I burst through the door, waving a pair of transport tickets, “I got them Jilli, I got them!”
Jillian sat at the table reading, a cup of tea at her elbow. She looked at me quizzically, then her shoulders drooped. It was not the reaction I expected. “Oh, Nickoli, you didn’t.”
“Yes, yes I did! It took every credit I had – and some pleading – but we have tickets to New Eden. The transport leaves Thursday.”
“Nikki, I really didn’t think you were serious about that. Just another of your crazy dreams.”
That hurt. She saw it too. She got up out of her chair and came around the table to put a hand on each shoulder. “I’m sorry, Nikki, that didn’t come out right. It’s just that you have so many dreams, and so many of them are just…impractical.”
The exuberance I’d felt just moments before drained away leaving me feeling like an empty sink. “Just because I want…something better than this?”
“Oh, Nikki, we are already so much better off than most! Why can’t you see that?”
I looked around our apartment: a 10 foot by 20 foot common room with a kitchenette at one end, a table and 4 chairs, a sofa facing a wall-mounted vid-screen mounted to the opposite wall. One long wall had a single entry door joining the common room to the hallway. Each end wall had a door leading to 10 x 10 bedrooms, two more bedrooms off the other long wall. In the far corner an angled door giving access to the common storage room and in the near corner was the bathroom: a compact, efficient living space, 20 feet by 40 feet that housed four unrelated adults. One of several hundred just like it in our building.
“Nikki, we each have our own bedroom, the lower classes have as many as four to each room, remember? We started out there!”
“I remember.” I whispered, “I remember working very hard to excel so I would qualify for something better.”
“And here you are.” She gazed gently into my eyes, “And if you keep working hard, you’ll be promoted again. Maybe one day, if we both work very hard we’ll be able to have an apartment for just us. Who knows; maybe even a window.” She smiled.
“A window? To look out at what? Jillian the city is filthy and ugly. The sky is brown. I’m glad I can’t see it.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“But the world used to be so much nicer.”
“Maybe, a very long time ago. But that’s not the way it is any more. And it never will be again, you need to accept that. Put away those picture books: they’ll get you in trouble, and learn to live in the here and now.”
“New Eden has plenty of open space.”
She rolled her eyes, “Oh, yes, I’m sure. They’ve just discovered it. There can’t be more than a few thousand colonists on the whole planet. But life is so HARD there!”
“It’s the most Earth-like planet they’ve discovered.”
“Earth-like?!” Her face flushed, “The only part of this planet that that planet resembles is Antarctica! New Eden is a ball of ice!”
“It has a breathable atmosphere.”
“Yes, just barely, but it’s so cold if you walk outside the colony dome without an envirosuit you’ll freeze solid in minutes.”
“For now;” I admitted, “they’re working on that. It’s got air and water.” She opened her mouth, I held up my hand, “Frozen water, but it is water. And it has open spaces, Jillian! Clear, clean skies, fresh air. Can you imagine looking up at night and being able to see the stars?”
“Oh, Nikki, I love you. The dreamer in you has been part of what I love, but this…Nikki, you’re throwing away everything you’ve worked so hard to get, and for what?”
“For freedom, Jill, for a chance at being really free.”
“Freedom? Nikki, the same government that runs this planet runs that one. Everyone lives inside a communal dome. Do you think life is so very much different there than it is here? It is not! Except you can see the stars – IF – there are any windows.”
We stood, staring at one another for several moments. Her eyes were wide and moist, pleading with me to give up my quest. My eyes were wet too, I loved Jillian, but I hated living like a rat in a box. It’s true I had never known any other way, and my life was better than it had been when I first joined the workforce at age 14; a mere laborer. But I knew it could be better. I knew how it had been once, my books told me about a life long ago. Before unification. Before social reform.
“I’m going, Jillian.” I whispered, “Will you come with me?”
Her eyes overflowed, tears streamed down her cheeks, “I can’t. I’m scared Nikki, I just can’t.”
I beat the tickets I still clutched against my leg a few times, clamped my lips together as I nodded slowly then walked into my room and closed the door. I needed to pack.
An excellent story about someone who is not afraid of leaving the status quo. A pioneer, much like our ancestors, but will he be disappointed? Would we really give up all that is familiar for a dream of freedom?
Thanks, Kenna. I have a grand adventure in mind for him.
Looking for a window to look out of, he fails to see what he has in front of him.
Whey can’t we always see what we have?
It does seem the grass is always greener on the other side of the galaxy. Human nature? Although in this case there is no grass in either location… ummm… the sky is always bluer? 🙂
Thanks for joining in Stu!
Great piece, Allan. I often wonder about the distant future, and whether humans will survive long enough to travel to other planets. Will you continue this story?
Thanks Charles!
I have the next couple of chapters written and a good piece of the book outlined – all in my head. Unfortunately I keep misplacing my brain. If it and I manage to get some quality time together I’ll try to get this committed to a hard drive.
Allan, the best stories inspire commentary from both sides of the coin of conflict. Kenna and Stuart make great talking points.
Having read a few space-faring novels, not to mention the ultimate utopian quest (Atlas Shrugged), it pains me to think that authors see no hope for the future of humankind – with or without regard to the condition of the world, as most stories blame humans for whatever condition it may be in.
I enjoyed your story. you perfectly encapsulated the social contract’s pillars: Security, Freedom and Conformity (through governance). Nickoli intends to invoke his right to renounce his contract with his partner as well as his government. The irony – and beauty – of the story is the stewardship of New Eden.
Jili clings to security at the expense of freedom and will likely lose both (according to Ben Franklin!)
I look forward to your next thought-provoking story!
Cheers,
Mitch
Thank you Mitch!
I suppose in extrapolating the probable course of humanity, based on past events and directions we’ve experienced, the apocalyptic comes more readily than the utopian to most writers because it seems that is the natural bent of our species. Or, most of our species. At least that part of our species that is in control. While we have a wonderful gift for creativity and invention, we tend to use that talent to destroy one another (and everything around us) more often than to bolster one another.
I sometimes wonder what would have happened on this continent if Europeans had never made it here and the Native Americans were allowed to develop. They had a very different concept about conservation and their relationship to the land that supported them. They did fight amongst themselves , but had less of a tendency to view the environment as just commodities to be used. Would they have remained pretty much as they were (like some tribes in deep Africa) or would some form of higher civilization developed? although… perhaps I’m misconstruing the term “higher civilization”! 🙂
Allan, you make a good point about our propensity for destructive behavior. You also raise a compelling question about “progress”.
To embrace the idea of one race – the human race – we must shed the notion that isolationism somehow equates to deprivation. Major advances in our human experience have come from many places on the globe. The serendipity of simultaneous discoveries only adds icing to the cake.
A rising tide raises all ships.
Cheers,
Mitch
p.s. I’m using Chrome. Every time I use one of the arrow keys on my keyboard, something triggers a pageload to a different post on your blog. Has anyone else mentioned that to you? Luckily, when I hit the back button and the reply link, my comment is there for continuation. 🙂
That Chrome issue is very Odd, Mitch; can’t say anyone has mentioned it before. When I tried Chrome I had some odd reactions to my on-line banking sites that were rectified by switching to Firefox :-). But I have no strange security systems in place here.
A rising tide raises all ships… I like that.