Beta Planet: Rise (14 page)

“It’s not really art, is it?” Geon asked, staring at the digital image of mostly dark, muted colors. “I mean, it’s not painted or drawn. It looks like just some projection with a lot of random tiny repeating shapes. What’s so great about that?”

The other three seemed deep in thought as they stared at the picture, as if trying to decipher its meaning. Geon looked at them, puzzled, and then back to the picture. Leaning forward, he let his eyes relax and let the picture go slightly out of focus.
It was a calming though
.
The colors were interesting. The shapes pleasant to look at.
He let himself begin to slowly connect with the image, feeling suddenly very relaxed, lost in the colors and shapes. The image, blurred now, seemed to make more sense.

It’s an expression
.
But what does it mean? It’s very relaxing. Calming.

Time went by and oddly, Geon felt more and more at ease. Not sleepy, but more like in a dream-like state. At first it felt comfortable, but as he became aware of his state, as he has done on occasion when drifting off to sleep at night, he realized that something was unnatural and strange. He snapped himself back into reality and came jerking back to a fully alert state, rubbing his eyes and looking away from the picture.

“What the—guys? That was so weird, I was just staring at the image and then suddenly felt, I dunno, guys?”

He looked over to the other three, all of whom were staring deeply into the picture, smiles on their faces and heads leaning slightly to one side. Geon grabbed Sabien and shook his arm, eventually snapping him back to reality, and he then in turn shook Allea. It took all three of them shaking Kumuki to get him to wake up from his trance-like state, and no one volunteered to wipe the drool off of the side of his mouth.

The gallery owner came rushing over and began talking about how the artwork is very “enchanting and relaxing, and puts one’s minds and worries at ease.” Geon felt unsettled about it and felt like something was off. In the moment when he was staring at the picture, he
did
feel at ease, but almost
too
much. It didn’t feel right to him.

The four anxiously headed back out of the dark room without looking at the other pictures, much to the gallery owner’s dismay, and headed to a nearby noodle restaurant for dinner.

“Guys, didn’t you think that was really weird in the gallery? The way we all just, spaced out? I mean… how long were we even in there?” Geon asked the others.

Allea and Sabien nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it really was strange,” Allea added. “I mean I felt so relaxed. So peaceful. I just wanted to stay in there and look at the pictures. But then when you guys shook me, it was like waking up from a dream. I don’t know. I wonder—I wonder…” She mumbled something about “perception” and “cognition” and began to browse through some information on her cuff about it.

“G, I haven’t been to many galleries, but this was certainly a new experience for me,” Sabien said with a nod, while grabbing his spork and slurping up some noodles.

“Or was it?” Geon asked.

“What do you mean,” Sabien replied.

“Well, I mean, you guys have been to galleries before right?”

Allea looked up at Geon and she and Sabien both nodded in agreement. Kumuki sat entrenched in his bowl of noodles, squirting different smelly sauces on it and struggling to get the noodles to wrap around his spork.

“Well, I’m just thinking out loud here. But how do you guys even know this hasn’t happened before? I mean, if I hadn’t suddenly become aware of this strange state of relaxation I was entering and snapped out of it, how do we even know how long we would have been there? Or how we would have even felt after? I mean, it was so…
weird
, right?”

“You’re right, G,” Allea agreed. “We don’t know. I mean, theoretically, this might have happened before. I don’t think it has. But who knows? It really was like a trance. G, how did you even do it? I mean how did you know to stay alert?”

“I don’t know, Ally. It was sort of like… you know how I was in a coma? It was almost like that feeling was happening where I was slipping back out of reality, with no control over what was happening. For me, that’s sort of terrifying and when I realized it I focused all my energy on staying in the present.”

Sabien and Allea nodded in unison and Kumuki looked up from his bowl, one dangling noodle hanging out of the corner of his mouth, and blurted, “I like the art! I could stay there all day!”

“Exactly,” Geon said quietly, looking at Sabien and Allea and leaning in toward them. “
Exactly
.”

Sabien and Allea were both quiet for the rest of the meal as they both seemed to be deep in thought about the day’s events. Geon had an uneasy feeling all the way home after dinner. The streets were dark and cold as usual, but something felt suddenly peculiar. He found himself feeling anxious and worried as they walked home from the Glidewing station, looking behind him and around him multiple times as if someone was watching them.

There’s more to this. Geon
lay in his pod that night, thinking about the strange events at the art gallery.

Something just doesn’t feel right. Maybe it’s just some new technology that’s meant to relax us. Maybe that’s what the artist intended.

But he couldn’t fight the feeling that something was bizarre about all of it. He felt torn inside, wondering if he should just let it go and continue to try to fit into this new world, get along with everyone, and try to enjoy the few simple things he had his new family, his new life, Jetsurfing, school. But a part of him that he couldn’t seem to suppress kept him up all night wondering what this strange, dark mystery was.

Why would anybody intend to put a person into a trance like that, controlling their minds and bodies? It doesn’t seem ethical.

He hoped that morning would come and bring some comfort and peace. He was wrong.

Chapter 7

The quiet, calm, soft wind, and chirping sounds that usually woke Geon each morning was replaced with the ruckus sounds of yelling, running, and banging on the top of his REMpod.

“GEON, WAKE UP! WAKE UP! KUMUKI! SABIEN! WAKE UP! IT’S MAMA V! SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH HER!”

Geon immediately shook off his sleepy sensation and squeezed out of the pod even as it was still opening for him. He ran hastily down the hall, following Allea to Mama V’s room, where they found her laying on the hard floor. Geon was overcome with terror and fear but tried to remain calm, seeing that Allea had lost control of her own emotions. She was hysterically crying and trying to ask Mama V what had happened.

“Mama V! Please talk to us. Are you okay? Geon is here too, Mama V. Please tell us what you need.”

Mama V groaned softly with her eyes tightly shut, her forehead slick with sweat and skin looking pale. Geon got down on the floor and propped Mama V’s head up and asked Allea to bring some water. As Allea ran off, he spoke quietly to her.

“Mama V, it’s Geon. Can you hear me? Please tell me what happened. Do you need me to call a medic here?”

Mama V groaned and slightly shook her head, putting her own large warm hand on Geon’s. “I’m okay, my boy. I just, I just fell or something. Mama V is okay, darling. Mama V gonna be just fine. Okay, don’t you vorry dear. Help Mama V up, okay?”

Just then Sabien and Kumuki came rushing in, both screaming hysterically over one another.

“MAMA V, WHAT HAPPENED? OH MY GOD, MAMA V, ARE YOU OKAY? WHAT’S GOING ON, GEON? TALK TO ME. WHAT HAPPENED? WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SAY SOMETHING?”

“Aaaaaaaiiiiiiiighhhhhhiiiiii!!! Mama V, w-w-w-w-what’s h-h-h-h-happening?!” Kumuki cried as tears began to form in his eyes.

“Guys, it’s okay,” Geon calmly said. “I think she fell. She’s okay, I think. Ally is getting her water. Here, help me lift her up to sit.” The three of them lifted her heavy body up and propped her against the wall, still sitting on the floor. They sat down in front of her on the floor as Allea came back with the water. Mama V slowly sipped her water and regained her breath.

“Please, children, don’t vorry. Mama V gonna be okay. I just slipped or something. I feel a bit dizzy. I think maybe Mama V might be having some exhaustion or something. I don’t know… I don’t know….”

Allea grabbed Mama V’s cuff and quickly motioned through her health settings.

“Mama V, your electrolyte count is low, you’re dehydrated, your temperature is a little high, and you probably have other symptoms of exhaustion! How did this happen? We need to get you to the clinic and have a medic look at you!”

“NO!” Mama V suddenly and loudly replied, opening her eyes wide. “I mean no, please,” she said softly. “I need rest. I can’t go anywhere. You go to the clinic. Take my cuff okay? I’ll be okay. Besides, today is the big trip to MOOH. You bring me medicine in my cuff, okay children?”

“No, Mama V,” Allea cried. “We’ll skip the MOOH trip and stay with you! We have to make sure you are okay.”

Geon could see the fear in Allea’s eyes and hear the worry in her voice and it caused his own eyes to become teary. He wanted to stay strong for her and the others, so he held Mama V’s hand and talked to her.

“Mama V, we will do whatever you say. But please have some more water and please just take it easy today, okay? We’ll bring you medicine.”

Mama V nodded and gave them a small smile. She appeared to be okay for the most part, and although Geon was worried about leaving her, he knew that trying to argue with Mama V would be a losing battle. They helped Mama V up and into the sofa in the main room and sat down around her.

“Enough about me okay, my little ones? Listen, children. This trip today is very important. You
must
know your history. You
must
know your past. You
must
understand the vorld around you. Do you understand? Is important for Mama V, okay? And don’t forget—”

Sabien chimed in, doing his best Mama V impression, exaggerating her accent by lengthening her ‘e’s” and rolling his ‘r’s’ emphatically.

“To alvays be trrrrrrrrrue to you and teeenk for yourrrrrrrrrrrrself! You have beauteeeefull brrrrrrrrrrain so don’t vaste it okay yaaaaaa, okayyyyyyyyy!”

The other three laughed loudly and did their own imitations of Mama V’s accent as Mama V just stared at them with her brow creased and a confused look on her face. She responded softly, “Vat? Mama V don’t sound like dat. You are troublemaker, Sabien. You are all troublemakers. You precious rogues! Mama V love you. Mama V love all of you!”

With a smile she reached out to embrace the four of them and they moved in toward her for a family embrace.

As the four of them left the home that morning with Mama V’s LifeCuff in hand, Geon asked the others if this kind of thing has ever happened to Mama V before. They told him that it has never happened that they can remember and that Mama V was always in good health.

Very strange
.
Last night, the art gallery, and now this?

“We just need to make a quick stop at the clinic to get her medicine inputted into her cuff and then we head straight to MOOH to meet the class,” Allea said as they walked toward the Glidewing.

The clinic was marked outside with a grey cross that was framed with a red border. Inside the clinic, there were a few people waiting to be seen by a medic, but Allea informed Geon that they didn’t need to see one. They only needed to get medicine for the LifeCuff, which was done automatically from a machine in the front area. She plugged Mama V’s LifeCuff into the machine and watched as the information came up on the screen. The screen showed Mama V’s real name as “Lana Vashtinoff.” The machine checked the health history on the LifeCuff to verify that medicine was needed, and after a confirmation beep it deducted twenty credits and inputted the skin-absorbent fluid into the cuff and noted that one dose of Recyte would be released every six hours for twenty-four hours. With the cuff in hand, the four of them left and headed back to the Glidewing and to the Museum of Our History.

“Next stop, sector six,” the voice from above said. “Have a positive and productive day!”

As they walked out of the station and down the street, Geon looked around and saw that this sector looked much like sector four, though not as rundown.

“Is there a reasoning behind all the sector names? I mean, we live in eight, which isn’t as urban or demolished as the lower sectors. We went to four the day of the flood and that was definitely the worst one so far. How did they name them?”

“Actually you can’t even go to sector one without special clearance,” Sabien responded. “It’s a bio-hazard area and is also the epicenter of much of the destruction.”

Allea nodded and joined in. “Sectors are always named with the lowest number being the most devastated and dangerous. Sector one is always the inception point, and as the sectors fan outward from there, they’re usually in less worse condition. It’s the way it is. There aren’t many people that actually live in the lower sectors, because of the dangers, but people still work here.”