Countdown

The central Sun is dying. Our Galaxy was falling apart. My grandmother has told me long ago that when she was young she had seen it in full brightness and the transparent artificial heat amplifier sky under the clouds was not required. All the girls born from my mother worked in the underground rock mine used for power generation. My mother was classified class II and sent to care for the kids of working mothers.

We all had the same routine, wake up on the central alarm, auto clean mode, take daily medicines for radiation, eat breakfast pills and get to the mine in underground personal or group bots. I would have never found this any different had I not discovered my grandmother’s diary.

We were not allowed to have any stuff other than standard issue body cover. The living hives were swept every sunrise, but I had long memorized the meaningless sentences.

It spoke about men living with women – a vague term starting with F, if I’m not wrong family then manufacturing breakfast pills called food, again F. There are many confusing things like Fun, happy, Love and that consummate, I think that would be the word to make babies.

We had many planets like us in the Milky Way Galaxy. Each planet is explained vividly in her book. One made of only rocks, one without the power to hold us and we float all the time (giggle, in lower volume. Volume is monitored). Then my Grandma’s favorite, the blue one with lots of people with different body covers, languages and she says she’s been there once to witness a festival called Kumbmela, the most visited one in their Galaxy.

The catastrophe struck 150 standard work schedules (Grandma says years) back. Then neither was the hive concept not mines. Men were allowed to age and people had non standard breaks in work time called holidays. They could have their own non standard issue travel bots and could hug, kiss and remove their body covers for pleasure time without permit clearance and monitor activity.

She uses the words like Greedy, jealous, love and lust often, they are related to brainwave activity, presently monitored and any unrelated activity leads to the person freed to the endless cloud. A warning is given by a involuntary trigger of discomfort in any part of the body. I have heard Mia (only 3 letter allocated call words are allowed) , tell once in the area of low density monitoring that we all had a plastic square in our head put at arising(birth) to digitize what we think.

I will describe verbatim the words in her diary, meaning for very few of which I understand. So don’t ask me to explain. Coming back to that time, the Queen (I think this is the mother greatness daily appearing in display pod in the mine to which my supervisor bends front way and we follow) in the wanted to take all nearby planets and started increasing the Gravity of the external layer without impacting the intra planet gravity so nothing happened.

No one was aware until one night in sleep that rouge asteroid attached itself with us. It sucked the sun dry of its energy and gifted us with radiation levels so high that other than a few saved by the underground radiation protection pods were instantly zombied.

Then our schedule was the same every minute ever. The energy that is generated in mines, Mia says is used for the pleasurable survival of the elite few. But now the existing resources were depleting, the observation posts weakening, pills and depleting in quality. She recorded this when she was in the luxury travel pod cleaning duty in the palace other day.

My Grandma was clever; the best bit of the diary was the last 3 pages that describe the ways of escape. She, a nuclear scientist predicted this fall and described ways of regaining the F words Feelings and Fun. I started skipping breakfast pills and cheating on vaccines by having an extra skin membrane developed to temporarily store the medicine before disposing it in secrecy.

Now we are a gang of 3 in way to change. Me, Mia and Sia.

The diary was right. There is a prohibited route in way to the mine that leads to the sky land from where the private commute pods move Mia said one day. She had learnt the art of scrambling the orders to switch off her hearing given by the chief. We started walking in the open passage when on maintenance duty and this ended in a conveyer pod. We sensed human vibrations in the under skin sensors and fled at once.

I remember that pleasant feeling warming up in my abdomen when I saw something in the crude granite block in the mine. I tried moving my facial features and the image changed. Mia did the same thing and we saw a different image. I think the first image is the one assigned to me. In another instant Sia slipped and fell and we instantly giggled. We were alone and not noticed but it felt good.

Then last work shift Sia was on cleaning duty in the palace and conspired with us in the low monitor area on way to mine that 3 other genders(the ones who grow hair on the face) looking different and with weird body covers were at the palace. Her hearing was switched off by the chief and could not get any details.

We were allowed to meet the other genders only at the work schedule for rising arrangement ( that helped to manufacture more mine workers) even that was vision blinded. Our rising arrangement was as simple as touching any part of the other gender and it lasted 10 days only as more people were needed for the work. But the diary described a different one that was much longer, 9 months. I’m wondering what they did for workers?

One more unfamiliar reaction inside me, I wanted desperately to see the weird looking other genders. I should keep my reactions low otherwise even the failing plastic square(put into our heads near the left ear) will send signals for low level of mandatory pills in blood and as a result I will be erased from records.

Mia put up a request for help and I was assigned to the palace duty that day. My brain cells would die in confusion I feared looking at the change in my face color and body temperature on seeing one of the other genders. I had scrambled my hearing switch so never bothered when the chief switched it off at once.

A same gender (the ones with long hair in the head and no hair on the face) with a different body cover came in with two other genders of our planet. They were drinking the precious fluid. I could not make sense but I recorded the conversation to later discuss with Mia and Sia.

The same gender was introduced as our queen and she was worried over the reduced control on us and wanted to shift to the heaven from where the different looking other genders came. She offered the rock in our mines which the other planter guests thought important (they uttered the word diamonds). But the other genders were aware of the past of our planet and thought that the Queen was greedy. (I should check this word in my memory module of the diary) The discussion lasted long time and for the first time I had discomfort in my legs, standing. Grandma had said in the book that discomfort if one of the F – Feeling words called pain. It was to be avoided.

One of the other genders focused his camera lenses on his face on me lot of times. I don’t know why I felt warm.

After we reached the low monitoring area in the mine I replayed the entire conversation and Sia inferred that they were going to create a black hole to suck the planet and queen with other first rankers will escape to safety with the other planetary ones.

I could not hibernate in the hive pod that rest shift. I was trying to understand the good F feelings and uncomfortable F feelings that day.

The next few days were palace duty. The effect of mandatory medicines was declining; I could get more and more memory of the diary pages. I learnt to stretch my lips when I saw the other planetary special guest, this is called smile. I could even remember my Grandma mentioning that the other genders pleasured and did new rising arrangement by removing body covers, while presently to accelerate the process DNA transfer upon first body contact was initiated. Time was crucial and in shortage.

I cannot describe the exact moment when I felt that I want to sit next to that other gender guest and talk, smile and show all new things I’m learning every day.

Meanwhile in one such discussion the queen’s eyes bulged, the decibel of verbal noise increased and the guests were taken away by guards. I never saw the handsome (yes new words everyday) other gender again. After many work shifts I saw that one other gender in the prison camp working in the lab. The other gender tried to talk to me but I reacted as we are expected to do, that my hearing module was switched off. This is all new to me but I feel good. I want these cellular reactions to be permanent.

They killed my friends he shouted. Once this medicine is created they’ll kill me, then you all will become sucked into ashes. He was vocally active in high decibel before he was dragged away by the guards.

I was at the night work shift in the mine and something in my head screamed this was the last chance when I saw the other gender in the medicine wing, testing the tablet. I’m standing here 3 workers behind waiting for the shot. Three …… two…… I saw his camera lenses on his face, for the first time I felt I knew what I wanted to do. I just grabbed his arms and ran; mines are the only places that guards are less familiar than us. Even then the guard on duty tried to laser us; I could even break her telepathic command to stop, the medicines were wearing off.

The others were confused and clearly the medicine was diluting otherwise they would have acted on the telepathic command of the guards. We waited in the deserted open passage. We were recorded on every turn, if caught I’ll be put to rest in a milli second to die in eternity, a very painful death the diary said.

We waited all night in the deserted pathway and on sunrise opened the hole. I have never seen a private pod. The other gender said he felt surreal and was jumping which I learn was a feeling called joy later. This was untouched as our people did not know the technology.

Once inside and the pod had taken off I wanted to tell him that his contribution was over he will be put to rest.

As one of the things that changed after the catastrophe is that the queen belongs to the same gender so she considered other gender to live only to participate in the new rising process and their head will be sucked in after the first day of the commencement of the new rising cycle.

Moments after I held his hands in the mine yesterday I started having the first feeling of rising starting in the left part of my body. The time has come….

I observed him carefully as he walked to the door. I knew that time was running out but suppressed the urge to check my watch. I took a deep breath and started counting in reverse under my breath. "Ten, nine, eight, and seven..."

He told funnily it will auto count you need not take the pains….. But then after a few moments, Boom….

Here I am, Eve zooming through eternity, here I come planet Earth…..