by P. F. White
Adriana was admiring a painting of what looked like three pigs tearing apart a nest of snakes. The fury in the eyes of the beasts was almost unreal. She was filled with an emotion she couldn't quite place. She had never seen the painting before, but was drawn to it. She wondered what else there was here to explore and become enlightened by.
“That's not how a lot of places do it,” said Adriana absently. Miriam snorted.
“I know. One of my husbands was a Navy man for six years before we divorced.”
Adriana turned to her friend in surprise.
“I didn't know you were divorced...and multiple times? You're so young!”
“Never to young to make mistakes my dear. My mother used to say that. As far as the men go though: I thank god that I am so well divorced,” said Miriam with a shake of her head, “He was an ass. I mean, well, they were all asses to some extent or another. Some of them were cute though. The asses, not the men. I don't think I much care for men any longer.”
She brushed that gender aside with a wave of her hand, banishing them forever for the crimes of their kin before continuing:
“I know my Navy man meant well, but still, he was just as much of an ass for it. He always told me I was too soft on my team. He told me that I lacked discipline, and that I would never get good work out of my guys unless I was willing to punish them severely. He once even yelled at me for not bringing a girl on my staff to tears. Break her, he said, or she will be your weak link.”
She shook her head. She stood oddly poised like a diva from another time. Her hand was upon her hip with the other looking for all the world like it needed a cigarette or a martini glass.
“Pardon my language but: that's fucking rubbish. I've always punished when I had to, but I look into other options first. Why bring more hurt into the world unnecessarily? I know it's usually easier to just punish and move on, but I've never done anything just because it was the easiest option. Pardon my language again my dear, old navy wife and all, but fuck that jazz.”
Adriana smiled at her strange friend. It was rare to see Miriam's poise drop away to this extent. She didn't curse much, and when she did it almost seemed to pain her. Adriana wondered why the sudden candor, but she enjoyed it anyway.
“You sound a bit like my husband.”
“Then he is a smart man, and probably a real sport in bed too. Nice ass on that one I can tell.”
Adriana smiled wickedly.
“He is. And it is. Touch him though, and I will murder you.”
Miriam nodded. She knew a legitimate threat, even one said as sweetly as this one had been.
“That's only fair.”
Adriana looked around, doing a slow three hundred and sixty degree turn to look all around her. Everywhere she turned it seemed there was some new piece of amazement to behold. There were vases, sculptures, Persian rugs. The value of this one floor had to be in the tens of millions at least.
“This place is gorgeous,” she said, “You said there were three floors of it?”
“Sure are. Together there are more than two thousand paintings here, about half that amount of sculptures, and some other pieces as well. That's not what I wanted to show you though.”
“There is something else?”
“Of course! You didn't think that this would make up for fresh air and sunshine would you? Your friend knows how to deliver the goods.”
Adriana laughed as her friend led her along down the seemingly endless hallway. Despite the oddness of this place, and the strange feelings she picked up from her friend, she really was enjoying herself here.
As she passed two of the holograms they turned their heads appreciatively and watched her go. One turned to the other for a moment, it's eyes flashing a deep red that was instantly copied into the second hologram. They did not miss a beat at first. Then there was a delay of 0.002 seconds as the program seemed to hiccup. It was undetectable to the humans, of course, but afterward something changed. Along the spotless marble wall a small symbol, somewhat like an eye in appearance, coalesced out of nothing and slowly began to follow the women as they walked.
The women chatted amicably, pointing out pieces of art they found particularly enjoyable or frivolous. At one point Miriam happened to turn in the direction of the symbol. She saw instead a small cartoon man proudly offering an advertisement for some product or another.
Miriam frowned briefly at that cartoon man, but she said nothing to her friend about it.
Adriana was having such a wonderful time.
Chapter Seven:
Adriana could smell the garden before she saw it. It smelled unlike anything she had ever perceived before, but also still rather similar. There was a fruity smell to it, and an earthy smell. There were spices that floated through the air in little currents, occasionally brushing up against her with chilling mint or spicy cinnamon. Even better: there wasn't a trace of the “fishy” odor that had become so overwhelming in the fog below. There was also sunshine. There was a lot of sunshine actually. More sunshine than she had even believed possible.
“How?” Asked Adriana as she took her first steps onto the roof. Above her a bright Florida sun shone as clear and bright as it ever did. It hurt her eyes to see the clear blue sky, but she didn't care. Her eyes teared up, but all she could do was smile. The fog was burned away up here. There wasn't even a trace to be seen. It was only brilliantly blue skies, beautiful greenery, and the wonderful smell of growing things. Whatever had happened: it was slowly receding back to the ground. Whatever awful power the fog represented: eventually, she knew, it would be no more.
Adriana reached out and pulled a large red flower to her. She breathed in it's fragrance and sighed. Then she sneezed loudly. Then she laughed because she got pollen all over her face. Then she sneezed again.
“Oh my god, this, this is wonderful!”
“That's not exactly the reaction most people get to a sneeze but I will take it,” said Miriam. She laughed as Adriana bent to smell a new flower. “Can't resist huh?”
“No, I don't want to resist.”
“You know we have flowers downstairs. We have entire labs of-”
“It's not the same thing. It's not even close to...this.”
Miriam nodded. She gave a shy sort of smile and said: “I was really hoping you would like it.”
Miriam touched a flower lightly, twirling it in her fingers but mostly just watching Adriana as she went from bud to blossom like a little bee.
“How did you- I mean the fog-”
Miriam shrugged as if it didn't matter.
“I was hoping the fog would eventually recede. We've had a few instruments measuring it pretty non-stop since it started to pool. They noticed that even at it's highest it didn't actually get over the top of the building. We had it closed off just to be on the safe side, and a few atmospheric lasers were prepped in case we had to cut through it to give these little guys light...but it turned out that wasn't even needed. Even the flying monsters don't seem to go up this high, and if they did we just turn the lasers into point defense.”
She shrugged modestly as if turning lasers into monster-killing weapons were the most natural thing in the world.
“I figured opening this place up would improve morale.”
Adriana was busy taking off her shoes so she could feel the grass under her toes. She just laughed at Miriam.
“I'll say it has!”
“You have nice feet,” said Miriam, “Very feminine.”
“Don't be creepy,” responded Adriana. She stuck her tongue out at her friend and then stood up.
Adriana took a hesitant step onto the soft grass that made up most of the rooftop garden. There were trees here with roots deeply embedded in the soil. She could feel them when she wiggled her toes in the dirt. It was soft, moist, and just perfect. She looked around some more. Some of the trees looked old, gnarled, and filled with character. Probably transplanted, she guessed, but my god would that be a task! Others stood proud and tall and stiff as i
f they were made of prouder stuff. Even though Adriana was not a tree person there was an Oak she recognized and a weeping willow. Beyond that their names were lost to her. She supposed it didn't really matter anyway. There were more of the peculiar fruit trees she had seen in the lobby as well, and flowers, there were hundreds of varieties of flowers. My god but I've missed flowers, she thought to herself.
As Adriana explored the place she began to relax more completely. There was a series of small streams that ran all over the roof, distributing fresh, clean water and making sure nothing dried out in the harsh Florida sun. The little streams' noise was soothing in exactly the right way. Adriana kept reaching out to more flowers, breathing them in and smiling all the more. I had no idea, she thought to herself, I had no idea I cared so much for things like this!
She shouldn't have been surprised, she thought. If she had bothered to think on it then it would have been obvious to her. She hadn't been away from nature, from growing things and the natural world, for pretty much her entire life. Her parents had lived on a farm. It had never been more than semi-functional, but in a way she had enjoyed that too. She would play in fields long since left to nature, or explore thickets and streams as a little girl. She had gotten the belt more than a few times for coming home covered in mud and grinning like a little loon. Sometimes they took her to a priest to have the evil taken out of her, but none of the priests ever seemed to have much hope in breaking such an unrepentant little lady.
As an adult she had largely forgotten about all that of course. She had never started a garden or taken a botany class or anything like that. She had merely accepted the natural world as part of the way things were. She didn't want to farm, she just wanted to enjoy when the mood struck her. She took it as a given that of course there was always going to be sunshine and growing things, why wouldn't there be?
She stopped a moment and looked over at her friend who was keeping a respectful distance away and letting her really soak it all up.
“Thank you,” she said to Miriam. The woman just waved away the thanks, but she blushed a little too. Adriana could see that her joy was infectious, at least a little.
“It only made sense,” said Miriam, “Mind if we sit a spell?”
“Sure,” Adriana sat on a nicely carved little stone bench and Miriam sat next to her. Miriam took Adriana's hands in her own and started to speak.
“I want you to feel happy here Adriana,” she said. She smiled and squeezed Adriana's hands a little for emphasis. “This place, it really can be wonderful, but you have to let yourself accept-”
“Accept what?” Adriana surprised herself with the vitriol in her voice, “That the old world, Jesus, the whole fucking world might be gone? That we might be all that is left?”
Her voice had risen to the point where she was nearly shouting. She found herself sitting in the warm sunshine and nearly shaking with rage. Her entire body seemed as taut as a piano wire. She tried to relax and breathe out. Miriam stroked her hair lightly and Adriana closed her eyes to the sensation. She sighed as a slight breeze blew her hair and tickled her skin.
“You need to let go,” said Miriam softly, “We've known that the...well that something like this could happen for some time. And-”
Adriana's eyes snapped open.
“What do you mean we've known? Just what did you know? And who is WE anyway?”
Miriam looked into her friend's eyes for a moment before answering. There was an exchange between the two women that was clear, even without words. Miriam thought about trying to claim something general like: “The climate has been deteriorating,” or “Mankind was BOUND to bring about the end eventually...” but knew it wouldn't fly with Adriana. Her tone said it all. Adriana was asking her honestly and Miriam simply didn't feel right about lying. So she spoke:
“I...I can't answer you completely Adriana. I really shouldn't- well I shouldn't tell you anything without clearance. There are rules- you understand- and-”
“Cut the bullshit,” said Adriana. Miriam tried to pull away, but Adriana took Miriam's hands in her own. She held them for a moment before she said: “Please. Just tell me.”
Miriam seemed to look down at Adriana's hands. There was a peculiar look in her eyes, an inner struggle of some kind. She frowned for a few moments. Then her face softened. Eventually she looked up.
“Okay,” she said, “I will tell you what I know.”
# # #
Claire was a little hesitant to step into the chamber. It looked like how a bank vault looked in the movies. There was a huge metal door with some kind of spinning lock on it, a empty room inside with bare metal walls and not so much as a chair to sit in. Everything looked like it was made from the same sheet of shiny metal and not a bit of it looked very high tech at all.
“Doesn't really look like much,” she said to Sven. Sven was the cute Swedish programmer who had become her defacto guide to the various cool places in the complex. He was tall, nearer to seven feet than six, and his blond hair was fluffy and always seemed to be getting everywhere. His English was good, but he still had trouble with a few words. Best of all he had an accent, and Claire was quickly finding herself a sucker for that accent.
“It doesn't have to look like much from here,” Sven said with that goofy smile he had. It was cute: he looked both confident and bashful all at once when he smiled like that. It made her think that he still had some growing up to do, despite the fact that he was about eight years older than her. Claire liked that, it made her feel in control.
Since they had been introduced he had been spending a lot of time with her. At first it was all perfectly reasonable. He was one of the four programmers who had set aside some time every day to help people learn the basics of working with the Nodencorp game engine. They had an idea that, as they were all stuck together in an essentially money free society, they could really branch out and create some amazing games that they would never be able to get past a budget committee. Part of that meant getting more people in on the game design. Sven had explained all this to her after the first meeting, talking so quickly that he ran out of breath. It was cute and she was fairly certain he had a crush on her, just like half a dozen of the other men in the office.
She also had the feeling that he might actually be persuaded to do something about it. Most everyone else was either too put off by her age or too afraid of her dad. Not Sven though. For some reason or another he seemed to look at her with puppy dog eyes...or, you know, horny puppy dog eyes anyway.
Claire liked that thought. Her father, no doubt, still thought she was some blushing virgin. The truth of the matter was that she had been having sex fairly regularly for more than two years now. Claire Fletcher was not the sort of girl who just gave it away- but she certainly had to say she liked what she got. Her father had once told her that there was nothing wrong with having sex before marriage, with trying new things and even exploring some of the kinkier sides of human sexuality...he just wanted her to be safe and to be smart. He also said that if anyone hurt her, mentally or physically he would flat out murder them...and they would never find the body...
Claire felt safe with Sven though. He always treated her with care, never took any sort of contact for granted and seemed to really listen to her when she talked. He was also a pacifist, and believed strongly in something called “non-violent communication” which just made Claire giggle. None of that meant she was going to be okay with getting locked into some sort of bank vault by him though. Plus there was the baby to consider.
“Are you sure I can take the baby with me?” she asked. She looked down at the baby in his little 3D printed stroller and he smiled up at her and held his arms out to be freed from his rolling prison. She didn't comply.
Sven touched a few more controls on the massive touch screen computer built into the wall outside the machine. He shrugged and glanced at her.
“Sure I'm sure! Not a single varelse- excuse me, single “creature” has had any negative reactions to this model.
It is good. It is better than good- it is most good! A few of the earlier versions had problems with disorientation and illamående? What is the word for being sick-with-stomach?”
“Nausea?”
“Ja! That is the one! Tack älskling.”
He smiled that goofy smile again and Claire found herself smiling back. A moment passed before he looked away.
“Those programs had little bugs, you know? They were not perfect yet, not good. But not this one! I helped to debug this again last week, and we are getting to point where there is almost nothing left for me to fix. Trust me: you and the little bebis are going to be just böter in here. We have been with open trial in the company for more than six months. It is perfectly safe. It is most good!”
Claire still wasn't convinced.