by Mars Dorian
“Not with me around,” RX said, “you should have trusted me from the beginning.”
Norma finished her drink and put down the cup. The clonk sound echoed through the silence.
“I told you Rex—we rely 100% on ourselves. We don’t want any outside involvement.”
She slipped in a pause.
“To be honest, we were shocked when we saw your spacecraft for the first time. We thought you were a new super-weapon from the USC, dispatched to take us down. That’s why we tried to dismantle your machine. We were afraid of you.”
“Have I ever done anything to take down your colony?”
“No, but we didn’t know you back then. You have to understand, Rex, our citizens have never seen violence or military machinery in their lifetime. It’s not part of our conscience.”
“Norma, just ignoring something doesn’t make it go away.”
“I’m much older than most of these citizens, Rex. I have seen how the USC and military corporations operate, how they mistreat their own citizens in favor for credits and colonization. It’s a nightmare of a society. We tried to create a colony devoid of that toxic injustice.”
She paused and locked eye contact.
“The conquering mindset brings nothing but slavery and destruction. You, of all the people, should know."
Pause.
"Remember when you arrived here, Rex? You were an emotional wreck, haunted by the pressure to perform, corrupted by violence. Through us, you learned how to relax, how to live again.”
That was partly true. But RX felt uneasy about Norma’s way of shunning the citizens away from the truth.
Danger needed to be dealt with, not ignored.
“But aren’t you putting the lives of your citizens at risk by leaving them in the dark? They have a right to know what’s going on. They deserve to know the truth."
“The USC colony is disconnected from the main faction. They probably haven’t been in touch with their orbital fleet since they landed. But you’re right, with their recent actions, it looks like military intervention seems necessary. We appreciate your services, Rex.”
She folded open her palms.
“We do need your help.”
RX breathed in.
Strange words coming from a person that was pointing fingers at him not too long ago, but at least she came to her senses. Norma should have realized the Evergreens needed his assistance from day one.
She licked her lips and pushed herself up.
“This was a long night, Rex. I thank you for your commitment to our community. We all feel more secure under your watch.”
“My pleasure,” RX said.
He watched Norma leaving the living room and sat in his chair for a while. Thought about what the elderly woman had said. If the Evergreens refused to use violence, it was their right to do so.
But how could they possibly have survived years of conflict with the USC colony?
Some important questions still lingered in the dark.
Something wasn’t quite right.
Yet.
RX would find out, but first, he needed to go offline and recharge his energies. The first thing in the morning was to check on the injured soldier’s wellbeing.
He wanted to know his side of the story.
40
RX shot to bed.
“Aida, put me into artificial sleep. I need to wake up with endless fire inside.”
“Roger that.”
So he closed his eyes.
RX>offline.
And he opened his eyes.
RX>online.
Felt like a new bred baby.
The miracle of hypersleep.
RX contacted Norma to inquire about the captured soldier’s well-being. She welcomed him with a smile as bright as the Evergreen sun.
“Pieces of shrapnel pierced his heart chamber and caused severe internal bleeding. Thanks to our efforts, he’s stable now.”
“Can I see him?”
“Of course.”
She called a porter and rode him to the medstation near the Evergreen center. The structure was liver-shaped and merged with the ground, like the other Evergreen buildings. The walls opened up as Norma and RX stepped inside.
“I didn’t know you had a medstation.”
“There are a lot of things you don’t know about us.”
No kidding.
Norma led him into a room with the perfect temperature. The USC soldier lay on an organic tray with open eyes. RX couldn’t detect any kind of life support system or other medical device.
The soldier turned his head around and smiled.
“There’s my hero.”
“I leave you guys alone,” Norma said and left the chamber.
RX grabbed a chair and sat down.
“How are you?”
“It’s weird, but I’m feeling great.”
“Great?”
“Yes. I mean, I still feel some pain around the heart area, but compared to yesterday, I’m way over the hot zone”
RX nodded.
“You’re from the USC, right?”
The answer took a while.
"Yes."
"Then why did you attack this colony?"
"Who are you?"
Answering a question with a question.
"I think I asked you first," RX said.
The man stuttered. All confidence vanished from his body.
"We were defending ourselves."
"By attacking civilian structures? That's one heck of a defense."
The man pressed his lips.
"I don't know who you are or where you come from, but you have no clue what's going on, do you?"
"Enlighten me."
The soldier looked around.
"If I tell you, they'll kill me."
"No one's going to kill you when I'm around."
“Maybe, but they can hear our conversation."
RX reinspected the chamber.
"Can't detect any surveillance device."
"Fool. The walls have ears. Literally."
The soldier sounded more and more like a mad man.
"Are you alright?"
The man smiled, but RX discovered pain behind his gaze. The eyes never lied, no matter how good you faked your emotions. The soldier rolled toward RX’s side, grabbed his arm and whispered.
“Please, get me out of here now. Please.”
RX swallowed.
The soldier changed his emotional state in a snap.
“Why, what’s the matter?”
“These people are not who you think they are. They’re crazy. They—”
Norma and two muscular Evergreens marched in.
“I hope you both had an amazing talk. But the man has to rest now. Every further effort will delay the healing process.”
RX turned back to the soldier with the pleading eyes. He still had a hold of RX’s arm, but shivered like an addict.
The man’s face contorted.
Sweat protruded from his forehead.
Words crumbled out.
“Get out, get out,” the wounded soldier said with closed eyes.
He looked like he was strangling himself. The two Evergreens sat down next to him while Norma pushed RX out the chamber.
“It’s been less than eighteen hours since the attack. If you care about the man’s survival, give him time to rest.”
“He looked pretty healthy at first.”
“That’s because he slept. It looks as if he suffers from post-traumatic stress.”
They walked out the medstation and hit the sunny outside.
RX senses sharpened.
“Is there something you’re not telling me, Norma?”
He looked her deep in the iris and tried to find a suspicious reaction.
But her eyes were hollow.
Like a blank.
Shell.
“No,” Norma said, “the man’s suffering from a trauma. He survived thanks to you, Rex.”
She paused.
“I
promise you, he will be well in a few days.”
RX nodded, but the answer didn’t satisfy.
The soldier’s terrified glance stayed with him.
Something about the way he whispered…
“It’s a beautiful day, Rex,” Norma said, “Bloom wants to spend more time with you in the southern reach. You should recover from your battle yesterday and just enjoy yourself. You’ve earned it.”
She smiled and waved him goodbye.
“We’ll see each other in the commons later today.”
“Right.”
RX didn’t bother to follow up with another question. He looked one last time at the organic medstation and frowned.
“Oh Rex.”
The second sweetest female voice in the galaxy sounded from behind. The ever so lovely Bloom tiptoed toward his direction with arms wide open.
She outshined the sun today.
“I’ve finally found you.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“I was browsing through the whole colony. I want to—“
“—check out southern reach with me.”
“Exactly.”
Bloom didn’t ask why he knew. Instead, she pointed toward the porter’s trunk and grinned like an offspring unit.
“I have a box full of sea meat and water.”
Smells like picnic spirit, RX thought.
“What about Toyler? Isn’t he coming with us?”
“He’s creating children.”
“I don’t want to disturb him.”
“Of course not,” RX said with a faint smile.
“Let’s go while the sun’s still up.”
“Right.”
He followed her with his porter and took the southern route. Glanced out the side windows and saw dozens of Evergreens in heavy tech-tunics building up more organic structures in the outer territories. It looked as if they were pulling the material from the ground while manifesting the structure in additive layers, similar to the 3D printing onboard the Stryker carrier.
“Looks like the colony is growing at a rapid pace.”
Aida came into existence.
“I’m sorry, is that a statement or a question? I’ve detected a raised intonation at the end.”
RX formed his question slowly.
“Aida, how long have I been here?”
“Forty-five nights according to the planet’s cycle.”
RX gasped.
“Already?”
“The sense of time is malleable to the human mind. Time rushes especially when you make new experiences.”
Made sense, but RX still didn’t like it.
He entered the forsaken highway and kept the distance from Bloom’s spearheading porter.
“What am I doing wrong?”
“What do you mean?” his AI said.
“All this time I’ve spent with these colonists, and I still don’t know how they operate. I don’t get their command structure, and I still have no clue how they function with such a childish naïveté. If they had lived in the rim, they would have been dead by now.”
“That’s why you must stay vigilant and learn more, RX.”
“Oh, don’t you worry, I will.”
“Always remember, I’m by your side and assist you as much as I can.”
A warm smile spread across RX’s face.
“I appreciate it, Aida, I mean it. You’re the only one I trust.”
He paused and closed his eyes for a second. A moment of melancholia overcame him.
“You’re my guiding star on the foggy firmament.”
“Too kind.”
But honest.
Delivered right from the heart, which was rare for RX.
Soldiers didn’t share the emo juice easily.
Not even in enclosed spaces as tight as this porter.
“Anyways,” he said and killed the magic mood.
RX focused his eyes on the front window and paid attention to the lane.
Bloom took an exit, RX followed her. They rode down a spiral path to the meadows. A few boulders broke up the flat scenario, but one could still see the horizon make love to the lands. Vastness wherever he looked. Bloom halted her porter and waved at him.
“This is one of my favorite spots. Have you ever seen so much wide space?”
No, he hadn’t.
Hence his widened eyes and relaxed facial muscles.
Even the air tasted less bitter than in the colony.
Bloom smirked.
“I knew you’d like it here. It’s time to hit the fields and soak up the sun.”
“You just want to sit down on the fields?”
Bloom pinched his right arm.
“Ah, come on now, don’t be such a moodmangler. You always complain about too many people invading your ‘private’ space. We’re finally together, isn’t that what you wanted?”
He cherished her eye contact.
“You’re right.”
Bloom touched his neck.
“Can you put that AI thingy out?”
“My linker? Why?”
“Whenever we have a conversation, you speak with that lady in that thing. Frankly, it’s distracting. I know she’s important, but just this once, I want some private time. Just you and me, with no other Evergreen or AI around.”
The idea made him uncomfortable.
Get him away from the APEX and his self started itching…but get him away from Aida?
Argh.
That’s why he tried one last excuse.
“I promise not to speak to her.”
“Please, Rex. Just this once.”
He sighed.
She gave him the sugar look.
The Bloom swoon.
“Just one hour. For me.”
RX made his final decision.
41
“Fine. 59 minutes and thirty seconds from now on.”
He extracted the linker from his implant and stored it under the porter’s dashboard. By now, he had adapted to the local language and understood it without Aida’s assistance. RX helped Bloom carry the boxes filled with fresh sea meat. She took the thermo sheet and flattened it near a leveled field on the meadows. RX sat down opposite of her and looked up. The boundless sky faded into the faraway horizon. It became one with the distance.
A world with no boundaries.
Stars shining.
RX closed his eyes and remembered…somewhere up there floated the Stryker carrier with his peers. He thought of D12, the buddy jokes and the camaraderie.
RX missed evading the debris trying to hole his thrusters.
Missed the rockets missing his rear.
Shredding the enemy into particles.
Boom.
RX, the space pilot.
But that was another life ago.
And the past did not equal the future.
“Are you okay?”
RX snapped out of his daydream and remembered he wasn’t alone.
Bloom devoured her sea meat. Squishy noises interrupted by the occasional lip lick. She didn’t waste one second interrupting her gaze off the food. After all these weeks, RX still couldn’t understand their obsession with the mundane.
“Do you never wonder what’s up there?”
“Space?”
“Yeah.”
“Based on what you told me, it sounds like a violent nightmare.”
“It’s tough, that’s for sure. But it’s also liberating, especially when you’re piloting a superb spacecraft, seeing distant planets on your screens or hundreds of fighters leaving the hangar bay at the same time. It’s mesmerizing.”
He squinted his eyes and focused on the faint stars blinking through the sky ocean.
“I’ve once read that we all consist of stardust, and that when we die, we’ll return to the cosmos to rejoice with our star siblings. It’s what pilots tell themselves before they get vaporized by enemy fire. Maybe it’s a coping strategy to deal with death.”
Bloom munched on. The grease seemed to
be more important to her than the firmament. RX chuckled.
“I can’t believe you keep your figure with that fish intake. You should be a boulder of fat by now.”
Bloom shrugged.
“I’ve got a good metabolism.”
“How? You don’t even work out. And I assume you don’t use phatkill stims either, do you?”
“I don’t need to drug my body to stay fit. Were your peers fat?”
“No, but they were all soldier units. They have to perform every day.”
“Aren’t you hungry?”
Nope.
RX could eat the Evergreen food by now, but he had to be disciplined about it. The mush tasted bitter, and he didn’t care how organic it was. Back in space, Asap Yummy™ printers created a superior flavor, adapting to each client’s personal taste. Oh man, how he missed the food printing technology. He wouldn’t even mind Asap Yummy’s annoying AI pestering him with attitude. In fact, he began humming the jingle while Bloom gulped down her next blocks of meat.
“Asap Yummyyy, ammooo for your tummyyy.”
She ignored him and concentrated on the chewing. RX breathed in the fresh country air. Even though he was calm, his heartbeat went up a notch. He looked back at the colony’s direction. It lurked about fifty kilometers in the distance and blended into the sky.
Peaceful, and yet…
"You look worried," Bloom said.
"I'm always worried."
"Why?"
“There’s just so much stuff going on.”
She grinned and stretched her arms in an arc. As if to hug the meadows and everything in it.
"You have endless sunshine. Beautiful nature. And a community that cares for you. What more can you ask for?"
"Reality, Bloom. Something which you and the other Evergreens love to avoid. As you have seen from the attacks, not all people are peaceful. There are forces out there that want to destroy you."
He paused.
"And if you don't defend yourself, you will perish. Running away is not a survival strategy, fighting is."
Bloom stopped chewing.
"I'm still alive."
"Because I'm here."
She wiped her hands clean and touched RX's.
"That's why I'm glad you here with us. Your presence is an enrichment to our society."
Her eyes widened.
"You're an enrichment to my life."
RX scratched the back of his head.
Bloom frowned.
“What now?”
“Do you feel that?”
“Feel what?”