Part 1
Part 1.1 - Malcom Xavier
I am Malcom Xavier, and I wake up with what feels like a hangover. I have a headache and no memory whatsoever of what happened yesterday or where I am. I feel lost and confused. I look around and see a book called the Book of Whys on a table. I read through it and I get interrupted by a female voice coming from an invisible speaker.
She tells me her name is Lidia and that she's here to assist me in my mission. I was reborn 1000 years into the future, on another planet, to rebuild the a society from scratch. Her words slide past me like static. Reborn? A thousands years? Another planet? I know it's impossible - and yet the headache pulses with a strange, heavy certainty. I ask more questions, but I don't get the answers that I want.
I get angry. I tell her that they can't just take someone like this. Drug them and put them in a pod and play games with them. She swears that it's not a game, it's reality. She informs me that humanity on Earth has collapsed, but that prior to that, a probing mission aimed at colonizing another planet was successful - we are on that planet.
I order her for proofs, or else, I beg her, to let me go. I have my life that I love very much that I want to return to. (including daughter) I hear a door latch open. She tells me that the proof is to let me go.
I step into the fresh breeze of the outside and a weird smell. The stars are shining brighter than I have ever seen. The air feels different. But that is not what I notice. What I notice is the moons. The two moons orbiting this foreign planet. Their light shines bright, revealing a forest, and among that forest, rows and rows of pods - just like the one I came from.
Part 1.2 - Kayla Becker
I am Kayla Becker and am collecting the courage to contradict my father. It's a sunny Fall Sunday, and mostly feeling glad that I am still living with my parents, but today, my dad is driving me mad. We're watching the news and they just talked about the summer's drought and wildfires that left many communities vulnerable before hurricane Zeus. It's one of the biggest that the country has ever seen. We see on TV a helicopter shot of people migrating by foot. Climate change refugees they call them. They mention that the country is overwhelmed by them and cannot assist everyone.
My dad just made a comment about not wanting any of these fake refugees in our town. He says that if they come here, they'll destroy everything. Our community was lucky and got rain, so we have a decent harvest and no wildfires came. As he makes another comment, I burst. I tell him that I believe in the goodness of people, and that we should help them. If we were in their situation, we would want people to help us. He shakes his head. Says I don't understand. Desperate people are willing to do anything to survive. To kill even. The existing food distribution has collapsed and we're lucky to have a resilient community that grows a lot of its own food.
I storm off, feeling angry and misunderstood. I don't understand how he cannot see what I see.
Part 1.3 - Malcom Xavier
I am Malcom Xavier, I can't sleep. I am processing the fact that I am on another planet 1000 years into the future. I had tried to knock on a few pods, but I got no answers. I came back into my own pod for its warmth. I had tried to get Lidia on the intercom with no success.
I spend days processing my situation. I cry for I know my loved ones are dead by now, including my daughter. I cry because I know I did not appreciate planet Earth as it deserved. I cry because our species failed - it did not manage to prevent its extinction.
I read the book of Whys and get new insights from it. I go for walks, enough to realize that the pods seems to extend as far as I can walk in every direction. I try to sit on that weird machine in my pod with no success of making it work.
One day, I heard Lidia's voice again, and this time, I was happy to hear it. She greeted me and asked me if I was doing better. I asked her why I was chosen. She tells me that I chose myself. I chose to believe in myself and that is why I am here. It is by believing in myself that I created a podcast called Ways of thinking. I tell her that I don't remember creating such a thing, that I don't remember anything. She reassures me that it's normal.
I ask her about what happened to me. She says my old me has died, a long time ago. I am but a snapshot in time of who Malcom Xavier was. A copy/paste whose life can start to branch out in different directions.
I ask her about what happened to the original me. She answers that the podcast is the last record of me. After that, it's like I've disappeared. Like I went to sleep, never to wake up.
I ask her about what I am to do here then. She suggest I climb onto the memory simulator - the strange looking machine I had tried with no success. She explains that through it, I can relive the memories of people that came after me - literally becoming them. I agree to try.
Part 1.4 - Kayla Becker
I am Kayla Becker and I'm collecting my courage to stay quiet. I am now 15 years older and live another small town. It's a sunny Fall Sunday and mostly feeling glad to be living with my partner. We're watching the news and they just talked about the summer's drought and wildfires that left many communities vulnerable before hurricane Sisyphus. Another hurricane that is breaking records. They show a flashback of hurricane Zeus 15 years ago, how it had led to hundred of thousands of casualties including the mayhem that followed. It had taken years for the government to recover from the combined natural disasters. We see on TV a helicopter shot of people migrating by foot - close to us. Climate change refugees is now a common term. They mention that the country is yet again overwhelmed by them and cannot assist everyone.
My partner just made a comment having to help them. She says she believes in the goodness of people. I stay quiet. I now know what desperate people are willing to do to survive - I know what my father meant. Some things, like the poor foresight of this Nation repeats itself as the Nation forgets. Some other things change, like my view toward refugees, as there are some things we can never forget. Like the dead body of my father killed in the mayhem 15 years ago. Like becoming a refugee myself afterwards. Like being willing to do anything to survive. But also being helped when I needed it the most.
I stay quiet, feeling torn between wanting to push others in need away, or to help them and potentially bringing my own demise.