by David Byrd
“Oh my precious dear, I have some exciting things to tell you. Let me begin by…”
The next day while Katia was playing outside, her mother and grandmother were discussing the future.
“So it’s time?” Katia’s mother asked.
“Yes, she is the one. It is her destiny to save our people.” The older woman said.
Outside the house Katia and a friend were playing with light cubes. They were creating different shapes and colors and stacking them in unusual configurations.
“What’s that?” the other girl asked pointing to a necklace Katia was wearing.
“My grandma gave it to me. It’s an 8 on the side.” Katia replied. “She says it’s special or something…I don’t know…something about old people.” The topic forgotten as quickly as it began.
“Oh I know…let’s make some purple ones with cones on top,” the girl said screwing up her face in a grimace and then stomping her foot.
“It’s not working…that’s twice this week that it won’t blink in.”
“That’s ok,” Katia said. Let’s just go do something else.”
Katia and her mother moved to Ascension to be near her grandmother shortly after her ceremony at 7 years old. Her father was in another city. Many people chose not to join in this day and age. Most spent time equally raising a child or at times one parent would raise the child entirely which is how Katia’s parents chose. They spent a great deal of time in the next few years going over family history and stories handed down for generations in their family. Katia knew there was something special they thought about her but she really had no idea what that was. Only that they felt it would be very important sometime in the future. For now she was just like any happy go lucky kid.
At twelve years old, the ceremony was repeated and this time when she placed her hand on the golden box, she had a series of images and locations flashing in her mind again. Some of these she remembered this time from her earlier ceremony but they were much more detailed. There were images of people, locations, maps, all kinds of things that didn’t really make sense but stored in her subconscious. It was a pleasant experience…somewhat comforting and warm like a warm blanket.
Katia was playing in a local park one day with several friends and as usually happens with any group, there are sometimes conflicts. Not that anyone on Trellis II had any worries. For as long as anyone could remember, there was no need or want for anything. One simply thought of what they wanted and it would blink into being. Blink was the operative word as everyone had lost their abilities to actually analyze or even wonder where the item came from…It was just accepted. If you wanted food or water you just blinked. There was no fighting or conflict and everyone could do and think whatever they pleased. Cities spread all over the planet except for the dead zone near the equator and the forbidden area at the South Pole. No one really knew why except for stories handed down about a great evil at the South Pole.
On this day a couple of the kids Katia had been playing with started poking fun at her necklace. It was something Katia felt was special even though jewelry of any kind had fallen out of favor generations ago. The kids were calling Katia names and she was looking at them like they were aliens. She wasn’t particularly hurt…it was more that she was curious why they were trying to be hurtful. A boy about her age with jet black hair was sitting close by. Actually Katia had seen the boy before but never paid too much attention. He had been watching the name calling and suddenly jumped up and walked over.
“Why don’t you go play in the river or something,” the boy told the two harassers.
“Why don’t you just make us…besides only someone stupid would say it out loud?”
The boys’ eyes glowed strongly with golden light and a large amount of water appeared over the heads of the two who were causing the trouble. It crashed down drenching them in water and knocking them on their bottoms. Some of the other kids nearby started laughing loudly which embarrassed the bullies who quickly got up and ran away.
The boy smiled slightly. Katia walked over and looked at the boy for several seconds.
“You know they really didn’t bother me,” she said.
“I know, I’ve seen you before and I know you’re not like them. You’re different.” He said.
“My name is Katia,” she said smiling. Do you want to go for a walk?”
“I’m Jasper and I think that would be fun,” he said.
Katia and Jasper became fast friends. Each felt that the other was somehow a bit different than everyone else. A quality they couldn’t quite place but just seemed to feel.
Jasper Newton had two parents that shared time equally with him but really he was on his own since they were so distracted all the time. Neither of his parents had much more ambition than to just sit around all day and blink in things they thought up.
Chapter 24
In the next several years Jasper spent more and more time with Katia’s family. At first it was the place to meet and later it became more like home. His parents were only peripherally aware of him at all and he found more belonging with her family since they were so close. At first when Katia’s grandmother would talk about the past and their legacies, Jasper thought she was just an old woman spinning tales. But after a couple of years he did something practically unheard of in today’s society. He “researched” some of the things she talked about by digging into areas of link that had not been accessed in generations. Intrigued more than he ever had been about anything before, he dug deeper and devoted hours into studying the past. He was the only person in hundreds of years to open databases farther and farther back in time. What he found was both frightening and addictive at the same time. He was learning and each new discovery increased his appetite for more. It was also changing him. Both Katia and Jasper were looked upon as strange since they no longer had that “everything is rosy” attitude. They were questioning things and in a society where nothing ever needed to be questioned…they stood out.
Katia’s mother and grandmother were sitting in the kitchen having tea. A custom passed down from antiquity but they found it a calming tradition.
“You know we are very fortunate…blessed even that Jasper is with Katia.” Katia’s grandmother said.
“Yes he’s a good boy and they are great friends.” Katia’s mother said.
“Oh my dear you don’t understand. They are destined to be together. I don’t think you’ve really looked at them…with your inner senses. Go ahead and really look…they are just in the other room.”
Katia’s mom stood up and went to the doorway. She could see the young couple sitting in the far room talking and laughing about the usual things teenagers laugh about. She narrowed her focus and explored the feeling each of them held. It was somewhat of a strain because the ability was hardly ever used. As she focused, the world faded from view, and she stopped hearing outside noises. She could only see the two minds in front of her working with delicate energies which to her senses were like two distinct hazy shapes with energy currents swirling around in different colors like lightening. But before she dropped contact…there it was…a thin green line of energy connecting them.
“Oh,” she thought. “They have started to form a merge.”
…voices in the other room.
“You’re making that up,” Katia said.
“I’m not. I told you it’s all there in the history,” Jasper replied. “People used to pump water from the ground and use it.”
“Jas…really next you’ll be telling me about eating food from the ground.” She said.
Katia and Jasper at some point realized the feelings they had for each other ran deeply and with a little discussion her grandmother had with them, learned to recognize the merge they had together which only strengthened over time. Jasper still with black hair and dark eyes except for the golden halo around the iris and was a bit over the normal height for men these days. Katia was of average height for a woman with shoulder length brown hair going to golden. She w
as not described as a beauty which suited her fine although anyone could recreate their body the way they pleased, but her eyes were striking, natural green with the ever present golden halo. Neither Jasper nor Katia ever experimented in body reshaping like many people.
On Katia’s eighteenth birthday, the final ceremony with the golden box was about to take place. Katia’s grandmother left the box in the same room as her first ceremony and both her mother and grandmother left the house for the evening. Jasper…always by her side was with her when she was ready to take possession of the box for future generations.
“Here goes,” she said as she placed both hands on the top of the golden box. She felt the same warming as before and the energies traced around the box until they converged in the symbol. When they met, a surge of light filled the room and Katia’s mind was again flooded with images, details, information…all in the space of a few seconds but enough data that one could sift through for a lifetime. When the surge stopped she blinked for a moment realized Jasper was on the floor.
“Jas…what’s wrong? Are you ok?” She pleaded kneeling down to see if he was alright.
“I’m…I’m ok Kat, I…need a minute or two,” he said.
“I don’t understand, what happened. It’s never affected me like this.” She said.
Jasper stood up visibly calmer now and searching inwardly for an answer believed he knew what happened.
“I think the box has been conditioning you for this…download of information all your life. But through the merge, I had a dose of the data in a raw form…not prepared for it.” He said.
“It’s funny…I can access some of it through link but it’s not the normal link connection. I have to concentrate and connect to it,” She said.
“I think it’s the box. I’ve never seen some of this on link…I think you have a connection to a datastore inside there.” He said. “But one thing is for sure…it wants us to travel somewhere. I can’t make that out exactly right now.”
“I can see it as clear as day,” Katia said. “It wants me to go to the dead zone.”
Chapter 25
Katia and Jasper said their goodbyes and lifted off in a grav car. It was a small two seater but it had room to store their overnight gear. They didn’t expect to stay any longer than that. Just the thought of going into the dead zone gave them both a bit of trepidation. The zone was the only section of the planet that was not terraformed and did not have any void particles. It was the first area settled by the colonists from Earth. Since you could never create anything there it was considered “dead” in the sense that you were on your own for survival.
“You know I’ve heard stories about this place,” Katia said to Jasper as they flew towards the outer boundary. “My mother and grandmother both say that it’s the birthplace of our civilization and that much could be learned from there.”
“Well…I’ve heard that it has ghosts and all manner of mutated humans who experimented on themselves and were exiled there.” Jasper said with a grin.
“You’re making that up,” she said. I mean why would anyone want to live there in the first place?”
“No I’m not making it up,” he said. “I’ve heard that there are feral humans living there who have devolved into savages.”
“Well whatever this box is pointing to, I need to find answers so we are going.” She said.
“Why yes Ma’am,” he said. I wouldn’t miss it for anything.”
As they neared the boundary there were multiple warnings both visually with signs and in link with recorded messages that the area they were entering was a survival zone and no instant food or water could be obtained for over a hundred kilometers.
Katia was piloting the car and following geological landmarks that had been downloaded to her mind the last time she held the golden box. They moved ever onward until at last they came close to the original colony landfall. In the distance they could see the original dome ship and city called Ancora. But it was half destroyed and looked to be caved in and overgrown as if no one had been to the site in centuries which was probably true. They came to a lake and stopped for a moment to wonder at the blue water and there was a building that looked to be in good repair at the edge of the lake.
“Let’s take a look,” Jasper said.
They landed the grav car and walked over to what appeared to be the door of the building. Along one side was a plaque that read; “Ancora Pumping Station #1”.
“Pumping Station?” Jasper asked.
“Yes that’s how they brought water from the lake and pumped it to the Ancora site. It’s one of the stories my grandmother told me about.” Katia said. They walked to the doorway and the door refused to open. They backed up and moved forward several times before Jasper noticed the plate by the door. Placing his hand on the plate the door opened admitting them to the inner workings of the pumping station.
“How did you know what that was?” She asked.
“I’m not sure…it was something in the data that we shared from the box. I think everything here worked on a manual principal.” He said.
The spent some time marveling at the machinery that was still working and then decided to move on. They flew forward closer to the ruins of the dome and noticed a hillside in the distance with a large statue or sculpture of some kind. They flew to the sculpture and found it to be labeled as Serenity Park and dedicated to the brave souls who perished in an attack from Earth. Both Jasper and Katia were struck with the beauty of the whole area. It seemed as though it had been built yesterday. Flowers, trees, grass, sculptures all dotted different paths around the central monument.
“Katia over here,” Jasper yelled.
Katia walked over and looked up to see 5 life sized statues. The moment she saw them her heart skipped a beat and her voice caught. Like a dream, the five faces that stared back at her had been in the images the box sent to her mind.
“Katia, do you know who these people are?” Jasper asked.
“Yes…those are the five original colonists who founded Trellis II.” She said.
Feeling a bit dizzy she sat down. Images and names were swirling around in her head and it was suddenly a bit much to take.
“Are you alright?” He asked.
“Yes, let’s just sit here for a while. It’s so peaceful anyway.”
They sat together under the statues of the five colonists and with the sun warming them, gradually dozed into kind of a semi sleep state.
They awoke with a start to see three men standing in front of them.
“Just be calm and no one will hurt you,” one of the men said.
Jasper started to jump up but one of the three pointed something at him that had to be a weapon of some kind.
Katia was staring at the men as though they were cannibals. She had heard the story of the weird people being exiled here but now she wondered if they could be true. They were all different sizes and seemed to be disheveled. One had a beard…unheard of! One of the men had long hair down to his shoulders. None of the three seemed to subscribe to the looks of today that emphasized everyone look nearly the same.
“What do you want with us?” She asked.
“We want you to get in your machine and high tail it out of here,” the leader said.
“Boss…look there,” pointing to Katia’s neck. She was wearing the necklace her grandmother had given her.
The leader’s eyes widened when he saw the symbol and he had a hurried whispered conversation with the others.
“Come with us, you need to speak to Lorken.” He said.
“Lorken? Who’s that?” Katia asked.
“He’s the leader of the Guardians and he will want to speak with you.”
With nothing more to say, Jasper and Katia got up and walked with the men towards the Ancora city dome. One man brought up the rear probably in case they tried to escape.
As they grew closer, Jasper was starting to fidget and started asking questions, most of which were unanswered.
“I d
on’t understand why you’re taking us to that ruin,” Jasper said. “I mean it’s over a thousand years old…look at it…No civilized person could live there.”
The men laughed but made no comment marching ever onward. About a Kilometer from the dome they walked past a glowing post of sorts. Looking left and right, they could see that the posts were replicated as far as the eye could see in both directions every 100 meters or so.
When Katia and jasper stepped past the posts, the world exploded with light, color and sound. What had appeared to be a ruin was now an intact city dome. People of every shape, size and color were walking about with a purpose. Farms could be seen in the distance as well as hydro towers they had only read about in ancient link texts.
The leader smiled at the young couple.
“And you thought only cannibals lived here,” he said laughing heartily.
They passed into the city dome which was also a feast for the young couple’s eyes since the architecture had never been seen in anyone’s lifetime that they knew of. They were taken to the center of the dome into a small park and urged to walk to the center. In the center of the park a man was standing there waiting. He was about average height but very stocky. He had brown hair and a short dark beard. When they came before him he looked calmly into first Jasper and then Katia’s eyes. The direct stare was disconcerting but his eyes were caring and not angry. The man looked at Katia’s neck and spots of color rose up on his checks giving him a rosy cheerful look.