A New Dawn

Jacob’s Log, Entry 14515:

“A normal human being turns a new page in his life once, at most twice per life time. I have turned a new leaf so many times that I’m not sure there are any pages left to turn…”

Jacob woke up with a splitting headache. He looked around. Somehow he had ended up falling asleep in the junkyard. His mind was a blur. He had been drinking again…hard. A thousand years ago drinking beer wouldn’t be such a problem. But now – in the year 3007 – drinking too much caused a bad loss of memory. This would eventually wear off in a couple of hours so Jacob lied down and fell asleep again.

A couple of hours later he woke up. He still didn’t remember anything. This wasn’t good. He had never experienced such a prolonged loss of memory, and neither had anyone on Morningstar Prime. Something was wrong. He reached in for his wallet and took out the ID card.

“Jacob”, he read the name on the card. “Harbinger Street #157”, the address didn’t sound familiar at all. He tried to get up but his legs were still too weak. He fell down.

“What the hell is going on?!”, he shouted helplessly. He lay there for about an hour and finally managed to get up. That was the easy part. Knowing where to go next – that was tricky. He only had a name and an address. He checked his cash. Sixty Credits was all he had left. He made his way out of the junkyard into a busy street. He was still feeling weak so when a passer-by accidentally bumped into him he instantly fell down.

“Are you okay?” The man looked worried.

“Yeah, yeah…I’ll be fine.” He got up and tried to catch a cab. A yellow “Disaster 9” model stopped nearby and Jacob quickly got in.

“Where to?” Cold, metallic voice came from the driver’s seat. It was a drone. Jacob was surprised but not because of the drone. He was surprised that his mind didn’t react at all at the sight of the machine. It was like he had already seen many like it.

“Harbinger Street #157” Jacob read the address on his ID card. The speeder instantly gained speed and took off into the incredible aerial network of the giant metropolis Jacob was in. He couldn’t hide his amazement. Incredibly tall buildings, speeders flashing by in an instant – it was like a post modernistic painting of a loony artist. Bright colors and high pitched sounds – it was as if he was psychedelic. Five minutes later the speeder slowed down and landed near a neat house with carbon walls and fiberglass windows.

“That’ll be 60 Creds, pal”

Jacob felt lucky for the first time today. Giving away his last money he got out of the cab and walked anxiously to the doorstep of the house which appeared to be his own. A retinal scan was placed on the left side of the door. Jacob opened wide his left eye and the warm light of the scanner confirmed what he already knew.

“Welcome home Jacob”, a soft voice greeted him and the door opened. He plunged into the darkness of his home hoping that there will be something inside that would help him recover his lost identity…

 

 

 

* * *

 

While Jacob was still recovering from his weakness in the junkyard, in another part of the metropolis another man woke up in his bed. Romulus looked at the clock.

“11 o’clock! It sure must have been a busy night. I wonder when it will wear off…” He was talking about the memory loss. Fortunately for him, in about an hour he started remembering. He remembered going to “Haley’s Bar” with his friends – Jacob and Sparx. He remembered ordering cold beer and from then on, he assumed, the beer did the rest.

“I wonder how Jacob’s doing”, he went to take a shower while his breakfast was still in the cooker.

Two hours later having washed and eaten Romulus went out of the house and straight for the Tubular stop. He was heading for Jacob’s house. The Tubular arrived shortly. It was all routine from there. Romulus was fed up with doing the same thing over and over again when trying to go to another part of Aegis. Sure, the city was large and except for speeders, the Tubular was the fastest way around the metropolis, but it was annoying – checking your ID card, depositing Credits, DNA sample…it was just unneeded. If someone tried to kill the Overmind he would never use the Tubular. Every time Romulus got on the Tubular similar thoughts went through his mind. And today it was no different.

He got off on Harbinger station and walked to Jacob’s house.

“I wonder if he even remembers”, thought Romulus and couldn’t hold his smile…

~ by Vesper Starr on July 15, 2007.