by Thomas Davis
Jake took the long way to school. He weaved in and out of the back alleys to avoid the main city walkways. There was a method to his madness. He was intentionally trying to arrive minutes after the opening bell so he could make it to class in one piece. Sure the instructor would have words for him but that would be far better than the torment David Assad and his gang of ruffians would put him through. Since the beginning of the semester, Jake had become their favorite new target. Every day in the courtyard before the opening bell they would corner him and bully him in front of his classmates. No one ever stepped in to help. They were all suddenly blind or struck with a strange paralysis. They were all too afraid and he didn’t blame them. He wouldn’t step in for a wimp like himself, too much hassle. When he thought about how the tirade had started his emotions become undecided and muddled. This daily ritual of torment started over something very small and equally ridiculous.
A belly button.
He allowed his mind the freedom to reel back the memory of the day his predicament began. It was a week after the new semester had started. Proctors were brought in to conduct the colonial fitness evaluation required by law. The exam was pretty straightforward. Basic calisthenics, followed by a jogging lap around the campus, and finally a rope climb in the gym. Jake took notice of David, and one of his minions, as a part of his examination group. They were already notorious on the campus grounds and he wanted to stay off their radar.
During the course of the first two segments of the exams, he made sure to keep his distance. He had successfully managed to place himself at the opposite end of whatever space they claimed as their territory. There were casualties along the way. Sam Higgins from freshman class B got his pants yanked down to his ankles during jumping jacks. Kurt Morrison, a junior from Class F, was tripped up and he fell into the foliage during the campus jog. Katherine Harris, another freshman from class B was teased about the size of her forehead during push-ups. This went on until she broke down and cried. Jake remained out of the fray.
All was going according to plan until the final activity of the examination; the rope climb. All the students were sent up in pairs to the two ropes dangling from the gym ceiling. There was no way to stay invisible when you're being called out in front of the group. It was like the theatres he had read about where the spotlight shone and you had to do whatever you had been practicing in the dark. Jacob did a quick headcount. He'd always scored above average in math and statistics. He could figure out a way to position himself so that he wouldn't be noticed.
He successfully managed to finagle a place four spots after David in the opposite line. This way, the terror of Bowie Academy would be walking back towards a crowd of students who had already completed the climb just as Jacob's turn at the rope came. There was one miscalculation though. Sam Higgins was in line before David. Higgins had such a fear of heights that his turn lasted forever. By the time Higgins completed his climb, Jake was standing beside David Assad. They both walked forward and grabbed their respective ropes. Jake’s heart was an inch away from bursting and his mind was a collection of scattered thoughts. He swallowed hard and stole a glance at David who was also sizing him up. Their eyes met and Jake averted his quickly.
"You got a problem, slick?" David snarled with a cold look.
"Problem? Why would have I have a problem? Except if it's a quadratic or simultaneous equation. I sometimes have a problem with those but I don't see how this relates to that or ..." Jake stopped speaking the moment he realized he was rambling. “Oh! Problem?” He said with a nervous laugh then gestured at the ropes. “You mean with uh… No. I'm a… Of course, there is no problem."
"I don't need your life story, smart guy," David said with a sneer.
“Of course you don’t. That would take time and would definitely bore you. We’re in agreement regarding that.”
"Anyone tell you that you talk a lot? Just don’t get in my way”
Jake nodded emphatically.
David was possibly the largest and most athletically inclined student on campus but oddly enough, he wasn't on any of the academy's sports teams. As soon as the buzzer went off, he was up and down the rope quickly. Jake was relieved to know that David would be gone by the time he got back down on the gym floor, crisis averted. But David, in a bid to show off to the girls in the group climbed the rope a second time. The boys made it down from the ropes at about the same time, but Jake's gym shirt got tangled with the rope and exposed his stomach to the group. He was more concerned with not ruining his shirt and therefore thought nothing of the accident. As he began untangling his shirt from the line, he heard David’s voice,
"What the heck is that, weirdo?!" David laughed as he pointed at Jake's stomach.
The most common method of procreation on the 13 Terran colonies was through cloning. The Cells of both parents are cultivated, combined, and used to grow a child via the cloning matrix lovingly referred to as "Mother." This system was developed as a more efficient mode of procreation. The standard method was too unpredictable for a populace that existed primarily in a manufactured ecosystem. Population control was essential for survival of the colonists. The gender of the child was chosen by an algorithm within Mother so as to maintain an essential balance of males to females in the population. A precarious balance between the sexes was necessary, as a tilt towards either would result in an imperfect system. The founding fathers didn’t want a repeat of what had happened to their ancestors through the fight for rights and equality. So, they figured that maintaining an order where the population was split down the middle would produce a sense of equality and importance needed for the advancement of life in the colonies. The pods that the housed the clones as they grew contained a fluid that nourished them until birth. Which discarded the need for a belly button.
Jacob's father was a bit of a goofball in his youth. He failed to register his DNA for processing when he turned 25. So when he and Anne got married and decided they wanted to have a child, their request to use Mother was put into the backlog. This meant they could potentially be made to wait 10 years before their turn would come around. Of course, they didn’t want to wait, but there was no way forward. Natural procreation was frowned upon by popular society. For one, the child came with a bag of diseases that were unknown to the colonists; there was no one alive with pediatric knowledge as relating to natural birth and because of this, natural birth was discouraged and often dangerous. But Travis and Anne saw no other option but to try their luck. Who could wait ten years before they would get to hold a child in their arms? So Jacob was conceived the old way.
The news of the pregnancy brought joy, uncertainty, and surprise to his parents. Doctors had cautioned against it and the council tried to pass a bill to have it removed because they felt it would encourage people down a path that led straight to death. Apart from the death of his mother during his birth, everything about him was normal. Like the children made from Mother, he didn't suffer much illness and his growth wasn't stunted.
Being different had never been an issue for Jacob until David pointed at his belly button. David made a spectacle of it and even coerced the entire group into pointing at it and laughing. Life at school had been that way ever since that day. Eventually, David grew wise and discovered what the odd object on Jacob's stomach was. From that day forward, Jacob's name on campus became Buttons.
Every day brought on a new humiliation at the hands of David and his goons. For the past week, Jake had arrived late to school so he could walk to class in peace. But today was different. Upon arrival at the main gate, he scanned the courtyard before he made a move to enter. Before he set foot on the school grounds, he noticed movement behind the steps leading up to the main entrance of the school.
Quickly, he pressed his back to the archway of the gate, and then carefully peeked back into the courtyard. He realized that the movement was by Earl Smith, one of David's lackeys. Earl usually played the role of lookout for the group and was the last person you would want to meet. There was no
doubt in Jake’s mind that David and the gang was waiting on the other side of the entrance for him. The likely plan would be, once Earl signaled the group of his arrival they would proceed to pounce on him. Jacob’s stomach felt queasy, he wasn’t in the mood to soak up any more abuse today. There was no way he would be able to survive this onslaught without losing his mind.
Slowly, he peeled his back from the archway without making a sound. He tiptoed along the outer barrier wall of the school grounds while contemplating his current dilemma. He was so engrossed in thought that the end of the wall escaped his notice as he wandered into the morning rush of crowds that flooded the walkways off campus. Everyone was in a mad rush, which was typical of weekdays.
The sound of a school bell in the distance woke Jacob from his trance-like state. He recognized the chime as the sound of first period ending. He had been lost in a sea of thoughts and wandering for close to an hour. It was then that it dawned on him that he had just inadvertently cut school. He had by no choice of his joined the clan of miscreants that turned up their noses at school. Jacob considered what to do with this ill-gotten free time that he had just stolen. Nothing spectacular came to mind. He needed to go to a place he wouldn’t be questioned about school. What he needed, he thought, was free time from all the rules, structures, and everything else that did not contribute to his sanity nor understood his dilemma. A light bulb came on after much thought. He decided to go Nowhere.
shngla/lhs/srv/0001976/upload.dat
4
Trial of Nowhere
Nowhere was a back alley off of Gruber Street. It wasn't a long walk from the Bowie Academy campus. As the crow flies, 15 minutes was all it would take. Jake arrived without making a sound then proceeded to carefully inspect the alley from afar before entering. This alley was a hotspot that drew in delinquents and other tough teenagers. Usually, the place was packed full of them and it was dangerous to come close by at such times. Luckily for him today, he was the only delinquent who decided to skip school. He was as safe as a mouse when the house cat is on vacation.
The scientists and station administrators quickly discovered it was impossible to perfectly simulate gravity across the entire colony. In some places, anomalies developed like dimensional shifts and irregular gravity. Although they tried to correct this natural error, none of the remedies took. Soon, the knowledge was out and the outlaws of society converged at these spots. Nowhere was one of the few places on the station with irregular gravity. These spots were so few and could be counted on the fingers of one hand, so spots like Nowhere became popular with teens whenever they were discovered. In these irregular gravitational fields, one could jump higher than normal then float back down to the ground. The space colony is a globe and if you jump high enough you can see through the clouds and glimpse the cityscape on the opposite side of the station. This was a thrilling adventure for teens and dreamers alike. Jake had never seen this.
He had heard a story about a boy who jumped 50ft in the air. According to the story, the boy saw the other side clear as day. But then continued to float. He couldn't return to the ground and he just floated away, never to be seen again. It sounded like a silly urban legend but deep down Jake believed it. This fear kept him from jumping up more than 30ft. Every time he tried to break free from his inhibitions; the story rose in his mind and grounded him to the spot.
Jake did a few moments of pre-jump stretching before his first practice leap. This low effort attempt got him up about 5ft. The next jump cleared him of 7ft. Now, it was time to get serious. He crouched down low almost into a runner’s starting stance then propelled himself upward. He easily soared about 15ft. He continued to jump up then float back to the ground. For a moment he thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to just float away. He jumped again. On his way up he dodged a clothesline drawn between two balconies. At 30ft high, he looked toward the street. He could see a Station Security patrol near the alley entrance below. If they spotted him ditching school he'd be in hot water. His heart began to play a bassline to the rhythm of fear orchestrated on the strings of his nerves.
Two officers turned into the alley. Nowhere was a known delinquent hangout by authorities so routine patrols were mandatory. Jake was in the act of floating back down to the ground. Within minutes these officers would be close enough to see him. He feverishly flapped his arms upward in a vain attempt to descend faster. It was no use. He started to panic as the officers entered the area below. If they looked up they would see him. Jacob remembered the clothesline strewn between the two buildings he passed on the way up. He kicked his legs back as he thrust his arms forward. He spun in a circle head over heels as he reached out for the line beneath him. It was slightly out of his grasp. On the next spin, he was beneath the line. He stretched his fingers out to their limit to take hold of the line. If he missed there was no telling what position he would be in when gravity reasserted itself upon him. There was every possibility he would land on his neck.
Panic began to set in. Every muscle in his back tensed as he reached for the line. His fingertips grazed the line. He missed. His only hope now was to yell at the officers when he was close enough. Maybe they could catch him before his head hit the ground. His thoughts spun in a crazy frenzy in tandem with his view. Everything was a blur meshed into another blur. It'd be far better to deal with his angry parents than to potentially split his head open. As he opened his mouth to form and scream out help, he stopped spinning for some unknown reason.
He looked up frantically in search of his salvation and noticed that the heel of his shoe had caught onto the line. He struggled to reach up to grab the line with his hands. He heard comm chatter below. It was the Station officers' communicators being overly loud. If they looked up they would definitely see him struggling with the wire. Jacob got a firm grip on the line as gravity gradually reasserted itself upon his body. If he didn't make it to the balcony in time the line would snap under his weight.
The Station Security officers listened intently to the departmental updates on their comm units as Jacob struggled to navigate the clothesline. He became tangled in a blouse on the line as he progressed. It fell from the line and drifted down towards the officers. It was as if the universe itself was conspiring against him. His arms burned more and more as his weight increased. The line tightened, ready to snap at any moment. The blouse flopped onto one of the officers' helmets. They snapped their gazes upward almost in unison to inspect the origin of the piece of fabric. Clothes were raining down from the sky.
The broken line dangled from the side of the building. The officer pulled the blouse from his helmet and the two looked at each other puzzled.
High above the scene, Jake gasped for air as he lay on the floor of the balcony. He was exhausted from his little adventure.
He couldn't stop his left hand from shaking as he caught his breath. As the moment passed he finally managed to compose himself. He pulled himself up to his feet using the balcony railing. A light on the control panel next to the balcony's entrance changed from red to yellow. The door slid open. An elderly woman emerged from the apartment with a broom in her hands. The two locked eyes. She raised the broom above her head like a Warrior's axe and let out a shrill battle cry as she swung it at Jake. He dodged the attack and scrambled through her apartment towards the front door.
“Ma’am! I am no one suspicious!” His words fell on deaf ears. “I swear on my mother’s Frame that this is all some big misunderstanding. I promise I’m not a burglar or anything.”
She pursued him, her little feet shuffling across the floor as she waved her broom around like a tornado. Jake fumbled with the door panel until it slid open and he fell out into the vacant hallway. The old woman angrily shook her broom at him from her doorway as he jogged away from her down the hall and around a corner.
Jake laughed to himself for a minute as he leaned back against the hallway wall. He had run for dear life from a woman he could have easily tackled. He chuckled hard at his cowardice then gathered him
self then walked towards where he thought the nearest lift would be. As he walked he wondered if delinquency was his true calling in life. He seemed to get a real thrill out of it.
The idea eventually faded. Delinquents probably don't make it into Shangri-La, he thought. Paradise has no need for troublemakers. It was what he was taught since before he could speak. Only productive members of society with character are worthy of the Shangri-La server.
shngla/lhs/srv/0001976/upload.dat
There were still hours left before the closing bell. It would be suspicious to return home before the school day ended so Jake was trying to figure out what to do until then. He remembered his father's claim of finding something incredible while salvaging on the surface of Jophiel. Travis's salvage yard wasn't too far away. Jake could quietly slip into his father's workshop and take a peek at what his old man was bragging about. It's not like he had anything better to do.
5
Discovery
There was no one about when he entered the salvage yard. Nevertheless, he paused and held his breath when the gate creaked as he slid into it. He felt like a Ninja from one of those ancient texts he had read on the interstellar library. He remembered the first time he set eyes on the word and the discipline required for one to be a Ninja. It impressed as well as scared him that people with such devotion and discipline had existed and yet the world had fallen into ruin.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jake caught the faintest glow of purple light. He turned towards his father's tool dolly and there lay the source of the light. Slowly, he approached the glowing object that had called for his attention. Fear and trepidation ran the course of his mind, body, and spirit. Upon closer inspection, the object looked like a large egg that flattened out at the bottom. He was transfixed for a moment before slowly making for the bizarre device. From the architecture and conversations going on in his head, Jacob decided the object before him was obviously alien and possibly dangerous, but there was no way he would not investigate. Curiosity was responsible for the death and skinning of cats, throwing in his lot with the feline’s was all that consumed him. His curiosity was in charge now. As he got closer, the light emanating from the alien device bathed him in a subtle glow that accentuated his features.
