Raine VS The End of the World (64 page)

She shook off the angst. “You can’t fight nature head-on, but you can’t be passive to its power, either. Am I a healer, a martyr, a symbol, a demon, or a warrior? Behind my masks, I ask myself the same questions every day. Success is as dangerous as failure. Hope is as hollow as fear. To walk the middle path is to tread upon the edge of a knife. Keeping one’s mind clear of fallacies is a full-time job in and of itself. But know this: in everything you do, you are never alone. The concept of collective consciousness is still a notion I can’t explain, although someday I hope to be able to. That voice within you knows what’s up. Listen to it. This is just one nomad’s opinion, but I encourage you to give the
Belladonna
a spin, and see where she takes you. Now, if you’ll be so kind as to excuse me, I’ve got to see a satellite about a death beam.”

The two junior Captains digested her rambling words as she prepped for takeoff.

“Um, Lily?” Raine started, breaking a long silence.

“Yes, dear?”

“J-just give us a second, please.”

She pulled Gerrit aside; Lily stole an anxious glance at her wristwatch.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Maybe we should go with her,” she whispered.

“You mean, to the future?”

“Dude, this could be our only chance!”

“But Raine… we… we have to think about this. What if our actions from here on are crucial to Lily’s success? What if we have some part to play?”

“That’s just the thing. Maybe there’s a new mission for us.”

They turned to the former Captain.

“If we change our course, we alter your past,” said Raine. “We might erase you.”

“What if this ends up causing more paradoxes?” queried Gerrit.

“Ah, impeccable timing. The answer to that one is conveniently simple,” elder Lily managed, checking her watch again. “No time to launch probes; let’s hope I’ve still got my steady aim.”

The alarm sounded. She brought up a holographic real-time readout of the
Belladonna.

Three hunter satellites penetrated the station’s debris field, armed with superheated laser turrets. Lily took her time calibrating the energy redirects. She remotely activated the Particle Eliminator Cannon recently installed on the
Belladonna’s
hull. The beam drew in power, and then, in one sharp instant, split at a floating prism and blasted each of the satellites to pieces.

“Ha! I’ve still got it!”

Raine gasped and latched onto Gerrit’s arm.
We were supposed to die? Was this the real reason she returned?

Beyond relieved, Lily adjusted her collar. “Lorelei’s last hurrah – once reaching Earth, I discovered that she planted a tracker on the
Raven
;
now that we’re in satellite range, it must have signaled for the cavalry the moment I was spotted descending to Earth. I do believe I just saved your lives. Oh, right, almost forgot about this puppy.”

She tossed a disk to XF-22, who slotted it into its console.

“Satellite trackers and weapons deactivation codes. You’ll be able to avoid any future attacks. You’ll forgive me, I hope, that I waited so long to do this. But I wanted to settle our karma first.”

“I get it,” said Gerrit. “You’ve nothing to apologize for.”

“Then I’ll be taking my leave, though I must admit that I overheard your discussion. You’re very welcome to join us on the
Frontier
. I’ve left the spacetime coordinates for the
Bradbury
base with Rutger. But take your time thinking it over. Alpha Earth housed over nine billion people. The potential exists to bring those lives back into existence. Contrary to popular belief, comfortable sustainability is more than possible on modern Earth with populations even twice that size. Should you seek to change the past once more, I won’t stop you. Here’s my theory: the further removed one becomes from timeline changes, the longer any potential ripples take to have any effect. I can stay two steps ahead; ride out the waves, if that’s what it comes down to. I’m standing here before you right now, aren’t I?”

“You’re invincible, Lily,” Raine smiled.

Lillian returned the gesture. “Despite my agnosticism, Grace has come to me; pondering the unknown no longer fills me with fear. I’m prepared to embrace whatever curveballs life throws my way. I wish the same for you.
Namaste.
”

She threw them a parting wave and descended into her cockpit. The deafening turbine echoed along the walls. Within seconds, the
Raven
was gone, leaving Raine and Gerrit in a much better mood than before, but with infinitely more questions.

The Co-Captain felt out her companion. “So.”

“So, indeed. I think it’s time to catch some Z’s before she shows up to blow our minds again.”

They bade Rutger a good night and went to their rooms. Raine took a vacuum shower, brushed her teeth, changed into Elizabeth Hermes’ pajamas, and nestled into bed, staring out the window at planet Earth.

Now that Lily had departed, she wondered once more if she might just wake up back in Chicago, and closed her eyes. It didn’t work. She left and knocked on Gerrit’s door.

“Hey.”

“Hmm? Can’t sleep?”

“Something like that,” Raine said sheepishly.

Putting on his space slippers, Gerrit walked over and opened the door with a half-coy, half-concerned expression.

“I can’t sleep either.”

Raine averted her eyes. “I was wondering, um… don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but do you think I could stay with you tonight? I don’t want to be alone right now.”

Gerrit twiddled his thumbs. “Er, sure. If you can handle my snoring.”

“Fake me grew up in an orphanage. That won’t be a problem,” she said in relief.

The
Belladonna’s
twin Captains ended up lying side by side on cots over the observatory floor, hands held. The heat from the engine room below kept their backs warm, and the reactor’s low hum was most soothing.

Within a half hour of pillow talk, Gerrit was out. But the stars continued to call to Raine, whose thoughts were snowballing.

“Rutger, are you there?” she whispered.

“Always, Captain Raine.”

“Say, you called her ‘Miss Lily’, right? Do you think you can call me ‘Miss Raine’?”

“Miss Raine it is.”

“This is going to sound strange, but I have an odd desire to listen to Beethoven.”

“Ah, that’s not as unusual as you may think. He was one of Professor Elizabeth’s favorites. Might I suggest ‘Symphony No. 7 in A Major?’”

“Go for it. Oh, and Rutger?”

“Yes?”

“Do you think you could hook me up with a good dream tonight?”

“I’m sorry, Miss Raine. I’m not allowed to influence your dreams. I can only record them. But if I may I offer a word of advice Elizabeth Hermes might have given: dreams tell you lies in order to reveal truths. Your brain dreams what it needs to; there is little harm in letting your subconscious cleanse your cluttered thoughts. Humans have an average of five adventures every night. There is no such thing as a dreamless sleep, only a lack of dream recall. And sometimes that’s for the better.”

“Maybe I should hope for an eventful dream, then,” Raine replied. “So I can wake up fresh. Who knows?”

“No worries. I’ve already calibrated the perfect playlist for you. Four hours of Beethoven and Mozart, then four hours of improvisational jazz.”

Powerful strings calmed her restless mind. The potential weight of the universe now on her shoulders and with no idea what her next step might be, there should have been no way for Raine get a wink of sleep. But to her own surprise, she was eager to get started on her research. Both Lilies had left notes and blueprints to pore through and study, language models to master, histories to digest. And Rutger, of course, could simulate any number of potential outcomes.

Raine performed breathing exercises, counted sheep, even attempted to hypnotize herself to slumber. Then she simply stopped trying to force it, and had the dome tilt towards the rotating planet.

After some time, Earth turned into the swirling arcade cabinet that led her into
Endless Metaverse
. Only everything went in reverse, and she walked backwards over the virtual waves, past the floating chrome orbs, through the television after-image, and out of the portal into Agnes’ condo back in good old Chicago, where everyone was making bets on the next Bulls season and arcade gamers ruled supreme.

Raine imagined herself asleep on a Monday morning in winter, double-layered to save on heating costs. She’d be playing hookey, having slept in due to reeling from the most insane dream of her life, awaiting the light to seep in from the top of her curtain around nine-thirty and prompt her awake to turn to the other side of the bed.

She opened her eyes again after squeezing them shut.

Planet Earth was still watching over her, its blue and white echoing the dull sky she now left behind in her imaginary suburb.

Five minutes of this passed.

Raine took a deep breath. At least now, she knew where she was, and that she would need to steel herself to meet the days ahead. Long, thankless days of learning, theorizing, and questioning, but with Gerrit by her side, they would be worth it, mission or no mission.

With her doubts at bay, Raine drifted off to sleep, and had the most magnificent dreams.

Dear reader, I sincerely hope you enjoyed your time with Raine, Lily, and Gerrit as much as I enjoyed the privilege of chronicling their adventures. I’d hoped to write a preface, but this work originated as an e-book, and seeing as how the first encounter most readers will have with the work would consist of a sample including the first few pages, I wanted to ensure that I had enough space to properly thank everyone who’s supported, inspired, and influenced me over the course of this five-year journey (to explore strange new worlds).

The very first traces of “Raine VS The End of the World” hit the word processor before I knew what they were. I was a film student turning 21 in ‘08, during one of the more depressing periods in recent film history. The Great Recession began. The WGA went on strike. Heath Ledger’s tragic passing in January set the tone for the rest of the year, which was dominated by a few darkly cynical epics, such as “The Dark Knight”, “There Will Be Blood”, “W.”, “The Wrestler”, “Revolutionary Road” and, of course, “Step Brothers”.

When the year began, I was working at The Landmark on Pico and Westwood, watching two to three new films a week. Immersed in film, I was about to transfer to CalArts for my B.A. and spent time desperately honing my screenwriting skills. The long-term plan was to crank out a full-length screenplay on one of my two favorite science fiction genres, namely, virtual worlds or time travel. To help with my decision, I ended up writing on both, only I found myself restraining my vision at every corner in order to develop a work that might conceivably end up on the small or silver screen (one of my faults is that I can’t stop thinking big!). So I embarked on something different. I’d write in the more comfortable format of a novel, and retroactively adapt the work into a screenplay. Just like that, my pre-conceived limitations disappeared.

The short screenplay involving a virtual world as a major plot point, “The Man Who Owned the World”, focused almost exclusively on its tower-dwelling antagonist and his quest against the ‘invading’ hero working to free people from his virtual prison, while my ideas on time travel involved cycles spanning millennia and parallel worlds, for one person’s attempt to save humanity. The ridiculous notion to combine both came to me in a dream not unlike the one that Lily mulls over.

The stories of Lillian and Raine wove themselves into being with relative ease, as if they had always existed and were simply looking for someone to chronicle their adventures. I was inspired by my personal and creative relationship at the time with Ms. Sabrina Cotugno, a gifted artist, animator, and storyteller to whom I shall forever be indebted.

It had been a goal of mine for years to craft an action-packed genre story with strong, but not archetypical, female protagonists. I wasn’t trying to avoid traditional story structures. As I worked out the themes of adolescent escapism, megalomaniacal control, and the eternal human quest for truth into a fast-paced narrative, it was more that traditional structures avoided me.

In the following years, as the political climates in the USA and abroad changed, I felt I could not ignore the class warfare taking place across the globe, as well as the mounting challenges to civil and natural freedoms, equal rights, the gradual ‘wars’ on privacy, the prevalence of false flag attacks, and the continued destruction and exploitation of natural resources and indigenous peoples to further the globalist economic machine, offset for the first-world by mindless distractions.

Considering myself as a world citizen writing for a universal audience, many of the secondary themes of the story developed around these horrific violations to basic human rights, and from a personal need to address the collective feelings of apathy and disillusionment present in young peoples’ attitudes towards the future.

Most of my research time was spent on ensuring that technology circa 2187 was based on the emergent possibilities of existing science. The
Metaverse’s
escapism became a mirror for the evolution of the gaming industry towards total cinematic immersion (devices such as the Oculus Rift are paving the way in that regard), the Holo-Lens a peek at the future of head-mounted, Cloud-based communications such as the Google Glass, and the anarchists’ struggle within the
Metaverse
a representation for Internet freedom fighters and the power of individuals connected by nothing more than electric waves and text to influence and challenge the system at large (IRL, check out the EFF and Slashdot). The final confrontation between the EDC and
Neo Eden
was a lot of fun to write, as it allowed me to picture what warfare might be like in an alternate future where high-powered but not necessarily speedy airships dominated the skies.

On the time travel side of things, the
Belladonna
, of course, is a near-impossibility, and the one major narrative embellishment I was willing to make. By almost any model out there, the furthest back any theoretical time machine could transport its user would be to the point of its initial operation (not to mention that, as written, the
Belladonna
utilizes an unexplainable method of artificial gravity).

Added late in the story’s development, Vipassana Meditation (as practiced by Lily) is an ancient and very scientific technique created and taught by Gautama Buddha during his lifetime, and has recently spread from Burma via the efforts of S.N. Goenka. I took a ten-day course and it was one of the most beneficial things I’ve ever done. Please visit
www.dhamma.org
to learn more about Vipassana.

All in all, I did my best to capture the tale as it played on a loop, refining itself through my subconscious via long hours of introspection. Finding the time to write was my biggest challenge, but distilling the prose never felt like work. On the contrary, putting down the camera, sharpening my pencil, and returning to fiction after a years-long break was immensely freeing.

Though I may not be a seasoned pro (I haven’t completed my 10,000 hours of writing yet!), I knew that I could wait no longer to get this tale out into the world. Writing “Raine” was undoubtedly the most fun I’ve ever had working on a creative endeavor. And I hope some of that joy and energy transfers through to the final product.

If you’ll allow me the great courtesy to paraphrase something Tolkien once said of “The Lord of the Rings”, this humble attempt at fiction is a tale that grew in the telling, and I have many people to thank for their love, support, influence, and inspiration throughout the years.

The biggest thanks go to my family for allowing me more than a fair share of time to work on this story even in the midst of a very busy period for the family business. That’s Mom, Dad, Michael, Aaron and Khayla. I would also like to further thank my extended family: Grandma Rosie, Uncle David and his family, Aunt Missy and her family, Tita Pangga and family, Kuya Pat and Pam, Tita Marisse and her kids, Uncle Trius and his family, and many others, not to mention Mike Canaday and his family, Mike Kim and his family, Shahriar and his family, Glen and his family, Jamshid and his family, Gustaji, Parvin, Arshia, Payam, and Zee, Jack and Becky Caraco, Ralph and Kebi Brown, Chris and Christy Pearson, and all of our other close family friends from the Avatar Meher Baba community for their love and support.

Although I consider myself agnostic, it feels only right to thank the Divine Watchmaker in the 50-50 chance that He/She/It exists and the universe, and us within it, are part of the fabric of an elaborately woven tapestry as well as an inevitability of metaphysics.

Major kudos are in order to my beta-reading team, whom I subjected to an entire year of e-mails and have given me immensely helpful feedback: namely, Alice, Angeline, Angelica, Anna, Bong Su, Carlos, Charles, Christina, Frank, Peter, Ioan, Inez, John-Paul, Kim, Kyle, Myra, Raine (whom I hope doesn’t mind that I appropriated her name!), Sabrina, Sammy, Sarah, Sophie, Thomas, Toshi, and Tim.

I’d also like to give shout-outs to Moe, Mon, Paulo, Errol, Anthony, Robert, Rachelle, Piran, Kyle, Yosuke, Daphne, Ayrn, Joanna, Vanessa, Gerrit, Steven, Beverly, Glen, Bobby, Casey, Pete, Marilyn, Conor, Kelly, Matt, James, Claire, Chris, Rachel, Francesca, Lauren, Pele, Mélisande, Brandon, Samantha, Fabian, Sam, Vincent, Alex, West, Ben Dubash, Jenna West, and Alex Lorge.

Anna, Christina, Ioan, Meredith, Michael, Mom, and Myra, I owe you guys big time for your insights and support.

I also must thank all the great video game makers who’ve inspired me. That list includes, in no particular order, Nintendo, Square-Enix, Sega, Konami, Namco-Bandai, Capcom, Platinum Games, Clover Studios, From Software, Bethesda, Q? Games, GRAVITY Co., Ltd., Blizzard, Bioware, Irrational Games, Atlus, Level-5 Games, Rare, thatgamecompany, Mistwalker Studios, Team Meat, Studio Pixel, Distractionware, Four Leaf Studios, and many others.

Hideo Kojima and Hironobu Sakaguchi in particular have been tremendous influences on this work.

Countless animé have also left their mark on “Raine”. If you are curious to dive into this wonderful universe, please check out “Steins;Gate”, “Neon Genesis Evangelion” and the “Rebuild of Evangelion” films, “Puella Magi Madoka Magika”, “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time”, “Serial Experiments Lain”, “Kill la Kill”, “Code Geass” (which
heavily
inspired the climactic aerial battle), “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”, the “.hack” series, “Accel World”, “Btooom!”, “Sword Art Online”, “Cowboy Bebop”, “Summer Wars”, “Wolf Children”, “Redline”, “Baccano!”, “Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood”, “Eden of the East”, “Gurren Lagann”, “FLCL”, “K-On!”, “The Animatrix”, “Mindgame”, “Fate/stay night” and “Fate/zero”, the “Ghost in the Shell” films and series, the works of Studio Ghibli, Madhouse, and the late, great Satoshi Kon (“Paranoia Agent”, “Perfect Blue” and “Paprika” influenced me quite a bit), among myriad other great works of Japanese animation. I highly recommend the works of Studio Ghibli as a starting point for anyone new to animé. American animated series that have directly influenced this work include “Samurai Jack”, Genndy Tartakovsy’s “Clone Wars”, “The Venture Bros.”, “Metalocalypse”, and, of course, “Futurama”.

Manga, graphic novel, and webcomic/online influences include the works of Neil Gaiman, Osamu Tezuka, Will Eisner, Craig Thompson, Katsuhiro Otomo, Yukito Kishiro’s “Battle Angel Alita” series, Hiroki Endo’s “Eden” series, the art of Frank Frazetta, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Alan Moore, Gene Luen Yang, Amy Kim Kabuishi (whose work I absolutely love) and Kazu Kabuishi, editor of the “Flight” series of graphic novels, Scott Ramsoomair, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, Randall Munroe, Scott Kurtz, Brian Clevinger (“8-Bit Theatre” kept me laughing for years), Ryan North, Dan Kim, Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston, Frank Miller, and Scott McCloud, among many, many others. I’m also a huge fan of VSauce, JonTron and Egoraptor, the Game Grumps family, Nostalgia Critic, Nostalgia Chick, the Red Letter Media guys, and James Rolfe, The Angry Video Game Nerd.

If I listed all my cinematic idols, we’d both be here for days. So first and foremost I’ll mention the Wachowski siblings, whose incomparable body of work continues to inspire me. I’d also like to thank Terry Gilliam, Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson, Wes Anderson, Satyajit Ray, Agnes Varda, Billy Wilder, Kinji Fukusaku, Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Kim Ji-woon, Kim Ki-duk, Kenji Mizoguchi, Takashi Miike, Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Edgar Wright, Guillermo del Toro, the Nolan brothers, Zack Snyder, Justin Lin, Ang Lee, Rian Johnson, Spike Lee, Derek Cianfrance, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Kelly, Michel Gondry, Charlie Kaufman, Ridley Scott, Francis Ford Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Alfonso Cuâron, Duncan Jones, Richard Linklater, Georges Mélies, Kevin Smith, Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Joss Whedon, and George Lucas for expanding my imagination.

As for literary influences, I’ve gotta hand it to the great mind-benders and genre pioneers: Haruki Murakami (my all-time favorite author), Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, J.K. Rowling, C.S. Lewis, Douglas Adams, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Joseph Heller, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Joe Halderman, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Cory Doctorow, Orson Scott Card, Robert Louis Stevenson, Victor Hugo, Frank Herbert, Hunter S. Thompson, Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell, Jules Verne, Koushun Takami, Suzanne Collins, Philip Pullman, Ursula Le Guin, Aldous Huxley, L. Frank Baum, Lewis Carroll, J.M. Barrie, Ayn Rand, William Goldman, Nagaru Tanigawa, Mary Shelley, Max Brooks, Ryu Murakami, Robert Jordan, and Brandon Sanderson, again, in no particular order. Love you guys.

The steampunk epic “Clockwork Angels” by Kevin J. Anderson, based upon a story by Neal Peart and complementing the phenomenal Rush album of the same name, also inspired me towards the end of the writing process.

I owe a debt to Ernest Cline, whom I have never met. His novel “Ready Player One” features a fantastic depiction of an online world clinging to a happier past; his vision is more grounded in reality, and he is practically reverent to its influences. I wish him the best of luck on adapting his work to film, and if by some miracle he is reading this right now I would like to volunteer my services as a filmmaker to help realize his vision. Full disclosure: I read “Ready Player One” when I was about 70% finished with “Raine”, and knowing that there was an audience in America hungry for literary excursions into virtual worlds greatly encouraged me to get my thoughts out into the ether.

Justin Macumber, author of “Haywire” and “A Minor Magic” and co-runner of the award-winning Dead Robots Society writers’ podcast, is another inspiration. His work features strong characterizations, wry humor, satisfying physics, and hair-raising action sequences. I’d like to also give a shout-out to kenporules, Rexkix, Dubz, Faint, Korg, DSS, Savory, Bomb, OSN, milky, and all my other friends on the Rotten Tomatoes General Video Game Discussion Forums. Sorry I haven’t had much time to visit.