by Ernest Filak
“Where are you from?” I ask even though I know the answer. This is not the first time I’m acting out the part.
“Pavel, get the fuck out of here. I don’t feel like talking.”
“Do you fucking think I want to ramble about hydroponic farming on your planet? I thought I came out of nowhere, man, but your planet is the real fucking black hole. And you know what? In all that talk about farming I’m interested in only one category.”
“Which one?” he asks intrigued.
“Moonshine,” I say. Well, I did get carried away.
Victor turns back to me and I can hear his voice better.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“Why did you come here?”
He’s quiet for a while. The rounds are a game. We promised to one another that we would answer all the questions honestly, without hiding anything. The first rounds were a success. But every other time things got more and more boring. There aren’t many more secrets to uncover.
“If I tell you will you leave me alone?”
“Until another time,” I promise.
I can hear him sigh.
“I didn’t really see the future for myself on my home planet. We’ve been farmers for generations. There’s no alternative. At the most you could get an education, start working in central management and become a despised clerk. I wanted to get out of that enchanted circle, that’s all.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Unionist propaganda has always been popular,” he carries on. “Especially movies. One of them really got into my head. A young girl told the story of her life. She came from this system. When the agitators began recruiting to revolutionary forces, I joined in.”
“Have you ever met her?”
“No.”
“Do you even know her name?” I ask.
“No,” he says curtly.
“Did you fall in love?”
“Ask me about it next time. I have answered your question.”
And that was the end of the conversation. He was right about one thing. We do have plenty of time. After the Devourers used heavy cannons, most of the passages collapsed. We became trapped under tons of rubble. We were lucky the ventilation system was still working. Hats off to the engineers.
I’m sure I won’t be able to get anything more out of Victor. I have no illusions. I can hear his deep breathing. Has he already gone to sleep? So little here can exhaust you so soon. Once I’m done with my rounds I’ll fall fast asleep. Just a little while longer.
I heave myself up and try to find my way in the darkness. Uncle Kola is next in turn. He stopped revealing the next meditation stages to me. He must be on to something. I also get the feeling that Ingrid isn’t telling me everything. I only hope these two haven’t come to some sort of understanding behind my back.
“Hey, Uncle, how is it going?” I ask.
“Thank you, everything is just fine.” This is an old-fashioned man. No matter what is wrong, he’ll always say thank you and tell you that everything is in perfect order. I must admit that deep inside I find that rather impressive.
“Have you got in touch with God?” I ask straightaway.
He thinks long before answering. He was the last one to agree to the question game. He must already be regretting that.
“I don’t know what to say,” he confesses. “I think I have, but then sometimes I think it was just my imagination. I’m not sure if it’s even possible to get in such contact with the Creator.”
“How did you do it?”
“You’re too impatient,” he scolds me. “Get a move on.”
Uncle is the most mysterious person I know. Sometimes I think he could be a priest, but since I had never really met one before I don’t really have a point of reference. Church activity has been banned altogether, after all.
I don’t believe I could get more answers here so I take a step forward. But Uncle grabs me by the leg and stops me. He lowers his voice to a barely audible whisper.
“Do you know that woman?”
I immediately know who he’s talking about.
“I know,” I admit and quickly say, “It’s not me.”
Sometimes during meditation it’s possible to take on a different form within one’s own personality, including a sex change.
“Is this the affirmation of your spiritual guide?” he asks.
I don’t quite know who a spiritual guide is, let alone what the word affirmation means. I think I know what he means. I don’t know how many people have regular sex with their spiritual guides. Just to be on the safe side I assure him it is. The chick who sometimes visits him is my spiritual guide. He lets go of my leg and I can walk away.
In this part of the room there’s nobody else. A dozen steps more takes me into the depths of a collapsed corridor, whose walls, to our great fortune, have been given a better finish. Under my fingertips I can feel a smooth layer of plastizol covering the plaster. In a niche at the foot of the wall there’s a concave hole which gathers all humidity that sticks to the walls. It one of or maybe even the most important reason why we do the rounds. Water.
I lick the drops off the wall. I try not to think about all those before me who did the same thing. Our position is tragic. We can’t take it much longer. Soon we’ll be drinking our own urine. It’s dreadful but these thoughts come to me more and more often. The hunger isn’t that bad – it’s enough to lie down and fall asleep to forget about it. At least for some time. There’s no more water. I lick the wall again in the hope that I can find a drop, but it’s just an illusion.
I go back following the opposite side of the wall. I have yet to talk to two people. The first one is Sunshine. I don’t know how to start or what to talk about. For sure I’m not going to pursue the subject that Alexy brought up. As any young man would, he was mostly interested in Sunshine’s favorite positions. And not in the fitness department. His position as a commander in my eyes, which was running pretty low already, hit rock bottom.
“Hug me,” she asked.
So I did.
“Don’t worry. He’s alive,” I whispered in her ear.
She didn’t answer. What I said was actually my hopes only. Together with my AI we tried to get in touch with Theodore, but in vain. Ingrid suggested a theory that it was all because of the rock formations. She claimed that limestone prevented her from better penetration. I hoped this was true. When the walls started collapsing Theodore had gone to a storage room on a deeper level. We had been cut off.
Sunshine needed a shoulder to cry on. Everyone has their weak point and after crossing it, they fall apart. For her it was the perspective of losing the man she loved.
“Don’t panic,” I tried to calm her down. “We’ll still all party at your wedding.”
“What wedding?” she asked intrigued.
I was not the one to answer that question, but since Theodore was nowhere to be seen I told her about his matrimonial plans.
“Let me get my hands on him!” she threatened with non-descript consequences. “What a pig! He never even mentioned it.”
“I guess he wanted it to be a surprise for you,” I said.
“I’ll give him a surprise. I’ll keep him away for a month and no amount of begging will change anything. Then we’ll talk.”
I have no doubts that that’s exactly what she was thinking. Though if Theodore suddenly appeared in front of her, she would immediately forget about all these unnecessary words. I was glad I had managed to get her out of the stupor.
“I’m moving on,” I said hoping to finish the conversation.
“Say hi to yours,” she said, which took me completely by surprise.
“Who?” I asked confused.
“I was wrong about her,” she admitted. “For a virtual girl she’s not too bad. Although I somehow can’t imagine your wedding.”
I was too stunned to analyze these revelations. Somebody knows about Ingrid. If Sunshine does, then Theodore does too. I have to think this th
rough. For the next couple of steps I walk like in a dream. In the end I step on Alexy, totally by mistake of course. He swears. I would gladly jump on his head but that might look too suspicious. And it would also feel like such a waste of energy. What a swine I’ve become. But I refuse to talk to that moron. Besides, on his rounds he avoids me too. I guess he must still remember that I carry a knife in my boot. But I won’t do him the courtesy of slitting his throat. I’ll let him die last. It was him who sent Theodore to the fucking storage room.
When the moment of crisis comes I’ll help Sunshine. She asked me for it. And then I hope I’ll have enough courage to finish myself off. I guess I will be able to endure two more rounds. So far everybody is playing their roles. But who is going to come rescue us? I’m a coward. That I know for sure. If I had the courage in my heart I would kill everybody much earlier. I wouldn’t let them suffer so much. It’s inhumane. Unfortunately, there are no courageous people among us. Even Sunshine backed down when she was holding a blade against Kola’s throat. The revolutionaries suck too. They wouldn’t even touch a knife.
The darkness keeps spinning around me. Sometimes I don’t know what is reality and what is a dream. Ghosts of the past haunt me. Ed stands right in front of me with a hole in his head and looks at me. He says nothing, doesn’t complain, doesn’t protest, doesn’t seem to mind that I had pulled that trigger. He only stands there smiling. Keep standing there, friend, we’ll soon meet.
Another time an especially stubborn Marine corporal comes to me and tells me off for losing my gun. He doesn’t spare me and has a great talent for words, that Corporal Kowalsky.
I come round. Where am I? I can feel the stink of piss and shit in my nose. By mistake I walked right into our john. This is the other collapsed end of the corridor where we relieve ourselves. I don’t even have the energy to stop to piss anymore. If my body has to, I let it go. I turn towards my den. Stop! I’ve forgotten about the most important thing. I take a metal bar and hit the wall with it. Once and twice! I don’t hear a response. Well, that’s the end of my duties. I can get back to my place. Ingrid is already waiting with dinner. She promised I would get a juicy steak at the end of my rounds. I finished yet another round. Which one was it? The thirteenth?
In my state I don’t even have to go through the procedure of getting into meditative state. After wrapping myself in my foil cocoon I’m already on my island. I don’t feel like walking and just lie down on the sand.
“Try to stay awake for a little while longer,” Ingrid leans over me. “I feel that something has changed.”
Promises, promises. I remember there was something important I was supposed to talk to her about. I remember being angry about something, but what was it? Something trivial I guess. She does it only to keep up the spirit in me. I wonder if she will go with me when I die. This will be the first Artificial Intelligence in heaven. No, I should say in hell. I’m sure it won’t be boring. I slide my hand in the front of her slip. Look at those boobs! It’s true that a man before dying still thinks about sex.
“I don’t have the strength for a shag, honey,” I admit regretfully.
Ingrid shakes me up.
“Don’t fall asleep. Something is happening! Wake up!” she shouts.
Why does she have to shout? I can’t see the white light or tunnel. What a stubborn thing my woman is. She won’t let go.
“Pavel, get up!” I can hear Sunshine’s husky voice.
And what the hell is she doing here? No, it wasn’t Sunshine who found my Refugium. It was me who returned to reality. But I can still feel the trembling. Everything is vibrating around me. There’s light in our prison. It’s Alexy using the battery back-up. Ew! Is that scarecrow crouching next to me Sunshine? I guess it’s better that Theodore can’t see her in that state. His marriage plans would go...
“Look!” the scarecrow points to the ceiling.
I can see cracks and bits of the ceiling start falling down. We crawl away towards the walls. This is ridiculous. Why prolong the agony? Wouldn’t it be better to stick our heads right under the falling rocks? Ricky ticky and all gone.
“Move that fucking ass under the wall! Right now!” Ingrid chases me away.
I really feel like crying. And you, woman, against me? I crawl away with Sunshine’s help. How exhausted I am! In that state I won’t be able to last until my next rounds.
A huge rock falls and hits the place where my legs used to be. Oops. Blinding light shines at us from above. It hurts my eyes. We protest clumsily shading our eyes.
“We’ve broken through to the survivors,” we can hear an angelic voice.
I admit I’m in shock and quite unable to control the sequence of events. Somebody’s hands pull us out of the grave. There’s noise, commotion, light and people everywhere. It’s all too fast for my dazed senses. It quickly gets warm once we’re wrapped tight in thermal blankets. We immediately get transported to the surface.
“Where have all the Devourers gone?” I manage to articulate a question.
Nobody answers me. I woman in a white uniform gives Sunshine a perfunctory check up. I can see the blue Marine armors swarming everywhere. They walk in whole platoons and look into every hole. The technical personnel collects soil samples.
There’s hope growing in my heart.
They pull out another survivor from a hole in the rock. Alexy Pierunov looks around and shouts out loud.
“Long live the revolution!” Then he faints. A moron.
I’m not entertained by his fall because somebody sticks something into my vein. Another one with a notepad starts asking questions.
“Name and surname, please.”
I look at him and I don’t understand anything. It’s just that I don’t remember anybody from the authorities to ask me about something like that. I instinctively point to the tattoo on my head. I’m number one three two, from Kappa 12. The man doesn’t get it.
“Name and surname,” he patiently repeats, even without shouting.
“Pavel Tsenre,” I say.
“ID code.”
“731300…” I realize I had forgotten the last three digits.
“Planet of origin?”
“KV 13.”
The doctor puts a yellow band around my hand.
“Theodore!” I hear Sunshine’s spine-chilling shrill.
She tries to get away from the hands of the medical personnel, but they don’t let her go. She finally goes limp in their arms.
“What have you done to her?” I protest. Soon I end up in the arms of a Marine.
He’s not stupid and doesn’t let me kick him in the balls.
“Sweet dreams, my little mole,” I hear.
Chapter XIV
Conference room on aircraft carrier HES United.
Captain Josh Wilson shut the door behind an officer who had just left. Another from a long series of briefings had just finished. The stimulators were refusing to work. They needed at least a few hours’ break. He returned to the table above which the computer was still displaying a projection of the Sixth Fleet units. He turned off some of them.
“Leave something for the aides,” the Fleet Commander, Admiral Gerald Williams, came out of the deeper end of the room. In his hand he was holding a glass with interesting looking contents.
“Thanks. You know, Gerald, I’ve only just realized that I never thanked you for the nomination.”
“Oh, it’s all my pleasure,” the Admiral replied. “I was worried that you would refuse to accept it. Was Sandra very mad?”
“She didn’t really warm up to the idea of me returning to active duty,” the Captain agreed.
“Was it really bad?” the Fleet Commander asked.
“After so many years spent in the Academy, where her life revolved around balls and dressmakers, this change was quite a shock to her. She never believed that I would ever take my place on the bridge again,” the Captain took a sip of his golden drink. He coughed, surprised by the strength of the beverage. The Admiral patted him
on the back in a friendly manner.
“I’m glad you’ve made this decision. I missed you through all these years,” he confessed, “and I never really fully came to terms with your decision to leave.”
“I met Sandra just before the final exams.”
“I remember that day,” the Admiral said. “You flew into a cluster of asteroids on your simulator that day.”
“And you still remain single? You’ve always been surrounded by women. We thought you would be the first one tied down by a girl,” the Captain took another sip. This time without any side-effects.
“Sometimes I’m surprised myself,” the Admiral admitted, not going into the details of his private life.
The Commander of the carrier put an empty glass on the table. He looked around one of the largest halls of the ship he was in charge of. It was a brand new vessel that smelled of newness. It was produced at an extraordinary speed and some of the works were never finished. The walls remained unpainted. Even those in the cabins used by the highest officers still glared with the gray of the undercoat.
“I’m very grateful to you for enabling me to test my theories in practice,” Captain Josh Wilson said to his supervisor. “But why me? I know there are people better than me, and we weren’t even very good friends. We knew each other, that’s a fact, but that was fifteen years ago.”
The Admiral didn’t answer straightaway. He sat down on the first empty seat and drummed his fingers on the table.
“The Admiralty isn’t fully convinced that carriers are worth building,” he started. “As you know, there are many different factions involved in the fighting against each other. Of course, it’s all strongly connected with politics and finance. You might be surprised to find out that it was InCorporation’s lobbying that created CV class ships in the first place.”
“And how is it profitable for them?”
“They produce fighters and believe that they will make a fortune on it.”
“Do they have a chance?”
“If it turns out that two or three machines are capable of seriously damaging a battleship then yes,” the Admiral said. “I’ve met their best engineers. Their work on a long range fighter that will be able to enter subspace on its own are coming to an end. Within two, maybe three years it will start being mass produced. But to make sure it happens, we must prove your theories,” he pointed his finger at Josh.
