Earth To Nole: It begins at the end

by Kumar Lomash

Kevin looked and said, “Let’s join these guys over here”.

  “You like socializing, don’t you?”, Gollow had to follow Kevin as there were no empty tables.

  “Are these seats taken?” Gollow asked one of the guys sitting on the table.

  “No, suit yourself.”, the guy replied as if he didn’t care.

  “Hi, I am Gollow. Friends call me Golli.”, Gollow introduced himself.

  “Hi Gollow. I am Fred and this is my twin brother Fad.”, the guy said.

  “Wow two Fs sitting together. This is going to be fun!”, Gollow joked.

  “Two Fs?”, Kevin was trying to understand. “How do you know that?”

  “Coz their names begin with the letter F, you class 4 fool.”, Gollow made a friendly joke.

  “What if my name was Freddy, would I be a number crunching geek then?”, Kevin asked.

  “You wish”, Fad said in a dull way.

  “As per the nomenclature established by the Union”, Moji came to the rescue of his human. “All humans are required to register their names as per this rule, Kevin”.

  “I don’t believe this! This is impossible to ensure. And what does it even mean to register your name? There can be a dozen Fred in this canteen right now.”, Kevin asked.

  “You are not as naive as I thought, Kev”, Gollow was proud of his new friend. “That is why you also have an identification number”.

  “An identification number is your unique id for all official purposes, Kevin.”, Moji added.

  “But you can’t call a person by his ID, can you?...”, Gollow interrupted. Kevin was shifting his attention from Gollow to Moji and back as they were interrupting each other to educate Kevin.

  “...You still need a name”, Gollow concluded.

  “Humans find it easier to communicate through names as compared to numbers, Kevin”. Moji was trying to wrap his head around this human need which he never understood. “I have never understood why?”, Moji confessed.

  “Moron”, Gollow couldn’t stop himself.

  “I heard that, Gollow.”, Moji said.

  “Well, I said it loud.”, Gollow confronted. “You will never understand humans”.

  Kevin shouted, “Oh, stop you two, I have a question. Do all people follow this nomenclature then?”

  “Yes, Kevin. All colonies under the governance of the Union are legally bound to follow this nomenclature. This is not a hard rule to follow so there are very few exceptions.”, Moji replied.

  “Except for class 4 and 5 colonies where people call themselves whatever they feel like...”, Gollow added, looking at Moji. “...what atrocity”, he had sarcasm in his tone.

  “That is right, Kevin”. Moji confirmed. “Only class 1, 2 and 3 colonies are controlled by the Union, rest of them are on their own”

  “And, what is this identification thing?”, Kevin asked.

  “An identification number or simply identification, is an alpha-numeric number given to each resident of the Union. You have one too, Kevin.”, Moji replied.

  “Yes, I was given one when I arrived here.”, Kevin recalled.

  “What is it, Kev?”, Gollow was interested.

  K42-262284

  “You are a K? Really?, I have never seen a K. This is turning out to be an eventful day. I bet Kevin is not your real name. Was it also assigned to you when you came to a Union’s colony?”, Gollow seemed surprised.

  “No! My parents used to call me Kevin.”, Kevin replied in a defensive tone.

  “That’s strange my friend, a parent in class 4 colony would not know to appropriately name their child as per the Union rules. They are not aware of the nomenclature, after all.”, Gollow explained.

  “This is all so complicated”, Kevin leaned back on his chair and let his head fall back. He closed his eyelids and covered both of his eyes with his corresponding palms and started rubbing his forehead. “I need a drink”.

  “You heard the man”, Gollow shouted at the nearest server-bot, “bring us our drinks”.

  The server-bot rolled towards them with a tray full of beverages. Gollow picked two beers and said, “here you go my friend”.

  “Drinking to fix your problems is like closing your eyes to avoid being hit”, Fad slipped these words casually looking away from Gollow.

  “Well, lets see if closing your eyes works for you”, Gollow grew aggressive. He put down his beer with a thud on the table.

  “Did you not understand the analogy?”, Fred clarified, “He meant closing the eyes would not avoid being hit”.

  “You bet!”, Gollow prepared a punch by lifting his hand in the air.

  “A typical G”, Fad looked at Fred with disappointment. At the same time, Kevin stopped Gollow and calmed him down.

  “Yes, his name is Golli.”, Kevin indicated that Fad should exercise caution not to offend Golli.

  “Its Gollow for him, only friends call me Golli which you two are not.”, Gollow was childishly upset.

  “That’s ok. I don’t call him Freddy and he doesn’t call me Faddy. It's silly enough remembering one stupid name.”, Fad replied.

  “I agree”, Moji was finally finding some reconciliation. “Fs are my favorites”.

  “And Ms are our favorites”, Fred and Fad said together.

  Kevin pondered, “Let me guess… all machines are named with M?”

  “Yes, Kevin. Although very few machines have registered names. Most of them are given temporary nicknames by their current assignees.”, Moji clarified.

  “Attention all passengers”, a loud female voice interrupted all conversations in the canteen. Everybody stopped everything and started listening carefully. This was the first announcement since they were awake. “All passengers are requested to gather in the central seating area on their respective floors at 10 a.m. tomorrow”. “Attention all passengers…”, the message repeated a couple of times.

  “Kevin, you must go to bed now”, Moji cautioned Kevin.

  Gollow emptied the rest of the beer in his mouth and said “Yup, need to be sleeping too, need to hit the gym tomorrow”

  ‘Kevin, don’t forget, you need to train as well.”, Moji reminded Kevin.

  “Ok - Mom!”, Kevin joked. He was a bit drunk.

  Fred and Fad got up and said “Good night guys, see you tomorrow”. Kevin lifted his hand casually to acknowledge and gestured a bye. Gollow said “Ya, whatever”.

  Gollow and Kevin both were now walking with hands on each other’s shoulders. It wasn’t clear if they were trying to support the other or trying to take support from the other. Both of them looked a bit drunk.

  “Where do you stay, Kev?”, Gollow asked.

  “303”, Kevin replied.

  “No kidding, I am in 330.”, Gollow implied that they were both staying near by.

  “See you tomorrow, Golli.”, Kevin said as they reached cabin 303.

  “Good night, Kev.”, Gollow replied and walked ahead.

  Moji followed Kevin to his cabin where Kevin almost fell into his sleeping pod. He fell asleep as soon as he hit the pod. Moji made a few beeps while looking at Kevin as he fell asleep. Then hovered outside the cabin. The cabin doors closed and it seemed from the outside that the light inside the cabin went dim gradually. Moji rushed back to the charging station and began charging.

  The captain was again making rounds of the corridors in his wheelchair. But these corridors were not as busy as those of level 20 south block corridors. He reached a door marked “residential” which opened as soon as he approached it. The captain crossed the door into a beautiful hall. Here the ceiling was much higher than that of level 20. Few, “high-class” people were having discussions in separate small groups. Everyone seemed to have a hover bot hovering at some distance. Garry waited at the entrance of the hall, as if someone was supposed to receive him. The door behind him from which he had arrived read “restricted - officials only” on this side. A hover bot reached Garry and greeted him.

  “Good evening, Captain.”, the bot greeted the captain.
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  “Where were you? I have been here 5 minutes.”, the captain asked impatiently.

  “Sorry captain.”, the bot said.

  “Anything important for me?”, the captain asked.

  “Everything is as usual, Captain. No more deaths since I last briefed you.’, the bot replied.

  “Good. How many K’s are we left with?”, the captain asked.

  “All of them, all 9.”, the bot replied.

  “Yeah, we kept them in priority pods.”, the captain murmured.

  “Tell me Captain. Why are we suddenly so interested in K’s?”, the bot asked.

  The captain started moving his wheelchair out of the hall. After sometime he spoke, “I have my orders, Mili. I don’t know why the Union is suddenly interested in K’s after centuries of ignoring them. We had to bring them in from class 4 colonies. Nobody in our colonies ever chose K.”

  The captain was now in his cabin. It read “L43-29”. He tried getting up from the wheelchair and succeeded. Mili congratulated him, “Congratulations captain, you are fully recovered it seems”. Garry started dressing for bed.

  That will be all, Mili.

  Good night, Captain.

  Garry waited for Mili to leave and then turned to the window which showed a view of the outside the spaceship. His cabin was one of the few cabins on level 43 which had a window looking outside the spaceship. Garry went near the window but he was not interested in the view outside. He said, “authenticate g23-121668”. The window turned opaque and turned into a monitor. The text on it read “Everyone deserves a second chance” in large, bold, red letters. Garry started reading the words slowly. As he read each word, the word turned green - indicating some sort of acceptance. He read the phrase as if it meant a lot to him. He really believed in the thought that “everyone deserves a second chance”, it was not just a pass phrase for him. As soon as he completed the last word, the monitor started displaying some information which Garry was looking for. He went over some usual stuff and then issued a voice command. “Show K’s status”. The monitor showed the interior of 9 cabins in a 3X3 grid. All the 9 cabins had an occupant either sleeping or sitting idle. They all had their names also displayed on the monitor in the corresponding grid cell. Only one of the names began with a “K” and it was flashing. “Kevin”. It was the center cell in the 3X3 grid. Garry leaned forward and went close to the center cell which showed Kevin asleep with his hand casually hanging out of the pod. Garry said, “Who are you, Kevin?”.

  It was morning but Kevin was still asleep. There was no sunrise to mark the beginning of the day, just that the spaceship clock which still simulated a 24 hour cycle as day and night insisted that it was time to wake up. Corridors in the south block of level 20 were busy with people. Moji was waiting for Kevin to wake up but Kevin was sleeping as if still drunk from the night before. Gollow appeared at the door and it looked like he was taking a pit stop in his morning jog.

  “I just love how fast you can run on this spaceship. The gravity is still very low.”, Gollow said enthusiastically.

  “Good morning, Gollow. Yes, the gravity is much less than what it was on Earth.”, Moji agreed.

  “I am loving it.”, Gollow seemed in a very good mood.

  “But it will soon increase to 11.3”, Moji reminded him.

  “I will still kick everyone’s ass.”, Gollow said.

  “I am sure you will”, Kevin said. He was not asleep anymore.

  “Rise and shine, my friend”, Gollow shouted.

  “Good morning, Kevin.”, Moji said.

  “Good morning, guys. What did I drink last night? I still feel a bit numb.”, Kevin confessed.

  “It was a normal beer, Kevin. But you were sober for last 283 years”, Moji clarified.

  “Kev, meet me at breakfast in 15 minutes. We have to assemble for the announcement in 45 minutes.”, Gollow ran off.

  “Oh - I am not drinking again”. Kevin lifted himself up and dragged his feet towards the attached bathroom. Moji hovered there patiently.

  As Kevin was about to enter his bathroom, his eyes met the eyes of Joti. She was crossing Kevin’s cabin and probably was casually looking around when she saw Kevin. Joti looked fresh from a good night’s sleep and probably some morning yoga. Kevin looked the opposite of her, disorganized and carelessly dressed. Kevin knew that Joti stayed on level 20 but he had never seen her in his own lobby. Was she looking for him? Kevin wondered. Kevin had been checking her out whenever he got a chance and he knew that Joti was not so stupid to not have noticed that. He was excited that Joti was looking at him in spite of all of this. Maybe, he thought, just maybe, she is interested in him too. Kevin suddenly felt a rush of blood, probably some hormones in his body. He was fully awake now. Joti moved on, she broke the eye contact just before disappearing beyond the door of Kevin’s cabin. Kevin closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He could smell the fresh air around him. He kept walking with his eyes closed and almost crashed into the wall.

  Tik Tok, Kevin.

  “Shut up! Do you understand anything except clockwork?”, Kevin entered the bathroom and closed the door, thereby ending the conversation.

  Garry was all dressed up and was waiting near an elevator with Mili hovering near him.

  “Good morning, Captain”, a passerby greeted Garry.

  “Good morning”, Garry replied.

  “Are you ready, Captain?”, Mili seemed to be trying to do small talk while they waited for the elevator.

  I just don’t want to be late, Mili.

  Don’t worry captain, you won’t be late. You have 8 minutes and statistically you only need 3 minutes to get to the control room.

  “Here we are”, Garry was relieved on seeing an elevator stop. The elevator was empty. Garry and Mili got in.

  “Are we on schedule for stage 9?”, Garry wanted to confirm.

  Yes, Captain.

  Good.

  The elevator stopped and Garry stepped out into a hall. Mili followed. It was empty with only two Armbots guarding the entry. The armbots are so named because they are prepared for combat and are always armed. They rushed towards Garry as soon as they saw him. Garry stood still for the identification to happen smoothly.

  “Welcome captain.”, one of them recognized Garry.

  “Good morning guys. May I?”, Garry seeked permission to proceed.

  “You may, captain”, the armbots moved out of the way.

  Garry started walking and went through a plasma wall. The wall was invisible until Garry and Mili entered it but then became translucent, almost opaque. The surface of the wall moved like the surface of a liquid. Garry and Mili appeared on the other side which looked very different. The plasma wall was not transparent, it just appeared to be so. It was an optical illusion to possibly hide the entrance to the control room.

  “Where is the President?”, Garry enquired.

  “He should be here any moment now, Garry”, Ibu answered. “Are you fully recovered?”

  “Yes, Mr. Ibu, Thank you”, Garry seemed to have a lot of respect for Ibu. Although both Garry and Ibu looked to be of the same age. Maybe 40 or 45 if you don’t count the 283 years of travel.

  “Do you remember, Garry? We calculated 53% chance of making upto this point”, Ibu walked up to Garry.

  “I remember Mr…”

  “Call me Ibu, Garry.”, Ibu insisted.

  “I remember Ibu”, Garry smiled.

  “Can I join you captain?”, Foss asked.

  “Of Course, minister”, Garry quickly responded.

  “I cannot thank you and your department enough for your efforts, minister”, Ibu turned to Foss.

  “I agree”, Garry added. “Ministry of Technology should get all the credit for bringing us here”.

  “I am glad our boys have been able to put together so much of technology. A couple of decades ago, it was impossible to even imagine that such space travel was possible with humans onboard.”, Foss stated.

  “We still have a long way to go, ministers, captai
n”, Holum appeared. “Let’s begin the addressal”.

  “We are ready for you, Mr. Holum”, one of the station clerks stood up and declared.

  “Excuse me gentlemen”, Holum proceeded to the station which was ready for the broadcast.

  “Sir, all floors are listening”, the clerk clarified.

  “Thank you, officer”, Holum indicated that he can now take his seat. Holum pressed a button in front of him and started talking.

  “My fellow humans. This spaceship has been our home for some time now. I have spent more time here than on Earth to be frank.”, Holum smiled. Ibu and Gary looked at each other, Ibu was smiling, he liked Holum’s joke. Garry found it too risky to smile, there were a lot of things which he was thinking about.

  Kevin and Gollow were looking up at the screen which showed Holum’s live face. Holum’s voice was much louder outside the control room. It filled level 20 as everyone assembled to hear their leader speak.

  “Very soon we will enter Nole’s orbit. We have come a long way in search of a home and my advisors tell me that our journey will soon come to a successful end. Nole would be our home from now on. It has everything that Earth now does not have. I must congratulate everyone who has made it till here.”

  “But a word of caution”, Holum’s voice changed into a more commanding tone. “We are travelling with limited resources and Nole is our last chance. We cannot risk jeopardizing this mission at any cost. Let me remind you that a level 2 emergency is in effect and we are under the protection of armbots. Armbots are authorised to use weapons to incapacitate anyone who is in violation of the prevailing laws. Please do not give any excuse to an armbot to treat you as a threat to this mission, they have been programmed to be unforgiving.”

  “My mom used to say this to me when I was a kid”, Holum’s voice was friendlier now. “She said, son, always smile when there is no reason for it. Let your smile be everyone else’s reason”.