Not Peak Yet, Mr Shortsman!

Rita!

Earth, England, 2071

When they entered the British Museum at first, they thought that everything else, surrounding this place was imaginary.

These things did not exist, please tell me so, Rita said to her team of scholars.

They all laughed.

We’re fucking anthroes not technos, brother. Remona said in response.

They laughed and shrugged.

The world of the past items’ entrance door was massive, made of bone remains. No windows and no hard feelings. They continue through to the greatest depths of the hall. Everything is advertised here, even the most pressing materials of the beginning of the century were displayed; beginning with scooters and ev cars, ev planes, hosing-Airtubes (Suckable Tubes Transportation Vehicles for space wandering), the latter ones look like they are built for the never-ending repairs and look blunt. Planes and EV vehicles look smart and intelligent. But they’ve gone smaller, though. Said Rita. Considering what we have these days, Perives (Personalised Flying Devices), it gets boring. Can you imagine travelling for miles with your grandma or Pa!? Remi stated. They all laughed.

Remona approaches the EV car, touches it and starts clicking buttons with her eyes. A logging road appears in front of her. People in their 20s and 30s appear out of nowhere. People wearing shorts and hoodies with smart shirts and ties. They are just going about their daily lives. Two other road muses escort her inside the vehicle and provide instructions to her about how to drive and ideas about how to be driven by somebody who lives in the 70s.

She smiles and laughs.

The other crews, they all jumped onto other instruments and devices. Only because they could do. Only because their lives are so different, living in a different decade, carrying most of the past burdens only in glass and intangible state.

The evaporation of feeling and sentiment is important to note.

Rita is the only one worth a sense of knowledge of what has happened in the past or the immediate past. The rest would understand only the buried past, that which is to be touched but not as illuminating as you may think.

After a round or two through the A1 and other motorways, Remona comes back and tells them all stories of leisure and fun she had in the past three and a half minutes but a full day in earthly days of the beginning of the century.

Rita chose hosing-airtubes to have fun with, whereas the rest of the crew picked up electric scooters, travelling umbrellas (devices in the shape of umbrellas that transported people from 0 to 10 miles instead of using public transport. This was developed after the great life revival of the year 2045). All of them had their fun, and none of them wanted to come back, because it was hard to come back to all things bland.

A few moments later!!!

Did you see how amazing stuff was then? Rita asks, so do Remona and Remi. They describe how the world and living were bountiful, plentiful and abundant. They describe how walking into a restaurant back in the year 2031, you would be served by very basic robots that didn’t speak or articulate their thoughts properly. Using what do they call them? Rita asks; Mobile phones or smartphones…Remi responds. They all burst into laughter and disbelief.  

Some integration, some kind of sustenance in their lives is needed. Remona thinks. Some integrity, some kind of inner upheaval, everything needs to be calm. She tells herself. Remi is constrained by the pleasures of the past. Ancestors knew how to live. Better than us. Surrounded by bountiful prospects for a better life and living.

They knew somehow that life was joyful when was bountiful. Whereas. We’re stuck in the landscape of a never-ending virtuality universe. Earth must’ve been a good place to live. Now transporting between us and Marsphere is fast and ridiculously cheap. Going from London to New York was considered revolutionary. Rita said. Almost shouting out loud. Sorry. She apologises because she did not realise that she was off-system *This means she was not looped in the spherogomic transport; a type of super-fast human transport system that uses two parts/forms of travel; Hyperloop and Hologramics.

They laugh again. But Remona is more thoughtful. She knows her limitations. She has only fifteen minutes left to head back on her spherogomic. Her mum has only given her a certain amount of Engies *These are monetarily valued vouchers which are given to teenage children in the Marsphere for visits on earth. Remember, Earth by now is only populated by imprisoned humans, criminals, destitute people, divided by the range of age, gender balance and criminal intent.

I have only ten engies left. Remona said.

I need to move. It was nice to see so much so quickly. I don’t think I need, we need, she corrects herself - to continue our journey into the other part of this country? Do we? She asks.

Yes. Rita responds.

This is only one bit of England. What was known then? We need to get going farther and further away. Don’t you think?

Remi agrees.

A banging on their net is heard.

Who is it? Rita enquires.

I don’t actually know. I think there is a stranger who has got lost on Earth. Remi adds.

It can’t be. It’s only us for this slot. We’re the only ones who have a right to be here for three hours. Remona responds.

Okay, let it in. Rita responds.

Who has the fringer? *Fringer is the access code that travellers have to carry to access Earth’s orbit and also leave it on the way out. For every trip, one traveller may access the orbital and then an atmosphere for every journey travelled .

I have it! Remi answers.

Okay, we’ll let it in. It’s a man. She said.

Ok. Hello. The man appears in front of them with all his shape and form. He has a tail. A tailored tail with a few colours at the tip, like purple, green, red and yellow.

I am Shortsman. As you can see, I am not tall and I am a shortie. He smiles.

He has no hair, is well built, and his chest is slightly shown with some hair. He has a gown, a red gown. That means he is a wandering soldier. A paid mercenary who patrols the Musk Triangle Jest *This is the three distinct references measuring points starting from Mars’s centre point; Earth (54.6-401.3 million km), Sun (227.9 million km) and Distant Stars of the Galactic Centre (Astronomically Distant).

How long does it take you to patrol all three corners? Rita asks.

Oh, he is caught by surprise. For three corners on earthly terms, that would be millions of years; for the MarsMuskMetrics, that would be two days. If it falls on a weekend, then that would be about four days, because we stop at each entity, check properly, intrude as much as we can and then flee immediately. He trembles slightly. Almost hiding something. Remona notices it...

...to be continued!