A Timeless Journey (11 page)

Seeing that my mind was focused elsewhere, Luna asked in half voice if it was alright to travel back to the surface. I nodded and we made our way to the Subnav.

Subnav was a type of vehicle which very few cared to own and mostly were available for hire from aquatic bays or the marina as we know it in this reality. Most people used these vehicles for short site-seeing trips under the sea and I can tell you it is a very therapeutic ride if you have to clear your head from the daily stress.

We returned the Subnav back where we took it from and walked for a while along the shore. To me it felt that in this reality with the advanced technology they had, I could go anywhere in no time and the planet had never seemed as small as it did that day.

Luna had to return to her apartment and I thought it would be a good idea to have a couple of hours rest while she carried on with her plans. I offered to finish our day with a drink from a drinkery in my building when the evening arrived, which Luna happily accepted. She went back to her apartment and I to mine.

After a couple of hours rest in my apartment and another steamer experience in late afternoon, I eagerly waited for Luna to call by my place. I felt anxious with a million questions inside my head and butterfly in my stomach.

What if she doesn’t come?

What if she doesn’t like me anymore?

How is it possible to fall in love after only a few hours that I had spent with her?

The anxiety made me realise I couldn’t resist staying away from her. The thought of Luna changing her mind, the thought of her not showing up, took my breath away and made my brain to experience an unexplained fear.

Despite my insecurities, Luna did show up eventually and her caring smile as she made her way in confirmed I had worried for no reason. We found a drinking booth at a drinkery near the top of the building. To match the afternoon theme of the ocean trip, we chose a live underwater feed as the background and discussed over a drink, the bizarre day we were having. Given the obvious special connection between us, I took the courage to ask if she fancied meeting again the next day. She smiled and promised to accompany me in the morning to the Emze Learning Centre and after my lesson, to spend the remainder of the day together.

I looked at the half empty glass of beer in front of me and thinking of the events of today, I got inspired to let Luna know how it felt for being near her. I raised my glass and in a subtle voice made a statement.

“Luna, I would like to thank you for making my first day of freedom a really special one and I hope you feel the same way.”

“Considering how my day started and how it’s ending, this has been a truly unusual day, but pleasant nevertheless.”

“I’m glad I have made a friend over here and please do let me know when I act weirdly. I have no idea how to behave in this reality, not until I learn the customs of this society.”

“You are a nice person Scott, for someone born in a hostile environment like the 21
st
century. There is nothing weird about your behaviour, apart from still having an old mentality and I will be happy to help with any questions you may have.”

“One last question for tonight if I may.” Luna nodded in consent. “How is it possible that you haven’t got a boyfriend with the way you look?”

“You mean, why I haven’t fallen in love with someone yet?”

“Yeah, that.”

“Finding a sex partner to satisfy my needs is not a problem. We live in an open society and usually, if we see someone we like, male or female, we let them know. When it comes to truly falling in love is not that simple. It is not just about sex, it’s about how you feel about that person. For example, being with you today has been very different from my past experiences for so many reasons.”

“Luna, are you saying that you have fallen in love with me?”

“I am not sure if you want to hear the answer of your question. You are different, but you already have a partner and I refuse to share my feelings with you unless you feel the same.”

“It is a yes then?”

“I will share my feelings with you when you will know in your heart who you want and until then, I refuse to answer.”

Her frank way of speaking made me realise it was best to call it a night before I went into deep, although I had no desire to be away from her, not that night, not ever. My lustful desires and the sudden strong love I felt for Luna, pushed me against my better judgement to ask her if she wanted to spend the night with me.

“I think we should call it a night unless… you fancy staying in my apartment tonight.”

Luna hesitated at first, probably surprised by my request and then replied with a sweet smile on her face.

“Tonight is too soon! Tomorrow, if you know in your heart that you really want me, I will. Tonight alone in my living space I go.”

I smiled at her last sentence. She stood up and gave me a kiss on the cheek. My whole body trembled, but I managed to greet her as she was leaving.

“Good night Luna.”

“Good night it is.” She replied as she placed her hand on my shoulder.

Luna walked out of the drinking booth as the shield went down and disappeared in the distance, but not without turning her head towards me to gift me one more smile. I found it amusing the way she spoke and released a smile before I made my own way back to the apartment.

My first day as a free man had ended in a beautiful and extraordinary manner for me. For the first time since my arrival in this reality, I wished the anomaly never appeared again. I was ready to gladly accept my fate and stay here forever if every day was like the one I had. This, in a way, was my excuse for betraying Sophie and accepting the strong feelings I had for Luna.

15

When I woke up in the morning, the very first thought that came to mind was when I was going to see Luna again. As much as my sub-conscience tried to resurface residues of guilt for betraying Sophie, my feelings for Luna were so strong that any doubt I had disappeared. The guilt got buried under the thick layer of love for the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. My first day with Luna had been very special for me and I was looking forward to another day like that once my Emze training was over.

The building where I lived was by the seafront on the edge of Laguna City and, because I spent my first day of freedom focused on Luna, I hadn’t had a chance yet to see the rest of the city. I had no idea where the training centre was or how to get there. I didn’t know if they had a public transport system in the 26
th
century, or if everyone had an Emze, which is why I guessed this was the reason Luna had offered to take me there.

After using the steamer, I took my breakfast pills and waited for Luna to arrive. As I sat on the sofa staring at the projection of an overcast sky on the ceiling, the Link informed me telepathically that Luna had just entered the building and was on her way up. I waited impatiently by the apartment entrance with an insatiable hunger to see her face again.

Although it had been only a few hours since I last saw her, to me it felt that we had been apart for a long time. This possessive behaviour worried me. Experiencing such a strong love for someone was new to me and coping with the inner battle between my strong feelings for Luna, the guilt for betraying Sophie and the fact I was going insane by being possessive, wasn’t an easy task for my brain.

The Emze training was due to start at ten in the morning and, according to Luna, we had plenty of time until then. She offered to show me around the city and the way people commuted, which I gladly accepted.

The building had two main gates, one on the north side facing the beach, which was the one I had used since I moved there and another one on the south side of the facilities core facing the city. We exited from the south gate. As soon as I stepped out, the shock of what was before my eyes hit me hard and I froze.

It was one thing to look at the city from high up and a completely different thing from the ground level. The unrealistic view of countless skyscrapers rising majestically from the ground dwarfed everything else around, other smaller high-tech buildings that looked like giant glass boxes, Emzes flying above our heads, moving advert displays covering large parts of some of the buildings, a sea of white, blue and red lights and a footpath in front of me which seemed to be made of dark glass where in fact it was made of some sort of material mixed with carbon fibre, left me speechless.

Everything around was so clean and orderly and the impression that left on me was one that I will never forget. Every inch was taken care and arranged in perfect geometrical shapes. Being there on the ground surrounded by very tall buildings and a high-tech environment, made the world where I came from look primitive and untidy.

Seeing the shock on my face, Luna took hold of my hand and urged me to walk with her. There was a little park in front of the Dolphin residence and on the other side of the park was the main road, if you can call it a road. It had ten moving lanes, three feet wide each, five lanes each on each direction running at different speeds. They had used the same idea as on a conveyer belt, but a lot smoother.

I noticed there were no roads to ride an old fashion car, since the combustible engines didn’t exist anymore. I remembered what I had learned while in the IEF. Since the discovery of safely containing and harvesting Zero-Point Energy, in order to protect the environment and prevent endangering lives, the use of vehicles that burned fossil fuels was banned permanently once the Emze technology became global.

The city was vast and divided into huge square parcels surrounded by the moving lanes. The parallel lanes which ran from east to west and vice versa, were urbanely called “para-lanes” and the perpendicular lanes which ran from north to south were called “pendy-lanes”. Where para-lanes crossed with pendy-lanes, there were landing platforms on both sides to switch from one lane to the other due to moving lanes of a parallel street did not join the perpendicular lanes. The moving lanes were continuous and when both directions met in a junction, were built one above the other. The only way to switch direction was by getting off one moving lane and getting on to the other with the help of the landing platforms.

We took the third lane of a pendy-lane to travel towards the city centre, which, I can tell you, was a very unforgettable experience! There were lots of green spaces and advanced architectural features surrounding every tall building. With the always-moving lanes, together with the video displays on the building surfaces and Emzes flying above our heads, everything around me appeared to be on the move. If this was a small city with just under two hundred million people, I dreaded to think how the Megacity of New York with more than twenty times the population looked like.

Laguna City covered the entire peninsula surface and being an exclusive place to live, it had a lot of free spaces in between the buildings. We resided at the top of the peninsula surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean waters on three sides and had to travel through the city centre towards the other end of the peninsula where the training centre was. The training centre had to be in a no-fly zone beyond the city limits to avoid confusion between the real traffic and the training flights.

We arrived at the Emze training centre only five minutes before I was due to start. Luna promised to return just before three o’clock in the afternoon and wait until I finished my training. The training in itself was more about the technical side of how an Emze functioned and the safety features rather than manually riding in one.

I learned on the first day that the manual drive was possible, but only in case of severe emergency. The emergencies in general had different scales of severity in the 26
th
century and were specified in detail with the help of Link. There were a lot of technical specifics to remember and, at the time, I believed with my lack of knowledge, I would never be able to understand it all. However, when my first day finished, I had managed to pick up most of the basic information about the infusion of an electromagnetic field and zero-point energy to create this marvel of technology.

In brief, the captured zero-point energy was released into this tiny empty space in the middle of an electromagnetic field which surrounded and kept the energy safe from touching any hard surface. When zero-point energy and the electromagnetic field interacted together with the help of a highly advanced computer system which harvested the kinetic energy, it controlled not only the movement, but manipulated the gravitational field strength as well.

Obviously it was a lot more complicated than this from a scientific point of view. I am simply explaining what I was able to understand. With the eluding synthetic computer technology they had and other unknown gadgets involved in balancing the energy used with the speed, regulating the gravity levels in accordance with the speed and the right height which vehicle travelled, for me it was impossible to follow in such detail, a lesson that only a person equal to the intelligence of a 21
st
century scientist would be able to understand and maybe not all of it.

As for the material surrounding the Emze inside and out, it was an amazing state of the art pixilated sheet technology. This pixilated sheet covered entirely the surface of the vehicle which in itself was some kind of a hybrid mixture of ceramic and metal, a very light, fire resistant material. The pixilated sheet on the outside surface had the ability to make the vehicle invisible to the naked eye by projecting the outside surroundings if you wanted to use this option just as the inside sheet was able to project the live view of outside.

Under the surface of the cabin there was the I-box, as they called the intelligent box where all the parts that made the vehicle functional were situated. The Holo network was connected to the I-box and through a special Emze program connected the vehicle with the global flight system. The navigation was always on automatic piloting through Holo. In case of a serious emergency, where either the I-box or Holo connection would fail, there was the mind control option through the Link device. If Link also failed to respond and there was no other option, the manual drive was activated.

The failure of Holo connection, in reality was an impossible scenario. The global internet service was free for all and provided wirelessly thanks to a network of satellites orbiting the planet connected to the Moon base. There also was a back-up system to guaranty continuity of the service without interruptions.

I finished my first training day exactly at three o’clock in the afternoon. Luna was waiting for me outside the training facility with a smile on her face. Seeing her waving at me, made me realise how much I had missed her company. It is strange how life takes unexpected and unplanned turns. In my case a pleasant accidental turn. A day before, I didn’t even know she existed and 24 hours later, Luna had become this person who exited every cell of my body, this vital drug that kept me breathing. It was at that moment when my brain pulsated repeatedly towards my heart a feeling of love that I had never experienced before.

“Hi, you came! What’s the plan?” I asked her in a smitten tone of voice.

“I will show you the city. If you’re hungry, we can stop at the first Eat’N’Go we see.”

“What’s an Eat’N’Go?”

“It is a place where we can have a quick meal.”

“Like a fast food?”

“Yes, and Eat’N’Go is the best global fast food chain.”

A certain fast food chain from my time came to mind and I smiled. I couldn’t wait to try how fast food industry had changed in five hundred years. 

After a lazy afternoon travelling around the city with Luna on the moving lanes and eating on the go, which by the way turned out to be nothing like the fast food we have in 21
st
century, we made our way to the beach.

It is worth stopping a little to describe the fast food of the future, which was more like a mini finger buffet with different miniature bite size portions rather than fried chicken, burgers and fries. The 26
th
century fast food was all about the infusion of different flavours and the high quality. The standard of food was much better than those of the restaurants we have in the 21
st
century.

It was only the second day of my freedom in this reality and I had enjoyed every minute spent so far thanks to Luna. She had opened my eyes by showing and explaining to me, things that it would have taken weeks or maybe months to understand. I had been with this girl for just over a day and not only did I consider her to be my best friend, but there was an unbelievable chemistry between us. Somehow she had become this person I couldn’t live without, where my life had little or no meaning when she wasn’t near me. On top of these strong emotions I had for Luna, there was also the fast and continuous information about this advanced world and its entirety was becoming too much for my brain.

I decided to have a short rest in my apartment before meeting up with Luna again in the evening. My brain felt tired mostly due to the Emze training and a couple of hours sleep was needed to regain the freshness I needed.

The struggle to fully understand the Emze training and the emotional rollercoaster in the last 24 hours had worn out my mind and I nodded off inside the rest chair before I had time to think.

Link’s metallic voice inside my head woke me up some time later to inform that I had a call from Luna, a ‘coms-in’ as it was urbanely called the old fashioned call. I felt a little confused to how I was supposed to answer, since I hadn’t seen a telephone in this reality. Link as it usually did, intervened to explain how a coms-in was answered through the Holo system.

The invention of the Link device had substituted the mobile phone technology and most of the communications were made virtually face to face with the help of Holo. In case someone didn’t fancy a virtual connection, there was always another way. It was called a ‘blind call’. The blind call was made possible by a connection between Link devices with the help of the personal bio microchip which acted as a hearing device.

I accepted the coms-in invitation and Luna’s face appeared on the wall in front of me wearing her usual smile.

“Scott, be ready! I have decided to introduce you with New York tonight.”

“What, we’re going to New York? How are we getting there?” I was certainly surprised by her decision. The questions that came out of my mouth were more to that reaction rather than satisfying my curiosity.

“My Emze will transport us.”

“You do know I have limited credit and might not be able to afford trips like this until I start my new job?”

“Yes, I am aware of your financial situation. I am offering tonight! I need a fun night out and what better than spending it with you.”

“Thank you Luna. When we travelling to New York?”

“We will travel as soon as you arrive in my apartment. My Emze is parked here. You have to come to my building.”

“I’m on my way.”

“See you soon.”

She disappeared from the wall and I rushed to get ready for my first big night out in the future. Life in the 26
th
century just kept getting better and better for me and the world that I had left behind seemed a distant lost memory.