BEYOND THE PALE: ( The Outlander ) (14 page)

Later in the evening
River noticed a melancholic disposition come over Audrina. She was not moody
but she seemed upset about something. Once again, he had to wait until late in
the evening to quietly slip inside her room. Despite its overtly feminine
overtones, he was more than comfortable hanging out in her bedroom. He liked
her room particularly because of its lack of technology. He also liked the warm
tones and comfortable environment. Being surrounded by all the mirrors and her
dressing table and all her well organised clothes and shoes gave him a feeling
of knowing her a little better. However right now, she was beginning to be an
enigma again. Sitting on the bed beside her, he hoped that she might open up
and tell him why she was upset. It didn’t work that way; the longer that her
cold shoulder prevailed, River couldn’t help feeling both responsible and
guilty. Feeling more than a little angst, with all the emotions about going
outside tomorrow, he just snapped. He grabbed hold of her aggressively and
pinned her to the bed and bearing down on her demanded simply, “What is up with
you?”

She flinched as if he
was about to hit her and replied quietly to him, “You are going aren’t you? You
are leaving and not coming back.” Her eyes were welling up with tears now.

River wondered how she
knew about her father’s plan and intention. But he also realised that she was
not so clever at reading his own intentions. He grabbed her once again and
pulled her towards him in a tight hug. Then he simply whispered to her, “No! I
am coming back. I don’t want to leave you.”

The official from the
Environment Office looked dubious as Nathan Carlson explained his reason for
his expedition outside the walls of New Denver. He had stopped Nathan and River
at the penultimate checkpoint, as the Major drove his sports utility vehicle
towards the western gate of the citadels walls.

 “So is this business
or pleasure Major?”

The official was mature
in years and had acquired a Buddha belly which gave him a low waistline and
stretched his white shirt to its full extension. His stance and demeanour
marked him as an ex Ranger, and the information displaying on Major Carlson’s
own visual readout from his contact lens showed that he was a retired
lieutenant. “Deputy Lyons, you were a Captain in the Rangers right? So you know
the foothills to the north west of old Boulder.”

“You mean like the Flat
Irons, of course.”

“Well Citizen River
here has got some pertinent information about some old tunnel entrances in
those hills that are being used to siphon off hijacked freight. Interior thinks
we should take a look.”

“That’s not the way I
see it. That would be an Environment issue; we can send some Rangers up there
to investigate. Also that doesn’t explain why you boys are all kitted up like
you are on a sports weekend.” Deputy Lyons leaned closer and rested an elbow on
the wing mirror of the sports vehicle. His body language suggested that he was
talking off the record, “Now this young fellow with you was only processed as a
citizen less than a month ago. You know he shouldn’t be leaving the metropolis
for any business whilst he is on probation.”

Carlson now spoke as if
in confidence, “He is an asset of ours, Captain; sorry, I mean Deputy. He has
infiltrated one of District 18’s biggest criminal gangs. We are close to
pulling their numbers. All this sports equipment is just for show. It is a
cover.”

 “If you say so, Major.
No skin off my teeth. Have a good trip,” and with that the deputy waived them
through the barrier. The next one was automated and opened simply on their
approach. Both of them took a deep breath. It was not a release of tension; it
was just great to be outside the walls again.

They set off in a north
westerly direction. The Major intended to flank around the northern outskirts
of the old city of Denver. He was only lightly armed, and the sports vehicle
had no armour, and driving through a derelict city always brought the danger of
ambush. The journey was about 55 miles in total and would take just over an
hour. 

“Nathan, there is
something that I need to talk to you about.”

“Okay, but you know I
cannot talk to you about what we intend to do tomorrow. You know I need to
physically prepare myself to hold that conversation.” Carlson was referring to
tasoring his leg to shut down the processor in his knee.

“It is, and it isn’t
about where we need to be and what I need to do,” River was speaking with great
caution so as not to incriminate the Major. “You know when your children reach
that certain age where they need to leave home. Well if I was your child, would
you want me to leave.”

“Of course I don’t. I
mean I wouldn’t want that, but if you needed to go, I would give you my support,”
Nathan had picked up on the double meaning and was adding his own. “You know
that there are probably others there to support that child when he leaves home.
Familiar people who are timely, and there when you need them. He won’t need to
be alone.” River listened to Nathan and was really surprised to hear this; he
had not realised that he was being met. He wondered how Nathan had been able to
arrange this. He wanted to ask but his questioning on this subject could create
difficulties for Nathan. Anyway River had something more profound to put to his
friend.

“What if that child
didn’t want to leave home, because they felt that they were not ready to leave
home yet?” River was clearly trying to impart to his friend that he wanted to
stay longer. He could not tell him the real reason for this change of heart,
because it was Audrina. River was not ready to leave her; nor was he sure that
he might ever be.

“I would most certainly
be shocked that my child did not feel ready, but I would support their decision
although I would like to know why. I would tell my child that I would help them
leave home when they were ready, because I like my children living with me.”

“That is good to hear.
I think your child would be very grateful for your help and patience, and sorry
that they had wasted your time and efforts.”

“I am glad you find my
parenting advice useful. Hopefully it will help you when you have your own.
Anyhow, I must say that I am looking forward to introducing you to the sport of
natural free running today. We will have some fun, and tomorrow, we can still
investigate some familiar sights at the Valley of the Miracle and Lizard
Ridge.” Nathan was comfortable using this unknown colloquial name, because it
was known as Garden of the Gods on the map.

This had been an
important conversation that had taken place. For River, it was like an immense
weight had been taken off his shoulders. For Nathan, he was actually pleased
that his young friend wanted to stay on. He was most welcome, and the family
would be happy to see his return. They had covered some distance whilst they
were talking, and now the ruins of the old city lay behind them, so Major
Carlson stopped the vehicle and insisted that River tried his hand at driving.

They swapped over seats
and Nathan quickly gave River a breakdown on the operational prerequisites of
driving a Rough Rider. They both pulled down the restraints to protect them
just in case they rolled, and River eased the throttle back and was soon
picking up forward momentum in a jerking motion. As the name implied, they were
not a smooth ride. They provided very quick acceleration but a low top speed.
They was not really that complicated to drive, the skill applied when you
reduced the magnetic repel of the catalyst drive to a level which just kept the
vehicle less than a foot off the ground. This made you feel ever contour and
the skill was to hug the terrain without crashing into any obstacle. As Nathan
slowly adjusted the magnetic repel lower, River began to realise the difficulty
of maintaining control of the steering. The rougher the terrain and the vehicle
and the steering were getting thrown about. The contents of your stomach could
easily end up in your throat, but the play factor was really exciting and fun.
With practice, River got better and better at handling the vehicle at faster
speeds. A few times Nathan felt like grabbing control of the steering yoke when
it seemed that they were inbound for a collision with some boulder, but River
displayed lightening reactions which gave Nathan much confidence in his
driving.

When they reached the
foothills to the flat iron rocky peaks, Nathan swapped seats again and took the
controls. He raised the magnetic repel to maximum to climb the steep hills,
because the Rough Rider was not designed for such hill climbs. The flat irons
were aptly named because their line of peaks really did resemble a bunch of up
ended flat irons sticking up at an acute angle. From the distance they appeared
to rise as a small mountainous range. However once you had climbed the
foothills, the rocky cliffs were not really that high. However the highest
ridges appeared like large shattered splinters of rock. They provided Nathan’s
favourite location for practising natural terrain free running.

They took a break first
and had a brew and a couple of energy snacks before they tackled the rocky
outcrop which they had selected. They clambered up the rock face easily. It was
not even climbing as the outcrop rose out of the earth at angle that was more
diagonal than vertical. Nathan mapped out a small circuit that did not contain
that many taxing jumps and completed it at first on his own to demonstrate the
different style of jumps that would be required. He had switched off all
enhanced abilities to his prosthetic limbs so that River would be able to try
and match his abilities. He then walked River around the small circuit covering
each jump one at a time. The ledges, foot and hand holds they targeted were
easily assessable, but Nathan demonstrated to him how with a bit of ongoing
momentum, one could reach target holds much further apart and swing forward
from unsteady hand holds to sure footed ones. River was soon picking up the
skills and increasing both his speed and the length of his jumps as got better
with practice.

 Nathan was really in
his element. This was usually a solitary sports activity for him. There was no
one that he knew who was both interested in it and eligible to leave the
citadel. Not only this, but River was a natural. In a short span of time he had
picked it up like a natural, to become a quite competent jumper. Without the
aid of any optical overlays and computer ‘App’ calculations, he was able to
work out achievable distances to jump or drop at different speeds.

After an afternoon of
natural free running, they went down into a hillside meadow at the base of the
peaks in order to make camp. River let Nathan build camp by setting up two
tents with a tarpaulin covered adjoining area. River’s contribution was to
collect wood and start a fire. Nathan had packed sleeping bags, inflatable
mattresses and foil heat insulators in the Rough Rider. He had brought a
selection of pre prepared meals which actually heated themselves through some
unknown chemistry and a bottle of red wine for himself, and fresh water and
fruit juices for River.

As they feasted and
drank beside the camp fire River mused, “If a brother from my community could
see me camping in such comfort, I think he might disown me.”

Nathan was amused but
replied sarcastically, “I suppose you eat snakes and lizards, and sleep using rocks
for pillows.”

“We do actually,
sandstone makes a good neck support,” River was learning to appreciate sarcasm.

However Nathan
expressed a genuine belief, “There is nothing wrong with applying a little
technology to make life a little more comfortable.”

“So Nathan, does that
argument explain why you alter your genes and integrate computers and machinery
within your bodies.”

“A terrorist’s bomb
would have left me in a wheelchair for the sake of some bionic implants.
Genetic profiling has given us smarter kids who can keep up with exponential
advance of technology. Any citizen can now access and display a goldmine of
information on any subject he needs within reason, and you and me get to have
self inflating mattresses, self heating dinners, and nano-fibre fabrics that
can keep us warm in blizzards and cool in a desert … So why do you dislike the
gift of technology so much?”

“Because the more you
rely on it, the further it takes you from where you need to go,” River said
with implied conviction.

“Explain that point!”
challenged Nathan who felt that River had side stepped his whole premise of the
discussion.

“You are human like me,
but you cannot do everything that I can do. Our bodies are beginning to evolve
differently, but we are meant to be as one. Our DNA is a gift from the creator
and has unbelievable potential for change stored within it. Yet your scientists
try to reverse engineer it. You think that by pulling it apart and changing
some genes you can fix anything, and one day make a human into a god. But you
do not realise that we were once part of God, but have been made separate.”

Nathan was an Atheist,
and any mention of a God usually would irritate him. “So if you think that
there is a God and only he can change us, and make us better. Then why hasn’t
he done this to us yet?”

“I appreciate that you
do not believe in any god, creation, or any religion. This is something that
you feel that you instinctively know. I do not want to argue this point with
you. However I too know instinctively, that this world and this reality are
part of one creation which is still in the process of being created, and can
not be seen as separate from the Creator. It is the holy spirit of Creator’s
love which emanates through everything and manifests creatively through Creator’s
eternal spirit that is within us and bound to this earth through a mortal soul.
That divided spirit that lies within us remains separated from its source. It
yearns for atonement. That is to be
at one
with the Creator.”

“Spoken like the true
son of a preacher,” Nathan referred to River’s father Eli.

“My father’s religion
is not my faith.”

“Well there are many
people in the metropolis who hold to some form of religion. In fact it bodes
well for you if you can adopt the arcane and magical beliefs held by some of
the elite,” -Nathan appeared to resent these people- “But to me, I see it all
as superstitious hocus-pocus which serves to make the believer feel that
someone has got his back, and is holding a safety net. I don’t see your
pantheistic or deistic beliefs to have any more validity than theirs. Evolution
brought us all here and not by design, but instead by happenstance. Human DNA
hasn’t evolved, but we have the ability to change it now; enhance it. If we
don’t apply and integrate new technological knowledge to ourselves, then
technology will become sentient and leave us behind. If we don’t embrace
artificial intelligence, then one day when it can reason for itself, it will
see us as superstitious primitives that are irrelevant to it. It will see us as
inferior,” Nathan could see that River was impatient to answer this point, but
his own restraining gesture requested some patience. “We can cover these points
another time. I still want you to explain why you think DNA belongs to god and
why he hasn’t yet improved it.”