CHAPTER 37
Brian
Putting the Boxes Back in Place
Just inside the entrance to the conference room Becky stands giggling with George who waves to Brian. Although Becky is giggling, George's face is somber and he stands stiffly. As he enters the meeting room Brian places his thumb on the scanner to confirm he is in the room for the Youth Corp meeting. He can't leave as troopers will not allow them to leave until the meeting is over. Then he walks up to his friends and Gordon joins them as well. The room is filling quickly for the early morning Youth Corp meeting with happy voices or those who would prefer to still be sleeping. They chat until they are signaled to take their seats.
As Victor and another ranking officer enter taking their places in front of the Youth Corp, everyone stands and give their oath of faithfulness. Brian stands proudly bringing a fist up to his chest. How could life go on without the Great One. He turns his head for a moment, he can see the same joy and passion on all of the Youth Corp in attendance. He takes a deep breath and sits awaiting the first item on the days meeting agenda.
George is now smiling, "I can't believe I ever had thoughts of not serving to my full capacity for Our Great One." Brian nods in total agreement.
The first thing on the agenda is information that may be important to them. The first item of the day are that human protesters are beginning to be taken in larger numbers. The drones have done a good job in identifying and recording conversations at various events. This means the humans are being brought aboard the ship for detailed questioning and processing to determine if they will be returned or will remain on the ship. In fact, one neighborhood has even had all of its residents taken. One of those taken was the young son of the infamous cameraman Mike Donovan, who security is currently looking for. There are hopes they are told that he will make an attempt to free his son. They are reminded that the man is evil and must be stopped. They should immediately inform Victor and if he is not available then they should contact the first officer on their list for emergency reach-out.
Brian nods his head, he agrees that evil against the Great One must end. The next thing brought to their attention he finds troubling, a change to their keeping their devices when they are on the ground. Currently security officers are putting together instructions about the steps to be taken for their devices. The idea now is that if a human gets a hold of a device they may figure out how to use and read his peoples language. Brian does not want to give up his device, but he does understand security and the safety of his people.
Then the educational visual appears before them. Brian sits back, they no longer show images of past atrocities that humans have committed or starving people on his planet. Now they show images of what humans are doing to his people. These trouble Brian very much, as he knows that Alex has said that not all of these are true. However, some are and he decides to focus on the fact that humans are capable of killing with little influence on them. As he watches an image of a sunflower comes up and then as if in a whisper deep in his mind he hears, 'Avena.' The other images continue and then the sunflower returns, 'Remember Avena.' He brings a hand up to his head for a moment trying to understand the confusion he suddenly feels.
The visual ends and an officer stands and begins his speech. Brian simply stares at him, all he can think is the word Avena. What comes to him is an image of boxes stacked everywhere. These boxes begin falling. This is when he jerks his head around. Everyone near him and from what he can see all of them appear to be staring ahead. It is if they have disconnected from everything going on currently. No emotion from anyone. He turns his head to George, his friends face seems without emotion as well. He turns his head to Gordon whom he finds is staring at him, why this should scare him is unknown to him.
Gordon brings a finger to his lips and shakes his head. Brian nods, he will say nothing. The speech goes on and an image of John comes up with one of his recorded speeches. Still no one says anything. Now the meeting is over and it takes almost a minute for people to appear as if they understand the meeting has finished. For some reason he says loudly, "Meeting over I guess." No, one looks at him and he feels the cold embrace him from his feet to his head.
Gordon walks up to him and corrects him, "Meeting over a couple of minutes ago." Then he looks about, "You need to follow me; now."
"Is this weird," Brian waves his hand a bit to the people around them who seem as if they are waking up from a deep sleep.
"I think you are now seeing what has been in front of you the entire time," Gordon comments. They walk quickly to the entrance to scan their thumbs and be registered as leaving the meeting. This completes their attendance and now they are to prepare for their assignment or a day of fulfilling educational requirements. The walk down the hall is quick even though the hall is empty, it is apparent that Gordon wants some distance from the others. Once they have the distance from everyone that Gordon wants he grabs Brian's arm. They stand at the corner of the next hall and stand against the wall. Gordon appears to be sizing him up and finally his friend asks, "How are you feeling? Confused, weird thoughts or memory loss?"
Brian shrugs and waits a moment to put his thoughts together, but his mind feels like it is not working the way it should. "I don't know what to say, certainly confused. I am having problems remembering things. I feel like I know, but I don't." He grabs Gordon's shoulder, "What is happening?"
"I don't know. I really don't know. Remember a long time ago I told you I was getting sick after our forty day bonding's?"
"Yes, I do. Before the big bonding, I actually got sick myself."
Gordon raises a hand, "What I didn't tell you was I didn't feel the same as you guys right after my second bonding at home. I have been pretending ever since. I act just as everyone expects. By everyone that means you as well."
"Why would you do that?" Brian can't help the smile that comes with his disbelief. "You wouldn't do that. You are one with, with the, one with. With the Youth Corp and the," He snorts, "Ah, with the Youth Corp and Our. . ." Brian bangs the back of his head against the wall. "I can't, I feel like I am one with the Youth Corp and that is all."
Youth Corp members are beginning to pass by them. Many have confused looks, but are beginning to talk as they come closer or pass them. Gordon waits for them to pass, "Something has happened to remove or try to remove the corruption in your brain. You want to be yourself, but you don't know how or what is happening. Give it time and most certainly do not give yourself away or you will be marched back into that hard bonding procedure. If you think our officers monitor us now, well they will really be monitoring. So keep this to yourself. Act like yourself, do as ordered and act just like you feel you are expected to act. Perform each duty no matter how it turns your stomach. Stay calm."
"Why do you trust me?" Brian is shaking his head gently, "I don't deserve it. What if I inform on you?"
Gordon shakes his head and smiles, "You won't. I know you. However, again act the part. Don't give yourself away. As to why you came out of it, I don't know." He nods his head to others walking by, "I think they are coming out of it as well. Their return is slower. They make me nervous; how to keep them from giving themselves away if they are coming out of the haze shall we say."
"Actually, if you consider it..." Brian shrugs and smirks, "Who knows better how to self protect themselves like the Youth Corp. We also know that we can depend on each other."
"Well we better get to our rooms and get ready for our trip down." Then he stops again, "Have you decided what to do about your human friend?"
"My human friend," Brian sneers. "Who is that?" Then it is he who stops and suddenly the thought of boxes come to him. "Ah, where is my room?"
Gordon grabs his friends arm, "Think you idiot! The girl is Robin. Your room, you idiot you really don't remember where your room is? Think!"
He thinks about the boxes and one of them shows him a face of a human girl. "Oh, yeah her. I didn't do anything about that last night. She needs to do what she needs to do. That is be with her family. I'm not doing anything."
"I am glad you decided that last night and your decision is a good one for you. What about your room?"
"I'm lost," Brian grimaces. He really doesn't remember where his room is and he runs a hand over his head. "Can you give me a hint?"
Gordon face shows his disbelief. "Seriously, that you can't remember? Never mind, lets go. Get what you think you need and then just in case I will show you where the shuttle is." Together they head to their rooms.
When Brian enters his room he immediately logs on to his computer and looks at his messages. He answers the one's awaiting information or an answer. Then it comes to him, he stands and at first is going to sit on his bed. Sadly Kelly is becoming troubled when he goes to his dream world. He lays down and decides to close his eyes, may as well look like he is sleeping.
"Gailey, are you here?" Brian has found the white hazy world has grown to be one that he has imagined. When he visits Gailey it is the world Gailey has built.
In deed there stands Gailey, but there are two others with him. Curtis from the New York ship and another who Brian can't seem to remember. Gailey smiles, "From your reaction you have not conversed with this one." He smiles and points at the individual Brian does not recognize. "This is Dan from the Houston ship."
Both he and Dan nod at each other. Then they all turn to Gailey who has become the one most knowledgeable about their dream worlds. Gailey takes a deep breath, "We must do this very quickly. We are now capable of coming and going to this way of conversing with each other. Remember again what Angeis'Ark has said, once we understand what is happening we must use it only to contact when necessary. The more we use this the more our brains will correct it and this will stop. From the look of your dream world and ability to reach out immediately when contacted Brian, I would say you have reached the goal. After this use this only when needed, I have already spoken to both Curtis and Dan about this." Then he frowns, "Which brings me to why we are here. Do you feel confusion about your loyalty to Our Great Leader?"
"I feel confused, but I have a feeling you do not feel this confusion Gailey. For me this confusion just started with our Youth Meeting this morning," Brian states. Dan and Curtis nod in agreement. "I have a friend who says that really none of the bonding has worked on him and he simply pretended that it had. Don't ask who, as I won't tell you who it is."
Gailey simply smiles, "I understand. I as well have not had the supposed bonding work on me. I was not surprised when Curtis reached out to me and then Dan. It is why I am now reaching out to as many of you as I can. I must advise that you not to give yourself away to others. Angeis'Ark has told me that a program was enacted in your very first bonding at home to bring you out of the conditioning done on us. However, it was not to bring you out of what you have been feeling in your complete devotion to the Regime until later. They were not prepared for this to happen now and needed to learn more about the last bonding as it was not something that was to happen to any of us. Someone has interceded in breaking you out of this and we have no idea who. They may be trying to use you or help you." He shrugs, "We have no idea. This could be good or could be bad."
Brian can feel the smirk gracing his face as he shakes his head. "Someone did this to us. Helping us, making it worse to something that was not supposed to happen. We are confused and have no idea what is happening to us. Yet, somehow we must try and protect ourselves."
Dan is frowning and the tone of his voice is angry. "You do understand that the other Youth Corp members may very well come out of this. In fact, there may be many who are like us. Confused and uncertain of what is happening to us right this minute. The Youth Corp is a whole lot of people. They won't have this dream-like secret conversation platform to run for help in trying to figure out what is happening and what to do."
He finds his eyes roaming to each of them as he awaits a response from Gailey. He has a thought, but is reluctant to bring it up if he doesn't have to do so. Brian's hope is that someone with a better idea will speak up.
Gailey shrugs, "You understand we must watch out for each other. Again I was told this was not supposed to happen now. In fact, the last bonding session was not supposed to happen, that was almost a conversion procedure."
"I have an idea of something we could try," Brian turns to each of them, he is still reluctant to say anything. With a sigh he finally speaks, "I have given speeches. My first was just a required speech, but my second was for unity. Unity for the Youth Corp. I have given two variations of that speech. I truly believe that only the Youth Corp, actually knew what I was saying. I can give another and do my best to let them know that we protect the Youth Corp first."
Smiling Curtis nods and exclaims, "Yes! On the New York ship the only ones that got what you were really saying was the Youth Corp. We made it our secret. Do it!"
"I agree it went over well on my ship as well," Gailey says. "However, it must be for us. We can't let anyone outside of Youth Corp understand what is really being said."
A teasing smile graces Dan's lips. "Yes, do it. They won't know." Then he shrugs and loses the smile. "Still, we need to be sure to let everyone know physically as best we can. Hopefully, the message is passed on as I won't go through that last bonding again. As for today, I feel like I have misplaced my memories. They are like shadows following me until I am able to connect with them. I need time to process all of this and I feel like we are being setup for revolt or something. Just someone else wanting us to do what they want us to do. Again, I need time to process before I know what I want." Dan points to himself first and then to the others. "We need time and not forced into something."
"I understand, it is how I feel. I will speak to Victor and hopefully the speech is given tomorrow. Very short notice, but I will see what I can do to manipulate him." Brian frowns for a moment, "There was one individual on the ship who seemed to know there was something off about the speech. He said that I should remember words are more dangerous than knives and passion more frightening than guns." He grimaces, "I will ask him about what he thinks of the speech after I give it and try to read him. It may not matter if Martin believes something is off, but it will be good to know in advance. If I think there is a problem I will ensure that we watch him." He bites the inside of his mouth for a moment and then smiles, "I know of someone who could be very beneficial to us if she comes out of this. She is very good with drones that look like insects, but I will ensure she is with us first."
Dan has crossed his arms appears to be scratching nervously. "I feel like we are doing something outside the Regime. Don't get me wrong, I am oddly happy about that. It is that I have no idea what I am supposed to do. We need to strike out and not be puppets. Puppets used by those who barely see us, I want to do something. Can't explain."
The smirk returns to Brian's face. "We are, we are doing our own thing. There are a few of us on my ship and we literally call it the Doing Our Own Thing. I think it is time for all of us to do our own thing."
Gailey snorts and holds his hand out in front of him and the others do the same laying their hands on his. "We shall do our own thing as you say Brian. No, I mean Bri'Lar." They all chuckle and Gailey smiles. "We need to all leave. If you don't have a list of others you are to check on then go about your day. I believe Dan you were given the names of others to reach out to. Brian and Curtis, I don't believe you were given names yet. So for now just do as we have talked about, when you find someone who appears to have come out of the haze then speak to them and then let them know to do the same. Brian hopefully the speech can be done tomorrow or very soon. Above all else, do as you are commanded to do. Do not under any circumstance question the orders given. Use the same face, words and reactions you have been doing as of late. Total devotion is all that they should see. Make sure that all of Youth Corp knows this. We can't give ourselves away, we must protect ourselves as best we can. We need to give ourselves time before we decide what is next. I would say going forward Angeis'Ark is our leader, or at least for now. As soon as we hear from her we will have a better idea of what is happening."
They all agree and the dream world fades away.