I
A MIRACLE FOR THE ASTRAS.
SIBLINGS FOUND IN CAPTIVE STASIS.
THE ASTRA SIBLINGS ARE ALIVE.
〰️
The Pebble System—Joel never knew how to begin to describe the mysterious entity that took the world by storm, came like an oasis in the desert. Diseases rampant, nations rising against nations, people against their own people, an odd mixture of peace in the hidden chaos. Where knowledge made one blind to the reality around them.
The Pebble had infiltrated the deepest of governmental bodies and every known virtual facility, initiating a new era of a supposedly omnipresent governing system; yet it stays in the shadows, quietly observing—protecting. Joel hadn’t expected people to accept The Pebble’s governance as readily as the world did, but they were unable to put their trust in humankind anymore. Some had thought that having a purported AI governance might be a good facade, gaining the people’s trust before seizing the governmental rights again. To their apparent surprise, The Pebble was not to be trifled with. The entity swept through the world, creating policies that gained the support of the Masses, each policy carried out by an appointed Board of Executors. The astronomical surge in its power shook the fundamentals of the world’s structure to its core, ushering a new era seamlessly.
Thinking back, Joel didn’t remember being too surprised. He too had been one of those that saw the positive aspects of The Pebble; willing to accept it despite its unknown, unseen, unlikely existence. Though it reached their region just a little too late, the Olden Council having already sunk their claws into their family; and they found themselves revived from captive stasis only years later.
He tongues his cheek in annoyance, still trying to piece together his memories and the news reports he looked up in the past few weeks. His memories felt like a pile of overlapping strings, some supposedly were his while others were from the news. Some perhaps even conjured up from his overactive state of mind. He had the urge to tug tightly at the strings, straighten them out into a coherent, conjugated train of thought.
Deep breaths.
Joel had never pegged himself as an impatient person. He liked to believe that he is kind, good-natured, encouraging; and a whole lot of other descriptive words used to describe a patient person. So when he found himself on the verge of screaming at his sister in frustration just a few minutes ago, he knew he had to get out of the house.
Granted, Cherie had only been Recalibrated a mere two weeks ago. She was disoriented, frustrated, angry, in disbelief; and generally not in the best state of mind. He gets all that, really. He had faced the exact same situation himself three months ago but he had been all alone in that storage room, guarding his sister’s lifeless body in the stasis tank, in despair.
He never had the luxury of being able to mope and wallow in self-pity. It is still unknown as to how or why his stasis’ governing program had been the first one to malfunction after ten-odd years and there he had been, snatched from a floating void of nothingness and thrown back into the world in the most unceremonious fashion. He had emerged from a tank of swirling golden liquids, gasping desperately for his first breath of life in what felt like years.
‘Truth hurts’ would probably be the biggest understatement of his life.
‘Hurt’ doesn’t even begin to explain how he felt about missing out on ten-odd years of his life. He had gaped at the screens within the storage room, the dates glaring back at him without a care for his state of mental fragility. What would they know? They were simply functioning as they are supposed to—displaying the correct date on the screen.
He spent the next three months doing what he was best at, what he had been trained to do— manoeuvring the web, codes, and systems. He is, after all, one of the youngest Talents to be admitted into the Hall of Coders; albeit ten years ago. But if he could familiarise himself with the advancements in technology again within those few weeks of isolation, he honestly thought he was doing an exceptional job.
With some help from a doctor who found him sneaking around the storage area’s shower rooms one day—and he honestly doesn’t know what prompted the doctor to help him instead of reporting him to the asylum—they finally initiated Cherie’s Recalibration. Amidst Joel’s nervous rambling, fears, and perhaps he may have shed some tears, she emerged safe and sound; sound being an objective word considering how moody she was being. But he could never live with himself if he had caused any glitches in his sister’s Recalibration or worse, her death,
Though he still thinks that he may have done something wrong, or something wasn’t done right.
Cherie was simply not herself. Moody, disoriented, spaced out, so deep in her mind he feared he lost her somewhere he couldn’t reach. He wouldn’t have worried this much if she had always been that way; but it was a far cry, a complete disillusion of her.
His sister is smart—in his humble opinion—the smartest of the Talents. An Intellectual, officially inaugurated into the Hall of Intellectuals in the same year he did. She was feisty, a little dreamy and sometimes overbearing, and most of the time positive. But now, he could only see a shell of her image. He knew that her Recalibration hadn’t been executed flawlessly. What if they already lost a part of her somewhere?
He sighs, almost able to hear her child-like tone of speech again. “No ‘What Ifs’ Joel, we either do it, did it, or haven’t done it. Worrying gets you nowhere.” He swears he heard her say that just a few weeks ago, not ten years ago.
Thousands of questions stir up within him again. How they did get themselves here? Who did this to them? Why would they do this? What are they going to do from now on? Where is their older brother, Hans? When is lunch going to be served because he was starving.
“This is supposed to be Cherie’s job,” he mumbles to himself angrily. The siblings worked together in perfect tandem. Hans creates the idea, Cherie researches the necessary, Joel makes everything come alive virtually.
It could all be an elaborate prank for all he knew, but it had to be a massively grand set-up for it to be true. Joel was, however, thoroughly convinced that it wasn’t a prank just by the sheer amount of vastly improved technology available. If it was a nightmare, he would gladly stay in it. But he knows it isn’t..
Bringing himself back to his current predicament, he hates feeling such a sense of helplessness. There is nothing he can do to bring back the old Cherie, even though he really just wanted to shake her hard, throw her into a washer and hope for the best. He won’t even mind her bossing him around again if someone would just tell him what to do.
He approaches the Waterfall Cafeteria, glad to see it already open for lunch. He decides that all his problems could wait till after he had his lunch. Tapping his ID-Slip on his wrist, his identification lights up and the detector scans it with a louder than necessary beep, making others around him look over in amusement.
“Sorry, faulty Slip,” was all he could manage, though he was sure no one heard him. They really needed to replace his ancient ID-Slip with a new one soon. He is honestly more amazed by the fact that their old Slips are stll somewhat compatible with advanced technology. “You know how some people from the older generation refuse to upgrade their belongings? We have to cater to that too.” Joel scoffs, giving one last scornful glare at his ancient Slip before jogging towards the spread of food lined up in endless rows of beautifully carved stoneware.
Cibum amo.
As promised, here’s Chapter I (Part 1) of my book RECALIBRATION (Book 1) from The Pebble Series! (Available on Amazon at only 2.99 and free on Kindle Unlimited!) It’s pretty long for a daily-updates-length, so Part 2 will be posted tomorrow!
(Previous) Read Prologue
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The Pebble Series by CLEO 
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