[GE] Rain: Chapter 1

Exogenesis: the hypothesis that life may have originally formed extra-terrestrially; not on Earth.

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Monomyth: one story, dark vs. light, echoed throughout history.

Prologue

100 billion stars spinning, colliding, creating. A spiral of gas and dust, not exceptionally large by any galactic standards of such systems, but exceptional it was. At first glance, nothing but a seemingly never-ending clash of chaotic movement. Zoom in or out in any direction and chaos would eventually evolve into order. Change the viewpoint once again in either direction and order returns to chaos. But so is the nature of such things.

This particular system was special because it was dense in just the right celestial nutrients, containing the perfect combinations to create life. With almost as many planets as stars in this fertile vortex of matter, life arose in multitudes. And at an even more stunning rate, intelligence evolved. The rise and fall of sentient societies was almost commonplace – but most often these star peoples never met or even knew of one another's existence.

Too far flung out on the spiraling arms of their galactic system, riding the sweeping current of gravitational forces and locked securely on their planetary capsules, most of the star peoples simply faded away when their finite resources were used up. Most never knew there were others around them.

But as with any system of probabilities, this galaxy had outliers, statistical anomalies: abnormalities. What was truly remarkable about this galaxy was that at one peculiar time, no less than seven intelligent species all found each other. What resulted would change the universe forever. Like the struggling currents of matter that incubated their evolution, caught in tides beyond their comprehension, the beings’ crash and recoil against one another was inevitable. The change that became of consequence to their meeting was, simply put, incalculable.

As is the nature of such things – this is where our story lies.

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The man fell out of his cold-sleep pod and hit metal flooring, hard. Dripping in synthetic amniotic fluid and sputtering the goo from his lungs, the man tried to remember who he was. He was on a starship in space. He knew that and it didn’t seem alarming to him, so it must be normal. The man tried pushing himself from the cold floor but after centuries in hibernation his muscles were atrophied and he could barely lift himself.

As his hearing returned, he could feel a low bass rumble of the engines all around him. He couldn’t remember ever hearing them before, but knew somehow that there was something off about the sound. The engines were struggling. How can I know that and not my own name?

Then there was a voice speaking to him. It took a moment too long for the words to register:

“Sir, you’ve been asleep for a very long time.”

“Who…who is that? Who…who am I?”

“My name is Hermes, sir. I am your friend. And your name is Tonjin. Your memories will return, slowly. You have been asleep too long.” The voice paused. “You can’t be asleep any longer. Your body is failing, sir.”

“Why have I been asleep so long?”

Tonjin for the first time noticed his hands on the metal floor below him. They were old. He knew they were far older than when he’d gone to sleep.

“You are a war-hero, sir. I’m trying to take you home. It has taken a very long time. We’re almost to planet Rien now.”

The voice – Hermes’ voice – was coming from all around him. It was the ship talking to him, Tonjin realized. My ship?

Pieces, fragments of memories were beginning to come back to him. Like a feeling, or the echo of feelings; the backdrop of a painting, the foreground of which he couldn’t quite make out. His memory seemed to be a dark hole and when he prodded into it, he felt dizzy. It was maddening.

He was a soldier, that came back to him almost immediately. They were in a war, a desperate one. A war with…who?

“What… what is wrong, Hermes? Why did I wake up?”

“You can’t stay in cold-sleep any longer, sir. Your body, it is almost depleted.”

“Life support is failing?”

“No, sir. It’s been too long. Our engines have been failing. Your body is dying.”

“How long have I been asleep, Hermes?”

“Subjectively, you’ve been asleep for almost 100 years.”

“And in objective space?”

“Almost 5,000 years have passed, sir.”

Humanity could be gone by now. How did I let this happen?! Wait, yes, the war…we’re fighting…who is the enemy?

A grey face with big black eyes drifted into the peripherals of his mind. Other shapes were in the background, pincers and claws and tails and wings; monstrous shapes.

“What should I do Hermes?” Somehow Tonjin knew to trust this mysterious voice. Why can’t I remember?

“We’re slowing down as we near home. We’ve slowed enough now to be able to receive data signals again, news from the outside Verse. There are some things you should know.”

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Part 1

RAIN

1.

Rain was four years old today. Her dad had told her so first thing this morning. He had come into her room, as he does every morning, and whispered in her ear, “Rain, today is your birthday. You are four years old. You should be very proud. I’m very proud of you, Rain.”

He had smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead. Rain liked her dad’s smile. Then he said, “But you must keep it a secret, Rain. Nobody can know today is your birthday. It’s our secret, okay?”

Rain was only four so she didn’t understand why anybody’s birthday should be a secret, but she trusted her dad. She would do as he said. After all, it wouldn’t be hard. Rain rarely saw anyone. They were in a dry, empty place. Their tiny cottage lost among sprawling fields that once held crops. Rain didn’t like it here, but supposed they would be moving on soon anyhow.

Rain, her father, Rundin, and her Uncle Jingo moved together very often. This place was just more dry, more empty than most. Rain remembered her father saying they were somewhere outside of “Youston.” Rain thought it was a funny name. Rain wanted a dog or a cat, maybe she’d name it Youston. She said the word to herself often.

Rain also wanted a garden. She watched TV with her uncle, sometimes, and just the other night she saw the most magnificent garden in an old, old movie. There were plants and flowers and very proper-looking ladies sipping tea at tiny tables. Rain very much wanted a garden, and so she decided today she’d make one. It was her birthday after all. She had also decided that it would be easy. She would just need a little bit of help. And Rain knew exactly who to get it from – her special friends.

Rain strode confidently out into her backyard, the confidence only a newly-dubbed four-year-old could muster, and called to her friends.

And her friends came. They were immediately attracted to her voice. She could tell they really cared about helping her.

Birds fluttered down and landed on the fence around her, ants that were under the house came marching over, and a few of her prairie dog friends came running in under the fence from the fields outside. Rain could tell they were excited to see her as they ran over, wiggling their little bodies and rubbing against her legs.

“Will you help me with my garden?” she asked, looking around at her gathered troupe. The ants waved their mandibles, the birds hopped up and down and the prairie dogs seemed to positively vibrate with excitement.

“Okay, Missus Aunt Queen, can you please help with the soil? It is too hard. We need a nice soft bed for our seeds.” The ant workers got busy digging into the rough earth.

“And doggies and birdies, can you find us seeds? We need lots, all kinds. I like flowers, but not all flowers.” The birds jumped off on their mission while the prairie dogs ducked under holes in the fence, snickering that they had much better seeds than the birds could find.

After only a few minutes the birds and prairie dogs came swiftly in, one-by-one, and dropped their gathered seeds onto the patch of dirt that the ants were rapidly tilling. Rain gently walked over, careful not to step on any of her friends, and began burying the seeds in the now soft soil.

As she pushed each one gently into the earth, she whispered to them. “Grow for us, we’ll take care of you. I promise, just grow. Let’s have a garden! Will you help me? I’ll look after you.”

Rain could feel their hesitation; plants are very cautious beings after all. It is too dry, they whispered back. We will wither, we will die.

“No, you won’t. I will bring you water. I will look after you. You won’t be thirsty.” Still, the plants hesitated.

“Fine. I’ll prove it to you.”

Rain sat down next to her seeds and closed her eyes. There was very little water anywhere around her in the air. Rain knew her friends knew that already. But what they didn’t know was that there was water just a few feet down below them, past the hard dirt and rocks. Rain could feel it.

Rain beckoned to the water. “Come on,” she said, “my friends need you. Will you help us be in our garden?”

With very little hesitation the pool in the ground beneath her reached back up to Rain and the first tendrils of water slid up to the surface to embrace the waiting seeds. “Good,” said Rain. “See! You all can look after each other. You don’t need me!”

The seeds were pleased and agreed to open up. They quickly joined the water in its reach for the surface. After only a few minutes, the first sprouts burst through to greet the sun as growing plants for the first time.

“Good job! Keep going!” Rain encouraged them.

The plants were still a little nervous. She could feel that they were holding back. “It’s my birthday,” she said to them, “and I won't let anything happen to you. You can grow as big and tall as you want. Don’t you want to be in my garden? Now come on!” Rain’s four-year-old patience was wearing thin.

The plants trusted her and reached farther, faster. Then they began to bloom.

Rain sat and watched. Her friends all sat around her contentedly. The birds twittered, the ants went back to work, and the prairie dogs took turns sitting on Rain’s lap. They were all very proud of what their teamwork had accomplished.

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Rundin came home after dark as he’d done every day that month. He and his brother had been taking turns; one of them would stay with Rain while the other would drive around for miles looking for supplies, and work. For the past few weeks they had found very little of either. They both knew they would have to keep moving soon. Still, as much as he could help it, Rundin didn’t want to make Rain live on the road.

Rundin stepped into their musty three-room cottage and pulled off his boots.

“Any luck?” his brother Jingo asked, looking steadily at him from an armchair in the corner of their little den – one of only two pieces of furniture in the room.

“None,” said Rundin, trying not to let his worry show. The weight of providing for his daughter was heavy on his shoulders. Jingo seemed not to notice. He stood up smoothly and said, “We’ll find something; we must.”

“Where’s Rain?”

“Sleeping. She had a busy day.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come with me, you have to see this.”

“What happened?” Rundin asked, immediately nervous.

“She did it again, even bigger this time.”

In only a few steps they were both through the little kitchen and out the back door. Both stood in awe at the sight.

Where just this morning there had been an empty patch of dirt, now stood a magnificent bouquet of flowering plants reaching out over their wooden fence. Twisting vines wrapped themselves around proudly standing adolescent trees and sunflowers. Bursts of colorful flowers filled in any space they could find. It was as if someone had cut a square out of a vibrant forest and dropped it in their backyard. The plants were stacked on top of each other but didn't seem to compete. It was as if they were organized intelligently to work around each other. It couldn’t be natural. It was too cooperative, not at all reminiscent of the competitive nature of the wild.

“It’s quite impressive,” said Jingo.

“You should have destroyed it immediately,” said Rundin.

“I wanted you to see.”

“Burn it. We have to go. I’ll get Rain in the car.”

Jingo paused for only a moment before pouring gasoline on the tangle of flora that had bloomed so suddenly.

Rain awoke in her car seat as they were pulling out of the driveway. She knew immediately they must be going again.

“NOOO!” Rain shrieked, twisting and straining in her child safety seat, looking over her shoulder at the fiery glow that lit the back of their little house as they drove away. “WE CAN'T GO!”

“Rain, please honey, we have to go.”

“BUT I PROMISED! I CAN’T LEAVE MY FRIENDS! THEY WERE SCARED AND I PROMISED!”

Rundin looked back at her at a loss for words, watching as his daughter tore at her car seat like a wild animal, straining to save her plant friends.

“I’m sorry, honey, we have to go.”

Rain began to shriek even louder, and the truck began to quiver around them. Rundin and Jingo looked at each other and both noticed the fear in their brother’s eyes, wondering if there was anywhere on the planet they could take this child where she wouldn’t be found.

“Shouldn’t the blocker here be stopping her from reaching the Source?” Rundin asked his older brother in a quiet whisper.

“I don’t know. She’s circumventing it somehow.”

“We should have never come to this planet.”

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Rain glanced over her shoulder at Ramon for what felt like the 20th time since paddling out that day. He was in the same place he always was, sitting in his chair on the pier, watching her out in the waves. She wasn’t worried he might have moved. He wouldn’t leave her, but still she wanted to make sure. Rain often had this feeling that someone was watching her, or looking for her – someone other than Ramon – so it was comforting that at least he was watching her back, too. He wouldn’t leave. Ramon would stay there watching her from the pier and reading on his hand-held until the sun went down and came back up again if she asked him to.

Why they kept rebuilding the pier Rain couldn’t guess, but she was glad they did. It seemed extremely costly and had to be raised again after a big storm every year or so. Couple that with the ever-rising tides and the pier was rarely in the same place each summer. But the neighborhood association seemed too proud to let it sink forever. After all, the pier was a long-treasured memento of when this was once a celebrated vacation destination. Now most of the self-respecting members of society would never go to Ocean View.

Rain and her dad, and sometimes her uncle, moved around a lot when she was a kid. They had landed in Ocean View only a few years ago when Rain started high school. Her father claimed to be a stock trader but Rain never saw him working. And despite his claims that each new move was so he could be closer to this or that big client, Rain never saw him with one. She hadn’t admitted it to anyone – even Ramon – but recently Rain started to wonder if her father was some sort of criminal. He often did very odd and unexplainable things.

Rain didn’t know how she became Ramon’s unofficial bodyguard. They met the first day she moved to Ocean View and it just sort of happened. Some kid was picking on Ramon in their exercise class because he couldn’t walk so Rain threw a basketball at the back of his head. Ramon followed her around every day since. Rain didn’t mind. If she ever talked about her feelings, Rain just might admit that Ramon was the only real friend she had ever had.

Ramon seemed to attract the attention of every maladjusted young person in their school looking to distract themselves from their own misfortunes. Sure, he was an easy target in a wheelchair, but that’s not why people singled him out so often. It was his smile, Rain knew. His ever-present, infuriatingly unhelpful smile. It never left his face! Ramon was handicapped and an orphan but seemed to be the happiest person in their school. It drove those maladjusted kids crazy, the fact that he seemed so okay with so little. They sought every opportunity to wipe that smile off his face. Rain was thankful nobody had succeeded yet.

That smile even drove Rain crazy sometimes. When she was feeling down he always had a smile for her. So unhelpful. Can’t you just be mad with me SOMETIMES. She would think that, but knew she really hoped to never see that smile go away. Rain couldn’t even imagine what would cause that to happen.

Ramon was found a few years before Rain moved to Ocean View, almost dead after being run over by a malfunctioning Garb Corp AI waste-cycling truck as he slept in an alley. The accident paralyzed him from the waist down.

Some good Samaritan found him and brought him to the ER. It was there the government learned he had been living on the streets alone for a few years after his parents had died. They were migrant workers who had succumbed to the 2nd Great Flu, leaving Ramon all alone. So as any good government would do, they accepted a check on Ramon’s behalf for his injuries from the Garb Corp AI and put him in a foster home. Apparently, he would see some of that money when he turned 18, after he had paid the government back for his years of foster home expenses of course. Ramon knew they would take all of it, but still his smile could not be stopped.

Rain and Ramon went to the beach every day right after school. Ramon even made a harness on his wheelchair so Rain could hang her surfboard from the side without stopping the wheel. That way, Rain could easily push him down the street.

“It’s just practical,” he said.

Most of the time they went to the same spot by the pier so Ramon could watch from up close, but during low tides some remnants of the houses that once stood there came too close to the surface of the waves. After all this time, some support beams even stood upright out of the water. Rain actually loved having things to dodge while surfing. It made it more exciting. But she had promised her dad and Ramon like a thousand times that she wouldn’t surf by the pier during low tide. Last time her dad caught Rain doing that, well, she didn’t think she’d ever see her surfboard again.

Most of the time Rain would surf and Ramon would sit on the pier, except when the waves were too rough and they would sit and watch the ocean together, or when Ramon had to tutor someone. Then he’d meet Rain later as she got out of the water.

This evening the sun was dipping low, almost touching the water, and would soon join the drowned neighborhood beneath the surface. Sundown was Rain’s favorite time to surf. She had every high tide at sundown marked in her calendar for the next six months.

Rain loved surfing. She loved all sports really, but after years of trying had finally learned she didn’t work well on a team. Growing up, she had tried every sport there was: gymnastics, soccer, hockey, lacrosse. She even played running back on the boys’ football team in middle school. Her favorites were karate – she liked hitting people – and judo. She really liked choking people.

People told Rain she was too competitive and had too much of a temper. She thought they all didn’t try hard enough, obviously. She usually ended up making those people cry on the field or in the ring. After more than a few incidents, Rain found fewer and fewer teams she was welcome to play on.

Surfing was great because she didn’t need a team around her; it was just her and the ocean. Her only competition out there was herself. Maybe sometimes the ocean, or a kook who decided to drop in in front of her, but mostly it was about pushing herself to her own limits.

But what she loved most about surfing was being away from everyone else, on her own out in the ocean. Rain felt like she couldn’t think when too many people were around. It was too overwhelming. When she got out in the surf, she finally felt calm. Sometimes she thought, and she knew it was silly, but it was like she was connected to the water. Like it was a part of her, or she was a part of it.

Rain shook water out of her hair and peered into the sun, looking for the wave set coming her way. At the moment, her hair was straightened, cut to her shoulders, and dyed purple. Rain had naturally curly brown hair, a little frizzy most of the time. But all through her growing up Rain was straightening, dyeing, and cutting her hair. Trying to look like a completely different person every two months, her father would say. Rain didn’t care what anyone said, her hair was her own and she’d do with it what she wanted, even if she didn’t really know what she wanted most of the time.

People often told her she was beautiful, although looking in the mirror she never thought so. She thought perhaps her face was more angular than most, in a way that was difficult to put into words. From one perspective, or a few perhaps, she supposed she was beautiful. But change the angle of viewpoint only a little, and she looked like a completely different person. Rain’s skin was darker than most people in Ocean View, so she tended to stand out among the crowd. Often, she felt like she was a completely different person from the one everyone else seemed to see.

Today seemed like any normal day. Maybe the surf was a little bigger than usual, but Rain couldn’t shake this feeling that something was about to happen. She had that normal tingle on the back of her neck like someone was watching, but today it was mixed with something…impending. She didn’t like it, and nervously shot Ramon another glance.

That’s when she saw the group of boys who most often tormented Ramon step onto the pier – Marc and Rico and their little gang of patchy, neckbearded losers. She saw one of them gesture towards Ramon and knew exactly what they were thinking. Last week Rain had barely arrived in time to stop them from throwing Ramon’s chair off the pier. After almost breaking one of their wrists and screaming insults until a small crowd of people started watching them, Marc and Rico finally sauntered off with their gang. The thought of it made her absolutely furious. Today it looked like they meant to finish the job. And there was Ramon – reading, lost in his own little world, completely unaware they were walking up behind him.

Why can’t they just leave Ramon alone?! It made Rain so mad. She hated those boys. She wanted to bash their faces in for causing her friend pain. She could feel the rage bubbling up inside her, her chest becoming so tight she felt like she almost couldn’t breathe. She recognized this feeling. It usually came before she did something very foolish, and that usually got her kicked off a team. The waves underneath her seemed to grow with her rage, carrying her higher and higher as the set rolled in.

Looking up she knew there was no way she’d be able to paddle in, run up the steps to the pier and make it to where Ramon sat before the boys had him. She felt helpless to stop them, and that was the feeling she hated most; being helpless. With it came even more anger at herself for being powerless to stop Marc and Rico, and with that rage, a bad idea.

I could try and climb the pier, she thought. She’d been climbing since she was a kid, and sure there were barnacles and it was slippery, but she had always kind of wanted to try and climb the pier pylons. Maybe now is just a good excuse. She looked up and saw the expression on that weasel Rico’s face and her mind was made up. She would not give him the satisfaction of bullying Ramon today, not if she could stop it.

Rain paddled over to the pier, careful to wend her way around the chimney of a long sunken house still standing proud less than a foot below the surf, her determination building as she worked her arms faster. She unleashed her board leash from her ankle, tied it to the pier, then let one of the steadily rising wave crests carry her up to a pylon and grabbed onto it. After a few seconds she realized she could, in fact, climb it. It was slippery and sharp in some places, but she could manage. Steadily she started making her way up the pylon, but about five feet from the top there was nothing but brown soaked wood and it was really slippery. Rain reached and squeezed. She could almost make it to one of the bolts right under the pier platform but slipped as she reached and dropped a few feet before she caught herself on a patch of barnacle. Ouch! Her hand was bleeding now and her anger was growing.

A tightness in her chest was pushing upward along with her anger. Now it was in her throat, the pressure of her emotions making it hard to breathe, her eyes streaming more salty water into the ocean below.

It just isn’t FAIR.

As a wave hit her legs where she clung on the pier, she realized her rage wasn’t the only thing building. The waves were chasing her up the pole, growing steadily more violent.

Of course, NOW the surf picks up while I’m on this pole like a dumb sea urchin. Her frustration peaking, Rain considered letting go and swimming in, but would not accept defeat. She could not let Marc and Rico and the dumb ocean beat her.

“RAIN!!!”

She heard Ramon yell from above. Expecting to see him being harassed by the boys, Rain looked up and saw only Ramon’s face leaning over the pier railing and pointing at something behind her. Rain looked over her shoulder and saw what she guessed must have been giving her that impending feeling this whole time: a massive wave was coming right for her as she hung clinging to the pier pylon. Now her rage, frustration, and helplessness turned into something else, something she wasn’t used to: fear. In her mind Rain saw the wave slamming her off the pole and grinding her all the way through the pier to land battered on the beach. She knew if it did hit her, she probably wouldn’t survive.

Rain pulled and squeezed but couldn’t get any farther up the pole. She looked up and saw Marc and Rico smiling, looking over Ramon’s shoulder at her. Their plans for Ramon were momentarily distracted by the sight of Rain about to be crushed by the waves.

Seeing Marc and Rico’s jeering smiles, Rain’s white-hot rage hit boiling point just as the wave hit her. Rain didn’t care. She was so mad she only hoped the wave was big enough to hit those two idiots while it killed her. Rain felt the wave rip her off the pylon she had been clinging to.

Too mad to be afraid now, Rain let it take her and felt the wave picking her up higher, not sweeping downward like she expected, but rising.

Rain couldn’t explain it in that moment. The wave simply picked her up and kept going. When she looked down, she could see the pier below her and all the boys’ eyes looking up at her in awe. Then the wave crashed down on top of them.

Rain landed in a crouch on the pier next to Ramon. Her surfboard somehow came with her and landed right down on Rico’s weaselly little face. All the boys in the group got knocked over and washed into the pier railing which caught them before they could be pushed off the other side and into the water.

Rain rose to her feet, grabbed her surfboard over her head ready to swing at one of the boys, and saw them all down on their hands and knees coughing and spluttering. Rico was holding his face where blood was gushing down onto his clothes. Rain looked up to see people filming her with their phones and suddenly realized she was still holding her surfboard above her head. She looked back and saw Ramon, soaked but unharmed in his chair staring at her, a look of amazement on his face.

“We should go,” she said, shoving her board into Ramon’s arms, grabbing his chair handles and wheeling him around to run them both down the pier.

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