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Sutopia

Ch 9, SHistory: Space History

Even after the hours spent at the dining deck with Harper, Logan still managed to get back to his residential block before what would have been considered late afternoon on the lunar 'day' cycle. The young man wasn't quite used to telling the time by identifying what continent was visible on Earth in the lunar sky, but at least it was making more sense by his third day. It also helped that the cycle depended on the Greenwich Mean Time, which had long been the system used to identify time zones back on earth.

'Noon' on Luna, Logan had come to understand was considered GMT 0 or, more specifically, when England, Portugal and the United Algerian States were facing the moon. Standing outside the door to his residential area, Logan could look out the window and see the North Atlantic between the Eastern US/Canadian seaboard and Brazil, he was able to estimate the time at the rough Earth equivalent to-- he paused, using his implant to figure out what time zone that was and came up with the answer: around 4pm.

Sighing, Logan rolled his eyes at himself seeing as that wasn't really any faster than looking at a clock. Speaking aloud to himself, he made the promise "I definitely gotta get better at that."

It was one of those little 'personal goals' Star had talked to him about during their chats. She was like her parents in a lot of ways: she wanted him to improve himself; she wanted him to find something to motivate him; she wanted him to be successful. At the same time, she wasn't aiming him at finishing college or finding a job; she seemed perfectly content to see him learn out to tell the time by looking at the Earth or even figure out how to do a metanet search without giving it away to someone watching him. He definitely felt that he did better under less pressure, and Star was very low-key insistent while being high-key encouraging.

Even as those thoughts ran through his head they were joined by everything they'd discussed at class that day along with a lot of things they specifically hadn't. Mushed together with all of that were the numerous topics brought up by Harper-- opinions, grandstanding, (ancient) celebrity gossip, and, of course, the little seedlings of conspiracy. Conspiracy had been alive and well in the 22nd century so why not bring that with them into the future?

Sighing, Logan promised himself to check his connecting-the-dots until he could be sure what was a dot; he wanted to make sure he learned what he needed to know before he started comparing that against what he thought he knew. Smirking as he descended the steps to the basement, the young man realized that, were he to fail to check the wild conspiracy theories forming in his head (mostly due to Harper's suggestive nature) then he would probably end up in the 28th century equivalent of a loony bin. Or did they just do 'corrective brain surgery' and call it good? Shivering, he realized that was another question he'd have to ask Star... just not right away.

Almost as if thinking about her was all that was needed for her to reach out, Logan was only slightly surprised when he received a message notification from his ageless niece. It was a simple message, letting him know that she was in VR and ready whenever he wanted to join her. Along with the direct message was a data packet which he innately knew could be compiled with intent so that his implant would take him to the correct VR space-- it worked similarly to an email address or, since they'd be in VR together, more like some kind of 'street address' for virtual space.

Although he technically could have connected to VR anywhere in the hab (let alone in his residence), Logan had always been something of a creature of habit, and so he descended the steps down to his bedroom. It became simultaneously easier and harder to think of the artificial imitation of his parents' house as a real thing-- easier because he was growing more familiar with the alternate reality presented in the future, and harder for the exact same reason: it seemed that so few things were REAL that it was hard to take things at face value. Then again, if nothing was real then why not just give in and accept it as real?

Even with those thoughts fighting for space in his mind, Logan plopped down on his recliner, rubbed his thumb across the ever-present stain on the arm rest, and loaded up the VR program. Before it initiated, the young man quickly set his implant to its Do Not Disturb mode so that he wouldn't have to deal with messages coming from anyone-- not that he knew too many people, but he really just needed a little while with face-to-face (or virtual face-to-face, anyway) interaction with someone who was a little more low-key than Harper Knight. Smiling to himself at how incredibly insane it seemed to find a brightly colored fox girl "low key", Logan inputted the chat address and started it up the chat.

The prior times Logan had met up with Star she'd selected a chat environment that mimicked what she'd set up in his residential block; that afternoon was different, and it was readily apparent. Logan had never been a fan of the sea; he certainly didn't care for boats. Strangely, he found himself on the deck of a huge cruise ship, surrounded by tons of people he didn't know who were only too eager to celebrate some event that was completely lost on him. It didn't help that, despite all of the visual commotion going on there was absolutely no sound.

A single voice cut through the silence. "This sim scan was put together with early tech... the science has come a long way in the centuries since."

Logan slowly turned around, taking in the scene of what, by all accounts, appeared to be a pleasure cruise. It was late evening and the sun was getting close to the horizon. The young man saw many ribbons of color emblazoned across the sky, which made him realize "This is somewhere pretty far North... on Earth."

Star took a seat at one of several tables set up on the deck. "Mm-hmm. One of the last northern cruises to leave port in Denmark before the war got REALLY bad. Crazy how, even with the world falling apart, people could be so deluded to just keep on living without regard to what was going on out of sight."

Logan slowly sat down across the table from her. "So... this was all created by memories? Kinda like my bedroom?"

The Fox shrugged. "A little like your room, but also different. Grandma and Grampa's house was compiled by a collection of memories from your scan which, despite being real-time and a complete Sum was done with fairly early-on tech. Coupled with that, your subconscious also fed the blueprints in real time. All of this..." she gestured around the deck of the cruise ship with one arm "...these are all from memories scanned from over a hundred participants of this cruise as many as two hundred years later. While sights are usually burned into our conscious memories and scents stick into our subconscious memories, sounds tend to fade..."

Astounded at what he was hearing, Logan looked around their surroundings. "So... this is some kind of Frankenstein's Monster mishmash of memories?"

Star rolled her eyes. "A little melodramatic. I like to think of it more like a mosaic... a collection of different points of view compiled together to create a bigger picture."

Logan was confused. "Why go to all the trouble?"

Her answer surprised him. "This was my mom's wedding day."

The statement make Logan pause. "Susie's wedding?"

Star nodded, and added in a subdued voice. "Her second. She and my dad divorced when I was just going into high school. She met Francisco my senior year and they dated for awhile before deciding to get married."

Still seated on the deck of the long-since-passed cruise, Logan found himself looking up at the aurora in the sky. "This was a long time after me... right?"

Letting out a soft breath, Star reached over and placed her paw on his hand. "The months leading up to it she kept saying that she wished you could have been there. Apparently you 'killed it' at her first wedding to my dad."

"I did?"

Star smiled softly. "My dad didn't have a lot of friends so you were best man, and she said your speech was 'epic'."

Logan's mind spun as he considered everything Star had to say; he certainly didn't think he'd be capable of 'killing it' when it came to any kind of public speaking. She often referred to someone that definitely didn't seem like him. "She and Scott were always closer... are you SURE she meant Uncle LOGAN?"

The Fox's ears drooped. "Dad didn't have any brothers and I never met Uncle Scott. He died before mom got married. So... yeah: you."

Having been so caught up in learning about his own fate and the strange new world around him, Logan hadn't given any real consideration to his brother. Although Logan knew in the back of his mind that all of his family (except Star) were gone, it didn't really hit home just how gone they were until she said something. "He died... before me?"

She nodded in response. "He was in Europe when war first broke out-- he was part of what came to be called 'The Ignition Point'. The war didn't officially start for a few months after, but that's where they say it started."

Despite how outgoing Scott was, Logan never really figured him for the traveling type; he always stuck close to home and whenever he hung out with his friends it was at his family's house and not at his friends' places. "What was he doing in Europe?"

Star offered a casual shrug. "Mom said that he'd joined the Army Corp of Engineers. It wasn't a combat position or anything... just the wrong place at the right time."

Shaking off the lingering eerie feeling of suddenly coming to grips (again) with the loss of his entire family, Logan found himself staring up toward the sky again, watching the dancing ribbons of light amidst the darkening firmament. "This must have been a really amazing wedding..."

The Fox sighed. "Yeah... mom really wanted me to go, but I was studying for finals and I couldn't..."

Offering a flat 'heh', Logan sighed. "Guess we both missed it. I wonder who she got to be best man."

Star joined him in gazing off toward the distance, not bothering to respond to his statement. There was a long silence between them, made all the greater by the absolute lack of sound in the memory-mosaic. Eventually, when she did speak up, the Fox looked right at him. "Leading up to the wedding she seemed more upset that you weren't going to be there than the fact that I was missing it... kinda funny, since you'd been dead awhile and I was still alive."

Logan wasn't sure if that was a hint of jealousy in her tone or some other emotion; he quickly defended his sister (and himself) regardless. "I'm sure she knew that school was really important to you. Cruises like these usually have to follow specific seasons and, well, if it happened at the same time as your finals, I guess it couldn't be helped."

He didn't realize that Star was still holding his hand until her paw gave it a gentle squeeze. "Nah... mom loved you. She loved you a LOT. Some of my earliest memories were all about you-- about you and about her visiting all the time. Every chance she could get to visit grandma and grandpa was all about seeing you, and, WOW-- whenever she could get you out of the house we'd always go somewhere special."

Logan felt another twinge of discomfort about talk about him that he didn't know or remember but he tried to brush it off. "She always did look up to me, I guess. Scott was usually focused on his friends and--"

Star gave the back of his hand a little poke with her thumb claw. "Well... remember: back then, Uncle Scott was already gone."

Pausing, he slowly drew his hand away from her paw. "I'm still trying to get the timeline right. Back when I had my brain scanned it was 2122... I'm pretty sure that robot said I died in 2124..."

The Fox folded her paws together on the table in front of her. "September 18th, 2124. The day before I was born."

That caused all of Logan's many thoughts to come to a stop as her statement conflicted with what she'd just been saying. "You JUST said that you and Susie came to visit and that WE would go out and do stuff... that's WE as in the three of us, right?"

She shrugged dismissively. "I was in utero."

Logan sat back in his seat, rolling his eyes. "You were making it sound like you could remember the events-- didn't figure you were talking about them second-hand."

Star licked her muzzle as if wetting her thin black lips with her bubblegum pink tongue before speaking. "Logan... I am CENTURIES old. In order for my brain to continue processing information with so much experienced my biotech includes memory enhancers. Although I might not remember every little thing, important memories are crystal clear... and the way mom felt whenever she was around you... well... sometimes those 'most important memories' are worth saving."

Having absolutely no idea how to respond to that, Logan said the only thing he could think of to contribute to the conversation. "...oh."

The Fox smirked, kicking him lightly under the table. "You're looking at me like I'm a witch or a psychic or something... she signed up for a Keepsake Memory program... it was pioneering tech at the time allowing people to save their memories and relive them later. I inherited her memory vault when she passed and technology advanced in the centuries between, allowing people to experience the saved memories of others."

Staring at her, he wasn't really sure what to say. "Well... we BOTH know I'm behind the times..."

Star rolled her eyes. "Your implant is perfectly capable of accepting them too, you know... but you already lived most of your life with Mom-- you have your own memories of her."

Logan offered a half-hearted smile. "No-- I know. I mean... I wasn't thinking about THAT... I... I just..." he let out a sigh. "When she was younger-- when I was younger... I guess I never really appreciate the fact that she always wanted to be around me. Sometimes I found it really annoying."

Star offered a dismissive shrug. "Kids."

The young man shot her a glance. "You're hundreds of years old... everyone's a 'kid' to you, Star."

She winked in response. "True... but it's no less accurate. Rarely do we appreciate what we have until it's gone and by then it's too late to get it back. Even if we DO appreciate what we have we still can't get it back." As if to accentuate her statement she gestured to the cruise ship and the party going on all around them.

Logan looked around at all of the party guests. "So... you put all this together based off of memory scans of everyone here or something?"

Star picked up a glass of some kind of amber liquid that he hadn't noticed on the table and knocked it back as a shot. "Mmm hmm. Twenty three different attendees made this possible... such as it is."

Although he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer he stil couldn't help but ask the question. "And... why didn't you just get it directly from Susie?"

Gazing down into her empty glass, Star let out a long exhale, and still said nothing for several seconds. When she did speak, her voice sounded almost haunted. "The cruise ship was attacked... part of a terrorist strike in a peaceful area. Like I said: some people just kept living like the war wasn't happening, and those terrorists wanted to remind them."

The statement, and Star's difficulty in looking at him as she delivered it choked him up just enough that he hesitated before pushing forward. "So... Susie....?"

Star cleared his throat, looking up at him with a strangely detached gaze, almost like a news anchor reporting events on the evening news. "Susan Ann Bradshaw-Martinez died on the 10th of December, 2144 when a sub-tactical therombaric weapon was detonated in the cargo hold of the cruise ship where she and her fiance had been wed two nights before. The total death count was 5279, with only 29 survivors rescued sixty six minutes after the blast... it was the last cruise ship to sail before the 'final days' of the war."

The two of them sat in silence for many long moments, the void of noise around them so much more obvious without them breaking it with their discussion. Realizing he felt more awkward doing nothing than he might otherwise, Logan stood up and moved around the table to kneel down next to Star. Spreading his arms, he pulled her in for a hug; a moment later she rested her furred face against his shoulder and cried.

Having no real experience comforting someone, Logan at first wondered what he got himself into but, after several long seconds he felt a strange, unaccustomed warmth begin to well up inside himself. It took a moment for him to realize what it was since he'd never really felt what it was like to actually be there for someone. He came to the conclusion that it felt good and, even as he cried his own tears, he felt far better than he knew he would have if he'd tried to deal with the sudden surge of grief alone.

He didn't track how long he held his niece, her vulpine form still oddly human in his grasp despite the tail that flicked out behind her. After awhile, however, her sobs slowed and stopped; she pulled back, wiping her furred cheeks with the palms of her paws. "I... haven't ever shown this program to anyone... never. Seeing as mom was your sister and you're my only family left, it-- it felt right."

Logan nodded, realizing the importance of the gesture. "Thank you, Star. I... I'm glad you shared it."

Offering a bitter sweet smile, she wiped at one eye again. "Me too... thank you for being here... Uncle Logan."

He didn't miss the way that she accentuated his filial title; if she were looking to lighten up the situation he wasn't going to stop her. "Sure thing... but, just because we're here sharing a moment doesn't mean that I'm gonna sleep with you."

Laughing, Star punched him in the arm. "You know... being able to joke about it is the first step of not being such a prude. I'm proud of ya... old man."

Logan was about to fire back, but the sudden inclusion of sound caused him to freeze; he was definitely hearing 'Here Comes the Bride'. Glancing sidelong to his niece, he asked "Didn't you say that sounds don't get copied in this thing?"

Star patted him on the hand. "People forget things other than things they don't. This song held a lot of significance for the event so it's something that doesn't tend to slip out of memory."

The moment she stepped out from the crowd Logan froze; he saw his sister, Susie, and she was beautiful in her wedding dress. The young man was astounded to see her older than he-- far from the high school junior he had known what felt like less than a week prior. He'd heard the old adage that women were supposedly their most beautiful on their wedding day, but she absolutely glowed; it was like all the lights grew a little brighter in her presence. He wanted to say something profound but, unfortunately, his brain wasn't quite willing to work with him on that. "She grew up."

Star smirked. "Yeah... people do that."

Logan's first inclination was to excuse himself and leave before the glimmering dampness at the edge of his vision threatened to turn into full blown tears, but he couldn't force himself to move away. He remembered distinctly what Star had said about sound being a sense that was lost to the memory quickly excluding things of significance-- that made it all the more pertinent when the officiant called everyone together as the ceremony began. Logan was enthralled for the duration.

He'd never attended a wedding before and it was nothing like the Hollywood vids made it look like-- at least, Susie's wasn't. A strange disconnect separated him from the warm feeling that had been growing within him, and it continued to divest him of what should have been an emotional moment, getting to witness his sister being married. Part of him, however, realized that the ceremony was centuries old-- that, and he had been dead when it took place. Star must have taken note of the duality of his experience because her paw came to land on his hand. "It's getting late... I suppose we're about ready to go?"

There was a softness to her tone-- a lack of judgment in the offer to end the scene. Logan found himself nodding but, at the same time, having to provide an excuse. "Class in the morning and all that..."

Once again he could tell that the Fox was providing him an excuse. "Yeah... lots to cover still. You'll need your rest."

They took a few steps together on deck and, before Logan knew it, the world around them had dissolved, reforming into his basement room. He surprised himself when he admitted "I'm glad you showed me that... thank you, Star."

Smiling in response, his niece dipped her muzzle in a nod. "Thanks for being willing to join me."

The two shared a quick, platonic hug, and Logan barely even noticed her full, firm breasts as they pressed against his chest. Feeling his cheeks redden when he mentally called his own casual response into active acknowledgement, the young man disengaged. "You know... if you have more memories you want to share I... uh.... wouldn't be opposed."

The Fox smiled genuinely. "Alright. It's a date."

She disconnected before Logan could call her out on her choice of words. Sighing, Logan flopped down into his arm chair-- the same one where his body would be reclining waiting for him to exit VR. With barely another thought, he did just that.

* * * * * *

Some of the earliest memories Logan had regarding VR was the strange disconnect he often felt when he disconnected; it was a much weaker version of the body dysphoria he experienced when he awoke in the lab after the Corpus Verto, but it was memorable enough for him to realize that he didn't feel it any of the times he left the VR program after spending time with Star. Perhaps part if it was because he always awoke from VR in the physical space represented in the virtual one, or maybe it was because technology had come a long way since the 22nd Century. Whatever the reason, he liked that the confusion sensation was absent.

Leaning back in the recliner, Logan smiled inwardly when the tell-tale squeak issued out from the old chair; the replication of his room was so incredibly close to perfect that it was uncanny. In many ways, he realized, that was just like his own body. Looking down at his Corpus, Logan sat astounded for several long minutes, completely astounded at what had happened to him and the situation in which he found himself.

He'd been overloaded the first day or two but, after having some time to get used to the new world, it was hard to deny that he was a little eager to learn more. That eagerness was tempered slightly by apprehension, but that was slowly disappearing with each new, amazing experience. The fact that he had guidance from Pete in his orientation class and Star in his personal life, Logan was growing a little more comfortable with the idea that he would be able to make it in the 27th Century.

Finally getting up from his recliner, Logan resolved to get to bed at a reasonable hour. He began his evening ritual of preparing for bed, doing all the things that would see him to slumber land. While he was brushing his teeth, the young man realized that he still had his Do Not Disturb status up and, as he set his sonic toothbrush back into its stand, he keyed his implant to open up messages again.

Logan was surprised to find out that he had four messages; they were all from Harper. Sighing, Logan realized that his night wasn't quite over. Managing to avoid a grimace, the young man opened up the first one-- it was a little disjointed... something about being famous again, and scoring a bunch of watches. The second message made even less sense as the Hollywood star rambled on about fans and watchers.

The final two messages further became nonsensical, up to the point that Harper seemed accusatory at the very end of the final one. The message closed in an almost accusatory tone. "I'll see you at class tomorrow... you'd better explain things then."

Logan's hesitance returned.