by Adrian P
Or was it me who intentionally stayed away from her?
Ah, the first time I saw her. She was walking down the classroom on the corner. Late. Wearing traditional clothes all the way covering to ankle. Bryant smiled. I thought she was part of the universe’s background, a peripheral existence that will never enter the foreground I live in. I was wrong. Suddenly she became a part of my world. How? Now I can’t fathom to imagine a world without her. Now—
The van’s door opened in abrupt.
“What are you doing?” Audi stood outside. “Everyone went inside the inn already.”
“Oh no, nothing,” the big man laughed. “How long are we going to stay here?”
“Until the Mother Star rises again,” the boy replied. “The Armed Forces lost track of Konstantin’s convoy, so they could be anywhere. We don’t want to bump onto them in the middle of darkness unprepared.”
“Alright then,” Bryant jumped off the van with the UFX-PDA’s screen still active.
Audi snatched the device with a sleight of hand.
“Hey!” Bryant panicked. “Don’t—“
“I see,” Audi skimmed through the pictures. “This girl is your fiancée, isn’t she?” he said. “How old were you all here?”
“Sixteen,” Bryant sighed. “Almost two decades ago.”
“Do you have a current picture?”
Bryant shook his head.
“Why?” Audi asked. “I thought you would—“
The big man paused. “I…don’t have our pictures stored in this UFX-PDA,” he smiled. “I’ve got another one left in my house. That’s where all the recent pictures are.”
Audi cocked an eyebrow. “I see,” he returned the device. “It must be tough, having to handle her parents who wouldn’t approve you.”
“My fault,” Bryant laughed. “I should’ve earned more money, that way her parents would have approved me.”
Audi crossed his arms and glared at Bryant. “All this time you’ve been talking about her parents, but what about your fiancée?”
“What about her?”
“I understand that her parents put you in an unreasonable trial by challenging you to buy the ultra-expensive diamond ring, but does your fiancée not have a word?” the boy asked. “Ultimately, this marriage is yours. If I were you two, I would say, fuck the parents, and just marry without their consent.”
Bryant chuckled. “That’s not how marriages work.”
The boy frowned his eyebrows.
“The Crowned Confederacy requires the parents of both bride and groom to sign the marriage contract before the union becomes valid,” he said. “A marriage is, after all, more than a romantic union between individuals; it is an economic union between families.”
Silence.
“So I couldn’t just run off and marry ourselves without parental consent,” Bryant continued. “We could, but our…union…won’t be recognised legally. It would just be an informal relationship, a cohabitation, much like dating. We wouldn’t have access to state benefits which only married couples are entitled to—”
“Is that a worse alternative?”
Bryant stopped.
“The diamond ring you need to buy costs the entire universe, so whatever state benefit you’re going to be entitled to will be fully nullified,” he paused. “And that’s assuming you’re jumping into marriage for economic reasons, but what about your fiancée? Is tying your existence to her not the ultimate reason why you want this marriage?”
The big man kept silent.
“I’ve never really understood love,” the boy’s voice softened. “Is it something that came to fruition when you meet someone of a certain beauty standard? Is it something you feel for someone who can provide you certain benefit? Should the benefit be physical? Material? Or mental? Spiritual? Is love a noun? A verb? Can you only love one, or can you love many?”
Bryant closed his eyes. “To me, my fiancée is someone so special that I’m willing to go through all this humiliation,” he replied. “I threw my secure banking job for this life-threatening mercenary work. For whom? For her. Just so I can be together with her.”
“But what’s the point if you end up dead in the journey?”
“I wonder,” Bryant smiled as he walked past the boy towards the inn. “Come on, everyone’s waiting inside. We don’t want to worry them too much.”
He walked away without waiting for the boy.
Audi pressed his thumb on a console next to a door. A click. He pushed the door handle and opened it, unveiling a small one bedroom cabin with bathroom door on the far side. He entered and took his shoes off, sitting on the bed and punched the mattress lightly.
Hard, but more comfortable than mine back in Vurste. I shouldn’t complain.
He opened his UFX-PDA and browsed the news reel. A business article glorified The Crowned Confederacy’s economy by showing a tremendous growth over the past three years. Multiple articles by different journalists presented graphs, figures, and tables showing a massive recovery from The Galactic Economic Crisis. Each of them praised the current crown prince, Christopher Turner Tanuya, for initiating his massive deregulation reform.
On the far corner of the page, a short piece reported a sudden spike in reported mental illnesses, depression cases, and suicide rates. No complex analysis; just a brief statement.
The boy shivered.
He looked around the room. Nothing. But he won’t stop shivering. The boy stood and walked to the window. A cold breeze blew through. The slight frost tingled his skin, but the shivers from earlier were still there.
The boy sighed and sat on his bed. “When did you get in?”
A giggle came from above.
“Boo,” Charlotte blasted out of invisibility, hanging upside down while squatting like a frog. She retracted her helmet and released her hair downwards. A breeze blew through the window, forcing her hair into a wiggly dance.
She flipped back and landed on two feet. She put two fingers into her suit from the neck, and a steam puffed through. The armour’s torso piece split in two, unveiling Charlotte in a grey shirt and black long trousers.
“Has Terra realised what’s happening in this planet?” she walked out of her armour and sat next to the boy.
“The news on planet-wide unrest and riots have reached the press, but they still thought the hurricane on Benteng City was a natural disaster.”
“Our mission is becoming more critical, isn’t it? We’re protecting the galaxy from Konstantin’s weapon.”
Audi kept silent. “Sorry for complicating our operation, Ghost Girl,” he said. “But I really need Konstantin alive.”
“For the medicine right?” she smiled. “I don’t really mind, but our situation is making that difficult.”
“Because we’re not getting any reinforcement?”
She shook her head. “Because the enemy is actively trying to kill you.”
The boy paused.
“You’ve told me how you fought these Brotherhood people three years ago in Gleicherde,” she continued. “What have you done to make them hate you so much?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I beat their admiral up, maybe.”
“Their admiral?”
“A baldy calling himself The Patriot of War,” he scratched his head. “He chased me all around the planet, wanting to study my fighting method for his philosophical work, The Art of War or whatever.”
“So you beat him?”
“Through a very roundabout way,” he replied. “I caught their scouts and chopped them up to pieces, fed them to starving dogs in shelters, then—“
“Hold on, hold on,” she interrupted. “You…what them up to pieces?”
“Chopped them. Dismembered. Mutilated.”
“Why?” Charlotte asked. “Do you hate them that much?”
Audi kept silent for seconds. “That baldy, that waxed-egg-for-a-head killed innocent children for the sake of a few animals.”
The girl listened.
“
The Gleicherdens tortured dogs and made them savage, turning them into brutal killing machines, and Gleicherde’s child soldiers were forced to use them to defend against a massacre by the Brotherhood,” he continued. “And that baldy…he retaliated against these children by turning the dogs against them,” he clenched his fist. “I had to watch one of them die in pain.”
“So you’re saying that torturing animals to turn them into weapons of war is okay?”
“That’s not the point!” Audi raised his voice. “These children were forced into conscription by their government, sold by their parents for the sake of puny financial incentives. They were innocent. They were unwilling parties in the war their elders fought!” he slammed his fist on the bed. “And that baldy doesn’t even have the slight judgement to see that through!”
Charlotte listened.
“In the end of the war, he sacrificed a mother and her baby just to save one dog, crushed under the weight of a fallen building,” he gritted his teeth. “The baby. When I picked him up from the debris. He was still breathing. Lightly. Blood everywhere. He was crying in silence. His sob was a quiet choke. His mouth struggled to breath in air. A second later, his chest ceased moving,” he paused. “An innocent soul, newly born into this cruel world. Died without the chance to understand his place.”
“Something must’ve had happen to that admiral in the past.”
Audi turned to Charlotte.
“For him to consider the lives of animal more precious than that of human’s—it’s not without precedent,” the girl said. “It must be a reaction to human cruelties he witnessed.”
“Are you saying what he’s done is permissible?”
Charlotte shook her head. “But humans are brought up to be selfish by this world,” she said. “My parents drugged me just so I don’t become a sportswoman, so I’ll end up working normal office jobs.”
“Drugged you how?”
She put one palm on her right chest. “They fed the drug gradually since I’ve shown heightened interest in becoming a sprinter, when I was eight. By the time I was running for a selection marathon to become a professional, I was weak enough, and collapsed in the middle of the track,” she closed her eyes. “To them, what’s important is getting a job which pays money and earns title. They want me to work either as an engineer, lawyer, or financial planner, which are the three jobs with the highest demand in the market.”
“They want you to make money the way everyone does.”
Charlotte’s face soured. “They’ve never considered my passion. What I want. How I want to contribute to this world.”
Audi crossed his arms. “Can you really blame them?”
The girl opened her eyes.
“We cannot live without money in this world. The five basic human needs—food, health, energy, clothing, and shelter must be bought with money,” he said. “In order to survive, we’ve got to have a lot of money.”
“Are you supporting the way our world works?” Charlotte’s tone deepened. “This enslavement to wealth. This forced dependency on money?”
“I grew up poor, Ghost Girl, do you really think I like the way the world currently works?” he asked. “The money I’ve got from mercenary contracts are not small, but they are quickly spent on replenishing my arms supplies and whatever bills I must pay. Even after working for Nagisawa Corporation, the largest corporation in the galaxy, I can barely place myself among the poorest of the middle-class.”
Silence.
“Matthew Cainson betrayed us because he needed money, and only Konstantin can promise him a good pay,” he continued. “His family relied on his mercenary contract payments for survival.”
“I thought he’s just naturally greedy.”
Audi shook his head. “I don’t believe humans are born evil. Hell, I don’t even believe that they are tabula rasa, a clean slate waiting to be written with good and evil,” he opened his palm and stared at it. “I believe that humans are born as good, as creatures whose greatest strength is their power to empathise.”
“How can you tell?”
The boy turned to Charlotte. “Whenever I see a man get kicked on the nuts, I get to experience a share of their pain.”
Charlotte burst out in laughter.
“What an example!” she teared up and kept laughing for seconds. “Is that actually true? That men squirm whenever they see someone’s balls got kicked?”
“Just an example on our natural affinity for empathy,” the boy replied. “Seeing others in pain, in general, triggers a reaction in us.”
“Then how did so many end up being apathetic to others’ sufferings?” Charlotte asked. “If we are really naturally tuned for empathy, then the world wouldn’t have operated the way it does. My mom. My dad. They wouldn’t have drugged me, just because I do not aspire to become the image they have of me. Of my future.”
“Your parents are extreme cases, but take Matthew for example,” he paused. “The only reason he prioritised money over morality is precisely due to the way the world works. Jobs are hard to find. Good jobs that pay good money are even harder to find. So he’s simply being…realistic.”
“Realistic,” Charlotte frowned.
She grabbed Audi’s hand.
“Please,” she said without looking at him. “However harsh the world may be. However cruel it treats you and others. Please do not change.”
“Change how?”
She closed her eyes. “We do not live in a world that values compassion. We live in a world where selfishness brings more happiness than kindness. I’ve witnessed so many good souls gave up on morality simply because they can’t survive otherwise.”
Silence.
“I’m afraid you will succumb. The way you care about others, the way you care about those who don’t benefit you. In you there’s every ingredient present in those who will implode.”
The boy frowned his eyebrows. “Implode?”
“One day the world will convince you that kindness is not worth possessing. One day the world will show you that benevolence only harms yourself. One day the world will attempt to shatter your humanity,” she opened her eyes and pulled him to her, planting her face on his chest. “When that day comes, please do not give up on yourself. Do not give up on everyone else. Hope. Never despair.”
Audi took a deep breath. “I will not give up on the world.”
“Promise?”
He nodded. “There are people whose world I have been fighting for. Better worlds. The moment I give up on humanity, I will be betraying myself. I will be betraying these people.”
Charlotte smiled. She neared her face on his neck and kissed it.
“Hey,” the boy’s face blushed and warmed. “What are you doing?”
The girl pushed him lightly to the wall, and the boy offered not the slightest resistance. His face showed a slight panic, and the girl showed the tip of her tongue with a slight grin.
“Wait,” the boy said. “Now?”
“Don’t want to?” she poked his chin lightly.
“We have to wake up early and chase after Konstantin,” he replied. “Tonight is a little…”
“Boo,” Charlotte pouted and rested her cheek on his chest. “That’s why we should’ve just kill Konstantin so we can get everything done and over with,” she paused. “Where do you live when you’re back working with Nagisawa Corporation?”
“There’s a dormitory in the office tower. Sometimes I spend the night in the penthouse if I—“
“What?”
“Mainly in the dormitory,” the boy replied in monotone.
“So if I work there, I’ll be living in the tower too?”
“If you don’t mind.”
She giggled.
Audi cocked an eyebrow. “Wait…don’t tell me you’re—“
The door opened in abrupt.
“Heya!” Bryant grinned wide. “Do you have a bit of time to—“
The big man froze in place.
Charlotte leaned on the boy with bot
h her arms and her legs around him, glancing at Bryant with indifference.
The boy’s face was that of panic. He tried moving, but the girl had him locked in place. Bryant took a small step back. Once. Twice. “Am I disturbing you…?” his face almost rise to a smirk.
The boy sighed and placed a palm on his face.
Chapter 2 / Part 2
The City of Kotabaru lied in the far south of the continent. It was the second biggest city in Planet Bandar Prime, but it was more densely populated than the planetary capital. Armoured Transport of the Police Department entrenched themselves on streets, guarded by heavily armoured members of Detachment Blue—The Police’s special elite unit. Sirens rung across the city, while downtown sections of the CBD was burning.
Rioting masses pillaged interstellar company offices, from renowned fashion brands to fast food chains. As police officers and Detachment Blue arrived on scene, the rioters wore their mask and jumped into formation. The police fired water cannons, but the rioters entrenched themselves by forming a thick wall, while the rest continued their pillage.
Konstantin’s convoy entered Kotabaru’s inner highway, choosing routes which avoid police concentration. After a few kilometres within, they met a police barricade.
“Gryaznov,” Konstantin leaned forward onto the dashboard and spoke to his communicator. “I thought you’ve arranged your sleeper cells to ensure these Tyrant enforcers stay clear of our path.”
A static noise crackled over the channel. “Imbecile. My strategic plan was designed for straight destination to the spaceport,” Sasha replied. “I didn’t know we’re going to the observatory.”
“It was a necessary step.”
“Necessary?” Sasha grumbled. “How is another massacre necessary? Haven’t you killed enough in Benteng City? Haven’t you destroyed enough? Haven’t you stole enough livelihood of the innocents?”
“Innocents?” Konstantin frowned. “They are beyond help, Rear Admiral. Killing them was mercy, at least, mercy for future generations who won’t have to put up with their nonsense, the culture and system they continue to cultivate.”
