In the shadow of the stolen light - Nika Veresk

“But this happened more than two centuries ago,” insisted Lora.

“Our guest has been in stasis for the past two hundred years, so our perception of time and past events long gone is dramatically different to his” said John Simps. “His parents had witnessed that confrontation.”

“Anyhow, suspicion as well as trust to that man stem only from our assumptions,” summarized Jean. “What’s going to be the Council’s decision?”

“We all trust that the decision will be the right one,” Maria Fernandez’s voice sounded quiet and calm.

“So, you may follow Doctor Borshchevsky’s advice,” Jean pinned his gaze at Lora. She looked around at the rest of the Council members, and they nodded in agreement. “I’ll pass on the orders to the Spaceship Service to prepare everything.

“Thank you,” Lora bowed a little, putting her hand on her chest.

After she left the hall, no words were uttered for a while.

“I’d like to suggest something,” John Simps, the eldest Council member, broke the silence.

“I think I know what it’s about,” Andrey Volkhontsev smiled uneasily.

“Arrange an espial after our guest and an additional investigation into the destruction of his ship by using alternative information sources,” continued Councillor Simps, ignoring the last comment.

“Why didn’t you suggest it while Lora was here?” said Jean, looking at him very intensely. “It’s her project, so she has a right to know everything about it. There are no secrets here on Titanium.”

“Yes, I agree. This decision is an unusual one for us indeed, but the situation is far from ordinary as well,” said John Simps. “So, what’s going to be the Council’s decision?”

Lora was worriedly watching the medical assistants help the guest from Earth make himself comfortable in the mobile chair on the electromagnetic pillows, as he was still very weak to be able to move on his own.

“So,” Lora heard Doctor Borshchevsky’s voice from the back. Appearing there as if by magic, he came smiling and looking at everyone around. “How are you feeling, Derek?”

“Much better, thank you,” the young man subtly smiled, adjusting his dark glasses. “I don’t have the courage to take them off.”

“You can take them off when your eyes feel comfortable with the light,” the doctor assured him. “No reason to hurry. And something else,” he approached the patient and handed him a heavy metal bracelet. “There is a three day supply of medicine inside; injections will be made automatically, while a special device will warn you about it in advance. If there are no symptoms to be concerned about, then I’ll be expecting you here by the end of the period.” Then the doctor looked at Lora. “He’s in your care now.”

After the medical personnel left the ward, Lora perched at the edge of the empty bed and looked intently at the person in her care.

“Derek, before we leave the hospital, I’d like to tell you a little something about the place where we are now.”

“About the spaceship?”

“Yes, I guess you could say so… The thing is, Titanium is not exactly a ship… It’s…” Lora remembered how hard she had been rehearsing this conversation that morning, but when the moment came she was at a loss for words. “It’s a whole city” she finally uttered.

“A city in space?” the young man tried to clarify.

“Yes, a big city in space… So big that we actually classify it as an artificial planet with its own atmosphere and climate and…”

“Wait there!” the earthling shook his head. “Give me a second to think… An artificial planet?!”

“Yes, exactly.”

“It’s unbelievable!”

“I’m ready to show you everything, but the consequences of stasis, amnesia… The doctor is concerned…”

“Don’t carry on, I got the general idea,” Derek softly interrupted her confused explanations. “Even though I might not remember my past, it doesn’t mean that I’m not ready to see the future of mankind.”

Lora nodded. She relaxed a little at the confidence and calmness of his voice. Derek was leaving his ward for the first time during his stay at the hospital. A windowless ward had prevented him from seeing the city till this very moment. But now, passing through the hall with the panoramic glass walls, he could hardly contain his amazement.

“Oh, God…” sighed the young man, gazing at hundreds of towering skyscrapers; at the foot of which one could see rivers, lakes and parks, surrounded by rich greenery and blue rays.

“Welcome to Titanium!” said Lora proudly.

“This is unbelievable!” Derek moved closer to the window in his chair. “A real city! These are trees, aren’t they?” he pointed at one of the parks that could be easily distinguished even from the one hundred and eighth hospital floor.

“Yes, the city has a lot of greenery,” said the girl. It was hard for her to understand his emotions as the dark sunglasses hid his true feelings behind them. However, she could read the excitement in his voice and his pulse running wild as the bracelet indicated. “Let me show you the hologram,” she thought quickly. “This‘ll help you understand how Titanium was created.”

“Yes, of course!” Derek turned away from the window and looked seriously at the transparent tablet computer on Lora’s palm.

“Display the panoramic hologram of Titanium,” said Lora and a basketball-sized 3D model appeared above the tablet. “This is the view from space. The planet is a sphere with a blue nucleus at its core. The inhabited part of Titanium with all its buildings is not on its surface. The city expanse cuts the planet just above the equator into two hemispheres, while a part of the core stays visible and the city, sort of encircles it. The Upper hemisphere is the energetic dome rising over the megalopolis, which keeps the air and protects the inhabitants from the deadly radiation. The floating clouds are only a perfect illusion of the sky: a holographic projection. The Lower hemisphere housing all the city buildings is built from titanium and is shaped like a layered pie. It includes a layer of city communications system, an equatorial transport terminal and several thousand more layers going deep down.”

“And this?” the young man pointed at the shining, rainbow-like cover enveloping Titanium.

“It’s the outer energy field generated by the nucleus and functions as passive protection from a possible attack from the outside.”

“How could people have created such a thing and launched it into space afterwards?”

“The planet was built in space. At the base of the building process is a constantly perfected nanotechnology. The tiny nanites process raw materials and recreate the necessary construction elements according to the project.”

“Did nanites build all this?”

“Yes, nanites and the robotic devices. The raw material was the debris of a gigantic asteroid field. Our scientists have found a way to convert the basic chemical materials from the asteroids into the chemical combinations necessary for the construction. Titanium prevailed among other solids that were used; hence the name of the city: Titanium. Travelling in the megapolis is possible by means of a teleport. I think it’s time you had a real feel of the transport system at work. There are also stairs, but they’re not as popular. The teleport system is the fastest transport means in the spaceship.”

“The fastest after the stairs?” smiled the young man.

“No, after the micro-transport on the electromagnetic pillows,” Grinning, Lora pointed at the guest’s chair. Suddenly her tension that had been so strong back in the ward was melting away fast.

“Do many people use them?” asked Derek, feeling genuinely curious.

“Not these ones in particular, however, there are many devices for carrying different loads. By the way, the central teleport is a public transport, but there are also freight units.”

“I get it, like buses and lorries.”

“Buses?”

“Well, it’s like some old-fashioned transport means with tyres. They used to travel by land burning tonnes of petrol. However, they were improved later when the electric engines were introduced.”

“They̓re described in encyclopaedias,” Lora tried to remember.

“They must be.”

“So, you remember the transport means on Earth. Anything else?” asked the girl as they were slowly heading towards the closest teleport.

“I remembered when you started talking… This information sounded like something I take for granted…”

“The doctor said that you would remember things which were associatively connected to your memories.” remembered Lora.

“Looks like he was right then.”

“I can take you directly to your apartment if you wish to rest.”

“I’d prefer to take a walk if possible,” answered the young man.

“Alright, what would you like to see first?..” At that moment the UCD on Lora’s temple buzzed softly, lighting a green colour which was indicating an incoming call. “Will you excuse me, I’ll have to take it,” she explained to the man. “Yes, Jean.”

After a short conversation she returned to the previous discussion with the guest from Earth.

“I was going to show you some of the local attractions…”

“What’s that?”

“This?” the girl touched the mini contraption with her palm. “It’s a universal communication device, UCD for short.”

“Is it a walkie-talkie?”

Lora frowned trying to remember the meaning of this word and finally answered.

“It connects people, but that’s only one of its functions.”

“Why didn’t I hear the voice of the other speaker?”

“A UCD transforms sound into an electrical pulse and transmits it onto the auditory nerve.”

“What else can this device do?”

“It provides a connection to the central computer, thanks to which any information that I may need reaches the brain through the visual nerve and visualizes as if in front of my very eyes. Again, only I can see those images.”

Without realizing it, they arrived at the teleport cabin.

“Good morning!” Initiated by the arrival of two passengers inside the spacious matte glass cabin, the local teleport system interrupted Lora’s explanations. “State your destination, please.”

“The North City Park,” decisively said Lora.

The doors closed, opening a second later.

“Welcome to the central square of the North Park!” reported the programme.

The young people went outside and Derek looked around. They were in the middle of a brightly lit hall with a colonnade, while to the right and left of them other tele-cabin doors were opening and closing. Coming out of the cabins, people were joining a moderately moving crowd following the direction indicated by the neon lines on the floor.

“We are now on the fifth level of the North Park teleport complex,” explained Lora. “The building looks like a pyramid based on a square with a side of one hundred and fifty meters long and with nine hundred cabins on its twenty levels. There’s a viewpoint at the top, on the twenty-first level, boasting an amazing view of the park. The main staircase runs along the eastern side, we’ll use it to go down to the park.”

“The North Park, the eastern side,” said the young man thoughtfully, proceeding alongside Lora. “If this is a city in space, then where do the sides of the world come from?”

“A good question,” Lora smiled. “The city territory is divided into four parts: Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Titanium. On the one hand, these are just names that have nothing to do with the real sides of the world; but on the other hand, they are the internal guidelines – simply indispensable.”

The two of them slowly joined the bright lively flow of people ascending the staircase, and they soon found themselves on a large square, with a tall white pyramid of the teleport itself towering over it. Further down stretched a real park. Short trees and bushes framed the winding paths and straight alleys, while braided stems of blooming ivy were climbing up the park pavilions. Here and there the neatly-cut lawns were decorated with rock gardens featuring blooming flowers and gurgling clear streams. Derek looked up to face the clear sky, lit by the rays of the rising sun.

“It’s hard to believe that these are not real clouds…” he noted.

“No matter how realistic they look, these are just projected images,” Lora added, feeling a bit sad.

“The park’s so huge…”

“Yes, it is. The North Park is the biggest in the city. The city fairs, our painters’ exhibitions and alien cultures’ displays are all held here.”

“Alien cultures? You actually have found traces of life on other planets?” Derek was mistrustfully looking at Lora.

“Why traces? Travelling through our galaxy we have encountered many living alien civilizations. We collaborate with some of them, exchanging technologies and resources…”

“That’s incredible!..”

“That means that at the moment of your spaceship launch, contact with other alien races hadn’t been established yet.”

“Well, this… or my memory is failing me tragically…”

“At your apartment you can gain access to the central computer in order to get an idea about all the voyages of ‘Solar Flotilla’. There you can also get descriptions of all the habitable planets we have visited…”

“That would be great…” the guest from Earth suddenly froze and his chair stopped moving.

“What’s wrong?” Lora stopped beside him looking worriedly into his face.

“My ship…”

“You mean the rescue unit?”

“Yes, I wasn’t alone there. Did you find only me there?”

Lora slightly pushed his chair to a bench down in the alley and sat.

“There was also a woman in your rescue unit. Unfortunately, she had died before we arrived.”

There was a pause and the man shook his head.

“I don’t remember her name,” he said bitterly. “I’m trying but I just can’t recall anything!”

His last words were permeated with obvious rage.

“Are you angry with yourself?” her question sounded very quietly but Derek reacted immediately.

“Wouldn’t you be?!”

Lora shook her head.

“Of course I can become angry… But rage is a tremendously destructive force that can cause a lot of harm.”

Derek’s anger immediately turned into amazement and now he was intently listening to Lora.

“We have learnt to control the self-destructive part of our personality,” she explained, seeing how much it puzzled him.

“Control? What do you mean by that? Control your temper?”

“No, we don’t actually repress fury, but we realize its futility.”

Derek still didn’t have any idea of what she was talking about.

“You are people though, aren’t you?” he tried to clarify. “Ordinary people get angry, fight, become furious…”

Lora sighed heavily, realizing that she was unable to explain her point of view to Derek without revealing to him the genuine reasons for the long voyages of ‘Solar Flotilla’.

“Derek, there is no doubt that we are human beings and that our ancestors were from Earth. But you must know something else. The doctor said that you mustn’t get stressed…”

“Please, spare me, Lora! What haven’t you told me? Do you mean about me spending 50 years in the rescue unit, and that since then the earthlings started flying into space on huge spaceships?”