Julia Dream

by Fabia Scalia-Warner

  Julia did not turn to look at him, but sighed. She answered slowly, reluctant to show trust.

  “I am… in conflict.”

  She stared at the sky, a deep indigo evening. X39 guessed her thoughts.

  “We can camp here. There are no signaled Terrorists in many kilometers.”

  She flopped down slowly, looking for a root or a rock where she could sit, with a calculated movement that yet betrayed a tension in all sorts of muscles.

  “I trust you, but the last time I heard that I was attacked by three of them.”

  X39 flopped on the floor himself, not offended.

  “We’ll be ready for anything. We are faster than them.”

  Julia pulled a face.

  “I would prefer not to test that.”

  “I agree.”

  He looked at her silently for moment.

  “Why do you feel in conflict?”

  “I feel the air of the Forest and I feel… free. At home, almost. No one gives you orders here. Maybe everything is not simple, but it’s linear.”

  She breathed in deeply, noticing she had spoken quickly, perhaps a little too quickly.

  “But I have bad memories.”

  X39 nodded, his eyes distant, his face concentrated and his lips drawing the precise arch of melancholy.

  “I understand how you feel.”

  F17 caught the initiative.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  He raised an eyebrow, but Julia noticed his temporary vulnerability by the faintest stiffness in his half smile.

  “Have we met before? Ever since En introduced us I can’t stop thinking your face is familiar.”

  The breeze plays with their hair. X39 does not even bother to move the mischievous strands out of his eyes, stares at a distant spot and Julia holds her breath meeting his eyes.

  His voice squeaks painfully.

  “To get here, we all have to face some tests. Mine was in that base.”

  Julia closed her eyes, as the memory dawned on her.

  “Don’t worry. It’s almost over.”

  She slowly inched closer to X39, moved. She could feel his hurt, conscious of the potential of the special kind of pain that memories could bring so easily.

  “You were kind to me.”

  He looked at her, unable to express what he was feeling - pain, anger, all dutifully hidden, and gratefulness, yes, gratefulness because she had not forgotten – if not with his eyes.

  And Julia, who saw him there for what he was, someone like her, exhibited an unexpected and extraordinary gesture, revolutionary in its simplicity. She brushed his shoulder with her hand, just the slightest touch.

  “Thank you. You words were important for me.”

  X39 looked at her in the eyes, speaking with a warm and intense voice.

  “I was given your files to read. If you wish, I will tell you about me.”

  Julia answered him in a lowered voice, with unusual softness.

  “If and when you’ll want to.”

  

  “I was born 23 years ago out of the whim of my mother, a renowned Pioneer of Research. After my three brothers, conventionally conceived in a laboratory, with me she decided to experiment the so-called natural pregnancy, following her personal theory that this procedure allows the baby to interact from the uterus with the mother’s DNA in the amniotic fluid.

  I don’t have an opinion on this idea, even if I know she considers my – let’s call it this way – bizarre career as a direct consequence of the exceptionality of my birth.

  My personal interpretation is slightly different. My renowned brothers own a branch of the family industry each – I had to somehow invent a future for myself, having the privilege of being able to choose one.

  So my first choice, following my inclination and pleasure, was to study. Not only the rigorous and precise topics which determine and sustain the activity and noble status of my mother and her family, but rather history, geography, social and human interactions and all there is which is contradictory, disputable, and ever evolving. This is how I ended up in the Department of Knowledge.

  I was at a crossroads, to choose between a political career or continue with technical and operational missions. In order to be able to keep on cultivating knowledge instead of schemes, I had to embrace a military path. My roles were consultancies in the diplomatic, geographical or historical fields, bouncing between Landmines and Engineering departments.

  And then one day they sent me to R3, where you saw me – after that they summoned me, and I became X39. And anyway, even though I should not tell you, my name is John. And no, don’t tell me your name now, it is not necessary. If one day you will find it important, you will tell me.”

  She acknowledged his story with a look of respect, and nodded.

  

  Julia opened her eyes suddenly, instinctively interrupting sleep, having sensed a presence nearby. John was standing one step away from her, the waning moon just above the green horizon.

  He was reaching out with his hand to help her get up, while she forced herself to shake off sleep and sit.

  “I would have let you rest, but I complied with your request to call you for the second turn.”

  Julia smiled and nodded, accepting his hand and rising up.

  “You were right, thank you. I feel in perfect shape and can easily stay awake.”

  “I can see that. You have light sleep.”

  “Never lower your guard completely…”

  John relaxed to sit cross-legged on the floor on the insulating blanket, addressing her a brief salute with a light tone and bright eyes.

  “I believe I’ll sleep safely with a fighter like you watching over me.”

  She was standing with her back to him to avoid invading his rest with her looks, but she turned around briefly to smile at him at these words, answering the compliment. She then fixed her gaze on the sky, allowing herself to become absorbed in the sounds of the Forest, arranging them in her mind in a complete picture of the situation.

  Only owls and other small animals populated the night. Reassured, she peeked again at John’s dark figure, sleeping just out of the cone of light provided by their camp beacon.

  She felt rested and surprised. She had slept deeply and easily, after her travel partner had offered to stay on guard first, and this was a symptom of trust more than fatigue.

  For hours she remained in the same position, observing the slow journey of the moon and the brightening sky, pondering on the meaning of friendship.

  X39 had revealed his name and his past without asking for anything in return, and BioMec Unit F17 was now in balance between gratefulness and suspicion, undecided on whether she should consider the revelation as an honor or a trap.

  “Nobody does anything for nothing” the Champion of the Empire whispered to herself. And yet an older and buried part of her recognized in the young man sleeping behind her someone like her, forged in the same fire and hammered out of the same metal.

  

  “Come! I want to show you something.”

  Julia had lingered behind in the bushes, all the muscular groups of her body shaken by an almost imperceptible trembling. She had wanted to test her newly enhanced body, pushing it to search for her limits, using the adrenaline injectors - and now she was experiencing the consequences.

  They were crossing uneven and sloping hills that very much resembled mountains, with jutting stratified ledges of stone emerging from conifer forests, while the vegetation became more and more scarce as they kept on climbing.

  Forcing her willpower with a push from her aching muscles, Julia accelerated her pace to gain John’s side. He had stopped to observe a spot in the underlying valley that had been invisible up to that moment. What she saw surpassed anything she had ever imagined.

  The green valleys were drenched in the golden mist of an uncertain afternoon caught in the balance between sun and rain – the air appeared dense, milky with light, and between the bushes and th
e gorge an even more unfamiliar sight appeared.

  The dark coiling spires of a road, clearly built by human hands. Some of the pillars that sustained it, allowing it to twist and turn around the hill until it lost itself in the vegetation and the horizon, had crumbled, and vast cave-ins and chasms showed the erosion of time on the ancient monument.

  From their observation point, the road seemed to begin a few meters below them, on the opposite side of the hill they had climbed.

  X39 grinned slyly.

  “Come!” he repeated.

  And he jumped in the void, landing with grace on the road turf exactly below them. She stared at him, fully understanding only now the real strength of their titanium skeleton. She followed him, fearful she would appear incredibly clumsy in comparison, but she was hardly aware of having landed, that she found herself already standing back up like a spring.

  She bent down on one knee to place her hand on the concrete, where grass was growing between the cracks.

  Her voice was filled with awe.

  “This trail… this was made before the Cataclysm.”

  “Yes, not long before.”

  The girl looked left and right, considering the width of the lane.

  “They must have used huge transportation systems…”

  She was silent for a moment, before concluding her thought, whispering.

  “Or many of them moved often.”

  For a second, the bright curiosity lighting up Julia’s face painted her as the young girl she was – she was looking at John with an open and blue gaze that begged for an answer.

  He smiled and reached out to her to help her up, and she accepted his hand thoughtfully.

  “Yes, people did travel often, independently and at will. Many forests are full of these roads, the heritage our past has left us.”

  “Why did they travel so much?”

  “Because they could. Because they liked it. Don’t you like to explore and see new places?”

  Julia nodded looking distant, as if hit by as sudden thought.

  “Yes. Yes, I like too, very much.”

  They stared at the gray trail together, with the same melancholy in their eyes. She spoke first.

  “Do you think we will return to using these roads some day?”

  John tightened his lips, shaking his head and ruffling his hair.

  “I – I don’t know.”

  He looked at her with a sad smile.

  “I would like that.”

  

  “Julia! I didn’t expect news from you so soon! Are you all right?”

  F17 smiled at her sister, enjoying her happy look of surprise.

  “I’m fine. We saw some ruins today, from before the Cataclysm. It seems our ancestors travelled a lot, and the Forest has swallowed up whole networks of roads.”

  Cleo’s green eyes widened with curiosity.

  “I knew it, but the Urban Design Department never took us outside the walls to see any findings. I have only caught glimpses of them from holographic reproductions.”

  She stopped, observing her sister, a half smile on her lips.

  “Anyway, who were you with? I thought you always moved alone, you don’t use a plural very often.”

  Julia was forced to weigh these words in; she answered after a brief pause.

  “I was with my tutor and future partner. He is teaching me a lot.”

  Cleo smiled slyly, curious but aware of the fact she wasn’t going to obtain much more.

  “Very well. I’m glad.”

  F17 quickly returned the smile.

  “I was thinking… would you like to come visit me somewhere, when I’m around, eventually? I could try to contact Marcus and…”

  Cleo twisted her mouth in an unhappy expression, with a slight frown and a conspicuous shaking of her head.

  “They will never allow it. And not only the military, the academics as well.”

  “Not even motivating the trip with a research on the field?”

  “I doubt it. The first green light would have to come from the military anyway, so the academics would feel cheated and side-stepped.”

  “Mmmh.”

  Cleo smiled, trying to dissipate her sister’s frown.

  “You know there is always room for you here.”

  Julia’s face relaxed.

  “Thank you – but that’s not why I said it. I wish I could show you what I have seen today.”

  “And I wish I could provide you with some of the calm boredom of my lessons, instead of knowing you are always exposed to a number of dangers.”

  For a moment the blonde girl stared at the floor, as if surprised by her outburst. She sighed shaking her long curls.

  “But these are things we cannot change.”

  “Not if we don’t try.”

  In a split second, Julia was once again F17, the uncompromising BioMec with the metallic gaze. Cleo looked up to smile at her, but weakly.

  

  The videophone screen had gone off for a couple of seconds when Julia turned around abruptly, suddenly aware of footsteps behind her. John had just returned from a scouting operation and was staring at her with an unfathomable expression that highlighted his mysterious and deep dark eyes.

  He sketched a smile.

  “You are always on guard. Good.”

  “It’s in my nature, I don’t do it on purpose.”

  “Even better. We have to know how to defend ourselves even from the enemy we don’t know or expect.”

  Julia looked at him intently, curious and surprised by the note of urgency she could feel in the voice of her new friend. However, he mellowed his tone, changing the topic and confusing her further.

  “You are very close with your sister, are you?”

  F17 nodded.

  “We were alone for a long time.”

  She didn’t say anything else, watching him in silence, waiting for an answer that never came. X39 nodded to show he understood, to turn back and start working again on the camp, while she stared at his back for a few seconds, not without a fleeting shadow of disappointment on her face.

  XIII

  The alarmed note in John’s voice cuts through the concert of night noises, drags Julia’s conscience from sleep to awareness.

  His face is bent on the videophone, his eyes grave, his tone flat.

  “Yes, immediately.”

  F17 waits in the shadow. Tension arches her back and narrows her eyes, the question coming from a bundle of nerves ready to snap.

  “What is happening?”

  “We have to return immediately.”

  “Problems?”

  “A war just broke out.”

  

  Julia had to force herself to keep silent and martial, listening to a familiar story, but one where she ignored the ending. The voice of Counselor Eonid, consort of Alpha Genos, echoed monotone and almost bored from the speakers of the training center.

  “Province Y has challenged the Champion of the Empire from Province J… who lost.”

  The man conceded himself a pause for an irritated scoff.

  “So now Province Y has proclaimed itself independent, and our soldiers loyal to Empire are cut off and surrounded.”

  The counselor crossed his hands on top of the desk, joining the tips of his index fingers.

  “The army is already bombing the province. Your mission is to find our people and get them out.”

  John nodded, pale and dead serious.

  “Understood, Counselor.”

  Eonid’s cold eyes fell on Julia.

  “F17, you will provide cover for X39 during travel.”

  The communication was shut before she could even answer – relaxing her jaw she noticed she had bitten her lip so hard it was bleeding.

  

  Raindrops against the windows of the departing aerovehicle, eyes more lead-colored than the frowning sky.

  “Flight time to the border of Province Y is 4 hours and 37 minutes…”

  An officer as
signed to X39 by the Counselors was completing his report on the mission’s logistics, but F17 was not listening. Her eyes followed the arch of a rainbow which graced the sky of a place that had become familiar. The Medical Center and Province U had given her a new life and moments of peace. She doubted she would return there.

  “… you will enter the base on the border, jumping from the aerovehicle with the Stealth Wings…”

  “No.”

  With this statement Julia turned around to look at the officer, suggesting for the first time she had actually paid attention.

  “B-But this is the tactic laid out by the plan…”

  “I don’t care. I’m responsible for X39’s safety and I can object. Stealth Wings will bring us down too slowly, and are too visible, despite their name. I’m not going to give the enemy a chance to shoot at us while we descend.”

  “But the aerovehicle will not be able to land, we don’t have space in that spot…”

  “You will fly low and we’ll jump down.”

  “Jump?”

  John joined the conversation to save the officer from an argument with F17.

  “It’s an unconventional maneuver, but structurally possible. We will do as my partner suggests.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The young officer hastily backed away, followed by F17’s glacial stare, while John looked at her, puzzled.

  “You’re in a bad mood. I had never seen you growl so openly.”

  Julia nodded, knitting her eyebrows and then relaxing them in an attempt to twist her mouth in something that resembled a bitter smile.

  “You’re right. I am in a terrible mood.”

  “Julia! Did you manage to get a few days off to come and visit us?”

  “I fear not. A war has broken out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Secessionists. Again.”

  “And they’re sending you to the front lines, right?”

  Silence.

  The rainbow was now fading from the sky, removing the distant hills from its embrace.

  