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Jande Ter Avest wakes up and yawns, louder than he wanted to, which serves
to wake up his wives. They were going to have to wake up soon enough anyway,
though, so it’s fine. He rolls over and gives Evers a kiss, then lifts
himself up and over her to kiss Suki. Second Autumn is coming to a close, so
it’s the first morning that it’s still dark out when it’s time to get to
work. He starts to leave the house as he is, as he normally does.
“Jan,” Evers says. It doesn’t even look like her eyes are open. “You need
clothes.”
“It’s not cold enough, I’ll be fine,” Jande assures her.
“Put on clothes,” Evers reiterates. She’s still drowsy and annoyed.
“Put on clothes,” Suki echoes.
“Put on clothes, put on clothes, put on clothes.” They know he hates
chanting.
“Fine, fine. I’m putting on my clothes,” Jande reluctantly agrees. “God.”
“Yay,” Suki replies as she buries her face in her pillow.
“Yay,” Evers concurs, just as exhausted and grumpy.
Jande does as they ask, then goes outside. He can never admit that they were
right. It is unseasonably cold already. He didn’t bother to check the
forecast, but they must have. He ends up stepping back inside real quick to
grab a coat too.
He shivers as he’s walking towards the barn. Across the way, he sees his
sister walking towards it from her own house. Her pet uquirapod is waddling
alongside her. They wave to each other and smile, but don’t speak. It’s too
early to speak. He doesn’t hate his life, but he doesn’t love it either. One
day, when his parents’ bodies are old enough, they’ll retire, and it will be
up to him and Laise to carry on the legacy.
As long as Laise doesn’t run off to find her own way, Jande’s workload will
only double, and if he doesn’t have kids eventually, it could last
indefinitely. He doesn’t mind doing it for the duration of a legal lifetime
if it makes his family happy. He has his whole immortality ahead of him,
which he can spend doing whatever he wants. It’s not that hard of a job
anyway, it’s just kind of silly to him. One day he’ll look back, and this
will only be a blip. His mind lives in that future. He thinks Laise’s mind
does too.
She holds the door open for him, and they both walk in. Their father is
leaning back in his chair, fast asleep. If he’s not careful, he’ll tip over
and fall on his head.
When Laise clears her throat, Father is startled awake. He instantly looks
up at the two of them, and says, “you’re late!” like he had the complaint in
the chamber.
Laise gets on her knees and rests her hand on Father’s knee. “It’s time,
Father. It’s time for you to leave this body behind, and move on.”
Father winces and looks down at himself. “I’m still young enough to beat
you.”
“Beat me in what?” Laise asks him with a chortle.
“Name a challenge. A foot race, a milking race; whatever you want,” Father
urges.
Laise smiles at him. “You’ve been doing this for a hundred and ten years.
You suffered through a lot of harsh winters, and if we’re being honest, your
body wasn’t designed perfectly. There is no shame in retiring early. You’ll
head west and start a new life. We can take it from here, we promise. Mother
wants to be done too, I know it.”
Father shakes his head. “Neither of you married invested workers. You
underestimate how hard this job is. You will not be able to handle it just
between the two of you. Our way of life must be upheld. You both need to
find new partners.”
“We married for love, Father,” Jande explains. “They still help, they just
also do other things with their lives. That’s what I love about Evers and
Suki.”
“That’s why I love Adora,” Laise agrees. “Our generation doesn’t believe in
hard work simply for the sake of it, but that doesn’t mean we’re not
committed. It’s no secret that we plan on integrating slightly more
technology into the processes. Father, you have not tried to dissuade us
from this. We’ll still be farmers, just more modern ones. Holding on for ten
more years will not preserve tradition, it will just make your joints achy.”
She gently removes the tablet from his hands. “Why don’t you let me handle
assignments today? You go take a nap to sleep on it.” She looks down at the
device. “Jande, you’re on eyren duty. I’m doing carrots and parbread.”
“Oh, I thought I was gonna do carrots,” Jande says. “Evers was asking to
learn more about eyren harvesting, but I told her she could sleep in today.”
“Go ahead and prep the harvesters,” Laise decides. “I’ll get Evers for you.”
She looks back at Father again. “Is this okay with you, that I supervise the
workers? It’s late in the season, there’s no need for you to get worked up.
It’s okay to take a break.”
“Yeah, maybe I’ll take it slow today,” Father relents as he’s yawning.
While Laise is walking across the lawn to Jande’s house, Jande walks over to
the shed to retrieve the equipment for harvesting eyren. As he’s loading the
supplies on the cart, he sees both of his wives following Laise to the barn.
They’re in the middle of a conversation, so he doesn’t interrupt them. He
would later wish he had stopped them.
As soon as they step foot inside, the whole barn collapses. Jande does too.
He lands on his hands and knees as the gravity pulls him down harder than
usual. This happened a couple decades ago, but it was more gradual, and most
buildings were reinforced in case it happened again, but they left the barn
alone, because it’s just a barn. The shed buckles too and crashes down on
top of Jande, pinning him against the soil. It lets up a little bit, but
then the ground begins to shake. Jande tries to get up, but his spine has
presumably been severed. He tries to crawl out, but he can’t move.
This body is wasted, it’s not going to heal; certainly not in enough time.
It hasn’t killed him, so he’s going to have to do it himself. He doesn’t
want to transfer his consciousness to a normal backup, though, because
they’re too far away. Without telling anyone, Jande programmed a failsafe in
his brain, which allows him to jump to the neighbor’s service bot. They are
also farmers, but they use more advanced tech to make their lives easier,
allowing them to focus more on the crops. Jande closes his eyes and triggers
the suicide protocol. Everything goes dark for a few seconds. He’s not sure
how long this is going to take, though, because he never tested it.
He doesn’t have to open his eyes again. The image simply renders in front of
him. He finds himself carrying two little children in his metallic arms.
It’s the neighbor kids. The four parents are running alongside him, trying
to get out in the open space while the bidaquakes continue to stir up the
ground. Jande looks around. This area is as good as any. The surface is
solid, and nothing can fall upon them. Jande sets the kids down. “I must
check on the Ter Avests too,” he requests.
“Yes, we’ll be fine, bot,” one of the mothers says. “Go help the community.”
It’s a kilometer away, but this substrate gets him back home in no time. He
races into the barn, and starts carefully pulling debris away. Other than
his mother, everyone he loves turns up dead, but his sister is the only one
who never comes back to life.
