The Persistence of Memories - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (4 page)

Here, she was just one of the many.

With more speed and agility
than Anton had expected, Mancka swung herself onto the metal ladder
that had been secured to two adjoining rack frames and rappelled
her way down, sliding and landing on every fifth rung until she
landed on the floor. Without breaking her stride, s
he
brazenly stepped up and gave him a tight bear hug, which he
reciprocated after a few awkward moments. She became quite animated
in her discussions during PGC meetings, but there had always been a
professional restraint, and he had noticed it plenty of times. In a
sea of spiritual kin however, she was free to express herself any
way she wanted.

“Goddess, Mancka!” he smiled. “We've been
worried about you!”

She brimmed with excitement. “I do apologize
for leaving so suddenly last week, but this was an opportunity that
I couldn't pass up. I’m doing just fine, Anton. And yourself? I'm
surprised to see you here! I thought you'd have holed up in your
office after our little light show.”

She was taking the Ascension, perhaps one of
the most important rituals for the One of All Sacred, and making
light of its failure. Everyone here seemed to be doing the same
thing. Despite a failure, they moved ever forward. It was
inspiring.

“Well, Mancka, as much as it pains me,” he
said with a wink, “I've been busy making my presence known around
the city. Making sure nothing goes to shit on my watch.”

Mancka let out a purely Mannaki laugh, a fit
of giggles followed by a satisfied sigh, as she slyly pushed him
away. “Anton, stop. You're doing a wonderful job,” she said. “I am
so glad you're here.”

Anton waved at Anando, who stood a few feet
behind him. “Anando here has been giving me a tour of the
warehouse, and I am deeply impressed. I've seen countless spiritual
gatherings in my life, but they're nothing compared to this.
Soulsensing classes, family care sessions, basic education,
self-defense...even basic Anjshé! You’ve created a commune.”

“It's a
community
,” she corrected with
another smile. “Anyone is invited, regardless of belief or status.
We're not separatist, Anton, I want you to know that. The One of
All Sacred has given us this wondrous Trisandi knowledge. It's our
duty to share it.”

He wished her well in this new endeavor.
“Mancka, I trust you, and I trust those here. The majority of the
Sprawl accepts what’s going on here. I'm not going to set any
sanctions or send any forces in to break it up. I still have the
Special Forces in a perimeter a few blocks away, but that's purely
as a safety precaution on
your
part. They don't move without
my say-so.”

“We do appreciate that,” Mancka nodded.
“We're still at an early stage here, so we'll take any outside
help. I also appreciate your decision not to make this political,
Anton, believe me.”

“That was my intention all along,” he said,
and faced them both. He wanted to make sure Anando heard this as
well. “One thing I've learned from Meraladian history is that
mutual trust is one of the most important and influential tools in
a successful society, especially one as spiritual as this. I won't
deny that my hands could be forced or tied at some point, but until
then I trust the Mendaihu, the Shenaihu and the cho-nyhndah
wholly.”

“I appreciate your words, Governor,” she said
warmly. “We all do.”

Anton took her hand with both hands and held
it tight. “I promise I'll do what I can to keep this as peaceful
and safe as possible, Mancka. You have my word both as a Governor
and as a Gharné.”

“Those are big words, Anton!” she laughed,
and slapped her hand over his. “A peace accord it is!” She pulled
him into another tight hug, and this time he reciprocated fully.
“Peace, Love and Light to you,” she whispered into his ear.

“...and you,” he answered.

“I don’t have any real position here,” she
said. “I want you to know that.”

“I figured you wouldn’t. It wouldn’t be like
you.”

“Indeed.”

After a few more moments of conversation,
Mancka bade him farewell and made a speedy ascent back up to her
cubicle, a few hops up the ladder rungs and another breathtaking
swing into the high racks. He stood there in awe for a moment
longer, completely amazed by the speed and agility of this Mendaihu
he'd known for years. Though she had flaunted her spirituality, she
had never shown the physical side of it. He was relieved to have
finally found her again. To find her having such a joyous time was
an added bonus, something he could report to the others within the
Tower.

They continued to tour the rest of the
warehouse. The number of Mendaihu and cho-nyhndah, somewhere close
to two thousand, was unprecedented. According to Anando there had
been a gigantic wave of recently Awakened that arrived soon after
the failed Ascension, then returned to their homes a day or so
later, where they would spread their knowledge. The followers of
the One of All Sacred had seen their faith only in spiritual terms,
where the path to the One was in understanding the
interconnectedness. The basic tenet,
dehndarra Né hra
nyhndah
, spoke of the One being part of all life, just as all
life encompassed the One.

Something was brewing, something that could
have unintentional repercussions if it were to grow out of control,
but he trusted the One’s followers would not let it get that far.
He honestly could not vouch for the Shenaihu nuhm'ndah or the
Mendaihu kiralla...no one was quite sure where their intentions
lay. If the either side were to take control of the One and distort
this new spiritual awakening into something aggressive and violent,
he would have no chance but to send his forces in. It was a
delicate balance of Light.

Anando saw him back to the entrance, thanked
him for his visit and gave him an open invitation to visit again
any time, which he accepted gladly. As he walked back to his
limousine, he noticed the graffiti on the sidewalk again. He
glanced at his watch; he'd spent nearly three hours in the
warehouse. Most of the DPW drones made sweeps of local
neighborhoods, even the seedier ones, every two hours, doing their
light-duty cleaning work of picking up trash and washing off any
and all stains. Surely a drone must have come by recently? He would
have to call Public Works about that.

Here lies fate
.

Perhaps a gang tag? An erudite one, possibly
a quote from somewhere. One of his security men gestured at it and
asked if he wanted a picture taken, but he declined. A mere spot of
smartpaint on the sidewalk was little to worry about right now.

He kept his excitement in check on the way
back to the Tower. Those three hours had gone by quickly, but the
things he'd witnessed had opened his eyes far more than he’d
expected. The willingly awakened were common people like himself,
citizens of all levels and races who simply wanted to create a
harmonious future. In the end, if he was in fact witnessing a true
global awakening, it was certainly a blessing to be invited to be
part of it, whether he was a spiritual man or not.

CHAPTER FOUR

Mendaihu Gharra

The midday weather in Branden Hill Sector was
unbearably hot and humid for mid-September, and Caren Johnson hated
it. She squirmed as beads of sweat rolled down her back. Despite
the built-in cooling coils and hidden air vents of her uniform’s
overcoat, it was still too hot to wear the damn thing. It clung to
her back and shoulder blades, her undershirt plastered
uncomfortably to her skin. She maxed the settings using the control
panel hidden on the inside of the cuff, but it made little
difference. Bridgetown rarely had sweltering days like this, and
their coats weren’t made for it.

Alec Poe, her Alien Relations Unit partner of
five years, and usually the grumpiest person she’d ever known when
the temperature was high, chose not to complain this time out. He
was even puffing away at a recently lit cigarette and taking the
heat in stride. Caren shook her head; how he could smoke in this
weather and not complain was beyond her.

I know, I know,
she heard him say from
within.
I should quit.

“I didn’t say anything,” she grinned.

“You thought it,” he said, mirroring her
smile. “I know guilt when I sense it.”

She threw a weak backhand at his arm in
response.

They strolled down Guyton Boulevard West, the
main thoroughfare linking Branden Hill to Main Street Sector,
heading due east, straight for the Mirades Tower. The tapered black
monolith reached nearly four hundred stories into the blue,
cloudless sky. It held all of Bridgetown’s governmental and
municipal offices, not to mention the corporate offices of hundreds
of local businesses. At its base was a wide and well-curated public
park that held everything from fairs and carnivals to sports events
and more. It could be seen from virtually every point in the
Sprawl. It was the single most popular tourist site in all of the
Northeastern Provinces.

To Caren, the Tower was just another damned
thing in Bridgetown she couldn't escape from, no matter how hard
she tried. The ARU’s Central Headquarters was housed on the
eighty-first floor. And nearly two weeks previous, it had been
ground zero to the strongest and largest Awakening ritual ever
performed on this planet. It was a stark, annoying reminder of who
she was: an ARU agent, sworn to protect and serve the citizens of
Bridgetown,
Meraladhza
and
Gharné
alike, without
prejudice. More recently, it reminded her that she was also
Mendaihu Gharra
: Spiritual Protector of Earth, and Protector
of the One of All Sacred.

Her sister.

It had been only ten days since Denni — since
the One of All Sacred — had given everyone a heightened spiritual
consciousness, and now the entire sprawl had fallen into a strange
state of agitation. Only ten days. For Caren, it felt like a
lifetime. In a way, it was. So much was different. So much was new
to her, to everyone.

She began to listen to her surroundings, as a
Mendaihu.

He knows I’ve forgiven him. But he still
hurts.

She glanced at Poe. He was looking away, his
mind purposely distracted. He wanted so desperately to speak to
her, but he could not find the right words. He’d meant what he’d
said that day on Christine’s roof, when she’d nearly lost Denni. He
still hadn’t forgiven himself.

There were days when he annoyed the hell out
of her, when she wanted to kick his sorry ass all the way back to
his apartment in McCleever South, but never had she truly, outright
hated
him. She had too much respect, too much love for him
to ever despise him. That day, though... He’d found her breaking
point and pushed at it on purpose. Denni’s Cleansing ritual had
been interrupted by an unexpected and unsensed force, and for that
long, frightening moment she’d truly believed she’d lost Denni for
good. Caren had reached out for her and felt nothing. And for that
one moment, she’d doubted herself. She’d given up.

Poe had sensed that, and he had spoken to her
from within, where he could not lie to her.
You give up now,
Karinna…and you’ve given up on your entire family. Aram…Celine…and
especially Denni.

Goddess, how that had hurt…she’d never been
that angry before. But his words had proven something: she was even
angrier with herself and with all the lies she’d made herself
believe. She was Mendaihu, and always had been. Like her parents,
like Denni, like almost everyone around her now...she was
Mendaihu Gharra,
World Protector, but she couldn’t even
protect herself.

Poe had awakened her other side of her that
day, the Shenaihu side. She’d needed to hear those words, harsh as
they were. She’d been hiding from her own truth for so long that it
had taken his hurtful words to awaken her completely. Their
friendship had survived intact, and she loved and respected him all
the more.

Yes, he knew. He knew that she had forgiven
him. His guilt was directed at himself. She had tried reaching out
to him, but had found a wall so thick with self-disgust as well as
that odd, misplaced coldness his soul always had, that she had to
keep herself from physically recoiling. He was a natural
cho-nyhndah after all, both Mendaihu and Shenaihu, both light and
dark. Perhaps it was better for him to heal on his own.

Still reeling out the gossamer sensing thread
of her spirit, she turned to the streets. She felt agitation; a
thin metallic taste in her soul and in her heart. A kind of
electricity in the air that suffocated and irritated. “Sending out
another sweep,” she said. “Feeling a little on edge here.” Poe
nodded and continued his visual watch.

Fear.

Everyday fears.

Tiny flashes of paranoia. Shrugged off like
the rest of the stress they feel.

Caren felt...no, she
saw
these images
in her head, looking around the street. Flashes of emotions and
thoughts, put into synesthetic auras of energy. Little flashes of
paranoia like lost keycards, forgotten appointments, wiped data
crystals, things that anyone with too much stress would think about
at inopportune times.

Studied indifference.

That reading was the most common among the
non-sensitives; a wave of semi-detached indifference, a conscious
awareness that bad things were out there but choosing to file them
in the background. It was the only way anyone could get through the
day in the sprawl without slowly going mad. They were aware of the
changes that had taken place in this city. They weren’t ignorant,
they just chose to keep their distance.

And among the recently awakened...

They know we're here. A simple nod and
that's all. Everything in balance.

On the surface, it sounded like the same
studied indifference. But as a Mendaihu, one could feel the subtle
differences. Everything in balance, because they were ensuring it
stayed that way.