Chapter 1
“Where did you get that?” the dense, floating shadow growled.
Alethia nervously examined the flat object in her hand, it fluttered and crinkled as she flipped it over. It was soft and smooth and larger than both her hands. It felt like it might tear if she wasn’t careful. She glanced back at the floating shadow, feeling frightened but not sure why exactly. She knew the shape before her was just a hologram and couldn’t hurt her, but she also knew the hologram should be of a person. Instead it was some blacked-out blob, hanging in the air in front of her.
“Uh, I think there’s something wrong with your holocuff.” She barely worked the words out over the dryness in her throat.
“There’s nothing wrong with it. Now tell me where you got that, tell me who you are, and most importantly tell me how the shovel you managed to contact me!” The unidentified man barked his demands out in rapid succession.
“I’m Aletheia Seeker.” She blurted out before weighing the wisdom of answering that particular question. The commanding baritone was enough to keep her talking. “I got it from my father for my Age Progression Day.” She waved the strange object at the shadow-man. “It came in a time lock pod along with a recorded message about contacting you to figure out what the shovel it is.” She threw his harsh word back at him.
There was a pause. Then it seemed curiosity won out because his voice softened, becoming more eager than menacing. “Who’s your father, and why don’t you ask him what it is?”
“My father is…was Erasmus Seeker. And I can’t ask him because he’s gone. He disappeared five anni ago and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. But if you know where I can find him or if he’s even alive, I’d be happy to ask him instead.” She let the bitterness and hurt blaze through her words.
“I see.”
His response was frustratingly unhelpful.
“Well I don’t,” She slowly turned the object over in her hand, trying to discern its purpose. “So maybe you could do me a favor and fill me in.”
The shadow rose and fell with the man’s lengthy sigh. Just when she was sure he wasn’t going to answer, he spoke. “It’s called paper. It was used long ago before we had screens and holoprojectors.”
“How—”
He spoke over her unfinished question. “It was how people used to communicate. I haven’t seen anything like that in…”
There was a loud crash somewhere behind the darkened figure. The hologram flickered.
“I’ve gotta go,” the man mumbled.
“Wait, how do I use it? Do I have to plug it in somehow? I don’t see a power source anywhere,” Aletheia called out hastily.
“What?”
“You said it was a communication, but I don’t see any words or anything on the, the paper.” She let the strange word roll off her tongue and marveled at its sound. “Do I need to turn it on or something to get the message off of it?”
The man’s laugh sounded rusty, as though it was kept in a dusty corner and rarely used. “It’s not digital; you can’t turn it on.”
“Then how do I get the message?”
“He always was too pricha for his own good.” The man spoke more to himself than to Aletheia.
Another loud thump sounded from somewhere just outside of the holofield, and the shadow sputtered.
“Don’t bother contacting me again, it won’t work.” The man explained quickly.
“Wait, please, the message.” She begged.
“If I had to guess, I’d try holding it over a heat source. But be careful, paper is highly flammable. That doesn’t work, then I’d try some red cabbage water, but not too much.” As the hologram began to disperse, the man whispered a final warning. “If I were you, I wouldn’t let anyone know you have that.”
Before she could ask him anything else, he was gone.
“Best. Day. Ever.” Aletheia flopped back on her bed. She hated her Age Progression Day. Every anni it came and made her feel like she was ten again. She would sit at the table without him, smiling numbly at a cake full of lights, wishing to see her father again. She ached to hug him and tell him she loved him and missed him, to ask why he left her.
She picked up the ruby time lock pod and threw it back into the pile of dirty clothes she pulled it from that morning. Its shrill beeping from the neglected corner reminded her of its existence, she was sure it would finally bring her some answers to her father’s disappearance. But all that was inside was the recording to contact the ominous blob man and the blank piece of paper.
Letting out a growl of frustration, she fluffed her pillow and tried to get comfortable. After a few turns and sheet tugs, she hopped back out of bed; she was wide awake now. Her sweaty night clothes hit the cool room air, when it touched the warmth of her flesh it caused her to suck in a sharp breath. After quickly stripping off the damp fabric, she tossed them into her hamper and pulled on one of Erasmus’ old, oversized shirts. She flipped her waist-long brown hair over her shoulder and gazed down at the picture of some musical group that lost its popularity long before she was born. The shirt was one of the few things she still had of his.
Her eyes grew misty as the memory of the last time she saw him replayed in her mind like a holovid. It was five anni ago, just after Aletheia turned ten. She was in the bathroom cleaning her teeth one morning, and there was a knock on the door.
“Yeah,” she mumbled around her polishing device.
“It’s me, I’m leaving,” Erasmus said through the door.
“Ok, bye.” Tasteless paste flew as she spoke.
“Come out here, please.”
She rinsed and spit, then slapped open the door.
“I’d like a proper goodbye please,” he explained.
Aletheia gave him a questioning look. “Goodbye.”
He enveloped her in a hug. “I love you, Little Seeker.”
She frowned. The nickname Little Seeker wasn’t new, it’s what he usually called her. But their goodbyes were normally called out through the door and rarely included hugging or ‘I love yous.’
“I love you, too.”
It was the last thing she ever said to her dad. He disappeared that same day. Her mother Abdera didn’t try to elaborate.
“He’s gone,” was the only thing her mom said about it.
His final goodbye was given as though he knew he wouldn’t be coming back but nothing about his departure pointed to a voluntary evacuation. None of his belongings were missing. No one seemed to know he was leaving.
Aletheia, or Theia as her friends called her, often thought about what might have happened to him. Five anni later, her mom still refused to talk about him. Theia didn’t push the subject, she knew it would end with Abdera locking herself in her room and not coming out for days.
Her mother’s assistant, Felix, on the other hand, loved speculating about her father’s disappearance. He seemed to take great pleasure in telling Theia about the rumors that spiraled around the whole thing, but only when Abdera was out of earshot.
“He was obsessed with conspiracy theories about the Captain device. He told anyone who would listen how the Captain was being used to control everyone’s minds.” Felix wiggled his fingers and jerked his scraggly, pale eyebrows up and down a few times. “That there was some puppet master, behind the curtain pulling everyone’s strings.”
Felix’s face came to her mind uninvited, the gleam in his washed out, grey eyes as he retold any new rumor he heard.
“You know he came unhinged, right? Everyone knows he was completely pagala just before he disappeared.”
That rumor was the biggest reason she took her mother’s cue not to talk about it. And yet, Theia couldn’t help but recall the times she spent with him before he disappeared. He was always loving, never too busy if she needed something, and he told the best jokes. But the rumors caused the doubt to creep up inside her no matter how much she tried to reason them away. And that was the tricky thing about rumors, even for Theia who could always tell whenever someone was lying, a rumor could be a lie, but if someone was just repeating what they heard, her ability to discern truth didn’t matter.
Theia tried to push the negative thoughts out of her mind as she held the paper over a heat vent in her room. She watched it carefully to make sure the paper didn’t catch fire. After a few moments where nothing seemed to be happening, she grew more lax in her observations. She let her gaze wander around her bedroom. The lower half of her room was entirely overlaid with the richest, polished wood. And though the wood was lovely, it was the top half of her room that was nothing short of stunning. The rounded ceiling was made entirely of a thick but nearly invisible, ornate, mind-made crystal that offered a view of the vast expanse of a salt water sea.
The Sea of Ambu, under which she lived, surrounded the whole thriving metropolis of Urpeko and was a place full of wonder. The water was so clear you could see for over a mile during the day. The sea floor was a soft, fine sand that reflected light and kept it from getting too dark at night. And the outside ground lights helped at times like this when there was no moon. Theia watched a school of aquamarine fish swimming lazily past her. They made a sharp contrast with some bright pink coral that boldly shimmered and glowed with a phosphorescent sheen. Even after living here for two anni she still hadn’t grown tired of the amazing view.
Theia’s mother was a writer who claimed the new surroundings would help stimulate her creativity. It was really just an excuse to get away from the memories of Erasmus in their old home in the metropolis of Dvorets. Theia didn’t mind the change, it was so peaceful and soothing with the lights reflecting water patterns onto her bed and floor. She didn’t miss Dvorets, not that she had been unhappy there, but it did seem dull compared to this place. What she did miss was having her two best friends Kyriarchia and Eftychia living next door. They were the fraternal twins that were her best friends, she’d known them her whole life.
Thinking of her friends made her smile, she was counting down the days till she got to see them again at the Preparatory they attended together. The growing heat on her fingertips brought her thoughts crashing back to the task at hand. She inspected the paper one last time before giving up on the heat vent. Sliding her feet into her slippers she tried to recall whether there was any red cabbage in the kitchen and how she might get water from it. Solomon liked to purchase special ingredients and keep them on hand; she hoped she’d get lucky and find some so she wouldn’t have to wait till morning. She entered the hallway and nearly collided with Felix, who was standing right outside her door.
“Jeeves, Felix!? What are you doing!? Do you have any idea how creepy it is to be hovering outside a girl’s bedroom late at night?”
“I wasn’t hovering. I heard a kerfuffle and I wanted to make sure you were okay in there. Excuse me for caring!” he said, the crimson rising quickly from his cheeks to his ears.
She rolled her eyes. Though green typically dominated her irises, the rich sapphire backdrop of the ocean brought out the cooler blue color now that they lived in Urpeko.
“Stop lying, Felix, and join the twenty-third century, no one says kerfuffle any more. I know you’re not from this era but you don’t have to keep reminding everyone that you’re such an outlier.”
“I’m not that much older than you, Aletheia. I was only born five anni before the turn of the century. Stop treating me like I’m from another era,” he said in the condescending voice that he reserved just for her.
Theia ducked around him and headed for the kitchen. She didn’t confront him about his lie, she didn’t care how old he really was, and his dishonesty was nothing new. Theia kept pace with a small shark that was swimming above her along the clear, tube–like hallway that lead from her room to the kitchen. She reached up and grazed the ceiling with her fingers, and the shark darted away. She wished she could get Felix to flit away like that. But he was not skittish and he was adept at convincing her mother that he was really good at his job.
Theia could see right through him, but her mother always bought his falsehoods like they were half off at her favorite scribe’s store. Abdera was a famous author, and she could spend obscene amounts of Time Units on old fashioned styluses and bulky tablet screens. It was a good thing there were so many people who wanted to read her stories or they would never be able to afford all the luxes she purchased. Not that they would ever go hungry or without any of the essentials. The Captain device ensured that no one had to go without the necessities.
It also meant they could afford to hire a Victuals Connoisseur. Abdera could certainly mind-make food in a pinch, but Solomon was the one who made your tastebuds sing with each savory bite. After receiving the CPT implant, or the Captain as most people called it, Solomon specialized in mind-making food. He was the best Vic Conn Theia had ever had the pleasure of meeting.
But he wasn’t currently at his post, aka their kitchen. Which meant Theia would have to find some cabbage that was already made, or else wait until he woke up to ask him to make it. He liked to buy some of his ingredients from other Vicconns, he was particular about their flavors, so he often had odd ingredients stocked in their kitchen.
She was nearly done searching the cabinets when, from behind her, someone cleared his throat. She spun around and sighed in relief when she saw that it was Solomon. His kind, grey eyes twinkled like the décor of their kitchen.
“Couldn’t sleep Little Seeker?” He asked.
Her father used to call her that because she was always asking questions; like she had to find out everything there was to know. Usually he was the only one allowed to call her by that nickname but there was something so endearing about Solomon that she didn’t correct him. All she could do was smile back at him and nod sheepishly.
He ushered his rotund belly around the counter and started pulling bowls and pans out as he spoke. “Let me make you something to eat.”
“You don’t need to do that Solomon.” Aletheia told him in a polite protest, although she knew it was no good arguing. He had already started and there would be not stopping him until she was raving over her first bite of whatever delicious concoction he created.
“I don’t mind, it’s my job after all. Besides, I really miss this.” He said airily as he pulled out various utensils of all shapes and sizes. She gave him a questioning look and he answered.
“Your father would have trouble sleeping sometimes too. I would make him something to eat and we would just talk, long into the early morning hours. It’s been a while since I’ve fed anyone past dinner time around here since...” and his voice trailed off.
“I miss him too.” Theia murmured and looked around, expecting to see Felix pop out of a shadow somewhere. He had the uncanny ability of showing up whenever her father was mentioned, which wasn’t often.
“Don’t worry, I sent Felix back to his quarters. I caught him skulking after you and shooed him away when I saw you pass by my rooms.”
“How come you’re awake?” She inquired.
“Old habit I suppose.” He replied sadly, conjuring ingredient after ingredient and mixing them into a large bowl.
Solomon liked to prepare meals in a peculiar way, instead of mind–making a completed dish, he liked to buy or create the ingredients first and then mix them together. He would then put them into this machine that heated it all up thus creating the dish he wished to serve. Theia’s mother would roll her eyes and call him old fashioned but the food was amazing so she never said anything more than that. He told Theia that his way produced a better tasting dish than simply creating the completed victual all at once.
And she loved watching him work. He was from the metropolis of Gokyuzu, so he was known for being entertaining. Most people from Gokyuzu were entertaining, it was as though it was in their blood. She once asked him why he did everything with such flourish and he told her, “They have a saying back home, ‘If you don’t do it with flair, no one will watch you and if no one is watching, it didn’t happen.’”
He was putting some glorious creation of sweet bread and sausage onto a plate. Theia wondered how often her father must have come here at night for Solomon to still be in the habit after five years. She never realized that he might miss her dad as much as she did. Solomon poured some raspberry syrup over the steaming pile of bread and then sprinkled some snowy powdered sugar on top.
“He was a good man, your father, and a dear friend.” He stated softly.
Theia looked up in surprise with a forkful of gooey goodness suspended halfway between the plate and her mouth. She hadn’t heard a kind word spoken about her father since his disappearance. It felt a little scandalous, and yet heartwarming at the same time. The kindest things she had heard was that he was a little out of his mind in the last few months before he left. The worst things people said about him were words that she never wanted to hear again in her life.
Something came over her and she blurted out. “Do you know why he left?!”
Solomon had his head bowed over dishes as he cleaned up his mess, he looked up at her through some of his fluffy blond hair which was hanging down over his intense grey eyes. She could tell he was choosing his words carefully. “It’s a complicated issue Little Seeker, what does your mother say about it?”
“She refuses to talk about it.” Theia stated flatly, she knew this would end the discussion but she wasn’t big on telling lies. Being able to tell when someone was lying to her had its own set of consequences. She hated it when others told her lies so she felt it would be hypocritical to lie herself.
“Well then I will respect her wishes not to speak of such matters as well, though I can’t stop you from pursuing the truth of what happened.” He said in a way that seemed filled with secret meaning.
She tilted her head in contemplation for a moment and then asked, “Do you think he was pagala? There towards the end I mean?”
He looked her straight in the eye and said, “There was nothing insane about that man. From the first time I met him until the last moment I saw him. Sometimes when you see things a different way, it makes others uncomfortable. Your father had a way of seeing things that most people missed. It was like he could see eight moves ahead of everyone else. He tried to plan for whatever it was he saw coming, but he wasn’t perfect. He may have made some mistakes but he certainly wasn’t pagala. ” He nodded solemnly as if agreeing with his own observations.
Theia wanted to ask him more questions but she could tell by his look that he was done talking about it. She was struggling for something to say to get him talking again when she remembered why she came to the kitchen in the first place.
“Oh, before you go, can you make me some red cabbage water?”
“Red cabbage water?” The twinkle was back in his eye. “I can’t imagine that would taste good as a drink? Just red cabbage water, nothing else?”
She nodded and bit her lip, not wanting to explain if she didn’t have to. Solomon was usually good about not prying. He was a good listener but never forced the conversation.
He paused and watched her for a moment, then grabbed a glass. He stared at the ceiling for a moment through squinted eyes and then looked back down to the cup. He circled his hand over the top of it until it filled with a liquid.
“It’s purple.” Theia frowned.
“Yes, calling it red cabbage is a bit misleading.” Solomon smirked. “I can make some cabbage and then juice it if you don’t believe me.”
She picked up the glass and examined it closely. “No, I believe you. Thanks.”
“Anything else my dear one?” He inquired.
She smiled and shook her head.
“Perhaps one day you will tell me what this was for.” He raised an eyebrow and paused for a moment. When she didn’t respond, he reached out to pat her free hand. “You have always been an inquisitive child Little Seeker and I hope you will remain so as you grow older. I may not have the answers you want but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there if you wish to find them. Just be cautious with the inquiries you pose, not everyone will simply ignore the questions they can’t or don’t want to answer.” He said ominously as he finished cleaning the counters. Then he made his way back toward his rooms, as silently as he had entered.
