“No.” Aurelia closed her eyes.
“Very well. I’ll be right near if you need me. If I am in another pod just focus your eyes at the big red plus sign on the wall over there for four seconds.” Kiera pointed to the far wall. “That’ll activate a call signal and I’ll be here in a hop.”
“Okay.”
“Okay then. Let me know if you need me.” Kiera skirted behind the Circulator machine and then out of sight. Aurelia scrutinized the wall clock. It was ten forty-two in the morning. She closed her eyes. She felt sore and achy all over, even behind her eyes. She scooted her hips about three centimeters off-center which she guessed she wasn’t supposed to do.
“Oh Christ,” Aurelia mumbled as she covered her eyes with her right hand. She thought about the Raiders a little and then wondered where her boyfriend was. She tried to wrap her mind around her new bio-prosthetic. Could ever get used to it? There was no way to tell. Before long, she fell fast asleep.
A brush on her forehead woke her up. “Hey it’s just me,” a man's voice, familiar. Aurelia attempted to refocus on her new visitor, this time a relieving sense of calm blanketed her after she heard a recognizable voice for the first time in what seemed like forever.
It was Julian.
Julian was four years younger than her, twenty-five. They started to go out one night after celebrating their graduation from the Academy, the Polar City’s military training center. Her training was with the Reconnaissance And Securities Division and his specialty was heavy ordnance maintenance. The graduate numbers were so small that each Division only passed four or maybe five students a year, about seventy or thereabouts all told. It seemed kind of silly to have a separate graduation party for each tiny group. So, they celebrated together. The more the merrier.
They arrived at the party separately with their groups of friends in tow. The more Julian drank the more shy and reclusive he became. She remembered watching him almost melt right into the furniture that night. Aurelia visually inspected him in carefully timed half-second glances when Julian was focused elsewhere, as women often do when they see someone they like but she, unlike Julian, was no wallflower. Two drinks and she became some kind of a hellraiser. After five drinks she temporarily transformed herself into a talkative sanguine. But after ten drinks in, all bets were off. After ten, she gets what she wants or somebody somehow gets either screamed at, laughed at or hurt.
Julian parked himself at a vacant table with two of his buddies from the Academy. They said little to each other and observed the goings-on amidst the shuffled and pickled graduates. Aurelia approached him after only six drinks. “So Julian!” She belted out. “You picked maintenance and now you’re going to hide while we...” She stammered slightly but somehow managed to hold her drink perfectly level.
“Yeah, while you what?” Julian rebutted, secretly amused at her display.
“While we go out to the front and knock 'em down!” She laughed uncontrollably and raised her arms high into the air. You be sure and spot us from your safe little office!”
Julian responded, “Yeah well your pea shooter isn’t going to do you a whole lotta good against an enemy roller!”
They spoke to each other as if they were strangers although they were anything but. Aurelia knew Julian for about as long as she could remember. She had always carried a torch for him but never really pursued the thought. She raggedly plopped her drunken self right into his lap and continued to keep her drink from spilling.
Julian froze every muscle and enjoyed the moment but simultaneously he felt paralyzed at the sudden invasion of his personal space. “Yeah, uh Aur..What the hell ?” He asked with a slightly nervous twinge.
Aurelia said, “Ah stop freaking out Julian. No worries now!” Amazingly, not a single word slurried. She snorted and laughed some more while she wrapped her arm around his neck. And then she spilled half her drink right onto Julian’s shirt. “Damn it! Shit I’m sorry! Wait I’ll grab a bar rag.”
Julian lightly reached for her right upper arm, soft so she could go if she wanted but hoping that she wouldn’t. “No it’s just a beer. Relax.”
“Y’sure?” Aurelia asked.
“Yeah, sure.” Julian produced a modest smile and waved his hand down in a dismissive gesture. As he did so Aurelia reflexively reached out and held onto his upper arm. She silently feared that the featherlight connection between them would somehow evaporate. So Aurelia sat there right on his lap side-saddle while their friends shuffled around and experimented with what they believed were new and exciting ways of getting intoxicated.
One of the girls from Julian’s class jumped into the Light Harp box and danced inside. The laser beams crossed themselves against her body. The spectacle looked amusing enough but she could not coordinate her moves to the fast tempo dance song so after thirty seconds she realized her dexterity was a loss. The girl stared at the D.J. and with her hands cupped against her mouth she shouted, “Hey Denel! Switch it to auto sync!! Auto sync!!”
Denel who presently performed the duties of D.J. and bartender nodded back amidst the cacophony of music and light and voices all round. He reached down to his console, threw two switches and then gave the girl an 'okay' signal with his hand. Her poorly timed motions flickered against the lasers with a synthesized alignment that was actually quite beautiful and entrancing for the few people who bothered to even watch her. It was all in good fun and nobody really cared what she was doing, though. Aurelia and Julian simply stared at the possessed young dervish as she glistened in the light, as if Julian and Aurelia had done this kind of thing together a hundred times before. Aurelia took another healthy swig from her beer jar. Wait no that's not mine she thought, her drink was all over Julian’s shirt now.
“Hey that’s my beer. Get your own!” Julian threw Aurelia a serious look for a moment and then released it with a friendly hand that waved. “Ah, I’m just kiddin'. Go ahead.” Again he smiled but not overly so, just lightly raised around the edges. Aurelia drank some more of Julian's beer and then let out a subdued burp that went undetected thanks to the gyrating distractions created by Light Harp Girl. The gathering started to feel like something more than a simple graduation party, Aurelia thought. Maybe it was just the alcohol. Perhaps. Aurelia couldn’t be sure but at this point she definitely didn’t care any more.
She pivoted around in Julian’s lap and faced directly at him and straddled his lap. The bar chair rebelled against their abrupt change in in position and loudly creaked. Aurelia’s hair pushed forward, an unruly nest of oversized curls with some teased out waves of gold and dishwater blonde. She had to look slightly down at him as she poised her head just above.
And then she simply kissed him. She did not allow Julian to become accustomed to the kiss but it didn’t matter. They kissed some more. She paused and he offered her gently brushed strokes against her outer arm. They seemed to fit naturally together when they kissed.
The music paused and then D.J. Denel resounded, “Last call, let’s go people!” Aurelia peeled herself from Julian’s lap and said, “Be right back.” Julian nodded and she left with a wave as if she could somehow magically pin him to his chair with a spell.
A girl scuttled by Julian who wore nothing but standard-issue military underwear, a utility bra with one strap not doing its job terribly well and an eleven millimeter rifle that was slung vertically down her back. The weapon's barrel pointed straight down while its forestock rose to just above above her relatively short frame. Julian looked at the rifle’s receiver which made him appear as if he were staring at her ass. It would take a brave soul to hit on that girl, he mused to himself. Her rifle’s safety was on but it was still loaded. Crazy girl, she's lucky if she doesn't hurt herself, Julian thought.
Julian peeked down to his Personal Assistant armband. Wow, they had made out for forty minutes. He stared around at the ever-thinning crowd. A few buddies from school stumbled by, nodded and smiled at him “Julian hey, you wanna come with us? We’re gonna crash the Night Market,”
one person said. But Julian waved them away.
“Maybe next time,” he answered. His friends nodded and then waved back. They herded themselves toward the exit.
Aurelia re-emerged from the smoke and laser filled ether. She had freshened up a little in the bathroom but it was hard to tell. The house lights were illuminated to thirty percent, just enough to be offensive to the intoxicated patrons but not so much that it was painful to them. ! I figured you had crawled out the bathroom window to escape,” he said with a smirk.
Aurelia motioned her palm toward the bathroom door. “Yeah well you know I tried to make a break for it but the window’s barred up pretty good in there.”
Julian smiled at her, grabbed her hand lightly and then looked at the floor.” He reposed and looked at Aurelia. The house lights drew up to about half-full. “So what do you want to do now?”
Aurelia dropped her eyelids low and said, “Seriously, you’re kidding.”
Three
Aurelia closed her eyes from overwhelming fatigue. She had still not fully adjusted to the bright hospital surroundings around her. He inspected the Circulator machine which hummed away. Without opening her eyes she told Julian, “Yeah that thing’s evidently my new best friend.”
“I know. I’ve been here every day since they dragged you back in past the Wall. I think the hospital's gonna cut me a paycheck, been here so much. Been helping them out doing stuff just to pass the time. Pretty sure I can run that thing. Hell I’ve watched them run it long enough.”
“So you’re gettin’ another paycheck? Awesome, we’re gonna be rich!” Aurelia exclaimed, laughed at herself and then coughed. The Circulator beeped twice. “Oh crap I keep forgetting I have to hold still while I'm hooked up to that. Damn it.”
Julian massaged her right arm. “We’re gonna get you out of here soon, you’re looking good babe. They said your heart stopped somewhere out there. Heart stopped dead right there where they found you.”
“How long?”
“Five weeks, two days,” Julian said.
Aurelia kept her eyes closed and wrinkled them even tighter. “What about the two Raiders?” She asked. “What ever happened to them?”
“Well, the Mil-5 team’s primary objective was to retrieve you on rescue but they found both of the Raiders anyways. One of them just popped a round into his own skull before we captured him. You had already tagged him so he was bleeding pretty bad they said. The woman tried to do herself too.. Something about a wire. But they managed to stop her.”
“Where is she now?” Aurelia asked.
Julian said, “She’s locked down pretty tight in the City prison. Military Centre, solitary. I went and saw her a few times just because. Ya know what's weird though? Nobody’s contacted us to negotiate for her release. The Polar City’s borders are all quiet. No spies, no recon attempts by them, nothing. It’s like whoever sent them just wrote her off as a loss.”
Aurelia reached her right hand to hold Julian's and said, “So she is definitely a Raider.”
“Yes, she is, an Alpha no less, at least that’s what Intelligence thinks.”
“Great. When I get off this thing I want to see her myself.” Aurelia tried to rub her face but ended up smacking herself with her left hand. “Ouch! Jesus.”
“You still aren’t used to the prosthetic. Take it easy.”
Aurelia opened her eyes for a second, just long enough to glance down at her left upper arm. The prosthetic was simple enough. It was shaped like an adult upper arm with no wires, lights or indicators. There were no access panels to open unlike the science fiction movies’ portrayal of futuristic bio-prosthetics from centuries gone by. Reality proved to be something quite different altogether. The prosthetic arm was entirely self-contained and perfectly sealed. The shell was soft and sort of skin-like, carbon black. It was as close to a real human arm as science and engineering could generate in the 26th century.
Six days went by and the Aurelia found herself home again. Julian had just come home from his workstation. Today was an easy day at the office for Julian, nothing dramatic to talk about really. The City’s governing body released new Mission Guidelines that require Julian’s Division to use less energy for operations, and to do this Julian and his colleagues were tasked with finding a way to decrease their energy operating budget.
Aurelia was still not her normal self although she could get through the day without any help. She did not care to be coddled to or propped up on a pair of crutches. She wanted to get back into the action again but that was going to take a while. For now though the best that she could hope for was to be afforded a tactical update on the military goings-on since her battle. It was something to look forward to, anyways.
She brewed a pot of coffee, a somewhat bitter affair since the Arabica coffee species went extinct almost three centuries ago, another casualty of the runaway hostile climate on the surface above. In its place the Robusta species remained as the dominant coffee source, a plant grown in the massive transparent dome called the Lens. Robusta coffee plants proved to be less finicky with their humidity and nutrient needs versus the other species. Despite the benefits, Robusta coffee made one seriously bitter cup. Mug ‘o acid, Julian called it even after his attempts at amateur kitchen witchcraftery to balance out the acid. His secret brew was chicory and bicarbonate and also a little bit of dried honey. Aurelia found it amusing that Julian preferred to use ingredients with a shelf-life of forever.
Aurelia surveyed her garden-wall which appeared to be doing well in spite of her absence. “How did you keep my wall alive all this time?” She yelled out toward the other side of their Pod. They were allowed to have a single garden-wall because they owned the Pod outright. Renters were only permitted standalone modular mini-gardens, but nothing much beyond that. Sometimes the City's rules were a bit overzealous.
Julian’s disembodied voice returned her question from their bedroom. “Yeah I gotta be honest, I was getting kind of desperate there. I paid that girl down the street to help me save it from dying. Kid’s a natural.”
Aurelia said, “What kid? You mean Anlith?”
“Yeah, Anlith. Ran into her coming back from the Night Market and asked her if she could help keep your garden wall from dying off. I offered twenty credits a week.”
Aurelia waved her hand over her Blushing Bride plant which proudly bloomed out of the garden-wall. “Well she did an awesome job. I'm glad you didn't let it die. Color looks different though. Did you notice?”
Julian said, “Anlith asked me if we liked blues or pinks better. I told her blue so she added something to the soil to lower the acidity. Hell I didn’t even know flowers could change color like that. She was happy to come over and fix your garden though.”
Aurelia poured a cup of coffee for herself. “Always thought she was a quiet one. But she’s at that age.”
Julian walked into their kitchen. “Yep. Fun times, don't miss 'em.” He paused then said, “The Colonel's debriefing starts in an hour. We should go soon if we’re gonna make it.”
Aurelia poured some bitter Robusta coffee into a travelling cup and said, “Okay, let's go.” They left their Pod which they referred to as their house, even though the Pod was integrated into the massive underground City within. They walked through the City’s main tunnelways toward the Military Centre which was about one and a half kilometers away. On their way they walked by a class held on a City micro-park. The Lessons teacher stood in the middle of a semi-circle of student. He produced a lightmap that suspended itself in mid-air. The lightmap glowed in three colors, red green and white. The handheld lightmap's generator was an older model, though. The device was worn around its edges from a century of use. But it was dependable and sturdy enough.
Julian listened to the teacher as they walked.. The teacher raised his hand and suspended it onto the lightmap in the area of the former Southeastern United States. He asked his student, “Now, this area right here. Does anyone know what this small stubby landmass used to be called?”
A young boy eagerly waved his hand in the air., “Ooh, Washington!”
The teacher offered his student a puzzled look. “You didn’t do the homework at all, did you Morri?”
“No sir.”
“That’s fine. Now anybody else?”
“I know! They called it Florida Mr. Verden. It was one of the original fifty United States, underwater now,” another student responded. She said, “Most of it's under the ocean now.”
“Yes! that’s a tough one sometimes because most of it isn’t on any modern map. See here class?” As the teacher tapped his fingers across his forearm-worn Personal Assistant band the former State's outer border increased in size until the year-stamp display stopped a backward roll from 2511 to 2075. “This is what the State we called Florida used to look like before the Big Event. Now, can anybody draw the boundaries of the New Great Desert for me?”
By now their backs were to the class as Julian and Aurelia continued to walk toward the Military Centre. They would have taken their bikes but Aurelia had trouble with her balance. Julian regretted not buying her a three-wheel recumbent cycle but the money was tight and Aurelia’s military disability payments were not much to live on.
They arrived at the Military Centre. They passed under the security booth’s three-scan biometric clearance arch.. Aurelia spoke into her left upper arm’s bio-prosthetic, “Victoria where’s the debriefing?” Her mute prosthetic offered no answer.
Julian said, “You still can’t get used to walking out the door without Victoria, can you?” He spoke into a nearby kiosk. “Assistant, where is the debriefing location please?” Julian never really liked bodyworn Personal Assistants.
“Room-seven C, Julian. Fifth floor. Would you like me to draw a waypoint or a light-path for you?” The kiosk had no display screen, only a camera, a basic laser scanner and an unassuming single speaker. The kiosk itself appeared to be an integrated part of the building structure altogether. This was an intentional purpose in design as people grew tired of invasive screens and higher technology that were once everywhere from centuries past. As with all automated assistants within the Polar City the kiosk was a very low power device thanks to the ferroelectric three-phase capacitors that replaced the old power-hungry transistors.. Transparent and extremely low energy technologies were everywhere and simultaneously nowhere. The City only had so much power and every milliwatt was carefully audited and scrutinized.
Raiders Page 2