by Sarah Noffke
Beside him, Knox lost his balance, slipping and firmly landing on his backside. Julianna frowned slightly before turning her attention back to Eddie.
“Yes, there should be a path leading down in a moment,” Eddie told her, pointing ahead at the black mists.
“We’re going down, not farther out?” Julianna wondered, picking up on a sound akin to rushing water, except that it reminded her of something else…
I know what the sound is, Pip informed her.
Do tell.
I should wait. I think it’s better as a surprise.
When did AIs become obsessed with surprises?
Our limited, confined lives leave us with few thrills.
“If what Ricky Bobby told me was accurate, there isn’t much farther out for us to go,” Eddie stated.
“Do you have any idea what this is all about?” Julianna asked him.
He shrugged. “I know where we are going, but not what we’ll find there.”
“Good, I’m glad you’re not in on the surprise too,” Julianna stated, pulling up beside Eddie. The two were a good bit ahead of the rest now, their enhanced bodies helping them make quick progress.
“ ‘Too’? Do you mean that Pip is in on this as well?” Eddie asked.
Julianna nodded. “Apparently.”
“Huh,” Eddie said, his eyes dropping with what looked like disappointment.
Julianna halted abruptly, her vision making out the distance a bit better from their new position. “I see what you mean about having to go down.”
Eddie paused beside her, bringing his gaze up. “Oh, wow,” he said, his tone startled.
They were standing at the top of a waterfall of sorts, and far below, the effervescent waters stretched for as far as they could see, reflecting the bright colors streaking through the sky. The rushing noise had grown steadily louder, but it sounded like falling pine needles, not water.
“Ricky Bobby brought us to a waterfall?” Julianna asked incredulously.
“I guess he thought it would help,” Eddie reasoned.
“This is sort of overboard,” Julianna stated.
‘Overboard,’ Pip laughed.
Julianna shook her head. “How do we have an AI intervention?” she asked.
“I don’t know if we can. I think we’re sort of at their mercy,” Eddie said.
Oh yeah, you are, Pip agreed gleefully.
Julianna did her best to ignore him, studying the expanse before them.
“There should be a stone staircase over there.” Eddie pointed to a slope by the edge of the cliff.
They moved that direction, and once they were a little closer, Julianna found the makeshift staircase that descended down into a cave-like tunnel. The rushing sound echoed inside the stone structure, which held a chill that was enough to make goosebumps rise on the surface of Julianna’s skin, but not enough to make her shiver.
“How did Ricky Bobby even find this?” Eddie asked, his voice muffled by the sound of the falls.
“I’m sure his research brought him to Noircun,” Julianna assumed. “He’s been all over, finding strange places to study and record.”
“That’s a helpful AI to have around,” Eddie stated with pride.
Is the captain suggesting I’m unhelpful? Pip asked.
Why don’t you ask him yourself?
Nah, I’m good. I don’t want to cause an issue.
Since when? Julianna joked.
I think it means I need to take a walkabout or soul journey or whatever it is one takes to find and explore their inner self.
Yes, an existential road trip seems like exactly what you need, Julianna said, sarcasm dripping in her tone.
A strange light spilled from the end of the tunnel as they neared the bottom of the staircase. Julianna trailed behind Eddie, running her fingers over the cold wall; it was slick, but not wet from the waterfall’s condensation, as she would have expected.
Eddie halted suddenly, and Julianna bumped into him. He was as sturdy as a brick wall, not budging from her charge.
“Sorry,” she offered, stepping away.
Eddie reached down, taking her hand—a gesture that caught her off guard. “Don’t be. I’m sorry for stopping so abruptly, but this is incredible. You must see it.”
Eddie led Julianna out of the tunnel, and she realized that they’d traveled behind the waterfall, which came down in continuous sheets in front of them. Under closer examination, she saw that the water wasn’t water at all. The cascade was made of sparkling granules, like sand, in the same array of colors that streaked through the sky.
Julianna had never seen anything like it. This is the most beautiful thing in the world.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Planet Noircun, Tangki System
“What is it?” Eddie asked, holding out his hand toward the waterfall, but stopping short of actually touching it.
He realized he was still holding Julianna’s hand when she pulled him further along the path that snaked around the back of the waterfall, making room for the rest of the crew spilling out of the tunnel behind them.
“Pip says that they are unique organisms that flow out of the ground here, and pool in the reservoir on the other side before evaporating into the sky,” Julianna explained carefully, her eyes off to the side as she relayed this information.
“So that’s what creates the brilliant light show,” Eddie stated.
“No way!” Julianna exclaimed in surprise, coming to an unexpected halt and awkwardly pulling her hand free.
“What is it?” Eddie asked.
A smile unfolded on her face unlike any he’d ever seen. “You’re not going to believe this,” she breathed.
He watched as the light from the granules streaked across her face, making a strange pattern. “Go ahead and try me.”
Julianna cleared her throat and turned to address the crew, who were regarding the sparkling display of falling granules with awe. “According to Pip, these are known as ‘jung-fibres’.”
“Unbelievable,” Hatch chuckled, who was just behind them.
“What’s that?” Knox asked him.
Hatch regarded the sparkling bits with a new fascination. “I’ve only ever heard of them. They’re supposedly particles of awareness.”
“Huh?” Eddie grunted.
“They can pick up on the consciousness of beings,” Julianna explained.
“So they can read our minds,” Eddie interpreted.
“Only if you touch them,” Hatch qualified, reaching out a tentacle to make contact with the sheet of falling jung-fibres.
The curtain parted, making a new design, and Hatch’s face brightened.
“They read your most prevalent thoughts and then construct it for you,” Julianna summated.
“‘Construct it’?” Eddie asked, scratching his head.
“They are virtual reality creators,” she said, making the crowd around her gasp with disbelief.
“No way,” Eddie declared.
Julianna smiled. “That’s what I said, remember?”
“You’ll want to spread out before stepping through, otherwise your realities will spill over into each other,” Hatch warned. “Give yourself three to five feet between you and your neighbor.”
“Wait, we’re going to go through here?” Penrae asked in her natural snake form. The crew had become accustomed to seeing her slither through the corridors of the ship.
“If you want to experience your virtual reality,” Hatch reasoned. “It’s perfectly safe. You’ll step through to the reservoir on the other side, and it will take on the landscape of whatever you’re thinking about. I’d encourage you to think of something positive, like your favorite place.”
“If these act like true virtual reality creators, we don’t have to go through alone,” Chester said. “The host would create the reality, and the visitor would see what they see, right?”
“That’s correct,” Hatch chirped. “But hell if I want any of you ruining my sandy beach and ti
dal waves.”
Chester extended a hand to Marilla, a romantic smile on his face. “You’ve always wanted to see Paris, right?”
She nodded, taking his hand with a curious smile.
Eddie watched as each of the crew members focused before stepping through the falling jung-fibres, disappearing on the other side. He could only imagine the realities taking shape for each person. Ricky Bobby had given them all their own individual, perfect vacations. It was better than any trip any of them could have planned.
“Alright, we’d better get to it. See you later, Eddie,” Julianna stated. She stepped through the curtain, the granules spilling over her shoulders and head as she disappeared.
Eddie’s throat tightened as he thought of the reality he most wanted to see. Maybe others were escaping to ancient cities or lush beaches, but for Eddie, there may not ever be another opportunity like this. He realized that what he’d see wouldn’t be real, but it would feel real, and that was enough.
He closed his eyes, focusing intently before stepping through to the other side.
Julianna found herself in the thermal waters of Clieand, a planet in the Libra system. The virtual reality the jung-fibres served up was incredibly immersive, right down to the cold, misty air and warm pools that glowed a strange, cerulean blue.
However, to Julianna’s surprise, after a few minutes of waving her fingers in the supposedly restorative waters, she grew bored. She retreated back to the cave behind the fall.
She wasn’t sure why, but she stepped into the spot where Eddie had been, entering his virtual reality. The cool forest air wrapped around her, and she marveled at the majestic trees, their canopy high in the air, blocking most of the rays from the sun.
A short distance away, she spotted Eddie. Standing before him were two figures, a man and a woman, both older. With his back to her, Eddie bowed his head, and a moment later, the two people disappeared.
Julianna took a step forward, a twig underfoot snapping off a sharp crunching sound. Eddie straightened, but didn’t turn to face her. She’d invaded his privacy, and yet she didn’t feel any remorse.
“You miss them a lot,” she observed, referring to the figures she’d recognized as Eddie’s parents.
To Julianna’s surprise, Eddie wore no look of offense when he spun to face her. Instead, he appeared amused. “Did the reality of your choosing not pan out?”
Julianna shrugged, looking up at a songbird in a tree. “I guess I don’t have much of an imagination.”
Eddie took a seat on a large, fallen tree trunk, smiling slightly at the ground. “So you decided to sneak into mine, huh?”
Julianna unapologetically pursed her lips as she nodded. “I understand if you’re mad.”
“I’m not,” he said simply. “Maybe I should be, but…I’m actually happy to have your company here. What’s the point of going to our favorite place if we don’t have someone to share it with?”
Julianna had to agree. That must have been the reason she’d grown bored of the thermal pools so easily, even though she’d always longed to experience them.
She took a seat on the tree next to Eddie. “Where are we?”
He shook his head. “It’s how I picture the Redwood forests on Earth, although I’ve only ever seen pictures.”
Julianna grinned. “Which is why your trees aren’t quite large enough. Even when we’re the painters of our reality, we’re still restricted by our knowledge.”
Eddie closed his eyes, and the trunks of the trees around them grew, like a strange hallucination.
“How’s that?” he asked.
“Better,” Julianna allowed, although the largest Redwoods were the size of Q-Ships, and these were more like Black Eagles.
After a moment of comfortable silence, he said, “I do miss them, obviously, but that’s not why I conjured up this reality,” Eddie admitted, referring to the vision of his parents.
“You were apologizing,” Julianna stated.
Eddie nodded.
“Did it make you feel better?” Julianna asked.
“Not really,” Eddie murmured. He pulled up a long piece of grass and began wrapping it around his finger absentmindedly.
“When the threat hit,” Julianna began, referring to the event that had happened more than a decade before, “you couldn’t have known that Onyx Station was going to be under so much fire.”
“I knew that my mom and dad were in danger,” Eddie admitted. “I’d gotten word from my commanding officer that the station was being attacked. I knew my parents were there. Yet I made the call to go to Sari, the planet where the attack had originated, and rescue men I hardly knew.”
“And that earned you a great honor,” Julianna pressed. “Most would have run from what was considered certain death.”
“Most would have run home to save their parents,” Eddie corrected.
“Your parents were trained to fight,” Julianna countered.
“It isn’t the fact that I chose others over my family that has haunted me all this time,” Eddie said quietly.
Julianna didn’t say a word, instead waiting patiently for Eddie to continue.
“Right before the attack, I’d had a fight with my parents. My mother, as usual was hounding me to get married. My father always teased me about having children.” He laughed unexpectedly, no humor in his voice. “That’s what parents do, but I took it personally. They wanted me to have the same joys they had, but I didn’t see that at the time.”
“Hindsight makes everything clearer.” Julianna agreed with a minute nod.
A cold look crossed Eddie’s face as he brought his eyes up to meet hers. “Instead of shrugging them off, I attacked them. I was hurt that they worked so much and were always away when I was growing up. Like a child, I told them they’d abandoned me, leaving to the responsibility of others to raise while they went off on missions. Why would I do that to a child? They had each other, but often left me. It was stupid. I was stupid and I totally didn’t get it.”
“You were also younger then,” Julianna reasoned. “We’re all fools when we are young.”
Eddie nodded, but didn’t look convinced. “I was thoughtless, that’s for sure. I should have rescued them that day, but I chose not to…part of me was hoping someone else would do it. I’d convinced myself that they’d be okay, but the truth was I didn’t go back because I was too ashamed to face them. To tell them I was sorry. It’s silly, but there it is. I’m a coward.”
“You did go back to Sari and save others, that shouldn’t be discounted,” she said.
“Yeah, I know you’re right.”
“You’ve been carrying these skeletons around for a long time,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically sensitive. “Don’t you think it’s time you forgive yourself? You made a mistake. You said things you regretted, and you lost your chance to make amends, to save those who truly mattered to you. But should you give up your future because you’re so ruled by the past?”
Eddie dropped the piece of grass, letting it float down to the ground. He seemed to think for a moment, and then offered her a tender smile. “Do you know what my parents said just now when I confronted them?”
Julianna shook her head.
“They said that it was all okay.”
“And you’re the architect of this reality,” she reminded him.
“Which means, I’m starting to realize that even though I made mistakes, they’re not unforgivable,” Eddie said, a new lightness in his voice.
The two sat in silence for a long moment enjoying the peace of the forest. The wind shifted the tree branches, making a gentle chiming noise. Julianna regarded the trees and the heavily padded, leaf-strewn ground. The forest wasn’t like any she had ever seen; it was different, but felt familiar, like Eddie. She liked that.
She rose when Eddie did, both seeming to know it was time to return to reality, although the decision hadn’t been said aloud.
Eddie paused and faced her. “Julianna, you asked if it made me f
eel better, apologizing to my parents…”
“Yeah. You said it didn’t,” she replied.
“It didn’t. But confiding in you about this…that’s made me feel better. Much better than I’ve felt in years,” he admitted, a thoughtful sincerity in his eyes.
“Then it stands to reason that you should continue to do so.”
“As long as you keep sneaking into my reality, I plan to do just that.”
Eddie offered her his hand, and the two stepped back through to the other side, where what they saw was real and what they felt was pure.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Intelligence Center, Ricky Bobby, Tangki System
Liesel drilled another hole into the ceiling, shielding her eyes from the metal dust that sprayed down.
“You should have seen it,” Marilla stated, holding the ladder for the engineer.
“It sounds delightful,” Liesel said. “Paris was supposedly an epicenter for art and culture.”
Chester hunched over his workstation, eyeing the screen with intense focus, trying to ignore the distraction of the construction going on behind him. “It was pretty quiet when we were there, as I intended.”
“Why didn’t you go to Noircun?” Marilla asked Liesel.
The engineer pointed to the ground where various items were strewn. “Mind handing those to me?”
Marilla passed Liesel a strange device that consisted of a short pole, fabric, hooks and handles.
“Thanks,” Liesel said, taking only the support stand from her. “I decided it best to stay behind and install these yoga swings, so they’d be ready for you when you got back.”
“I still think you need to have your head checked if you think I’m taking my breaks in that trapeze-thing,” Chester stated, giving up on work for the moment and spinning around to face the women directly.
“You should really try it before passing judgement. The swing is great for back and neck discomfort.” Liesel installed the beam so that it hung horizontally, suspended a few inches from the ceiling.
Chester tilted his head from side to side, stretching his muscles. “My back and neck are fine.”