A Visitor to the Future - 83 - Stargazing on the Roof
If I were to be honest about it, I'd never been much of a mingler. Sure, I'd been to some fun parties in my time and maybe even caused a bit of mischief now and again, but busy social events were really not my environment of choice. I'd had a friend in my late teens who would have been in his element here today. He would have loved going between all the various people, swapping stories (and making a fair few up). Well, that and the limitless free booze.
I mingled for as long as I could stand, until I inevitably felt the need to step out onto the balcony for a moment to take a breath. It was quite cool tonight, so it didn't surprise me that so many people appeared to be in the heated pool below me. But I'd come here to distract myself from that momentarily. Slouching backwards against the railing, I could lean my head out to see the night sky up above, as if rising above the edge of the roof.
It was majestic.
The people of the Consortium didn't like pollution of any form, and that definition also included light pollution. The need for mass illumination had greatly diminished over the years as almost all driving and piloting was done by drones with far better senses than sight alone. The result was a perfectly untainted night sky around most of the world. Some of the larger cities might have issues - Paris, New York, Crensolt - but as I'd learned in my time in Anchor, even those places had times where they switched the lighting grid off to simply admire the view.
I exhaled a long breath through my mouth, inhaling deeply through the nose. It had been something that Gatecrash had been teaching me in our isolation mediation sessions, twice a week.
So when a familiar red-haired head peeked over the edge of the roof, I understandably jumped in shock.
"Ah," said Gatecrash, "My young apprentice! I thought I recognised that breathing pattern."
"Gatecrash! You made me jump. What are you doing on the roof?" I asked.
The head shrugged, the fibrous hair changing to a lighter shade of red, "Tends to be a quiet place to get away from people. Do you want to come up? If you can stand on the railing, I'll pull you up."
I looked around nervously, some part of me questioning the wisdom of the move. But in the end I moved a stool into place and delicately balanced on the balcony, as the distinctive white-and-black hands of the CI locked around my wrists and hauled me up. Gatecrash was far stronger then their lithe form would initially suggest.
I was glad at that moment that we'd gone for a more gently sloping roof at the edges. The neat brick-like roofing tiles were probably an odd place to sit, but it would do for the moment.
"Nice night," I said, staring up at the sky once more, "Better view from up here."
"I thought so," said Gatecrash, pointing a finger, "I'm not sure if you can see it, but there's Venus. I should make more time to stargaze, this is nice." Gatecrash sighed contentedly.
I looked at the CI, considering the very human-like expression. "I never really thought to ask," I said, "You can breathe, right? Do you mind if I ask why?"
"I like the feeling of synthetic lungs. It centres me, helps me relax. Plus, I prefer speaking through vocal cords over speakers. It also lets me be more expressive in my opinion. Though I know plenty of other CIs who would disagree."
"If you don't mind me saying, I think you're one of the more expressive people I know. I always like your choice in tie-dye," I said, indicating the CI's choice of red, purple, and yellow patterns on a white t-shirt.
"Thank you!" they said, their synthetic face showing a bright smile, "We do tie-dye with the kids in Baobab when they're interested. It only took a few years for me to fill my wardrobe with them. I think it's important to wear things that you care about."
We stared at the stars for a while in a comfortable silence, the conversation having come to a natural lull.
"Was everything okay downstairs?" I asked after a time, "I saw you leave Dela with Chisom."
Gatecrash sighed once again, but this time the tone was different - as if burdened somehow. "Some bad thoughts come up every now and again. Chisom and the other folks in Baobab are happy to watch Dela for a while when it happens. Nothing you've done - the party has been very nice - I just suddenly was reminded of something and needed to step out."
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. Gatecrash always seemed so balanced - what they'd taught me about meditation had been very useful in dealing with my own anxieties. It only seemed right to try and help them if I could.
Gatecrash finally tore their gaze away from the stars and looked towards me, "You know, when I first started teaching you I think I was just glad that someone got my dated sci-fi references. But you're one of the good ones, you know that?"
I was somewhat thrown off by the sudden compliment, "It seems like the Consortium is full of good ones, from my experiences."
"Yes. But the solar system wasn't always that way. I went my entire early life without meeting what I'd call a good person. Did Chisom ever tell you much about Dela? You've probably guessed that I'm her guardian, but apart from that?" Gatecrash asked.
"Chisom just told me that she's a Friendly Lynx, genetically engineered in the 2500s. As a companion animal of some sort?"
Gatecrash nodded, red hair darkening at the motion to almost a maroon colour, "Well, that's right. What I'm about to tell you might make a lot more sense if I told you that Dela is precisely one day older than I am. But she wasn't my companion. I was hers."