The Bridge | Bots 'R Us

Chapter 34 | Strategies in Motion

PORTLAND METRO COUNCIL, JAPANESE GARDEN
IN THE AFTERNOON

"I recognize this place! It's the Moon Bridge! Is this where we're having the meeting?" I asked Hector as we reached the elegant wooden structure spanning the creek and got off the mag-lev bikes Bryan had loaned us.

"No, this is just where our contact from the Goose Hollow Healing Center is supposed to meet us."

We walked to the middle of the bridge to better enjoy this serene place while waiting for some guy named Joe. "How lovely," I muttered to myself. I sat in the middle of the span, resting against a railing pole, and invited Hector to come sit next to me, contemplate, and take a moment to stop time in this eternal place. We observed the harmoniously curated vegetation through the opposite railing's frames as if detailing elaborate paintings in a grand gallery. For a short moment, we forgot our insane race to save our world. Canopies of maple trees, a stream's melody, our paths will lead to glory.

"You see, Hector, I doubt all this would still be standing if we hadn't implemented The Bridge." I heard a bird that sounded like it agreed.

"Hear that bird?" Hector said. "It says, 'What's left for the living if you preserve everything?'"

I chuckled. "I guess we all hear what we want to hear. I fought to preserve all I could in the early days, but everything changed after the Transcendent Exile."

This was the perfect place to take a moment of introspection and look back at a life that belonged to the CS. In our AI-managed direct democracy, First Councilors were influencers, not leaders. After Chavez's death, I was called to that position many times over the years. Before the war, I used to travel the world. After, Washington City became my ivory tower. On that Moon Bridge, on that day, I decided to take back my biologist's life.

"Once we've stopped the Czarists, I'm done!" I told him. "This new adventure has fired me up! I haven't felt this free in ages!"

"That's you being human again and Sarah's body talking," Hector commented.

"Look! This is what the Jonah recorded on our way to Kalama!" I pulled from a pocket the data pearl Richard had given me at the end of the trip to show some scenes to Hector. "So much beauty in that ocean! The planet is back, Hector! This is the good news I want to share, not some pseudo-sacred leader of uncaring humans. If only I could capture again all the beauty in this park with just a tap on my temple. We can't let those brutes abuse Earth again the way their ancestors did!"

"We won't, Kawika. We won't! Oh, I see our guy—"

A tall, lanky man, with bony features and long dirty blond hair tied in a ponytail, made his way towards us. Gliding on his hoverboard through the abundant greenery, he joined us on the bridge in no time.

"Hello, I'm Joe!" he said, extending his right hand to me, his board in the other hand. "Hi Hector!" he added with a smile.

"Do I need introductions?" I asked Joe.

"I guess not," he replied with a quick laugh. "But gosh, you really look like a young Sarah! We know her from her portraits as an older woman—our Elder, so it feels a bit strange to be in front of her young flesh-and-bone version, animated by the spirit of the one we used to call the 'sold-out son,' or 'S.O.S.' You get it?" Joe winked at me.

"I get it," I sighed gently. "You also know I've been forgiven and adopted by the mothership, don't you? And that I inherited some of Sarah's talents in the process?"

"Heard about it, yeah!" He smiled. "So, you guys called me. What do you have in mind?"

Hector volunteered: "In the next hours, Kawika will make public their transformation. Once they're back in Washington City and in the limelight, they won't have a lot of contact with us for a while. I believe now's the time to regroup and talk strategy, maybe have a virtual conference on higher grounds?"