Dadr'Ba (15 page)

P’Ko realized that Z’Shi must know martial arts, and was ashamed that he doubted.

Z’Shi seeming to know what was going through P’Ko’s mind. Having wordlessly confirmed to him one of her secret talents she relaxed her gaze. P’Ko felt his tension lessen but still felt small and insignificant setting across from Z’Shi.

He felt like he was in the presence of an advanced life form, someone from another dimension, then Z’Shi reached across the table to P’Ko’s hand and gently squeezed it. The remaining tension that had built up drained away and she became the cute, petite, girlish figure that met him when he first entered.

With a wave of her hand, the adjacent wall turned to an ocean beach, the sound of waves against the shore filled the room. Neither one of them spoke for a while, only watched the seascape as they finished their tea. This sea scene was far different from the one in P’Ko’s dream, and P’Ko knew from his first sight of Z’Shi that she wasn’t the woman he had seen in his dream. But Z’Shi possessed a powerful quality that belied her stature and physical appearance, as profound and compelling and mysterious as the ocean in the scene before them.

Then in response to some hidden movement, the scene faded and returned to being a wall. Z’Shi broke the silence and said in a soft, sweet tone. “Now we must decide on the subject of mentorship; we shall leave it to the “dance” choose.” She gracefully stood and walked up onto a low stage that rose, silently from the floor and the walls seemed to move further away, Z’Shi motioned for P’Ko to join her.

She took a stance and stood motionless, P’Ko realized that this was going to be similar to some of the exercises from his martial arts training and reflected her stance. Then, as if on cue music began to play.

It was probably from some stringed instrument, maybe even one of the instruments that had been arrayed against the walls, presumably even played by Z’Shi but P’Ko’s focus was drawn towards Z’Shi.

She struck a pose and waited for P’Ko to mirror it. Then without another word she began to move, P’Ko followed, it was to be like one of his martial arts mirroring exercises. Slowly at first following along with the music, he became totally engulfed in the music and matching her movements. Though still in her robes, her actions hinted of a strong, lean body concealed beneath.

The gravity here, notably less than on the martial arts floor down in Ol’Tn made it difficult at first to follow Z’Shi’s moves, yet his practice in Ol’Tn while living and going to school in the lower G Nu’Tn gave him some experience with adapting to changing G’s.

P’Ko adjusted his speed and momentum to compensate for the altered gravity and followed Z’Shi’s lead slowing and extending some movements more than what he was used to.

Soon he began to trust Z’Shi’s lead; this was not martial arts, it was dancing, he became aware of the music and how the moves aligned with the sound. Their movements focused on grace, a moving art form, geometry in motion, physics, engineered to explore and highlight the limits of a bodies capabilities.

P’Ko had never danced like this before and began falling in love with the experience. The feeling of dancing, floating on the music and flying on air. He watched Z’Shi as she moved, not focusing on any one part of her body, but all of her body at once while letting the music whisper into his ears telling him what move is coming next.

Then, there was a short pause in the music. Quick eye contact, and nod. P’Ko took the lead and was spellbound as he watched Z’Shi mirroring his every move, he felt Z’Shi’s focus upon him, not staring but observing him with all her senses and missing nothing. She mirrored his every move, his body and Z’Shi’s linked.

P’Ko adjusted and shortened his movements because he felt the restriction in the robes that Z’Shi wore. The mind-bending experience made him dizzy, and he fell out of step with the music, and slowly sank to the floor to brace himself with his hands to keep from collapsing completely. P’Ko felt a wave of emotion flood over him, he failed.

The music had stopped, and Z’Shi was kneeling down beside him with her arm over his shoulders, cooing into his ear, “It’s okay, everything is going to be all right. You did very well.”

____________________________

P’Ko hadn’t seen Z’Shi since their first meeting but had been in touch with her; he had an awkward time telling his parents. P’Ko’s parents have never heard of the alias Z’Shi had said to him to use. They were somewhat bewildered when he told them she was going to be his mentor. The official directory described her as a mid-level official working for the CA. P’Ko figured that Ma and Ba were probably relieved that he hadn’t chosen La’Na and Fa’Na.

P’Ko had told them that he met Z’Shi through one of his teachers, which was often the case. People are wanting to find a mentor or are available to mentor frequently work through the teachers at school.

Teachers act as filters or referral agencies, and sometimes even mentor themselves. He thought of Mi’Ka as one of his teachers and an advisor of sorts; the thought crossed P’Ko’s mind of Mi’Ka as a mentor, and he cringed, that would be bizarre, he’d have to guard that thought, he told himself; there’s no telling how Mi’Ka would respond.

Using the strange message interface Z’Shi had used to contact him, P’Ko sent Z’Shi his modest sexual bio-mod preferences, avoiding some of the outlandish mod’s some of his friends were toying with. He trusted in Z’Shi’s role as his mentor to make any changes she thought necessary and she replied with some changes and suggestions that P’Ko wasn’t even aware were available. P’Ko agreed to her recommendations, without modification.

He sought the advice of Mi’Ka on the work related mods since P’Ko had limited experience with what it takes to be a Mi’Nr. When it was all done P’Ko hoped that bio-mod requests have proper security controls, the thought of what Z’Shi and Mi’Ka had planned for him being made public made P’Ko want to go and hide.

Then he prayed that his bio-mod request would be approved, if they were rejected, he and possibly his parents would have to try to explain or justify them. P’Ko would rather retire.

P’Ko hoped that Z’Shi’s involvement would help. He liked Z’Shi and was pretty sure she liked him, and she had influence and power that P’Ko couldn’t fathom. P’Ko thought that Z’Shi almost has to have influence that goes all the way to the CA.

P’Ko’s thoughts began to stray toward what the mentoring might be like. Z’Shi was subdued and mysterious, and P’Ko could only guess about what lay beneath the robes Z’Shi had been wearing. The way Z’Shi moved was provocative, it excited him, Z’Shi was confident but reserved and controlled. She could be kind and gentle and seemed to play at timidity while maintaining a comfortable, inviting atmosphere. Yet, she held an edge, could it be that all women are like this when you get close to them? It made P’Ko anxious.

Zng’To
[64]
reviewed the bio-mod request before him and cross-matched it with the job qualification requirements, noted that the bio-mod cost exceeded the total authorized by the CA for graduation job placement. He was about to tag it rejected, which would send a “non-qual” message to the job placement office, and automatically queue up the alternate career choice. But this “P’Ko” character had selected Mi’Nr category jobs for his primary and all the alternates as well.

All of P’Ko’s job choices required much the same level of modification. Ever since the Equal Job Rights Protests, the system was set to allow for only one non-qual job choice on a person’s application. The system shouldn’t have allowed all the alternate career selections to be the same non-qual category. There must be some glitch in the system, and this U’Te must be insane.

There’s been U’Te’s trying for Mi’Nr jobs in the past, especially since the Equal Job Rights Protests. The CA finally had to give in to a few but then managed to impose fiscal, safety and quality performance restrictions that made most U’Te’s overqualified cognitively, underqualified physically and cost prohibitive financially.

It would be easier for a Mi’Nr to qualify for a U’Te job. The smarter ones would be plenty smart enough for many U’Te jobs, and Mi’Nr’s are psychically superior to U’Te’s, aside from height and reach, but it would be a waste of a valuable resource to have a Mi’Nr doing a U’Te’s job.

Fortunately, in Zng’To’s lifetime, he didn’t know of, and never heard of a Mi’Nr ever applying for an U’Te job. There are certainly service sector U’Te jobs that a Mi’Nr would qualify for, but none ever had.

The database shows a few Mi’Nr’s having been selected and placed in U’Te jobs shortly after the protests but a Mi’Nr has never been chosen for a D’En job.

After the protests few U’Te’s were chosen for what had been D’En job’s but the job descriptions were immediately changed and they were placed at the very lowest tier and never afforded the opportunity for advancement or promotion.

The few Mi’Nr’s that had been put in U’Te service sector jobs didn’t do well and winded up applying for early retirement. 

Zng’To was just about to flag the bio-mod order as unresolvable and forward it to his supervisor, simultaneously sending a copy to the CASS when he spotted the fund site in the comments area. As soon as he linked the fund site to the order, the deficit was cleared with about twenty-five percent to spare. Zng’To reviewed the rest of the bio-mod request and marked it approved, clearing the job placement pending status and sent a copy of the approved and upgraded bio-mod order to the Med Group.

Su’Zi sat quietly on the secluded beach watching the waves roll in, and the clouds drift by. The programmers had done an excellent job of simulating O’M’s weather. Su’Zi could see no discernable repetition in the clouds, all of them, even those of the same type are ever so slightly different and followed the weather pattern they were modeled after. Sector two’s settlement was some distance away up the coast to the north on the south side of the bay across from settlement three.

The evolution of the virtual settlements was progressing rapidly. The developers managing the simulation, claim to use all the very latest, updated information about O’M. The sim-masters caution that many rapid and sometimes drastic changes will appear, like what is expected when they reach the real O’M and Dadr’Ba will have to adapt.

Su’Zi realized that this simulation is a teaser, the CA is using it to groom the way people are thinking. She looked around wondering what the next step might be?

Why does the CA overlook severe problems with O’M? Like, if O’M has plant life, it would also have microbiological life that may prove deadly to the people of Dadr’Ba. The sterile environment on the ship is safe. However, the GLC people of Dadr’Ba would be easy prey to a bacteria or virus.

Why isn’t the simulation based on “most up to date and accurate data” not causing us to use biospheres and bio suits, at least at first? The CA is making O’M seem like a paradise, a dream come true.

O’M is going to be an alien world that Dadr’Ba’s will have to learn to fit into and manage. The CAs prohibition against calling O’M alien doesn’t make it less so. What’s the CA’s plan? It’s up to something; Su’Zi just knows it. She closed her eyes and dug her bare toes into the sand and took a deep breath; no this doesn’t feel right; she was certain that the dreams she had had were what the real O’M was like.

“It’s just not right” Su’Zi heard next to her as if repeating aloud what she had just been thinking to herself. She responded, “no, it’s not” then glancing up. Standing there, it was him, the man of her dreams. But no, looking again, this is a To’Ta, a teenager, he was far away in her dream and her Mi’Nr eyes, not naturally good at a far distance could have deceived her.

Yet, she knew psychically that this is the person she saw in her dream, beyond all doubt, this is the one, she was certain of it. An impulse came over her and without thinking and seemingly defying the capabilities of the virtual world’s interface Su’Zi was up and had her arms around P’Ko while P’Ko stood there dumbfounded, wondering what had just happened.

During the repeating dreams, P’Ko had been curious, even anxious about the woman he saw; his dream vision was as good or better than his self-trained eyes in reality, and he thought the woman in his dream was more than beautiful, she was gorgeous, too beautiful to be real. Yet, he felt drawn, compelled to seek her out.

While the way the dream ended was disquieting, the woman in the dream captured his imagination, and P’Ko wondered many times what it would be like to meet her in real life.

P’Ko had finally talked himself out of believing it was anything more than a just an impossible dream, and dismissing it as something to do with natural tensions associated with the imminent coming of age ceremony and anxiousness in anticipation of the gender and bio-mod.

P’Ko was drawn to this out of the way virtual beach wondering and hoping the dream woman would be here. He spotted her from quite a way off, even though she was sitting instead of standing and was wearing a pastel colored, loose fitting shirt and shorts, he knew that this is the woman from the dream. His heart raced as he carefully approached, cautiously fearful that she’d disappear like a fog phantom that sometimes forms near opening and closing hatches in the lower levels.

He prayed that this wasn’t just another dream that he’d wake up from, and she’d be gone. As he approached and the vision of her didn’t vanish or fade away, self-doubts started to creep into his mind. Could she just be an avatar? In real life could this woman be clonely or a mishmash of poorly executed bio-mods? P’Ko was close now, approaching from a slight angle behind her. Then he froze, wait. He’s walking up to perfection, while he, a To’Ta, as clonely as clones get, is going to walk up and strike up a conversation.

He doesn’t even know what he was going to say; his mind went blank, speechless. She’ll laugh at him. Okay, he’s been using a little makeup, and he tries to dress well, but compared to her, he’s nothing. “It’s just not right,” he said, without thinking, just as he was preparing to quit out of Vr’Chm
[65]
.

P’Ko was stunned, frozen in time, mind racing, going nowhere. P’Ko had to shake his mind to bring himself back. If there was anything more troublesome to P’Ko, it’s his tendency to over think. He can react quickly, but mostly for situations he had thought through in advance, and he wasn’t at all comfortable with this virtual interface.

Now in a blink of an eye, he has a beautiful woman virtually wrapped around him. He’s so flustered that he can’t figure out how to use the virtual interface to respond. Had there been an automated embarrassed emote he would have surely maxed it out.

But now he doesn’t even know how he wants to respond. This is the first time in his life that he’s had a woman throw herself at him. And not just any woman, the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. The first thing that’s coming to his mind is to quit out of Vr’Chm and disappear, but he resists the urge.

Finally, after what seems like an awkwardly long time, P’Ko, in response to her unrelenting hug, he haltingly and awkwardly put his virtual arms around her.

P’Ko always thought himself to be clumsy and shy in interpersonal relationships and not very open with his feelings, although the people and things he cared for he was committed to and felt he could lay down his life for. At this moment, he was lost.

In response to his touch, the woman gave a kind of soft grunt indicating, although not registering through the virtual interface that she just squeezed him tighter. Then slowly they backed away from each other and looked. 

P’Ko, with a mechanic’s background, normally had an excellent sense of time, but when it came to people and psychic things he was lost. He couldn’t calculate how much time had passed, seconds, or minutes.

P’Ko didn’t know how to react to having a distinctly beautiful, attractive woman, a Mi’Nr, shorter than he, with long dark hair, possessing sensuous curves with a little extra in all the right places, stand so close to him and to just have given him a long and clearly passionate hug.

Along with many of his friends P’Ko had dreamed of such an occurrence, often fantasying about it. But imagined it happening after they had the equipment to respond appropriately.

P’Ko didn’t know what to do, or how to respond to this buxom and vivacious woman, a woman that exuded, even through the virtual interface a natural, comfortable, confident kind of beauty.

And P’Ko, not thinking in advance, still in his school uniform, translated, unaltered through the Vr’Chm access interface, stood bald, clonely, with no bio-mods, face to face with this beautiful woman. And she had just given him a passionate hug. It was impossible for P’Ko to feel smaller or more insignificant, he wanted to crawl under a virtual rock and disappear all he could muster was “I’m sorry.”

Su’Zi stood looking at the To’Ta in front of her; he stood motionless, and his avatar image seemed to flicker as if his connection was failing, on the verge of disconnect. Su’Zi began to realize that her impulsive hug of a To’Ta, a young person, that could be half her age might have scared him out of his wits. Her psychic sense told her that he was a “he”, and as she looked at him, his stammering voice slowly evoked an “I’m sorry” confirming her suspicion.

This To’Ta did nothing to be sorry for, and suddenly Su’Zi realized that the young man from her dream might at any instant drop out of Vr’Chm never to be seen or heard from again, and she doesn’t even know his name.

She exclaimed in a Mi’Nr’s accent, “No, no! Wait! I’m the one that ought to be sorry! It’s me from the dream! Please stay!” “Tell me your name!”

P’Ko felt so bad and awkward, he wanted to be a hundred light years away; he felt like he was under water, starving for breath; he was a fraction of a second away from disconnecting and dropping out of Vr’Chm when he heard her plea for him to stay. This was the woman from the dream, and she wanted to know his name.

He paused, taking a deep breath and regaining a little composure, replied, “P’Ko.” To which she replied, “Hi, my name is Su’Zi” her Mi’Nr’s accent carried an air of feeling, sincerity, and compassion that went beyond the virtual selves they were interfacing through. P’Ko felt Su’Zi psychically reach out to him and comfort him.

P’Ko knew that he should be able to trust Su’Zi, but he was so far out of his element, so far out of his comfort zone. His first instinct was still to disappear or take off running, just like so many years ago running away from Dan’Zu and his gang. His second impulse, not even an instinct, to fight, never even attempted to surface. This woman could strike him dead, and he wouldn’t have lifted a finger to prevent it.

He’d been training Martial arts for years, yet the more he learned about the techniques, the less he was inclined to deliberately use them. Unknowingly, he relied on his martial arts discipline and self-control now, it was the only thing keeping him from running or disappearing.

Most of all he didn’t want to hurt by action or inaction the woman that had been for him the focus of his dream. The woman that he came here searching for. P’Ko was already afraid he had hurt her feelings by not responding more appropriately she obviously felt something for him. She hugged him, why hadn’t he thought through that possibility?

He was attracted to her even in the dream and would have liked her to hug him, but had never actually expected it to happen.  Why is he so stupid, so dumbstruck, it took a great strength of will not to abort the virtual connection and disappear from Vr’Chm.

Don’t just stand here he told himself, say something, the longer it was taking, the worse he was feeling. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity the tumult of events and feelings were starting to settle.

Okay, deep breath, she cares for him, why else the hug? To this beautiful woman, he should be just another school age clone you pass on the street without a second thought, no distinguishing marks except for school uniform, its Id markings, and maybe a little makeup.

P’Ko cursed the CA for insisting that your Vr’Chm avatar be based on your real self
[66]
, created from your actual specifications and images. They claim that Vr’Chm is being used not only to introduce O’M to the people of Dadr’Ba but to be as realistic as possible, and assess how well the people of Dadr’Ba adapt to O’M.

Su’Zi recognized him from the dream, and she said so. She knew that he had had the dream too. psychically, it had to be psychically, of course, she’s a Mi’Nr, and everyone knows that Mi’Nr’s have stronger psychic abilities than the rest of the crew.

He could recognize it now; it was a psychic feeling that brought him here, before he even saw her, he felt her and knew Su’Zi was the woman in the dream. P’Ko could feel her now, especially now that he’s tuned, and she must sense him even more.

Thinking of the dream P’Ko remembered feeling drawn to Su’Zi. They would have probably approached, met in the dream if it weren’t for the painful wailing that built to the crescendo that ended the dream.

But this was not the dream beach, the dream beach was more vivid more beautiful, it touched all the senses, there were different colors, grasses, trees and sea life, even the sand was different. This beach, although still under development was a cardboard replica of a generic beach.

P’Ko finally replied “This feels all wrong, this place” looking and gesturing around him, “how about we meet and get some tea, someplace real?”

Su’Zi’s heart leaped, and she had to fight back the urge to give P’Ko another hug.

P’Ko said, “How does ‘Ym’Cha’s
[67]
in Nu’Tn’Ka sound?”

Su’Zi’s heart sank, she knew of Ym’Cha’s. Each sector has at least one, Ym’Cha tea shop, Mi’Nr’s rarely go to them, not that the tea is bad but they are all in Nu’Tn’s, and Ka is sector three, and she’s in sector two. To go there would mean going from sector two to sector three, doable, she’d visited Mi’Ka, so she knows the way. But like most Mi’Nr’s Su’Zi doesn’t like going up to Nu’Tn, particularly when she would likely be the only Mi’Nr in the place, and get a questioning tone from the servers and sidelong glances from the other patrons. Then it’s warmer in the Nu’Tn’s than Mi’Nr’s are accustomed to. She’d be hot and uncomfortable and to top everything off the blasted CA has its all-seeing surveillance system watching everyone and everything in Nu’Tn’s. She felt deflated.

P’Ko sensed something wrong, as soon as he mentioned Ym’Cha’s Su’Zi’s expression changed and she projected a psychic pang of dismay. He quickly diagnosed his mistake and inwardly kicked himself for his stupidity. He knew Su’Zi was a Mi’Nr and had spent enough time in Ol’Tn among Mi’Nr’s to know how they feel about Nu’Tn’s.

P’Ko seeing his mistake interjected, “Wait! How about this?” and he walked over and squatted down next to Su’Zi and wrote the name of a place in the sand. Su’Zi enthusiastically nodded agreement, smiling and disappeared.

P’Ko looked around wondering where Su’Zi went; they hadn’t set a time yet; he called her name, and then realized that she must already be on her way there. His heart started pounding, and he felt a tightening knot form in the pit in his stomach. He had expected to pick a time a day or so in the future, which would have given him time to organize his thoughts.