Infinity Curve - Lamentations to Unseen Friends Across the Vastness of Space

EP. 66 - ON SENSE OF SELF

SOFIA AND RICK WERE discussing the latest sign of oligarch interest: the mini-drone visit.

"I know you're concerned, Rick," she stressed, "as am I. It's been a few days now, and I've heard no reply on someone coming to visit the gardens. If it happens, I fear it will be one of those hyper-sensitive hybrids with the ability to probe into every word, every inflection and intonation in my voice. I can't worry about that now other than to suggest you keep moving along quickly, even to three sessions a day. Can you pick up the pace to three? Any idea how many you have left?"

He was pacing the small room, his hand on his chin. "A dozen, maybe. I could do it in four days, at three a day, but I'm trying to balance this with final preparations of the equipment and systems for the signals. I'll do what I can."

"That's a good window. I can forestall a visit for that long, even if they requested it today. I'll tell them I'm off on a multi-day trip to sell ripening vegetables, and to do it when I return. Four days is good, barring eventful interruptions, then we can get on with this thing. Are you up for it?" she wondered.

He bounced on his heels, something he did when concluding on important topics. "Sure, I'll give it a go." Pointing to his head, he continued, "There's enough up here, unscripted, unordered, to ramble perennially."

"Oh, I'm most confident in your ability to pontificate, my dear. Then that's that! I'll leave you to your microphone. Do you want the dogs in here?"

"Just leave Pete and Molli please, my constant companions. They give me context, the context I need to reinforce my understanding that we humans are a species in time on this planet. We'll have our day as will they."

Sofia threw her hands up in the air. "Okay, you're getting started on your topics, and I'm sure I've heard this dialogue a few too many times in the past."

* * *

"Much is happening outside of this opinion that I impart to you, both in my personal surroundings and the world at large. Again, based on various events that are occurring here with our living circumstances, I fear I will be unable to complete my personal mission to send these messages to you, whoever you may be. As a result, I'm advancing with haste through these recordings, hoping to complete as many as I can before I am forced to truncate my plan and execute the final stage at which I transmit the laser signal and its contents."

"In doing so, I hope to protect my dear Sofia. I know this will be my last hurrah, that sending this signal into space violates everything the oligarchic demigods represent. Not only will it be an embarrassment to those oligarchs controlling Westrich, our bastardized section of the former United States, and the unholy domain of Westrich that we reside in, called Vista. It will embarrass all demigods globally."

"Of course, there's nominal likelihood that any others will even find out about the signal's contents unless they are able to capture it via their satellites. Any satellite in the path might pick it up, but that's a matter of chance. Twelve by ten seconds of high wattage laser signal, very focused, with little diffusion. And I am not applying any level of security to it, for obvious reasons. Either way, the signal will go out, and my plan will be fulfilled. At least that is my hope and prayer."

"Sofia understood the risk ever since I hatched the plan with her. We both saw the fatalistic persona that humanity had adopted. We knew the end game, and we understood the likely result for us. Certain death, given that the price of human life has so seriously eroded since the Great Debacle. Not that it was much higher before that event."

"She knows what happens after the transmission. In an odd sense, she and I both prefer to go out that way, victims of a drone's missile or other ignominious and inconsequential finality. In those last seconds, we'll hope our lives aided someone, even if we have no idea who that someone is. Yet, I don't want life to end, nor does she. It's still too early to go. I guess it's always too early."