Iris (The Color of Water and Sky Book 1)

by Andrew Gates

  “Dan!” she said enthusiastically, not addressing her jumpiness. She stood there as she said this, suddenly realizing that she should greet him somehow other than just shouting his name. Iris awkwardly moved towards him and realized that he was opening his arms for a hug. Oh good, he wants to hug, okay. Iris followed his lead and gave him a hug. It was comforting to feel his embrace, though the whole exchange stressed her out more than it should have.

  “Have you been waiting long?” he asked.

  Iris shrugged.

  “About 15 minutes,” she replied. “I got here early. I guess I was just excited.”

  That comment made Dan smile. Iris smiled back.

  Okay, now it’s going well.

  “I know I’m a bit early too. I see you found the place. Ready to go in?” he asked, pointing to the bar. Iris had been standing right in front of it the whole time without realizing it. She nodded, acting like she had stood there on purpose, though she had really chosen this place at random.

  Dan was wearing a black blazer with a white shirt and nice black pants. It was a safe outfit for a first date and he pulled it off well.

  Iris blushed like she did when they first met each other. For some reason it felt like they were just now meeting for the first time all over again.

  The bar was massive on the inside. Three circular pillars held up the high ceiling, which was decorated in a vast array of lights. At first Iris thought the walls must have been made of some sort of large continuous LED screen, but at closer study Iris noticed that the lights were not contained just along the walls, but also out into the empty air of the room. Holograms decorated the entire capacity of the space, filling the air with elaborate shapes and colors. Images of large people four meters tall walked through one wall and out into the open space only to be absorbed into a support pillar. Submarines zigzagged in and out of beams of light only to transform into power scooters. The whole thing was spectacular. For a second Iris forgot where she was.

  “Pretty cool, huh?” Dan asked as he walked her to the bar.

  Half holographic art display, half bar. This place certainly fit that description, but it was not necessarily what Iris expected to find.

  The bar was lined with couples. That’s when Iris got a bit nervous. What if they see us? This was a detail she had not put much thought into. Dan and Iris looked quite ethnically different now that her blonde hair was coming through more and more each day. Iris’s nervousness must have been obvious because Dan suddenly stopped and turned to face her.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  Iris did not respond.

  “Don’t worry, nobody will think twice. People get drinks together all the time. It doesn’t mean they’re a couple. Haven’t you ever gone out to get drinks with someone from work?”

  She shook her head.

  “No, actually.”

  “Well, don’t worry, it’ll be okay. And if for some reason it’s not, we’ll bail. We don’t want any trouble,” Dan said, reassuringly.

  Iris smiled and continued walking towards the bar. It’ll be okay, she told herself as she sat down in a seat. So far it’s going well.

  A green holographic mining loader drove across the metallic countertop and right through Iris’s hands as she reached for the drink list on the bar’s pod. She studied the list for a few seconds, not knowing enough about cocktails to understand the menu. After only a few seconds she put the pod down and decided to get a beer. She had stared at far too many screens in the past few days and needed a break anyway.

  “Know what you want?” Dan asked as she placed the pod back on the countertop.

  Dan sat to her left. Something about this place made him look very confident here. Then again, he looked confident anywhere.

  “I’m just going to get a beer,” she answered, “I don’t drink much. I don’t really know enough about cocktails.”

  “That’s fine. The beer here is good. I’m going to get a green milk bomb with a bit of whopski. You can try it if you want. It’s simple too, but it’s good,” Dan replied.

  “Will you be getting more than one?”

  “Yeah, sure, why not? It’s the afternoon on a Saturday. You don’t have to be anywhere do you?” he asked.

  “No,” Iris responded, looking around. “I like this place.”

  Suddenly the side of the bar they entered from lit up twice as bright as any other section of the room. Iris turned to face what looked like an enormous white wave of pure light as it came splashing through the wall like water. The various other shapes in the room immediately altered their course, moving away from the wave as it moved closer and closer towards them. As the other shapes moved through the far wall, the water grew more and more until it covered the entire space from end to end. For a while the entire room was white. Iris turned towards Dan again. All she could see of him was his silhouette. But then in an instant, the lights went down and there was nothing in the room but emptiness.

  “What was that?” Iris asked. Part of her was worried something terrible had happened to the hologram system.

  “It’s nothing,” replied a voice from behind the bar. Iris turned to see a man scrubbing glasses with a wet rag. He was an older man of north Indian origin probably in his mid-60s. He had a long grey beard. “That’s how they reset the system. The hologram is on a loop, you see. Every time it restarts, that’s how they clear the room, so to speak. It happens about every hour or so. That’s why I’ve taken to bringing these with me on the job.” The man held up some sort of eyewear with dark lenses.

  “What is that?” Dan asked the barman.

  The object was familiar. Iris knew she had seen this somewhere before.

  “It protects my eyes from too much light. You see all this light can be bad for you if you watch it for too long. When the waves get big like that, I like to pop this on right before so I can still see,” the man explained.

  “It’s sunglasses!” Iris jumped in. It took her a while to remember the object, but once she knew what it was she got excited. “People used this on the surface to protect their eyes from sunlight. May I see it?”

  “Sure,” the man replied, handing over the sunglasses. “I don’t know much about the surface, but the owner of this place said he got them from a friend of his who works with the nuclear reactors. He got us all some. It comes with the job.”

  Iris put the sunglasses on her head and turned towards Dan. The room was already dark without any holograms, but with the sunglasses it became a whole lot darker. It almost gave Iris a headache. She pulled them off after only a few seconds. Dan smiled and pulled out his personal pod.

  “No, do it again!” he said, urging her on.

  “Why?” Iris asked.

  “I want to take a picture.”

  Iris put the sunglasses back on for just a moment to let Dan take a picture with his pod and then handed it back to the bearded man behind the bar.

  “Thanks,” Iris said as he handed it to him.

  “Glad you like it so much. I never thought much of it. Are you some kind of surface fan?” he asked.

  “She’s actually a history teacher,” Dan added, jumping in.

  “Ah, that makes sense then,” the man replied. “Are you a teacher too?”

  “I am,” he answered. “Science.”

  Just then, a big girl made of yellow light walked through the wall behind the bartender, straight through the counter and towards the middle of the room. Iris watched as the girl walked to one of the three pillars and started swinging around it like a poll in the recreation center. Soon other shapes filled the room too, joining the girl in an array of color and light.

  “See that’s the sequence starting up again,” the bartender pointed out.“Anyway, what’ll you guys have?”

  “I’ll have a green milk bomb, but could you add a bit of whopski to that too?” Dan said.

  “You know there’s adenol in a green milk bomb already. You want whopski in there too?”

  “Just a small bit,” Dan respo
nded.

  “Can do.” The man turned to face Iris. “And for you?”

  “Just a beer please.”

  The man nodded and turned away, preparing the drinks.

  “This place is beautiful,” Iris said, examining the room again. “Do you come here a lot?”

  “I’ve only been here twice I think. Grey showed it to me. His wife really loves this place.”

  “How did that picture look?”

  Dan reached back into his pocket and pulled out his pod.

  “It’s good. You want to see it?” he asked as he loaded the picture back up on the screen.

  Iris laughed when she saw the picture. The sunglasses covered her eyes like a black shield. Wearing sunglasses was a symbol of glamour and stardom on the surface. But here in the station it just looked silly.

  “I’ll send it to you later,” he said as he put the pod back into his pocket.

  “Thanks,” she replied, not knowing what else to say.

  Iris was still surprised just how calm Dan was about this whole illegal date. Despite having some hesitancy when she first asked him, he seemed completely fine. She started to wonder if she seemed fine too or if she was coming off as nervous.

  “So what have you been up to today?” Dan asked, trying to add dialog to the silence.

  “Oh, not much. I overslept a bit. I was up late working on some stuff.”

  “Ah,” Dan replied, “does this stuff have to do with that whole fiasco earlier?”

  “What do you mean?” Iris figured he was probably referring to Dr. Parnel and her armed guards, but she was not completely sure.

  “You know… well, you probably can’t talk about it. You know, with what happened and all…” he tried to explain without being overheard.

  “Yes, it has to do with that. It’s for the government. It’s important,” she answered. “I can’t say anything else.” She hoped he would not ask any more questions about her secret work.

  “No, no, I get that. It’s fine, trust me. I won’t ask about the work you’re doing. But is it easy to find time to get it all done? You seem very tired these last few weeks. Even during the trip, you were excited, but… but tired.”

  Iris sighed.

  “It’s a challenge. But it’s important.” She did not want to say any more.

  “Hey, I get it,” Dan replied, placing his arms in the air like he did not want to hear any more. “I get it.”

  Iris heard drinks clank onto the counter. She turned to see her beer and Dan’s green milk bomb sitting on the bar.

  “Your drinks, guys,” the barman said as he walked off to help another customer.

  “Thanks!” Dan replied back to him. He leaned over towards Iris and grabbed his green colored drink. Iris grabbed hers too. “Cheers!” he said, bringing his glass to hers. They clinked their glasses together and took a sip.

  Iris smiled as she tasted the beer. It was more bitter than she remembered. It had been a long time since she’d had anything alcoholic.

  “Do you know where that comes from?” Iris asked.

  “Where does what come from?” Dan responded, placing his glass back on the counter.

  “Cheers. The reason we tap our glasses together. It’s from the medieval times. Men tried to smash their glasses together so hard that the drink would spill. Some of your drink would splash into my glass and some of my drink would splash into yours. That way if any of us poisoned each other, we would have to drink our own poison. It was a symbol of trust back then. It was a way of saying, ‘I’m not here to hurt you’.”

  “I did not know that,” Dan responded. “Well to that, I say we should have one more cheer. Here’s to trust.”

  They clinked their glasses together one more time, but this time Iris did not take a sip.

  “Trust. I wish there were more people I could trust,” her date continued.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Dan adjusted in his seat and paused as he organized his thoughts.

  “Well… I don’t want to get off topic, but sometimes I get the feeling this whole station is… I don’t know… not run very well.”

  That was an odd statement, one Iris did not expect. She looked at him with a confused expression, not sure how to respond.

  “I’m sorry,” Dan continued. “I didn’t mean to get so off topic.”

  “No, please, go on.”

  “Well Iris, you are doing all this secret work. Maybe you know more about this than I do. Let me ask you this: do you think the government is doing a good job?” Dan asked bluntly.

  “You want to know what I think of the government?” Iris asked.

  “Well, only if you want to talk about it. I just thought, you know… you would probably have a lot to say on the subject,” he explained, as if trying to justify asking her this in the first place.

  In truth, she did have a lot to say. But Iris came on this date to get away from that kind of work. She hoped this evening would be a chance to do something different and the last thing she wanted to do right now was talk about the government. On top of that, most of what she knew was classified anyway. She could not talk about the attack on the Cassidy submarine or the subsequent investigation.

  But she did not want to disappoint Dan. Remember, I want him to like me, she told herself.

  “Well, sure. I guess I can talk about the government,” she said. “What do you want to know?”

  Dan glanced over both shoulders and returned his gaze to hers.

  “Well… obviously you’re not in favor of the laws.”

  This was getting into dangerous territory really fast.

  “Look,” Iris said, trying to cut him off before this conversation went too far, “I’m not in favor of certain laws. You know… these laws. But that doesn’t mean I don’t support the institution.”

  “So you like the government?”

  “I do.”

  Dan leaned back in his seat and took another sip. He seemed very intrigued by her answer. Iris hoped he would not ask any more questions about her opinion on this, but after a few seconds he leaned forward again and asked another.

  “So you don’t think the government is too… what’s the word… controlling?” he asked.

  Iris shook her head.

  “The word I think you’re looking for is totalitarian, and no I do not think so. Yeah, it’s controlling but not unnecessarily so,” she answered.

  “Well,” Dan continued, still not dropping the topic, “obviously you know a lot more about history than I do, but from what I understand of the surface, our system-”

  “Our system is different, yes, but it’s controlling on purpose. Don’t think about it as a then versus now scenario. The surface is a different place,” Iris interrupted. “Consider that the surface didn’t have maximum capacity issues, space allocation issues, strict food production schedules, constant structural maintenance, close quarter conditions, oxygen levels to monitor, carbon dioxide levels, water filtering… the list goes on. Down here we need a stronger, more rigid system, or we die. It’s as simple as that. We need oversight or our excess would destroy us.”

  Dan adjusted in his seat and placed his drink on the counter.

  “Iris, I’m surprised you’re saying all this. So you support a strict, controlling government?” he asked.

  “Absolutely. It’s necessary in a situation like this. But it’s also just helpful in general. Look at our low crime rate. Look how much progress there is.”

  This conversation had gone on longer than expected, but at this point Iris doubted it was going to stop anytime soon.

  “But such a strong military, keeping checks on everyone, controlling how many children I can have… don’t you think it’s… excessive?” he continued.

  “Someone has to keep people in order, maintain security and deal with a very limited amount of space. Everything you just mentioned is essential. To be honest though, we are granted an enormous amount of freedoms. Don’t forget that Harrison was able to independently dec
ide to offer an entire year of surface era history. That wasn’t the government’s call. Don’t forget that you and I can come to a bar like this and have an open dialog about whether or not we support what our leaders are doing. The very fact that you and I are having this conversation is a sign that we are given an awful lot of freedom, despite the ‘iron fist’ that they try to display.”

  “But you and I can’t legally go out on a date,” Dan said, hitting the exact thing Iris wished he would not bring up in public.

  “Well,” Iris responded, “like I said, I may not agree with everything.” With that, she took her second sip of beer.“So this job you’re doing… I’m guessing it’s voluntary?” Dan asked.

  Iris put her drink back on the counter.

  “I do my work in exchange for a favor. That’s how it works with them. That’s why most minor criminals aren’t convicted on their first offense. It’s held it over their head in exchange for future compliance. It’s done all the time.”

  “Has that always been the case?” Dan asked.

  “In the station? Yes, diplomacy through legal blackmail I guess you could say. It’s been done for the last 200 years.”

  “But what about the surface?”

  Iris shook her head.

  “I mean, all leaders have done this to a degree, but not like the extent here. Like I said, the station is different. I’m not exactly sure how this practice came about,” she explained.

  Dan chuckled.

  “Well you’re not a convict are you?” he asked.

  “I’m not doing that kind of favor,” Iris responded. She paused for a moment, let out a deep sigh and turned her entire body to face him. “The field trip,” she explained, “I’m doing this work in exchange for the field trip. I got a… a person from the government to move the trip for us. The process would have been difficult to do on our own, especially with such short-term notice and the controversy with the parents.”

  Dan seemed surprised to hear this.

  “Really? That’s how the trip got moved? We really do owe it all to you!” He smiled as he said this. Iris could tell he was genuinely proud of her. That made her smile too.