Chapter 12 - Sea of Venus(4) - Unwritten History

As the marines left the shuttle, a message appeared on their wristband.

Young saw the green numbers reading, “+ 250 and bonus.”

Young smashed the panel with his finger as fast as he could, and a green rectangle appeared in front of his eyes. A robot voice echoed into his helmet as he smiled wide, “Mission accepted. Find the objective.”

As Gaius walked off following Dr. Fritz, the boy stood there confused by the flood of military personnel exiting the elevator carriage. The boy felt a hand on his back and looked up to see a marine with his helmet tied to his waist.

The boy’s lip quivered as the stomps of boots on metal rang around him, “Hello?”

Young looked down, “Ah, don’t worry. I’m supposed to take care of you. Name’s Young. You?”

The boy stared at him with a blank stare.

“You good little guy?”

“I can’t hear you!”

“What?”

“I can’t hear you!”

Young started walked towards a door, “Let’s get somewhere quieter first.”

The two stopped next to the entrance of a marble arch that led to the elevator’s temple. The boy peered down the dark path, but Young covered his eyes before he could adjust his eyes to the darkness.

Young shook his head, “Don’t be too curious about the priests.”

“Why?”

Young shrugged, “I don’t know. Some say that a mechanical spider will find you at night and eat you if you see it.”

The boy stared at Young, “Really? I’m not that dumb.”

Young peered down at the boy and saw that his breathing returned to normal. Young shifted his weight as he looked around, “Have you calmed down?”

“Yes.”

Young pressed some keys on his wristband and a small robot flew over with a paper cup full of lukewarm tea, “Just rest a bit. I’m going to get us local IDs.”

The boy sat on the oddly warm stone bench as Young jogged towards a holographic display between the large marble arch and the metal frame of the subway station.

“Here for two district A identification passes.”

The man on the screen saw Young and in a monotone voice mumbled, “Alright, please send the official documents.”

Young swiped a few panels upwards sending them to the hologram. The man scanned through them and then looked up, “Where’s the other fellow?”

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Young pointed behind him with a thumb. The man squinted as he adjusted the camera on the hologram, “Gah, Nexus must pay me more for this. Right?”

Young laughed, “They still have yet to get me an ID after a decade so who knows.”

“A decade is nothing brat. I’ve been sitting on my ass over here for half a century. Anyway, good luck with the kid Young.”

“Yeah. What do you think?”

“Think what?”

“About the kid.”

The man swiped through the boy’s file a second time, “There’s nothing here.”

“Really?”

“The only note is, ‘He likes cookies and that’s pretty much everything that is useful.”

Young touched his chin, “You sure?”

“It’s all corrupted or hidden.”

Young’s eye twitched, “Corrupted…”

“Well, good luck on that mission. And tell Larry to contact me soon or I’ll come down to the base and beat his ass.”

“Larry? Why? Something up?”

“He’s not called me in a decade. That bastard probably forgot about his father already.”

Young laughed as he turned around to walk back to the boy. He felt his chin again, “Hmm, maybe I have to shave after lunch too.”

The boy was watching the robots enter and exit the temple as Young joined him on the stone slab benches. The boy heard Young’s footsteps and looked over at him.

Young noticed the boy had drunk all the tea, “You want more? We might be here for a few minutes.”

“I’m good.”

“What does good mean?”

“I’m okay.”

Young sighed, “Alright. Yes or no. More tea no tea.”

The boy tilted his head from one side to the other as he pondered on the impossible question. Young tapped his wristband and a robot came with another cup of tea, “Well even if you didn’t want tea you’re going to get some anyway.”

“Okay.”

“So, what’re you watching?”

The boy pointed at the robots entering and exiting the temple. Young looked up, “You want to enter a temple?”

The boy shrugged, “I don’t know. I’ve never been outside before.”

Young rang his fingers through his hair and pulled out a few loose hairs, “Do you want to or not?”

The boy looked up at the marble arch, “Sure.”

Young stared at the boy, “So… I assume that means yes.”

The boy nodded as he sipped the tea.

The train was pretty much the same as those in the habitat. After all, basically all infrastructure modules were manufactured in The Forge and delivered through low-speed slingshots to their target destinations. Of course, low speed means less than 1 percent the speed of light which is by no means slow for planetary travel. This is most likely due to the excessive strain that inertial dampeners apply to structures that cannot automatically reconstruct themselves.

The boy looked up at the ceiling, “Why did you want me to not look into the temple?”

Young thought about a suitable response for a few seconds, “It’s not polite.”

“How?”

Young reached to his chin to stroke it but felt the sharp little hairs poking his hand and stared at his fingers, “You know what priests are?”

“Aren’t they representatives of the emp- “

Young stopped the boy with his hand, “Be careful about this kind of stuff.”

“But that’s what the books say?”

Young shook his head, “The universe isn’t a bunch of lines on a panel.”

“What do you mean?”

“Have you ever thought that the panel could be wrong?”

The boy sat there in silence for a moment, “Wrong?”

Young nodded, “Have you seen the news page?”

The boy nodded, “I think I get it. But my teacher told me that these books are the best that you can find.”

“Being the best doesn’t mean being correct.”

“How?”

“If you’re the best thief, are you correct? You’re the best but you’re not correct.”

The boy smirked, “Okay. But what if you only steal from those who deserve it.”

“Ah. How do you decide who deserves it.”

The boy shrugged, “I don’t know. Rich people?”

Young laughed, “If everyone stole from the rich, would the rich be rich anymore?”

“No.”

“And then who would be rich?”

“Oh.”

Young pat the boy on the head, “You can’t always believe what anyone tells you. The universe’s complexity is deeper than you think.”

The boy looked up at Young, “But what about science? Isn’t the whole point of research to solve the workings of the universe?”

“It’s been a few thousand years and look how far we’ve gotten. But is it enough to understand the universe? Not quite.”

“What are we missing?”

Young sighed, “My opinion is that we’re missing the culture and the humanity of the old era.”

“Culture?”

“What do you mean culture?”

Young stared at the boy, “You know what the worst part about the republic was?”

“The oppression of the people?”

Young shook his head, “The eradication of culture.”

“What?”

“If you weren’t a member. You were an animal.”

“Animal?”

Young nodded, “There are things you will need to learn about in school. Some stuff can’t be found in books.”