Unipsi, lovely entity

chapter 64: lies

Day come or more precisely Scilla just woke up. For a brief moment she remembered dreaming of something while a distant humming sound was audible. Of course she brushed it off. The place was unchanged. It was all dark except for Idra. Her only beacon of light and probably hope in such metallic desolation.

“did you sleep well?” asked Idra. She had one of the opened survival kit in hand and from it she pulled out the 2 remaining boxes.

“sort of… not the best bed, not worst that a trench”

“you slept in a trench?”

“I have been at war. I slept in the worst places possible. Trenches, swamps, under dead trees...”

“which war? When was it? Is it fun?” replied Idra while passing the 2 boxes to Scilla. She of course was taken aback by such questions.

“you think war is an enjoyable thing?”

Idra stopped herself. She was taking the 2 boxes that were meant for her from the other opened survival kit. She looked at Scilla straight into her eyes. She was trying to read Scilla’s emotions and adjust her reply. Scilla noticed and spoke before her.

“don’t try to say what you think would be better. Just say what you believe in”

“I mean… it could be… … I may have manipulated our military simulators so I could use them and snuck in a couple of times… you know to drive tanks and… spaceships. It was fun. You press a button and things go boom!. I guess that is similar to war right? So I suppose it could be fun for me. Is… is it wrong… to like it?”

More things didn’t add up with 608. She was such a naive and ignorant creature. Almost as if she was never informed of what was beyond her planet. Never given knowledge about morality. She was borderline impossible to be in such unripe state, unless someone intentionally made her that way. Someone who could only be her beloved sisters.

“do you know what usually happens in war?”

“emh… things breaks?”

“yes and the people die.”

Idra blinked several times trying to understand what she was suppose to do.

“it should make you feel sad” said Scilla.

“oh. Why? We are meant to die”

“fair enough. But what if you care about someone really deeply and that someone dies before his time. I mean not for natural causes? Would you not feel sad? So an act were people go to die prematurely isn’t it sad and in general isn’t it a bad act as it makes you feel worse?”

“I disagree. War and death brings no sadness unless you failed at them. Even in such case I wouldn’t say that sadness makes you feel worst”

“what do you mean by fail at war?”

“exactly what it means. If you collected enough data your engagements will have minimal to no repercussions on you. So you can win without losses. Or even better you can win while disposing of those who are useless”

“I guess we should explore one idea at a time”

“if you say so. I don’t really mind, speaking is fun.” Idra smiled widely. She was strangely happy and unfazed by their conversation topics.

“in general would you say that sadness is on the negative emotions?”

“not really.”

“why?”

“give me a second…”

Idra finally opened the two boxes that contained food. In one several cookies and squared cupcakes, in the other the rest of the water supply. Idra started munching on the cookies that cracked loudly.

“so… I wouldn’t define it as negative. If you are sad it means that something went wrong. If you are spinless you get fucked by it. If you are a fighter than you hit back, find the issue, find your failure and overcome it. It makes you grow stronger so I wouldn’t say it’s negative”

“you are a lot more philosophical that I thought”

Idra smiled.

“I like to think a lot. You know I had time to spare.”

“I figured...”

“how?” Asked Idra moving closer to Scilla’s face. She had cookie’s crumbles one the side of her mouth. Then she returned to her seat.

“you kinda told me. I mean what else would you do alone for years?”

“sound like a solid explanation”

“how long have you been alone?”

“since I was 16. so 11 years. Do you have a family?”

“I do. I have a little sister, she is 10 years younger than me. Just to let you know I’m 41 years old so Wiola, my sister, is 31. I think. I’m fairly sure that we are beyond may of 2442 so you are 27, but I’m not sure if we passed my sister birthday. Yeah, maybe she is already 32. And I have my pama.”

“what’s a pama?”

“my dad basically.”

“where’s your mum?”

Scilla stopped for a moment. She didn’t want to reply, yet she knew that she had to if she wanted to keep improving her relationship with 608.

“she is dead to me.”

“why?” Seeing Scilla’s face shifting toward negative emotions Idra turn back on her steps.

“never mind, you don’t have to…”

“she betrayed our family”

“What a cunt!” Idra’s exclamation was so genuine that Scilla could only laugh.

“… yeah I suppose you can say that. What about your family? Your story?”

“I have one. But I don’t want to tell you. I mean it’s not like you can leak it, as you are now stuck on this planet with me. But still if I told you, then you will have no reason to tell me yours. And I’ll miss out”

“how about I’ll tell you all my life so far while driving and then you do the same? So we get to know…”

“ok, agreement accepted” Idra moved her right hand toward Scilla. Her index finger and pinked closed with the thumb while the middle finger and annular extended out. It was clearly a form of promise like a different version of a pinkie promise.

Scilla replicated the gesture. Idra locked in and while shaking said

“eyes to seek light in the deepest void. Shall the darkness consume the traitor. Shall the truth guide the right”

“that’s… that’s really a menacing way to start a promise”

“it’s to make sure you don’t break it”

They went on with their day. Driving around looking for the reactor while Scilla narrated her life, mostly from the time she met 511. Her life story ended right after the lunch break and now it was 608 time to tell her life.

“so I was built in 20/05/2415 Human standard. I suppose I was also birth as I am the only one made inside an artificial organic creature. I was successful and it was immediately evident. My sisters places this collar on me to stop me from mutating uncontrollably. Can’t really blame them. I would have preferred to live as well.”

Idra pointed at the same collar that 511 used to have.

“once turned 2 I started to go to school”

“school? At 2 years old?”

“sisters told me it was school. I’m unsure as I was the only one there. They started teaching me stuff and self control. Once I reached 5 years old they started to turn off the collar to allow me to improve my capabilities. At 6 I started to have school tests…”

“like pressing buttons on displays?”

“no. Like having a task and complete it alone. First it was analysis and research tasks. Only once I was 7 and 484 was formally assigned to me as tutor that I started to do on field experimentation”

“like collecting samples?”

“sort of. My first task was to pacify a Mungali, a native species of mammal. I went to feed it and that ungrateful beast tried to bit me. And then, and then I just slapped it and it… I don’t know just exploded. 484 never told me that Mungali explodes if hit...”

I’m fairly sure it didn’t just self detonate. Should I say something?

“and it went on for a while. Like they asked me to pacify other animals and people but it never work out…. Oh and there was also a few times when they asked me to achieve objective like taking eggs from creatures”

“and all Idras did your same school? I mean before you?”

“no. I was the only one. Apparently it was specially made for me and my capabilities. Also my sisters were older so they were always training and going out in expeditions. I asked multiple time to assist but they said that it was too early… so when I turned 9 I got bored and started to sneak out of my room to learn things. I never managed to get into one of the ships, but it was around that time that I cracked the simulators to play with. Some months after and I finally figured out how to deactivate the collar. From then on I started to sneak out more often to gain knowledge. That’s when I started to love biology and medicine. You know I saw my sisters die from…”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Idra stopped. She looked sad and at the same time angry.

“you can skip…”

“no. I’m fine. They died from genetic deterioration plague. You probably already know about it. Don’t worry it’s not contagious and I don’t have it to begin with. By the time I found a cure… if it can be called a cure, it was too late. Few sisters were left and I needed more tests. Soon after turning 16 my favorite and last sister 484 died…. In her last moments on this planet I injected her. The cure worked… but it was too slow. Too late. Her body gave up in my hands. Since then I have followed the Founder’s orders. And more or less that’s it”

Founder’s orders. Orders from a dead man. I don’t believe it. Shit ain’t right.

“what were the orders?”

“I received his order just for me. And I keep it above my right heart all the time, as it’s my favorite heart.”

Scilla stopped the car as Idra pulled out a piece of paper. Entirely written by a machine. Not a single thing was done by hand. She couldn’t read but Idra read them for her.

// Unit Idra 608 IS-98-ULm Weeping Sky you must protect Weeping Sky scientific base. Protection against the Enemy has absolute priority. Any interference must be eliminated. If Failure is inevitable make sure that nothing could fall in the Enemy hands, not even your blood. If you fall, by all means necessary, destroy my creations and erase my existence. It must never know. I, The Founder. Count on you//

Who the fuck is the Enemy? Does she know? It would look legit, especially the start, with strange codes around and the bloody fingerprint, if not that they didn’t even bother to make a real fingerprint. It’s fucking printed on paper.

And in the end it was sign again with The Founder. It made absolutely no sense and Scilla immediately understood that those orders were fake.

Is this a set up to prevent her from escaping? I feel pity for her. Look at how big her smile is just by staring at that piece of paper. But they lied to her. All of them lied. They kept her sealed here. Ignorant and fooled by her own sisters. I guess I’m about to make her cry, but I’m sure she will understand eventually.

“Idra… No Iris”

“Yes… Scilla? You called me by my name so I’ll do the same”

“good for me… maybe you should… grab something to… beat I suppose”

“why?”

“your personal orders are fake”

Idra looked at Scilla confused and then smirked.

“oh I got it. You are envious. I know that orders from the greatest man alive…”

“I would be envious if they were real, but they are not.”

“and an alien like you would know because why not I suppose.”

“because you think that a genius with no thrust in others would even remotely use a computer and type out extremely important orders? Look at it, the fingerprint is fake. It’s printed on paper. Nonetheless such man is also been dead for at least 300 years.”

Idra looked at the piece of paper in her hands confused. It made a bit of sense.

“and, just to add more. He is your grandfather. You know his identity and I’m fairly sure he would have just used his name or been less formal with you. Supposing that somehow he knew about your existance.”

“this is a formal order of course he had to be formal”

“but in the end it’s just a preset document for god knows what, with a message printed on. You think he would have done the same? And what enemy? There is nobody out here”

“well… I… my sisters gave me it... They told me it was from grandpa…. He used to record things… for the future”

“did your sisters ever received orders from the Founder? You looked into their expeditions logs. There must have been traces of the Founder right?”

There were none. The last official orders didn’t come from the Founder but from his only daughter. It was more than 200 years ago.

“but it doesn’t make sense. It’s not possible.”

“why?”

“because you can’t tell lies to your sisters. So they couldn’t lie to me”

Fuck I feel so bad. I’m sorry to have to tell her.

“are you sure that you couldn’t? Were they the one that told you that you couldn’t lie to each other?”

“Y...yes?”

“what if it was not true and it was a lie to make you not lie? Isn’t it a possibility?”

Idra was getting agitated and nervous. Her left leg was shaking up and down like a pump in overdrive. She was looking at the order in her hands over and over again. Her eyes tearing up.

“m...m… maybe?”

“so they lied to you all this time. That also explains why you were never trained. It’s stupid to not train someone who is going to protect an entire planet alone isn’t it? They didn’t want to.”

“yes… but… but… why lie? Why to me?”

“because they were scared…”

“NO! NO THEY WERE NOT! THEY WERE NOT! YOU ARE LYING! LYING LIAR!” Iris was having some sort of mental crisis. In such distraught state she jumped out of the car slamming the door and star running toward the darkness ahead of them. Scilla grabbed the flashlight and rushed after her. She didn’t had to run much as probably only 100 meters in Iris tripped on her own feet and slammed her face on the ground. She proceeded then to curl up in ball and started wailing. Her pain echoed and got distorted by the empty tunnels that returned distorted laments.

Scilla, obviously, tried to console her. She put a hand on Iris’s back and started to speak while she wailed in pain.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I was wrong. Iris, I was wrong. I lied! They were not scared”

“SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Shit. I fucked up. What do I do now?

Scilla go quieter but kept apologising.

“I’m sorry. I mistook…”

Iris pushed up and slapped Scilla. She was still sitting on the ground and it was clear that she didn’t want to stand up.

“what the fuck is your problem!”

“I…”

“why the fuck are you apologising!”

“because I hurt you”

Iris took a deep breath and partially recollected herself. She sat on her butt with both arms keeping the legs tied together and her face buried in her knees.

“you have nothing to apologise for… you are right… my sisters were scared… of me”

“sorry… I knew it would hurt… I thought that… you would have preferred to… live in the truth instead of a lie”

“lies lies lies! Only fucking lies! Why?! Why?! What the fuck have I done wrong? Nothing. I have waited and waited. Did all their stupid requests and followed their fucking orders and to get what? A fucking piece of paper with nothing in it!. They left me here to rot on this shit hole of a planet. Fuck!”

“do you want to drive to a different storage and smash some crates?” asked Scilla hinting at a smile. She didn’t know what to do, but she knew she had to support 608.

“nah, I’m… not that type of girl. But thanks. I guess we are both hurting like hell now.”

Scilla sat beside Iris and as she used to do with Wiola, she put her arm around Iris and pulled her closer.

“I never thought… I didn’t say it because I wanted to get back at you. You know for telling me that you are not 511. That was the right move, even if it hurts. I just thought that probably you were like 511, as for the most part you are, so I told you”

“truth…”

Iris laugh briefly.

“yeah, I do prefer it. No I need it. We must accept reality, no matter what. I suppose I was just desperate and naive. I constantly saw my sisters venturing away. To far away worlds. I just hoped that someday they would come back… come back for me…”

Scilla remained silent. She knew that she mustn’t speak. Not in that crucial moment. Iris was not looking for answers. No logic. Only venting as her painful reality sunk in. Tears was still falling off her cheeks. Each one broke Scilla’s heart even if she knew that she was staring at 608, she just couldn’t contain her emotions. She may have lost the love of her life, but 608 lost even the nothing she had before. Iris’s 27 years of life had been a huge lie. The lovely bonds she believed she had with her sisters were only in her head. All the good memories. The moments spent together, the conversations even the mundane one. The night spent searching for a cure. The constant promises of “next time when you are older” all vanished.

Iris signed loudly.

“considering the amount of unregistered idras I just thought that maybe one would pop out. I just hoped and waited. Maybe there were more being produce someone in this immense place. Maybe some were built outside Weeping Sky. I believed in them. I trusted them… and what did I get? Only pain. I studied. I trained. I built and rebuilt our weapons. Waiting for them to return… fuck. I have nothing. I have nothing left… I have fucking nothing. They lied. They lied to me… left me to die….” Even if now Iris was calmer, tears kept falling from her cheeks. It was not an easy news to digest, no matter how strong or prepared you are.

Scilla offered a tissue to Iris that accept and blow her nose in it.

The collar on Iris’s neck beeped and lit up before returning to be dead. She must have tried something. Whatever she did she recollected herself and stood up.

“thanks… fuck this shit. I don’t have time to cry on myself and my mistakes. Let’s get moving… let’s find this fucking generator. I’m done with all this shit.”

Iris stared at Scilla who was surprised by how fast Iris returned to a stable condition. She was waiting for her to stand as well and return to the car. Scilla of course stood up on her feet but before walking away she used her shirt to dry off Iris’s cheeks still wet from her tears.

I guess it’s better if I don’t speak… but I can still give her the plushy.

Instead of walking to the driver seat, Scilla went to the back and took out a plushy of a creature she didn’t know. The animal was probably a 1:2 replica of the creature and was about 30 cm long. It was sort of a fat creature mostly grey with a tail made of white and black rings and a black mask on the face. It looked like a fluffy bandit. Scilla returned to her seat with it and once seated she turned herself to Iris that was looking outside and offered the creature.

“Iris. This is for you. I… thought you might like it so…”

Iris turned and to Scilla’s surprise her eyes conveyed excitement yet her distant body uncertainty.

“what’s that?” asked Iris.

“oh… it’s a plushy of something”

“what’s a plushy?”

“it’s a kind of toy…”

“TOY!?!?!”

“yes?”

“for me?”

Iris pushed herself in front of Scilla. She was exploding with joy.

“yes. I mean I found it in one of the crates you let me destroy so I thought to give it to you.”

“thanks you! I love it” Iris took the unknown fluffy creature replica from Scilla and hugged it all excited.

“do you know what that is?”

“no idea. Let me see if there is something on this…”

Iris started looking for a tag and once found read it.

“made of bla bla… in somewhere I have no clue… pupazzo di procyon lotor detto procione (puppet of procyon lotor also known as racoon). I guess the plushy has a name. It seems to be Procione and Procione will remain”

“i’m glad you like it…”

“I’m not just liking it. I’m loving it. It’s cute and... and fluffy…” Iris smile turned into a concerned look.

“are you sure… that I can keep it?” she asked.

“yeah, of course. It’s a gift for you. I know it may be childish but…”

Iris hugged the creature and stared outside.

“you know. This is the second toy I have ever received. The first one was a plastic model of a walker. 484 gave it to me. I loved it so much till a leg broke. So I kept it away under glass. I stared at it imagining old and new adventures. I missed playing with it…”

“you know what. I’ll give you more toys if I found some. No kid should miss his childhood”

“you would do that for me?”

“yep”

Iris extended her left arm and petted Scilla’s head but on the side. Mostly just above her ear.

“thanks you... for Procione”

“sure… why are you petting me?”

“I don’t know. Sister 484 did the same when I assisted her… she was the only one that was close to me. I wonder if she also lied to me…”

“maybe she was forced to follow the others” Scilla was trying to help alleviate Iris’s doubts.

“I suppose. Maybe they lied to her too”

“exactly”

I don’t really believe in my words. The old Idras killed the few inhabitants of this place so they are more than capable to betray and backstab. Who knows what 484 was thinking. Maybe she was not even similar to the one 511 used to love. Or maybe she was just caught in the middle.