Unison (The Spheral) (16 page)

“What makes me different?” I asked sincerely. I never heard anyone talk to Kai as I had and get away with it.

“I made you my First because I saw the potential for greatness in you, and I still feel the same. However, with that potential comes the risk of deluding yourself into thinking your vision of Unity is more righteous than ours. It’s not. You’re confusing your personal passion with what’s already been proven to benefit Unity. Tyrus did the same thing, and—”

“Lost his chance to become Overseer. I get it, except I think Tyrus is better off. Ascending to a position that leads to a permanent psychosis isn’t something most sane men would willingly aspire to.”

“Stop creating conflict where there is none, or I’ll have to—”

“Throw me out of this collective band of lunatics and sleeve-worshippers? Don’t bother. As of today, this former blind loyalist can see clearly.” I pointed the bow at Kai. “Tell the head psychopath he’s going to have to find someone else to continue playing his discordant orchestrations because I quit.”

“You’re the blind one. I’ve seen it happen before. You’ve placed yourself so high above your assignment you can no longer see Unity—”

“I see clearer in this moment than I ever had in my entire life.”

“What you
had
was everything. You were denied nothing—”

I stood and stared down at Kai who took a step back.

“You’re correct…
Hox
.” I glanced at my holologue and set the holoscreen to public display. Live feeds of the four transmission towers appeared alongside a status bar nearing completion.

“What is that counting down to?” he asked, not masking his fear very well.

I walked over to my desk. “Life in the henhouse was amusing for a while…until a fox entered and reminded me of what I wasn’t.” I pulled out the stolen plazer from the drawer and aimed it at Kai.

He slowly raised both his hands. “You’re experiencing a symptom of the scourge. You need to get your implant checked right now.”

I laughed. “If that’s true, you’re in big trouble because I don’t want to be cured. I’m enjoying this…
symptom
.”

“Killing me will hurt us all,” he said. “Violence is a virus. If it’s not stopped, it would move from Unitian to Unitian until all we’ve worked for is left in ruins.”

“If you understood what you were a part of, you’d welcome Unity’s destruction.” The status bar was near completion, and I counted along. “3, 2, 1…”

The four live feeds turned to snow. “As you can clearly see, where the last Striker failed, I succeeded. You’ll find my data on the Progenitor have also gone extinct.”

“I’ll see to it that you are demoted to orange sleeve for this!”

“Where I’ll spend the rest of my life crawling in the sewers.” I approached Kai and glared down at him. “Your threats don’t scare me, Kai. The Overseer won’t enslave the Unitians with my help.”

“How dare you make this about you! You don’t own this project!”

“Without me, there would be no project!”

“We’ll locate it without—”

I smacked the side of Kai’s head with my plazer, and he collapsed to the floor.

“You’ll lose all you worked for.” He slowly got up to his knees.

“I already have.”

Kai grabbed me from behind my knees, and pulled me down. As I fell I shot him, and he collapsed on to his back. There was no need to call a medic; Kai was dead. I secured my backpack, turned around for one last glance at my home and left.

BOOK TWO

“To hope means to be ready at every moment for that which is not yet born, and yet not become desperate if there is no such birth in our lifetime.” Emily Dickinson

HELL AND NATURE

N
o matter where you go in Unity, your location is monitored in the main security station. The Chosen guard the secret well because they’re exempt from being tracked. Although I destroyed the towers, I moved as if I was on the run. I wanted to put as much distance between me and the menace I unleashed upon every Unitian. While I was free, Harmony would go live again after the towers were repaired. That was my legacy, which would now be credited to Kai. He could have it because it was a legacy I didn’t want attached to my name, but it would forever be linked back to the mind that invented it. I believed in the Unitian Oath. Before the Overseer desecrated my proposal with his vision of a greater Unity, I even believed he was our father who wanted Unity for all. But somewhere…underneath all these beliefs, something felt off. Had I dwelled a little deeper, I would’ve discovered
I believed in a fantasy.

I swiftly maneuvered past the eastern side of the eroded ridge and continued my pace until I caught view of Old Woman’s cabin. It appeared exactly as it had when I first saw it years before. Thinking she might’ve returned, I decided to visit. I knocked several times and when no one answered, I entered. Everything in the cabin was demolished. Electronic equipment, and all the sculptures from the shelves lay broken on the floor. I picked up the Ganesha and positioned the trunk in its proper place, just as I had done in my vision. The only thing left undamaged was the picture of Old Woman and Torrin, which still hung on the wall. It eerily contrasted Old Woman who sat on the chair in front of the window, smiling. Her mouth was the only recognizable feature on her face. Everything else was blown off by a plazer blast. I was now responsible for three deaths.

Out of respect, I performed the sacred burning ceremony for Old Woman. As I recited the Sacred Oath, I felt a connection to the words, but it wasn’t out of any residual loyalty towards Unity. Old Woman was the only person who would’ve understood my transition, but she was dead, as was her once prized vegetable garden. Thick black smoke from the pyre spread over years of weed overgrowth, and the irrigation ditches were filled with soot and pebbles. Everything here emitted death. I had to leave before I allowed myself to succumb to the same fate that claimed Flora and Wade.

As I walked alone in the woods, the world seemed alien and undefined. I could no longer trust my own perceptions because everything I learned came from Unity. Master Franklin and Master Theodore were the only two purple sleeves I trusted, and even they didn’t know much about the outside. Here, in the quiet, the sound of nature soothed my aching soul. Taking in all the sounds, I got lost in each moment as it glided into the next. I let nature pull me into her realm until I couldn’t differentiate myself from her. A rock was no longer just a rock, and a branch was no longer just a branch. Each touch from my fingers shot a message to my brain and forced me to question my previous judgment of what I held in my hand. From the smallest grain of sand to the largest mountain, I joined with the output of a living Earth’s evolution: breathing, shifting, changing, and rearranging into wondrous displays of sentient artwork. This was where I belonged.

My transcendental wandering was interrupted by a pack of wild dogs. As I gripped the handle of my plazer an arrow flew past me, piercing the leader of the pack. He yelped, fell to the ground, and the other dogs ran off.

A female Outsider emerged from out of a tuft of bushes with her arrow pointed at me. “Don’t move, or the next one will pierce your heart.”

“He’s all yours,” I said.

“Put down your weapon.”

“Since we have nothing to argue over, why don’t we both lower our arms?”

“I cannot honor your request. Your people kill everyone that doesn’t live in Dome Dungeon.”

“They’re
not
my people.”

“How come you’re dressed like them?”

“It’s too long a story to explain with an arrow aimed at my heart.”

She pulled back the drawstring of her longbow. “It’s ready to slice right through it if you give me any trouble.”

“I know this may be hard for you to believe, but I trust you more than them.”

“Why would you trust me? Trust comes from a shared history, and we only just met.”

“Where I come from everyone acts neighborly, but that’s all it is…an act. Most of my peers would’ve shot me in the back for a promotion if they thought they could get away with it. At least you have the honor to show me your intention.”

“Got no intention here.” She slowly lowered her longbow. “Your words sound sincere, and your face betrays their truth.”

I holstered my plazer and extended my hand to her. “I’m Damon.”

“Signy.” She shook my hand.

I tried to examine my first female Outsider without making it obvious. (I didn’t consider Old Woman a true Outsider as she originally came from Unity). Signy’s hair was bound—but not braided, and her clothing appeared to be made from the hide of an animal. Her most shocking feature was her dark brown skin color.

“What are you going to do with the dog?” I asked.

“I’m skinning and cooking it when I get home. Come along if you like. All enemies of Dome Dungeon are welcomed in my village.”

My stomach writhed at the thought of eating a dog. “Thanks for the invitation, but I’m heading off to the old tunnel.”

“You won’t reach it until nightfall, and you’ll be greeted by more dogs…and bounty hunters. They like to hit people from where you come from. The reward would be high for your capture.”

“Where’s your village?”

“On the way to the tunnel.” She smiled and threw the carcass over her shoulder.

The term “Outsider” took on a counter meaning after I visited Signy’s village. The villagers dwelled in small straw huts with umbrella-shaped roofs. A man who lived with a woman and children was part of a unit known as a family. Females walked freely with unbound hair and gave birth to their own offspring. I heard this before from Wade. Several women, who returned to Unity after a long absence, brought back tales of females giving birth like wild dogs. They denounced their stories after reintegration, so I never took the assertion seriously.

All the villagers had different skin tones ranging from the pale color of Unitians to Signy’s dark brown. She was shocked when I told her I never met anyone with dark skin. I never mentioned Sutara because I still wasn’t certain she was real.

Signy’s interaction with her son, Shawn, made me sense something missing in my own life. He entered the hut while Signy and I were peeling potatoes for dinner.