For One Nen

by Capri S Bard

  Teltel lowered his head and was silent a moment. When he raised his eye again he said, “She’s one of us. She just doesn’t know it yet.”

  “And they say giants are heartless,” Molly smiled.

  “Who says that?” Teltel snapped in defense.

  With surprise Molly answered, “I thought everyone did.”

  The three classmates sat in silence for a moment.

  Rasta drank the last of the water in her glass and clanked it down on the table. “Ever feel we’ve been lied to; all of us keepers?” She shook her thin dreads from her face and took a clip from her pocket and pinned the loose strands to the back of her head.

  “Maybe not lied to; just never told the whole truth,” Molly suggested.

  “Same thing,” Teltel said. “But no more. It stops with me.”

  The little group watched as Tanik and Merari came from the classroom area and hurried to the elevator.

  “I’ll handle this. Go to the fallow field but don’t start the movies until I get there, alright?” Teltel said.

  “Sure,” Molly said. “I’ll let the others know to wait.”

  Teltel paused a moment to make sure that Tanik and Merari were on the elevator before he pressed the ‘up’ button and waited on its return.

  The door opened. He stepped on, pressed the observatory deck button, and took a deep breath. Reaching the deck he held the side of the elevator door frame before making his legs move through the elevator doorway.

  One step at a time he walked off the elevator. He was surprised and relieved that no one was in sight. He wondered for a moment if the Maven had been mistaken about Merari. He began to walk the large deck that encircled the elevator. About half way around he saw Tanik with Merari standing close beside her.

  “More stories?” Tanik accused when she saw Teltel.

  “Stories?” Teltel questioned.

  “Isn’t this where you were meeting so you could spread more lies?” Tanik coldly demanded.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Teltel answered calmly.

  “Where do you meet?” Tanik said sternly.

  “Who?”

  “The others you were meeting here,” Tanik demanded.

  “I didn’t plan others coming,” Teltel said as he scratched the tip of his chin nervously.

  “You mean…You wanted Merari up here…you…Oh! You,” Tanik gruffly remarked. She stared at him and in that moment he understood how he’d always thought of Tanik as beautiful because she was indeed outwardly beautiful. She was, after all, Goweli. But as she stood in front of him, her once bright eyes seemed cloudy. Her slinky dancer body figure seemed awkward and unbalanced. His belief in her kindness vanished in that one moment. And it was then that he saw how ugly she truly was.

  “I just wanted to see Merari,” said Teltel.

  Tanik stomped off and called back, “Come on, Merari.”

  Merari stood breathlessly still.

  Tanik had already gone around the bend when she came back into view.

  Teltel stepped close to Merari and took her hand gently.

  Tanik clenched her teeth and spun around swinging her arms as she marched away.

  Teltel held Merari’s hand until they heard the familiar ding of the elevator taking their unwanted guest away. He dropped her hand and walked to the surrounding glass. He looked down on the completely enclosed Anthro sector that held thousands of occupied stasis pods. Off to the right was the Antip sector and so on to complete the giant circle of globed shaped structures connected to the interior by their respective shuttle passageways.

  He looked down at the tribes’ quarter sectors only because he didn’t have the courage to lift his head.

  Merari approached and stood next to him for a long silent moment.

  “I understand,” she said after she cleared her throat.

  Teltel rubbed his chin hard with the back of his hand but didn’t reply right away.

  “No, you don’t understand,” he said without raising his head. He turned quickly and took giant steps back toward the elevator where he paused to gaze down on the remains of the Hoth sector. Merari caught up to him.

  “Things are so ruined,” Teltel said.

  “Yes,” Merari said as she also looked down on the site of all the empty stasis pods.

  “I’m afraid,” Teltel said, “and I’ve never admitted that to anyone.”

  “Afraid of the particle wave?” Merari asked.

  “Of the particle wave, of dying, of secrets that I just can’t…, of never loving someone, of never knowing what it’s like to live without this deep hole inside, of never knowing about…” Teltel leaned his forehead against the glass and pressed his hands on either side.

  “Why is it so important for you to hear the stories?” Merari asked.

  Teltel turned his head slightly and opened his mouth but he couldn’t bring himself to speak another word.

  Merari reached high overhead and took his hand. She brought it down to her side and leaned against him.

  “I know you set me up,” she said softly. “I know you didn’t ask me up here just to see me.”

  “Are you angry?” Teltel asked gently.

  “No, I’m just sorry you had to do it,” she turned and looked up into his brown eyes, “but I’m so very glad you did.”

  Letting Merari hold his hand he turned toward her. “I feel like…” he cleared his throat and rubbed his chin with his free hand. He straightened to his full height and tried again, “I feel like if I don’t have the stories to focus on that I’ll just let go of everything, of everything that I love or hope for or… just everything. And after that…there will be nothing left.”

  Merari squeezed his hand and said, “Then let’s go hear the stories.”

  His face broke into a wide grin. “Did you know we got a computer working so we can show some old hard drives of video we found? Me and Benai and Mathis.” When he said the name ‘Mathis’ he turned to face the loss of the Hoth sector.

  Merari pulled on his arm and said, “Come, let’s go see the video.”

  She held his hand all the way down the elevator and to the door of the garden where they stood for a moment before facing each other. With a wordless smile the two dropped their hands to their side and walked through the door.

  Beau and Benai were talking with Deni by a far back planting station.

  Benai gave Teltel a disapproving look when he saw Merari with him.

  “Did anyone else come?” Teltel said as he dismissed Benai’s concern.

  But Benai pressed him.

  “You know she’s…” he began.

  “She’s one of us,” Teltel said quickly. “Now, have the others arrived?”

  “They’ve all gone to the fallow field; even the Maven is in there,” Benai said without another word of disapproval about Merari.

  “You coming, Deni?” Teltel asked.

  “Sure, I was just waiting for Tala,” she answered. Even Aiden is in there with his sister, Arla. The maven brought some of her friends, some elder Neph. There’s quite the gathering in there. But they all agreed to wait for you,” she laughed. “You’ve started something big, but I guess Het do things in a big way.”

  Tala raced gracefully through the door saying, “I’m sorry I’m late. I tried to find something in the library. Now let’s go see this video the boys got working.”

  Deni smiled at the sight of her, but then again, she always smiled when Tala entered the room.

  When Teltel walked through the door of the fallow field to join the others an enormous applause erupted from the little crowd. He froze in place but after a moment he smiled. Raising his Het sized hand he gave a slight wave.

  Benai jumped to his feet to slap him on the arm, “Come on, big guy. Sit back here with me so the little ones down front can see.”

  0 BE/AE

  Aboard the EGRESS in orbit above the planet REEN

  “This is Chris again and my Eden rank was communications first officer but I’m
the self-appointed director of this documentary.” Chris laughed and turned the camera around to quickly show his face.

  The small crowd of onlookers in the dim fallow field gasped from the thrill of seeing the one they had only read about. His hair was dark but very gray at the temples. His looks were average but his smile captivated this little audience.

  The camera was then turned back around to show more of the Egress.

  “It’s boarding day, uh…day two actually. I just came aboard today but the shuttles started bringing people yesterday. And as you can see, this is much bigger than our original ship, the Eden. We have lots of space for as many people as want to join us. That’s still being figured out down on the surface. I’m trying to stay out of all that mess. I’m going to go down to the engine room before they keep us mere passengers from access down there.”

  The camera showed the central elevator as it opened. The camera scanned the inside of the elevator as if Chris was trying to capture every detail.

  “As you can see, it’s a pretty normal elevator like the ones we had on the Eden and the Arcadia. But to save space we have one main one on here that goes from the engine room at the lowest level all the way to…”

  “Hey, wait up,” a voice called out.

  Chris’ hand stopped the elevator door from closing as a woman got on board.

  The camera captured a woman’s face. She looked concerned.

  “And this is Irene, my beautiful cousin, who always worries about everything,” Chris said as he dropped the camera, which was still recording.

  “Did you hear that they’re putting all the Hoth in stasis,” Irene said as the elevator door closed. “The city’s leaders are forcing them. Some don’t want to go because of it.”

  “That’s just not right,” Chris said. “How can they just decide that? I mean it’s our ship…isn’t it? I know a great many people of Reen helped to build it but it was made using the Eden and Arcadia. It’s our technology and all. How are they making rules like that?”

  “I don’t know but it sounded final,” Irene said with a shake of her head.

  “I just hope my Nate can keep his head about him. You know how he gets about his Sadie; with her being Hoth and all. Came to blows with some of his friends over her, remember that?”

  “Sure,” she said. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything more.”

  “Thanks,” said Chris.

  “So have you found your quarters yet?” Irene asked.

  “I unpacked this morning when I boarded. Got this thing out and just wanted to make sure we captured all this,” Chris chuckled. “Our next great adventure.”

  “So you’re really doing it, huh?” she asked.

  “Yeah, yeah…I retired. I think I’ve earned it don’t you?” he laughed. “And I’d forgotten how fun it is to use this thing. Remember all those recordings of the Eden that I took. Scout even hid it from me once because he thought I was kind of addicted to it.”

  They laughed.

  The little crowd watching the video heard the familiar ding of the elevator door opening.

  Chris held the camera up again and noted, “Oops, it was on that whole time,” he laughed. “Gotta remember how to use this thing.”

  “Hope we didn’t say anything too incriminating,” Irene grinned.

  Ahead of them was a large room.

  “It looks so big,” the Maven mumbled to her friends.

  They watched as the camera panned the entire room. At the walls surrounding the room were clean metal racks. Large metal boxes were attached to many of the racks with bolts. Out of the back of these metal boxes were thick cords of yellow, red, black, and blue. The cords climbed the wall to the ceiling where they all came together and were plugged into the wall. There were large switches on the ceiling close to the array of cords.

  There was an even thicker red cord that hung by a sign that read, “Emergency shut off”.

  “I’m going to go back up now,” Irene said to Chris.

  “What? This isn’t exciting enough for you?” Chris teased.

  “I was thinking of checking out the observatory deck later. Want to come?” She asked.

  “Yeah, yeah. I’ll be up there in a little while. I want to go through all the rooms just to have a record of how all this looked before we started out.”

  Arms passed by the camera as if she gave Chris a hug.

  “See you up top later,” she said.

  “Yeah, see ya,” Chris answered back.

  “And through that open door is the machine shop to make parts as needed,” Chris said as the camera quickly panned from one side of the room to the other.

  Chris stepped back into the main engine room and showed another opened door. “That’s another machine shop. It looks pretty much the same so I won’t take too long showing that.”

  Back into the engine room he showed a door on the opposite side of the room. “Here’s a lab for test equipment. As you can see, there are racks like they have in the engine room but here they will take boxes and run diagnostics. Lots of test equipment in here for that kind of stuff.”

  He laughed to himself, “Maybe I should’ve gotten a smart guy to do this film. It would be better detailed. That’s for sure.”

  “Over there in the next room is a repair room and now we’re back to the elevator,” he said pushing the button.

  On the ride up to the next level Chris kept talking.

  “Now we’re on the main elevator again that runs all the way through the center of the ship but there are also diagonal elevators from each quarter sector to the main deck and to command central but those are mainly used by officers and other leaders like some of the Neph. I have a Neph friend named Gabe,” Chris chuckled.

  “Gabe,” Chris chuckled again as he repeated the name.

  The Maven tilted her head as she watched the screen.

  “That was my father’s name,” she said.

  “Ha! a Neph named Gabe. He couldn’t be named any better even if a Denizen had named him. An angel being named Gabe.” Chris lifted a chain from inside his shirt and kissed it then dropped it back inside. “I’d give him respect even if he didn’t deserve it. But he’s honest and kind. Good man,” Chris said as the elevator doors opened.

  Maven Sharla pressed her lips together and smiled as her beautiful eyes grew glassy.

  “So here we are in the Central Command. Hi, Colin. He’s one of the pilots for this voyage.” Chris raised his voice a little as to tease the man. “Pretty cushy job since he won’t be needed much after we get on our way.”

  The man looked at the camera and gave a half-hearted smile. “So you actually retired?” Colin asked.

  “Yeah, spend more time with the grandkids, you know,” Chris said. “Funny thing is, I’ll probably get to see them more than I did my own kids when we lived on Reen. But I got everyone coming aboard so I’m one of the lucky ones.”

  “Yeah, you’re lucky. My Missus didn’t want to come. She got all caught up in that anti-Egress movement early on. Could’ve cost me my spot as pilot if she’d continued on with them. But I just told her, ‘Hey Babe, I’m going and I hope you come along’. So she’s up there right now unpacking.”

  “Well, good luck with everything,” Chris said.

  “See you in the black,” Colin said.

  “So that’s the main console and the communications screen and the window,” he raised his voice again as the camera swung around to show the pilots face again. “The window is so Colin can see where he’s going.”

  “We could always trade jobs,” Colin said.

  “Like you know how to run this incredibly sophisticated video equipment,” Chris teased.

  “Sophisticated?” Colin laughed. “More like archaic. That damn camera came all the way from Earth.”

  “Where we made things to last,” Chris laughingly protested.

  “I hope to God you’re right. Seeing as how most every part of this ship is Denizen.” The camera turned away from Colin, “But it’ll tak
e us all to make this escape work.”

  Chris turned the camera to an open door and continued his tour as he laughed.

  “In here is a warehouse for parts and cables, extra test equipment, more tools, over there in those tall white crates are even more tools and manuals from the Eden and Arcadia.”

  Chris gave a long exhale.

  “Okay, even I’m getting bored. I’m going to another floor,” Chris said to himself.

  “Hey I’m not boring,” Colin yelled.

  The camera showed the elevator and Chris’ hand pressing the button.

  Colin’s voice was heard in the background laughing and then he added, “Crazy Denizen.”

  Chris boarded the elevator and turned the camera back on Colin before the door closed.

  Colin was smiling and gave a slight wave with the ripple of his fingers.

  The screen went black a moment and then came back to life.

  “Okay, here we are on the Main Deck. This is where most everyone will go about their day to day. This is just a giant city in the sky so anything you can think of needed for sustaining a city we have it here on the Egress.” Chris’ voice was heard while the camera scanned the large circular hallway.

  “This will be the great dining hall. If we turn right we will pass the door to the first garden and on around to this next huge door is the second garden. On around here in this room will be Emissaries’ offices, then this open area is officer’s lounge and lastly we’ll have a library through that door. And now we’re back to the dining hall.”

  297 AE

  Aboard the EGRESS

  Teltel and Mathis changed out one of the little metal boxes hoping to find more videos from Chris. The screen came to life first with the now familiar voice of Chris and then a scene of the observatory deck.

  0 BE/AE

  Aboard the EGRESS in orbit above the planet REEN

  “Here we are on the very top of the Egress. This glass dome is called the observatory deck. I know I, for one, will spend much time up here. It’s the best place to see the largest portion of the sky at once. The camera went up the side of the clear spherical window into the expanse of space. It held there for a moment.