Chapter Twenty Six
‘Probably, we need to discover a new world,’ Ashley smiled pensively.
‘Oh, we’ve already tried to do that,’ Thaler snorted. ‘Do you remember all that madness with Mars colonisation a couple of decades ago?’
‘I’m afraid, I don’t,’ Ashley giggled. ‘In those times I was building sandcastles with my dad.’
‘Well,’ Thaler grinned, ‘you didn’t miss too much, but let me quickly tell you the story. The engineers, the politicians, the ice cream vendors of those times — all of them — suddenly got excited about the idea of colonising Mars. Everybody became convinced that we desperately needed that planet, a new Earth, because the old one had worn out.’
‘Fortunes were spent, the risks were calculated, epic speeches were written for the occasion and the first spaceship, with three men and three women on board, was successfully launched towards the red planet. The en-route broadcasts were stunning — everybody was glued to the daily show and prime time was sold for a year ahead. Application forms for the next mission were piling up, as were funds. That was until the connection with the spaceship was suddenly lost. And when it returned, they discovered the most expensive tomb humankind had ever made. For unknown reasons, all six crew members were dead. But, mission control could still fly the ship. So, with six corpses and one unsolved mystery on board, they took it into orbit around Mars and left it there as a back-up ship for subsequent missions.’
‘Yes, that’s true — we, humans, are stubborn creatures. More money was spent and a newer and bigger spaceship, with viking runes written on the side for better luck, was built. The number of crew members to go was increased to seven for the same reason. They were old school tough guy pilots. I must confess, it worked. With everyone holding their breath, the whole world watched as, one hundred years after Neil Armstrong, another human in oversized boots set foot on the surface of an alien world. The jubilation was terrific. Land plots on Mars were being sold like hot cakes. More money had flowed in and the application forms started to pile up again. Those guys on Mars, however, weren’t meant to return. Rather, they had to prepare the ground for a massive human invasion.’
‘The third spaceship was launched with a bigger crew — let’s describe the number as a dozen plus one. Probably, they just wanted to show to the whole world that scientific minds don’t care for superstation. Much later, there were long-lasting discussions as to whether the pre-flight eugenics had worked well enough to create bigger crews and would there have been a better number of pilots than thirteen. All of them reached the Mars base successfully and met the old-timers who, by that point, had spent almost two years feeding on greenhouse soya beans and asparagus grown on their own urine and feces.’
‘The conflicts started almost immediately. The old space salts expected the new-comers to take on most of the dirty work, which they refused to do. From swearing and flipping fingers it went directly to fist fights. The old-timers were in the minority but, unlike them, the rookies weren’t a solid group. The daily space show was taken off the air, but ground control still watched as their space base turned into a plantation prison. The old-timers organised the building of a new retreat for humanity well, but in their own way. Mission control on Earth couldn’t do a thing.’
‘The rookies had to work hard long hours outside building the base and were locked in small cells during their down time. They were beaten and humiliated every single day. Early one morning, a guy named Rickie Goodwin woke up, jotted down a message to his mom, sneaked to the camp’s main power plant and blew up the whole base. Those who survived the initial blast later died of suffocation and hypothermia.’
‘The Mars saga was over. Some top nobs in space agencies around the world lost their jobs. Clever minds recalculated the risks once again and found that statistical probability of a catastrophic event during a manned deep-space flight was almost absolute — which made such missions unjustifiable. Curiously enough, all the maths had been done long before by Igor Levsha — a provincial Russian mathematician who died in obscurity fifty years before that whole mess. Also, he proved that human beings should never go further than the Moon’s orbit. And, indeed, after that carnage, we never tried. The expeditions to deep-space were passed entirely to robots and the money that would otherwise have been spent on them went towards solving real problems like building dams and artificial islands to reclaim land from the sea or fishing plastic crap out of the ocean.’
‘No, we’ll never have another planet,’ Thaler said. ‘I hope, sooner or later, everyone realises that. There’s no point searching for a brand-new world if we just take the same old problems there. Meanwhile, all we have to do is stop our expansion, reuse our resources and get along with each other.’
‘I think you and I are getting along well, aren’t we?’ Ashley chuckled.
‘Very much so,’ Thaler agreed.
‘Yes, I’ve heard that story,’ Ashley said. ‘But space is fascinating. You can’t stop people from going there. I had my first space trip as part of my school curriculum. It was a short suborbital flight, but it was unforgettable. Zillions of stars, Earth like a giant geo map, pens flying in zero gravity and that orange glow outside when the capsule reentered the atmosphere. It’s unforgettable.’
‘When I was a senior at school, instead of space, I took my trip to the Atacama desert,’ Thaler said. ‘There were same stars but also steady old ground under my feet. And some Castanedian spirits screeching behind the tents.’
‘You might be a little bit more romantic,’ Ashley said jokingly.
‘There are so many romantic guys out there; I’d prefer not to spark a competition,’ Thaler chuckled.
‘It turns out, not so many,’ Ashley said under her breath, ‘but who knows, maybe I have just had bad luck.’
A steep bald hill appeared ahead.
‘I hope the old girl won’t let me down.’ Thaler crunched the car into a lower gear and pressed the accelerator pedal to the floor. The engine roared hoarsely and the car jerked bravely up the hill. They were almost at the top, when the motor started to stutter and, finally, died. Thaler groaned, switched off the ignition, opened the flimsy door and got out of the car.
He was dressed in a Varsity jacket, blue jeans and a pair of hiking boots. Ashley followed him. She was dressed in a similar outfit. Thaler opened the bonnet at the rear letting out a cloud of thick smoke.
‘Certainly, my mom’s papas will kill me for this,’ Thaler scratched his head, looking thoughtfully at the antique engine covered with a thick layer of soot.
‘What a clunker,’ Ashley giggled. ‘It would look better in the scrap yard.’
‘You are lucky my grandads don’t hear you,’ Thaler popped up from under the bonnet. His arms were stained with soot and grease. He went around the car, opened the front bonnet and started to rummage through the piles of chaos stuffed in it. ‘It’s a ’68 Volkswagen Beetle. It’s not just a car; it’s an epoch icon,’ he fished out a piece of cloth and started to clean his hands. ‘The Sixties,’ he said dreamily. ‘Such a great time. Maybe, the best time humankind ever had. The first man on the Moon. The first supersonic airliner. Good music, cheap beer and antibiotics. Young people could buy such a humble car, get about and see the world. They could reach the limits of the permissible. That was true freedom. Not that nonsense the old demon Wittslock spoke of. But you know, life goes on. In our times, people are not so keen on their liberty. They prefer safety and comfort, smart toothbrushes and talking vacuum cleaners. Today this shard of those great times costs as much as a private jet. And I ruined it,’ with a bitter expression, he threw the cloth back into the boot.
‘Can you fix it?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Thaler stared into the distance. ‘It’s about three miles from here. How about a walk?’
‘Excellent!’ Ashley quickly picked up her backpack from the car and stood ready. ‘I’d love to go on foot. My back is aching after this bone-shaker.’
‘I’m sorry, Ashley,’ Thaler said. ‘But, as your parents kicked us out of their house, it was the only means of transport I could rely on. Electric transport remains aground. It’ll take them a few days to weed all the dead rats out of the grid.’
‘I think my mom and dad will be having a better time without us getting under their feet,’ Ashley chuckled.
‘No doubt,’ Thaler concurred. ‘I hope my parents will be more hospitable. But, if not, I still have my shed. When I was a kid, I built it with my dad. It’s not large, but it has everything a man would need — a desk, a bunk and a stove. It used to be such a pleasure to doze off with a book in my hands, sleep dreamlessly and be awoken early in the morning by robins singing in the trees.’
‘Oh,’ Ashley smiled cunningly. ‘That must be a beautiful sound.’
‘You can hear it from the comfort of our house,’ Thaler quipped. ‘You’re a guest. They wouldn’t dare to chuck you out. While you enjoy the birdsong, I’ll fetch a couple of weights and start pumping some iron.’
‘You’ve got a long memory,’ Ashley pointed at him with her finger.
‘Let’s move on,’ Thaler chuckled as he pulled his backpack out of the car and locked the door. ‘Don’t worry, honey, they’ll come to pick you up soon,’ said Thaler, and patted the car on the roof,’enjoy the weather and breathe some fresh air — it’s good for your carburettor,’ then he slapped himself in confusion. ‘Uh, I’ve forgotten — It doesn’t have brains,’ he glanced at Ashley. ‘Like your car does.’
‘Get out of here,’ she laughed and started along the road. Thaler quickly fell into step with her.
Chapter Twenty Seven
The weather was perfect. The previous day’s heavy clouds had been blown away, leaving only a small rearguard barely visible on the horizon. The county road undulated gently as it crossed the hills. It passed through emerald-green meadows with scattered flocks of thoughtful sheep, small woods with an undertow of wildflowers and, further on, a patchwork quilt of farmlands.
They had covered a long stretch not having spoken a word when Thaler suddenly stopped, narrowed his eyes and peered into the distance. Ashley followed his gaze. Soon, she heard a high-pitched buzzing sound and recognised a tiny object flying at high speed over the crops towards them.
‘I want to believe it’s a delivery drone and not Mody’s unrested soul with a Colt 45 attached to it,’ he said.
Ashley glanced at him and grinned.
‘I hope so,’ she murmured.
‘Here we go,’ Thaler said.
It was a small quadcopter. It slowed down, hovered over Thaler like a bumblebee and dropped a brown paper envelope into his hands. After that, the drone shot up abruptly and disappeared into the sky.
Thaler squeezed the envelope in his hands and flipped it over — there was no address or any other words written on it. He carefully opened it and pulled out a nifty smartphone. He switched it on, read some messages and slipped the phone into his inside pocket. He stood silently, staring at the tips of his shoes.
‘Hey,’ Ashley called him, ‘what’s going on?’
Thaler glanced at her with a squint.
‘I’ve got two pieces of news: one good and one the other.’
‘Let’s start with the good one,’ Ashley suggested.
‘At today’s assembly Redding was unanimously elected to the position of Supreme Master,’ Thaler said. ‘His predecessor has been arrested on charges of high treason.’
‘Wow! That’s great news!’ Ashley exclaimed. The tension seemed to ebb from her shoulders. ’We have to celebrate! Now, Redding is our boss! I bet you’ll be his right hand! And, they have started to clean the stables. So, then, what’s the bad one?’
‘Lizzy Wilford committed suicide,’ Thaler murmured. ‘She wrote on the glass “I can fly” and jumped out of a window.’
‘Who is she? Why?’ Ashley puzzled.
‘She was a stewardess on my flight on the Glambird.’
‘What happened?’
‘We had a conversation.’ Thaler spoke slowly. ‘I had to defuse that bomb and she was the only one who could help me to get to it. She didn’t like the idea though. I had to break into her memory and strongarm her with a long gone criminal affair.’
‘I see,’ Ashley said. ‘I’m very sorry. Did you know her before that?’
‘No,’ Thaler said. ‘I only saw her on that flight. And, to be honest, I haven’t missed her. But, she left a suicide note and, for sure, the police have got onto that. I have a pretty uneasy feeling about that fact.’
Ashley walked up to him and put her hands on his shoulders.
‘May her soul rest in peace and let Redding save you from trouble. He owes you so much after everything you have done.’
‘I hope so,’ Thaler gave her a strained smile.
‘Alright then,’ Ashley gave him a short hug. ‘Let’s go. I think your mom and dad would be glad to see us before lunchtime.’
‘Sure,’ Thaler said and they walked briskly down the road.
‘Tell me about your parents,’ Ashley said.
‘They are two loners — retired scientists in their fifties,’ Thaler began. ‘My mother is a biologist and my father is an engineer.’
‘What do they do now?’
‘My dad is writing a novel — something about aliens I suppose.’ Thaler tittered. ‘My mom likes knitting and other needlework. Also, they own a hi-tech farm that produces biofuel. Up to now, it hasn’t been a huge success. Most of their clients have been old gasoline car collectors. But, after the recent power failures, I hope their business will take off.’
‘Why?’
‘My father always said that we shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket and we have to diversify our sources of energy,’ Thaler said. ‘But, you know, fashion is not only confined to skirts and shoes. Science and technology are also exposed to it. That’s how we got into this situation with about ninety per cent of all our means of transport, including ships and airplanes, being driven by electrical power. The word “monopoly” was replaced with the safer and more impressive “strategic industry” — that’s how the Standard Electric Company was created. We’ve got one big egg. And now it has cracked.’
From the top of the hill, a mile away, they saw a modern farm set in the middle of a vast yellow field of crops. The sunbeams were dancing on arrays of hexagonal solar cells mounted on the roofs of minimalistic buildings made of corrugated aluminium. A flock of agrobots, like a giant potato bugs, crawled slowly along the neat rows of crops.
‘Almost there,’ Thaler looked over the field, shielding his eyes from the sun.
‘What is it?’ Ashley waved her hand towards the crops.
‘It’s turnip,’ Thaler said nostalgically. ‘Great thing when mixed with milk and mashed potatoes. I ate a lot of it in my childhood. My parents are very modest people and they never spoiled me with delicacies. Nowadays, they make fuel from it.’
‘Oh, you were a child once?’ Ashley giggled. ‘I thought you were born in that leather coat, with a stern expression on your face.’ She turned to Thaler. He didn’t answer. The joke hadn’t gone down well.
‘Do you miss those years?’ She asked hastily.
‘Yes.’
The answer was too short. She peered into his face.
‘Do you have any brothers or sisters?’
They stopped. The silence between them grew like an inkblot dripped onto the end of a thank-you letter. A gust of wind tousled Thaler’s hair and flicked up the collar of his jacket. His face took on its usual appearance — cold and pale with sparks of sarcasm hidden deep in his eyes. He stood with his hands stuffed into his pockets and stared over at the farm.
Ashley came close, facing him, and put her hands loosely around his neck.
‘Vin,’ she said, ‘I apologise if I said something wrong. If I did so, just forgive me.’
‘Oh, it’s nothing,’ Thaler said. ‘There’s nothing to apologise for. I think I’m just a bit tired.’
‘Sure. You need a rest,’ Ashley pulled him closer but he remained unresponsive and reserved. Ashley’s hands retreated slowly from his neck.
Thaler turned his face away, thinking. Then, he pulled out his phone, switched it off, flipped it in his hands and removed the battery. He checked the screen and put the phone back into his pocket.
‘I am going to tell you something,’ he said. ‘I think it might be important for our relationship. Nobody, apart from me and my parents, knows it.’
Ashley moved closer to him and stared into his eyes.
‘I’m your true friend, Vin,’ she said, ‘you can trust me.’
Thaler turned around and glanced across the sky. The wind grew stronger — the weather was changing. Heavy clouds from the Northwest were creeping back over the countryside. Sporadic soundless flashes of lightning illuminated them from within. The air became hot and stale.
‘My parents were among the world’s best minds of their generation,’ Thaler began. ‘A couple of geniuses who could have changed the world. I saw some of their old pictures. They were a lovely couple, buoyant and handsome, who had a lot of friends. They married when they graduated from university. All doors were open for them. It’s easy to imagine how happy they were.’
‘They had plans for that summer. Their classmates thought that they went on honeymoon to island-hop in the Pacific and have the best time of their lives. But, in fact, they had been hired by a state agency to take part in some research. They never told me exactly what it was, but I think I could guess. The lab, indeed, was set on a remote island. But my mom and dad had no time to enjoy the surf and the beaches. They worked hard. But something went terribly wrong. I think it was an explosion. They found my parents in the ocean a couple of days later, clinging to a piece of wood. The island had suddenly disappeared from the map. The program they worked on was curtailed and classified. They got a lot of money in exchange for their silence. And an unblinking eye on them as a free pudding.’
‘My parents still looked great after that incident and their blood cells were okay but they both had become completely infertile. The government paid generously for every possible treatment, however, the damage was irreversible. The doctors could do nothing. But my mom and dad were young clever people who wanted their own kids. They bought this farm away from prying eyes and started to make their way to that dream.’
‘During the day, they worked in the fields playing the part of a couple of down-shifters who had got fed up with city life. But, at night, they trudged their way through uncharted territory in a lab they had set-up in their cellar. My mother, all alone, tried to solve an old problem on which hundreds of other scientists had broken their teeth: to turn her and my dad’s somatic cells into reproductive ones and bring them together to create an embryo.’
‘At the same time, my dad was devising a brand-new substance that would become the wall of an artificial womb — a connecting layer between the placenta and a life support machines. They had to buy hi-tech equipment using proxies and smuggle it in their pickup truck under a heap of manure.’
‘It took them years of hope and despair to get that work done. My mom and dad, again and again, had to puncture each other with a long needle to find tissue samples containing multi-potent cells — the ones that would be used for fertilisation.’
‘Finally, they succeeded in creating a viable embryo and put it into an artificial uterus. They called it “the cradle.” I never saw it — they left no pictures. My mom said it looked like an old washing machine stuck between her pickles and dad’s hooch distiller in the cellar.’
‘My mom had to simulate her pregnancy using bigger and bigger pillows and cast herself as a perinatal care dissident who refused to go to the doctors. Until the last moment, they didn’t know what exactly would come out of the slow cooker. It was me,’ Thaler grinned. ‘They faked a home birth and, after some time, called an ambulance. They rushed me to the maternity hospital and, when the doctor had checked my belly stump and filled in the necessary papers, I became an ordinary baby. While in hospital, I passed all due tests including genetic ones — everything was normal. I returned home, my jury-rigged incubator was destroyed and the whole story became a family secret. The only thing they saved was that awful needle they had stabbed each other with to get the cells. Not a big pleasure for a young couple.’
‘Can I ask you one question?’ Ashley whispered.
‘Sure,’ Thaler said.
‘Why did they do it in such secrecy?’
‘My parents just wanted their own baby,’ said Thaler. ‘But, they created technology that potentially could’ve produced unlimited, anonymous manpower. You can imagine who would want to get their hands on it.’
Ashley nodded.
‘I asked my parents if there were any other embryos left after that, let’s say, experiment — any would-be sisters or brothers who were doing time in a jar of liquid nitrogen somewhere down in the cellar. They always denied it. But I have an ineradicable feeling that I’ve got at least one. When I was a child I had a haunting, recurring nightmare. I saw someone just like me standing behind a pane of thick frosted glass in front of me. We put our hands on that barrier, one against another, and I couldn’t understand — who was inside and who was outside the cell,’ Thaler’s voice broke. ‘After a long time, that feeling came back — when I was hiding with old Greg in the black box.’
Ashley hugged him and held him tightly.
‘Don’t think about shadows,’ she whispered. ‘Let them pass. Me, my mom and my dad — we all love you. We are your grateful friends. And, I’m sure your parents love you too. You should be proud of yourself and feel wanted.’
‘I have nothing to be proud of,’ Thaler uttered. ‘We’ve thrown the demons to Hell. But they’ll return. They are immortal imperishable spirits, those bastards. We are not. We’ll pass away and, sooner or later, they’ll be back. It’s just a matter of time. Shall I continue this way and end up counting down my days in a bunker somewhere?’
‘We can buy adjacent plots, if you don’t mind,’ said Ashley. Thaler cracked a smile. ‘Good idea,’ he said.
‘I feel empty, Ashley,’ he uttered. ‘Empty like a rusty barrel in an abandoned camp somewhere far, far away in the desert.’
‘Then, you need rain,’ Ashley whispered.
‘I couldn’t put it any better,’ Thaler cuddled her.
They hugged each other and parted.
‘I still have a long way to go,’ he said. ‘But I feel better now; feel . . . better . . . and a bit cold.’
A few raindrops fell on his face. He stretched out his hand, palm up, threw his head back and smiled. A muffled sound of thunder rolled across the countryside. ’There,’ Thaler said. ‘It has returned.’ He looked up into the sky. ‘I like rain. When it’s over this old world always looks better — shinier, cleaner and young again. Rain heals our soul. It washes away all our doubts and fears. Its sound soothes the pain. Rain is a good mentor. It teaches us to be patient. To wait humbly for the reward that every one of us will get.’
The end
© 1995–2025 Alexander Daretsky. All rights reserved.