In the shadow of the stolen light
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The young man finished chewing and gave her a cunning grin.
“Just kidding.”
“We only grow fruit and vegetables. There are several plantations on Titanium.”
“How old are you, Lora?” suddenly asked Derek, moving his glance hidden behind the dark glasses away from the meal to Lora.
“Twenty-two.”
He slightly moved his head away.
“I didn’t mean to ask personal questions… The doctor said the tests have shown that my biological age is about twenty-seven years old. But I don’t remember even one year of my past life. Do you have parents?”
“Of course, I do,” affirmatively nodded Lora. “Unlike eggs, people are born naturally here. My parents live on the Epsilon, one of the five satellite ships of Titanium. They spend most of their time in scientific expeditions. They are astrophysicists. We don’t see each other very often.”
“What about when you were a kid?”
“Parents care for their children until they are five years of age on Titanium. After that the young generation enters the educational programme. There are guides and teachers of different subjects, who pass the knowledge accumulated by the past generations to the young citizens.”
“It must be hard to get separated from your parents at such a young age.”
“Why would you think that?”
“On Earth the bonds between children and parents are unbreakable. They stay together and show their love and affection.”
“I love my parents,” agreed Lora, “And they love me too. Certainly, the strength of our feelings doesn’t depend on distance.
“Are you forced to send your children away?”
“Of course, not!” Lora was shocked, “Everything we do is done of our own free will. We have no laws.”
“No laws…” with more seriousness stated Derek, totally losing his appetite.
“Hello! I see you are having a lively discussion here!” Paul appeared next to their table. “May I?”
“Of course,” nodded the girl. “Derek, this is Paul, the shuttle captain who has brought the rescue unit to Titanium. He was in your ward when you regained consciousness.”
“I remember this voice,” Derek nodded watching Paul greet him with a small bow, his palms together in front of him.
“I’m glad you’re better,” said the young man taking a seat at the table and ordering a meal. “I think I’ve interrupted something important.”
“Just now I was telling Derek that we don’t have laws,” explained Lora.
“I don’t understand how that can be… there were laws, codes, courts on Earth… It seems like an immutable truth…”
“General information is easier for you to remember, isn’t it?” clarified Paul.
The earthling nodded.
“The doctor said that the tough part will be to remember the details of my life. My family, work, the voyage in the interplanetary ship,” he sighed poking at the cold breakfast with his fork.
“Well, laws were necessary on Earth in order to artificially control the self-destructive side of the human nature from the outside,” Paul decided to distract Derek from his sad thoughts. “All the government and religious institutions were created with the purpose of defining what is good and bad, and to force people to abide by these rules under the threat of physical or spiritual punishment. But the concept of good and evil is inherent to every human being… And we, Andre Mendes’ followers, realize that…”
“Sounds ominous… Like a conspiracy theory…”
“It’s not a theory. It’s a rational perspective on the earthlings’ lifestyle.”
“It seems you don’t identify yourself with your motherland at all,” Derek looked at the speaker.
“Far from it,” interrupted Lora, “It’s just been a long time.”
The earthling shrugged indifferently. With Paul around he started behaving in a more reserved manner and spoke with more tension in his voice.
“The difference in the point of view became a stumbling block for our ancestors,” noted the girl seriously. “But many things could have changed after ‘Solar Flotilla’ left.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t remember that,” Derek frowned.
“Take your time,” the captain reacted calmly. “Besides, our scientists have been working hard to receive the maximum information about what happened on the ship. I think you’ve heard that the autopsy of the other person found in the ark revealed that the woman had died from a virus unknown to us. Because of the substance injected in the blood, it’s difficult to understand the details of the infection and its development but…”
“I have an idea,” Lora interrupted him, “It’s most likely that the infection was from Earth. In any case, nothing points to the alien origin of the virus. It could’ve been activated during the flight, or you were already infected when you were getting into the anabiosis.”
“I doubt that the authorities from Earth would’ve sent ill astronauts on a mission in space,” commented the captain.
“Was I an astronaut?” asked Derek.
“We’re not sure. We still haven’t been able to restore the data from the onboard computer,” the girl sighed heavily, “The scariest scenario to my mind is this: what if your ship was actually sent for help? It’s possible that people suffered from a pandemic and couldn’t find an alternative way to contain it.”
“In this case, they’d have to wait for our return for quite a long time,” noted Paul.
“What if there was no other way? Or, what if the ship from Earth carried the only survivors?”
The young men simultaneously looked at the girl.
“Derek, do you remember you said that you had very little time? It could be connected with the illness. Maybe even the anabiosis couldn’t stop the virus and you knew about it…”
Paul frowned and rubbed his temples.
“If we develop this idea further we can come to a conclusion that the Earth population has been destroyed… Two hundred years have passed…”