The Originators

CHAPTER 15: A VERY SPECIAL GUEST LIST (POLL)

I.

Today is packing day. Everyone is busy looking around their living spaces and deciding what to take, what to leave. Neth, Tem, Minnie, I finally spot Tara, are all whizzing around with either extremely minimal boxes or enormous mounds of cocooned belongings.

They are assisted by the air-porters (it's amusing how one day they are air-waiters, then next air-housekeepers), today they are robotic luggage handlers.

Well, maybe not so peculiar as I was the one who had to quickly reprogram them and add in new code to redirect specific activities involved with moving. It took 15 minutes to get them into the initial air-porter mode packing, lifting the luggage. Another 15 minutes was spent in the testing phase, checking for any bugs in my programming. Finally, at 30 minutes, they were fully functioning.

"Ana, who do we have left? Who is ready to arrive at the planet's shelter? We need to make the journey down rapidly. I hope you hear and pay attention to the note of urgency in my voice."

"Who exactly decided to call it a shelter? I prefer the term, 'Sanctuary', or, 'Commune'; even better 'The Originator's Collective'. Poll, who came up with the word 'shelter'? I don't feel particularly homeless."

Ana turns to me; shaking a trembling finger at me, "We are the very group that has saved the planet. Granted, Laura has been somewhat helpful, but, when you think about it she's one of us anyway."

"Ana, fine. Call it whatever you want. We have less than five days to get down there; their planet's clock is what we are paying attention to here. Thoughtlessly, you never told any of us within the next five days all of the Unies expire. Some have already expired. We don't even know if those Uni inhabitants have made it to the shelter. Have you heard from Z? From June?"

How could she have been such an imbecile?

I'm so angry. I can't stop my rant. "What I still can't get over is you knew there was an expiration date on the Unies; and, YOU withheld this information from all of us."

"I thought we had more time. Besides, I thought we agreed not to use the term 'shelter'."

Ana's response told me nothing about her thought process. What had she been thinking all this time?

"Well, we don't have more time. Unfortunately, Ana, your secrecy has caused a series of casualties and mistakes that might have been avoided if we were aware of all of the facts. Do you think Laura would have risked her life, time and time again impetuously, impulsively, if she had known she could have started far earlier?" I truly try not to lose my temper.

Ana waves a hand aimlessly, shooing away my concerns. She continues to pack.

I start again; trying to get through to her, "Do you realize I wouldn't have been an idiotic puppet, spying on, monitoring Merc for what seemed an eternity, if I knew the real timeline? Ana, you are my sister. I love you, but I am furious with you right now. Why did you keep this information secret? You still haven't given me a real answer."

I turn; holding back rage as it pushes to the surface each time I remember years of my life as Merc's favorite animatron. He subverted my will again and again. He broke me again and again. He turned me into a servile best friend, sole confidante; a passive accomplice to his many heinous acts.

Instead, I did nothing. If I had prematurely freed myself, which I could have done at any time, despite his delusions that Bat's spell was unbreakable, I might have missed his destructive plotting and planning. Monitoring Merc was my duty. A most hateful, dirty duty. I did it for as long as I did because I thought there was no early reprieve.