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The eruption is pretty cool, though probably less spectacular than if they
let it spew everything all over the place. The two of them watch it for a
few minutes, but Resi isn’t paying that much attention to the glory. It’s
not what’s really on his mind. “Are you my sister?” he asks the woman
quietly.
“Yes,” Kala replies. “I’ve been alive for over a hundred years now.”
“So you chose Kinkon.”
“I told you, we don’t do things that way anymore. There’s no sorting. The
people who live on this island live simply, but they don’t do much work.
They do some, to be sure, but most of it’s automated. It blends into the
background, you don’t even notice it. There are some androids, which perform
more of the front end labor, so they just look like regular people. This is
still a very natural environment, and what can’t remain perfectly natural is
simulated. If you take issue with it, getting your full memories back might
help. Understanding where you came from, long before Yana, might give you
some perspective. I don’t know how you feel about it, though.”
“What about everyone else I knew? Our parents, our siblings? My Fold, my
House? Is everyone still alive? Did they all choose this route?”
“Not everyone, everyone,” Kala answers. “But most people did, yes.
They decided that that’s what you were trying to do for them. Your legacy
lived on after you. In terms of specifics, Caprice is still here, as is our
sister. Chaya moved to Castlebourne, and I think our brother did too, but he
may have gone somewhere else instead. Arumay moved to Varkas Reflex, and
uploaded herself to a virtual environment, so she doesn’t have a physical
body anymore. Our parents chose to remain as they were, so they’re long
dead. I think that’s pretty much it, I don’t remember anyone else.”
“Kartica,” Resi says. “A.K.A. Speaker Lincoln. What happened to her?”
Kala frowns. “She died next to you a hundred years ago. Her consciousness
was no longer streaming to the network, so she couldn’t be revived. She
saved us in the near-term. Her sacrifice was just as impactful as yours. The
Assembly letting her die was a major crime. There are laws that prevent you
from being reckless with disposable bodies, especially those you don’t own.
But murder? Straight up murder, where there is no coming back; that is still
the big one. The colonial establishment couldn’t let it slide, even though
they were part of a different network. The culprits were all locked up, and
I lost track of them, but the important thing is they lost all of their
power.”
“Wait, father was like us. He was backed up. Why is he dead now?”
“He could be backed up,” Kala corrects. “He fell in love with our
mother, so he cut his own consciousness stream, and chose to let his body
die, and with it, his mind. The laws surrounding that are complex and
nuanced, but suicide is not illegal, as long as they prove that’s what it
is, and not a complicated form of homicide.”
“I wish I could apologize now, for everything,” Resi admits. ‘To everyone.”
“This is why we live the way that we do. What father did was a choice. When
I was a kid, there was no choice. I was going to die, that was just it.
Whether you realized it or not, that is what you were fighting for; the
freedom to choose our own destinies. The Houses were stopping us from that,
and we’re grateful they’re gone.”
“I’m happy for you, but I don’t know what I want to do now...what to
choose.”
“Why don’t you sleep on it?” Kala suggests. Then she winks.
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