Live or Die Trilogy Page 13

  Sirio and Namiko gave him a parting smile, while the only one to go shake Eldgh's hand, in a typical Terrestrial greeting, was Tylor.

  “Goodbye, Terrestrials.”

  Namiko saw him turn, elegantly and sinuously, in a typical Taahrian movement, both demon and angel descended from the sky. Then she could no longer maintain focus on the figure. The world around her began to spin.

  Is everything okay, my love? She knew that it had to be Sirio.

  She tried to answer NO, because something just wasn't right. It seemed that her body was no longer under her control. It was as if there was some sudden disconnection between her mind and the rest of her.

  She desperately tried to speak.

  It came out as pure gibberish.

  Then she crumpled to the ground.

  5

  “Ischemic stroke as a result of thrombosis,” Sirio explained.

  “How is that possible? She's only thirty five years old,” Haruki protested.

  “The doctor said that she suffers from hypercoagulation and that it might be a hereditary condition.”

  “I don't recall anyone in the family who has ever suffered a similar problem,” Haruki considered.

  “My daughter...” whispered Kahori, Namiko's mother, in tears.

  Sirio tried to make the woman feel better by stroking her back, so that she would know he was there for her, but obviously didn't achieve the desired result. After a few minutes of trying, he walked away, as if trying to take a break from his torment. He went through the doors at the end of the hospital ward, and found himself on a wide terrace overlooking an outdoor area with newly planted saplings.

  The man began to shake his head.

  Life was truly unkind and fate was cruel, worthy of the most skilled playwrights.

  Three years earlier, there had been a time when he had risked condemning the earth to a nuclear winter; then he mysteriously awakened in a kind of holographic room aboard an alien spacecraft; and finally, with the five companions cooperating and a little extra help from Tylor, he had managed to escape the robotic threat and awaken an entire extraterrestrial civilization. In a sense, fate had always been on his side, so he felt destined to live a magnificent love story with his beloved Namiko, and in one of the few cities which remained undamaged. Improbably, the best part of his life had begun in the days when mankind was facing extinction. Because if, on the one hand, billions of people were facing the loss of their loved ones, on the other, a select few like Sirio were celebrating the conquest and discovery of the deepest emotion: love. And now that the whole world seemed to be moving towards a time of prosperity and progress, he was about to collapse, buried by a tragedy which had put Namiko in a deep coma, from which she might never awaken.

  What had he done?

  She had been his whole life.

  What reason did he have to exist?

  People like Tylor always lived for science; crazy idealists like Franz had always fought in the name of their convictions; but he wasn't a scientist or a terrorist.

  In reality, he was nothing.

  He had never been.

  And if, for a moment, he had played at being a secret agent, it was only because of his cursed childhood, a desire for revenge and the need to feed an insatiable urge. Namiko had given him a purpose, a role, to love and be loved for the first time in his entire life. She had survived being in the special forces, confinement in an underground bunker, having her mind probed by a drone, and the prejudice of her family against a foreigner. But there was one small flaw in her, invisible and damned, that was going to take her away; because, even if she were to come out of the coma, the doctor had told him: “The woman that you knew, you will never see again.”

  Suddenly, at age forty, alone, on the terrace of an anonymous hospital, he felt abandoned all over again, closer to those empty Sundays at the orphanage than the scented candles that intoxicated the Osaka nights.

  Maybe Haruki would snap out of it, by putting all of his energy into his beloved restaurant. But Sirio, how would he mislead his heart and mind? He had no passions or hobbies, and no special missions. His whole life had been an escape. The social work mattered very little to him personally. It wasn't about being selfish. It was just his nature. In his life before this, before the arrival of the Taahrians, he had never sought, and consequently never given, any help. Every man for himself, was his motto.

  With the disappearance of the only person who was able to pull him out of that vicious circle, he would probably end up keeping Igor and all the other crazy people company.

  They had bought the home in Osaka together; but, without Namiko, there wasn't any need to fix it up. It would be impossible. The objects and smells there would only remind him of the happy moments that were lost. The same with staying close to her family. Not to mention that even though cordial, his relationship with them couldn't be defined as real or deep. The bridge between them had collapsed in front of a solar power plant.

  From the days when he had written about her in his diary, to the moment when he realized that they were destined to live through something special, it had been far more than a physical attraction.

  Undoubtedly, it was something which wasn't destined to last for long. On the other hand, the designs of the universe had shown themselves to be unpredictable and ugly with the civilizations of two entire worlds. Who was he to escape a similar fate? Did he somehow owe a debt in life? No, that wasn't possible. During the alien attack, he hadn't lost anything or anyone because it had all been taken from him when he was seven. Or perhaps Namiko was the one with a debt? Those were crazy ideas, Sirio thought, nature doesn't work in such a cruel way.

  Who knew if his beloved, constrained to live in a vegetative state in a hospital, was somehow aware; if her soul harbored thoughts in some unknown dimension. The doctor had said no, but in the last three years, people had begun to understand that the universe was more complex and mysterious than they could've expected.

  Sirio remembered that initial “I love you” which he had said and received for the first time at the age of forty.

  In reality, that had happened with Rachele, his ex-girlfriend; but only in those happy days in Osaka had he understood the true warmth of love.

  No one and nothing had ever moved him as Namiko had. Being together with her was the sharing of each one's being, exposing themselves without reserve, ready to receive all of the other; they could be on the busy streets of Osaka, or eating dinner by candlelight; they might be holding hands in a park or in the desolation of Tokyo, but being with her made him happy, a better person.

  Everything ends! he said to himself.

  If it had happened in those nefarious days in the hole, it would've been for many other reasons.

  Who knows what happened to my diary? he wondered for the first time in three years. It was amazing how his mind had stopped being curious for so long. It was as if it had cleared away part of his old life to make space for a better new life, contrary to his subconscious, which often subtly tormented him in his dreams.

  Sirio would turn his back on that soon, and return to living in the mistaken belief of what he couldn't do.

  6

  The universe had already made him believe twice that he would never again see those two slanted eyes; instead, he found them in front of him again, unexpected and unsettling.

  “You, here?” Sirio asked incredulously. “Don't tell me that you came to supervise the hospital?”

  “No, I came here because of you and Namiko,” Eldgh said.

  “Please explain,” Sirio urged, convinced that the Taahrian might be able to help his beloved.

  “I can already tell you that the Commander wouldn't approve, but with all the games we've played, this couldn't do much more harm. Listen to me carefully, because what I am about to tell you has profound ethical implications. As you know, Alpha Orionis will leave your sky in two days. By tomorrow morning, every Taahrian remaining on Earth's soil will board a shuttlecraft to reconnect with the mo
ther ship. If you consent, I can take Namiko with me. We'll take care of her on Betelgeuse.”

  Sirio's eyes lit up.

  “You'd really do that for us?”

  “Don't get too excited. Once she's on board our ship, you'll never see her again.”

  “Why is that?” he asked, disturbed by what he was hearing.

  “We've studied your physiology thoroughly and we need to proceed cautiously. To remedy the damage that her brain has suffered takes time. Two days aren't enough.”

  “Couldn't you give us the machines to do it? I don't know... tell our doctors how to do it?”

  “No. This requires a technology that we only have on Beteleguse. You'd have to remove an entire level of the ship and transport it to Earth. Impossible!”

  “Then I'll come with you too. I have no interest in remaining here. To save her life and live with her, I'd be willing to travel in space for eternity!”

  “That's very noble of you; however, that would not be permissible.”

  “Why not?”

  “When a shuttlecraft enters the spaceport of Alpha Orionis, the central computer is able to detect the presence of alien life forms. I am the only one who possesses a spacecraft with a compartment capable of shielding such detection. Unfortunately, it's not big enough for two people.”

  “Couldn't you just make two trips?”

  “It's all pre-programmed. No shuttle may leave Alpha Orionis after today.”

  “Can't you think of some excuse?”

  “Any spacecraft that submits a change in its flight plan is subject to special scrutiny.”

  “Dammit! It's like they did it on purpose.”

  “Well, they did! You need to understand that an event as important as our departure could foster some crazy ideas. We're afraid of attacks, as well as the possibility that a Taahrian might fall in love with a human or vice versa. We need to prevent members of the two civilizations from remaining forever in an alien world.”

  “Would that be so terrible?”

  “I don't have time for a discussion of our culture. I can only guarantee Namiko's safety and security. At first, it will be disconcerting to have a human traveling with us, but my people have a good heart, as you say here. They'll allow her to live with all comforts that one would offer a guest.”

  “What if, once the deception is uncovered, the Council decides to come back?”

  “By the time they discover her, we'll be very far away. I'm not able to make you understand the technical specifications of our ship; just know that Namiko's presence isn't enough to affect the navigation plan. You can't just do a U-turn with Betelgeuse as you would with a car. It's much more complex.”

  “I get it... But why are you doing all this?”

  “It's because you two were among the six Terrestrials who saved my people. Watching you the other day, I understood how much you and Namiko love each other. It was unbearable to see her crumple in front of me.”

  “That's really touching... if only you had thought of us before...”

  “I didn’t have a shuttlecraft with a shielded compartment.”

  “Couldn't you have sent someone else?” Sirio insisted, unable to accept the idea of losing Namiko.

  “I personally modified the shuttlecraft. No one knows what I've done. I'm sorry, but it was all that I could do. I have to work in the shadows. A first officer should never transgress the rules and betray something which belongs to his people. Albeit morally commendable, my behavior would be considered inappropriate, in that I've violated a dozen key articles of the Taahrian statutes.”

  “Of course, you're still a first officer. I don't know what to tell you...I want her to live but I don't know if she would want this. Would she want to live her entire life on an alien world?”

  “I anticipated that my proposal would cause ethical and moral qualms.”

  “I've already dealt with that. But don't you think that you should talk to her parents? Maybe wait to see what they say.”

  “I'm only talking to you, Sirio, because I'm sure that you'll make the right choice. Here, take this,” said Eldgh, putting a tiny butterfly-shaped object in Sirio's hand.

  “What is it?”

  “Tomorrow morning, at six o'clock local time, I will leave the surface of your planet. If you want Namiko to go with me, turn the edges of the wings hard.”

  “Eldgh, I don't know...”

  “I have to go, Sirio. Remember, among the six.”

  Having said that, the Taahrian's first officer left Sirio, alone and desperate, with Namiko's fate hanging in the balance, between Earth and the stars.

  7

  Namiko's parents didn’t know about the Taahrian's visit. Sirio decided to stay with them until visiting hours were over. After having said goodbye, he rented a car and went to a large park, where he could find a little peace, immersed in the harmony of nature.

  He would have several hours to meditate before the sun gave way to the darkness of night.

  What to do?

  The decision seemed even more difficult than the one which he had faced in the hole.

  It's incredible! he exclaimed, sitting behind a large boulder surrounded by brambles. Is it possible that the fate of one person could be weightier than that of all humanity?

  In fact, he had never had any doubts: Namiko should live!

  The real dilemma was to understand if it was the right decision from her point of view.

  This wasn't a trivial matter.

  Living on an extraterrestrial spacecraft, without the presence of anyone like her, could be worse than death.

  Along a path that took him to an area with ancient Aboriginal paintings, he realized the true pain that his beloved might have to live with: if just the thought of imagining her light years away made him want to die, what kind of suffering would Namiko feel, having her entire world lost in the depths of the cosmos?

  Although deprived of his beloved, he would always have someone to be with, a sea to swim in, a park in which to run, sunsets and sunrises which alternated in the enchanting cycle of life. All things that she would never see again. Only slanted eyes and cold metal. And no one really knew what the social life of Alpha Orionis was like. What if it was like torture for a human? And suppose she adapted, on what planet would she land? It was those same Taahrians who had told them about the existence of an artificial world, which had caused the entire debacle.

  However, his fears and beliefs mattered little. What was most important was to empathize with Namiko and fathom what she might want for herself.

  To Live or Die?

  This was the only thing that mattered.

  His reflections, like those of her parents, or even Eldgh's, meant absolutely nothing.

  “What do you really want?” Sirio asked out loud, to the bewilderment of some nearby patrons.

  Then it hit him like lightning: it was a memory that he had fished from the farthest corners of his mind. He and Namiko had been talking about a newspaper article regarding a man who, forced to live in absolute immobility had expressed his desire to die, but couldn't find anything pro or con in the law, as they imposed a complete ban on euthanasia. The article ended by saying that the patient had died due to the intervention of a doctor who, after helping him, had been arrested. Discussing the event logically, Sirio and Namiko couldn't agree on what was right or wrong. After all, it wasn't that different from proclaiming or denying the existence of God. An act of faith and nothing more.

  “Of one thing, however, I'm sure,” she had said while they were exchanging ideas: “If I'm that sick one day, I want you to do whatever it takes so that I can live and at least have a chance. I love this life too much to die.”

  Only, this time, it wasn't just an aggressive treatment. It was something far beyond, for which humanity hadn't yet coined a term.

  Live at all costs, but what for?

  She had said “I love this life”. What type of existence would she have on the Taahrian ship? A life that she would love or hate?
>
  At dusk, he turned the butterfly's wings. After a couple of hours, while on the road home, he was intercepted by a Taahrian shuttlecraft, which directed him to turn onto a side street and stop. This particular scene didn't arouse too much suspicion, however, on this night in which more than three hundred shuttlecraft would be taking off from the Australian soil.

  “Do you want to say a last goodbye to her?” Eldgh asked.

  “But, how did you get her out of...?”

  “If we can cross the galaxy, we can break a person out of a hospital, don't you think?”

  “Of course...” Sirio said, his mind far away and the question forgotten. His heart was pounding and his mouth dry. Feeling bitter and sad, his eyes filled with tears.

  “Eldgh, I beg you, treat her like a princess. I still don't know if we're doing the right thing.”

  “My dear Terrestrial friend, even I have doubts about this, but you love her with all of your being: if you've decided that she should live, that means that it was the right thing to do.”

  “I think that only she could decide what's right for her.”

  “You've never been able to understand to what ends she would cling to life?”

  “In any case, she wanted to live. And you, first officer of a people which repudiate the idea of dying in space, you should know better than I do. But I ask myself: would an existence on board an alien spaceship be considered life, for a human?”

  “Sirio,” Eldgh said, putting a hand on the Terrestrial's shoulder: “I can only tell you that I would prefer living on board a Terrestrial spaceship to dying.”

  Sirio put his hand on that of the Taahrian. “Take care of her,” he said, looking at the other.

  “I swear that we will give her feelings of well-being, make her believe that she's in paradise, and allow her to see places that she's never even dreamed of. She'll soon feel like the queen of the universe.”