The Law Of The Land

"What is that?" Jun says from behind me. Startled I drop it. I sigh as I try to hurriedly stop its bouncing with my foot. I pick it up and assess the damage.

"It's an old data sphere," I say as I notice a big webbing crack on its surface, "an old broken data sphere."

"Sorry."

I wave her off. "It's ok."

She leads me through a creaking hallway to a grey oval room with floor and ceiling lights lining the top and bottom of the room, respectively. A work bench sits in a corner with recent paintings sitting around it. She quickly rushes over to pull a chair across the work bench. I stare at one of her recent paintings, it depicts a dense forest with a white horse peaking from the tree-line.

"It's beautiful." I speak. She turns around as her eyes light up, "This painting, it's...it's amazing. What inspired you?"

"There's this story about a civilization lost in The Wastelands, a bunker filled with tons of embryos of humans to act as contingency plan in case all of humanity killed itself."

"'Lost Haven,'" I say as I inspect the white horse, "I've heard the story."

She sits at her station and prepares. "One of my drones captured a picture of an empty wasteland and I don't know, I just painted a forest and a white horse hidden in the trees on top of the photo. I take my seat across from her.

"Paintings over photos, your calling card."

She smiles weakly as she picks up her stylus.

"So, what painting do you have in mind?"

I adjust in my seat.

"I want a painting of a dream I keep having. In this dream I'm chained up to other people...but they're me."

She looks up from her screen, "What do you mean?"

"I'm chained up to other versions of me...I can't make out their faces but I know... they're me; the hair, the skin, I just know it. And we're all walking in one line in this dark and gloomy tunnel but I catch a glimpse of this bright light peaking from crack in a wall. So, I break myself free and crawl towards it and before I know it, I'm in this tunnel with this warm glowing light at the end but before I can make it there, I'm pulled out by all these angry Me's. I'm surrounded by them as we start to fight. That tussle of myself vs all those angry Me's, could you paint that."

She stares at me, our eyes locked. I feel her metallic brown eyes pierce into mine, I feel them judging me, scrutinizing me – but before I can say a word to try justifying or downplaying what I just said, she slightly smiles and says,

"Yes."

Lost in thought, her stylus briefly hovers over her screen before dancing across it. She changes between colors and textures as she paints stroke after stroke of my dream.

"I have question," she says as she continues painting.

"Yes," I say without skipping a beat.

"Why would you come all the way here? You normally just make your orders electronically."

"I wanted a special painting to commemorate this day. I won't have a lot of freedom when my Ascension Day comes, so I've found myself becoming more appreciative as the years go by."

She briefly looks up and says, "Of course." before continuing with the painting.

"And also, I just wanted to match a face to the voice."

She lets out another customary smile, and I can't help but smile too.

"I have a question of my own."

"Yeah, sure."

"How did you get The Anthropology Ministry to clear your drones to take photos of The Catacombs and The Wastelands?"

"All of the photos my drones take are first processed by TAM. They take the photos they want for their own research and all that, then they send me the rest."

"Interesting, so then you just paint on top of the photos?"

"Yeah."

We sit in her studio as the sound of her stylus tap and dragging across her screen fills the silence as time goes by.

"I have another question." I gesture for her to ask. "Citadel, what's it like? Not that I long to go there or...I just wanted to know how..." She tries to say as she spins her stylus between her fingers. I shuffle my feet and say,

"It's...like everything you would've wanted, as you would've needed."

"Must be amazing-"

"But, it's like an unsurmountable weight, that you can't escape from."

She looks up from her screen and nods. A while goes by and my feet go numb as I try fight off dozing off to sleep. I hear my name and my eyes at once shoot open and meet hers. She smiles and apologizes for waking me and gestures me to come over to see the finished painting. I walk over to her and look over her shoulder, close enough to smell the strawberry from her hair. I then begin to scan the painting, its dark, and depicts a morbid lone fighter grimacing as he fends off a hoard of faceless people. I mindlessly let out a weak smile before sharply frowning as a drop of blood stains the glass screen. A quick gasp escapes her mouth as she hurriedly wipes it off the screen. I sneak a glance at her and at the right moment see the lights gentle kiss over her eyes...her synthetic eyes. I instinctively take a step back. She franticly searches her pocket

"My cannister, it should be by the table." She says as she looks away trying to hide her flushed cheeks.

I hurriedly scan the table with my eyes and notice the silver container filled with potassium iodide. I nearly reach for it before realizing what I'm doing, she soon reaches for the cylinder and injects it into her leg and grips her temples.

"Sorry about that...I..I must've missed my evening shot...I'm so sorry. Let me print and the painting and frame it for you."

I nod. She leaves the room and soon returns with the painting. I thank her and head back into the cold towards the hover-car.

I stare at the painting now hung up in the quiet Citadel library. The data drives that line the wall silently hum and emit a soft blue glow. A projector falls from the ceiling and lights up the screen with a hue of colours before turning it black. I prop Alex up next to the data scanner, the synthetic lamb soon comes alive as I wait for the scanner to load up the data sphere. The scanner illuminates the blue sphere red resulting in the screen displaying distorted and blurred documents; I clench my jaw and sigh.

I rifle through the documents and squint to try make out some of the documents. I lean towards the screen and tilt my head as my eyes catch a distorted document with only a title that's readable. The title reads 'The Three Broken Arrows of The Apocalypse.' I try m

"Would've been intriguing to read huh, Alex?" I say as I pet it and take the sphere off the scanner and return it to its box, "Maybe Cassian knows a Data Miner in level 2." The projector returns into the ceiling, and I look back at the recent painting added to my collection as a soft light illuminates the frame.

I rub my index finger across my forehead as I think about how I boldly opened to Jun. I'd normally make phone calls and place orders, so seeing her today in the flesh sent a strange sensation soaring in me. Is this what it feels like to try and impress someone? From The Consortium Auditorium to going to the Synthetics district, I make a mental note to note to curb such impulsive behaviors. I stare at the painting again and frown as I think about how her smile made me smile. Alex yelps, as I shove it into my pocket and begin towards the painting. I forcefully remove the painting and exit the library; I don't stop until I reach my room. I tap a wall tile and shove the painting into it and watch as the tile slides across it, hiding it. I place my palm to the cold wall – my secret.

***