A Hero for WondLa

by Tony DiTerlizzi

“The registrar’s office is the next doorway on the right.” A rod arm extended from the autoserver’s body, pointing down the hall. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  “No, thanks,” Hailey replied.

  “Till morrow’s destiny,” the robot said, and zoomed off.

  “What does that mean? ‘Till morrow’s destiny’?” Eva asked Hailey as they entered the small empty office.

  “Hmph. It’s how everyone says good-bye here,” Hailey said. “‘Until tomorrow’s destiny reunites us once again.’ It’s a famous line from one of Cadmus’s early speeches. It’s sort of stupid, if you ask me.”

  “How come?”

  “Of course these people will all see one another tomorrow. Where else are they gonna go?” Hailey walked over to the round glossy desk located in the center of the sterile white office, and spoke. “Um, hello.”

  “Greetings, Hailey Turner,” the desk responded. “Welcome back to the City Registrar. I’ve been notified of your arrival by the eastern gate.”

  “Uh, thanks.” Hailey glanced at Eva through his unkempt bangs. “Well, I have a reboo—uh, new citizen to register with the . . . um . . . city. New Attica.”

  “The newly emerged imago, Eva Nine. Is that correct?”

  “Yes,” Eva answered.

  “Great. We have been waiting for you, Eva Nine. Please place your Omnipod in the designated location.” A soft glow indicated an Omnipod-shaped impression in the desktop. Eva placed her Omnipod onto the desk.

  “Thank you, Eva Nine. Please take a seat while I transcribe your history,” the desk responded. “Your wait time to meet with an HRP greeter is approximately ten minutes.”

  Eva sat in a hovchair and looked around at the row of vacant seats. As Van Turner had said, there seemed to be no other reboots entering the city this morning. Despite what Vanpa had said, Eva had hoped that there would be at least one other person present so that she would have someone to talk to. Someone who would relate to what she’d been through.

  Hailey slouched down next to her and pulled out his Omnipod. Within the antiseptic walls of the room, the pilot’s dingy flight jacket and greasy hair made him appear grimier than ever. It was apparent to Eva that he was out of his element, like the wild sand-sniper loose in the taxidermist’s pristine lab back in Solas.

  “Please enjoy this public announcement while you wait,” the desk said. A hologram of Cadmus appeared. He congratulated the citizens for participating so earnestly in their Waste Not Want Not power-rationing program and promised a bright new future as a reward for their efforts. He concluded his announcement with a daily kernel of wisdom that reminded Eva of something Rovender would say.

  Eva looked over at Hailey. The pilot was fiddling with his Omnipod and was not paying any attention to the announcement or to Eva. She thought aloud, “I wonder how Rovee and Vanpa are doing.”

  Hailey quickly tapped his foot on the gray tiled floor. “I’m sure they’re fine. Like I said, I’ll send your friend over as soon as I get home.”

  “It’s funny.” Eva twirled one of her braids. “Did you see any aliens here?”

  “Oh yeah, they’re here,” Hailey replied, still tapping. “They just don’t always . . . come to Attican Hall. Specifically. I mean, why would they? Right?”

  “Right.” Eva tried to recall if she’d seen any alien types in her few moments in the city. There had been so many people moving about that it had been hard to take it all in, let alone focus on certain individuals in the crowd. However, now that she thought of it, there had been some hairless lavender-skinned citizens that had looked like they were from Solas.

  A door in the back of the office slid open. An elderly man with a long white mustache and a beard entered, followed by his aide. Eva stood, recognizing the man immediately as he approached.

  “Hello.” His warm hand clasped Eva’s. “I am Cadmus Pryde, and I am delighted to tell you that New Attica accepts you as one of its own. Welcome to your new home, Eva Nine.”

  CHAPTER 10: GEN

  Cadmus Pryde looked over at Hailey. “Thank you for your services,” he said. “My aide will see to it that your airship receives the necessary parts you’ve requested. Bring it to the western hangar by the end of the day, and we shall install them for you.”

  Hailey shook Cadmus’s hand. “Thank you, sir.”

  Eva watched as Hailey gathered his things. “What? You’re leaving?”

  “His work is done,” answered Cadmus.

  “I’ve delivered you to New Attica as I promised,” Hailey added.

  “But . . . you’re not staying?” Eva grabbed Hailey by the sleeve. “What about my birthday dinner?”

  “Birthdays! How I adore the young imagoes,” Cadmus said, and laughed. “I am sure we can arrange something for you, Eva.”

  Eva ignored Cadmus and kept her eyes on Hailey. Without Rovender here, the pilot was the only person she knew in the entire city.

  “Sorry,” Hailey said. “Vanpa and I are loading up as soon as the Bijou is fixed.”

  “The Bijou?” Cadmus kept his attention on Hailey. “Is that the name you’ve given your airship?”

  “Yeah.”

  Cadmus smiled. “How appropriate. To have your own airship is quite a little jewel indeed. I suppose, once the Bijou is repaired, you’ll be looking for more functioning Sanctuaries for me?”

  Hailey’s eyes darted around the room. “Yeah. Sure. I know where there are lots more working Sanctuaries, and we’ll bring you more reboots.”

  It then dawned on Eva what had transpired. “Wait. You just brought me in and traded me for parts, didn’t you?”

  “No,” the pilot replied. “I provided a service in return for some much-needed components for my ship. That’s it.”

  Eva’s heart sank. “But . . .”

  “Don’t be so dramatic, Eva. You got what you wanted and I got what I needed. It’s as simple as that.”

  “Eva, pay him no mind,” Cadmus said. “You are with us now. You are home. And our young retriever was just leaving.”

  “What about Rovee?” Eva asked.

  “You’ll see him. He’s already—” Hailey began.

  “I am sure your traveling companion will be here soon enough,” Cadmus interjected.

  “I can’t believe this,” Eva hissed at Hailey. “I can’t believe you!”

  “Here, here.” Cadmus put his arm around Eva. “It’s not as bad as you think, Eva dear. Our boy Hailey was doing his job. The job his father once performed. Nothing more.”

  Eva Nine glowered at the pilot.

  Hailey kept his gaze on the floor as the aide led him out. The door slid shut behind him, and he was gone.

  “While the city computer finishes recording your life history, Eva, we’ll bring you to the medlab for a quick checkup,” Cadmus said, leading Eva through a back passage from the registrar’s office. One of the many doors that lined the passage slid open to reveal a bright white lab, similar to the generator room back in Eva’s Sanctuary.

  A stream of holographic screens circled the medlab. Eva glanced at the screens in turn and realized that these were recordings of her at various ages. In one she was an infant learning to eat as Muthr mashed up a nutriment pellet in water. In another, she was a toddler stacking bricks and making a home for her Beeboo doll.

  “These are your Omnipod’s memories,” Cadmus said. “It records everything so that we may get a perfect picture of your past. It helps us to understand each and every new citizen so that we may better serve them.”

  A medlab aide, dressed in a light blue ivory laboratory coat, handed Cadmus a semitransparent sheet of electra-paper. Even on tiptoes Eva could not read the paper’s scrolling text from her vantage point, so she shifted her gaze to Cadmus. Like on Van Turner’s face, a weave of wrinkles crisscrossed around Cadmus’s sparkling eyes as they scanned the note. Eva touched her own cheek, wondering what it must be like to have wrinkles.

  “You were conceived in Sanctuary five-seven-three, is that correct?�
� asked Cadmus.

  “Yes.” Eva caught a glimpse of a recording showing her arguing with Muthr in the dim light of her bedroom. Somehow this image was out of order form the others as she watched it play back in front of her.

  “Hmmm . . . all Sanctuaries are marked as non-working, and yet here you are. How interesting.” Cadmus handed the electra-paper back to the aide. “I see you exited prematurely and explored some of the surface terrain accompanied by your Muthr?”

  “Y-yes.” Eva picked at her fingernails. “But . . . she’s gone.”

  “Those older models were not designed for such extensive travel. I am impressed you were able to convince her to leave at all.” Cadmus placed a sympathetic hand on Eva’s shoulder. His focus darted about from screen to screen as if he were searching for something.

  An electronic chirp pinged from the ceiling, and a large crab-shaped robot descended into the lab. Cadmus seemed to pay it no mind.

  Eva backed away from the large robot. Its body reminded her of the temporary body Muthr had used while she’d repaired herself in the Sanctuary. “Muthr wasn’t outdated,” Eva said. “She was able to take care of me right up to the end.”

  “I understand your attachment, Eva. Truly I do,” replied Cadmus. “The Muthr series performed exceptionally well at their given tasks. There are still some in operation here in the city.”

  “Please open your mouth and remain still,” the robot instructed. In one of its wiry hands it held a test tube, while another brandished a cotton swab.

  “Will it hurt?” Eva asked.

  “No. Not at all,” answered Cadmus, though his attention remained focused on a recording Eva had taken of Lacus. “My automedics are state of the art, able to move in one-angstrom increments.”

  “What’s your name?” Eva asked the automedic.

  “Name?” the robot replied. “We are a series 45 automated medical lab-bot, or ‘automedic’ for short, model number H3-1D1. Please open your mouth and—”

  “That’s what you are,” Eva interrupted. “But what’s your name?”

  “Name?” the automedic paused and turned to Cadmus, appearing confused from Eva’s questioning. “Sir?”

  “The automedic team here is integrated into an expansive multilayered information database. It’s a much more complicated system than what your Muthr and your Sanctuary was on, Eva,” answered Cadmus. “Therefore, they view themselves more as parts of a whole working for a greater good.”

  “Oh,” said Eva. Her mind swirled. As with the old program she had watched, it was hard keeping up with Cadmus’s conversation.

  “Hold, please,” the automedic instructed, and Eva kept her mouth held open. The robot swabbed Eva’s mouth and plucked out a single strand of hair from her scalp. Each sample was placed in a test tube, and the robot returned to its perch in the ceiling. “Genetic tissue samples were successfully collected. We shall supply you with a full report shortly, Father Pryde. Thank you.”

  “Thank you,” Cadmus said, showing Eva out of the medlab.

  “About my Muthr,” said Eva. “Can you—”

  “All in due time, dear, all in due time,” Cadmus said. “First I want you to relax and enjoy yourself. From what I see you’ve been through quite a lot.” He led her through a bustling hallway, past a convoy of floating gurneys carrying patients, and into a side hall that brought them to his headquarters.

  The spacious office was adorned with paintings on every wall. An expansive window looked out over the cityscape, while a detailed holographic miniature of New Attica floated in the center of the room. Two stoic authoritons guarded a closed pair of doors on the far side of the room.

  Eva studied an ornately framed painting of a woman with dark hair. “I know this,” she said, pointing at it. “It is one of the paintings I studied in my art programs.”

  “Yes.” Cadmus joined her. “It’s titled the Mona Lisa. It was actually painted by hand by a man named Leonardo da Vinci thousands of years before the Awakening.”

  “It doesn’t move?” Eva waited for the woman to blink or a bird to fly by.

  “The early paintings are static. Fixed images in time, filtered through the vision of the artist,” Cadmus said, stroking his mustache.

  “It seems awfully dark.”

  “Dark indeed, Eva. This was painted during a dark time in mankind’s history. But if you look closely, you’ll see the vision of a mastermind at work.”

  Eva studied the painting, still waiting for it to move.

  “Leonardo has carefully chosen what he wants you to see and what he does not. There is no sickness here, no war, no famine, no death—though Leonardo’s world was teeming with such scourges. In fact, he helped design weapons of war. But here he depicts beauty: both in the human form and in the developing landscape. His idyllic vision has become his legacy.” Cadmus was now smiling under his snowy beard.

  The double doors slid open to reveal a pristine robot identical to Muthr, save for the fine paint and polish. The number twenty-three was printed prominently on its torso. Like Muthr, it spoke in refined intonation. “Father Pryde, sir, you have completed your meet and greet at the registrar’s, yes?”

  “Yes,” Cadmus replied. “Twenty-three, meet Eva Nine.”

  The robot tipped its head in greeting. “Welcome to New Attica, Eva Nine.”

  Eva waved at the robot but could not look in its warm amber eyes. They were too much like Muthr’s.

  “I have summoned an autoserver guide to begin Eva’s orientation,” said the robot.

  “No, no,” Cadmus said. “That will not do. We haven’t had an imago here in years. I have something special planned for our newest arrival.”

  “Very good, sir,” the robot said. “Marzug is waiting to deliver his report of the productive effects of the power rationing. Shall we begin?”

  “In a moment, Twenty-three.” Cadmus put a hand on the robot. “Is Gen here?”

  “Yes, sir. She is waiting in the lobby. Shall I show her in?”

  “Please do.”

  Eva tore her eyes from the robot as it rolled away. It was disconcerting how similar its movements and gestures were to Muthr’s.

  “I know you have questions, Eva Nine,” Cadmus said. “Unfortunately, at this moment I’ve a city to run, so I shall reconvene with you later.”

  “Okay, sure.” Eva didn’t know whether she should shake Cadmus’s hand, hug him, or just remain obedient and still.

  “Very good. In the meantime I have someone special I’d like you to meet.” Cadmus motioned to a teenage girl, a bit taller than Eva, sauntering into the room.

  The artificial sunlight that shone in from the window played with the girl’s iridescent hair, causing it to shift from deep emerald to sapphire blue as she approached Cadmus. Her extravagant frilly clothing and striking makeup gave her the appearance of a tropical bird in knee-high sneakboots. A collection of shiny charms hanging from her sleeve jingled with every step she took. This is not a human girl, Eva thought. Not like me.

  The girl hugged Cadmus and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Eva, I’d like you to meet one of my daughters, Gen,” Cadmus said.

  “Father, her appearance is . . . different.” Gen looked Eva up and down.

  “That is correct,” replied Cadmus. “You see, Eva is a newly emerged citizen delivered direct from her Sanctuary.”

  Gen’s ice-blue eyes went wide with surprise. Her pupils were but pinpricks in the center. “Clone me! A reboot from the outside? You’re remming!”

  “I am not ‘remming,’” Cadmus said with a smile. “Now, we haven’t had an imago here for many years, so—”

  “I’d say.” Gen tilted her head and examined Eva. It reminded Eva of the way the royal taxidermist had looked at her before he’d attempted to embalm her. Alive.

  “As I was saying, an event like this has not occurred in considerable time,” continued Cadmus. “So I would like you to personally show Eva around the city and introduce her to some of your friends. In fact, tod
ay is Eva’s day of genesis, making her only a year younger than you, Gen, so let’s give her a special welcome.”

  “This is so jolt!” Gen said. Her dress shifted color from turquoise to a sapphire blue. With its intricate patterning the garment reminded Eva of the holograms she’d seen of an octopus changing hue. “Come on, Eva. Let’s go. You’re gonna love it here.”

  Eva nodded and smiled, mesmerized by Gen’s ever-changing colors.

  Cadmus’s aide from the medlab entered the office and delivered Eva’s Omnipod and an orientation pack to Cadmus. “The imago’s full report, Father Pryde. Her Omnipod software has been updated, and her initial savings quota has been established. I have installed the quotacard on her O-pod,” the aide said as he handed Cadmus an electra-paper.

  “Ooo! You got a brand-new quotacard!” Gen squealed. “We are going to put that to work today.”

  “Go easy on her, Gen,” said Cadmus, handing Eva back her Omnipod. “Return here before curfew at twenty-thirty. By then the city will have determined in what sector your home shall be located, and the fabrication crew will have it assembled and ready.”

  “Okay,” Eva said, trailing behind Gen out of the office. “By the way, my friend, Rovender, will be coming soon to join me. Does he need to register as well?”

  “Rovender—you mentioned him before.” Cadmus followed the girls into his office lobby. Eva noticed several other people waiting in a row of hovchairs, including a man with a ridiculously wide frilled collar.

  “Yes,” Eva said. “He’s a Cærulean from a village north of the Wandering Forest.”

  “The Wandering Forest?” Cadmus replied, raising an eyebrow. “You’ll have to tell me about that when next we meet.”

  “You’d like him,” continued Eva. “He knows a lot about sand-snipers and weeping bird-catchers and the Halcyonus.”

  The visitors in the lobby murmured among one another. Gen was talking into the palm of her hand, oblivious.

  “Well, yes, then. I’d very much like to meet this friend of yours,” Cadmus said with a smile. “In the meantime enjoy yourself. Till morrow’s destiny.”

  “Till morrow’s destiny,” Eva replied, and shook his hand.