by Jamilette Pichardo

Sola watched cautiously as Jarron carefully set the little boy into the gray car seat. Deep down somewhere in the darkest pits of doubt, Sola had contemplated whether or not she was fit to be a mother. She remembered the first other two car seats they had picked out. The first one in yellow and the second of bright pink now Jarron was going off with him although, technically it wasn’t running off and she knew that. Jarron went from being a workaholic servant to the human race with no other responsibilities than himself to something he never expected. Consequently, over the course of nine months plus four years he was an unexpected father to boot. This was one lost dream that Jarron had once hoped to share with Amanda, but then out of nowhere she was gone, leaving Jarron to lock that dream away into the farthest corners of his heart. But now somehow, he had the chance of living that dream because of his relationship with Sola.

Sometime later, when the two headed down the road Jarron instinctively found himself checking the rearview mirror of the chrome 2055 Charger. Sky was getting restless in his car seat, but Jarron had hoped he could hold on for another hour. As Jarron continued to guzzle mile upon mile he found himself fearful of things to come for now he was responsible for this little life, a life that Sola had entrusted in Jarron’s care. Jarron would honor her amount of faith she had in him or he would die trying.

            The little boy made engine sounds with his mouth as he continued to take apart the toy motorcycle and reassemble it perfectly six consecutive times without even thinking about it. Then he raised his tiny index finger to the satellite towers watching over the city and began to create sound signals of his own that emanated different color lights of neon green, fluorescent blue, and bright purple for the different signals. As a result, with those light signals he was creating and orchestrating a symphony of music. The four-year-old went so far to try to create a melancholy lyrical verse in Latin, Portuguese, and Japanese. Jarron clutched the steering wheel even tighter as the child was babbling every new word he acquired for each different language.

            “Sky, are you hungry?” Jarron asked, attentively looking at the little boy once again through his mirror. Sky mimicked the sentence in the three languages he was studying, before he stuck his tongue out at Jarron.

“Yeah, I know buddy, you’re bored,” Jarron said with a heavy sigh. “But you’ve got to stop or they’re going to pinpoint your location,”

Sky immediately stopped his transmission along with the flow of knowledge he was acquiring through his use of light. The little boy drew his lip in a pout and lifted his left thumb into his small mouth, in his right hand he held a small Rubik’s cube.

“Why don’t you try to find as many different combinations as you can for the colors?”  The man in the driver seat suggested to the four-year-old. Sky simply responded by sticking out his tongue again and expelling spit into the air. The Rubik’s cube became a constant companion for Sky along with a strange looking stuffed animal that the little boy had constructed himself; He used the head and body of a monkey with the tail of a dinosaur, the right arm as a claw, and the left arm was a dolphin’s fin. However, the legs were those of the white Bengal tiger.  The four-year-old had not only constructed the creature himself that he also sewed the different body pieces together. He told his mother someday he would help create a creature in reality like this one just as the doctors have learned to do with DNA. Along with the stuffed animal were 257 magnetics vocabulary cards as well as a mini dictionary with 12 different languages stored in the boy’s little pockets.

            “Jar-Jar.” Jarron’s eyes met Sky’s again in the rearview mirror, Jarron’s eyes only surging with concern as he held his breath awaiting the little boy’s request.

            “Pee-pee.”  Sky answered.

Now in her solitude, Sola stood in front of a large clock tower before deciding to ascend the spiral stairwell leading into their operation base. Upon her arrival, she pressed pointer into a panel as it scanned the pupil of her green eyes. “DNA confirmed,” the automated voice replied as an elevator shaft opened and Sola stepped inside. 

As the doors closed behind her, she rummaged through her jean pockets for a hair tie.  She quickly pulled back her hair into one single high ponytail wrapping the band tightly around her thick dark hair four times before completing the process parting her hair in both hands and pulling them tightly into the black hair tie. Then she retrieved a small headset microphone from her other pocket and placed it into her left ear. A single sound was made as if a computer was loading up and now inside her very brain 3-D images in infrared were being transmitted to someone else. Now Sola’s computer imagery point of view shines in neon to a large mainframe computer. A stream of information glowed in neon green like a navigational compass and beneath her feet a visual 2-D map-like layout fills the room floorboards.

“Sorry for the delay captain,” Sola started to say.

“Excuses are for the weak. Can we get started now?”  The light stream of maps Sola was creating were now rising up from the ground and climbing the walls into the captain’s main control room. Sola was now in what appeared to be a 360 degree 3-D grid that placed the captain at the center of what Sola saw.

“Are you getting all this?”  Sola asked into her headset.

“Yes,” answered the captain dryly.

“I don’t see why you need my help. I’ve told you time and time again. I’ve left the job since I’ve had my son.”

“Earth has become a haven for all other races that came to live in peace,” the captain reminded her.

“And what about the other one percent who can’t?”  Sola asked, bitterly crossing her arms.

“For the one percent that can’t there is the brave Legion of the Anointed Ones. They are undoubtedly a new breed of police,” the captain finished as Sola groaned and rolled her eyes.

“Whatever.”

“Sola, how is the boy?”  The captain asked as he cleared his throat.

“Skyler. Use his name if you’re going to ask about him. And he’s fine, Luca.  He’s with your brother as we speak.”

As Sola kept the captain occupied, Jarron and Sky were almost out of the dome city and nearly reaching a hidden colony. The colony was founded by Morbus as he was shunned away by the Earth’s inhabitants and the new breed of police due to his beliefs against conforming. As a world above dreamed of perfect DNA Morbus felt the human race should be born with imperfections instead of being built to not have any. It took years of research, but soon mankind would benefit from science and their discoveries. 

When Jarron arrived at the gates of the hidden colony, Morbus was there to greet him and Skyler. Morbus was born with imperfect DNA, causing certain parts of his skin to look as if they had been burned and were still sizzling from the infection. As a result, he wore half of a titanium plated shield upon the left side of his face to cover strangely mutilated areas.

“Welcome anointed one and little one,” he greeted, extending his leather covered right hand to Jarron.  Jarron scoffed, but tried to hide his discomfort being only inches away from the deformed figure. Morbus then lowered himself onto one knee and greeted the little boy pleasantly.

“And what might your name be?”

Skyler placed a finger on his bottom lip and thought about the man’s question for a moment. Not because he was unsure on how to respond, but he wanted to think of the best way to greet the man.

“My name is Skyler, and I’m four years, three months and two days old,” the little boy told him in Arabic. Jarron’s jaw dropped in disbelief as he couldn’t believe Skyler was not only conversing with someone so comfortably, he had just met, but was also not the least fearful of the man’s gruesome appearance.

“Ah, you are a trans-absorber, wonderful!”

“I’m sorry, he’s a what?”  Jarron asked, a bit taken aback.

“A trans-absorber, my boy,” Morbus repeated again, fascinated by the little person standing before him.

Back at the dome city, the captain and Sola were continuing their search for imperfect DNA when she finally decided to speak. Sola blinked her eyes and stopped the 3-D image search.

“Why have you stopped?”

“I know I’m breaking protocol, captain, but I don’t think there is a need to change my son.”  Sola admitted her voice pleading and hoping he would understand.

“In my office, now!”  Now all her headset microphone was registering was the sound of static noise. She sighed heavily as she left the command post and climbed the spiral titanium plated stairs to the captain’s watchtower. The elevator door shaft opened and on the other side the captain waited for her. He sat at his command post stoic still giving her a questioning look. Then he rose to his feet slowly still keeping his icy blue eyes focused on her with contempt.  “Why are you still fighting me on this, Sola?”

“Luca, think of all the babies we’ve buried already?   He’s happy, he’s healthy, he’s extremely intelligent and he knows the way our society works. Why is there a need to change him?”

“You know why!  We as a society stand for perfect DNA and he just doesn’t have it,”

“Who are you to decide what’s passable as perfect DNA and what’s not?”

“Be careful, Sola; you’re starting to sound like the one percent we can’t contain,” the captain warned, his tone stern.

“And you’re a killer!” Sola yelled, infuriated, but then she took a long deep breath and composed herself.” We don’t know if there’s anything wrong with him.”

“You and I both know he’s different than the rest of us. I simply just want to help,”

“Luca, I can take him to Morbus.  He—”

“Morbus is my enemy!  He is my enemy and you know that!  He stands for everything I do not!  If you go to him, you and your son will be marked as traitors to our unit.”

“Luca, he is your son.  I have never asked for anything, but I’m asking now, leave him be; there is no need to change his DNA.”

“Sola, why can’t you see my point in all this?  I just want our son to live a simple life without being encumbered by difficulties. If I can guarantee him a perfect life without any sickness or abnormalities, you better damn sure believe I’m going to do it!”

“And if I say no?”  Sola questioned arrogantly through gritted teeth.

“I’m the father and I’m the captain. If you want to stay here with your son, you will abide by my laws,” 

Sola and Luca glared at each other, wondering how two people who once had feelings for each other ended up here. Two people once very much in love now were separate…ghosts of who they used to be and now who they are hunting them for resolution.

“Sometimes I still dream of what we could have had together, but you always put your job first as captain.”

“I know the life that I live, I know the things I’ve done, I know what I’ve done to you, but I want you to know I’m doing this with his best interest at heart.”

“I just don’t think this is the way,” Sola admitted as a single tear cascaded slowly down her cheek. She brushed it away quickly with the back of her hand, feeling as if her own eyes had betrayed her. They were interrupted with a loud gust of wind as the elevator door shaft once again opened. Skyler came running through, grabbing onto his mother’s leg and babbling in Latin about the colony and everything he had seen.

“What’s going on here?”  Jarron asked, stepping off the titanium platform and into the office.

“Nothing. It doesn’t concern you,” the captain stated crudely as he went back to sit at his desk. Meanwhile, Skyler occupied himself by arranging all of the captain’s books in alphabetical order.

“Like this, like this,” Skyler kept repeating in various languages.

“Skyler stop,” the captain said as he attempted to take the books away from Skyler, who became extremely frustrated and began stomping his foot and throwing a temper tantrum. Sola picked him up in her arms and began to console him as she patted his back gently.

“You guys should know he excelled greatly on some parts of the test, but failed others,” Jarron interjected handing Skyler his stuffed animal he built himself.

“You took him to see Morbus, after I specifically told you we could run the test here and have the problem corrected.” The captain’s temper was now surging as his anger was radiating through.

“That is not what this is about,” Jarron clarified the volume in his own tone even surprising himself. “Sky excelled greatly in everything, but it was his chromosome count that failed the test,”

“Meaning what?” The captain barked.

“Skyler was diagnosed with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. As a result, he has idiosyncratic and compulsive tendencies,”

“Very well then, he will be scheduled for DNA adaptation tonight.”

“Luca, I still believe that isn’t necessary. Your test can do more harm to him than good. We still don’t know the side effects,” Sola pointed out as she looked over the paperwork Jarron provided to her.

“Sola, you are a member of this society and as a member you must abide by the laws. DNA adaptation to correct abnormalities is one of those laws.” The captain then turned his attention to his younger brother.  “And you.  What were you thinking, going outside of the dome and going to see Morbus? What could he provide for the three of you that I can’t?

“A choice,” Sola hissed before storming out of the office with Skyler safely nestled in her arms.

As shadows stole the last bit of surfacing light and nightfall crept upon another day Sola had already formulated a plan for her and her son. She was struggling with her decision to leave for quite some time now. She wanted to do what was best for her son, but she also wondered what kind of values was she teaching him if she just got up and left—any form of stability her little boy might have had would be gone.

 In the end, joining Morbus and leaving the life she had built for herself seemed like the only way to protect the one person she loved the most. She knew Skyler’s procedure would be in the morning, so the way she saw it if there was going to be an escape it had to be now. She grabbed an overnight bag from under her bed along with her car keys, and she carefully put on Skyler’s sneakers; she was cautious not to wake him from his sleeping state. Then she gently lifted her son from his bed and into her arms. As she made her way to the chrome exit gate, her hands trembled as she swiped her key card through the scanner. When she finally stepped through the threshold with Skyler, Jarron was there with the cigarette already half smoked as if he had been waiting for this very moment himself. She abruptly stopped and gasped.

“I wasn’t expecting you to stop me.”

“Look, I have no delusions of this different life, okay?  But I do want you to know…that when I do imagine myself happy…it’s with you and the kid.”  

“I don’t know what to say,” Sola said in disbelief as a sad smile took hold of her face.

“You don’t have to say anything,” he said as he exhaled the cigarette smoke and looked down on his boots.

“Come with us.”

 “I wish I could,” Jarron said desperately as he stared at them for a long moment. “Go to the woods outside the dome city, Luca can’t track you there without satellite towers or electricity.”

 With that piece of advice, Sola nodded and headed for her car for she knew within the hour they would no longer in the confinement of the city’s towers or wary for tracking devices scanning for people with imperfect DNA.

After she abandoned the car a mile outside of the colony, Sola and Skyler walked hand-in-hand through the abandoned forest preserve as she explained to him the significance of the different star constellations.

“Do you know what that star is called?”  Sola asked as she lifted Skyler gently off the ground and brought him to her chest giving him a better look at the star before him.

“That star is making a pinging noise,” he said, in plain English his tiny voice laced with amusement and fascination as his blue eyes gazed up at the stars with excitement.

“That’s because it’s a pulsar, sweetie.”

“I know what a pulsar is, Mama,” he said with indignation. “It means that some stars send out radio waves.”  Then Skyler once again raised his small index finger to the sky, directing all his attention to the twinkling star. He started to generate a symphony of sound waves and an electromagnetic map of energy.

“Don’t do that baby. He’ll be able to find you. Once were in Morbus’s territory you’ll be safe.”

The sun had barely even touched the sky, yet as darkness still sat on the horizon just when they were about to reach the outer barrier to the colony, Sola heard the sound of guns being cocked behind her. She instinctively set Skyler down by the gates and ran her fingers through his sandy blonde hair. Then she got down on her knees slowly and looked at him directly in the eyes.

“I know you’re smart enough to know what’s really going on here, but I want you to know that whatever happens you’re going to be okay,” she promised she placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.

“You’re going to die, aren’t you?” The little boy asked, speaking in Latin.

“You create your force field, and you don’t let anyone through. You understand me?” The little boy nodded in acknowledgment, rubbing his eyes a few times before blinking the tears away. 

“Will I see you again?”

“You see the stars?  Well, now I’m going to be like stars, you don’t always get to see them, but you know they’re always there,”

Searing pain went through her body as something made contact. Blood gushed out and into Sola’s bare hand from the open wound which stained her white leather uniform and painted the ground beneath her. Pain rippled through her. It coursed through every bone, every muscle, every nerve. The agony was white hot. Her chest felt like it was on fire, the pressure unbearable. Her body dropped to hard grass with a thud too dull for her numbed ears to hear. And the ground rose up to meet her. She tried to breathe but each tiny movement sent off waves of pain that shot through her. She struggled to keep her eyes open, but she was now fading and now the only thing left was pain, darkness and the unknown.

Now back at the medical Bay, Sola was pronounced dead and now Jarron was left to protect Skyler on his own. If it was up to Luca, he would be more than happy to replace every piece of Skyler and claim it to be a cure. Unbeknownst to the captain Sola and his own brother had orchestrated the perfect plan to ensure Skyler’s safety. Luca never took claim to his own son embarrassed about his son’s condition. As a result, he automatically assumed the place that should have been marked as his was left blank, but unsuspectingly Skyler was not marked as an illegitimate child. Jarron had taken the extra step of taking responsibility for a child that wasn’t even his. As for captain he fell silent with this revelation like a deadly sin had taken hold of him.  In addition, he had made arrangements with Morbus to draw up a warrant for his and Skyler’s safe acceptance into the colony without interference from the police.

Thus, in that fatal decision, Jarron knew Skyler would not be marked by the absolving sins of his father. And the once insignificant servant to the human race lost at sea searching aimlessly for purpose would now be guided by the stars in the sky and on the notion of a family that was built on love and not perfection. In the end, he had learned love is not guided by alterations, but by unconditional acceptance.