Science fiction. Life in 2075

 

#Sciencefiction. Life in 2075

“Nevermind, we can leave it here and return to collect it when the crowd has thinned and the sea has calmed a bit. Retrieving it right now is unnecessary and we may become subjects of extreme speculation for trying to rescue something that is least prodigious, yet extremely valuable. What do you say Maximus?”

I heard my friend, and then I sought counsel from my inner silence, and I spoke with an extreme fluency. Because my intentions about this thing, that we had deliberately drowned in the sea, were very clear. “Falemax, we should be here in the wee hours of the morning and extract the trunk from the water. Let us match the time in our wrist watches and be here at 04:30 am tomorrow. I think that will be safe and that time nobody will be by the sea side.”

He did not say anything, and whenever he did not say anything, it meant he had accepted the suggestion. And to confirm it, this time he held my wrist, then looked at my watch for a second or so, and adjusted his watch to match with mine.

Let me clarify what I mean by saying: when he did not say anything it meant he had no problem or he agreed with the proposal/offer. 

It is only valid when you ask him a question or you propose something and are waiting for his response, in the form of an objective answer i.e. “a yes.” Usually when he feels he has a different opinion or he does not agree with the offer, then he does not remain silent. At such occasions he is the most vocal person you would come across. He would do everything within his power to validate his denial. 

If you were to experience him in this mode for the first time, you would easily feel the overpowering influence of his words, his statements, and arguments passed in support of his denial. 

And I never argue with him whenever he denies something. Because most of the time he does not deny anything, and if he does, that means he has a very genuine reason. Trust me. Most of the time he is correct. So I do not encourage myself, or anyone else to debate with him over a point he does not agree with, because in the end you will always realise he had a very good point to make. Here is the best part, when I propose something, just like I did sometime ago, if he does not find anything wrong with the idea he instantly says yes, by saying nothing at all. Which is the case very often. So, it is pointless entering into an argument over a point he does not agree with because he has valid reasons to believe in his views opposing the idea.

For now, we both had agreed to be at this exact spot at 04:30 am tomorrow.

To relish few carefree moments, we decided to take a walk on the beach along with other evening joggers, and watch the Sun set into the sea.

It feels like a red fire ball entering an endless water surface and then disappearing into it. A huge red bubble that the sea seeks and always finds in the evening. Maximus and I call it the affair of the red bubble with the blue sea. They both watch each other throughout the day, and the gravity of their love, slowly brings them together. Very slowly, so slowly that by the time it is evening you do not realise when the Sun got so close to the sea. But Maximus and I know, they are ancient lovers. Thus our fascination with the phrase that we have invented for the sea and the Sun, “Affair of the red bubble with the blue sea.”

We looked at the setting sun, the vast sea, and the moment the Sun’s lower, round edge touched the surface of the sea, it felt like a kiss that the sea had been waiting for all day long, and the sun had been eagerly preserving it for the sea with all its warmth.

With the romance of the Sun now hidden behind the sea, or should I say inside the sea’s bosom, we ran along with the seaside joggers and we ran nearly for 1 hour. Then at the usual spot, we sat on the bench and with pacing heart beats and rapidly heaving chests, we watched the waves hitting the shore, disappearing and re-appearing, and the woosh, woosh, sound resonated in our ears like everyday. It meant we were safe, we were still alive, and the Earth is still habitable. 

For us these thoughts are casual and frequent, because we are the members of a secret league. An elite organisation that is responsible for maintaining several balances on the Earth in 2075. If you are wondering what sort of balances, well that is the secret Maximus and I do not share with anybody. It will be buried with us in our graves, or there where we die. This is why we watch the waves, come and go, come again and disappear; it reminds us we are alive.

It is this strange fear that keeps us alive and helps us resist vanity, without vilifying our own intentions or expectations of those associated with us in the elite organisation. 

But for our family members understanding this role of vanguards that we have assumed consciously, is a very difficult task. Because for them the sea is a sea, the sun is the sun, that sets into the sea and that is it. They for some reason do not want to admire the romance between them, because their vigour of mind and that of youth is focused on their other choices and their selective preferences. But as far as our wives are concerned, when it comes to men, we are their only preferences. And as long as it is so, nothing else matters!

Well, two of us think, nothing else matters!

But there are times we have to eschew a few of our feelings, and at those times we feel terrible. But for the saviours of the Earth, this is a price worth paying. However, when we feel it is being too much. It is Maximus who protests before the senior members of the organisation, and only because of him, we are allowed a 45 day long yearly vacation, where we mostly travel towards the point where the sun kisses the sea and disappears. There, in peace, and the company of compulsive romantics like the sun and the sea, I and Maximus, sink into the arms and passions of our wives. Of course in far away and different corners. 

Ah, that was too personal. One more thing about Maximus, he does not like sharing personal diaries, especially his romantic diary with anyone. But whenever I am on this bench, and the swoosh, swoosh, sound plays like music in my ears, I for some reason become too expressive. But, for now that is enough. We both must get up now, and I can already see Maximus stretching his legs, with his palms resting strongly against the wrought iron bars of the bench.

Like everyday, he is back on his feet, he bends his neck left and then right, then he jogs back and forth like a horse of superior breed. Finally, he looks at me, and without saying a word he marches forward, because he knows I am following him.

After walking for 1 hour we enter the lane that leads to our quarters, Mine followed by his. As we stand exactly below my quarter, he stops, waits for me, we shake hands, he wishes me good night and he leaves. Rather, we leave!

Then what he does when he reaches his quarter is something you will have to ask him. I usually go and kiss my wife like a hornbill.

Yes, two hornbills extending their long beaks, one from the hollow in the tree trunk and the other one at the outer opening of this hollow. This is exactly what happens, when, I on purpose, now for 10 years, open the door slowly, leaving enough gap, so that I could force my head through it, while my body is still outside, to be greeted by the sparkling eyes of my wife. And then with some inexplicable adroitness, we perform our hornbill act. 

Now it should tell you that our lives are not boring or deplorable. Well they are not, as long as you compare them with the romantic lives of hornbills, who mate for a lifetime. Fortunately this part of our lives is very prodigious, I am sure Maximus is also the hornbill type, a little quiet though. But it would have been a complete mismatch, had he been as expressive as I am, because his wife is more talkative than I am.

Thank God Maximus is a little quiet, otherwise their quarter would have been like an aviary. With the deafening and sometimes annoying clattering, chirping, and incessant hooting of birds.

Tonight, I intend to go to bed early, and whenever I have to wake up earlier than usual, I do the hornbill act earlier than usual and she understands that I will have to leave early tomorrow for work. But tonight, I tried to fake myself, I tried to be the hornbill, but with the personality of a chameleon. Because the thing that we will be retrieving tomorrow. It maybe the end of every act, the very act of our lives too. And I could not tell her this, and the sadness of not being able to see her, not being able to sneak my head through the door any more, made me feel pathetic. So I faked it to make it look like the usual call of duty and nothing else. Which it was not!

However, the trunk, that we shall retrieve in the morning, is not any usual trunk. It can vaporise the entire planet if it falls into wrong hands. And if we are not able to handle it properly, that shall be our final act on this Earth. Maybe that is why Maximus was so silent today. Yes, he was unusually still on the bench. I had realised it then. And I thought it must have been due to the trunk and our unusual assignment.

Everyday, when we watch the sunset, and the sun kisses the sea, he puts his arm across my shoulder and often talks about his wife and how he had met her. Although I have been hearing this for more than 9 years now, I like it. And if I do not hear it, I feel a sense of incompleteness. And when he did not say it today, I knew the assignment was bothering him. He knew it too, because in the lane where our quarters are located, I usually walk him upto his house, we sit in his reading room, then he disappears for few minutes, I suppose to fulfil his hornbill act, and reappears with whatever his wife’s cooking instinct has to offer us. But Maximus is an amazing cook himself too and his wife admits it often. So I would guess he frequently cooks at home. 

But tonight, none of this happened. We both were thinking about 04:30 am and inventing ways to fake it before our wives, and fake it well.

My entire night was preoccupied with these thoughts, and I woke up exactly at 04:00 am. I got dressed, and stood beside my sleeping wife for 2 minutes. She too had set her alarm for 04:10 am. On hearing the alarm she immediately got up and walked me upto the gate, and placed her arms around me and said, “I know you faked it last night. You are so poor at faking. Make sure you come back alive and in future do not keep secrets from me. Especially ones of this nature.”

I did not utter a word, I looked at her, and in the meantime Maximus arrived and we began walking towards the main highway. Our wives looked at each other, as if they had some secret conversation they winked their eyes almost simultaneously, and went inside.

We took a taxi, and asked it to drop us a mile ahead of the exact spot from where we had to retrieve the trunk.

The taxi stopped, Maximus paid the fare, and we walked towards the spot. With just one companion, the woosh, woosh sound of the waves. Then we arrived at the exact location, I un-anchored a boat and we moved towards the point where we had dropped the trunk.

Maximus pulled a rope from his bag. It had flat magnetic ends enabled with smart sensors to detect the trunk, and lunge on it as soon as it was detected. And it did not take us more than a minute. We retrieved the trunk. I used the instruction manual to access its lock which was easy.

And Maximus held the device with both his hands, while I pushed the trunk into the water, and by pressing its blue button, the trunk was destined to dissolve with water, without polluting it or creating any toxic residue. ( These trunks are made of nano material that is biodegradable and its basic constituent is carbon. But right now we are not interested in the trunk. )

So I helped Maximus with the device, and we carefully placed it in our bag. And I pulled the oars with all my strength and in a few minutes we reached the shore. There, we were surprised to see our wives waiting for us. As we appeared from the obscurity of the still dark morning, they asked us not to hand over the device to the elite community because it possessed enormous power, far more than the Arc of Covenant. And according to them some beings had told them this.

Maximus and I were caught between three dilemmas:

• Professional Duty

• Duty of love 

• And Duty to love our wives

They knew we do not mix love lives with professional lives, yet they were insisting and behaving differently today. We stood there arguing with them, as did Maximus more than me, since he was the best when it came to arguing on a point that he believed to be incorrect.

But we were not arriving at any conclusion. And in this state of indecision, we saw three beings appear before us, and they said, “we had gifted this to humans in prehistoric times so that they could achieve excellence in every discipline of life. And now there are forces on Earth who have become slaves of power and vanity, and they want to use it for controlling not just the Earth but the entire Universe. Although this is a very insignificant device, when you compare it with our superior devices with features that you cannot even imagine for a billion years. So, hand this over to us, because it does not belong to Earth now. Until we find the one who deserves to be its keeper.”

Maximus looked at me, then at his wife, and after a few seconds at these beings. They definitely did not belong to Earth and there was something very benign about them. Very restful and convincing about their personalities. And this time, Maximus did not speak, because I chose to speak, “I am bound by my orders. And I know our secret community will use it judiciously. I have known them for many years, respected beings. So please let us fulfil our duty.”

And one of them answered, “If you wish so, we shall let you keep it. But now you are at war with us, and you shall be responsible for everything henceforth. Everything. But if we see goodness in your acts, in humanity, the war will cease. And we shall identify the keeper of this device for you. So go forth and do as you please. We like the fact that you take your duty seriously and you love your better halves so deeply. It is for your sake, we shall let them have it. But it will lead to war and destruction, and please bear that in mind! Do very well in your lives, and we shall be watching them, and watching over you from the Heavens!”

The beings became one with the dark obscurity of the early morning and we, along with our wives, went home. Then at 11:00 am that day, we went to the headquarters and deposited the device.

The moment we left the premises, there was a huge explosion. We rushed to our quarters and joined by our wives, we went to a secret place as instructed by those beings. Who had warned us, "If there is an explosion, that should mean, the device is with people who have ill intentions. And if that happens, we should flee and reside at a specific place."

Now we live there, while the world is engaged in the nastiest and bloodiest war ever witnessed by the human race.

To know the scale of this war, the advanced warfare, and how love would survive in 2075, in the midst of this war, please read the #sciencefiction novel, They Loved in 2075. Where the war is real, but human feelings and human love are unreal. Because humans, due to their overwhelming interactions with self aware machines, have lost the human layer of feelings and emotions. As a result of this, they have lost the ability to love and feel like humans do.

They can not love like the hornbills do i.e. mate for lifetime.

To know more, explore the #scifi novel, They Loved in 2075.

Until then, as long as you have time, discover the hornbill residing within you, a passionate survivor, a doting partner and a graceful lover!

Let the hornbill-like representations of everything fly into 2075. With this wish I welcome you to 2075, and the new expression of intense #scifi romance titled: They Loved in 2075.

#Scifibooks are special, but this one might turn out to be that very special #scifi book you have been wanting to read for a long time.