The Mendelssohnian Theory: Action Adventure, Sci-Fi, Apocalyptic ,Y/A

by Toker, Dor

  For some time now, he had stopped doubting the fact that he was being chased, and probably his seekers would be able to locate him without much difficulty, even among a million people. They could certainly find him among the hundreds that inhabited the level he had arrived to through a wide corridor, just as it appeared on his arm screen.

  He stood in front of his cabin door and waited for it to open. The wall scanner (Uniscanner ©) passed the information beam on his body and the door slid with a grating screech into the adjacent wall. ‘Someone is neglecting maintenance around here’, he thought and entered the cabin.

  Since his cabin companions had yet to show up, he chose one of the three beds attached to the walls and programmed it to suit his needs. Only once it had undergone an identification process by the D.N.A. Recognition (BDNA encoder ©), did the bed incline to slide into the wall it was attached to. From that moment till the end of the flight, it obeyed only Adam’s instructions. No one else but him would be able to draw it from the wall. The shared cabin could be divided into three personal cabins with the aid of modular partitions that could be drawn from the floor with a DNA recognized command, but most of the time the partitions were hidden and the space remained open. He placed his little belongings in a sealed cabinet and passed the back of his hand over the cabinet’s infra biological lock (Infra-Biological Lock ©) for recognition and codification. Then Adam got into the dry-shower unit (Sterilization Dry Shower ©) to clean himself from within and without. Once he’d finished the air-shower, drenched with purifying nanoparticles, he wore a new protective-shield suit and some comfortable clothes, and then headed out to tour the shuttle.

  He slowly lost his way in the narrow corridors of the level, passing other people, ignoring their presence in the same way they ignored his. The level map was scanned into the microchip processor (Memo Process ©) attached to his brain implant so that he could know where he was and how to reach his own cabin or the central dining area from any given location. In his aimless wandering in the corridors, he preferred to absorb the atmosphere, smell the scents, meet fellow wandering passengers, mark tactical possible escape routes and hideouts, dead-end pathways, and potential traps. The corridors were typified by an unnatural silence due to the fact that the walls were built from sound blocking materials (Blocking Sound Wave Walls ©). Those who walked down the corridors kept silent because they would need to raise their voices in order to be heard, something that would draw the attention of all other passersby. When he returned to his cabin, he found both partitions of the passengers residing with him to be raised. He drew out his bed and lay upon it, closed the partitions that divided his cabin area and fell asleep.

  The next day, when he had woken up, his cabin mates were still shut in their areas, as they continued to be in the following two days. He knew they were there as only a person webwired to the shuttle’s central computer could close the inner-cabin wall partitions.

  Every morning Adam showered and dressed before he would go out to the corridors to continue his roaming in the level area. He dined in one of the side buffets that operated in the intersections of the main corridors, and during the evenings, he returned and discovered the two passengers with him in the cabin had still not opened their wall partitions. That was fine with him. After being occupied for so long with surviving, running and protecting himself, he finally had some time to himself. The days that passed since he had boarded the shuttle were monotonous but allowed him to rest and rejuvenate his strength.

  The space shuttle passed the Earth’s moon, and then continued on a course that would take it past Mars. Three and a half months after it had detached itself from the Earth, it orbited Jupiter and finally landed on the docking base of its moon, Europa.

  Upon entering his cabin on the fifth day of his stay at the lowest level, Adam found both side partitions lowered, revealing his companions for the first time. He nodded at them politely, and while attempting to scrutinize them without staring, drew his bed and sat on it. To his left, on the bed closest to him, sat a bronze-skinned woman bearing a crown of curly hair on her head. Adam’s eyes passed over her face and the woman smiled at him warmly. Her eyes bewitched him and Adam felt a blush rushing to his cheeks. He hurried to divert his eyes toward the second passenger, who was standing next to the other bed, a tall and strong looking man with pointed, tough features. A thin scar divided his left cheek, right next to his eye. The man ignored Adam and acted as if he didn’t exist. It was apparent that he was accustomed to the crowded conditions of space travel.

  “Hi,” the woman jumped to her feet before Adam could etch his cabin mates onto his eye screens. She approached him and held out her hand. “I’m Jewel. I guess we’ll have to suffer each other’s company for the next few weeks,” she said, “unless you’re just here until they fix some malfunction in your upper-level bedroom cabin.” Adam was embarrassed by Jewel’s directness and her easygoing manner. He could barely follow the course of her thoughts. “Anyway, this is Don,” she said and pointed at the third Cabin companion who maintained his apathy and continued to demonstratively ignore them both. “He won’t bother us too much; you know how those ex-army types are.” She leaned toward him and whispered loud enough for Don to hear, “Honestly, I think he’s convinced he’s still a soldier. Always tense and serious, as if someone is threatening him. But don’t you worry,” she added loudly, “we’ll make him smile yet. You wait and see.” She sat on the bed next to Adam, ignoring the code of politeness that called for maintaining your distance in such a tiny cabin. “What’s your name?”

  Before he answered, Adam quickly scanned his outer memory database and found the name attached to his binary passport. “John,” he answered, “John Lennon.”

  “John Lennon?” Jewel repeated questioningly. “Are you a silent type like him?” and she motioned with her hand toward Don.

  “No,” said Adam. “I mean, yes,” he was embarrassed; the woman stunned him with her beauty, her pleasant smell, and her direct attitude. “Look,” Jewel explained to him, “we’re going to be stuck in each other’s butts for the foreseeable future, if you’re going to give me one syllable sentences, we’ll get nowhere, you get me? We’ve been cast together.”

  Adam kept nodding his head, thinking of something important to say, but all he could think of was that he wanted her to stop speaking for a moment. On the other hand, he felt very comfortable listening to her, as she intrigued him. Then he noticed he was staring at her, his eyes glued to her face. She burst out laughing and he embarrassedly diverted his face just in time to see Don hiding a smile beneath his oversized mustache. A soft ringing sound emitted from one of the walls and Jewel sprang to her feet. “Dinner,” she mentioned and pulled Adam after her, “come on, you must be hungry.” Adam wasn’t really hungry, but he was willing to eat a mammoth to spend some time with her, even though he didn’t really know how large the animal, whose paintings he’d found in the memory chip attached to his brain implant, really was. He slammed his secure bed shut and went out into the corridors with Jewel.

  Chapter 15

  Adam was taken aback by the sound of human commotion that rose to his ears upon entering the dining room. Jewel selected a side table and sat down. Adam hurried to sit in front of her. Like all the tables in the spacious dining hall, their table included two standard Dryfood printers (Dryfood Inc. ©). Adam had gotten used to the processed food and even learned to appreciate it. In fact, the last time he had eaten a different type of food, apart the time he was running away and had to steal food, was as a child in the Jewish Reservation and the time that’d passed since then seemed like an eternity. He typed his order on his hand, a mixed dish of beef, sautéed vegetables and noodles. The printer nearest to him immediately began to operate. Jewel ordered her own dish and they both waited for the printers to finish their work and for the food to be served, hot and fresh. Meanwhile, Adam examined the dining room without lingering with his gaze on the diners, not wanting to arouse their suspicion or disturb their priva
cy. His senses and sensors gathered information and cataloged their findings, just as he’d been trained to do during the first two months of his stay in the England training facility. Elizabeth had dedicated the first few weeks of his training for the teaching of filing methods and memory improvement in his brain processor, now he applied the knowledge he’d received with ease. Behind them sat two men who appeared to be mining laborers, judging by their dress and their coarse hands. Three software engineers sat next to the nearest table, staring at Jewel. Adam felt a pang of anger, but a sense of pride snuck its way into his heart and melted his rage. After all, he was the one sitting with her, while they could merely look from afar. Like all other passengers, those next to him protected themselves by activating an anti-brain spy software (Brain’s Spy Block ©) that blocked information theft or loss. Each of the ones present had his own reasons to prefer anonymity and they all respected each other’s wishes. Adam fluttered with his sensors over the entire area, something that the other passengers in the hall must have been doing as well, but did not try to interface with any of them. Elizabeth had explained to him that the lower level was called the John Doe Level, or the information blockers level.

  One of the engineers leaned toward his friends, pointed at Adam and Jewel’s table and whispered something that his companions found to be funny. It seemed to Adam that their laughter was wicked and demeaning. He frowned at them, but that only served to bring about another round of giggling.

  “You need to learn some acting skills,” said Jewel, drawing him away from his suspicions.

  “Acting?” Adam wondered, “why acting?”

  “If you think you’re fooling anyone by pretending to be indifferent while being tense and constantly checking your surroundings, think again.” Adam was surprised by the ease with which Jewel was able to read right through him. Was he really that obvious?

  “I’m not tense,” he said and attempted a smile.

  “No, you’re not,” laughed Jewel, “and I’m the leader of the Ku Klux Clan.” Adam searched his memory to discover who the Ku Klux Clan was, but before he was able to locate the entry in the database, Jewel told him: “Look, I can give you some basic lessons if you’d like.”

  “Lessons? Acting lessons?” he asked, unsure of her intent.

  “Yes,” Jewel explained, “I’m an actress, or used to be one, before they sent me here on a one way trip,” a shadow passed over Jewel’s face, but she immediately regained her composure and emanated a forced smile at Adam. “This is a lesson in ‘I don’t give a fuck’,” she said and gave the finger to the engineers’ table who immediately turned serious and grouchy. Adam calmed down and laughed.

  “So you were an actress?”

  “Yes,” answered Jewel.

  “Really?” Adam was impressed, “and you’ve acted in real movies?”

  Jewel seemed elated, Adam’s admiration of her profession flattered her ego in the way only the love of an audience can flatter actors. “What you call ‘real’,” she explained, “is actually high budgeted movies, but there are other movies, with a lesser budget. It’s a bit difficult to explain, but I’ll try. You have the Movie Corporation, which produces many high-quality movies with a large budget. They also dominate the movies that are distributed on the web. Aside from that, there are the corporate and private web-games and the independent movies that are being produced in almost underground conditions and with very low budgets.”

  “Which type were you in?” asked Adam and Jewel smiled again, happy with his interest.

  “The corporate movies hardly have any human actors in them,” she said, scorn dripping from her words,” I acted in real movies.” Her words sounded mysterious to Adam, but he did not insist on receiving further explanations. She will elaborate if she wants to. Without noticing, he pecked at the remains of his food with his fork. Jewel fascinated him. She was different and mysterious, more so than anyone else he had met in his life. She emanated a sense of self-assurance mixed with a fine sense of self-humor. At first, he thought she was about his age, perhaps slightly older. Now he felt he needed to reevaluate her age through the engineering screen that changed the chronological number of the years she had lived. “Let’s get out of here,” Jewel broke their silence. “I’m tired of the looks the Neanderthal wise guys at the table next to us are giving me. These engineers who spend their entire days dealing with numbers can bore you to death.” Adam was happy to learn she’d recognized them as boring software engineers as well. He tried to find further information about her on the web, but couldn’t come up with anything for some reason. He assumed she did not want to be found and ceased his searching. Jewel got up and began to walk toward the exit of the dining hall. Adam watched her while she walked, aware of the many other stares that followed her, admiring her upright posture and her gazelle-like gait. He rose to follow her and with a tranquil air exited the hall as well, not in any hurry to catch up with her, certain she would wait for him in the hallway once she was finished with her runway show. He knew she was toying with him, but couldn’t guess what game she was playing. Surprisingly, that only served to increase his attraction to her. In the same natural way that surprised him time and again since he’d met her. Jewel held his arm, slightly leaning on him and, at the same time, trapping him lest he escape. The thought of escaping did not cross his mind. Goosebumps covered his skin beneath the protective suit and he hoped she would not sense his trembling, but at the same time wanted her to sense it. They wandered slowly through the corridors, appreciating the perfect silence. When they returned to the cabin, they discovered Don had already closed his wall partition. Jewel went into the bathroom and Adam opened his bed and lay on it. When she got out of the restroom, she drew nearer and sat beside him. He moved aside and made some room for her on the narrow bed. “I didn’t act in movies. I acted in reality,” she said quietly.

  “I don’t get it,” said Adam, “what kind of game are you playing?”

  “The most dangerous one,” answered Jewel, and Adam sensed that she could hardly speak, “I played with people.” She lay next to him, her back touching his chest, her face turned away from him. He clung to her and she sent a hand to hold his body. Excitement began to well within Adam. He did not dare to move and tried, unsuccessfully, to breathe as little as possible, not wanting to disturb the intimate moment. Gently, as if this wasn’t his first time, he raised his arm and wrapped it around Jewel’s body, placing his hand on her belly and caressing it through the layers of clothing. Her muscles tensed when he had touched her, and then yielded to his caresses. Jewel turned his hand and tapped his arm-screen. The floor partition rose and sealed them from the world.

  Chapter 16

  When Adam woke up, he was lying in bed by himself. Jewel was gone and the side partition was partially open. She must have tricked the partition’s BDNA mechanism and left while he was sleeping. He rose from his bed, lowered the partition all the way to the floor and discovered Jewel’s partitions to be hermetically sealed. An incomprehensible feeling of loneliness and sadness passed down his back. Don’s partitions, on the other hand, were wide open, and so was his bed. He was not in the cabin and Adam was grateful for that. Something in the veteran military man intimidated him and he couldn’t yet figure out what it was. In any event, he preferred not to meet him and went into the cabin’s restroom. A few minutes later, when he got out and saw that Jewel showed no signs of coming out of bed, he decided to go and explore the corridors just as he’d done in all the previous days.

  The path he’d selected led him to a large windowed hall, the only place in the passenger level from which space could be viewed. The windows and recognition lenses system (Recognition Lens©) allowed passengers whose heart desired it, to follow the course of the shuttle and recognize this or that heavenly body as it approached the spacecraft. When Adam entered the hall, which was also called the Great Hall of Mirrors (The Great Hall of Mirrors ©), the place was empty. Since the shuttle wasn’t currently flying next to any heavenly bod
y, the passengers did not show much of an interest in watching the empty depths of space. Based on the flight plan etched in his memory, two more weeks would pass before they will approach Mars and almost seven additional weeks before they’ll be docking Europa Space Harbor. Adam sat in one of the armchairs facing the shuttle windows and watched the great darkness peering at him from beyond the acrylic glass. He thought of Jewel and of the sense of fragility that had passed from her to him, as they lay embraced. He recalled how he didn’t even dare to move so as not to disturb her and how, when he was finally able to fall asleep, he was happy and carefree. Jewel’s body had warmed him and he felt at ease for the first time in ages. Of course, once he’d woken up and found himself alone, doubts returned to plague him.

  “One can become addicted to the sight of the black mirror,” a voice was heard behind him. He smiled and waved his hand in a motion that combined a greeting with derision.

  “Do you normally sneak up on people?” he asked Don, who had emerged from the shadows.

  “That depends on what I have in store for them, good or ill,” answered Don and a cold smile flickered on his lips.

  “I saw your reflection in the large window,” Adam remarked.

  “Well then, surely you can guess how I feel about you,” answered Don and approached him. Adam turned and faced him. “You need to continue to watch your back,” Don added, “This ship is not what it appears to be.”

  “Really?” asked Adam, “it appears very real to me.” Adam didn’t trust Don but believed his words. If Don wanted to take someone down, that someone wouldn’t sense the danger until it would be too late.

  “How does it look to you?” asked Don, “I always wondered how the ‘big black’ influences space greenhorns.”