2400 AD
8

Callum came with nothing, and he would leave with nothing. He watched Gideon walk away and all he could think about was getting out of there. He marched towards the elevator, the doors opened, he stepped inside the glass bubble and it sped upwards while below everyone stopped to watch.

He reached the top and the elevator protruded fully out of the ground. The doors opened and he stepped out, expecting to find the same cityscape as before.

But, this time, he was aboard a ship on a dark, freezing night.

“Holy shit!” He mumbled.

People ran about, some screaming, others walked around in a daze. A few meters away he noticed a group of musicians, some playing violins, a cello and flute. They battled to keep balance but they played on.

Something was wrong.

A gushing sound made him turn around. Rushing towards him, a wall of water destroyed everything in its path. Women, children and grown men rushed passed him, trying to avoid the water. He had experienced so much fear.

Half the ship was submerged while the other half rose silently into the air. A woman approached and shoved what looked like a canvass life jacket into his hand.

“You’ll need one.” She tried to grab his hand but the ship rose too fast and she slid away from him just as he took the life jacket. She screamed as she hit the wall of icy water.

Callum stared at the words on the jacket.

Property of the White Star Line R.M.S Titanic.

***

Failure.

As a commander Gideon loathed failure. He didn’t set up Denizen to fail and every person within its walls were passionate about success because if they weren’t, they’d be rotting corpses.

Lillian had taught him to accept failure more than success. Failure is nothing without success, she once told him.

“Mother, would I be right in saying that it takes more courage to commit suicide than live in a world where you are never accepted?”

Lillian smiled, how she loved Gideon’s enquiring mind. “You’re wrong there, child. It takes the strength of a god to carry on in a world where you are not accepted. The strength of a god. Suicide is just a way of saying I can’t cope with this; leave it to someone else. You’re going to be different. Everyone will love you for your strength and determination. Everyone.”

The elevator doors opened and closed with a hiss of air.

Kendall approached Gideon as he turned into a corridor leading to the Observation Lab. “You’re just going to let him go?”

Gideon continued walking. His hands clenched into fists. Tight lipped. Lowered brow.

“Gideon, you can’t let him do this. You don’t know what’s up there. You can’t let him take the elevator. You must stop him now.”

Choices. That’s all he could think about. Callum had made his choice.

“Whatever he meets up there is of his own doing. I gave him the option, stay or go.”

“And what if that option kills him? Will your conscience forgive you? We’re supposed to make things better for ourselves and everyone else.”

“He doesn’t want to be here, Ken. He thinks this is all a lie.”

“You could have convinced him otherwise. You could have shown him the Observation Lab.”

A place where logic was applied to the madness.

“The Observation Lab isn’t a place for amateurs. It would’ve confused him even more. He doesn’t want proof from a computer screen, Ken. He wants real, tangible proof and the only way he’s going to get that is to experience it out there.”

“But not via the elevator, Gideon. Come on!”

Gideon pressed a button and a door opened into a room filled with huge monitors. Each monitor playing a different view of the world.

One monitor showed the elevator stopping. It showed the ship and the screaming people and the water. It showed men, women and children jumping overboard because the lifeboats had already been cast away. It showed musicians playing “Nearer My God to Thee” and it showed the fear on Callum’s face as he saw a wall of water churning toward him.

“Gideon!” Kendall hit a table with her fist.

Gideon immediately leaped into action.

He spoke into a microphone as loud and quickly as his voice would allow. “Androids Team four. Rescue through elevator Port 1 in five…four…three…two…one…”

On the screen six men stepped into the elevator and it whooshed away. At the top they scrambled out onto the sinking ship, grappled and pushed passengers out of the way, trying to find Callum.

“There he is!”

One of the men fell backwards, slid down the deck, and managed to grab onto a rail. Gideon’s heart beat faster when the monitor zoomed in on Callum.

“Thank you,” Gideon mumbled.

The men scrambled towards Callum and just as they were about to grab him the ship suddenly stopped rising.

A loud crack.

Wood snapped.

Rivets popped.

Cables snapped.

The ship broke in two and the forward deck smashed into the ocean.

The men were thrown in all directions. Callum held onto a railing for dear life. Fear planted on his face.

“Callum!” One of the men reached out.

Callum swung around to face the man with the outstretched hand. There was no time to think. No time to gather his thoughts as to how anybody would know him on this ship.

“Callum, grab my hand!”

Instinctively he held out his hand and grabbed onto the stranger.

The ship began to rise once more.

And then the screen went black.

***

He was in the same room as before, lying in the same bed, with Gideon in the same chair.

Both silent.

Eventually Callum said, “The Titanic? The fucking Titanic?”

“That’s fucked up,” Gideon said, not believing it himself.

“I thought I’d land up in the same city scape as before.”

“It always changes,” Gideon wiped Callum’s face from the sweat.

“I can smell the ocean even in this room. It was so real.”

“Your clothes are still wet from the water. And your skin is ice-cold.”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“Saving me.”

Gideon raised an eyebrow and took his hand. “I hope you won’t move my hand away.”

“Do you want me to?”

Gideon squeezed. Callum brought his other hand over their hands, but there was something huge and bulky in it. When he looked his face turned white.

It was the R.M.S Titanic life jacket.

***

“This puny life jacket. So primitive. It’s just cork encased in canvass,” Callum said

“And it killed too.”

“I thought these things were supposed to save lives.”

“Some passengers on the Titanic decided to jump ship and swim away before she pulled them under,” Gideon said. “The moment the passengers hit the water the cork smashed against their jaws and rendered them unconscious. It took seven minutes for them to die from the shock of hypothermia.”

“And how do you know that?” asked Callum.

“I know my history.”

“You’re still holding my hand.”

Instinctively Gideon pulled his hand away. “I’m sorry. I completely forgot. I’m way out of line.”

Callum grabbed his hand and placed it on his chest. “I don’t recall giving you permission to remove your hand from mine.”

“I’m so so sorry.” Gideon’s eyes avoided Callum. He hung his chin as though shameful.

Callum reached out and lifted his chin up. Staring into his eyes he said, “No need to be sorry. I’m not.”

A short smile crossed Gideon’s face. But he knew that was all it would be, just a smile. No leaning in for a kiss. There was no time for amorous encounters. In that moment Callum’s heart beat faster and a warm feeling came over him.

“I’ve never seen you smile,” Callum said.

“I wasn’t always like this,” Gideon stared at their hands.

“What happened?”

Gideon stared directly into his eyes. “I made some mistakes and lost everything I cared about. I moved forward by building this brick wall that no one could penetrate. It works for me.”

“I’m glad I got you to smile, even for just a moment.”

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