When I woke up, I saw the same male nurse who carried me from the medical pod to my room the first time around. And, once again, he’s doing the same thing, which makes me wonder if I’m having a dream or if this is déjà vu. Either way, I slip my slim arms around his neck to keep myself steady as he carries me to a room, lays me down in bed, and murmurs, “We have to stop meeting this way." He gives me a small smile as he gently caresses my hair, then leaves. As tired as I am, it doesn’t take long before I fall asleep.
The next morning, I woke up when a nurse came in to check on me, then asked in a bright tone, “Are you ready for breakfast?”
“Mhmm,” I murmur. Then I ask, “Why am I here?”
She stops and turns to look at me. “Don’t you remember?” I shake my head. “You fell off your bike and hit your head.”
“I did?” She nods. “How long have I been here?”
“Ten days. They decided to induce a coma to help prevent any problems from arising while the nanites repaired the damage. Any other questions?” I shake my head. “Alright, I’ll get your breakfast. Be back soon.”
So that’s why I remember being carried in here by that male nurse. I suppose that makes sense. However, that begs the question: why did I fall off my bike in the first place? For my age, I’m quite athletic and have excellent spatial awareness, so I simply can’t see myself just falling off my bike. I’m one of the few girls in our neighborhood who can perform gymnastics easily.
A while after I eat, I’m absentmindedly watching Holovision when Dr. Mason comes in with another doctor I don’t recognize. Something tells me not to trust him, though I can’t tell you why.
Jason says, “Good morning, Kayla. How are you feeling?”
Hesitantly, I reply, “I’m fine.” I look at Jason and ask, “Who’s he?”
He frowns for a moment, but then says, “He’s someone I know, and he’s making rounds with me today.”
The way he’s acting, I get the feeling that Jason doesn’t like him either. “Hmm… Okay. Are Sandy and Liam coming soon?”
Jason nods. “Liam is at work, but Sandy will be here soon. We told her you were awake and that we’ll be releasing you as soon as she gets here.”
“Okay.”
“So, tell me, how are you? Any pain? Confusion? Dizziness or memory problems?”
I shake my head. “No, nothing I’ve noticed. I feel perfectly fine.”
“Good. Good. I'm glad to hear it. Do you have any idea why you fell off your bike?”
I shake my head again. “No. The last thing I remember is looking at a boy while I was out riding my bike with my friends, and then I woke up here.”
I know that I’m not telling the whole truth here, but I have this niggling feeling that it would be for the best. So I keep it simple and say the bare minimum. Something is warning me not to tell them about the images of that boy I’ve seen before.
“Hmm… You hit your head pretty hard when you fell, and we were more than a little worried. Alright. The AI says that you’re in perfect condition, so it sees no reason you need to stay, but let me check a couple of things for myself, okay?”
I simply nod wordlessly, and he comes over, shines a light in my eyes, has me stand up, bend over, squat, and walk around, along with several other things, then announces, “Perfect. I don’t see any balance issues. It looks like the nanites did a great job, as usual. I didn’t think there would be, but I like to always double-check. Kayla, do me a favor and be more careful from now on. I enjoy seeing you, but I hate to keep seeing you as a patient.”
I snort and smile. “I will be. I don’t like being here either,” I state in a matter-of-fact tone.
He grins. “No, I don’t believe you would. Your aunt should be here soon, and the nurse will bring your discharge papers soon. Take care, Kayla. Hopefully, I won’t see you as a patient again.”
He smiles and waves bye to me. The other doctor? He stood there with a smug expression and his arms crossed while he stared at me. What an ass, right? Thankfully, he leaves along with Dr. Mason. Soon, Sandy arrives with a bag of clothes in hand. What I was wearing was covered with my blood, so I was not interested in wearing it to go home.
Sooner than I expected, Sandy arrives and smiles when she sees me alert and sitting up. “Hi, Sweetheart. How are you feeling?”
I merely shrug. “I’m fine, but I want to go home,” I vehemently state.
She chuckles at my tone as she hands me the bag. “Then you’ll probably want to get dressed unless you want to wear a hospital gown home,” she says in an amused tone.
I bark out a short, sharp laugh. “Yeah, no thanks,” I reply in a sardonic tone.
She grins as I rise from bed and take the bag into the bathroom. Delving into the bag, I find a matching pale blue lingerie set, a sky blue sleeveless summer dress, white sandals, and, thankfully, a white bow-adorned hair clip and my brush. After a quick shower, I dry myself, brush my hair, and put it up in a ponytail. 20 minutes later, I’m ready and walk out to find Sandy waiting with my release in hand.
Back at home, Harper immediately hugs me and welcomes me back, as does Liam. After lunch, Harper and I go out to play with our friends, who play the 20-question game with me, some of which I can’t answer.
We return home shortly before dinner time, quickly clean up, and make our way to the dining room to eat. Dinner is great. Grilled chicken breast, rice, corn, broccoli with cheese, and dinner rolls.
After eating, Harper and I help Sandy clean up, then we watch a movie, and afterward, we’re sent up to bathe and go to bed.
Time seemingly streams by, with each day seemingly no different than the one before, except for the change of activities. We have our lessons, playing, going out here and there, etc. One day, while delving into the information archives, I learned that crime is almost unheard of these days, which I knew, but not why. The archives went more into detail about why there isn't anything in them.
Anyway, there are several reasons for this. Mainly, everyone has quite high living standards. Phoebe has to expand upon the explanation given in the article, but the basics of it are: there was a societal revolt a couple of hundred years ago. The big power players pulling the strings in the shadows were hunted and taken down; many of them were killed, and the ones that didn’t run off in personal spaceships were never to be seen or heard from again.
Then corrupt career politicians were next. A lot of them had already run with their ill-gotten gains, like the power players, while most of the ones who couldn’t simply wait to be collected for their trial and execution for crimes against humanity.
A quick aside here. The list of links for their crimes numbers in the thousands. I followed quite a few of them, and just to give a couple of examples: Creating viruses to kill people or make them infertile. Purposefully creating conflicts where none existed simply to incite wars and kill people. It would fill several volumes if I tried to tell you about even a quarter of it. If you’re interested, the links are readily available.
Afterward, they abolished elections and chose a modified form of the ancient Greek model of serving in government. As you know, once people have reached the appropriate age for that position, they are placed in a lottery system, where all vacant positions are filled by randomly selecting people from it by an independent AI. They serve their 10-year terms as representatives or senators in Earth Gov, and then return to their lives. The same method is used for the local government positions.
Another reason is the development and fielding of ‘devices.’ They record everything: location, date, time, nearby device ID numbers, audio, video, etc.
As an aside, I found out that intentionally removing or blocking the signal from your device is an automatic life prison sentence, and yes, it’s a true life sentence, as you’ll never see the outside of a prison again. Exceptions are made in the extremely rare, as in rarely occurring, event when a device malfunctions. AIs look for unregistered citizens, so anyone who attempts it is caught in short order. The last person who tried was found within moments and convicted the next day. That was over a century ago.
Privacy is guaranteed by the AIs, but if a crime is committed, the police can easily obtain a warrant to access very specific information that the AIs preserve and protect. As I said, crime is unheard of unless it’s a so-called crime of passion. The other reason is that all crimes are treated fairly harshly. There’s no plea bargaining like there used to be. Combine harsh sentencing with no possibility of early release, add in people’s long lives, and most people are simply not willing to risk it since the courts are run by notoriously unsympathetic AIs.
There are more reasons, but I’m sure you get the gist of why Earth, Mars, and the other colonies are so safe that even a child could walk around in the middle of the night without a care in the world.
Anyway, back to the story, so before I knew it, October arrived, and it was time for my birthday, and I turned 11. My party, which Sandy dove headfirst into planning without consulting me once, was a huge hit, and we had a blast. We had it at the huge indoor water park. The only problem we saw was our ‘adult supervision’ being run ragged. I got some cute outfits, additional jewelry, and the like from Sandy and Liam, lots of plushies, and a large assortment of other presents. It was the best birthday I can remember. Of course, it’s the only one so far, but as Harper keeps telling me, from now on, we’ll be making lots of memories together.
I’m unsurprised when I find that Sandy and Liam are big-time into Halloween, decorating the house and yard, and, of course, costume shopping for us. Hey, from what I hear, lots of adults are, but many act like they don’t.
I dressed up as the Golden Butterfly and Harper as the Blue Butterfly from a show we follow to go to parties and then trick or treating. We have lots of candy!
Thanksgiving is up next. The whole of our extended family gets together at Grandfather Paul’s and Grandma Erin’s house. They are Liam’s parents as well as my grandparents. This will be my first time meeting our family at large since I woke up from the virus incident.
Sandy dresses me to impress. She dug through my assortment of outfits until she found one of the classier dresses we bought me. A sky-blue, A-line, off-the-shoulder, knee-length dress with drape sleeves. She pairs it with glossy nude stockings and my navy 3” ankle strap heels. When we bought it for me, she told me that it’s a retro style. I didn’t care about retro or not, just that it’s a cute dress and I look good in it.
It takes every ounce of self-control I have to keep from shaking when I meet everyone since I’m extremely nervous and slightly scared. I find all my worries unfounded, though, as everyone readily accepts me and my grandparents fawn over me. Of course, it isn’t just me; they seem to dote on all their grandchildren. I ended up having a lot of fun meeting everyone, and dinner was great as well. After dinner, many of the kids went outside and ran around the ranch to play. Of course, Harper and I simply stroll around exploring their place because we’re wearing heels, remember? They have an amazing place and a variety of animals. Most importantly, they have horses. I want to ride one so badly! Maybe they’ll allow me to sometimes when we're out here and I’m not all dressed up.
This brings us to Christmas. We spent a couple of days decorating the house and a tree. Not long after, presents—lots of them—begin showing up under the tree, so Harper and I are looking forward to it. We’re kids, so Christmas is supposed to be amazing for us.
However, this is the first Christmas season I can remember, which, by the way, is rather upsetting. Harper notices, and after I tell her what has me upset, she says, “It’s alright; we’re together, and I’m not going anywhere. I’m sorry you lost your parents, but we can make new memories from now on. It isn’t all bad. Trust me,” she says with a smile and hugs me.
I hug her back, feeling a little better about the whole thing. Harper is… Well, how do I say it? She is like an anchor that eases my feeling of being adrift and the balm that assuages my pain and confusion. She’s almost always by my side, ready to lend an ear to listen to whatever I want or need to talk about. She is my sister, and I’m very happy that she is. Sandy and Liam are great, but there’s not a snowball's chance in hell that I would talk to them about these things. They would probably send me back to the therapy AI again, and that’s not something I enjoyed. It’s only been a handful of months since that virus imploded my little world and stole my history, so it’s just going to take some more time for me to adjust to my new life.
In the last few months, there have been several confusing, upsetting, and uncomfortable things that happened, but Sandy, Liam, and most especially Harper make it tolerable. But at the same time, just as many, if not more, great things have happened. Especially with Harper. I probably always wanted a sibling, and now I have one. One to whom I’m very close. As for Harper, I know she did since she’s said as much, and she’s as happy to have a sister who shares many of the same interests.
When I woke up, I saw the same male nurse who carried me from the medical pod to my room the first time around. And, once again, he’s doing the same thing, which makes me wonder if I’m having a dream or if this is déjà vu. Either way, I slip my slim arms around his neck to keep myself steady as he carries me to a room, lays me down in bed, and murmurs, “We have to stop meeting this way." He gives me a small smile as he gently caresses my hair, then leaves. As tired as I am, it doesn’t take long before I fall asleep.
The next morning, I woke up when a nurse came in to check on me, then asked in a bright tone, “Are you ready for breakfast?”
“Mhmm,” I murmur. Then I ask, “Why am I here?”
She stops and turns to look at me. “Don’t you remember?” I shake my head. “You fell off your bike and hit your head.”
“I did?” She nods. “How long have I been here?”
“Ten days. They decided to induce a coma to help prevent any problems from arising while the nanites repaired the damage. Any other questions?” I shake my head. “Alright, I’ll get your breakfast. Be back soon.”
So that’s why I remember being carried in here by that male nurse. I suppose that makes sense. However, that begs the question: why did I fall off my bike in the first place? For my age, I’m quite athletic and have excellent spatial awareness, so I simply can’t see myself just falling off my bike. I’m one of the few girls in our neighborhood who can perform gymnastics easily.
A while after I eat, I’m absentmindedly watching Holovision when Dr. Mason comes in with another doctor I don’t recognize. Something tells me not to trust him, though I can’t tell you why.
Jason says, “Good morning, Kayla. How are you feeling?”
Hesitantly, I reply, “I’m fine.” I look at Jason and ask, “Who’s he?”
He frowns for a moment, but then says, “He’s someone I know, and he’s making rounds with me today.”
The way he’s acting, I get the feeling that Jason doesn’t like him either. “Hmm… Okay. Are Sandy and Liam coming soon?”
Jason nods. “Liam is at work, but Sandy will be here soon. We told her you were awake and that we’ll be releasing you as soon as she gets here.”
“Okay.”
“So, tell me, how are you? Any pain? Confusion? Dizziness or memory problems?”
I shake my head. “No, nothing I’ve noticed. I feel perfectly fine.”
“Good. Good. I'm glad to hear it. Do you have any idea why you fell off your bike?”
I shake my head again. “No. The last thing I remember is looking at a boy while I was out riding my bike with my friends, and then I woke up here.”
I know that I’m not telling the whole truth here, but I have this niggling feeling that it would be for the best. So I keep it simple and say the bare minimum. Something is warning me not to tell them about the images of that boy I’ve seen before.
“Hmm… You hit your head pretty hard when you fell, and we were more than a little worried. Alright. The AI says that you’re in perfect condition, so it sees no reason you need to stay, but let me check a couple of things for myself, okay?”
I simply nod wordlessly, and he comes over, shines a light in my eyes, has me stand up, bend over, squat, and walk around, along with several other things, then announces, “Perfect. I don’t see any balance issues. It looks like the nanites did a great job, as usual. I didn’t think there would be, but I like to always double-check. Kayla, do me a favor and be more careful from now on. I enjoy seeing you, but I hate to keep seeing you as a patient.”
I snort and smile. “I will be. I don’t like being here either,” I state in a matter-of-fact tone.
He grins. “No, I don’t believe you would. Your aunt should be here soon, and the nurse will bring your discharge papers soon. Take care, Kayla. Hopefully, I won’t see you as a patient again.”
He smiles and waves bye to me. The other doctor? He stood there with a smug expression and his arms crossed while he stared at me. What an ass, right? Thankfully, he leaves along with Dr. Mason. Soon, Sandy arrives with a bag of clothes in hand. What I was wearing was covered with my blood, so I was not interested in wearing it to go home.
Sooner than I expected, Sandy arrives and smiles when she sees me alert and sitting up. “Hi, Sweetheart. How are you feeling?”
I merely shrug. “I’m fine, but I want to go home,” I vehemently state.
She chuckles at my tone as she hands me the bag. “Then you’ll probably want to get dressed unless you want to wear a hospital gown home,” she says in an amused tone.
I bark out a short, sharp laugh. “Yeah, no thanks,” I reply in a sardonic tone.
She grins as I rise from bed and take the bag into the bathroom. Delving into the bag, I find a matching pale blue lingerie set, a sky blue sleeveless summer dress, white sandals, and, thankfully, a white bow-adorned hair clip and my brush. After a quick shower, I dry myself, brush my hair, and put it up in a ponytail. 20 minutes later, I’m ready and walk out to find Sandy waiting with my release in hand.
Back at home, Harper immediately hugs me and welcomes me back, as does Liam. After lunch, Harper and I go out to play with our friends, who play the 20-question game with me, some of which I can’t answer.
We return home shortly before dinner time, quickly clean up, and make our way to the dining room to eat. Dinner is great. Grilled chicken breast, rice, corn, broccoli with cheese, and dinner rolls.
After eating, Harper and I help Sandy clean up, then we watch a movie, and afterward, we’re sent up to bathe and go to bed.
Time seemingly streams by, with each day seemingly no different than the one before, except for the change of activities. We have our lessons, playing, going out here and there, etc. One day, while delving into the information archives, I learned that crime is almost unheard of these days, which I knew, but not why. The archives went more into detail about why there isn't anything in them.
Anyway, there are several reasons for this. Mainly, everyone has quite high living standards. Phoebe has to expand upon the explanation given in the article, but the basics of it are: there was a societal revolt a couple of hundred years ago. The big power players pulling the strings in the shadows were hunted and taken down; many of them were killed, and the ones that didn’t run off in personal spaceships were never to be seen or heard from again.
Then corrupt career politicians were next. A lot of them had already run with their ill-gotten gains, like the power players, while most of the ones who couldn’t simply wait to be collected for their trial and execution for crimes against humanity.
A quick aside here. The list of links for their crimes numbers in the thousands. I followed quite a few of them, and just to give a couple of examples: Creating viruses to kill people or make them infertile. Purposefully creating conflicts where none existed simply to incite wars and kill people. It would fill several volumes if I tried to tell you about even a quarter of it. If you’re interested, the links are readily available.
Afterward, they abolished elections and chose a modified form of the ancient Greek model of serving in government. As you know, once people have reached the appropriate age for that position, they are placed in a lottery system, where all vacant positions are filled by randomly selecting people from it by an independent AI. They serve their 10-year terms as representatives or senators in Earth Gov, and then return to their lives. The same method is used for the local government positions.
Another reason is the development and fielding of ‘devices.’ They record everything: location, date, time, nearby device ID numbers, audio, video, etc.
As an aside, I found out that intentionally removing or blocking the signal from your device is an automatic life prison sentence, and yes, it’s a true life sentence, as you’ll never see the outside of a prison again. Exceptions are made in the extremely rare, as in rarely occurring, event when a device malfunctions. AIs look for unregistered citizens, so anyone who attempts it is caught in short order. The last person who tried was found within moments and convicted the next day. That was over a century ago.
Privacy is guaranteed by the AIs, but if a crime is committed, the police can easily obtain a warrant to access very specific information that the AIs preserve and protect. As I said, crime is unheard of unless it’s a so-called crime of passion. The other reason is that all crimes are treated fairly harshly. There’s no plea bargaining like there used to be. Combine harsh sentencing with no possibility of early release, add in people’s long lives, and most people are simply not willing to risk it since the courts are run by notoriously unsympathetic AIs.
There are more reasons, but I’m sure you get the gist of why Earth, Mars, and the other colonies are so safe that even a child could walk around in the middle of the night without a care in the world.
Anyway, back to the story, so before I knew it, October arrived, and it was time for my birthday, and I turned 11. My party, which Sandy dove headfirst into planning without consulting me once, was a huge hit, and we had a blast. We had it at the huge indoor water park. The only problem we saw was our ‘adult supervision’ being run ragged. I got some cute outfits, additional jewelry, and the like from Sandy and Liam, lots of plushies, and a large assortment of other presents. It was the best birthday I can remember. Of course, it’s the only one so far, but as Harper keeps telling me, from now on, we’ll be making lots of memories together.
I’m unsurprised when I find that Sandy and Liam are big-time into Halloween, decorating the house and yard, and, of course, costume shopping for us. Hey, from what I hear, lots of adults are, but many act like they don’t.
I dressed up as the Golden Butterfly and Harper as the Blue Butterfly from a show we follow to go to parties and then trick or treating. We have lots of candy!
Thanksgiving is up next. The whole of our extended family gets together at Grandfather Paul’s and Grandma Erin’s house. They are Liam’s parents as well as my grandparents. This will be my first time meeting our family at large since I woke up from the virus incident.
Sandy dresses me to impress. She dug through my assortment of outfits until she found one of the classier dresses we bought me. A sky-blue, A-line, off-the-shoulder, knee-length dress with drape sleeves. She pairs it with glossy nude stockings and my navy 3” ankle strap heels. When we bought it for me, she told me that it’s a retro style. I didn’t care about retro or not, just that it’s a cute dress and I look good in it.
It takes every ounce of self-control I have to keep from shaking when I meet everyone since I’m extremely nervous and slightly scared. I find all my worries unfounded, though, as everyone readily accepts me and my grandparents fawn over me. Of course, it isn’t just me; they seem to dote on all their grandchildren. I ended up having a lot of fun meeting everyone, and dinner was great as well. After dinner, many of the kids went outside and ran around the ranch to play. Of course, Harper and I simply stroll around exploring their place because we’re wearing heels, remember? They have an amazing place and a variety of animals. Most importantly, they have horses. I want to ride one so badly! Maybe they’ll allow me to sometimes when we're out here and I’m not all dressed up.
This brings us to Christmas. We spent a couple of days decorating the house and a tree. Not long after, presents—lots of them—begin showing up under the tree, so Harper and I are looking forward to it. We’re kids, so Christmas is supposed to be amazing for us.
However, this is the first Christmas season I can remember, which, by the way, is rather upsetting. Harper notices, and after I tell her what has me upset, she says, “It’s alright; we’re together, and I’m not going anywhere. I’m sorry you lost your parents, but we can make new memories from now on. It isn’t all bad. Trust me,” she says with a smile and hugs me.
I hug her back, feeling a little better about the whole thing. Harper is… Well, how do I say it? She is like an anchor that eases my feeling of being adrift and the balm that assuages my pain and confusion. She’s almost always by my side, ready to lend an ear to listen to whatever I want or need to talk about. She is my sister, and I’m very happy that she is. Sandy and Liam are great, but there’s not a snowball's chance in hell that I would talk to them about these things. They would probably send me back to the therapy AI again, and that’s not something I enjoyed. It’s only been a handful of months since that virus imploded my little world and stole my history, so it’s just going to take some more time for me to adjust to my new life.
In the last few months, there have been several confusing, upsetting, and uncomfortable things that happened, but Sandy, Liam, and most especially Harper make it tolerable. But at the same time, just as many, if not more, great things have happened. Especially with Harper. I probably always wanted a sibling, and now I have one. One to whom I’m very close. As for Harper, I know she did since she’s said as much, and she’s as happy to have a sister who shares many of the same interests.
