Alutia Rising, Anniversary Edition (Alutia Rising Series, Book 1) (3 page)

“I was able to escape that life, you see,
thanks to a woman who shattered my heart, making me realize the
life I had been living was no life at all. Thankfully, I was able
to grasp a little normalcy by again adopting a motto of complete
isolation until the day I graduated. But again, I had little choice
but to return to society. So I reluctantly joined the recruitment
“zombies”, standing in lines that ran around entire city blocks for
weeks on end, hoping to be chosen for one of the few open corporate
positions. I was, for the first time in my life, the lucky one,” he
gazed to the ceiling, noticing the lonely robin soar overhead,
leaving in search of greener pastures.

“The job they provided fit my lifestyle
perfectly; an AI Handler whose sole responsibility was to review AI
metrics and search for trends or irregularities in the AI’s
behavior. It was one of those “burgeoning” job fields that the
corps claimed were going to resolve the job crises, “clear the
camps, support the corps”, I think their motto was at the time,” he
tsked. “Of course, the corps ignored the fact that the AI I was
responsible for displaced tens of thousands of workers itself,”
then sighed, recalling a past debate with his corps sponsored
economics professor over just such an irregularity in the corps
reasoning, “but that’s neither here nor there. This job as an AI
Handler, you see, it let me stay isolated from my coworkers and
continue living in the shadows. This lasted for...what, eight years
almost before I met this gorgeously delightful young woman named
Samantha...oh, Toby, if you could have seen her,” he took a long
swig, cradling the jug lovingly in his arms, “I remember the first
time we met, it’s hard to forget given her abnormal fascination
with me, those big, baby blue eyes studying me like I was an exotic
animal in the zoo or something,” he chuckled. “I tried desperately
to ignore her advances, you see, still clearly recalling that
horrible devil of a woman from college. But the more I resisted,
the more emboldened she became, and she would just intensify her
assault,” he shook his head, taking a swig and offering another to
Toby, who didn’t respond.

“In all honestly, I was baffled beyond belief
at why anybody would try to pursue me, the aura of isolation I
worked so hard to perfect usually enough to keep people away. But I
was eventually forced to agree to a single date, her persistence
wearing, hoping that after she learned more about me, about my
distrust of others and socialization in general, or lack of
personality as most people saw it, she would leave me alone.
Unfortunately, my plan backfired.

“Samantha grasped at my distrust, turning it
to her advantage, making me feel as if she was the only person in
the universe who understood me, who I could trust, that would never
betray me. So I followed her, like a donkey chasing a carrot, and
in the end I fell deeply in love, until, like every other time, I
was betrayed,” he took a long draw, swishing the warm whiskey
around in his mouth before letting it slid down his throat, “I
learned by accident that she had a fiancé, you see, and was beyond
devastated. I turned back to the drink and everything, my entire
world, started crumbling around me. I lost my job for no apparent
reason. I was forcefully evicted from my apartment, even though I
had paid a year ahead. Then my family disowned me, going as far as
removing me from family register in the corpies public record
office. I’m telling you, Toby, it made no sense. I tried to find
employment, but it was useless, no one would even talk to me. So
when I ran out of money, I had no other choice but to flee. I
joined a small separatist group, planning on starting over out
west, near the desertification zone the corps abandoned years ago.
But most of them were caught in those first few days by the corpies
pursuit forces, brought to the camps I think, but I was able to
escape and...and here I am,” he finished, deciding against going
into detail about the terrifying nights he endured while fleeing
from the corpies, they being too fresh, and Toby having apparently
fallen asleep. Though it took Trent only a moment to realize what
type of sleep had taken Toby.

Eternal sleep.

He pulled the blanket over Toby’s face, his
last breath having ended peacefully sometime during Trent’s tale,
then picked him up in his arms. He carried him gently out into the
bright morning sunlight, smelling of fresh dew and nature
unspoiled, finding a clearing before a single large oak tree in a
nearby meadow. After checking once more, finding no life left in
the old man’s bones, he started collecting stones, building a small
cairn, then carved “Toby” on the oak’s trunk with his already
dulling knife.

“May you find peace away from this cruel
world,” Trent squatted before the cairn, splashing a last shot of
whiskey for the old man he hardly knew, then taking a long draw for
himself.

He stood, staring absently across the
unfamiliar landscape. A gentle breeze rolled over meadows of
yellowing grass that swayed into the distant horizon, only broken
by small knolls of scraggly bushes amongst oaks, maples, and
birches, while the tightly packed warehouses that had been lining
the railroad tracks for the last 200 kilometer or so, finally came
to an end.

A glint caught his eye, born of a small
spring near the warehouse he exited, surrounded by green grass and
lilies. He called it a spring, but it was more likely the result of
a leak in an old abandoned water system or well. But he could care
less;
water is water
,
no matter its source.
Trent
refilled his jug, unable to resist the urge to study his reflection
when the ripples smoothed; though no longer did he recognize the
man staring back at him.

He had always been of average looks at best.
His face one of hard curves and a pronounced jaw; outlining a nose
swollen from drink, tiny ears that didn’t quite fit his bobble
head, and lightly bearded cheeks covered in a thin layer of filth.
His once envied, dirty brown curls were fleeing from his forehead,
tangled with dirt, twigs, and other rubbish best left to the
imagination. The deep, bloodshot eyes that stared back at him
accusingly were the most prominent of his features; a perfect hazel
green that was soft, kind, and, most importantly of all, weak.

Trent slapped the image away, dunking his
head beneath, scrubbing his thin beard, cheeks, and hair to try and
free the filth. He lingered, pulling his head free only when he
felt his mind begin to fade, gasping for breath amongst the swaying
grass.

He fished the piece of jerky he’d plan to
give Toby again from his sack, placing it atop the old man’s cairn,
“Goodbye, Toby,” before moving back to the tracks, starting the
next leg of his journey...the journey of a hobo.

The view from Princess Sasha Vn’Oco’s private
balcony atop Tidelia Castle was beyond stunning; a magnificent
sight in which only a few chosen nobles within the NHA were ever
blessed to witness.

Though is that fair?
Sasha considered
for a moment, the idea she was allowed such luxury just because of
her standing as the third-princess of the 189
^th
NHA
galaxy, as well as being the adopted daughter of the castle’s
ruler, Countess Liana, irritated her to no end. But she, like most
other nobles of the minority realist standing, knew there was
little that could be done about these ancient traditions, only
nobles permitted to live on paradise planets like Tidelia.

She clearly understood the reasoning behind
the tradition. Paradise planets being beyond rare, only one or two
found in each colonized galaxy, with never changing weather and an
environment idyllic for human habitation. Meaning, without proper
colonization limits, irreversible harm could be brought to these
pristine environments.

I still don’t have to like it;
she
fumed, leaning far over the balcony’s vine wrapped railing,
scanning the distant horizon.

Rolling forests of densely packed trees
swayed gently in the wind, their rainbow leaves appearing like
dense fur painted upon a white canvas created by the perpetual
milky mist rising from its depths. Pristine meadows, blanketed with
flowers and bushes flecked with vibrant reds, blues, and purples,
crept from the forest’s edge, outlining Tileenia, the capital city
of the Tidelia Earldom, which spread just below the castle’s gates
to intermingle seamlessly with the local flora.

Sasha took a deep breath, letting the clean,
sweet smelling air fill her lungs and clear her mind. She extended
her bare arms, fully enjoying the gentle caress of warm sunlight on
her fair skin, thanks to one of Tidelia's binary stars.

Tidelia’s standing as a paradise planet was
due to a rare gravitational phenomenon, Sasha had learned from her
servant and tutor, Gil’Da. The binary stars in which Tidelia
orbited, were not only identical, both class 1 of the yellow-white
spectrum, but also followed an atypical rotation and orbital
pattern. This created a “corkscrew” type gravitational field,
allowing Tidelia to also follow an atypical orbital pattern,
leading to the planet being equidistant from both stars during its
entire orbital pattern.

This resulted in a rare phenomenon where
sunlight would evenly bath both hemispheres of the planet during
the day side rotation, creating almost identical, temperate
temperatures across its entire surface, except in the scattered
mountainous regions.

This rare environmental consistency provided
an opportunity for local plant and animal life to evolve and
thrive, given the inclusion of another required element for carbon
based life forms to exist; water. Tidelia had an abundance, though
if viewed from orbit, one would think this not the case, only the
colorful flora clearly visible and the sky clear of all clouds and
weather systems.

On most, if not all, other planets, such a
lack of weather systems would be fatal for life, since they were
the primary engine for delivery of the all important life giving
substance known as water. But Tidelia, based on another unique and
rare phenomenon, had a way to deliver water across the entire
planet’s surface without the need for weather systems.

The outer crust of Tidelia consisted
primarily of a uniquely buoyant soil that floated over a 250
kilometer deep sea of fresh, nutrient rich water. This kept the
soil moist, and allowed for the larger fauna’s root systems,
including the biological buildings grown to limit human influence
on the environment, to extend deep into the fresh, nutrient rich
water, absorbing the life giving substance and providing further
stability for the thin layer of soil above.

These underground seas were also the origin
of the mist that helped keep the temperature stable. It would burn
off in the sunlight as it crested the unbroken forests that ran for
thousands of kilometers across Tidelia’s surface; providing much
needed humidity while not surviving long enough to form into clouds
or weather systems.

Sasha turned her gaze longingly out over the
horizon one last time, memorizing Tidelia’s teal-blue sky, knowing
that the view before her would soon become a distant memory.

She sighed dramatically, forcing herself to
turn away from the sight and return to her bedchamber, enjoying the
cool breeze of mist that followed on her heals. Feeling lonely, she
sent a request through her biological communication node, or BC
node for short, to the local biological access point, or BAP, that
was hidden in the wall, requesting her lady-in-waiting, Tiana, to
join her.

Humanity had made a few improvements to their
genes and genetics over the 100,000 years they'd spent spreading
throughout the universe. One such improvement was a biological
communication node, grown within the brain, that allowed for the
transmission and deciphering of a special type of wireless signal.
This provided Sasha the ability to easily connect, with her mind,
to a biological access point, or BAP, hidden within the wall,
compose a message to Tiana, her lady-in-waiting, all while walking
across the room to her dressing area. Though there were a few side
effects to its use.

The BC node, being an “add-on” organ of
sorts, would cause disorientation if used while actively using
other senses or trying to speak, except with decades, if not
centuries, of training. This led to a type of expression, known as
being “Node Locked”, or Nodeled for short, that seemed to show the
same way on everyone's face; a distant, tense look.

The door chimed.

“Enter,” Sasha commanded in her kind,
feminine soprano.

One never knows who may be at the door, so
it is always wise to answer with dignity appropriate one's
station
, she recalled with a smile. The door slid open to admit
her guest.

The attractive young lady that glided over
the threshold into her bedchamber wore a scandalously thin, wispy,
lime green dress that hung from a single transparent strap,
gripping every curve on its journey to her upper thigh. Though
Sasha herself was not overly fond of the design, she had to admit
it looked stunning on the beautiful, 16 year old Lady Tiana.

Her wavy, almost curly, creamy blond hair,
tumbled over her silky smooth bronze skin, providing a perfect
canvas for the lime green dress to flow, like it was being painted
anew with every step. Her chin, though modest, still jutted forth
powerfully, as if it was trying to match her pouty pink lips and
button nose that looked to be chiseled from the finest stone.
Though her large, puppy dog eyes, that looked to be set with the
finest of sapphires, and outlined by lashes that made even the most
stalwart of traditionalists swoon, made her other features look
quaint at best. Her figure, though in the later stages of fully
filling out, had begun to display the feminine curves that told she
would be a “noble beautiful” woman in body, face, and most
importantly of all, mind.