“And GLI has done nothing to stop it.” Sykes went on, “Rightly so, ‘cause if they intervene in any meaningful way then the entire experiment would be compromised, right? Invalidated. Just like that…”

Yeung-Sung was beginning to feel the pressure in his lungs. Keeping up with Sykes was not easy. Once the Irishman finally trailed off, Yeung-Sung caught his breath enough to interject.

“Don’t they care about the safety of these people? You don’t kill your lab rats before you jot down your results, do you?”

“Well…”. Sykes scanned the golden-streaked horizon while he formulated a reply. “A few might. But -like, the premise of the colony is about Airgead, and its predecessors, remember?” He coughed. “A self-sufficient system intended to award value to the individuals within it,” he said, quoting Jordan. He wobbled his head in self-important imitation.

I have to admit; Jordan said it better.

“But,” Sykes said with regular head motion, “You’ve never heard of anyone dying here, have you?”

“Huh, I haven’t.” Yeung-Sung dwelt on it. “Wait, has this happened before -and that Duner guy at the Market meeting, he threw himself off a balcony for God’s sake- Sykes, are they all dead?”

“Oi!” Sykes stopped him with a hand to is chest. “Relax, lad.” He motioned around and to the sky. “Look at the night stars, take a deep breath. You’re getting too excited.” Shushing any retort, he waited until Yeung-Sung had closed his mouth and began breathing through his nose. “You good?”

Yeung-Sung opened his nostrils up to the wispy smells of the night. Nodding, “Yeah,” he looked ahead.

Wil’s apartments were close now -they didn’t feel like an image in the distance anymore. At their previous pace, they would’ve been there within the hour. But they walked now; stepping wary and close together, so that they wouldn’t be there until after the stars had come out. They missed their friend, and desperately wanted to see him safe, but at the same time weren’t willing to stop their conversation.

Sykes blew out a hot breath and resumed. “First off, he’s not dead. I guarantee it.”

“Sykes, that’s not funny. I saw him fall.”

Sykes drew his lips tight He looks so sure. You know more than you let on, don’t you? You’re not simply an eccentric among regulars, like you let the guys believe. You let them believe it. Or, if that is indeed you, you’re also so much more.

“You wanna know how I’m so certain” Sykes said, laughing. A wild idea jumped forward.

No. Not you, too.

“You’re in league with him,” he gasped, then clenched his fists. He looked around the walls that boxed them in for gaps. “You’re just another one of Jordan’s idyllic idiots. Sykes, please..”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Now,” Sykes said, drawing out the word in a menacing fashion. “Now that would be a twist, wouldn’t it? Burt I’m afraid its not something so straightforward as that. Information comes to those who look hardest, Yeung-Sung, remember that.”

What?

Sykes moved ahead of him. It took gripping his chilled fists tight for many moments before his longing to know overwhelmed him, and Yeung-Sung bounced along after.

Non-chalantly, he began talking through his reasoning. “I kno-ow because when someone dies in the colony, all the things they held, all the things they worked on cease to function, or otherwise break into a weaker form. I know because when a coloner dies,” he spoke the warm wisdom close to Yeung-Sung’s ear, “their death has an un-ignorable impact on everyone else, lad.”

“That’s…”

Sykes finished the thought for him. “Exactly something an economist would come up with when asked to integrate morality amongst the people? I agree.”

Yeung-Sung blinked in surprise, then looked back at the sky. “No,” he said, laughing now too, “I was going to say that it’s kind of respectful. Like everyone is a participant at your funeral.”

A cloud had drifted over most of the sky, and when it hovered past the white stars seemed to sparkle harder.

“Jordan’s wife. What happened when she died?”

Yeung-Sung expected Sykes to be taken aback, but instead he chuckled.

“I thought you might ask that. Well, she was really popular, interacted with lots of people. So, the damage was irreparable. The reset happened. It would have probably happened soon anyway, so some think it was premature, but Jordan, without hesitating, saw the plight of the community and rolled out Airgead the very next day.”

Yeung-Sung twisted his neck around. “Strange. Just when I think I understand him, I learn about some complete outside-the-box move that he made”

“That’s his signature,” Sykes noted. “He hates to be comfortable, never fully conforms to one way of approaching things. He calls it brain plasticity”.

“I call it being weird,” Yeung-Sung replied.

Sykes shook his head. “He thinks our dedications to our countries, to our governments, the dedication that we have to old systems -like money, for example, those things stop us from really evolving as a society.”

He rubbed his smooth dark chin. “Think about the how the first person to create a wheel opened us up to a new way of thinking; or the first motherfucker to look for honey. The Internet! How freaking crazy is that to think about.”

Yeung-Sung was still confused. “I mean I understand, but I don’t get what you’re trying to tell me about Jordan.”

The two came upon the path of the apartment building. Sykes stopped Yeung-Sung and took him aside, staring into him.

“I’m not trying to tell you about Jordan. I’m trying to teach you how to imagine.” He pointed up at the sky. “The stars, right, they’re so far away. How big do you think they are, how much energy do you think they contain in order to travel all the way to our eyes?”

Yeung-Sung tried to wrestle free from his grip. He got one of his shoulders free, but the other hand felt like it had been clamped. “I don’t know. It’s so far,” he wailed. “I have no reference for a scale that large.”

“Pre-fucking-cisely. Imagine if you could, though…” Sykes tapped his head, and looked to Yeung-Sung at that point like a complete mad man.

“There are so many things we just haven’t managed to comprehend.” Letting go of Yeung-Sung, he swore that he heard a whirring sound. “But soon I think we will.”

Yeung-Sung backed away from Sykes. Not only is the colony getting more dangerous, I chose the most unstable person to go with me to find Wil.

“Oh, we’re here,” Sykes said, completely forgetting that a moment ago he was pinning Yeung-Sung against the wall.

He doesn’t even realise how scary he is being. Yeung-Sung massaged his shoulder. And what is that strength? I thought he was going to crush my collar bone with one hand. I can’t trust anyone, can I? Not ‘The Wick’, not Woo-Yi, not MEDB, either. I’m starting to really think that this whole place was setup just to freak me the fuck out. Yet, looking out over the looming building, he had one thought.

“Wil…Come on, let’s go,” he waved to Sykes, ignoring how he felt, ignoring the warning signs firing off inside. “Let’s go help him.”