005 on 008

With a little encouragement, 008 tells excellent stories. It should go without saying, but, he has led a very eventful life and more than once he's been able to have every person on the room completely enthralled as he narrates. Over dinner a few weeks ago he told the story of his former comrade Mamado and one particular fight in a rainstorm against some government troops that the two of them had barely escaped from. Listening to him, I could almost hear the thunder booming through the sky, feel the torrents of rain and smell the cordite in the air. The way he told it, it sounded like nothing but an adventure. He had everyone in the room on the edge of their seats, in rapt silence. Such was his talent with words that he barely needed to raise his voice above a whisper but yet we were all hooked. That being said, it was plain enough to see that by the end of the story he wasn't as happy as he was showing himself to be. He confided in me later that night, saying that he had lost contact with Mamado months before being taken by Black Ghost. In all likelihood, his friend was long dead and the rest of his rebel comrades were likely not faring much better back at home.

"Well, it's not like we were getting into that fight to win..." He said.

It was the middle of the night when we had that conversation. I found him in the living room on my way out of the house for a walk. The moon was bright in the sky and the tide was low. Through the window of Mr Kosumi's living room, a million silver stars shimmered above a calm sea. At any other time, a view like that would have filled me with a deep calm and awe, but, somewhere inside a part of me couldn't forget the fact that out there, across those waters, people were plotting against us. Powerful, unrelenting people with eyes and ears everywhere, both human and mechanical. I felt their unyielding gaze in every CCTV camera that I passed, ever watchful and ready to pounce at a moment's notice. It kept me restless at night and paranoid in the day. (Of course, compared to what 003 sees and hears in a day I can imagine my paranoia is all but inconsequential. All the same, I've gotten this far by relying on instinct...) No doubt 008 was going through something similar.

"So what do you get into it for?" I asked.

I didn't get an answer. At that moment, 006 joined us. (It seems we're hardly the only two who can't resist the beauty of a clear night, although personally I enjoy it much more actually out of the house. Some nights I walk for hours on end and find dawn has come before sleep.) Before 006 had a chance to say anything 008 was already on his feet. He muttered something about going out for a swim and was out of the house in seconds. After a brief conciliatory conversation with 006 I was out the door myself but couldn't find 008. I got the impression he wanted to be alone anyway. The next day he was back to his usual self and I didn't get a chance to speak to him properly for a few days after that, thanks mainly to 0011's timely intervention.

When we did get a minute it was night again. I found 008 down in the main control room of the Dolphin, reading up on emergency landings in the flight manual. Although he was fine with flying the plane, he explained, he wasn't completely confident in emergency landings and had been meaning to read up on it all for weeks.

"It's the little things that always end up tripping you," he said. "I've seen soldiers practice shooting for months on end and then die of septicaemia because no-one bothered to learn how to properly clean a wound..."

Oddly enough, he laughed then.

"Although, I don't think any normal disease is going to be a problem for us, or even a plane crash for that matter..."

"But it's not us you're worried about. It's the doctor."

The smile on his face was little more than a grimace.

"Even if he wasn't the only person both able and willing to fix us all, he's still a seventy year old man who angered the wrong people, as well as being the least able to defend himself. No matter how you look at it, we really can't afford to lose him. Without Dr Gilmore, I don't even think we'd last a month. I just really hope Black Ghost wants him back as badly as they want us or eventually they'll decide to remove him from the equation..."

A minute or two passed in silence. 008 put the manual down and stretched before standing up.

"It's belief that keeps us going," he said. "When you asked before, that's what I was going to say. When I joined the rebellion, I knew the odds were against us from the beginning. But, the end we were fighting for would be worth any amount of trouble. Even if it didn't amount to much in the end there, it's at least a good help now. What's one more unachievable goal in the grand scale of things, right?"

At that point, I could scarcely believe he was younger than me. The look in his eyes was that of a much older man, shadowed by cynicism but not yet ruined by it. Capable of seeing both the very best and the very worst in any situation in turn.

Unlike the rest of us, 008 didn't need time to get used to this situation. Once he knew who could be trusted not to shoot him in the back he simply continued onwards. More to the point, it doesn't all seem to bother him in the same way it bothers some of the rest of us. He manages to remain upbeat and energetic in the face of danger and rises with the sun every day, even if there's nothing to be done. He talks to me about his home town, about his mother, step-father and sisters. Twin girls, who by now will be thirteen years old, but he hasn't seen them in nearly four years. Best not to bring the fight to them, you see. It was true when he was in the resistance and it's even truer now that Black Ghost is after us all, he tells me. He asks me about my family and where I grew up and doesn't push when I tell him I'm not ready to talk about them.

"Do you see me as a soldier...?" I find myself asking, barely registering the words I say as they come from me.

His brow creases. For a moment, he just sits still, seemingly lost in thought.

"No," he says, at long last. "You don't strike me as the type. Only thing is, you don't strike me as a normal civilian either. I hope this isn't too forward, but, you strike me as the type who hasn't been home in a long time."

I nod.

"It does tend to wear away at you after a while," he continues. "Just being so far from your family all the time."

Oddly enough, he smiles again.

"That is one good thing about us all. We're all lost together. And right now, I'd rather stay lost."

A sentiment I share. That is one thing the two of us seem to know. While we're lost, we can be free, in one form or another. Better to leave quietly in the night and whisper goodbyes to your family from the front door, love them from arms's length and know that distance is the only thing you can give them.

But the team is different, though. Despite his determination to stay away from home, 008 seems equally determined to stick with the other cyborgs. It could just be a desire to keep them safe and help them through the storm, but, I think there's more than that. Family isn't just the people who share your blood.