I've took an entire course on philosophy/utopias/conspiracies so you'll have to bear with me on this chapter! Mhua ha ha ha ha ha… and go read Brave New World if you haven't. It's the closest society to Ai no Kusabi that I can think of.
He made his way up into his apartment, supporting what felt like a lifeless corpse in his hands and laid it down on his bed. Without a sound, Katze drew the sheets up around his ears and stared at the wall.
"Are you all right?" Guy asked. He leaned over and pulled off the bandana. "You want a drink? Cigarette?"
"I want my life back," Katze murmured. "The life I never got to experience."
Guy frowned and shut the door behind him. He took a deep breath and crashed down on the sofa, burying his face into the scratchy surface.
Did he even have a life? He'd thought he didn't – doing nothing but racing down the roads, challenging Death to come take him if it dared, competing neck to neck with the police force that tried to take him down, friendship with Luke, Norris, Sid, and Riki.
It made him happy, though. It gave him pure joy – not just the bliss that came with high-society parties among the upper caste, the hours spent among successful life with no meaning, just living without…a point.
He had a point in life. To survive. To outlive. To find joy even in the darkness corner of the slums. His life.
That's one advantage he has over the upper caste.
One advantage he has over Jupiter.
The fact that he had a life.
He pushed himself up and picked up the discarded hacking machine. He hooked it up to his terminal and started reading the history of Amoi.
"Interesting place to sleep. Hope you didn't electrocute yourself."
"What?" Guy opened his eyes and realized he had fallen asleep on top of his keyboard. He gave Katze a look of despise and wiped at the corner of his mouth. He stretched and yawned.
"How are you doing? You weren't so hot earlier tonight."
"So I'm not allowed to pity myself every once in awhile? Mind if I use your bathroom?" He held up a towel.
"No," Guy yawned again and made his way into the kitchen after a few minutes of staring blankly at the screen saver. He could use a cup of coffee, but he was so tired he could hardly think straight. He made his way to the medicine cabinet and grabbed a pack of caffeine pills. He was tearing out one with Katze walked in, his upper body naked and wet. He was toweling his hair and glanced at the pills, a red eyebrow rising.
"Overdosing already?" A small smile cracked on his lips.
"I will, if I don't wake up," he swallowed the pill dry and slid down on the floor, his head still throbbing from the pressure of the keyboard. He took the bottle Katze offered him and swallowed half of the water, sighing as the cool liquid went rushing down his throat. He poured the rest of it over his face and let it run down his hair and neck.
"What did you learn?" Katze asked.
He pushed himself up and took his wrist. "Come on, I'll tell you." He walked back to the sofa and slumped down again, massaging his head. Katze carefully took the torn couch at the other end and eyed him warily.
"What? I don't bite," Guy cocked his eyebrow.
Katze's eyes bored into his. "Tell me."
With the effects of the caffeine pills, the headache started to slowly diffuse. "Well…the history goes like this," he tapped the edge of his chin thoughtfully. "Throughout history man had sought to create a perfect society. Am I correct?"
"I'm not a student, Guy. Go on."
"Sir Thomas Moore had written his book "Utopia" during the Renaissance, which translates into "nowhere". A utopia, or a perfect world, have failed each time man had tried to create it," he continued. "But first, in order to have a perfect world, one must have a society where everyone is happy with their position, happy with their life, happy with what they are. Anyone that is an outcast, one that is not happy with life is treated as an outcast, or killed."
Katze shrugged. "I wonder why Jupiter just didn't send a couple of her few hundred homicidal androids and just murder you lot off the face of this planet?"
"And make it seem like she was running a society were she was killing people? No, of course not, instead she "bestowed mercy" by giving us a piece of fertile land – the slums," he added a dash of sarcasm to his words. "We'll all die out eventually in the end if we don't do anything. Give it a couple of years and Amoi will be nothing but genetically engineered people – both the upper and lower caste. And guess what? A lower class wouldn't even care if they were low – they'd be happy with what they are."
"Doesn't sound so bad. Ignorance is bliss."
"What if you were treated like muck without knowing it – then would you be happy?" Guy snapped.
"No. But then, I'm not in the lower caste. Why should I care?" Katze lit another cigarette. "Quit it with the philosophy. I want to hear about the history of this place."
"A group of scientists back on earth was experimenting with human genes – finding a way to create the ideal child that a parent wants, no matter the hair or eye color. Or a child that a society wants – for example, a child with only a 35% developed brain that could be "trained" to clean," Guy grinned. "You see? No need for what we would call "real human" labor. Now, we have specifically underdeveloped humans that can work for us without payment, and they wouldn't care. Give them a little food, some place to sleep, and oh yes…" Guy took the cigarette out of Katze's mouth and gestured with it. "Drugs to keep them happy."
"Now, the problem with creating a utopia on earth is – " he took a deep whiff of the cigarette before coughing violently and smashing it out on the ashtray. "There are too many worldviews and diversity – but of course, you break it down into three and you get Naturalism, Pantheism, and Theism. With too many protests from other people, the scientists left planet earth to find a place where they could conduct their experiment…in…peace…" he stood up and place a finger on his lips. "So I have read, a group of scientists from all over the world that have contributed to the experiments, left earth, disguising to the rest of the world that they were going to fly to a uninhabited space station that was established in Mars a few years back and stay there for a couple of years."
"Who funded the project?" Katze asked.
"Various powerful governments around in the world did."
"So it was a conspiracy?"
"No – " Guy shook his head. "All the government thought they were funding was a group of scientists that wanted to start a colony on Mars. So after ship was launched – let's just say that it had a rather tragic accident that killed all of its passengers."
"But that's impossible – did the scientists even knew of a planet that could hold humans?"
"There was an astronomer that had calculated the whereabouts of a solar system not far from earth years before they started the project, and he joined the team," Guy shrugged. "It was risky business but they would do anything for the name of science."
"Amoi was discovered and they found it to be very similar to earth," Guy continued. "It had five levels of atmosphere, precipitates like earth, and has a stable gravity. But there was a problem –the amount of ultraviolet rays coming from the solar system's "sun" was twice as strong to plants than they were back on earth, unraveling their protein structure, and no amount of care and urging could get the plants to undergo photosynthesis. So the scientists had a couple of tough years…but with the technology and ways of growing plants underneath a controlled environment, they established a colony of about 300 men, women and children, with 90% of all of the adults being scientists. And that's when history started. Amoi grew, flourished – and despite the soil being infertile, they found massive amounts of elements needed to create transportation devices, homes. They flew to other planets close to Amoi and established colonies there. Four hundred years later, there was a new world."
"Did earth know anything about this?" Katze asked.
"In time they did," Guy said. "But Amoi's solar system was blocked by a shielding device similar to the black hole that did not allow earth to find its whereabouts. But they knew it existed."
"What about the whole utopia-thing?"
"As time went by, there more people starting to resist against the idea of creating the perfect society the found fathers of Amoi wanted," Guy said. "There were underground movements, rebellions, riots…but they did little. The perfect society the discoverers wanted wasn't there, and Amoi and the other planets started a pathway towards decay, faster than what anyone would have seen on earth."
"But then, the scientists' experiments backfired one day," Guy said, looking down into his hands. "I don't know the full details, but I knew that they were messing around with artificial intelligence by hooking a human brain up to the solar system's main computer that calculated everything from food to education - a woman by the name of Seetar. Apparently, they couldn't remove her from the wires and she slowly molded into the main computer and became what you know as Jupiter. She named herself after the largest planet in the earth's solar system, equivalent of the Greek god Zeus, ruler of the cosmos."
"It was then that she created the perfect society. She genetically engineered those she wanted to, creating a caste system the former scientists had dreamed of. And instead of having a massive genocide on the rebellions, she ranked them the lowest and allowed them to live their own lives in areas she specifically marked off for them – but she also took almost all of the female women with her until the ratio was ten men to one woman – and those women were the very first to become what we call Pets."
Katze thoughtfully leaned back.
"And then society turned, raveled, unraveled, twisted into what you see today," he gestured out the window.
"What about the first revolution against the upper caste? Did you find something about it? About the Dana Bhan – "
"One thing at a time," Guy crossed a leg over the other and tapped his forehead. "If remembered correctly a rebellion was staged years and years ago…probably during the third or fourth generation of the scientists that colonized Amoi – inside an old building that had an electrical shielding device. Apparently, the scientists set it up way back then when they were conducting experiments of some sort and they didn't want interference from whatever power plant or something that they were constructing…I don't know. The source was very vague on it."
Katze looked down at his hands and covered his face, rubbing his temples. "Guy. You mind if I do something? Right now?"
Guy looked up. "What?"
Katze crossed the space between the sofa and the couch, swung a leg over Guy's lower body, and locked his lips on his.
It was one of the most passionate kisses he ever had in his life. He couldn't describe it…it wasn't sexually passionate, but it was something deeper, something stronger, something that threatened to make him start crying right there and then. He clutched at the back of Katze's neck and drew him harder, wanting to reach inside his very soul. He forced to keep to his eyes open so he could look into the piercing gold eyes, to unravel the hidden emotions inside.
Then they broke free.
Slightly out of breath, Katze collapsed on him, his entire weight on Guy. He touched the curve of Guy's neck with his lips and rested his forehead on his shoulder.
"Are you all right?" He whispered, the heat of his words caressing the skin on his neck. "Guy?"
"Yeah. I'm all right," he whispered back.
Katze untangled himself from Guy and sat next to him, not saying a word. Then silently, he threaded his fingers through his and said quietly, "It's funny how we were taught that earth existed, but we always viewed it as another realm, another world. I guess Tanagura isn't that…philosophical."
"Why should they be?" Guy shrugged. "The high caste has everything they need. The rest of the lower ones are trying to survive that they don't – they couldn't give a damn about where they come from."
"I don't want to crush your hopes or anthing…but – "
"You know who wrote the history of Amoi that I just read?" Guy said, looking down at his fingers woven with Katze's.
"Who?"
"Iason. It was Iason."
Katze didn't look as surprise as Guy had expected him to be. "Figured," he said, tilting his head to the side. "I nearly managed hacked into one of the main computers when I was younger and almost discovered Tanagura's secret before Iason did this to me," he pushed back his hair so Guy could get a full view of the scar on his face. "I guess he didn't want me to know about it."
"What would you have done if you discovered the secret?" Guy asked.
"Nothing," he shrugged.
Guy blinked. "Nothing?"
"Why should I do anything?" Katze lit a cigarette and stared numbly at it before piercing it fiercely into the ashtray. "I had a place to stay, work, money, and food."
"But you didn't work for Iason anymore…"
"After he slashed my face?" Katze eyeballed him. "No."
"Then why didn't you try to do something – "
"I still had a place to stay and I could support myself," he said. "I don't give a damn about the caste system. I don't care."
"Why?"
"Iason was still alive. That was enough."
Guy took a deep breath and decided not to press the subject. Katze didn't look any different than he did, but he could feel an uncomfortable aura around him.
"Did you love him?" He heard himself say.
Katze started laughing.
Guy looked to the side, both astonished by his question and Katze's laughter. "Are you all right?" He asked.
"I'm going to bed," Katze leaned towards him and gave Guy a lingering kiss on the side of his neck. "You should too," he added from the doorway.
He followed Katze into the bedroom and watched as Katze removed his shirt. The soft golden lightning in the room turned his hard muscles into something soft yet strong – like gently carved marble. Katze caught his eye and looked away.
Guy silently took off his own clothes and slid underneath the covers. He reached for the bottle of sleeping pills he kept in the drawer next to the bed but felt Katze touch his shoulder. The other man reached for the bottle of pills in his hands and put it back on the drawer.
"Come here," he whispered. He placed a soft kiss on his eyelids and placed a hand on the curve of his neck. "Sleep."
The next thing he knew was that he heard someone walking – pacing more like it. He opened his eyes and yawned. Katze was walking back and forth and constantly touching his forehead with his fingertips.
"What's wrong?" Guy asked, rolling on his stomach.
"I've just thought of something…" Katze said.
"At three in the morning?" Guy rolled his eyes as he looked at the digital watch he had left on the dresser.
"I have to go," Katze said.
"What?!" The words left his lips in a shout. "What do you mean? You'll be caught! Those guys from the black market – "
"I won't be caught," Katze said and started dressing. "And I won't be gone long."
"No, let me take you – "
"I can't let you come with me," Katze said. "I'm sorry."
"You are not going! Katze!" Guy threw his legs off the bed and followed him out the bedroom.
Katze's fist snapped out towards him.
Reflexively, he stepped back and raised his right hand to block the blow. He staggered back a few steps.
"Don't make me hurt you, Guy," Katze said, drawing his fist back.
"Katze, don't do this to me. I can't do this alone."
Katze looked at him and silently, he slipped out of the apartment. The door shut with a click and everything was silence.
Everyone…gone…Guy bit his lip and felt a trickle of blood run down his chin.