Unison (The Spheral) (48 page)

HERO

I
woke up in the morning with the feeling you get right before something disastrous is about to happen. A vigorous run outside followed by a cup of tea failed to banish my anxiety, so I headed up the ridge to perform some maintenance work on the motion sensors. In the middle of inspecting my first one, Shisa ran to me barking. A quick scan of the upper tier with my binoculars revealed Unity Forces were on their way down. “Go home, Shisa.” She ran off, and I ran down the path after her.

When I got back to the cabin, I rushed to the backyard, opened the coop and freed the hens and roosters.

Flora came outside. “What’s going on?”

“We leave now. Unity Forces will be here soon.”

“They shouldn’t be here so soon. Are you sure Kai did this all on his own?”

“Since I left Unity, I learned I could be sure of nothing,” I pointed my finger in the air, “which is why I always have an alternative plan.” I hurried into the cabin and picked up my backpack. “Hope you packed ahead as I asked.”

Flora ran into the bedroom, retrieved her pack, and we raced towards the cover of the woods. After we had gained some distance, we slowed our pace and walked throughout most of the day. I kept my hand on my plazer. Every sound I heard made me clutch the grip harder. When we arrived at the old tunnel, I eased up while Flora became more apprehensive.

“Is there another way?”

“We’ll be safe. Outsiders are nomadic and mostly peaceful, and for those who aren’t…” I removed my plazer from its holster and twirled it around.

“Not bad for a maroon.”

“You taught me that.”

“Hope I taught you to shoot as well.”

“That I learned before my first trip out of the dome.” I pointed at Flora’s plazer. “Yours set for a grab and shoot?”

“I’m a—was a Unity Guard. What do you think?”

I smiled and turned on my lantern. “I know this tunnel well. We’ll be okay.”

She nodded, and we entered into the darkness. The echoes of our footsteps, with their varied strides, produced a jazz-style melody. As it played in my head, I pictured the arrangement printed on manuscript paper. The violin played rubato in the opening lyric and the standup bass, drums, and piano came in
a tempo
at the start of the chorus. I hummed the melody aloud and recorded it on to my holologue.

“Sounds beautiful. Is it one of?—”

“Shhh!” My agitation at being cut off almost made me lose the chorus. I had to start over. Once I successfully captured the melody, I returned to the land of the uninspired. “What did you want to say?” I asked.

“Is it safe for me to speak?”

“Sorry. You kept quiet for most of the walk, and I forgot you were beside me.”

“Don’t know how I should take that.”

“It’s not only you. I shut off the whole world during the creative process. I’ve been that way since I was a child. It used to get me into a lot of trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“In my first year at the master’s apprentice school, I failed to show up at formation during the monthly fire drill. I was practicing my violin when the alarm went off. It was loud, but it sounded more like background noise. I couldn’t shut myself off and kept playing, even when Master Franklin entered my room. I didn’t notice him…until he pulled the bow from out of my hand and struck my mattress with it.
That
I noticed.” I smiled, fondly recalling the frustrated look on my mentor’s face.

“Did you get a reprimand?”

“No, but Master Franklin instructed me never to do any creative work on days when a fire drill was scheduled. Can’t say I blame him. Had it been a real fire, I would’ve died in the middle of playing
Mozart’s Violin Sonata No. 22 in A Major…
without ever knowing that’s what I was playing.”

“What did you think you were playing?”

“One of my own compositions. After I auditioned for the New Athenian Orchestra, I discovered I stole it from one of the Ancient’s greatest composers. I put that one on my list of most humbling experiences.”

“How many are on your list?”

“Too many for the memory of my holologue to store.” I laughed.

“Can you play me one of your songs?”

“When we stop to rest.”

“How long will it take to get to the other side?” Flora asked.

I placed my holologue near the lantern. “About seven hours more. We already walked three.”

“I need to rest.”

“We should make it to the trainlets in another hour.”

Flora stopped walking. “I don’t want to stay in here.”

“I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Flora shined her lantern in front of my face and looked up at me. “You really mean that.”

“I do, and soon you’ll know that as a fact.”

“I know now.” She lowered the lantern. “Before today, the only other Unitian I trusted was Master Tyrus. Now I see he’s not the only brave man I know.”

“What I’ve done is hardly brave. It’s something I had to do.”

“No.” Flora held my hand. “You could’ve left, but you chose to live all alone in your cabin…just so you could help free Unitians.” She smiled. “I could write you into one of my stories. You have all the characteristics of a hero.”

Normally, such a remark disturbed me. Being alone gave me an independence that I couldn’t fathom when I lived in Unity. The higher I advanced in color, the more bound I became by everyone’s perception of my celebrity. Living up to a myth was impossible, and my constant failure to attain the greatness attached to my color kept me reaching for a level that was impossible to attain, impossible for anyone to attain. I preferred not to live through that delusion again, but if it helped Flora overcome the destructive programming that still lurked in her mind, I was willing to play the hero for her.

LANTERN LIGHT

T
he trainlets were all vacant, which pleased me as I always preferred the last car. I felt around in my pocket for payment. As in all my other incarnations, the only thing I was willing to give up was my multipurpose knife. “Do you have anything you don’t mind parting with?” I asked.

“I didn’t pack anything of value.”

“This is going to be hard to replace.” I opened the payment box. “I never slocking learn.”

“Wait.” Flora removed a ring from her finger. The lantern’s reflection on her face betrayed her reluctance.

“I don’t want you to give away something that’s important to you.”

Flora dropped the ring in the payment box. “I’m sure Master Tyrus won’t mind.”

I was about to ask what she meant, but I stopped myself and entered our ‘let. Flora raised her brows when I drew the shades.

“Relax, you’re safe. This is only to inform travelers this ‘let is taken.” I set my lantern on the bench, removed my pack, and collapsed onto one of the sleeping bags.

Flora sat next to me. “He got it for me when I graduated from the academy.”

“Got what?” I asked.

“The ring.”

“It’s not my business.”

“I know. But the look on your face made me think you wanted an explanation.”

“What look on my face?”

“The kind that tells me you wanted an explanation.”

“Unity Guards.” I laughed.

“We don’t miss much.” Flora smiled and lay on her side, facing me.

The reflection from the lantern on the windows and walls produced a soft glow that carried me into an altered state of awareness. I turned to face Flora, and the recognition of our joint survival struck me.
We finally made it together.
“I love this place.”

Flora gawked at me. “Think you’ve been out here too long. I miss my warm shower.”

“You’ll have one of those in New Athenia. But you’ll never have an experience like this anywhere else.”

Flora surveyed the room. “Can’t see why anyone would want to experience anything in here.”

“Every time I enter this Ancient mode of transit, I’m transported back in time.” I lay on my back and rested my head on my hands. “I’m here with the passengers, engaged in conversations about how their day went as we cross the tunnel.”

“Where do you end up?”

“Back here…but unbeknownst to the rest of the passengers, they’re trapped in a perpetual existence, riding back and forth on a train that never stops. Their ghosts are unaware that in this present timeline, we inhabit the same exact space.” My eyelids grew heavy, and I almost drifted off.

Flora waved her hand in front of my face. “Are you in here with me?”

“Sorry. Got lost in time.”

“Looked more like you disappeared into it.”

I sat up. “Thanks for pulling me back out.” I removed an apple from my pack and waved my knife in the air. “Your ring wouldn’t have been as useful.” I shaved off the peel in one long strand. “The tunnel took fifteen years to build and is one of the greatest architectural masterpieces of the forgotten times. This train transported people between two lands that were once only accessible by air or boat.” I handed Flora an apple slice. “It’s unfortunate the Ancients didn’t last long enough to expand their engineering feats.” I smiled to myself as I often did when I marveled over the Ancients. “I can’t even imagine how much further along we’d be if the Great Cataclysm never happened.” I cut another slice of apple and gave it to Shisa.

“Where you see history and mystique, I see only a dark and dreary room that smells as though it hasn’t been cleaned since the forgotten times.”

“You must stop seeing everything out here through Unitian eyes. The founders of Unity put a stop to progress because they believed they could conquer our flaws by minimizing the use of technology. All they did was deaden progress.”

“Everything in Unity is dead,” Flora said. “The purple sleeves and Overseer drained the life out of all of us.”

“Fortunately their control is limited to the dome. Out here, you’re free to make your own life and have full authority over it.” I handed Flora another apple slice. “Did you make your decision?”

“Can I study astronomy in New Athenia?”

“You can study whatever you’d like.”

“Guess I should start learning Knosian.” Flora smiled and ate the apple.

My body and bow swayed in unison as I played the melody that came to me a few hours before. The slow and even strides of the verse allowed the energy to build slowly until I reached the chorus where the speed doubled. My heart beat along as though it was keeping the tempo. I slowed back down at the coda, and my shirt was drenched with sweat. When I finished, I opened my eyes and saw tears in Flora’s eyes.

“That was the most beautiful music I ever heard.”

“I call it ‘Beyond Today.’” I set down my bow.

Flora’s crying intensified.

“I don’t think anyone has ever reacted that strongly to my music.”

“It’s not only that. All the great things you can do make me realize how much I missed in my life.”

“Once we get to New Athenia, you’ll have no more excuses.”

“You have lifetimes of advantages.”

“You believe me now?”

“Not completely. But after I saw Kai walking down that ridge, you didn’t sound as crazy to me anymore.”

“One step closer to credibility. Now
that’s
progress.”