Breathing is for Closers
“My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured. In Aqua there will be veritas. Let the free market float us all.”
He raised his hand to the waiting crowd, simultaneously beaming with confidence and the nonchalant indolence only the congenital rich can carry.
The Xonomes usher the people forward towards the domed hyperloop. From there they would take their place in as the founding members of X-Lantis – their plots secured through cryptogenic ventures, familial connection or most often a combination of both. The first stage of the roll out would house the world’s finest. The richest survivors of The Land Age. There was no-one else left. Those who had made it through, could afford it. Between the backlash from the ozone and the countless nuclear entrenchments the world as it had once been – lush and laden with resources- was now stripped and barren. There were no survivors. Save those deemed worthy by the Mighty X’ian.
In ROM may their legacy forever prevail.
The 144,000 chosen few filtered slowly into the glimmering Edenic cupola, marvelling at their new home. Here, they would be safe and protected. Here they could breathe.
—————————————————————————————-
Turns out gills work. You’re welcome. The Daily XO flashed neon across the walls of her bedroom accompanied by a high-pitched yowl, ‘meh” she tutted ‘Already – it’s not even 7am. Sanctimonious prick.” She swivelled out of her pod and stalked her way into the ki-tech. “CaffiX. Now. Merlin” she softened her tone, “Please” it wasn’t the bot’s fault after all.
“Certainly, your worthiness, here you go” The borg held out a steaming cup, “Just the way you like it.”
“Thank you, Merlin”
Veve sighed as she pulled up the Mercury prints on the symbiotic phaeophytean Interface, “Fuck you” she muttered under her breath as she inspected her own handiwork. She must have missed something. There had to be a way. Hell, dammit. This is not what they asked her to do.
Antsy, she opened the panel onto her balcony, she looked out over the metropolis. People hummed about their daily routines. CaffiXOes vibrated with the chatter of the gentrified, sport X was full of the beautiful and the damned knee stretching themselves into oblivion and Cinemex was always full. There was wining and dining aplenty and they were happy. Maybe she would just have to accept her part in all of it. What choice was there?
-..- .. .- -. / ….. – …. .-.-.- / — .. -.. -. .. –. …. – .-.-.- / –
The accusatory siren from her PingaNano startled her out of her thoughts. T. They were dead, weren’t they? At least, that’s what the TimeX had declared two weeks ago. An untimely fall out of the 117th floor of the central atrium. A tragedy, everyone had apparently believed. Now they wanted to meet? Why? Veve felt sick. They hadn’t met in person since the beginning of construction. They had shared the plans — discussed modifications. And after that it was all cyberkinetic communication. In another world, another time – if circumstances had been different, they might even have been friends. What could they possibly want now, after all this time?
At 11:30 Veve threw on her coat, flicking the craven lock on their Coltx before slipping into their pocket. One could never be too careful. There are a lot of high rises in XLantis and they didn’t plan on seeing the bottom of one close up and personal.
“I’ll be back late, Merlin. Power down. I won’t be needing anything more today”
“Thank you, your worthiness. Happy travels” the Borg replied, grinning synthetically.
Veve walked past the affirmation booth, rolling their eyes as The Xessiah doled out positivity with metallic precision, “You are loved. You are worthy. You are capable”. Like something out of one of those creepy hair ads in the 90’s. All glossy women with glinting teeth. They had seen them in the historical works exhibition a few years back and had almost marvelled at the dumbassery of humanity but this was a whole new level.
————————————————————————————
Turns out gills work. You’re welcome. The daily XO scrolled slowly across her hand screen.
“Your dad’s a dick” J said.
“No shit” I shot back. “What am I supposed to do about it?”
“I don’t know, you invented the thing B” J opens the curtains to the view of the Great Barrier Reef. One benefit of inventing the converter that saved all the wealthy people left on earth is you get first pick of apartments.
“Yeah, but you know this wasn’t the goal”
“You mean the further subjugation and painful genetic experimentation of most of the remaining population?”
“Yeah. That. You designed the dome”
“Sure, but I could have designed a dome in the middle of Kansas or hell Milwaukee, you invented the converter that allowed the dome to go under water”
I walk away, we have this conversation every morning, hell we’ve had some version of this conversation since college. Two rich assholes who wanted to make a difference. Isn’t that how it always goes? All I wanted to do was save the world. Instead I ended up making even more of a mess. If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, I found the absolute best way to pave it. Fucking gold.
“Hey B” J yells from the other room.
“What do you want?”
“You might want to come see this”
There is an urgency in J’s voice that made me want to stay exactly where I was.
“I don’t think I do” I call back, reluctant to ruin our rhythm of just barely caring. It’s not that I don’t care, I do, or I did. It’s that every time I try to put something good out into the world it ends up biting me, and humanity in the proverbial ass. The oxygenator that keeps the wealthy breathing clean air with spectacular views of our formerly pristine oceans, also made sure that the rest of the population ended up on the genetic chopping block. The city of housing meant for the underserved youth, now houses 144,000 of Earths richest fuckers. Go me.
“At 12:00 this morning there was a catastrophic failure in the air scrubbers above ground, the Dregs left behind don’t have much time”
J is standing a foot from the television. The picture cuts in and out.
“Fuck” I say.
“Careful you sound like you care” J pulls me into their arms.
“We have to do something don’t we? Do we even have any contacts left above sea level? Everyone who worked on the project is either dead or disappeared”
“Veve still lives up top” J suggests
“ Is she our only option?” I groan.
“She’s not that bad, we worked together in our first year of school” J said.
“Yeah but you’re nicer than I am. We really don’t know anyone else? She’s so…sanctimonious”
“B, you colonized the ocean, maybe you earned some judgement?”
“Fine, I’ll see if I can get a message to her. I doubt she’s even going to entertain the idea of talking to us”
“You mean you. No one has a problem with me” J laughs.
“OK sent. You win. Let’s see if they show up”
Veve turned into Xian 17, her arm resting against her pocket.The thoroughfares were silent. The building offered a clean vantage point from every angle.She saw the shadow before the lanternas highlighted the face but she knew that it was them. More aura than visually striking, Veve relaxed her arm sloping down to rest on her side.
“B? I thought you were dead?”
B laughed. “Retired. Same same.”
“Ah” Veve replied, knowing instinctively not to dwell on the subject, “So? What do you want? It’s..”
“There isn’t time V. We need to move quickly. They need” B paused to allow the ramifications to settle.
“OK” Veve gulped, “What do you need me to do?”
“Take this. You’ll understand”.
B turned to leave before turning back, “V”, almost whispering, “Why’d you decide to come?”
“Old time’s sake” Veve winked, and walked back into the night.
“Alright J, all we have to do is switch the converter Veve has the code to plug into the filters up top, that should give them a few months to find a more permanent solution”
“B, are you sure about this? People down here won’t survive more than a few days without the downtown converter” J said.
“That’s a few days to make the right decision and go back to the surface, that’s more of a chance than they gave the people who had to stay up top”
“And how do you expect to get past the door minders? We’re supposed to be dead.”
“Yeah well supposed to be dead and are dead are two different things, I kept my father’s passkey just in case, he’s never been useful in his life. The very least he can do is take the fall for this stunt.”
J laughed, I hadn’t seen them this excited in a very long time. It was like it used to be, one of us inventing something irresponsible while the other cheered from not quite the sidelines. It felt good to do something again. Even if that something would land us in underwater prison without a breath converter.
———————————————————————————–
Veve crashed into her apartment, “Merlin. Power up – I need you”
Wearing a mordant grin, Merlin’s head tilted upwards with break neck speed, “Ready and waiting your worthiness.”
“Ok fire up the proximitator and open the neuro phaeophytean network. Co-ordinates 2 29.6472° N, 91.1174° E”
“On it, your worthiness” the borg wheeled off into the hub.
“Oh and Merlin, get me a cup of CaffiX, strong as you can make it”.
Merlin handed over the cup with almost unsettling speed. How was it possible to make something so hot so quickly, she mused absently as she slipped into the study.
She stared at the symbiotic phaeophytean Interface, the Mercury prints seemed to shimmer as if they had finally been awoken.
“There” she cried. B must have known. Suspected at least.
She powered on the neuropaline transmitter — and there it was. The break she’d been searching for. No plan is foolproof. They might be the architect but even the ROM has a back door if you know where to look. Daddy taught me something at least. She smiled wryly. He of all people should have known.
“Let the free market drown in veritas,” she muttered loudly as she navigated into the interconnection interface.
Bastard.
My heart goes out to you.”
Veve saluted the air.
If this resonated, share it on Bluesky (or anywhere folks still have an attention span longer than a moth after a sleepless night), leave us a comment, or check out our latest anthologies
Poetry Collection, ‘Is this all we get?’
Prose Collection, ‘ Fifth Avenue Pizza’
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