Wake Me In The Future (3 page)

Retrieving a mug of steaming coffee I’d requested from the panel on the wall, I sat back on the cot and felt its subtle shifting beneath me, becoming more rigid and supporting, as it adapted to my new posture.

The panel must have been updated with the information I’d provided to Ankit the previous day, because I found I was able to access media information all the way up to when I’d died, but not beyond. I sat back and relaxed, watching an old episode of an ancient science fiction show. It was one of the first episodes and the Captain of the spaceship was telling his navigation officer to ‘Make it so’. I smiled to myself as I looked at his bald head, and thought how many other things they might have got wrong.

‘The human race was certainly ambitious back in those days weren’t they.’

‘Huh,’ I jumped and turned my head in the direction of the voice, ‘God, Ankit, I didn’t notice you come in, how long have you been standing there?’

‘Ever since you laughed at the bald Captain, perhaps he didn’t like to wear his hair while on duty?’ he smiled.

‘That would be very convenient for the makers of the show wouldn’t it, but somehow I just think they made an assumption that some men wouldn’t mind being bald, I hate it,’ I said, rubbing my own smooth scalp. ‘When will I be able to grow it like you can?’

He placed his hand on my back and said, ‘you’ll learn soon enough, it won’t be long before you can enjoy all the normal things you were used to, along with many new things that you’ll need to get used to. But right now I have to ask some more questions about what you can remember.’

‘What about Helen? Did you find out anything for me?’ and as I said it, I could already see the lack of news from the apologetic look appearing on his face.

‘It’s not as simple as you might think Richard. Most of the records relating to people like yourself don’t exist anymore, I am afraid you’ll have to be patient for a few more days.’

I found it difficult to conceal my disappointment at this. There was nothing more important to me than finding out that Helen had survived.

We crossed the room and the empty wall on the opposite side began to morph as we approached it, as if receiving some unspoken command, and like a living thing it bulged out creating the shapes of two easy chairs with a knee height table between them. There were no seams or joints where they emerged from the wall, just a smooth transition from one to the other.

Ankit was bald again, but his radiant smile lit up his face and projected his friendliness into the room. I sat cross legged on the chair, resigned now to waiting for news of Helen, but leaning forward in expectation of what I hoped I was going to learn about this new world.

But I shouldn’t have got my hopes up too quickly, because apart from confirming that everyone in suspension had been bought back to Earth from the Moon, in order to attempt revival at this institute, which was based in a city called India Prime, he wouldn’t offer any more information about the world I’d awoke in. I’d not even been aware that I’d been on the Moon, and he wouldn’t expand on it. Only asking more questions about my past, my life, family, work, love, Helen, oh Helen…. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. This was so frustrating.

‘Richard, are you alright?’ My shoulders were being shaken. ‘Would you like another drink?’

He was shaking me out of the reverie I’d fallen into. ‘Ankit, please,’ I implored, ‘can’t you tell me anything about my wife?’

‘I don’t have access to that information Richard. It will only come from the Information System when it’s ready to begin your induction. And it will only start that when it’s satisfied with the amount of information I've collected from you.

So shall we carry on? I am guessing you'll want to get this part out of the way as soon as possible.'

I just nodded, and waited for him to continue.

He seemed overly interested in my family life and especially the despair Helen and I had experienced at not being able to have children. And each time I spoke of this painful subject, he became more attentive, moving slightly forward as if he could capture the information better.

How was he recording this anyway? Was the room itself aware of everything and recording it somehow?
I suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable at the thought of absolutely no privacy.

‘You can at least tell me how this environment works Ankit. I mean, am I being constantly watched, is every single thing I do recorded? Do I have any privacy at all?’

At this, his eyes lit up, and he stopped in the middle of his question, ‘oh... err…I am so sorry Richard, of course,’ he replied as if he'd suddenly realised he'd offended me in some way, ‘all your activities are recorded while you're in this room, but that's not the case in the bathroom, you have complete privacy there. I am so sorry, I should have made you aware earlier; privacy, modesty and decency are fundamental principles in our general society, it was wrong of me not to have addressed this straight away. Spying on someone in a private place is a major crime in this society. This type of monitoring is unique to the revival process. Nothing like it exists in Open Society; ‘Big Brother’ was killed off a long time ago.’

‘Really?’ I said, not meaning it as a question and signalling my approval with a beaming smile, ‘I am so glad. The governments eventually came to their senses then? Or did the people finally rise up in revolt.’ I looked over to him then and as an afterthought said, ‘But right at this moment I don’t suppose you can tell me what happened can you?’

‘No’ he said bluntly, and after a pause, ‘I don’t think you could begin to imagine what happened Richard. It wasn't the governments the people had to worry about; but that's a story for another time.’

My mood lifted then, mostly because I’d actually managed to extract some information from Ankit, and the content of it was so positive, at least in my eyes it was. So, we weren’t going to be living in a Big Brother state then, what had he said - privacy, modesty and decency?
Helen will love this. I wonder if there’s any such thing as.....
I stopped my mind from going any further before the inappropriate image appearing in my head had time to form.
The thought made me blush.
Where on earth had that come from?

‘I won’t ask,’ said Ankit, obviously noticing my embarrassment, ‘we’ll move on shall we?’

He questioned me about my upbringing and what influences I’d been exposed to, and I freely admitted some of the stupid things I’d done in an attempt to impress my friends when I was younger. But I also explained how Helen had changed my outlook on the world and that I felt a better person for it. How she’d encouraged me to look at the other side, ‘
there’s always more than one side to a story Richard,’
she used to say.  And it really had made me see things from a different perspective.

Even if I didn’t agree with something, she’d shown me how to accept other people’s right to have their own beliefs, however opposed they were to my own, or how distasteful I found them. A
s long as those differences weren't based on hatred and backed up with violence and oppression, or people didn't expect you to share those views, then Helen accepted them, and that’s what she’d taught me to do. 'We're all different Richard, and we have to accept that and try to shape the world around us to accommodate those differences. And not try to force people to live with each other if they're not able to.'

Most people I’d known would stand up for their own beliefs and for others that held them, but not for all those with opposing beliefs; I’d not known many people that would, but Helen was one of them, she wanted everyone to be happy. Her outlook on life was one of the best gifts she’d ever given to me.

‘This is some sort of assessment of me as a person isn’t it Ankit’ I eventually said as I began to get tired, ‘Are you going to judge whether I can join your society or not, and put me to death if I fail?’

He laughed then, a kind of giggle that seemed out of character, ‘Richard, you really don’t know how funny that is, there’s no such thing as the death penalty here,’ and regaining his composure continued, ‘but you are right, it is an assessment, although not of your suitability for joining this society, it’s more to establish
which
society you’d be best suited to.’

‘Which?’ I started to blurt out the beginning of a question, but he was already holding up his hand and wagging his index finger.

I was becoming exhausted and he must have realised it because he said, ‘We’ve been talking most of the day, let’s leave it there. You ought to get some sleep, you’re still recovering remember.’

‘I am not sure I’ll sleep Ankit, I can’t stop thinking about Helen, if I don’t find out what’s happened to her soon I am going to go mad.’ I realised I was fidgeting and rubbing my knees, and my friend - which was now what I was starting to consider Ankit to be - was watching me intently.

As I stood up he placed his hand on my left bicep as if steadying a drunken man. ‘OK, look; I’ll see if I can get your induction started sooner than normal. It may speed up the release of any information about Helen.’ He gave my arm a reassuring squeeze, ‘Don’t worry; things will come quickly enough once you’re induction starts.’

I offered up a smile as he made to leave the room and it only faded as I lay down on my cot to fall back into sleep, following the fading light and wondering what changes had truly happened to this society. And what Ankit had actually meant by
which
society.

Chapter 04
– A Stranger Visits

I was incredibly bored being stuck in that room while I waited for them to decide that I was ready to move on. In my mind I was ready, I knew that, and I even wondered if the inactivity was a test. Were they doing it deliberately to see how far they could push me? I was certainly beginning to feel like a prisoner in this completely white room, and the fact that I couldn’t just walk through the door (I’d tried that and hurt my nose), just confirmed it. It seemed only Ankit, who I was trying my hardest not to consider my jailor, could get through that door to freedom. To me it was starting to be more than just the entrance to the room; it was rapidly starting to represent my confinement, and a barrier in my search for Helen.

But, as if fate had been listening in on my thoughts, and wanted to overturn that particular notion, I was suddenly presented with an unexpected visitor.

I’d been waking naturally each morning to the artificial breaking of dawn, and was usually up and about before Ankit arrived. But on the fifth morning I was awoken suddenly by footsteps coming toward me from across the room. As I sat up, startled, my first thought was that I’d overslept and was being roused by Ankit’s arrival. However, it was a man coming towards me, and I recognised him immediately. It was the person I’d seen behind Ankit when I was initially revived.
So it hadn’t been a hallucination!

In the few seconds it took me to recognise him, I saw that, like Ankit, he was Asian in appearance, but taller and not so well defined. He looked to be in his twenties but, unlike the gravity defying hairstyle that adorned my friend, he had what would have been considered in my time, the traditional dark shinny hair of his race.

His whole appearance seemed menacing as he approached, and I jerked back quickly in a defensive movement as I began to swing my legs off the cot. But I fell backwards onto the floor with a crash as a strange feeling of impending doom began to overwhelm me. As I started to get up the man raised his arm as if to stop me and started to say in a sharp tone, ‘don’t be concerned…’ but before he could continue the raised voice of Ankit appeared from over by the door.

‘Ramoon! What are you doing here?’

I noticed the man’s surprise at the interruption and saw him furtively push something into the pocket of his coverall, and then he smiled and turned around and replied. ‘Ankit, I am sorry, I didn’t realise this man hadn’t begun his induction. I wanted to ask some questions for my journal.’ Then, before Ankit could respond, he walked quickly toward the exit, looked back and murmured, ‘I’ll check with you again at a future time.’

Ankit stared at the man as he walked briskly out of the room and for a moment I thought I detected an element of alarm and concern fighting for possession of his features.

In an effort to assure him, I said, ‘Don’t worry Ankit; he didn’t have time to ask me any questions, nor I to ask him any for that matter. I gather he shouldn’t have been here then?’

‘No,‘ he replied more sharply than he’d probably meant to, ‘he certainly shouldn’t have been, and it’s a good job I had a reason to get here early and interrupt him, otherwise who knows what damage could have been done.’

I wondered for a moment if I should explain that this was the man that had been standing in the room when I first gained consciousness. Should I explain the irrational fear I’d just felt from his suspicious behaviour? No, I decided against it, I just wasn’t sure who I should be wary of right now.

I felt for the piece of plastic I'd found with my possessions and I recalled its message, 'be careful who you trust.' I was starting to feel vulnerable and I didn’t want to make it any worse, so I didn't say anything more.

Meanwhile Ankit took a deep breath, ‘Anyway, I came to give you some good news Richard; I’ve gained permission for your formal induction to start immediately. It’ll be the beginning of the process to get you out of here and mixing with other people. I am sure you’ll be glad to have a bit more freedom, and some company.’

‘That’s great news Ankit, thank you,’ the relief, I couldn’t believe it - so my impatience had shown after all.

But when he invited me to exit the room, I hesitated, and all my enthusiasm dwindled into a ball of uncertainty. And together, with the ball of nerves that had already made its home deep in the pit of my stomach, they bounced around and made me feel decidedly sick. I was going to have to get used to this psychologically, because I couldn’t stop thinking I was going to walk into a solid wall. But in reality I knew what I was staring at represented more than just a door. It was freedom, the first major step into my new life, and the beginning of my journey to find Helen.