The Bridge | Bots 'R Us

Chapter 24 | Declaration of War

AKAKA, BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII
2 MAY 634 - MORNING

I slept like a baby. I was just reborn, after all. I had to pinch myself, literally, to believe this was my body. Changing gender out of the blue is a strange experience. Fortunately, this new envelope feels fantastic and passed amazing secrets from Sarah's genes to mine. On top of it, the Akaka people gave me the warmest welcome! Thank goddesses for that glorious day, yesterday, for it was not supposed to last.

"You up?" Tomiko asked, popping her head in the door. "It's a big bad day. We need to start moving."

My pink bubble popped. "What's happening?" I asked her.

"I'll tell you all around breakfast," she answered.

Something else than just Kona coffee was brewing in the breakfast hall. I filled my tray with local specialties reminding me of my youth, like breadfruit porridge and poi, and lilikoi jam. I found Tomiko's table; she was sitting with two colleagues she introduced me as I dropped my tray on the table to free my hands and hug them. "This is Richard, one of our brightest engineers, and Dee, a sacred hula teacher," Tomiko said.

A couple in their late thirties, early forties, they called themselves jokingly 'Dick'n Dee,' but most of Richard's colleagues called him Anakele Richard to recognize his seniority. I fondly remembered how I called Sarah 'auntie' for similar reasons. Anakele Richard didn't look that old, but he inspired calm and confidence. Tomiko didn't waste a minute after I sat down to give me the brief.

"Kawika, I have to warn you; you may have a shock from the news I need to break to you. We've been monitoring the Czar's moves and received confirmation overnight that he is about to hit the Temple."

My heart sank twice. At first, I worried for Simone, and then I remembered the Temple. "When?" I almost yelled.

Tomiko recoiled. "Anytime, now," she said, looking at me with tearing eyes. She knew it would hurt me to the core, especially now, with the heart of one of the most compassionate beings they had ever known.

"Oh no! They did it!" Richard said who had been monitoring the feeds. He flipped up his holoscreen showing the explosion. "Look at this, it's live from Palmyra!" The stream showed the Temple's ashes with pictures of the site before the attack scrolling on the side.

Tomiko wrapped her arm around my shoulders. "You OK, Kawika? You're not looking good."

"I feel sick; it's overwhelming. I haven't felt anything like that since, I don't know, ever, maybe. Yesterday was such a high, and these images. I can't. I can't." And I could hear the distress in Sarah's voice coming out of my mouth, saddening me furthermore.

"I get it; they want to hurt the CS, but Andros will just get upset in their cold manner, and Landers may not mind that much. Why would they hit this monument? Why destroy a place of meditation, a memorial?" Tomiko asked.

"Do you know the whole story about the Temple?"

"I guess. I do. It's a monument to all the people who transferred. Each brick with the name of a person who sacrificed their body to save the Earth. That's what they say, I believe."

"It IS the people who transferred. Each brick is named after a person because it is the person! You see, to dispose of billions of discarded bodies post-transfer, the idea came up to make a monument. We couldn't bury ourselves; we weren't dead per se. Cremating billions of bodies like old carcasses would have been gross and bad for the environment. The preferred method was to liquefy and separate the organic matter from the bones, use that liquified part to nourish the ground, and"

"Make the bricks from the bones!"

"Yep! And they just blasted us all!" I was seething inside. "And you know what, it's not Nicolai who came up with that idea. I can smell a Transcendent ploy halfway across the planet! Wong's buddies are playing their revenge now. We're in it, deep."