Wake Me In The Future (37 page)

Over the following days, the authorities on each planet hurriedly set up meetings with representatives from all their societies, to discuss and agree the proposals to be put forward to those attending the reconciliation meeting with the Cryogens and their supporters.

Even before any formal response came from the authorities, all those Manoorans involved with the protesters, at whatever level, were given full amnesty and apologies came flooding in from various parts of the system. The Manoorans couldn’t do enough it seemed, but it would have to wait until the reconciliation meeting before the true extent of their guilt would be seen.

My hopes that all my own personal conflicts would be resolved at the same time that Ramoon’s plans were revealed had not materialised. I’d been totally confused by Ramoon's reference to having Helen destroyed and there’d been no time to discover if there was any more to the story. Compounding this was the fact that I’d still not been given the unrestricted access to the main system that I needed. In fact access had been restricted even more for the immediate future as a result of the Manooran’s shock at what they considered its failings.

Freedom of certain information and access to the system, especially around the Cryogen project was one of the proposals that Jon and his fellow representatives were taking to the reconciliation meeting.

‘So it’ll have to wait a little while longer I am afraid,’ he said, when I again expressed my frustration. ‘I know you’re eager to find out about Helen, and you know I am too, but we can’t rush any of this, it affects the future of everyone. I am sorry Richard.’

So in the absence of anything constructive to do, and with a sense of frustration, I returned home with my family and set about finalising the alterations to it that we’d all been planning.

Jennifer, Simon, Earl and Ankit all re-acquainted themselves with the family and the party we threw was at least more genuine than the one we’d sprung on Ankit. I was amazed when Simon and Earl helped me arrange a barbeque – right in the middle of the dining room!! (Although it looked like we were on Bondi Beach by the time my two friends had finished).

The general well being and good feeling that prevailed during that week was infectious, and reminded me of the Christmas period in my own time, when everyone, for that short period, became friends again. I’d even enjoyed the meetings that Jon had arranged for all the Cryogens on 'Earth One' to discuss the proposals they were going to put to the authorities. Jon had been true to his word in letting everyone be involved.

Finally the day of the reconciliation meeting arrived and it was to be broadcast, real time across the whole system, and as such Rachel had insisted we look the part, so had invested considerable time in choosing the clothes that were
just right
.

I looked down and thought how expensive the suit I was wearing looked, and smiled at the thought of the clothes I’d worn to my old school reunion. I wasn’t going to get away with an old T.Rex t-shirt today -
I must find out if their music is still played
,
I
thought, and set a mental note to ask Rachel.

The conference room looked twice the size it had the previous week. The whole wall on one side seemed to have disappeared and beyond it was another room, virtually linked by technology. I thought it might as well have been one room just divided by the force field used by the Hover Pods, because, unless anyone tried to walk from one side to the other, they would have never known that each side of this expanded room was on a different planet.

Both sides of the virtual conference room were beginning to fill with the representatives from across the system; Cryogens and Manoorans alike. As I scanned the room I recognised some well known faces of celebrities from my past, or at least people wearing their bodies, and it crossed my mind that some of the less familiar faces may be current celebrities.

It pleased me that I wasn’t at the top table this time, public speaking and being the centre of attention had never been my thing; perhaps another of Helen’s traits that had rubbed off on me? I didn’t know, but I'd never had any desire to be well known, or even famous, like so many of the people I'd grown up with. 

But I was just like a lot of men in one respect, I was a big kid when it came to gadgets and technology, and I was truly fascinated by the technology being deployed to bring the people in this meeting together.

As I looked to the front it was impossible to tell that the Representatives on both planets weren’t sitting next to each other. Jon sat where the table in this room met the table from the other room, virtually next to the head of the highest Manooran official on the other side. From the point of view of the audience it looked like they were sitting in the centre of one very long table.

When everyone had taken their seats Jon lifted his arms to quieten the room before giving a general introduction of the people at the top table; particularly the highest ranking official, and large elegant man sitting next to him, Bashir Khan. He then outlined the process undertaken over the previous week in an effort to arrive at the proposals that were going to be put forward.

'There will be a need for further meetings in order to agree the minutiae of the general proposals that we're going to outline now.' he said, 'But today is the start of a new beginning for us all.'

When he’d finished he handed the room over to Bashir Khan to deliver the authority’s proposals. ‘Thank you,’ the official stood up and nodded his acknowledgment of Jon, and then began to set out the consolidated proposals of the Manooran authorities.

Amongst the most significant of these was a proposal to hand over the Cryogen project to an all Cryogen team, and to accept revival of biological bodies if that was their wish.

'There will be no pressure as to when or even if, any biological human moves to an artificial body.' he said.

A planet was offered to house the future expanse of the biological humans.

‘However,’ said Bashir with a noticeable break in his voice, ‘if you ask us to, then all Manooran humans will vacate Earth One.’ An audible gasp could be heard from the Cryogen room. That would definitely be rejected, I felt sure.

'Finally, Cryogens and biological humans will have full representation on all authorities throughout the system.'

When he'd finished and sat down the applause from the Cryogen side was rapturous. We all knew that what had been offered was more than we expected, and some of us knew what Jon’s response was going to be.

When he stood up the room once again fell silent, and he addressed his speech to the other side of the room.

‘I’d like to first of all offer our thanks to you for the proposals that have been put forward today. Before we knew we could revive our race, all we Cryogens wanted to do was to live in peace without any threat. The opportunity to re-create our race has come as a great comfort to many of us.

However, a lot of discussion has taken place over many years regarding what we want, not just over the last week and I can confidently tell you that I represent almost all of us when I say these words.’ And he turned to Bashir.

‘All we’ve ever wanted was to live in peace and not feel threatened. All of us living in this Solar system are different types of beings than those we started off as, we all have different origins, but it’s what we’ll become together that will create our common future, a future where we can share a common past.

We want, as you do, to become one race; and with a little effort from all of us I am sure we can forget our past differences and achieve that end.

The biological expansion that will occur as a result of those people still preserved will add to the diversity of our race and boost our numbers and it will be down to them when, or if, they decide to move to artificial bodies, and I am sure there will be those that will choose not to make that transition, and they themselves will form yet another diverse group within our collection of societies.

There are those too that wish to explore the universe around them and I hope we can find it within ourselves to offer this to those inquisitive enough to desire it, whilst still protecting those that wish to remain in this system.

The word that should define us from now on should be ‘together’, because together we can move forward, taking what we can from the past and creating new art and literature and music, that will come to be our future. We can all get what we want from this if we work together, for each other as well as ourselves.

We propose that any terms other than
human
as references to describe us are immediately discouraged.

We are all human now, so there is no need to be vacating planets or putting any aside for any reason other than to accommodate the diverse Societies that we already live our lives by.’

He looked down to the information sheet he was holding, as if reading from it. Then looking back to the audience with a smile, he added, ‘These are the proposals and responses,’ and he paused, ‘from your fellow humans.’

The applause and cheering went on for quite a while and through his watery eyes I saw Jon lean forward to shake the hand of Bashir as he said ‘here’s to our future.’
That’s not going to happen
, I thought. But the wall was not only able to manipulate images and sound, it could also reshape, and as Jon held out his hand it sunk into the wall and the part of the wall in front of Bashir’s hand morphed out to take its shape, and Bashir shook it!

The system made it look exactly as if these two men, on different planets were actually shaking hands. Then, all along the wall, the same was happening; the two feet on either side of the virtual walls was morphing any object that was passed into it. As they entered the wall on one side they emerged out of the opposite side to be accepted. It really was like magic.
What a wonderful world.

As people began to leave, from the exits on each planet, they were handed their invitations to the evening’s celebratory party that was being held in the same rooms.

It had been a long day for us all but my wife and daughter were obviously made of sterner stuff, because as we left Rachel reminded me that they had been given permission to go to the surface, and they were going to take a picnic. 'Why don't you come with us?'

‘I wish I could,’ I said, ‘but I’ve promised to meet with the others to discuss and review the current Cryogen project processes. Make sure you get back home for six o’clock to give yourself time to get ready for the party.’ And as they left I said, ‘Don’t eat too much.’

I didn’t bother to change that evening, I was particularly fond of the suit I was wearing and didn’t believe anything else could better it for the occasion. I didn’t even have to ask for a brand new one because all clothing was self cleaning; I just had a quick shower to freshen myself up. I laughed to myself, thinking how many times I’d re-worn used clothes and underwear in my past, it seemed a man thing – I tried to convince myself, Yes, it must have been, even Helen had let me do it.

Rachel, however, went over board, any excuse to get dressed up and preen herself – definitely a woman thing. But to me it was worth it, and she hadn’t disappointed tonight. The green satin dress hugged her body like a thin veneer of paint over an exquisite sculpture. And along with the Golden shoes with invisible high heels that seemed to lift her into the air, she would have knocked any supermodel in my day for six. If I’d ever been able to whistle I would have.

‘You don’t think it’s too much do you?’ she asked, with a look that betrayed her absolute confidence.

‘Definitely not,’ I said as she admired herself again in the mirror, ‘I think it’ll be perfect for this type of function, if it’s anything like the ones the bank used to put on.’ Then I added, ‘I’ll tell you one thing though, I can’t wait to finally meet Amira, it’s almost like she’s never existed to me.’

‘Oh dear, I am afraid you’re going to be disappointed again. I asked Ankit earlier if she was coming and he confirmed what I suspected. Amira doesn’t like going out in public, she’s a bit of a recluse. You’re going to have to wait until they invite us over to their home.’

'Oh right, well that's a shame. I suppose we'll eventually get to meet her when she's ready.'

When we arrived at the function, except for the technology, it did turn out to be very much like the events my bank used to host. Everyone was milling about with drink and food, but instead of human waiters and waitresses, we were served by the robotic drinks and food cabinets that moved amongst the guests, stopping at those that showed interest. And I still couldn’t get over that wall, when I saw people in one side of the room lean over and take drinks from the opposite side – as if no physical barrier or distance separated them.

Everyone was discussing how they felt about the outcome of the meeting, and the general consensus was that it marked a new beginning for the human race. ‘I am just glad I’ll finally be able to travel outside the Solar system at some stage,’ said Rachel.

After a few hours I began to feel exhausted. I often felt out of my element at big events like this and tonight I had a peculiar sense of foreboding which made me just want to go home, so I went in search of Rachel. She’d been discussing the past with Simon, Earl and Jennifer and I just caught the end of a question being put by Earl.

‘…so I wonder how we’ll deal with the ethnicity issue.’

Jennifer was tilting her head quizzically, ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.

‘Well, the majority of humans are now Asian but there's virtually no one of that ethnicity awaiting revival; for some reason hardly any chose to be suspended. On the other hand there are an equal number of all the other ethnic groups,’ he stopped and looked at Jennifer and Simon.

‘Which means?’ asked Simon, not understanding where Earl was going,

‘Well, it could mean, that if the Cryogens coming back in biological form, go on to take up an artificial body representing their own ethnicity, then the current ethnic majority today could become the minority of tomorrow. It might be a long way off, but that’s the way it looks.’