Nivek Erieth disembarked the transport, setting foot onto Freeport 6 and followed the other passengers out of the hanger; towards the western bio-dome.
A rush of tingling excitement electrified him. He's seen all the bootleg videos of the band. He's collected all of their albums. He learned the words to every one of the songs, (even those that sucked,) and this was the first time he's ever had the opportunity to see them play live in person...As a matter of fact, in all of his twenty-four years, this was his first time attending any live concert whatsoever, so, just simply being here made him instantly happy.
He flowed along with the current of the crowd as they all meandered closer to the dome. He let the moments wash over him and allowed his brain to commit everything to memory.
The dull murmur of the throng registering indistinctly in his ears as they herded towards the entrance like cattle. The vendors off to the sides hawking overpriced T-shirts and posters. The drunk and the stoned, cheering at random intervals things such as, "YEAH! SPIDERBABIES!!" or "F***IN' ROCK!!" and the like. All-of-it marking the experience for him, over the low-fidelity echo of recorded music of other bands playing through the Freeports P.A. system, that Nivek- from now on, will look back on and remember as the interlude to the soundtrack of a truly unforgettable night.
After he paid for his ticket and made his way through the turnstile past the bouncers, he opened his wallet to stuff his stub into it as someone slammed into his shoulder, making him drop both to the floor.
He bent down, grabbed his wallet, searching for the stub but not locating it, until he glanced up...finding it right in front of his face, being held by the fingers of a hand connected to a truly unforgettable girl. Embarrassed, she said to him, "Oh, s**t! I'm sooo sorry! Are you OK?"
Nivek knew she was saying something to him...He could see her lips moving, but he couldn't actually hear her words, because when looked further up her face and met her ice-green eyes, all he could concentrate on at that particular time was how it felt as the whole of her burned right through him. The sinking in his stomach being akin to one of those falling moments on occasion that jolt you fully awake while you're drifting away into sleep.
He likes to think he replied with something witty and cool in the moment that followed, but honestly, he really didn't.
As they both rose to their feet, she returned his stub, apologetically rubbed his shoulder where she collided into him and said, "Yeah. I think you'll probably live." She then straightened the backstage pass around her neck and flashed him a very warm smile over her shoulder as she turned and vanished back into the crowd to catch up with her friends.
About ten minutes later, Nivek and his beer wormed a path through the crowd, making his way closer to the stage.
Given all the live bootlegs he's seen before, this was turning out to be a larger audience than expected. Taking a guess, he figured there must be somewhere around six to seven-hundred so far.
He was getting more & more psyched as the minutes passed, but the soundcheck was an unexpected surprise. As a rule, those are edited out of the videos.
The decibel level was a nice shock to his system as the random sounds of the guitar and mic checks completely drowned out the music playing through the overhead house speakers...but the best part was feeling the kickdrum for the first time.
The soundwaves hit him like bricks, making his eyes squint as if he were standing in front of a cannon, and it made every hair on his body stand on end, chilling him with goosebumps.
Shortly after the stage cleared, and not three or four seconds after he upended the last of his beer, the unforgettable woman from earlier slipped in beside him and handed him another one.
Nivek felt a subtle rush that made him wonder what being swept away by an undertow felt like.
He said to her: "Whoever you are, you have absolute perfect timing."
"Timing is kind of my thing." she replied, mirroring his smile back at him.
They clicked cups in a silent toast as the lights went out, the crowd began to roar, and the pyrotechnics exploded.
The pair didn't speak more than a couple dozen words to each other during the show.
They were fine making due with mostly non-verbal communication, since most of the words they did speak couldn't be heard over the volume anyway.
There were lots of flirty glances and 'accidental' touching going on during the first few songs.
They shared a joint of Gran Canaria's damn fine Kalisti Gold by song five, and by the second encore at the end, they were singing along with the chorus at the top of their lungs, completely joined at the hip.
When the show ended and the lights came up, the woman threw her arms around him and excitedly proclaimed about having the greatest time. Without a second thought, he stole a long kiss from her and she completely melted into him when he said to her, "I'm keeping that."
Playing with the hair at the back of his neck, she looked up at him and said with all seriousness: "I'm f***ing starving! Would you like to have breakfast with me?"
"I don't even know your name yet." he said while nodding yes.
"Jaina Coahuila"
"Nivek Erieth"
"Hi Nivek...I really like you, so I'm going to kill you last. Is that OK?"
"You're twisted." He laughed, and fell in love with her a little bit.
He took her by the hand and said, " Let's go eat" and lead her across the floor towards the exit.
Her face turned to a look of confusion and she stopped dead in her tracks, damn near pulling Nivek's arm out of its socket.
"What?" he asked.
"It's time."
"Uh, what?" he asked again.
"Nothing. Just wait here with me for a moment."
Jaina pulled the backstage pass out from under her shirt and removed it from her neck while scanning the faces of the passers by.
She singled someone out and stopped a guy that couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen.
"Hey Boy, you want this?" she inquired, holding the pass in front of him.
The teenagers eyes went wide at the sight of it. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?! HELL YES!!!"
"Completely serious" she confirmed sweetly, as she put it around his neck. "Enjoy it for as long as you can."
"OH MY GOD! THANK YOU! I WILL!" and at that, the guy took off running back towards the stage.
"That was really cool of you." Nivek said, proudly extending the crook of his arm to her like a proper gentleman.
"No big deal." she replied humbly as she took his arm, and they disappeared together off into the crowd.
----------
Meanwhile, The kid reached stage and rushed up the steps leading to the backstage door, and took an accidental trip that resulted in a horrible, very nasty spill.
Luckily, there was an emergency medical team on duty, and when they reached him, they performed their jobs flawlessly.
Unfortunately, the gash in his head was simply far too severe to be helped.
Jaina and Nivek find themselves walking down a city street somewhere on Planet Los Angeles.
Inexplicably however, Nivek doesn't remember how they got there. All he knows is that she is taking him to meet her friends.
They reach a corner bus stop, take their seats on the bench and begin small talking.
After a short bit, a white rabbit approaches & hops up onto Jaina's lap and asks her, "Hey Lady, you got a cigarette?"
"I don't smoke" she said.
The rabbit looks over to Nivek and repeats the same question. "Nah. I don't smoke either." he said.
"Oh well." the furry thing muttered with disappointment, and it hopped away.
Nivek shot up and went after it, yelling, "Wait! I wanna ask you something!"
"F**k off!" it shouted back at him over its shoulder. "You're not supposed to follow me yet. Follow her first, you moron!"
The bunny vanished as rain began to fall.
Nivek doesn't remember the bus ride, but the couple arrived at a small shop named 'Psychopomps'
Before they could enter the door, some guy that couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen shouted, "Wait up!" and came jogging up to them on the sidewalk.
He hugged the pair in an oddly familiar way as the rain came down with more intensity.
The guy explained that he's eventually going to Planet Cambridge and that he's always wanted to live there. He thanked them for it, gave them another familiar hug, then started babbling about his hopes and dreams.
Nivek didn't know what the kid was going on about, but finally recognized him as the kid from Freeport 6 and said, "That's cool...When are you going?"
"During the third trimester of the pregnancy." he replied with an unspoken 'Duh!'
Confused, He asked the boy, "Are you taking the piss?"
The rain started coming down in torrents at this point, and Nivek realized he needed to go take a piss.
He woke up and slowly tried to crawl out of bed without waking Jaina, but it didn't work. She sleepily smiled, said "Good morning," rolled onto her back and engaged in a leisurely horizontal stretch under the covers without opening her eyes.
He leaned down, kissed her and whispered in her ear, "It's afternoon, actually."
"Oh yeah."
"I had a strange dream last night." he continued.
"Tell me." she said with another smile.
"You were in it, and...a talking bunny looking for a smoke."
Jaina finally opened her eyes: Bright and immediately alert. "Tell me more!" she pleaded with genuine interest.
"OK, but I have to pee like a racehorse first."
"We're really going to have to work on your pillow talk skills." she responded wryly.
They both slid out of bed. While Nivek went to the restroom, Jaina picked Nivek's shirt up off the floor and slipped it on. She activated the TV and returned above the sheets. She sat upright against the backboard, and tuned to the CNS Network to catch up on the local news.
She sunk into memories of her own dream: Bus rides, bunnies, and lots of rain.
She's never linked into a dream with anyone before. She was taught that it was possible, and thought maybe it was something to do with the enjoyable jolt she felt last night when she and Nivek collided before the show and locked eyes with one another.
She thought back through the chain of serendipities that led to it, and her heart warmed.
"TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DREAM!" she called out.
After a beat, his response came, muffled by a mouth full of toothpaste: "SORRY. I DON'T REMEMBER IT NOW."
Disappointed, she turned her attention back to the TV.
On the news, the teenager that died last night in the bio-dome achieved his fifteen minutes of fame on a split-screen news report...The footage of his covered corpse being wheeled out on a gurney to the left, and a photograph of him taken in happier times, provided by the family to the right.
Truly a tragic thing from one point of view, but the most important lesson her friends ever taught her, is that everything is connected. She replayed the boy's words when they met in the dream, and for the briefest of moments, imagined herself possibly moving to Cambridge and starting a family of her own someday.
She turned the screen off as Nivek joined her on the bed, and she asked, "Have you ever been to Los Angeles?"
"No. You?"
"It's where I grew up. Would you like to go there with me sometime and meet my friends?"
"Yeah. I'd like that." he answered. "Until you get sick of me, I want to go where you go."
Lost in a moment of thought, Nivek furrowed his brow and tilted his head to the side like a confused canine.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Nothing." he replied. "Just having a moment of De'ja Vu"
"That's a good start." she said with a hopeful smile, and fell in love with him a little bit.
She turned out the lights and the pair continued to get to know each other.
"S**t! I don't know. Uhhh...what about...The Morbid Zen?"
"Oh god NO! Not even for your birthday! That sounds way too- Ugly!"
Nivek dodges a chunk of chicken Jaina flicked off her fork at him from across the table.
"Your aim suuuucks!" he said. Playfully taunting her.
She went on: "Seriously though. You live here too, and now that you and I are officially an Us, I really want you to choose the new name. 'Morbid Zen' just sounds too much like the stupid name of some washed up, D-list professional wrestler or something."
Nivek thought honestly about it for a moment before admitting: "You have an excellent point."
------
About ten minutes later, the couple stood side by side, still in the galley, cleaning the dishes at the sink.
Keeping in mind her advice that the new name of the ship should sound at least somewhat professional, Nivek says, "What about 'GreenthInc.'...with 'think' stylized as the abbreviation for Incorporated?"
Jaina pauses for a few moments and imagines it. "Hmmh. That's not bad, actually."
"But?"
"Not sure. Something about just seems so, so-"
"What?" he goads her.
"I don't know. Something about it just seems too- Gaian."
"Jeezus," he teased. "If I'd have known you were gonna be this high maintenance--"
"--F**K YOU!" she shot back with mock hurt, flipping him the finger and cracking up.
------
More than an hour later, they are upstairs in the loft towards the back of the Kusari Transport, watching a cheesy horror movie together.
Nivek is stretched out on the couch resting his head in Jaina's lap and says, "Hey! What about...'Erinloch?'
She looks down at him, and he watches her eyes dilate and her lips curl upwards at the thought.
"That sounds really pretty. What does it mean?"
"If I recall correctly, 'Erin' is Gaelic for Ireland, and 'Loch' is Scottish for lake...when I think of it, it reminds me of you."
"But I'm not Scottish or Irish." she said.
"Yeah, I know, but so what?"
Jaina thought honestly about it for a moment before admitting: "You have an excellent point."
Jaina woke up in the middle of the night, trembling, her eyes wet with tears.
It was just a horrible nightmare she said, and when Nivek came back into the bedroom a few minutes later with a cup of tea for her, he asked if she wanted to talk about it.
She wiped her eyes, thanked him, kissed him on the cheek and told him that the memory had already faded.
He knew her well enough by now to know she was lying to him.
He didn't call her on it, but he ultimately wouldn't allow it to slide either.
It just wasn't the time. All he wanted to do in that moment was take her tea aside and hold onto her until she cried herself back to sleep.
------
In the morning, Jaina, still curled up, and resting her head on his chest, knew he was already awake, and said quietly, "On days like this, I really hate my life."
"Are you ready to be honest with me?" he said in a tone that was more of a quiet demand than a question.
"I'm sorry." she told him. tears welling up in her eyes again. "There's just so much I need to tell you that I'm not sure you're ready for."
"Correct me if I'm wrong," he said, "but you trust me, don't you?"
"yes."
He lifted her chin and made her look him in the eye.
"Then please trust me enough to tell me the truth."
Jaina recognized the unspoken ultimatum.
With a deep breath, she said, "Take me to Manhattan and I'll show you the truth."
Later that day, after the Kusari Bumblebee set down at one of the spaceports on Planet Manhattan, Nivek leaves the cockpit and goes to the galley, joining Jaina at the table where she hasn't moved or spoken all day.
Over the past month, he's seen all her moods, or, at least he thought he had.
Normally overall, she's cheery, bright, kind-hearted, and just about any other word you can think of in that same vein. She has an extremely dark sense of humor, but even when she sometimes says things that would gobsmack and offend anyone in earshot, it can still somehow come off as hopeful and optimistic.
Right now though, she hurts...& the pain is so thick in the air, that when Nivek takes her hand from across the table, he feels like he's breathing water, and it breaks his heart.
Eventually, without looking up, she finally spoke and said, "I've made a terrible mistake."
"Talk to me." he said gently.
After a long pause, she said to him, "I saved somebody's life once."
Jaina told him what she could. She wanted to tell him everything, but she didn't. She had her reasons, but ultimately, she simply didn't know how.
She kept it simple and relayed the story of a time last year when she took her first roadtrip from Los Angeles to Manhattan with her new friends. How they went on a pub-crawl picking bars at random and having a good time wandering the streets, killing time.
How the mid-air collision happened above them, and how the taxi fell into the restaurant nearby.
Told him how she and her friends ran to the wreckage, and about the woman trapped inside, screaming.
About how she decided to pull the woman out and save her before she burned alive.
...and feeling regret about that decision today.
------
Nivek didn't understand.
To him, she's a hero, and he told her that.
"You don't understand, and we're running out of time." she said sadly.
Jaina stood, leaned across the table, and cupped Nivek's face in her hands.
"I know we've been moving too fast, but you're my best friend." she said to him.
"Do you love me yet?" she asked, holding his gaze.
The directness of her question caught him by surprise. She was right when she said they were moving too fast, he thought to himself, but it didn't surprise him when he said, "Yes."
"Then it's your turn to please trust me."
She leaned in closer to him, the pair touching forehead to forehead.
"Close your eyes." she told him, as she did the same.
"Don't think." she continued, "just blurt out the first number that comes into your head."
"66" he blurted.
"Thank you." she whispered, a tear running down her cheek.
Nivek and Jaina stepped into a cab and flew away from the spaceport.
"Where to?" the cabbie asked.
"The Arts District, please." said Jaina.
"Where in the Arts District?" the driver inquired further.
"Anywhere. Pilot's choice."
The Cabbie shrugged. "Suit yourself."
------
The couple arrived at a museum and took a seat on a bench by the entrance.
After a wordless minute passed, Nivek asked, "What are we waiting for?"
"I have no idea." she said. Her attention focused on all the unremarkable people going about their business around them.
"Uh, OK. How long are we going to sit here?"
"No clue." she responded in a detached tone.
Another few minutes passed in silence.
A group of loud schoolchildren in bright colored uniforms came out of the museum and began to head up the street with their chaperones.
"There." Jaina said. "We go where they go." She shot up, grabbed her boyfriend by the hand, and dragged him behind her like a wheeled piece of luggage, while she tailed the group at a respectful distance.
Eventually, the group of field-trippers descended into the subway, and stopped to watch a street musician perform between the restrooms and turnstiles.
Jaina began to scan the area.
She spots an arrow on the wall that points the direction of 'Line 66' and says, "FOLLOW ME!" as she jumps the turnstile and takes off running through the tunnel towards the platform.
Nivek catches up to her as the train begins to enter the station.
"Where are we going now?" he asked. thoroughly confused and a little frustrated at this point.
"Now, we go where the train goes." she told him.
She snapped out of her concentration when the irritation in his voice finally registered with her, and she took his hand and held it to her heart.
She kissed him and said, "Thank you for trusting me."
They board the train with the other commuters and take their seats.
She turns to him and holds his face in her hands, and connects foreheads with him as she did earlier aboard their transport.
"Like before," she said, "close your eyes, don't think, and pick a number."
"3"
They rode the train for three stops, got out, and exited up to street level.
There, she didn't know if she should go left or right.
She went back to crowd scanning.
A few minutes passed, and she was beginning to feel discouraged when a strong gust of wind came from the south blowing her hair in her face, obscuring her view.
She took Nivek by the hand again and turned to the north, following the path of least resistance with the wind at their backs until they came to a four-way crosswalk, opposite of a flashing 'DON'T WALK' sign.
"Where to now?" He asked, as Jaina went back to detached people watching again.
"I don't know yet." she said. looking across the street ahead of them.
Nivek looked behind them, and felt a sense of De'ja Vu.
"I think I do." he said. "You're looking for a white rabbit."
"That's a good way to put it." she said, only half paying attention to him.
"C'mon then!" he said, as he took her by the hand and started to drag her back the way they came.
She protested for a few seconds until she finally saw what he saw.
A man in a white soccer jersey with '66' in big black numbers on the back.
With Nivek taking the lead this time, they trailed the white rabbit, lagging behind about half a block.
Before they followed their target entering a coffee shop, He caught a glimpse of his girlfriend in his peripheral vision, and saw she wasn't even looking at the target. She was looking at him, smiling for the first time since early last night.