Exigency

Chapter 1.0

“In nature, chaos leads to order, order leads to chaos, again and forever in this way, and at all scales, infinite and infinitesimal.”

 -Foster Dill Norte - UNIVERSAL, 2066

The cursor bobbed in the air before her: deep purple_ foliage. She opened her bio eye and unblurred the background in her prosthetic fone eye. Paragraphs of text floated with Minnie’s gaze as she studied the view from her cabin’s patio. Blue salvia shrubs flanked the shaded cobblestone path from the bottom of the patio stairs, all the way down to the lake. Just above the distant hillside vineyards, the sun shone at late afternoon, its rays bouncing from the lake’s mellow ripples to the blossoming flowers.

Among all the pristine scenery, the salvia stood out to her. Blue flowers—blaue Blume—symbols of hope and beauty, of love and desire, of the infinite and unreachable. Yes, blue would work much better than purple. A smidge transcendental, but screw it. If Minnie’s readers caught it, great. If they interpreted the color as arbitrary, so be it. The rest of her essay should prove explicit enough for its intended audience.

Minnie rested her head against the lounge chair back and closed both eyes. The doc re-sharpened before her, cursor still bouncing: deep purple_ foliage. She selected purple and recursed for each instance.

Behind Minnie, beyond the wide-open threshold leading into her cabin’s living room, wee nails tik-tik-tik’d across the hardwood floor. She turned just as her pet ferret, Noodle, skittered onto the patio’s decking, and leapt up onto Minnie’s lap.

Noodle wriggled his pointy face into her neck and said, “Are you still working?”

Too ticklish, she pulled him back down to her legs and stroked his back. “Yeah, I have to get this essay done before group. At least the first draft.”

“What’s it about?”

“Context, perspective, and scale. I think it’s pretty solid so far, but who knows if anyone will actually read it.”

Uncharacteristic silence from Noodle. He rested his chin on his fist. Curious, Minnie glanced at the clock in her fone and waited while rubbing his ears. His anthropomorphized face conveyed deep contemplation.

He finally broke the silence. “So you’re feeling down about that?” He nodded encouragement, brow furrowed: This is a safe place for sharing.

Minnie smiled and went along with it. “Well, Doctor … I wouldn’t say down. Just, I don’t know, more wondering than anything else, I guess. I’m supposed to produce these things bimonthly.”

“And you came here to work,” Noodle went on, a flit of his tiny paw toward the lake and mountains. “Not so confined as the station?”

Minnie’s amusement hiccupped. What the hell was Noodle going on about? Since when did he give two licks about the station? Confined? And then she realized exactly what was happening.

She rolled him onto his back and glowered. “Et tu, ferret?”

“I’m sorry!” He pleaded. “I couldn’t help it! It wasn’t me! Some trigger … You must’ve said something flagged!”

“I’m going to go work in peace.” She pulled up the game’s main menu. “You know, what I came here for.”

Noodle attempted a final apology as he, and the rest of the game app, dissolved before Minnie.

She opened her eyes. The lights in her quarters undimmed.

Sliding out of bed, she growl-sighed. Was nothing sacred? With all the assessments and measures in place, did the station’s psych monitors really need to be invading her personal game? Hijack one of her pets? She was the last person on the station to consider at-risk.