Poison for the Soul

Electronic Sunrise

"I'm going up!" Aderyn called down the narrow hall.

 "Check your gauges. No half tanks," her father's voice rumbled back. He limped the short trek into their common room. "And no scenic routes."

 "I know, I know." She pulled her respirator off the wall and detached it from the refill hose. "It's on full. No reason to worry unless I'm not back in six hours."

 "I don't find your jokes funny."

 Aderyn fitted the respirator straps over her shoulders and balanced the mask on her head. "Stop worrying so much, Dad. I won't be long." She reassured herself by patting the gun strapped to her thigh.

 The weapon was hidden under the long trench coat she always wore when venturing out, but her father noticed the gesture and shook his head. "Times like this I miss take out."

 "Take out?"

 "You used to be able to call a restaurant and order food that some delivery driver brought right to your home." He sighed. "I'd pay the biggest tip of my life for some pad thai right about now."

 "Forty-three has something like that. Not an actual person, but you can order off the command menu and food shoots through some tube system to your pod." Aderyn pulled on gloves and tucked her braid into the heavy hood attached to her coat. "That would be pretty great wouldn't it?"

 Her father snorted at the idea. "Not if it's that dehydrated crap they serve up when only rations are available." He looked his daughter up and down. The creases on his forehead etched deeper and his shoulders fell. "But if it meant you didn't have to go out there anymore, I guess it wouldn't be so bad."

 "I like it up there. I get to see the sun."

 "You see a giant recording of the sun on a television screen. They haven't broadcast a new sunrise in years. I doubt the cameras can even see it anymore." His ornery mood was worse than usual so Aderyn turned on the television to distract him and directed him to his shabby chair.

 "Just find something to watch and I'll be back before you know it." She reached for the latch on the exit door, but stopped to check her pocket for the small vial tucked inside.

 He grunted and pointed at the screen. "Can you believe this place?"

 "What place?" Aderyn glanced back at the screen and gasped. "That can't be real, is it?"

 A commercial for the newest completed development played out on the screen. A silky woman's voice described the lush garden and park centered among the living quarters. Real live trees grew several stories high surrounded by vibrant green grass and flowering shrubs. The narrator went on to explain the occurrence of rain that fell from the top story and traveled to the park below. Children splashed in puddles as a young couple rushed by, shielding themselves from the drops.

 "Number Eighty-Nine boasts beautiful living accommodations with holographic balconies available on every other level and the only development to offer accurate seasonal light times through the entire complex. Come to Eighty-Nine and live as you were meant to live."

 The screen dimmed before lighting up with an old sitcom. Aderyn couldn't decide if it was more realistic than Number Eighty- Nine. "Do you think they really built that?"

 Her father shrugged, his eyes glassy and still latched to the screen. "Guess folks like us will never know for sure, will we? This is how we were meant to live."

 Aderyn glanced around at the small pod they considered home and noted how sterile it felt compared to the luxurious quarters that had splashed across the television screen moments before. Her fingers twitched against the vial in her pocket. She huffed out a good-bye to her father and slipped out the door.