Legacy

“Mr. Rodriguez.”

Dim light pierced Manuel’s eyes. He tried to raise his arm but the limb felt heavy.

“Easy. You’ve been asleep for years.”

“Years?” He croaked.

“Yes, 150 years.”

Tingling, running up and down Manuel’s body.

A hand touched his face. He turned. The woman’s expression was kind, her face beautiful her blonde hair pulled up.

She held a straw to his lips.

“Drink slowly,” she cautioned.

He sipped through the straw. The liquid was cool and sweet.

“What is it?”

“A combination of electrolytes and other nutrients.”

Suddenly he saw flashes of memory. A pretty, dark-haired woman, holding a little girl. Walking on the beach, a blue house behind him, the same woman standing on the deck.

The woman turned to a screen next to his bed, tapping quickly.

“It looks you’re recovering well. Let’s sit you on the side of the bed now.” She gripped his hand, pulling him to a sitting position. She was strong enough to lift him alone.

“What was that tingling I felt before?”

“A neuro stimulant.” She indicated an intravenous line in his arm. “You haven’t moved your body in a long time.”

“Do you have a name?” he asked.

“Oh, I’m sorry, sir. I should have told you already. My name is Akaria.”

“Akaria? That’s a beautiful name,” Manuel said.

She smiled. “Thank you, sir.”

He eyed her clothing. She was in a close-fitting, light blue and silver suit made of a smooth, silky material.

“Am I going to have to wear one of those?” he asked uncomfortably, seeing it molded so well to her body.

“Of course, sir. This is standard issue. Yours will be a different color, of course, depending on your work assignment.”

Work assignment? Manuel wondered to what kind of world he had awakened. Why had he chosen 150 years?

“Time to stand, sir.” She held out a hand as he slid off the table.

“I feel pretty good,” he said, surprised. “Whatever’s in that stuff you gave me, I feel like a million bucks.”

“A million bucks? What are bucks?”

“Sorry, it’s slang. For money?”

Akaria shook her head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Manuel was surprised. “You don’t have money? I don’t remember much, but I know I had money. What happened to it?”

“I don’t know what to tell you, sir,” Akaria said. “Now that you’re on your feet, it’s time to go to our ReWake counselor.”

“Okay,” Manuel was nervous. He didn’t know what to expect to learn next.

“Follow me, please,” Akaria said, leading Manuel out the circular door, which opened automatically at their approach. The room they left was dim, but the hall they entered was brightly lit.

The hall was smooth and round, the same blue as Akaria’s suit intertwined with a light green.

“This is the cryosleep floor, sir. Milocek’s office is this way.” The hallway curved with round doors set into the inner wall.

Akaria stopped and tapped a glowing panel next to one of the doors.

With a soft ping, the door opened. A fit man with dark hair and olive skin stood up behind a clear desk.

“Please come in, Mr. Rodriguez,” he said.

“Goodbye, Mr. Rodriguez, sir,” Akaria said, bowing slightly. “It was an honor to serve you.” She left the room.

“Please, sit,” Milocek said, indicating a clear molded chair. “Is there anything I can get for you?”

“I am hungry,” Manuel said.

“Of course, my apologies,” Milocek said. He turned to a small speaker behind him and, pressing a button, said, “nutrition capsule, please.”

A moment later, there was a small clink! from the slot beneath the speaker. Milocek slid the slot open and took out a small tray. He turned and held it out to Manuel.

“Here you are, sir.”

Manuel looked at the tray in astonishment. It held a single shiny capsule, bright green in color.

“Um, what is that?” he asked, confused.

“It is a nutrient capsule, sir. This capsule contains one day’s nutritional needs.”

Manuel took the capsule, staring at it doubtfully. People here didn’t eat food, but just took a pill every day?

He looked up at Milocek.

“Can I get a glass of water to take this pill with?”

It was Milocek’s turn to look confused. “Water, sir?”

“Don’t tell me you don’t drink water.”

“Oh, no,” Milocek smiled again. “We consume an electrolyte drink that keeps us hydrated.”

Manuel shrugged and popped the capsule into his mouth. He expected some resistance, but it slid easily down his throat. Surprisingly, he felt full almost immediately.

Manuel eyed Milocek’s body suit. It was just as form-fitting as Akaria’s. He really wasn’t looking forward to his. He looked down at himself; he was wearing loose-fitting gray pants and a shirt. He looked up at Milocek’s neatly styled hair and reached up to feel his own shaggy mop.

“So! Mr. Rodriguez, sir,” Milocek said. “Now that you have eaten, I can fill you in. You are given an apartment. Your nutrition capsule is delivered every morning. Today, we will examine you in medical to ensure you have no conditions which need to be treated. You’ll be given a body suit to wear, and when your job is assigned, you will be given suits in the appropriate color.”

Manuel was overwhelmed.

“Would you like the view, sir?” Milocek asked.

“Yeah, sure,” Manuel said.

He followed Milocek down the curved hallway to an enormous window. Milocek stood beside him as Manuel took in the city.

Manuel felt his breath stop in his throat. Narrow round buildings soared to the cloudless sky all around them.

Below, the streets were as white as Manny’s teeth. He saw advertising billboards at a height that would be visible to the streets.

“It looks like some things haven’t changed,” Manuel chuckled. “Although I can’t imagine what you’d be advertising with no money to buy anything.”

Milocek eyed him thoughtfully.

“Let’s head down to medical and get you checked out, sir.”

“Milocek, my memory is starting to come back a little. My wife, my daughter. I only see their faces for a second, but I’m wondering. Didn’t they come with me in cryosleep?”

Milocek hesitated.

“No, sir. The Record says you entered cryosleep alone.”

Manuel grabbed Milocek’s arm.

“Why would I do that? I remember having a lot of money. Why would I come all this way alone?”

“I don’t know, sir. It doesn’t tell us in the Record. And I don’t know anything about ‘money’.”

Manuel let go. “I’m sorry. It’s just – I don’t understand why I wouldn’t bring them. Please, accept my apologies.”

“It’s all right, sir.” Milocek continued down the hallway, and Manuel followed, feeling like a fool.

In medical, two people in silver and green were very excited to meet him. They introduced themselves as Parkel and Chantar and then ran scans on him with several strange-looking machines.

“Heart murmur and a tumor in the pancreas,” Chantar said.

“Oh, my god!” Manuel exclaimed. “I have pancreatic cancer? Isn’t that fatal? How much time do I have?”

Parkel laughed out loud. “Cryosleep patients are always so panicked when they receive their scans and diagnoses. Please, just lie on this table.”

Trembling, Manuel lay down and stared at the ceiling. He’d come all this way just to find out he had a deadly cancer? He looked bitterly at the woman who’d had the gall to laugh about it.

A large piece of equipment began to glide slowly down his body. He felt a burning sensation as it paused over his chest, and then just below his ribcage. It was more painful as it paused there, and Manuel fought to keep from crying out.

“Okay,” Parkel said, “you can get up now, sir.”

“Everything is repaired, Mr. Rodriguez,” said Chantar, bowing slightly.

“Repaired?”

“Yes, the heart murmur and the pancreatic tumor have been repaired, and we even gave you a haircut,” Chantar said with a smile.

“You can do that?”

“Yes, we can repair most medical issues, sir,” Parkel said.

Milocek handed Manuel a body suit. He took it, the others courteously turning their backs while he changed.

Removing his clothes, Manuel slipped into the body suit. He expected it to be tight and uncomfortable, but it slid over his skin easily. Unfortunately, it highlighted the potbelly he had developed before entering cryosleep. He would stand out like a sore thumb among these fit, beautiful people.

“Follow me, sir,” Milocek said, leading Manuel out of the medical bay. He led Manuel to another round door and stepped inside a small room. Manuel followed.

Milocek tapped the panel on the wall. Many felt his stomach drop and realized it was an elevator.

When the elevator stopped, they stepped out and Milocek introduced Manuel to Lideton, a dark-skinned man in a silver and red suit.

“Lideton will be escorting you to your apartment. You will not receive your work assignment until tomorrow. I suspect it will be something in genetic works,” Milocek said. “I will miss you, sir. It was such an honor to meet you.”

Manuel frowned as he shook Milocek’s hand.

“It was nice to meet you, too.”

Lideton smiled at Manuel.

“Mr. Rodriguez, it is an honor to be the guard with the honor of escorting you,” he said.

Lideton led Manuel to the exit. As with all the other doors Manuel had seen, it was round, but this one was completely made of glass. He saw people passing back and forth in body suits of several different colors. All of them were slim, fit and beautiful. Looking down at his own imperfect body, he groaned internally.

Together, Lideton and Manuel stepped outside. Several people glanced their way, and many of them stopped and stared. Manuel could feel his face turning red in embarrassment at the difference of his body’s shape, assuming that was the reason for their surprise.

Then he looked up at one of the billboards. His own face was plastered on it, turning back and forth, the words THE HERO OF ATAXIA crossing the bottom of the sign.

“What the hell?” Manuel said under his breath.

Lideton turned, tugging on Manuel’s arm.

“It’s this way, Mr. Rodriguez.”

Numb, Manuel followed. As they walked, more people stopped and stared, some with their mouths hanging open. He saw more billboards, with his face and the same slogan.

“Lideton, what is going on?”

“They didn’t inform you in cryosleep, Mr. Rodriguez? Don’t you know your discovery was what led to the society we live in today?”

Manuel felt like bands were wrapped around his chest. He couldn’t draw in a breath.

“I – I,” he wheezed. He dropped to his knees and the crowd that was forming gasped.

“Mr. Rodriguez!” Lideton cried out.

Manuel passed out.

The dim light shone in his eyes again as he blinked.

“Where am I? Was it all a dream?”

“Reality, Mr. Rodriguez,” Milocek’s voice. Manuel groaned.

“I should have told you. I thought you’d be surprised, feel heroic, and that it would jog your memory,” Milocek said.

“I certainly was surprised,” Manuel said. “What did I do to deserve this?”

“You discovered a way to manipulate the human genome. It was the beginning of what we’ve become. Because of what you discovered, we don’t age, we are all genetically perfect.”

“But the rest?” Manuel asked.

“The rest?”

“The nutrient pills, the society without money, job assignments…”

“As people perfected the human genome with your work, society became perfect. No one needs to compete for any reason – no one is better than anyone else.”

“But don’t you get bored?” Manuel said, incredulous. “No food to enjoy, nothing bad to make you appreciate the good, no pain to make you appreciate the lack of it?”

Memories were returning to Manuel. He saw himself working in a lab, hunched over a microscope, staring at a slide. Saw himself entering data into a computer. Saw himself tossing papers into the air, embracing other people in lab coats as they all danced around.

“I remember…” he said softly. “I remember solving it.”

Then Sofia’s face came to him again. Sitting next to him in a hospital bed, tears in her eyes while a doctor told him he had pancreatic cancer and it was too late to do anything about it.

He remembered the beach house, the place they were happiest.

He looked up at Milocek.

“Why can’t I remember all of it?”

“It takes a while for people who come out of cryosleep to regain their full memories. I am so sorry, sir, that you cannot remember everything. I am thrilled that you remember solving the genetic coding that has created our society.”

Manuel sat up.

“Is there anything left except for these cities of… perfection? This sameness?”

“Left, sir?”

“What’s outside the cities? Where are all the animals? The trees, the grass?” Manuel hoped his discovery hadn’t destroyed the rest of the planet.

“Oh,” Milocek said. “Outside the walls there are Wilds. Dangerous creatures roam there.”

“And how do you get from city to city without seeing these dangerous ‘Wilds’?” Manuel asked.

“The walls extend along all the roads between the cities, sir.”

“There is one place, Mr. Rodriguez, that you might like to see,” Malicek said softly. “I think it might make you feel better.”

“Nothing could possibly make me feel better about this world,” Manuel said.

“Just come with me.”

Manuel followed Milocek to the ground floor. Lideton stood back at his post.

“Milocek, why is there security if this is a perfect society?”

“There are occasions when someone’s genetic coding malfunctions, and they need to be repaired by medical. Security is needed to assist with restraint.”

Manuel looked at Milocek. “So, not so perfect after all.”

They exited and climbed into a small white car. Milocek tapped a screen on the dashboard. Soundlessly, the car pulled away from the curb and drove.

Milocek turned to Manuel.

“I’m taking you somewhere very special. I am certain you will want to see it.”

Manuel tried looking at the city, but it sickened him to see his face on the billboards. It was depressing to think his work had caused this. His breakthrough, which was supposed to cure diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, had led to this creepy Utopian hell.

The car drove out of the city, and Manuel noticed that white walls rose high around the perimeter. The walls followed the road.

Manny lost his sense of time. Milocek asked him several questions about his genetic discovery, but since Manuel hadn’t recovered many of his memories yet, he couldn’t answer them.

Finally, they arrived. The same walls that surrounded the city surrounded his blue beach house in a white box. He climbed out of the car, hurrying up the steps.

It was just as he remembered.

“How is this here? After all this time?”

Milocek smiled. “You are a legend, sir. This home has been preserved since you left.”

Manuel pulled the door open and stepped inside. He could almost smell Sofia’s perfume, nearly hear Rosa’s small feet running down the hall. But they were gone, lost to a past he’d chosen to leave for a reason he couldn’t even remember.

He walked slowly through the house. Everything was just as their family had left it. Even the refrigerator magnets were in place.

Sadly, he walked into his old office and sat down at the desk. Pulling the drawers open, he smiled at the detritus of the old life he’d lived.

Suddenly he remembered the hidden drawer. He reached under the center of the desk, and found the trigger, opening the drawer. Inside was a blue envelope with handwriting he instantly recognized. He carefully opened the envelope and pulled out a laminated letter.

Manuel,

Rosa and I miss you so much. I hope they have the cure for your cancer where you have gone. I know how much you agonized over your decision to go. But if you had not, we would have watched you die.

Never think that we blame you for leaving us behind. This was the only chance for you to live.

We will leave this house exactly as it is now, and have it preserved in honor to you and the gift you have given to humanity.

I love you, Manuel. I will dream of you for the rest of my life.

Sofia

Manuel placed the note carefully back in the envelope and closed the drawer.

As he walked out, he saw Milocek outside.

“This is where I’m living.”

Malicek turned around.

“What? This is no place to live!” He stopped, realizing who he was talking to. “It is your house. We will set up your genetics workstation here. We can deliver everything.”

“I’m not living in this box. I want access to the ocean.”

Milocek’s eyes widened in terror.

“You - you want be exposed to the Wilds?”

“Just the beach. I want to be able to walk in the sand, hear the ocean. Take this wall down so I can see the ocean from the deck.”

It took time, but they did it. They took it down. They built a newly engineered wall between his house and the road, and only opened it to bring him supplies. They didn’t know he ate the fish he caught from the sea and food he foraged in the woods.

One day, the wall opened, and a car pulled up to his house. The door opened, and a young man got out. He stood looking at the house for a moment, one hand on the door.  The breeze ruffled his black hair, and his smooth light brown skin creased ever so slightly as he smiled.

He walked up to the door of the house, where Manuel waited.

“Hello?” Manuel said cautiously to this young man he’d never seen before.

“Hello,” the man said in response. “My name is Sofiroman. I am your great-great-great grandson.”

Manuel reached out and embraced him.

“Please come in,” he said.