Transhumans

Chapter 10

“Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction.”

– Dante Alighieri

What had been a deal of only two hours became a whole day full of laughter and emotions. Luke chose to start with “Titanic”, and even though Raja tried her best not to cry, she could not help the tears from streaming down her face at the ending, something that amazed Luke very much. (“You are such a repressed romantic, who would have thought?!”). To balance it out, Raja made him watch a documentary about Ancient Egypt and conspiracies about aliens (“Truly, how did this get audience? I mean, we all know aliens DID help the Ancient World, but, come on, little green men with big eyes? No wonder they don’t like us!”). They both watched for the first time “Dial M for Murder”, and Raja told Luke how the star, Grace Kelly, had become the Crown Princess of Monaco (“What a beautiful, wonderful woman! What a pity her life ended so soon...”). But Raja decided to introduce Luke to the T.A.R.D.I.S., and they started watching the very old series called Doctor Who, by far Luke’s favourite. (“This is fantastic! Look how creative people were back then!”) When they both realised it was 11PM and they had spent all day in the Archives, Raja stood up and said it was time to leave.

“I haven’t had the chance to read any book!” he protested. “Besides, I haven’t named them all yet.”

“You can come tomorrow morning before we departure,” she promised. “I will show you our musical archive as well, if you want, and you can stay here alone. But for today, that is enough.”

“Thank you so much,” he said. “This was like a trip to the past. I can’t thank you enough.”

“Just name your students,” she replied, going back to her normal cold treatment towards him. “And do it soon.”

The next morning, as promised, she took Luke back to the Archive and allowed him to be on his own, after warning him several times and threatening him with a torturous death if he ruined a single piece of paper. She could not stay with him, for she had to prepare the expedition to meet the Transhuman group of students.

“Are you sure about his, Raja?” Councillor Rafael asked. “It seems risky for us to meet a group fo fifty seven Transhumans, especially knowing they have nuclear weaponry.”

“I understand and share your fears, Rafael,” she replied as she inspected the guns. “But it is a risk we need to take. Besides, I believe the Transhuman is being genuine.”

“Do you trust him?”

The truth was no; she could not trust him. In fact, she could not trust anyone completely. But she could never tell that to the Councillor.

“I believe he has been proving himself,” she said with a smile. “He is down there looking for names for hi students. We should give him this chance.”

“If you trust him, then why are you going armed?”

“One can never be safe enough, especially when we are clandestine.” Raja looked at the man. “Are you going to help me to inspect and store these guns, Councillor, or are you going to stand there and keep questioning me? Because if you won’t help me, the women need help in the nursery to change the babies’ diapers.”

The man quickly grabbed the ammunition box and started to store them.

“Alright,” Raja said to the group. “I have great reasons to believe this mission will be a success. However, we will keep our guard up. We will meet with a group of teenager Transhumans today, and they have announced they will be unarmed and in peace. Luke has guaranteed it is safe. Now, I still need a group of people to come with us, armed. I will choose ten men.”