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Ryan & The Earth's Secret

Prologue to the novel: Ryan & The Earth's Secret.

By Cai and DenzPublished 3 years ago 10 min read
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('Ryan daydreaming about Earth' Illustration by Revv | Insta @_r.cai)

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen earth. We inhabited Mars in the year 2321. Generations have passed and we’ve been living here peacefully. Everyone is going about their business whether that’s leaving school or heading home from work. I’m currently sitting in a tube with a crowd of people. It's the AutoGround, which gives civilians a quick transportation here and there. It’s pretty much the same as a train or metro. I’m headed to my old house. I plan to get my own place. I think it's about time I moved out. The house actually belongs to my parents but they passed away 2 years ago. I miss them a lot but as the saying goes, life moves on - and onto new adventures!

Life here on Mars parallels the life of late earth, except there’s not much nature that surrounds us. You could say it’s like New York but multiplied by one hundred. You might be wondering, how do we survive here? Yes, Mars may not have much oxygen or the same amount of gravity, but this is where I introduce to you, Iris. I tap on my Eppla watch.

“Hey Iris! How many Earth days are we on?” I asked a bit too loudly, which made people on the tube give me weird looks. What can I say, everyone seems to dislike Earth so much, but for me it’s intriguing.

“Hello, Ryan! It has been 260,610 Earth days since humanity has last moved to Mars.”

“Damn that long huh. Hey Iris, do you think we’d ever move back. You know, to Earth?”

“Sorry I didn’t understand that. Please ask again.” I shake my head. Of course Iris wouldn’t know that, it’s a stupid question. Iris is our smart watch that keeps us grounded on Mars and provides us with the appropriate air we need. It balances our bodies in a sense to accommodate this environment. It’s one of the main reasons why we can survive here.

I look outside the window and off into the distance to see pale Earth. I’ve heard stories of how green and blue it looked from space. Earth is an enigma, and what little they teach us at school seems to be amazing. Everyone here doesn’t care much for Earth’s history. Frankly, I’m quite the opposite. I mean who doesn’t want to know where we came from? Even my parents and grandparents scolded my curiosity. They were against me expanding my knowledge outside of the school’s curriculum. Can you believe that! People trying to stop me from education! I guess striving to learn is not necessary anymore these days.

“Next Stop is Subdivision 3.” The tube announces the next destination, which is my stop. As the doors open, I step out onto the city. It’s quite bright outside, and the hustle and bustle of people are coming down to a simmer. Everyone is on their way home since it is late in the afternoon. You can see some people using their Eppla, talking through holograms, riding their hover-boards, or interacting with food shops.

No one runs these shops. It’s just touch screens and A.I. that create food instantaneously. Pretty convenient, however I prefer to leave robots out of the kitchen. I’ve heard the old Earth saying, you should cook food with love otherwise it won’t taste as good. And robots don’t have emotions. So, try putting two and two together… you’ll get the picture. Oh and… not to brag, but I would say I’m a decent cook.

Despite not having much greenery outside, we do have some green houses that allow for vegetables and fruits to be grown. Meat, eggs, and poultry are normally located in labs where livestock are taken care of. I pass by one of the greenhouses that I sometimes visit, it's one of my favourite places to stop by because of a familiar face. Mr Greene. He always gives me a wave and a smile before he lectures me. Which by the way is an often occurrence.

“Don’t get yourself in trouble again now!” He says pointing a finger. Ah, he still remembers that, but I’d prefer if we don’t talk about it. You see, Mr Greene oversees this greenhouse where the garden droids do their work with tending and harvesting crops.

I continue making my way downtown. Walking fast, faces pass and I’m home bound. Damn, I guess I do have to talk about it. Ever since I stumbled across an old musical artifact in the restricted section of the library, I couldn’t get that song out of my head. I had a short ban from the library because I shouldn’t have been snooping in restricted areas. They limit our knowledge of Earth, as you all know by now, which sucks because that song was a bop. A Thousand Miles, I think? Whatever the song was called, we need more of that stuff. Mars music nowadays, is really all just cyberpunk techno and hella annoying over auto-tuned crap. Quite boring and a pain in the ear! Of course that’s just my biased opinion. But I’m 99.9% always right.

Humming the tune of A Thousand Miles, I pass by a few other blocks until I reach my soon to be old home. It is a decent size. Not too big, not too small. The houses in this district are plain and white with silver rimmed windows and doors. Modern, yet futuristic. Perfectly trimmed hedges lined the outside creating a fence. The neighbors were walking their pets, lounging outside, or simply staying inside. A.I. Bots tended to the gardens and kept the houses in order. Almost every day routines. Where is the fun? Enough rambling, speaking of inside, I have things to get done.

I head up to the front door and scan my retina. Biometrics were the keys to our homes. Everything was clean and clutter-less. That’s how we lived. Simple and empty. Boring and tasteless. No individuality. Anyways, I make my way upstairs to open the attic. With the push of a simple button, the glass stairs come out. A few box shaped storage containers litter the attic floor. I maneuver around and push some boxes aside to make space for me to organize. I sit down on the floor and start unpacking some items. I need to figure out what I want to keep and what to leave behind. Without any surprise, there wasn’t much here. We live simple lives so this should be quick. I hope.

The first box was labeled toys. I don’t think I’d be needing any of these to be honest, but let’s have a look anyways. A lot of puzzle toys and brain teasers are sitting in the box, but I pull out a pair of virtual reality goggles. I remember playing with this a lot. These goggles are fixed with a device that emits neurotransmitters to the brain. This lets you physically be in certain worlds. Obviously, not really physically but mentally puts you in different worlds based on the frequencies sent to your brain. Video gaming at it’s finest. Mhm, very nostalgic.

I continue shifting from box to box, organizing different items into their keep and leave piles. Family photos, old clothes, and the like were all sorted. In the corner of my eye, I spot one box that hasn’t been touched yet. It was previously hidden by some of the other boxes. I wonder what’s in there. Managing to make my way past, I grab hold of it and inspect its entirety. There was no label or name of sorts to let me know what was inside. As I open it, I see two lab coats, IDs, a few documents, and a framed picture. To my surprise, my parents were in the photo along with another person in a lab coat.

“Andrew Smith… huh my parents had friends after all-” My Eppla watch rings suddenly making me drop the picture frame - breaking it into pieces. Frick! Do I clean this up? Wait, I should probably answer this first. I tap on my watch and Celeste’s name appears.

“Hey Ryan! How is the move going for you?” Celeste seemed very bubbly as she always is.

“It’s going alright, I guess. Nothing exciting really. Just busy with work. Getting things together, you know.” I start to push the broken pieces of the picture frame aside. Probably not the safest thing to do, but hey-ho the bots will clean it up. “Although, I did come across some of my parent’s work stuff.”

“Oh, anything interesting?”

“Not real- wait...” I notice an envelope laying behind the photo. “There’s a letter?”

“Maybe your parents left you a note! You should take a look!” I guess she’s right, it wouldn’t hurt. There is no address on it; however, there is a logo. SANA. That’s where they worked. There’s no way this is for me.

“I don’t think this was written for me.” I show her the front of the letter with the logo on it.

“Okay.” She seems a bit unsure, but I open it anyway. Curiosity may kill a cat, but good thing I’m not one. I start to read the letter out loud.

‘02/18/3033

Dear Andrew,

I know Will and I have been keeping our safe distance from you, but sadly we have no choice. We are running out of time. I feel that they are catching onto us. They can not find out! At all!’

“Are you sure you want to be reading something that’s not addressed to you?” She questions.

“SHH.” I proceed to read the letter.

‘We threw out all of our research files and any evidence that remained about Earth. I hope this letter finds you. If this does not reach you, then I pray what is left of humanity will remain unharmed.

Here is the secret code: TEKCOL TRAEH

Once you do find this, open it. Then burn it.

My dearest regards to you my friend,

Jane.’

“Teckol Tra-eh. Te-ck-ol Traeh.” I tried sounding the words of the secret code. What on Earth? “Do you have any clue what this could be? I have to figure this out.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to involve yourself in that stuff. Remember the library incident?”

“Teck- Teckol… Lo-ck- LOCKET! I know this code! It makes sense! It’s like the silly language my parents and I goofed around with when I was little. We jumbled up real words and made them sound funny but its all just backwards!” Who would have thought that it would be of any use.

“Ryan… there’s no way-” I could hear her in the background, but I was too focused in solving this that her voice became a blur.

“Traeh… Th- H- HEART! CELESTE! It’s a heart locket! I guess this has something to do with a heart shaped necklace. Hold on.” I remembered something earlier that was in the picture with my parents. My mom was wearing a necklace of that shape. “Look!” I show Celeste the photo. “This must be the necklace in the letter!”

“Err, you’re really asking for yourself to get in trouble.”

“Look, I promise I’ll call you right back! I just need to think! And don’t worry I won’t get in trouble.”

“NO, RYAN! DON’T END TH-” I quickly end the hologram call and continue to examine the puzzle pieces that my parents left behind. I don’t know why I feel this way, but I strongly think that this was all meant to happen. Firstly, why would they teach me their little riddles. Secondly, if this isn’t directed at me, then that only means someone else knows the little riddles that me and my family do!

There is no way I can just sit around and let this mysterious discovery pass me by. I quickly look back at the letter and notice a date. The year on the letter stated 3033. That’s when my… parents died. This is no mere coincidence. I have to figure out what the hell is going on!

Sci Fi
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About the Creator

Cai and Denz

Cai is a pianist, a writer and loves to draw.

Denz is a lyricist, fiction writer and sometimes a poet.

Both base their writings on emotion, experience & thoughts encountered throughout their life.

We hope you enjoy!

Instagram @_a.denz @_r.cai

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