Risk and Level 5 Depression - The Space Between Us Part 6

epic animted dual view determined man typing at a computer in an office and depressed woman crying in a space station alone

Adam

If you truly loved someone, how far would you go?

How far would you really go?

Would you be willing to risk everything?

That was now the question I now faced. without even consulting me, a service bot showed up to a small slit that I called a door, and there was the neuro drug my father told me about.

Just one pill could make it all go away. I could go back to my old life. I could work, move up, and someday enjoy the benefits of the ultra exclusive VR equipement.

It’s what we all worked for. VR equipment so good, they say you couldn’t tell the difference between reality and the virtual. You would gain access to exclusive servers, one where there was limitless....everything. Any sort of reality you wanted could be within your reach, any desire could be fulfilled.

We called in the GENIE program. Your wish was its command.

Far from being a pipe dream, I knew people who had access. They spoke of it as if it were Elysium, a paraidse like you couldn’t imagine. Spending your days doing whatever you wished, being whoever you wished.

In our current existence, we were pent up in pod-like cells, going outside was impossibe. As well as dangerous. Our VR servers were powerful but limited. They were deisgned that way by the united Federation. If they gave us everything at once, we wouldn’t be mo

Once you stepped out, there was the toxic air to deal with, to say nothing of the sentry robots constantly on patrol. If discovered there as no trial, no judge, you were shot on the spot. Officially, you were a danger to the public. Any rights you had were declared forfeit the moment you stepped out.

Now you understand the appeal of the GENIE program. Why hope for something that’s impossible? It’s far better to go for the things that are at least attainable.

That’s the popular consensus anyway. I could take the pills, and go on, and someday live in virtual paradise.

I didn’t want virtual paradise. I wanted Luna’s hand, I wanted to hold, even just once.

I would risk everything for even a chance to be with her.

That’s the thing about dreams, maybe it’s only the impossible ones that are really worth going after. What was that quote again?

‘How better for a man to die, than surrounded by the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods’?

It’s better to die for something, than live for nothing.

As impossible as this sounded, I was a Programmer First Class, and that meant I had access to elite level intelligence, even if such acess was illegal.

As good as our pods were designed they weren’t perfect. Due to such things as ventilationa nd whatnot, there had to be some outlets. And given enough caffeine and hours, I was able to find the schematics.

The United Federation should really tighten it’s security.

Luna

Luna still lived her life much in the same way, but now there was less energy in her actions. She didn’t wake up as spry as usual. Her music videos become more melancholy.

No matter how ahrd she tried, she couldn’t shake it. The feeling of emptiness, and worse, meaninglessness in her life.

None of it made sense to her. Before Adam, everythign was fine. True, she wasn’t happy, but she was content, wasn’t she?

She could talk to Adam whenever she wanted, and there were VR dates.

But it wasn’t enough. Worse, she had no way of resolving the matter. They were isolated, forever. She was up in space, a secet project that wasn’t supposed to exist. In fact, she herself had no idea why she was up here, what the United Federation was attempting.

Her job was simply to exist, without any meaning or purpose in her life. And now it wasn’t enough.

She couldn’t stand the silence anymore. She couldn’t stand the echo of her own voice. She couldn’t stand going to sleep and looking at empty sheets. She couldn’t stand waking up to the same thing.

She had heard of this condition, some came down with it from time to time. People who came down with Level 5 depression, where you couldn’t live alone anymore. Where the isolation began to mess with your brain.

There were drugs for such things. Ways to numb the mind, and the heart.

The United Federation gave them out freely, a way of helping others cope with the issue. One pill per day, and you never had to feel anything. No pain, no sadness, no emptiness.

That was how most dealt with it.

But there alos another way. A much more extreme method that was not spoken of openly.

Luna knew about it.

It was known as the Extinction protocol. If you initiated it, then you would be sent a very different pill. Just one. Take it, lie down, and you never woke up. Ever again.

Never before had such a grim thought even crossed her mind. But now it did.

She blinked back the lfurry of tears that came with the thought.

So she logged onto her computer, and for the first time in her lfie made a simple request from the United Federation.

She requested Nuero-Mind. The pills that would numb her pain forever. She would be abe to fucnition once more, and fulfill whatever mission the Federation had for her. She made her request, logged off, and laid down trying to deal with the silence and lonliness.

Had she waited a moment more she would have seen a new message from Adam.

‘I’m coming to you Luna’.

The United Federation

President Harrison was a man of action, and a man of intelligence. He knew everything, about everyone. More than most realized in fact.

The situation with Luna and Adam worried him. Such romantic entaglements tended to be massive issues. Soemtimes not. But this was one of the biggest problems he had ever seen.

Luna was becomign well and truly depressed. President Harrison couldn’t have cared less about Adam, he was expendable. Luna was not.

That’s why Harrison sent Adam the Nuero-Mind pills, with the fake message from his father. If they could sedate that blasted programmer, then this situation could be resolved quickly and cleanly.

Luna’s request surprised him.

As was Adam’s refusal to ingest the pills.

He pciked up a holo-receiever and made two simple orders: ‘MAke sure Luna gets the pills and quickly. As for Adam, send an extermination bot after him. He is no longer needed, make it look ike an accident.’



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