“Alice.”
“Yes, my love.”
“We need to talk.”
Alice frowned, “About what? The proposal?”
She began to visibly shrink back. It had only been a few days and bringing it up still led to panic. Jacob hurriedly corrected her, “No, no. That can wait until after this. Come with me.”
Jacob offered Alice a hand off the couch and fetched her coat. Together they left their small apartment and stepped on the hover lift, feeling the weightlessness as it began to fall.
“So, what do you want to talk to me about?”
Jacob smiled at her, “Patience, my love.”
Alice grumbled, “At least tell me where we’re going?”
Jacob laughed, “Fine. We’re going to central park.”
The lift hit the bottom, having traversed hundreds of floors in the time of that brief discussion.
Jacob led Alice through the brightly lit streets, both marveling at the sights around them.
Sky scrapers shot into the air, seemingly straining to reach the heavens above. Hover cars flew to and around them like an endless swarm of bugs. At the ground level, neon lights lit up the streets, illuminating the people going to and fro. Holograms flickered in and out of existence, showcasing ads, videos and maps. It was a place in endless fluctuation, a city as stable as the planet it was on, and yet as chaotic as an exploding star.
Alice took it in, seeming to enjoy its magnitude, seeming to shrink in its presence. Jacob watched her worriedly.
Finally, after half an hour of walking, helped along with some portal gates, they arrived at the Central Park, nust outside the bounds of the city. No matter how many times they had come, they couldn't help but gape.
It was not merely a park, but a mini world. It was thousands of square miles and it contained dozens of unique biomes in it, all brimming with unique animals. One could spend a lifetime exploring it, and still not even get close.
Jacob led them into the mountainous region, taking a teleporter to shorten the distance.
“We’re not climbing that, are we?” Alice questioned, visibly nervous.
“Well…”
“Jacob!”
“No, we're not climbing that.”
He walked over to a nearby kiosk, and came back with a small parcel covered in canvas, about the size of a breadloaf. With a shake, it unfolds to reveal its full form, a massive glider about 20 feet in wingspan.
Jacob turned to Alice with a massive grin, “we’re gonna fly.”
Alice just stared in shock, “Are you serious!?”
“Yep,” Jacob turned, patting the glider, “this bad boy can take us anywhere. I thought we’d take a flight.”
Alice looked at him in mute shock, but eventually agreed to get in the glider.
“Alright, on three. One… TwoThree!”
Alice’s screaming complemented Jacob’s wild laughter, the rush of wind blocked off by energy shields. Both soon quieted as they saw the sight below them. Entire biomes stretched out below them, their inhabitants mere ants. Desserts, mountains, forests, and plains all whizzed by, traversed effortlessly.
Finally, Jacob steered the glider back to the mountain they started at, setting a course to a hidden alcove, a few hundred feet below the peak.
“Jacob,” Alice started nervously, “Why are we heading right at the mountain? Jacob? Jacob!”
She let out a scream as the glider abruptly vanished, condescending back to its original form, hundreds of feet from the alcove. Jacob twisted in the air, reaching out to grab Alice. He took her into her arms, unheading her screaming. They stuck the ground silently, with Jacob activating augmentations to nullify their kinetic energy. In the end, they stood in the alcove, Alice in Jacob’s arms.
“What?! What the hell was that?! How are we alive?! Wait…”
She turned to look at him, realizing dawning, “Those are not civilian augs…”
Jacob sighed, setting Alice down, “No, they are not.”
“Jacob, what's going on? I thought this was about the… proposal.”
He sighed, “it is. But it’s also about more. There’s…something I need to tell you. Something I should have told you a long time ago.”
He walked to the edge of the alcove, sitting down and dragging his legs over the edge. He motioned for her to join him. For a while, they just sat, overlooking the vast park and all the life within it. The sun slowly fell below the horizon, bringing out the stars.
Finally, Jacob broke the silence.
“What you said… about being nothing… It’s true.”
Alice’s head snapped to him.
“We are all nothing. I had hoped that I could spare you the burden of that truth, but alas, the women I fell in love with could never do anything but see the truth.”
He smiled at her, “But being nothing does not mean what you think it does.”
He abruptly got to his feet, and started to pace nervously.
“I lied, Alice. I am not from Jarsen. I am from earth, born the direct heir of one of the high military dynasties.”
He looked back at her, wincing at the shock and hurt on her face.
“I didn’t tell you because I wanted to forget. I wanted out.”
He sighed “I was the best.” he started, somewhat wistfully, “the best of the best. The Silver Streak, they called me, because I never stopped. I fought and fought and fought, an eternal blur.”
“But” Alice started, “isn't war banned by edict of the council?”
Jacob chuckled darkly, “The council is weakening. Soon it will break. The laws that once protected us are on their last legs. The dawn of a new age is upon us. But that's not our problem. Well, it used to be mine. But no longer.”
He held up a hand, examining it as if trying to determine if it was real, “You know, robots make up most of the troops. But they cannot command. They lack…something. So the human champions lead. I had a whole unit. They called me…captain. And I was so goddamn proud of them. The battles weren't even important. Just small battles on the surface of newly discovered planets, testing the patience of the council.”
He came back to sit beside Alice, slumping over as he did.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Of course, that was relative. There were still thousands of robots and hundreds of people.”
He looked at his hands again, “I have seen rivers of blood. I have seen the spark fade from a man’s eyes. Yet I fought on. I had a purpose. I was somebody.” he chuckled darkly, “how wrong I was.”
He got up and went back to pacing. “Then it all went to shit. It was supposed to be a routine mission. Simple.” —another dark chuckle— “They were waiting for us, equipped with not one, but several combatants that exceeded me, the supposed peak.”
He stopped pacing, “I watched my men die that day.” he whispered, “Slaughtered to the last man. My brothers in arms. The men I swore I would die beside someday. And I ran. Ever a silver streak. They hit me with a neutron bomb, but I activated an experimental feature of my armor. I survived but I was seriously injured.”
He spat, “Arrogant bastards didn't even confirm my death.”
Then, he sighed, the energy seeming to drain out of him, “It took me months to recover enough to leave that planet. I rushed back to Earth with vengeance. And when I came back, I found out I had been replaced. They even gave the new captain my name The Silver Streak. Nobody gave a shit. Anyone who would have cared was already dead.”
He went back to sit on the ledge, “I was nothing,” he whispered, “just another easily replaceable soldier. For all intents and purposes, I was dead. So I left. Left and never looked back.”
He finally turned to look up at Alice, “Believe me, I know how meaningless this shit all is. I know how little a single life matters. The first few years I was aimless, wandering the cosmos, searching for meaning. I wanted so desperately to be something.”
He looked at Alice, love clear in his eyes, “Then one day, I met someone. Someone special. She was a bit spacy. And she was just as lost as I was, even if she didn't know it. She was beautiful, kind, and smart. But what made me truly love her was her courage. I was wandering the cosmos, trying to cast aside the reality of my nothingness. Trying to forget. Trying to narrow my vision. She was the opposite, always trying to open her eyes wider. Trying to see and learn more no matter how crushing it was. She sought truth, regardless of the pain. And I fell in love with her for it.”
He put a finger under Alice’s chin, tilting her head up to meet his eyes. There were tears in both of their eyes.
“Let me teach you what you taught me. Look up at the heavens, see the blackness between stars. What do you see?”
“I see…nothing.”
“And yet…behind that veil of blackness could be anything. When they replaced me, they stripped me of my name, giving it to another. But what I didn’t see at the time, is that that name was a barrier, a star blocking the void beyond. When it was stripped of me the void beyond, the truth of my nothingness, battered me. But you showed me the power of opening my eyes. So I looked deeper. And in the void of nothingness, I saw…everything. I saw a truth beyond the truth of nothing. A truth that you too see, but deny. Those that are nothing, can be anything. To be nothing is to be free.”
She stared at him blankly.
He smiled up at the stars, eyes calm, “Maybe it was wrong to abandon my people. Maybe it was wrong to run away. Maybe I am cursed for the lives I have reaped. But in the end, It’s not about good or bad. Not about right or wrong. Not about worthiness or deservedness. There is no good or bad, no right or wrong. In the end, there is only choice. And choice is everything.”
Alice shivered, “Jacob… that's crazy.”
He smiled at her, “The world is full of crazy people. What’s another nutjob? Life goes on, love. No matter what happens.”
Alice’s eyes began to tear, and soon she was sobbing into Jacob’s chest.
“I..hic…don't deserve you! You relieved all…hic…that just to…hic…help me!”
Jacob held her tight, “Did you not hear the part about me having walked through rivers of blood?”
“Don’t…hic…care.”
“Really?”
She pulled away to glare at him with tear stained eyes, “My. Choice.”
He grinned at her fury, pulling her close until he sobs subsided. Then she pulled back and slapped him.
“Why the hell didn't you tell me earlier!?”
Jacob just stared at her in absolute shock, before breaking into uncontrollable laughter. Alice soon joined in, unable to resist.
When they finally calmed down, Jacob pulled an inflatable bed from his pocket, growing it to full size with a tap of a button. He angled it so they could see the stars above. They got into the beg, snuggling up to each other, Jacob’s arm around Alice.
He turned to her amethyst eyes alight in the starlight.
“I want you to look at the void between stars. Look further and deeper than you ever have. Look, and see everything. Look and understand what you can be. Look, and choose.”
She stared back, soft green eyes gleaming like the origin of life.
“I love you, Jacob.”
“I love you more.”
“No, I love you more!”
“I love you even more!”
“Oh, now you’ve done it.”
Alice rolled on top of Jacob, pinning his arms to the bed.
“Hey!” he protested, “You’re supposed to watch the void of stars and be enlightened!”
She looked at him with hungry eyes, “I can think of other things to do.”
He blushed. “But-”
She shut him up with a kiss.
—----------------------------
It's a truth few can see. When one looks deep enough, the laws and morals they uphold become meaningless.
When all meaning has been stripped, all that matters is what you ascribe meaning to.
All that matters is what you choose.
I should know.
I once chose.
And I have regretted ever since.
—------------------------------
Alice walked down the aisle, white wedding dress waving in the breeze. There were people all around her, crowding the aisles to either side of her. But only one thing mattered to her.
Jacob stared at her in mute shock, violet eyes wide. Those eyes tracked her as she made her way to the dias.
He reached out and took her hand once she was close enough, the gesture sending a jolt of pleasure through her. She felt…whole.
They faced each other, swirling violet meeting vivid green, as the priest began the ceremony in the background.
Neither particularly cared what he was saying, too busy basking in each other's presence.
Finally, the priest turned to them for the vows, an ancient tradition. It took a few tries but he eventually got the starstruck couples attention.
Jacob went through the long vows, asserting his loyalty and love. His devotion and care.
They were beautiful, ancient, and Alice found tears coming to her eyes as joy overwhelmed her.
This was it, she was actually doing it.
Finally, Jacob uttered the last word and slipped a delicate ring onto her finger.
And it was her turn.
The world spun. Could she really do it? Could she become something?
Her eyes wandered the expectant crowd finding friends and family alike.
Was she good enough?
Her eyes found Jacob’s and the world froze.
His words came back to her, an intricate story of a man broken. A man lost. And a man found.
She was all nothing, yes, but she could be anything.
All she had to do was choose.
The priest whispered the vows in her ears again, reminding her.
But the vows were not important.
In the end, only one thing mattered.
The world snapped back in time, revealing an expectant silence.
Alice took a deep breath and looked into Jacob's eyes.
“I…choose.”
His mouth split into a smile that seemed larger than his face could contain. And indeed he could not contain himself.
He threw his arms around her, hugging her fiercely.
When he pulled back, there were tears in his eyes, “I’m so proud of you,” he whispered, “I know how hard it is.”
The priest, while understandably confused, continued on with the ceremony.
“And, now, I declare you husband and wife.”
Alice and Jacob met in a passionate kiss, and the world exploded into applause.
—-------------------------------
Alice’s finger blurred over the keys, words appearing on the screen with almost unbelievable speed.
She had chosen and she finally knew.
There were others out there, as lost as she once was.
Maybe she could help them.
After all, this too, was her choice.
And it could become others.
—------------------------------
The story of Alice and Jacob is not unique. Yet it makes them no less impressive.
The world is vast and it is blinding. Those that gaze upon it either break, or narrow their vision. Those that can reconcile the meaningless of their existence with the fact of their existence are few and far between.
All is right. All is wrong. All is.
There are as many ways to live as there are stars in the sky.
And all are equally pointless.
So in the end, when all is said and done.
The only thing that matters.
Is what one chooses.
I wonder.
Did I choose right?