Genesis

by Filip Forsberg

  Its form consisted now of a long, humanoid form which for every second looked more and more like a human body. But what was most fascinating to look at was, however, the face. It had no facial features or anything that resembled the nose, eyes or mouth. Instead, there was only one kind of shining plate that covered the entire face.

  Sonja could barely tear her eyes off when she moved closer. The faceless figure was tall, she estimated that it was over two and a half meters long and impossible slight and thin. The faceplate looked to look at her because it followed her with her gaze as she moved to the right. It followed her with her gaze but made no attempt to move towards her.

  She did not know how long she hovered in front of it. She had lost all the concept of time and space, she was only here, now, with this thing that stood before her. She the weak, rhythmic dripping of water and it dragged her to reality.

  Before she had time to say something the Faceless raised an arm in slow motion. It looked like it was doing a greeting. And a second later, a dull voice echoed in the cave and Sonja flinched.

  "I'm Genesis."

  Sonja was overwhelmed by a surreal feeling when she heard its voice. She did not fully know what she had expected but a voice that spoke to her, as she understood, she had not expected, it was dark but not intimidating, it had a special connotation that somehow talked to her on a plane she could not describe. She knew that everything she experienced was recorded so she would analyze the meeting countless times afterward. But now it was about acquiring as much information as possible. She replied to the greeting but did not come up with what she would say, her brain raced and finally she said what jumped into her head.

  "How can I understand you? How can you already know my language? "

  The Faceless lowered its hand but did not move. She could not see any mouth moving. But she could hear the voice again, clearly.

  "We have come here many times during your evolution and learn all the languages you have ever spoken."

  Sonja could not believe her ears. Any language that mankind has ever spoken? If it was true, the creature in front of her could be a key to several of the lost languages that archaeologists found writings from.

  "Where do you come from? Do you belong to the spheres that have contacted Earth? "

  It nodded.

  "I belong to a group of visitors, yes. "

  "A group? What do you mean by a group of visitors?"

  It took a soft step forward and then stopped, a little closer to Sonja. Although it could not physically hurt her because she found herself several hundred feet away, it still ran a cold shiver down her back. It looked straight at her.

  "We are an ancient intelligence that has come to help you. To help humanity further. But, there is an issue, we do not agree on how quickly we should help you. Some of us want you to get help a little at a time because the risk that you cannot handle all the knowledge and drive yourself into extinction is too great. Others of us believe that you are sure to manage the knowledge we possess and that you need to have access to much more to quickly develop technologies. " Its voice trailed off.

  Sonja stared at it and tried to absorb everything it said.

  "What do you mean, developing technologies? Technologies to what? "

  The shining face showed no emotion.

  "Technologies to leave your planet. Eons of time ago, advanced terraforming machines under the surface of all the larger bodies in your solar system were built. They have been dormant and waiting for an intelligent race to develop and take them."

  Sonja frowned but otherwise did not touch a muscle when she replied.

  "And you mean that we are this race?"

  It pointed to her with a slender finger.

  "You have already broken the shackles of your planet. You must continue and not give up. The struggle will be long, difficult and lined with adversity, but you must fight on. That's why I'm here. To show you that you are not alone and that we will help as much as we can. "

  A bead of sweat ran down Sonja's temple.

  Copenhagen, Denmark

  March 17, 2049

  She did not understand what she had agreed to. Maja shook her head as the car accelerated onto the Oresund bridge. She had not talked to her mother for several years, but when her mother had called, Maja had accepted. It was incredible. She could barely grasp what she was doing.

  The wet asphalt glittered, and small, thin raindrops were pushed back over the windshield from the wind. The car automatically swung out into the overtaking lane and passed three trucks that drove electronically connected. Maja barely saw them when her gaze wandered. The big logos on the trucks moved synchronized.

  She looked down onto her hands placed in her lap and saw that they trembled. She cursed herself for letting herself be persuaded to do this. What would they talk about? About Arne? Maja closed her eyes. The rhythmic thumping from the roadway made her drowsy and she rested her head against the headrest and closed her eyes.

  The car swung off at the first exit after she passed the tunnel and drove up towards Kastrup. As she approached her mother, her nervousness intensified. She peeked out and watched a sea of people on bicycles and mopeds moving around her. Copenhagen had been the first major European capital to ban vehicles with internal combustion engines. Only electric and gas-powered vehicles were allowed except bicycle and general transport.

  Even lorries and goods transport had to reload their goods into the local vehicle network which consisted of electrically driven transport and that serviced the internal parts of Copenhagen with goods. In just three years, environmental pollution from internal combustion engines by over seventy percent. But even if levels of emissions had improved drastically, the acid rains had increased. Almost all people who were moving outside were cloaked in various colorful rain covers and some also had respirators. According to the meteorologists, there were no dangerous levels of pollutants in the rain, but people were seasoned. It had become good practice in the last decade that it had breathing mask on it even when you went out in the rain.

  A cyclist hit the passenger window and Maja jumped in her seat. The female cyclist had a mask that was adorned by a big smiley waved apologetically and pedaled away. Maja watched the woman as she disappeared into the crowd.

  After a few minutes, the car braked softly. The car found a parking space and the screen in the center console blinked to life. It asked how long she would stay. Maja stared at the question. An hour? Two? Certainly, no more than two. She responded defiantly.

  "One."

  The screen blinked, and a green smiley came up. The female voice replied.

  “Confirmed. Parking to 14.37. Have a nice day. "

  Maja did not respond but instead stepped out of the open door. She glanced up towards the house and the window in which she had seen her mother and father look at her as many years ago as she disappeared from their lives. She swallowed. This was a mistake. The knot in her stomach grew larger for every second. She breathed faster. She looked back at the car but hesitated. Could she turn around now? Could she run all the way here to give up? She cursed herself because she was so weak that she did not dare to meet her mother. Dagmar, that was her name. She chuckled, but the familiar anxiety awoke within her. No. Ignore this. She is not worthy of it. She nodded and was just about to turn around and go back to the car when she looked up against the window. Her heart stopped. There she was, Dagmar. She stood there staring at her. Maja’s blood froze to ice in her veins. They stared at each other. Finally, Dagmar slowly lifted her hand and waved. Maja lifted her hand automatically and answered the gesture. She stood like a deer in front of oncoming traffic. She took a deep breath and walked in through the gate.

  The steps up the stairs became heavier and heavier for each step and she stepped into the elevator and pressed the button. The familiar sound when the doors slid again, immediately moved her ack several decades in time when she was young again. The elevator swayed and a bead of sweat slipped down her back. When the elevator doors
opened, she hesitated. There was still time. She considered the possibility for a moment but then rejected the idea. She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. It opened a second later as if Dagmar stood just behind. Maja stared at her where she stood in the doorway. Her pulse banged in her ears and she barely heard what Dagmar told her.

  "Do you want to come in?"

  Maja continued staring at her mother. Her appearance had changed somewhat, she was of course older but even so, she looked remarkably the same. A bit more wrinkles around the eyes but Maja was surprised at how young she looked to be. She nodded and stepped into the apartment.

  The door closed behind her and Dagmar showed her into the living room. Maja looked around in amazement as she walked through the parade apartment. Everything was almost just as she remembered it. The great Renoir painting in the dining room. The three small sculptures between the hall and the kitchen. Even the smell was the same. The floor creaked familiar when she walked into the living room.

  She walked in and sat down gently in the big couch and tried to absorb all the impressions. Dagmar stood in the doorway.

  "Thank you for agreeing to come."

  Maja nodded stiffly and tried to look unaffected.

  "Yes, that's clear."

  Immediately when she said it she knew it was the wrong thing to say. What did it mean?

  Dagmar looked at her daughter. She wanted so much to walk over to her, take her in her arms ask for forgiveness. Her whole body longed for it. Every single fiber in her body screamed after it but she sensed how uncomfortable Maja seemed to be.

  She sat still on the couch and made no moves to move. Dagmar had countless times gone through what she would say, what she would do when she saw Maja again but now that she had Maja before herself was what she forgot everything. They said nothing, and the strained silence was finally too much for Dagmar.

  "Do you want something to drink?"

  Maja nodded.

  "Yes, thank you."

  Dagmar smiled at her, turned around walked into the kitchen. She took a glass and put it under the automatic filler. The small machine made a noise and the glass was filled with lightly carbonated water. She took the glass and in the same second that she took it, she remembered that she forgot to ask Maja what she wanted.

  She had automatically assumed that Maja wanted sparkling water. She had always loved it, ever since she was a young girl and she could place a glass under the machine. She had giggled every time the machine made the sound that indicated that the glass full. Dagmar stood with the full glass in hand, unsure of what she would do next. Should she pour it out and go back in and ask what Maja wanted? It was such a strange situation that she ended up in. Before she had time to do something, Maja's voice was behind her.

  "That’s fine, thanks."

  Maja walked up and took the glass from her mother's hand. She stood quietly and looked at her mother.

  "You remembered."

  Dagmar swallowed. She reached for Maja and placed her hand gently on Maja’s shoulder.

  "Yes, of course, I remember. I remember everything you liked."

  Maja’s mouth made a thin smile.

  "Everything?"

  "Everything."

  Maja took a sip of water and put the glass on the sink. She felt her eyes began to fill with tears and she had to blink a few times to force them away, she was just about to turn around and go back to the living room when Dagmar's grip became firmer. Dagmar looked intently at her when she took a step closer.

  “Please forgive me. I’m so sorry for everything. Sorry because I wasn't strong enough and able to stand firm against Arne. I tried, believe me, I tried but then I was just not strong enough. I’ve cursed myself thousands of times because I didn’t run after you that day when you walked out. I still remember when you looked up at us as you stood there down the street and disappeared out of my life. For every step you took, it was that my heart was torn out of my body, repeatedly. "

  The stream of words welled up from somewhere within her. She could not stop it, would not. She had to say what she had carried around for so many years. So many years had the pain when her daughter disappeared gnawing inside her and her feeling within her also surprised her herself. It was like the pain over the years influenced her and what person she had become. It was like the pain burned away empathy within. She had over the years turned the pain into something serviceable. She had used it to sharpen herself hard as a rock, like flintstone, and she had learned to focus her life and take control of it instead of being a victim.

  Maja was first overwhelmed by the onslaught of emotions from her mother. She had not been sure what she would expect but this, she had not expected. Dagmar stood before her and Maja saw how a tear slowly made its way down her cheek and how it ended on Dagmar's collar. She stroked her hand along her mother's cheek.

  "Why?"

  Another tear rolled down.

  "What do you mean?"

  Maja looked into her mother's eyes as if she could find the reasons why she acted as she did. Not only the day when Maja left but and before.

  "Why didn't you run after me?"

  Dagmar swallowed hard, cleared her throat and wiped away her tears. Sorrow seared within when her daughter stood before her and asked why she had been abandoned.

  "There's so much you don't know. I wasn't very strong back then. Or, "She hesitated," I was completely dominated by your father. He was so powerful, and he had been like that for a long time. Ever since we met all the control. It was he who decided. "

  Maja hesitated.

  "I know that he was powerful, but it is also an excuse that will only get you so far. Only because one is strong in a relationship, it doesn't need the other to be weak."

  "No, you're right. I don't know what to say, it's no defense, it's just an explanation. I cannot do more than explain how it was and hope you understand. "

  Maja had a desire to shake her mother. She wants to take hold of her and scream out all the pain that she felt over the years, but she controlled herself.

  Dagmar took hold of Maja's hands.

  "Let's sit down and I'll explain. Then it's up to you. Do you let me do that? "

  Maja nodded. They sat in the couch and Dagmar still held Maja's hands when she started talking.

  "When I met your father, I was young, naïve. He was a man of the world, rich and lived a completely different life than I even knew existed. You should remember that when your father was young, he had a magnetic attraction. It was just so he was when Arne came into a room the conversion stopped. When we met, I could not escape his power and I disappeared into his universe. And in many ways, it was a good life. Money, travel and socializing in the finest social circles. But there was also a downside. A downside none other than I got to see. "

  Dagmar paused, tried to find the words.

  "When we were out among people, he was always correct, a bit arrogant and superior, but he still, for the most part, behaved quite correctly. It was when we were alone that he sometimes changed, as a cloud moved over him. "

  Dagmar was silent. Maja saw how her mother struggled to find the words. She swallowed hard.

  "What did he do?"

  Dagmar put her hands into her lap and looked down at them.

  "He raped me. More times than I can count. He forced me to make terrible, disgusting things, "the words fell out of her mouth when she said them it was like a pond had been opened," you see, Arne had a mental illness, narcissism or sociopathic traits, it also doesn't matter now, but something was there with him. Sometimes he beat me, not hard enough to leave a mark, but hard enough to hurt. And when such a thing happens, you quickly get accustomed to it. It becomes a part of life in some way. You rapidly develop a kind of survival instinct. It could go several days where everything was normal and when I was as most unprepared, he could slap me. And every time he comforted me, it was almost what was the most terrible. That he struck, I could somehow put up with but when he then held me and comforted after was the most d
isgusting. "

  Now it was Maja's eyes that filled with tears.

  "I didn't know. I never understood that he hit you. Or that he raped you. "

  Dagmar shrugged.

  "No, I also hid it for you. But that was the way it was, a life that outwardly was perfect but beneath the surface was there was a world of darkness. "

  Maja took her mother's hands and mumbled.

  "I’m so sorry."

  Dagmar looked lovingly at her.

  "No, no, my dear child. It is not you who should ask for forgiveness, I am. I just explaining how it was. I was in Arne's control for so many years that I lost myself. Arne decided everything, how I would dress, who I would associate with, what I would do. That's why I didn’t run after you. When you walked out, I was about to go after you, but Arne said that if I went after you he would kill me. "

  "Good lord."

  Dagmar was even more influenced by seeing her daughter get so overwhelmed by what she said.

  "That's why I called you, I know that I don't have that far left in this world and this may be my last chance to tell you how it really was. Now that Arne is gone."

  Maja looked quizzically at her mother.

  "What do you mean?"

  Dagmar took a deep breath.

  "I'm sick. Cancer in kidneys. It doesn't look good. "

  It was like a hammer hit Maja in the chest and she could barely breathe. She had not seen her mother for so long and now she sat here with her and found out how her father had treated her for so many years and now also that she had cancer. The room spun.

  "Can't you treat it?"

  "Well, I'm going to start with chemotherapy tomorrow. But the cancer was discovered quite late, so it will be tough. "

  Maja tried to hold back the tears but failed. Dagmar took her in her arms and held her for what seemed like an eternity while Maja quietly cried. It was something that Maja had said to herself going over the bridge, that she would not cry. And now she sat here and cried like a child. Dagmar stroked her gently over her hair but said nothing. Finally, Maja wiped away the tears and took a couple of deep breaths.