Kharmic Rebound

by Yeager, Aaron

  They waved glowing banners and chanted. They fed live streams, allowing people too poor or distant to make the journey to scream obscenities through the hypernet. Their countless voices of hate and loathing all welded together into a constant primal roar. The voice of all sentient life in the galaxy. The voice that hated Gerald Dyson.

  Gerald ignored the blisters on his hands as he dug a trench for the irrigation water. A small robot descended down and chirped at him, barely audible over the curses from the nearby crowd. “Gerald Dyson, this is a certified courier message,” it recounted in its pleasant conversational tone. “You have been expelled from Central Exeter Academy. Your scholarship has been terminated. Your account has been charged sixteen credits for the delivery of this message.”

  Gerald said nothing as the robot flew away. He wiped the blood from his hands onto his pant leg, and took out a few seeds. One by one, he planted them into the soil.

  A wine bottle struck him in the leg, shattering and cutting him deeply. He ignored it. Some people in the crowd began downloading English, shouting out heavily accented curses in his native tongue in order to get a response. If he heard them, he made no outward sign.

  A second robot descended beside him. “Gerald Dyson, this is a certified courier message. Your employment with Ssykes Industries has been terminated. Your security status has been revoked. Your account has been charged sixteen credits for the delivery of this message.”

  Gerald made no outward acknowledgement as he covered the seeds. Someone in the crowd fired a dark quill. It grazed Gerald in the ear, tearing a piece away. Gerald looked up at the dull sky, checking for rain clouds, but the sky was as dry and parched as his heart.

  There was a scuffle in the crowd. One of the guards was overpowered by a screaming widow. She took his weapon and fired, striking Gerald through the shoulder.

  Gerald fell over, blood pouring out of the wound as cheers broke out. More guards came up to control the crowd. Nathers himself walked over from underneath his shaded observation post to see what had happened.

  “Stop this!” rang out a synthesized voice.

  Kalia jumped the two story fence and ran up to Gerald. Reaching into her pack, she placed a patch of synth-skin on his wound.

  “Kalia, what are you doing here?” Nathers asked. “I thought you and your father were summoned to Central.”

  “We were. I came back. The question is, what is Gerald doing here?”

  Nathers chuckled and looked around. “I’d say that’s fairly obvious.”

  “He should not be in jail. You cannot punish him.”

  “I disagree,” Nathers said, stepping on Gerald’s wounded shoulder, causing him to squeal in pain.

  “I said stop that!” she said, pushing him away. “Alliance law forbids punishing people for crimes in their past lives.”

  Nathers threw his head back and laughed. “That law was meant to protect people. THAT is not a person, it is a monster.”

  “So am I. I’ve killed lots of people, so why aren’t I in here?”

  “That’s different.”

  “Why? Because you like me? Because my uncle is the Emperor and granted me clemency?”

  Nathers didn’t have an answer.

  Kalia stood up and looked fearlessly into his eyes. “There’s a very good reason why we don’t hold people accountable for past life crimes.”

  A rock came sailing in from the crowd. Kalia caught it just before it his Gerald. “Stop it! What’s wrong with you people?” she shouted, her synthetic voice amplified loud enough to be heard over the roar. “This man here saved your lives. If it wasn’t for him, the Bertulf plague would have killed everyone on this world! In time it would have spread to every world in the Alliance!”

  “If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t even be here on Sloi, we’d be back on our real home, the one HE destroyed!” a Zurinite guard screamed

  The rest of the crowd roared agreement. Two more rocks were thrown at Gerald, but Kalia swatted them out of the way.

  “This is not the ArchTyrant!” she yelled. “This is a completely different person. We can’t punish him for something he didn’t do!”

  “It’s the same soul,” a blue woman shouted, drunk with rage.

  Kalia’s eyes flashed and the blue woman yelped, her hands coming up to her neck as Kalia effortlessly hacked into her crystronics.

  “Your name is Forgadu Mohen,” Kalia announced, “but in your last life you were a prostitute on Golgagga named Glit Wonfourn. Shall we also punish you for the crimes of your past life?”

  The woman backed away, astonished and condemned by her own shame.

  Kalia’s eyes flashed again and she pointed at a man trying to scale the fence. “Your name was Calavden, two lives ago you embezzled money from your father’s company. Shall we also punish you for it?”

  The crowd began backing off a little at this personal attack, each one silently worrying that they would be next.

  “Shall I keep going?” She pointed a finger. “Three lives ago, you killed your girlfriend in a drunken rage.” She pointed at another. “In your last life, you stole a lottery ticket from your blind crippled grandmother and cashed it in for yourself.” She pointed at a third. “Four lives ago, you got high on spice and accidentally hit a school child with your car.”

  Now the crowd was really backing away.

  “Shall I go on?!” Nikki shouted. “Shall I go through every one of you before you understand? We have all done things that were evil. None of us is wholly clean!”

  She stood over Gerald as he lay there whimpering in pain. “This man is the most kind and gentle person I have ever known. When the rest of you left me out in the street to starve to death, he took me in, even though I had hurt him and his friends. Even though I had tried to kill him. I don’t care what he did in a past life; he’s a good person now. So, before you come up here to pass judgment on him, you’d better be prepared to have your own shame laid bare, because I will slice into each and every one of you trogs and shout your secrets from the rooftops before I let you hurt him again!”

  “Kalia, what are you doing?” Nathers said, grabbing her arm. “Brain diving is a federal crime. Even your uncle won’t be able to protect you if you keep...”

  A pulse rifle came to life in the crowd and sprayed at Gerald. Kalia flipped open her shields and deflected the blasts, protecting him. Guards struggled to disarm the man who had fired, when another one threw a crude homemade explosive device at Gerald’s feet. Kalia whipped out a wire and sliced it into pieces before it could explode.

  Two more shots rang out at Gerald’s head, and Kalia deflected them. The guards were completely losing control of the situation. The other inmates were running away, attempting to flee the violence.

  “Kalia,” Gerald said weakly.

  She knelt down to hear him better.

  “Please don’t protect me,” he whispered. “I don’t deserve it.”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  Kalia stood up and caught a grenade. She covered it with a barrier, containing the blast when it exploded.

  “You taught me that I was useful. That I could protect those I care for.”

  A man on a nearby rooftop readied a crude missile launcher. Kalia’s shoulder flipped open and her laser cannon hit the device, slicing it in half in the man’s hands.

  Kalia looked down at Gerald. “Today, I am starting a new guild. It only has one member so far, but its reputation is flawless. No one from my guild has ever failed to guard the man she loves.”

  An enraged man leapt over the fence with his powerful legs. Kalia’s arms blossomed into barrels and she fired a pair of blue blasts, stunning him.

  Another pair of insect-like men scaled the fence. Kalia fired out a pair of wires from her wrists, restraining them from head to toe.

  “That is what I choose to be.”

  The crowd overpowered three of the guards, turning their rifles on Gerald. Kalia stopped every single shot that was fired.

&nbs
p; * * *

  Zurra looked on timidly from the shadows as Gerald worked the palace gardens by himself. Her father was in the middle of the greatest political firestorm of all time. The peace talks had ground to a halt, and were in danger of breaking down completely. There were even whispers that the Core-Worlds Sub Federation and the Bertulf Military Protectorate might again begin open war. Each side was demanding the right to bring Gerald before a war crimes tribunal first, and the disagreement had become extremely heated, almost to blows. Each side ready to go to war just for the right to execute Gerald before anyone else could. In her heart, Zurra knew that whatever absurd charges they brought against him would be a farce, but public outrage was too strong right now, and the judge and jury were sure to go along with it.

  Through it all, Gerald had barely spoken a word to anyone. They had moved him here to the palace, ostensibly for his own protection, but it all amounted to house arrest. He wasn’t guilty of any legal crime, but it was obvious that the powers that be never intended him to breathe fresh air ever again while they rattled their sabers over who got the honor of killing him.

  Zurra looked up at the palace guards stationed at every window and corridor. They looked down at Gerald with the same eyes she had looked at him with not too long ago. They probably would have killed him themselves by now, were it not for Kalia keeping constant watch over him. Even now she patrolled tirelessly around him at the edge of the garden. Ever vigilant.

  Gathering up her strength, Zurra rolled to Gerald. Kalia interposed, but when she recognized her, she allowed her to pass.

  As she came closer, she could see the flesh on his skin rubbed raw from the shackles and collar he wore. His lotus was in full bloom now, a beautiful sheen of morning dew on its delicate petals.

  It nearly broke her heart to see it.

  “You knew about me, didn’t you?” Gerald asked mechanically as he pulled weeds from around the vegetables.

  She nodded.

  Gerald stopped working for a second and picked a few ripe squash and placed them in a basket. “You were right to try and have me killed. I’m sorry for questioning your motives.”

  He checked the green beans growing up the guidelines he had set up. They wouldn’t be ready for a few more days.

  “Do... do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

  “No,” he said, pouring water over some strawberries.

  She looked at him with wide eyes. “No?”

  Gerald set down the watering can. “No, I have work to do.”

  “But you just found out that...”

  “I don’t care.” He stood up, his shackles rattling as he went over and pumped some more water into the can.

  Zurra couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What?”

  “I said I don’t care. I just want to help people. Nothing else matters. I may not be able to visit the orphanages anymore, but I can still send them food.”

  Zurra bowed her head and began to cry.

  Gerald looked at her with dry eyes. “Why are you crying?”

  “Someone has to!” she sobbed. “You won’t cry for yourself, so I will.”

  Gerald looked away, in pain. “Please, don’t make this any harder. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anyone anymore. I’ve already hurt so many people. I just... I just want to be left alone and help people.”

  Gerald put his hand over his heart. He couldn’t stand seeing her cry, but he couldn’t reach out for her either. It would only give the universe an excuse to hurt her to get at him.

  Gerald looked up at the cold, merciless sky. “You know, for a while there I thought my luck had changed. I was a hero, a celebrity. I had fanfiction. ‘Course, I didn’t really want that, but you can’t have fanfiction without fans. At the time it didn’t make any sense to me. No one had ever treated me like that. Everyone had always hated me. But now I understand. The universe wanted me to have a taste of happiness, so that it would be all the more bitter when it took it from me.”

  Gerald stood up. “Please don’t cry, Zuri,” he pleaded, his voice wavering.

  “I won’t stop,” she sobbed, rubbing her eyes. “You’re hurting and I love you. How can I not cry?”

  “I’m not hurting... really.”

  “You’re lying!” she screamed. “You’re trying to hide it. You’re trying to smother it. You’re doing what you always do. You lock away your feelings, like they don’t matter. But they do matter! They matter to me.”

  Gerald’s hands were trembling as he grabbed the hoe. “What would it fix? Huh? Would it shorten my sentence? Would it soften my punishment?” Gerald shook his head. “Crying doesn’t fix anything, so I won’t do it.”

  Gerald put the hoe into the cleared soil and pulled. The handle snapped in his grip, cutting his hand.

  Gerald’s breathing became labored. His whole frame was quivering.

  Zurra looked up at him, he was squeezing the broken handle so hard, it was cutting into his flesh.

  “YOU...” he snarled.

  He lifted his eyes up to the cold sky. “You think you can stop me!”

  Gerald threw the broken handle away, and picked up the broken end. Dropping to his knees, he plunged the blade into the ground and pulled back, filling his palms with splinters.

  “There, you see!” he yelled, digging the furrow furiously. “You can’t stop me! You don’t want me to grow food for those kids? HA! I’ll show you. I’ll do it anyway!”

  The metal blade snapped in half. Gerald knelt there in shock, staring at the broken tool. He trembled more and more, until finally his temper snapped and he screamed out like a wild beast.

  “OH, SO THAT’S HOW IT IS! I TRY TO USE A TOOL, AND YOU TAKE IT FROM ME? WELL, FINE!”

  Gerald grabbed the broken blade and threw it aside. “THERE! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW? YOU CAN’T TAKE ANYTHING AWAY FROM ME IF I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING!”

  Kalia ran over to see what was happening.

  Gerald ripped off his prison shirt, throwing it aside. “THERE! WERE YOU PLANNING ON TAKING THAT AWA FROM ME TOO? WELL, I WON, IT’S ALREADY GONE! YOU CAN’T TAKE ANYTHING AWAY FROM ME IF I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING! WHO’S LAUGHING NOW?!”

  Gerald threw himself down on all fours, tearing into the thick soil with his fingers. “I DON’T NEED YOUR PERMISSION. YOU CAN’T STOP ME!”

  “Stop it, just stop it,” Zurra screamed, falling on him, wrapping herself around him as he clawed the earth over and over and over again.

  Gerald stopped digging and began to cry. His tears fell down on the dry silt below him. Zurra looked down. His fingernails had been bent back and torn off by the hard clay.

  “I just... I just wanted to help people,” Gerald sobbed.

  “I know,” she said, hugging him and crying. Kalia came in close, and wrapped her arms around him as well.

  “What will it change?” Gerald whimpered. “What will it fix, torturing me for a hundred thousand lifetimes? I didn’t do those things. It was somebody else. Not me. I’ve made plenty of my own mistakes, but punish me for those. Punishing me for the crimes of someone else is just beyond cruel.”

  “I know,” Zurra said, sobbing.

  Gerald fell to the ground, his face buried in the soil muddied by his tears. “All the while, the rich and wealthy can just buy their way out of Kharma. It’s all wrong. The rules of the universe don’t make sense. They’re cruel, so very cruel.”

  The three of them held each other, crying until their tears dried up.

  “I’m so sorry,” Zurra said, kissing his neck. “All you’ve ever tried to do is help people, and all anyone has ever done is spit in your face for it.”

  Gerald turned his head. His face was covered with dirt and mud. His breath scattered the dry topsoil. “I guess, in a way, I was subconsciously trying to make up for what he had done. To restore balance.”

  Before him was his lotus. Atop perched a caterpillar, munching greedily at the leaves.

  “Oh, even your flower,” Zurra sniffed, reaching out to br
ush it away.

  “Don’t,” Gerald said dryly.

  Zurra and Kalia looked at each other in confusion. “Why?”

  “You’ll see.”

  The caterpillar went stiff and fell to the ground.

  “What happened?”

  Gerald coughed, releasing a ploom of dust. “When it is attacked, the lotus releases a toxin into its leaves that kills the caterpillar.”

  “Oh wow.”

  They watched as small little rootlets poked up out of the ground and penetrated the caterpillar.

  “The caterpillar’s body provides certain nutrients that the lotus can’t get from the soil.”

  Gerald’s eyes went distant. “The lotus wanted to kill the caterpillar, and the caterpillar wanted to kill the lotus. I understand it now.”

  Kalia placed her cheek against his strong, broad back. “Understand what?”

  Gerald licked his cracked lips with a dry tongue. “I’d watched it a million times before. I just never saw it for what it was. Until now.”

  Gerald breathed in, dust sticking to his teeth and throat. “Life is cruel. Deeply cruel. Not by accident, but by design. For any life to flourish, it must do so at the expense of another. We talk about the oceans being these beautiful things, but they’re not. It’s just trillions of fish endlessly murdering and eating each other. We just tune out the screams and pretend it is beautiful. We talk about the forests as being lovely, but they’re not. There is only one law in the forest, kill or be killed. There is no way to escape it; it is built into every molecule of every living cell. Every time we breathe in, we kill millions of microorganisms. They, in turn, are trying to kill us.”

  A single tear rolled down his cheek, creating a clean streak. “Cruelty isn’t just some random byproduct of life, it is the very definition of life. You, me, everything, we are alive only because our ancestors were insanely cruel. Recklessly cruel. If they hadn’t been, they would have been supplanted by something even more cruel. Those that are alive right now only live because they are cruel enough to stay alive, and they will live only until something more cruel comes along to take their place.”