Gifts From The Stars
Suzy Ashton flopped down on a round centered chair. Her lush red curls bounced as she crossed her legs and lit a j-cigarette at the same time. She inhaled deeply, her eyes fixed out the window at the illustrious city, held it in, then with a pout blew the blue smoke out. It drifted around and dissipated with a shimmer.
“You look displeased my lady” A man entered the room and moved directly to the bar. He was dressed in a fancy tuxedo. He was handsome, manly jaw, eyes set in a hardened stare until he smiled. A warmth would radiate from him. Maxwell Chancely. A man desired by all men and women. Pleasure for the women, business by the men. He poured himself a radiate gin and melon and stepped into the large room next to where Suzy had flopped down at. He rose his drink to the city through the window and gave a drink.
“I often wonder what it would look like if the city was on fire. Burning to the ground in an atomic flame. What would they save first? Their gems or their children.” Suzy huffed and took another large inhale of the cigarette.
Maxwell held out his left hand for his turn and she past it to him. He blew out a shimmering blue ring and took another sip of his drink.
“Much too cynical. You wouldn’t like the sound that came with that Suz, or the aftermath.” He crouched down and sat on the floor leaning against the chair she was in “I would know.”
The city sprawled until the eye could not longer comprehend what was out there. More city or something different beyond it. Sky scrapers made out of marble, steel and gems rose high into the sky while spot lights emitted from the ground and cast their light into the clouds. Everything shimmered with grandeur. The city lights glistens with gold and gems stones as their soft golden light spread itself among the obsidian laid streets. The city was like nothing else. The citizens were lost in an endless cycle of pleasure, drunkenness, and corruption. There was not a single moment that verandas, cafes, restaurants, bars and clubs were not packed with people rotating in and out for one party after another. Drinks that gave humans the limitless ability to drink and think, cigars and cigarettes that enhanced the IQ. All the vices that use to destroy now enhanced. And with that enhancement came a city of untold enlightenment, advances and wealth. Where a party meant juicing a persons potential into another realm and mind melding for the next chapter of human existence. But had it gone to far? Space was being explored.
That’s what always crept up in the back of Maxwells mind. They explored space as if nothing out there could even come close to them. Harm them, threaten their human potential. He looked at his hand, in the center of his palm was three circles overlapping, like a ven-diagram. He knew that they were not alone out there.
“Maybe you’re right. What else would we do with all our time? Toil away in the fields. Sling our selves through black holes maybe?”
“You object to the progress? “
Suzy put her hand on the top of his head and rubbed his black styled hair into a mess and laughed “Of course not Max. This place is amazing, but I worry for the spirits, the internal. They search outside, never inside.”
“You really believe in all that stuff?” Maxwell closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the side of the chair “Science hasn’t drilled that all into particles and matter. Quantum ghosts speaking to each other through pure energy? God and gods reduced to cause and effects at cosmic scales. What is a spirit Suz? A construct. A fairytale. A dream.”
Suzy gave Max’s head a shove as she got up and moved towards the window. A quick turn on the heels she blew out a shimmer cloud and put her hands on her hips “Whose the cynic now? Mister bigshot, born on a colony, coming down from the stars and building the biggest mega corporation ever made. I get it. I know.”
“You know what?”
“Colony? Born in space? Alien. Your an Alien Maxwell”
Maxwell stood up “What are you talking about? You think I am an Alien? From where?”
Suzy grabbed his hand and traced the diagram on his palm. “Centarium 4”
Maxwell pull his hand away and looked deep into her eyes with a frown “How?”
“It wasn’t by chance that we met. It was fate.” Suzy moved to the side of the room and opened a small metal box. Inside she took out a ball. It had three lines running around the circumference in gold while the ball was bluish dark black that shimmered in the light. Maxwells eyes grew as she brought it over to him “Three hundred years ago. When I was twelve a man gave me this as a gift from the stars on Space Station Orion. Right before my parents were killed. That man was you Maxwell”
“A star that shines so bright, I give it to you, when it shines, you know you’re on the right path” they both breathed out.
“There is over 30 billion people out there.“ Maxwell finished off his drink, moved to the bar and made himself another one. He stirred it slowly with a long mixing spoon. “How long have you known? When did you know?”
“The first moment I saw you get out of the Targerus. It was an incredible ship, build in space and of the finest materials by this company that had become a legend. The city marveled at it as it came down, and among the royal guests that stepped off, there was you. The same as you were three hundred years ago. Before Golden Dawn, before the era of genetic editing. Before the rapid expansion. This city was the shining beacon of our empire, but it was nothing compared to what is now. Nothing compared to what is now since you arrived in that ship.”
“Why tell me this all now”
“Because It’s time for the next era, evolution, rebirth of mankind. You can feel it, I see that look in your eyes. That same look when you got off the ship. A new venture.” Suzy smiled and crushed the j-cigarette in her hands. She threw her hand up and blue shimmering mist rained down on them. “I think they need saving. Not through the sciences, engineering, but something else. I would imagine your planet would of came to the same conclusion”
Maxwell stiffened.
“We can go back to Centarium 4, see what is new, bring it back and build more. I studied all about your planet when I was researching you. I cannot imagine what technology they would have now. It seems you keep it a secret now a days” Suzy
“We can’t go back to Centraium 4”
“Why not? Your ship is capable of reaching it in no time”
Maxwell slowly walked towards the window and pressed his forehead against the ornate glass. In his left hand he swirled his drink down by his side which caught the lights out side and shimmered a galaxy of orange and purple. “We can’t go back because” He paused and sighed deeply. He looked out across the glowing city of gold, jewels and marble glistening for miles. Art Deco infused baroque palaces built upon unimaginable beauty looked up at him. His beacon of ingenuity, his city that informed the heavens of the triumph of the mind, his masterpiece.
“Because I destroyed it.”
–
When ever I think of a glistening city of the future I always picture it as in an Art Deco Style. I think that era and the movie/book Metropolis had a big effect on me. I have explored the idea of drinking and smoking turning into things that enhance instead of destroy(My story called Miltons). I don’t oppose this haha as I do enjoy a drink here and there. I imagined Suzy proposing an absurd situation to course correct humanities indulgence in the material. Such as burning the city down, it is in jest,but Maxwell has seen and done just that. Why? What happened on Centraium 4. Look towards the future to find out.
Till next time space cadets, cheers!