04 Chapter 4

Wendall & Tauri

Dall sat on the sofa in his living room – No longer his mom’s. It was a stupid thought, but he couldn’t stop it from rattling in his brain. Its material shaped around his body for comfort he couldn’t feel, couldn’t remember how to feel. The walls shone brightly to convey a sense of space that the small apartment lacked. Fai was there next to him with her hand on his lap. His friends Toby and Otho were there standing in the corner. Neither looked comfortable. Dall didn’t blame them. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do.

The place felt crowded with his mom’s colleagues and friends. Several classmates and school staff were there too. That feeling magnified after being alone for the last couple of days. On the first day, he pleaded with Mr. Nereid to let him come back to school right away but wasn’t allowed. The instructor told him this was protocol and non-negotiable. He said that only after a week they would evaluate his return. Luckily he could still access the training material from home, so he spent his time reading up. Barely sleeping or eating.

Someone approached, a man by the shape of his bright pants. It had to be another of his mom’s colleagues, coming to give his condolences. The voice, however, made him look up sharply. “Wendall, I wanted to express how deeply sorry I am for your loss.” It was Dirk Galaxis, his mother’s boss. He wore a sorrowful smile, and his hand was offered. He scrambled to stand up, doing so awkwardly due to his tiredness and the low height of the sofa. Fai stood up as well. Dall took Galaxis’s hand, and the man pulled him close for a hug.

“Dall, if there’s anything you need, just let me know,” Galaxis told him after the hug ended. Their hands still locked, and Galaxis’s other hand was on Dall’s shoulder. “I mean it, here’s my contact info.” A soft alert chime confirmed the info was received. “Thank you, Mr. Galaxis,” Dall said, feeling a little uncomfortable and sensing everyone in the room looking at them. “Dirk, Wendall, you can call me Dirk.” Galaxis’ gaze lingered a second longer and then he turned to leave. He shook hands with several of his employees on his way out.

“That guy is intense,” Fai said quietly so only Dall could hear. “Nice of him to show up.” They sat back down. Dall didn’t feel like talking to anyone. His mom’s colleague, Wei, got up to say a few words. They had spoken the day before and she’d agreed to handle the funeral details, not that there was much to arrange. The only thing that was missing was his mother. He ordered the Memory-Crystal to be made in the shape of a Protea flower that she loved so much. It hadn’t arrived yet, though. The CSF office hadn’t released her body from the morgue. Dall decided he didn’t want to wait for it.

Wei’s eulogy washed over him, mostly unheard. He did notice that Wei started crying toward the end of her short speech and couldn’t stop, a friend hugged her, and they went to the kitchen. After that, a few friends said some more kind words that Dall didn’t bother to listen to. He just wanted all of them to leave. Eventually, they did. Only his three childhood friends remained. Fai nodded subtly for the two guys to find their way out. Otho was the first to understand, and he nudged Toby. “We better head out too. Dall, man, we’re sorry. Let us know what we can do, ok?”
“Thanks, guys. I’ll be ok. Hopefully, they’ll let me get back to training soon.” Dall said, trying to sound hopeful.

With the two friends gone, Fai gave Dall a long hug. She seemed to be waiting for him to cry, but no more tears came. He had cried the first night but not since. All he felt now was emptiness, and unwillingness to accept his mother was truly gone. He knew she was dead but couldn’t bring himself to believe it.

“Dali, is there anything you want me to do? Are you hungry? I can order something.”
“No, I’m ok. I think I’ll just go to bed. Didn't sleep much in the last two days,” he said, dropping back to the couch. “Oh, ok, do you want me to stay?” she asked with that worried look on her face. That made it even harder for him; her sadness was there because of him. “Nah, I think I prefer to be alone right now.”
“I’m here for you, Dall, whatever you need,” she said and held his face in both hands. Her beautiful eyes glistened. “Thanks, Fai. I know.”

He wanted to be alone. Beyond the unease he felt with people looking at him with sorrow or pity or both, there was the matter he had put off since yesterday morning. A notification came in the middle of studying Port Protocols, which he tried to read to distract himself. The logo that materialized before his eyes was the official government seal. The planet and the Clouds outline in front, which were harder to discern in the dark palette.

The message was addressed to him personally and required considerable authentication processing that his PL worked on to gather from his system to prove it was really him. After the message was decrypted, the official words appeared:

Dear Wendall Sying,

You are receiving this message following the passing of your mother, Larissa Sying. We extend our sincere condolences to you.

It was Ms. Sying’s expressed wish that you receive the attached data package.

The information included is intended for you alone and therefore was encrypted with your public identifier. You may download it now and remove it from the network or leave it for perpetuity to be accessed only by you at a time of your choosing.

With sympathy and condolencesPeople’s Bureau, Akoya

The day before, he couldn’t bring himself to view the message. Now, Dall opened the message again. His mother’s package waiting for him. He signaled for the package to open, and a panel prompt declared the content as encrypted. This time it was his mother’s encryption. The only other text on the panel read:

Our favorite place

Strangely, his mom felt she needed to add additional measures on top of the official ones. Dall immediately knew what she meant. As a child, their favorite place was the Tram station platform near their home, where they could look down on the planet. When he entered the station name, the panel disappeared. In its place, his mother’s face appeared frozen - a vid-message. Her apparition, so close to his face, was too much to bear. Dall quickly signaled the recording to display on the wall in front of him. The tears that didn’t come earlier, forced their way now uncontrollably.

Seeing his mother’s face again like this reminded him of her frozen body inside the transportation case. The video started playing.

“Dali, my love, if you’re watching this, then I’m no longer with you. There is a lot I need to tell you and a lot for me to be sorry about. I very much hoped this day would never come. Something happened that I feared my entire life, something I've pledged to prevent. I made this recording as a precaution to ensure you have the information and protection you will require with me gone. I hope there is still time, and I will find you so we can prepare together. But, if you are watching this, then I was wrong, and the enemy is even more dangerous than I estimated.

You should know that this recording will only play once, so please do your best to memorize everything. I can’t risk what I’m about to tell you being released, so I've made it impossible to record or replay. Please listen carefully and do as I instruct, as your life may depend on it. Whoever is behind this has found me, and they most likely know about you too. I don’t know who or what their intentions are, but they are well resourced, and I suspect they will do anything to keep themselves hidden.

The first thing you need to do is to join with a good friend of mine and your father’s best friend - Themis Eoan. He will know how to keep you safe. I trust him completely, and so can you. This is how he looks like (an image appeared on the display). Attached you will find a crypto-challenge to help you verify his identity.

Now, what I’m about to tell you will require your full concentration. It’s a lot to take in, I know. I’m sorry I’ve kept it hidden from you all this time. I was optimistic or naïve rather in my desire to keep you sheltered from all this. I so wanted to believe the centuries’ old danger will spare our lifetimes or that perhaps it was wrong all along. Unfortunately, as I’ve just learned, I was wrong about this too -”

Dall listened until the end of the recording, following his mother’s advice, memorizing everything. He felt as if he’d been hit by an ion blast and sucked out to the blackness of space. The pounding in his head increased to the point he felt it might soon explode. Eventually, Dall forced the spinning and pounding to stop. There was no time to mope.

Dall got up and wiped his eyes. He left without taking anything and didn’t look back.

---

Tauri piloted the Adrasteia, a Crosser Comfort class shuttle, owned by her father, who sat next to her. They were on the tiny bridge at the front of the capsule-shaped vessel. She didn’t need to do much; the onboard computer handled the navigation. Piloting commercial vessels meant entering the destination and sitting back for the ride. However, the SFA regulations mandated a licensed pilot to be present and ready to take over in every flight. This regulation was as old as the Clouds themselves. Tauri always figured this was a way to keep people employed when most tasks could be completely automated.

They were coming back from one of the mining facilities mounted on top of a large asteroid whose orbit was radically changed almost a hundred years ago when it was pushed toward Grandpa. Their five passengers, managers from the DRILL Company, had conducted a routine inspection at the facility and were now going back to Akoya.

Her father had managed to sign their department on a long-term contract, so this was a regular route for the Adrasteia. The customers sat in the spacious passenger area, talking quietly amongst themselves. Classical music was playing in the background. When Tauri checked, the current song was from Elton John’s Greatest Hits. Her father said these corporate types appreciated it. Tauri didn’t.

The shuttle approached Akoya quickly. The giant station grew in size by the second. Their current trajectory meant that the shuttle was chasing the station in its orbit. Light from the bluish planet cast a beautiful, ethereal tint across the Cloud. But Tauri was too used to this view to notice it. As they made their approach, the station seemed to grow bigger and bigger. When they got close enough, it looked like the multitude of ships flying around the station were gnats surrounding a sleeping beast.

Tauri instructed the ship to make its way to the main civilian passenger port on the south side of Akoya. Her father signaled the ship’s computer to request a landing queue spot. It took only a few seconds for the ship to be acknowledged and for the clearance data to come in. They received a spot in the queue that the automatic pilot factored into their course and velocity.

After several more minutes, they were in front of the great opening yawning from below the top level of the station. From their secure bubble of translucent Xarphene, they could see the protective dome glistening in the starlight and the silhouettes of the dome scrapers inside. They were part of the horde of ships moving in to access the port. Ships were flying next to them in every direction, the joint computing power of them all choreographing their movement in precision only machines could achieve. Parallel to their cohort, the same dance took place for ships on their way out.

Once the shuttle entered the port, it was directed to its designated berth. Tauri, the registered lead pilot for this trip, was pinged by her PL to authenticate with the port’s system. She did and the confirmation message appeared in front of her eyes as they continued their slow flight. As the space around the ship grew smaller, Tauri felt a slight tactile pressure sensation. It barely registered now, but she could remember how strange it felt the first few times. For manual landings, it was an absolute must, but inside Akoya’s port - manual mode was strictly prohibited.

It was evening time on the station, and the port was very busy. Their berth was on an upper level and a long way down the row of docking spots. Eventually, they reached the right one, and the vessel slowly turned using its thruster rings to gently settle down on the extended cradle.

With the shut-down sequence initiated, Tauri approved the completion of the docking process. As the cradle retracted, the ship pulled into the berth. The massive hatch closed behind to allow the compartment to fill with air. Once completed, Tauri received two notifications, one that they could safely exit the ship and the second regarding the shuttle’s yearly inspection deadline.

“Dad, the inspection is due in less than a month, remember?”

“Yes, Nuhai, I remember. I’ll do it first thing after the weekend.” Her dad got up and walked back to see the passengers off. Tauri quickly went over the status report she had requested from the computer. The charts and details floated in front of her eyes. Everything was in good order and Tauri instructed the ship's computer to shut down. Lastly, she signaled the dock’s system to engage the charging and monitoring interfaces.

The hyper-flume Tauri and her father took was packed with commuters. They headed home on level three-below, which was hardly considered a trendy or chic area to live in. However, their building's particular section was nice enough. It was quiet, and clean and most of its residents were honest, hard-working people. Its best feature was the proximity to the large park and shopping strip.

They reached their apartment and went in as the lights came on to greet them. Inside was a small living space and two small bedrooms. Although it wasn’t big, it was home, and Tauri loved it. It was much better than the place they had lived in before, on level five-below. After her mother died, her father drowned himself in work and was determined to improve their standard of living. A couple of years ago, they moved here.

Tauri went to her room and closed the door. She sat on her bed and signaled the panel on the wall in front to play the latest episode of her favorite current comedy show - What’s Mine. The show told the story of a crew of miners down on Grandpa. A behind the scenes she saw once showed that they had shot some scenes down on the planet itself, which was unusual for most media productions considering the risks and costs involved.

With the show playing, she checked up on her messaging filters. A group of friends was planning to go out to a nearby bar. Other than that, nothing much was happening. She accessed a remote folder, expecting to see a message waiting, but it was empty. Tauri finished watching her show and dozed off for a little while. About an hour later, she woke up when her father called her to come to eat dinner.

Checking her folder again, Tauri found the message she waited for. Quickly opening it, she read its contents hungrily before deleting it. She put on her dark mauve jacket and walked out of the room, only stopping for a quick glance in the mirror hanging by the door. Her shaggy auburn hair, shot through with bright blond highlights, resisted her attempts at being tamed. “I’m going out, Dad. Don’t worry about dinner for me, I’ll grab something outside,” Tauri called over her shoulder. “Ok, honey, have fun and sta – ” The door closed, cutting him off.

Despite having plenty of time, Tauri walked quickly, feeling impatient. On the way to the market store, she accessed its Fabric interface to make her selection. She chose a few items from her favorites list, ignoring the endless variety that showed in long menus and lists. She submitted her purchase and got the payment confirmation.

A few minutes later, Tauri reached the store. Next to the entrance were several small windows. Some were occupied with customers, picking up their orders. Tauri approached an available window and placed her hand next to the reader. It chimed merrily, and the hatch opened. The package with her groceries slid out almost immediately.

Her next destination was the port. The flume stations were almost deserted, with most people already home for the evening. It was still too early for the nighttime crowds. There was more activity around the port, yet the early night time was felt. Tauri made her way back to the dock where her father’s shuttle was resting. She went inside and signaled the ship alive. At the same time, she signaled the port’s system for a departure slot. The Adrasteia cleared Akoya's port in less than twenty minutes.

Outside, the activity around the station dwindled considerably. Although there were still many ships making their way to and from Akoya. She took over from the autopilot, feeling her skin prickle with the adrenaline rush. It was exhilarating even with the limitations regarding speed and lateral movement she had to adhere to. Attracting the attention of a policing drone, or worse – a patrol flyer – was the last thing she wanted.

Tauri piloted the shuttle below the great station, her vessel minuscule compared to the giant structure above it. While from afar the station’s bottom looked uniform, up close the ship’s radar mapped all the nooks, crannies, and pipes protruding from its base. She flew slowly and far enough from the bottom to avoid any patrol, thinking she was up to some mischief.

Once Tauri reached the position the message pointed to, she scanned for any close-by vessels. Finding none, she had the ship quickly ascend toward the bottom, settling between two large square bulges. Once in place, she released a latching cable that took hold right above the ship’s dorsal hull and turned the engines and thrusters off. This should make her just about invisible to any other ship unless it was right on top of her or bottom, more precisely.

The indication of the rendezvous time in the message meant there was plenty of wait time ahead of her. Better than being late. Tauri grabbed the grocery bag from the empty seat next to her. Before she could open it, a chat request from her father pinged. She accepted the call, and her dad’s voice filled her head: “Nuhai, what’s going on? I got a message saying the Adrasteia is out of the dock. Everything ok?”
“Yeah, dad, everything’s fine. I just felt like flying out to think. I won’t be long, promise.” She did this often enough that it shouldn’t have seemed strange to him.

“Ok, sweetie. You should really go out more with your friends instead of being alone like this. What about Zoe? You used to like hanging out with her.” the link passed on the worried tone along with his voice. “Yes, dad, she’s fine. I still see her every once in a while. You don’t need to worry about me, I’m fine.” She sent back. “Ok, honey, take care,” he said, and the session ended. With her mother gone, her father gave her a lot of space.

Even though it’s been years since her death, they both still dealt with the loss each in their way. A big part of that meant staying out of each other’s way when needed. Still, she did feel bad about not being honest. She could hardly tell him the truth, though.

Prepared for the wait, Tauri retrieved the wrapped meat sandwich from her package. She pulled on both sides and felt the wrapper inflate as it heated. It opened slightly, letting the steam come out. It wasn’t exactly fine dining, yet the artificially grown meat was quite tasty. Not that she had ever tried real meat to compare it with. Tauri signaled the ship’s computer to play some Ultra-Zen music and settled in her seat.