Chapter 2.3

John and I tried to move Marc from the control room, but it was no dice. He would not leave the incoming communication. I knew that our subjective time was incredibly slow for Earth, so how many thousands of years, or perhaps millions had passed on our world since we had left? John surreptitiously removed Kari’s body from the control room, as Marc answered the call.

“N21, this is N22 requesting permission to dock.”

Dock? What the hell? Marc must have been too far into despair from Kari’s death, and I couldn’t say that I blamed him, but we were just best friends. Marc was bonded with her. I reached around him and keyed the mic. “N22, say again. You’re requesting permission to dock?”

“N21, that is correct. I am currently off your port side.”

I looked at the screens that showed what was around us. They had showed nothing for years, except the reverse one, which still showed a galaxy that stretched beyond our view. The Port side screen showed something amazing, however. There was a station that mirrored ours beside us! I knew I was getting too excited, so I thought of Kari, and the fact that she had missed this. That put me into a serious state of depression.

“You… You’re here? Wha… How...” I started bawling.

“I am the AI controlling N22. I cannot help with the ‘Total Fun’, but I am here to take you home. At least I can offer you that.”

My cries became even more serious as I thought of all the people we had lost. Roman, Kari, Perl… Those were just some, but they were the closest to me.

I wasn’t sure if the person in N22 mistook my crying for relief or not. “I understand, Ma’am. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?” he asked.

“This is Rose Carlson,” I told him.

“Ah… Congratulations on your marriage to John Carlson, Ma’am.”

“Thank you,” I told him, then I thought about things. “Wait a minute. How do you know about that?”

“Mrs. Carlson, if you will give me permission to dock, I will explain things to you.”

“Permission granted, of course,” I told him, completely confused now.

John walked in at about that moment. One look at the screen and his jaw dropped.

“It’s docking, John! It’s here to take us home!”

“Please, Mrs Carlson! Please don’t get elated. Earth is still under the control of Caesar. Remember that!”

It was then that I realized we had a serious problem. This AI was stressing the point that Earth still had our nanite problem. We absolutely could not feel joy about this rescue. In fact, it really wasn’t a rescue. What type of rescue was this? We would go back to a planet that perhaps had no people left on it. How many people had they lost? If they had learned to reset the nanites as we had, which would make sense, how many people had they lost?

We had no way of knowing.

I felt a slight vibration in the floor, that told me the other station was connected to ours.

Marc was still sitting, not moving in the chair he had been in. He had been staring straight ahead. It seemed that he was trying not to blink. Finally, he put his head down on the console, and really started to cry.

We discussed the situation with N22, as we were now calling him. We needed to get our people together and tell them the situation. It must be stressed that this was not a rescue. We were simply being taken to where there was more room. The population of Earth had been destroyed by ‘Total Fun’.

There was a huge debate as to why we would wish to go back to Earth. Everything we had was here. We put it to a vote, and we had a small majority in favor of leaving.

We were ready to leave N21 for what we now realized was a much more spacious, and full of more supplies than we ever had aboard our station. The airlock between the two stations was small. Only large enough for two people to traverse at the same time. It was decided that each bond mate couple would go through at the same time. John, Marc, and I would be the last to leave what had been our home.

When we were ready, Marc told us his decision. “I’m staying.”

“What?” John asked him.

“I have no reason to leave. I’m going to die anyway, John.”

“You can’t commit suicide!” I told him, almost shouting.

“I’m not. There’s no population over there. There’s no one for me to bond with. Besides, I don’t want to leave Kari.”

“What would Kari want?” I asked him, tears flowing once again. “We know you’re going to die, but let us be with you until that moment.”

“Come on, Marc, my loving husband told his best friend. Kari wouldn’t want you to make this sacrifice. Remember what you said about stage five? Let us show you that we love you until the last moment.”

Just to be sure, we waited until Marc had gone through the airlock. We didn’t want him to blow the seals from N21’s side after we left, stranding him on N21.

Finally, we stepped into the airlock, not looking behind. I had left all of my instruments behind. I took only the clothes on my back, as did everyone. As soon as the inner seals were closed, the seals were blown and we were away from N21.

Something felt very different as soon as we were no longer connected to N21. It was something almost indefinable, as if something had been shut off, then something very surprising happened. All of the people from N21 had been moved to one bay, but now, several doors opened and we were suddenly in the company of hundreds more people!

One man stepped forward from this new group and welcomed us aboard. His voice sounded…. It was the AI… or rather a man…

Now I was really confused. “What’s going on here, John?” I asked. Suddenly I was very worried. Was this some of Caesar’s subterfuge?

The man picked up a mic and his voice came through loudspeakers. “I am Rashda Smythe, the commander of N22. I am sorry for lying to you. Keeping our people a secret was necessary for a very important reason. We couldn’t risk you feeling… Well, elated.

“We are not controlled by nanites on this station.”

John stepped forward. “We have nanites. You do not appear to be segregated from us. In fact, several of your people have mingled with ours.”

“Oh yes,” Smythe agreed. “However, you don’t understand. We have nanites, the same as yours. Only on this station, they don’t control us.”

“What are you saying?” I asked, my confusion going deeper.

“Ah, Mrs. Carlson, I’m glad to make your acquaintance.”

“Just call me Rose, please, and would you answer my question?”

“Alright, Rose, just as we are not controlled by our nanites, you won’t be either. In fact, the control has stopped right now. The nanites only do what they were originally programmed to do now.”

The entire population of N21 erupted into talk. Marc was standing beside us and he looked stricken. “Oh God, Kari” he murmured just above a whisper. Hesitantly, I reached out and hugged him. I understood perfectly. Just a few hours before, and she would be standing here with us. I now felt such hatred of Caesar that I could almost taste it. I felt like I wanted to torture that bastard in exactly the same way he had tortured us. Only rather than the pain that the men got, I would gladly slice his penis off his body, one millimeter at a time. Using a dull blade, damn him!

The three of us joined Commander Smythe in the briefing room, later. It was late at night, our time, but dinner time on N22. I hadn’t eaten since that morning and I was famished. Food was brought in and we ate. It was good, I’ll say that, but….

Smythe must have noticed something in the three of us, as he said, “I’m sorry that the food isn’t up to the standards Rose could make.”

“It’s fine,” my husband said, valiantly. Or was that, in vain?

Smythe, however, wasn’t buying it. “Oh, come now, Commander Carlson. I can recognize someone trying not to insult. And from what I have heard over the link to Earth, your wife is legendary in her skill.”

“Legendary?” I asked. Say what? I knew I was good, but legendary?

Smythe laughed. “Sometimes in the midst of their chatter with Freeman, God rest his soul, Reese, Carter, and Perl would mention some food they had in your restaurant. It sounded divine!”

“You’ve been listening in on our conversations with Earth?” Marc blew up, “And you didn’t let us know?”

The anger on his face would have dropped a tyrannosaurus in it’s tracks.

Smythe looked shamefaced. “I’m so sorry, Commander Dodson, but we couldn’t. We couldn’t risk the joy of us coming to your rescue. Just as I couldn’t risk letting you know we didn’t have the control of the nanites here when we docked. We figured it best if you thought N22 was an automated situation. Even the thought of an expanded population could have caused elation in your population. We simply had no wish to cause your deaths.” He paused for a moment. “I’m truly sorry that you lost Kari, Marc. Please accept my sincerest condolences.”

Marc’s fury had abated as he had to accept the logic of Smythe’s reasons. “Thank you, Rashda,” he said, using Smythe’s given name for the first time.

The mood was very somber, and Smythe tried to make it lighter. “One thing we do well, is desserts,” and some chocolate volcano cake was brought in. John tried to appreciate it, but again Smythe caught the look. He turned to me, “Rose, I would love to taste your culinary treats.”

I laughed at the way he said it, and the mood lightened considerably. I wondered if he had meant for that to happen as the volcano cake tasted suspiciously mass produced; not fresh.

Rashda Smythe did get to taste my ‘culinary treats’. I was able to set up a restaurant in one of the bays, as I had done on N21. I had a special buffet in a back room for the officers of N22. I had made a simple pot roast, with carrots, potatoes, and onions in the broth. At his first taste, his eyes got wide and he went back for thirds, and then fourths! I blushed furiously at his compliments.

Most nights after that, the officers ‘rented’ the back room and had my special of the day. “I haven’t had food this delicious since we left Earth, dear Rose,” he told me on one occasion. “No… I haven’t ever had food like this.”

That night, when we went upstairs to our apartment, John turned to me and took my hands in his. “I haven’t made love with anyone that compares with you, dear Rose,” he said in a very bad British accent. “No… I haven’t ever made love with anyone who compares with you.”

I couldn’t help giggling at his bad imitation of the gallant commander. “I thank you very much, kind Sir,” I told him.

Needless to say, we went into the bedroom and verified his claim that night.

In the afterglow I asked John, “Do you think this is something left over from the nanites?”

“How do you mean?” he asked.

“The love I feel for you is so intense,” I responded. “I have observed some of the people that work in the restaurant, and those who play in my orchestra. Those that are married, love their spouse, but they are able to separate from them all day. I can’t even imagine being away from you that long.”

John thought about it for awhile. “You know, if this is an effect of the nanites, it’s the one good thing Caesar did to us. The love that we share is beyond anything we ever felt on Earth, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Well,” I answered, turning to where I could gaze at is handsome face. “There’s another thing he did for me.” At John’s questioning look, I told him, “He made me a woman.”

The second time that night was even better than the first.

We traveled for several years. Even more than we had on the way out. It was three centuries since we had left N21 behind. I still got teary as I thought of the people we had left there. It seemed that our emotions had been intensified by the nanites. Perhaps they made our neurotransmitters more efficient. Who knows? The fact was, every time I thought of those people, my heart ached for them. I remembered all of them as if it was yesterday.

We had entered the galaxy a few years before, and we were about ready to enter our solar system.

We were called to the command center to find a very grim faced Smythe there. “I’m very sorry for this,” he told us. “I’m able to see Earth now, even to zoom in and see cities.”

We watched as the scopes were brought online. All of the cities were seen through an orange haze, that billowed like smoke. There were no people to be seen although we could see what we thought might be the remains of many. There were craft that appeared to have once been smoking ruins. Some buildings were present, in a very decayed condition, but the vast majority were piles of rubble.

It appeared that Caesar was not happy being the only one gone.