A New Divide (Science Fiction) (9 page)

              That moment lasted only a few seconds before my breath was taken away, literally, when Virgil kicked me off the bird.

              I tried to grab a hold of the bird's sides but the fur had very little traction. I fell down, staring at the ground that was closing in, fast. The bird quickly noticed and grabbed me with its right talon, far before I would have hit the earth.

              I heard Virgil and Silas laughing hysterically; yeah, real funny. I didn't quite understand the Remoran sense of humor at that point, I suppose. I remember shouting at the top of my lungs how much I hated that drunk old fool. Later, when we landed, he told me it was to teach me my first lesson about Remora. Something will always be there to catch you. No matter what, here, in Remora, you are safe.

              The bird dropped me above a small plaza made of limestone and brick, where five others were awaiting our arrival. I wasn't so concerned about them as I was glad to be back on the ground. I kissed the ground, and thanked Eden that the little ordeal had ended.

              Virgil and Silas jumped off the bird, and she flew away, bathing us with a soft breeze. I just glared at Virgil, who was still laughing. I began to steam while he giggled and I ran towards him, tackling him to the ground.

              "Virgil! I'm going to kill you!"

              "Ha. Why? It's all good fun, kid!"

              "That's what you consider fun! You wrinkly old bastard! I'll show you what's fun!"

              "Collin King!"

              My struggle with Virgil was interrupted when I heard Mark call out to me. Victoria was sitting on a rock gazing out at the sunset, which began to glaze over the city of Angelides. The other three, I couldn't see very well. There was a young woman standing behind Mark, but just her silhouette, a shadow—for if I could have seen her first, I would not have been able to pay attention to anything else.

              Another woman, to Mark's left, dressed in an extremely elaborate dress, which almost looked as if it were made of light. Next to her was a shorter man who wore a tattered vest, and large bulky glasses.

              "Come on, kid."

              When Virgil began leading me toward them my anger for him had completely ceased. It was the anticipation. Commander Mark Wyman had a gift; he could completely captivate anyone's attention. Maybe it was the natural presence that came with him, I don't know. I had only met one other man that could do that, but he had quite the opposite intentions.

              "Who are those people, Virgil?"

              "Better to let Mark introduce 'em. I just do what I'm told, sport."

              We made our way up the stone steps. With every stride I could see my footsteps flash, each time my feet hit the surface of a dark slab of marble. Just a testament to how different this world was than the one I once knew.

See, when Arcoh destroyed Minerva, and all but a few billion Raydenites, he didn't just destroy the people, and the places we loved—he destroyed over five hundred years of progress that we as an independent collective of humanity had created. He destroyed all of the culture, all of the memories, and all of the dreams of our once great society. All of us Raydenites, me more so than most considering my "condition," we all had lost our identities, our pasts had been repossessed by the still burning inferno on Minerva.

              I began to feel somewhat nervous; it was performance anxiety, I think. Three weeks deprived of sleep may have been a factor as well. We were about ten meters from the others when Virgil and Silas bowed. I just stood there, confused at the situation; then again I was the only person of our group who had never been to Remora. You could imagine how I felt when the woman dressed in light began to walk towards us.

              "Cal-halte, my friends!"

              "Cal-halte, my lady!"

              I couldn't help but stare directly into her eyes. She stood over seven feet and was comprised of a darker skin. It wasn't that she was beautiful, it was her eyes. She had these haunting eyes, but so gorgeous. A cold blue and grey color, and like the bird, I felt I was in a trance when I stared up at her. But she just smiled.

              I felt a nudge from behind me that turned into a slap in the back of the head, courtesy of my friend Virgil.

              "Bow your head, dumbass," he whispered to me and I did so. But I still never broke eye contact with her. I peeked up the entire time.

              "So this is the boy?" said the man in the bulky glasses. He also glared at me in my trance.

              I turned to Virgil and muttered, "Boy? Who is he calling boy? Sure as hell not me. Four eyes." Virgil grabbed both of my shoulders and turned me towards him with a scolding look in his eye.
              "Listen, Collin! These people have lived in harmony for over a thousand years. I know, man, I know it will take some getting used to, but that's okay. So you'll appear a little odd, but show these people the same respect you would expect."
              "Is this a lecture, Virg?"
              "It's advice, partner. Use it."

              "What is your name?" she asked, with a very soft voice. Her presence was almost angelic, a divine experience.

              "Collin King."

              "Please, my lady, save your words. I will speak for you." She simply nodded then looked away from me, and backed up behind Mark. When we broke eye contact I shook my head and felt almost lightheaded; the trance had been broken.

              Mark stepped forward dressed in his fancy commander suit and shook my shoulder.

              "Hey, relax, take it one step at a time."

              "Thanks."

              He took a second to clear his voice and took the time to absorb the expressions on all the faces around him.

              "Collin King?"

              "Yeah?"

              "You have been graciously invited by Father Cyrus to attend him into entering the temple."

              "Great. Let's fly back."

              "Ha, I'm afraid you'll have to walk there. You can take a few moments to think it over."

              "You are joking, right? I was just there!"

              Virgil interrupted Mark and again firmly grasped my shoulder. "All right, kid. Here's the deal: no human has ever set foot within the temple itself. What lies beyond those hundred-foot stone doors is something far beyond almost anyone's comprehension. This has never happened before. The journey to the temple will prepare you for it. Do not screw this up—I saved you to give you this chance, kid."

              "What is your choice?"

              "Yeah, sure. I accept."

              "Okay then, he'll need a companion. Collin King? Let me introduce to you my colleague." I looked on in amazement as the short woman who was standing behind Mark turned around and walked towards me.

              I have never been one to be struck by a woman. I was the PGL MVP for four years in a row. I could've had anyone I wanted. It was one thing to be drawn into a trance by a woman. But this one, the shorter woman with dark brown hair and pale blue eyes, had completely captured my attention. I felt like I was in another world, already on a new world, when I first laid my eyes on her.

              Foolish is a man who does not believe in love at first sight. Love at first sight doesn't mean that one instantaneously falls in love with another; it means that you
know
that you will fall in love with them. It's that sixth sense, the personal sense, the sense that great things are about to unfold, and you just know it. It is the missing half, born together, destined to find each other again. She was my missing half—at first I couldn't believe it.

              I was so nervous when she approached me that I started to babble, I completely forgot how to speak.

              "It's nice to meet you, Mr. King."

              "I uh . . . buh . . . umm . . ."

              "Hi! I'm Helena Roland. I've been studying the possibility of a genome reaction for some time now. It'll be a thrill working with you, I'm sure."

              "That's so great. So great."

              Mark saw my dilemma as I'm sure he could recognize the situation. So he barged in between us and pointed out towards the sun setting over the city.

              "What do you two say? Night out on the town, on me. You can leave on your journey tomorrow morning."

              Victoria jolted up when she heard this, and made her way over to us. "Now that sounds like a plan, Mark! What about you, candy-ass? Are you coming with us? Or are you going to cry all night in your room?"

              I ignored Victoria's rude question. Even my dislike for her couldn't break me away from the moment I was having with Helena. "I'd follow you anywhere. Uh! I mean—"

              "Ha-ha, relax. We'll have all night to talk."

              She wasn't wrong. From there we walked down the streets of Angelides until we had reached a club that was near our temporary housing. By the time we got there night had already fallen upon the city.

              The further we walked through the streets of Angelides the more I got to see how unique Remoran society was. People that live on Remora, for the most part, are the families of the original colonists who first settled here with Father Cyrus. It is a society where everyone's philosophy of life has reached around this massive island, and world peace has been attained in that way.

              They called it a "Triangle Society." The basis of it being that the triangle is the shape of progression. The triangle provides perfect stability. The exercising of each individual's personal freedom of expression and governance, without judgment or resentment, creates love and sanctuary for all, coinciding with three parts that make a whole—the triangle, the perfect shape. Just like light, time, and gravity, which is also called love by us humans.

              Everyone in Remora understands each other. There is no crime, there is no wealth, everyone is equal, and everyone is happy. No one is divided.

              So that being said, to be accepted into Remoran culture, you must think of a way to change their world, and be able to be understood. To be passive is easy, thanks to the chemical balances in the air particles of Remora's atmosphere. Affecting everyone who breathes in the air, it would be a chore to get angry—or to even think of harming someone or something else.

              Every house or structure therefore has been earned by the individual, with Remora having a populace mostly consisting of artists, philosophers, and innovators: they are all decorated and sculpted in unique ways. No building was the same shape, color, or form. It was a sight for sore eyes for sure. Eye candy—nothing but fields of color with very low ambient light floating around the city streets.

             
We stayed in the club for a while
. I only had a few drinks while I watched the rest of them. Virgil was having the time of his life, dancing like a complete idiot with an older woman over the main floor. Mark was enjoying himself, surrounded by Remoran locals. Victoria was flirting with a man three times her size, and Silas was attempting to gather a mate for the night.

              For the first time in my life, I think I was glad that nobody knew who I was. Remorans had no contact with the outside world, other than the military force of the moons that Mark commands. If they have never heard of gravball, then they have never heard of me—it brought me solace because all I wanted was to relax and sip on my drink.

              After about two hours of sitting at the bar stool, and staring into the bottom of my half-empty glass, I decided to get some fresh air. I walked out of the club to the top floor (the fourth story), which was taller than almost all the buildings in Angelides, even across the mountain and countryside. The ocean breeze hit my face so softly and I had an incredible view.

              I had always spent my life in densely populated areas, so it was strange to stare up and see so many stars. Our great Milky Way galaxy could be seen bleeding through the Celerian nebula. It was a sky that no matter where you were in all of Eden would never be as clear as it was here. The proof was directly in front of me. I stared up at Gannon, the capitol planet of the GDR. It was far off in the distance. Even considering the Remoran moons that were hovering in the horizon, it was still the third-brightest object in the sky—after Eden's binary suns.

              The city of Arcadia, humanity's greatest city, covered over half the planet, and emitted a light as bright as a miniature sun. It never relented; it never dimmed.

              I could see four of Remora's moons greatly spaced apart, at opposite edges of the sky. Different variations of the suns' ending light reflected off of them, and it was projected onto the endless ocean that waved very calmly. In sync completely with the surroundings. Astounding how peaceful of a world I had been brought into, that moment of realization truly moved me.