in that case, I definitely won’t be able to make lunch.” She just gave me that exasperated look she learned from her mother. I changed the subject. “How did your breakfast go?”

  “Ok, I guess. Milly was there and, well, I sort of blew up at her.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m not stupid, Dad. The twins told me you and she were together after everybody left.”

  “It wasn’t like that, Maria.”

  “No, but she’s the reason you got so drunk, wasn’t she?” I didn’t respond. “I thought so. We got in an argument about it and I told her to leave you alone.”

  “That’s none of your business, Maria.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  She was stubborn. She got that from both of her parents. As I looked at her I couldn’t help but be reminded of her mother. Her expression was just like the one her mother used to give me. Changing the subject again was the best course of action. “So, besides your little catfight, how did the rest of your meeting go?”

  “Good. Julie’s not that bad, I guess. She is a bit full of herself.” I laughed. “She wants to show me around and she suggested a lot of interesting things I might want to consider. I agreed to spend more time with her, and well, we’ll see.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes. I expect you ready for lunch when I get back.” Maria left for her room. Yes, she was her mother’s daughter.

  I told the twins they could take off. I was sure they had better things to do than watch over me. They said they didn’t have anything to do until lunchtime. They were going to take the team out for lunch and a little sightseeing. Their meeting with the Council wasn’t scheduled until 3:00 PM, so they had time to kill. We all three lounged back and watched a few more episodes of the Stooges, then I went back to my room and reluctantly got dressed. When I returned to the living room Maria was there waiting for me impatiently. I just wanted to take a few minutes to enjoy the irony of that moment.

  All of us left the residence together. Outside two of the transport pads were waiting for us. Maria and I took one. The twins took the other. Now, I have mentioned before that the fact that these pads always seemed to be waiting for us made me wonder how that could be. In this case, there were two waiting. I didn’t have like some Uber app that I used to call one up before I walked out, and I know that no one else had ordered one either, but there they were. I never asked anybody about this because I didn’t want to look stupid. I just acted like it was what I expected, but it was bugging the shit out of me. I was sure it was one of the alien’s stupid tests. I did wonder why Maria didn’t ask about it either.

  I let Maria drive, she thought it was cool, so I just relaxed and played with the magic pad’s awesome inertia and gravity systems that seemed to make it impossible to fall off one of these. I wanted to find a flaw in the system just so I could say “I told you so” to these arrogant beings. I was at the rear of the pad leaning back over the edge like I was in a recliner. Maria looked at me and rolled her eyes, I shrugged my shoulders, and we both started to laugh. We finally arrived at the Cyletherean compound and we walked through the gardens towards the residence’s main entrance.

  “So when does Earth get their own compound like this, Dad?”

  “Would you really want one?”

  “Yes.”

  “Not me. We’d have to host events and live like politicians. You know that’s not me. Maybe one day that will be you though. Who knows.”

  Sid and Nancy met us at the front door and led us back to the bar where Sly and Stella were waiting.

  “Rough night, Guerin?”

  “Spying on me again, Stella?”

  “Always. Why don’t all of you have a drink and relax while I take Maria and give her a proper tour of the gardens.”

  “You must have been a bad girl, Maria. Stella wants to have one of her little talks with you.”

  “Your turn will come soon enough, Guerin, so I wouldn’t laugh if I were you.”

  “Whatever, Stella.”

  Stella and Maria headed off for their chat. Sly conjured up a couple of Gluarks for the two of us. Sid had one as well and Nancy had a glass of wine. The other day, I hadn’t really gotten out because we had that dinner at our residence. While Maria and I were flying to the compound a bunch of people seemed to be flying around on hoverboards out in the open green area. I asked about
that.

  “When you were here the last time, we talked about making one, remember, Guerin?” I nodded to Sid that I did. “You sent us back those skateboards which we used as a template for the initial design. We watched that movie, Back to the Future Part II, and saw what you had in mind, so we used that in our design as well.”

  “So, how does it work?”

  “It’s basically just a miniature version of the transport pads without the control panel,” Nancy explained. “Since the control panel isn’t really necessary with a single person vehicle of this type, we just substituted a wireless version of the controller.”

  “A wireless version?” I asked.

  Nancy nodded. “Yes. Like you can control some of the tech, like a viewer, with a link through one of the comm devices. Since the distance between the user and this interface is small, people with more developed mental abilities don’t even need to use a comm device as an interface.”

  “So this tech can read your mind. I knew it!”

  “It doesn’t actually read your mind, Guerin.”

  “Sure, Nancy. When are you guys just going to admit I was right all along, and your tech can read minds?”

  Nancy started to argue the point, but she saw from the way I was looking at her that no matter what she said I wasn’t going to believe her. “So, do you want to try one?”

  “Sure. Can I use it to travel all around just like the transport pads?”

  Sid frowned. “No. The ships and stations have strict rules that we can only use them for recreation out in open areas. They say they would have to add logic to the controllers to make them compatible with the traffic control systems. The updates to the system would require too much testing. Too many kids were ripping through the neighborhoods causing issues, so they were banned in traffic-controlled areas.”

  “Sounds like just another rule for me to break then.” Sid and Nancy laughed. I was serious. “We should plan on a day and we can get the whole team together to give it a try. Trust me, they’ll all want to.”

  “I already gave Maria a few lessons last night.”

  I looked at Sid with that threatening father look I had. “I just bet you did lizard boy.” Nancy giggled, and Sid blushed.

  We talked a little about the game, The Rebellion, and it was really amazing what they had created. It wasn’t just an MMORPG like we had on Earth. Each players game reality was slightly different based on their character. The AI controlling it all would correlate each of these virtual realities with what was happening in the real world, but it only modified each player’s virtual reality to the extent needed to conform to that baseline. It was sort of like what our scientists called alternate realities but, in this case, the player's decisions would form their own alternate storylines. Nancy explained that they got the idea from my book. The story in my book wasn’t accurate if they nitpicked every detail, but the overall story did conform to reality. The book was just my view of that reality. Like I said, it was pretty damn amazing. I was thinking about ripping off their idea and bringing it to Earth, but they said it would be centuries before Earth had the computational power the game required. They were doing it only using spare cycles from the Collectives distributive computational matrix. Arrogant bastards! Always had to get a shot in, didn’t they?

  Maria and Stella rejoined us and we all headed to the family kitchen for lunch. I had a cheeseburger and fries. The rest of them suffered through some vegan concoction. Ok, sure it wasn’t a real cheeseburger, technically, but it was what I wanted it to be.

  “So, Stella, did you and my daughter have a nice chat?”

  “Yes, we did.” I looked over at Maria and she shrugged her shoulders, leaned her head to the side and smiled, sort of. It was obvious the talk hadn’t thrilled her, and she had tolerated it to be polite. “What did the two of you talk about?”

  “You know that’s private, Guerin. That would be why we call them private chats.”

  “Oh, really funny, Stella. How many times have you shared our private talks with others?”

  “Well, that’s different, Guerin.”

  “Oh? How so?”

  “Well, you’re the subject of our little project, so I need to inform the committee of your status and reactions to events.”

  “So I get treated like a lab rat, but not my daughter?”

  “I guess, if you want to put it like that, then the answer is yes.” Both her and my daughter smiled. It wasn’t the kind of smile that made me happy. I didn’t like the fact that my daughter was siding with the aliens and I gave her back a little look of my own.

  “We are having a committee dinner in two nights, Guerin. I hope you, Maria, and the rest of your team will all be attending?”

  “Sure, Sly. We’ll be there. I’ll make sure the rest of the team knows.”

  “Guerin?”

  “Yes, Nancy?”

  “Would you like to join us in the game room? Maria says you two have been playing guitar together for years. Sid and I wondered if you’d like to play with us.”

  “Sure. It’s either that or one of your mother’s little talks.” I stuck my tongue out at Stella as I got up to follow Sid, Nancy, and Maria to the game room.

  We played a few songs that Maria and I had written over the years. It reminded me how long it had been since I had played with my daughter. As she grew up and learned to play, we would often create our own songs. Some of the oldest were just little childish ditties that Maria came up with. I thought it was a fun way for her to learn. As she grew older, we had written several songs that were actually pretty good. She was really the talent behind many of them. She could compose songs off the top of her head while I still had problems even thinking past what I was playing. Playing with the three of them was a lot of fun. I was glad Maria had dragged me out for lunch.

  As I was getting ready to leave, Sid asked me, “Would you and Maria play a few songs with us at the Rebellion gathering?”

  “Are you serious, Sid?”

  “Come on, Dad. It’ll be fun. Please?”

  I hated performing for people and I avoided it. Sure, I’d play with Maria back home for family and friends, but playing for a crowd of strangers was different. Maria knew this and she was giving me that sad little girl treatment she had perfected over the years. You know when your daughter looks at you that way there is only one thing you can say. “Ok.”

  I left the kids in the game room. I still called them kids, but Sid and Nancy had to be in their 30’s now. That’s if they were teenagers when I originally met them. I never asked their ages. I really couldn’t comprehend what was what in a society where the people lived for periods of time greater than recorded human history. All I could do was just go with it and try not to make too big of an ass out of myself.

  Stella was waiting for me when I came out of the kid’s game room. I wasn’t really in the mood for one of Stella’s chats and I sighed.

  “Don’t be like that, Guerin. I just want to talk to you. I thought I’d take you up to the conservatory. I know you’ve never been there before.”

  She was right. On top of the main residence in the compound was a glass, or what looked like glass, domed conservatory. It was four stories up and it had a great view of the rest of the compound. The compound was located on the edge of the domed city, so from one side you could see the rest of the city, and on the other side was a view of space.

  The domed city didn’t have an atmosphere like a planet. Yes there was air, and it was breathable, but Earth’s atmosphere does a lot more than provide us air to breathe. It filters out radiation from the sun and scatters the sunlight which is what gives us the blue sky we are used to seeing. On the ship, the distance the light of the neighboring star had to travel through the atmosphere depended on where in the city you were. At the edge of the city, next to the dome, that distance could be measured in feet. In the center that distant would be measured in miles. The dome itself provided the protection from radiation while it only slightly scattered the light. This wo
uld produce what looked more like the Aurora Borealis during the daytime than the blue sky we were used to. Depending on where you were on the ship, the sky would look slightly different during the daytime.

  Stella led me to a seating area in the center of the conservatory and we both sat down. “I talked to Milly earlier today and I just wanted to apologize to you. She told me how you were offended by my remarks about Nancy yesterday, and I just wanted to say, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “If you’d been joking, Stella, I wouldn’t have been offended. You were serious and so was Milly. Why would either one of you think that about me?”

  “I don’t know, Guerin. I guess it’s just your reputation.”

  “My reputation? What reputation? I think my so-called reputation is the result of people talking more than about anything I’ve done.”

  “Perhaps, but flirting with every woman you meet does reinforce that reputation.”

  “Even if I deserve that reputation because of my flirting, that’s no excuse for you and Milly to think that. You both know better. It’s not like Milly chose me from a list of local sex offenders. You trust me with the power to destroy Earth, but you don’t trust me with your daughter?”

  “You’re right, Guerin. Again, I’m sorry.”

  “Is that all we needed to talk about?”

  “No. Why were you so mean to Milly?”

  “I wasn’t trying to be mean. It would have been nice if you warned me she would be here.”

  “She wanted to surprise you.”

  “Well, she did.”

  “You don’t seem very happy to see her. I thought you would be.”

  “Stella, just drop it. I don’t want to talk about Milly.”

  “I wish I could, but she’s here.”

  “Milly?”

  “Yes. She just got here, and Nancy is bringing her up.”

  “What did you do now, Stella? You’re just making things worse.”

  “I called her after lunch. I thought the two of you needed to talk.”

  I just sat there and said nothing. Stella put her hand on mine and we waited for Milly to arrive without saying another word.

  “Mom, look who’s here. It’s Milly.” That was Nancy of course. I’m sure she knew damn well her mother had called her. I looked at Stella and rolled my eyes. The alien conspiracies against me just never ended.