Rise of a Valkyrie

Part 31

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Weslan tapped the final simulation parameters into the computer and hit enter. All he had to do was wait while the program ran. He checked his watch. Two in the morning already? He hadn't taken a break since breakfast, but he couldn't sleep. In need of refreshment, he headed to the research lounge, where Julie was making coffee. Were they all becoming night owls?

He returned her tired smile. "Working late too?"

Julie blinked red-rimmed eyes. "Oh, I'd rather work than sleep. I keep having anxiety attacks without my phone."

Weslan nodded. The security guards had confiscated their devices, and he felt like he had been locked out of the real world. "It does get to you, doesn't it?" he said. "I sometimes find my hand reaching for it of its own accord."

Julie chuckled quietly. "Trained dependence. My whole life was on that phone, and now I can't help but feel terrified that everyone is forgetting I exist."

"I suppose that's the downside of classified work. Our reputation won't come from our school or our friends anymore."

Julie raised her coffee mug and smiled. "To service. Hopefully not thankless."

"At least we got a free weekend, at last."

"Any plans?"

"Oh, I'll meet some of the old crowd," Weslan said. "Go see a symposium, like the old days."

They chatted a little more, but Weslan soon returned to his lab. He would feel guilty if he didn't organize his notes before leaving. After all, Madam Rayker, the brilliant and passionate lab director, often told them that there was no such thing as free time in the quest for knowledge.

He had been impressed by her exacting standards, though sometimes he got the impression that no matter how hard he worked, he always fell short of her expectations. But these thoughts were obviously a sign of immaturity—there was pressure on all the researchers. Everybody worked hard, and the toll showed in their exhausted faces and painfully brief mealtime conversations.

When the weekend came, their phones were returned, and they were driven off base by the security team. As he re-entered Rackeye, Weslan saw the world through new eyes. For the first time, he understood the purpose of the city—their drive to develop and spread their uplifting Helvetic culture for the betterment of mankind. He teared up. Now he was no longer a student, but a contributing member of that community. He swelled with pride at the thought.

The local Adjudicate office hosted the Symposium at the Opera house. Weslan met his friends early for drinks and they caught up on gossip before finding their seats. The program consisted of a lengthy philosophical discourse, a drama based in a government office, and a short film about the latest colony efforts on an ice planet.

The discourse included extracts from core Adjudicate texts concerning the necessity of elevating the soul through cultural engagement. The speaker spent some time naming and praising some of the important figures on Caldera and nearby systems. Having either financed, or publicly mentioned, the symposium's organizers and artists, they had to be paid their proper due.

When he began his speech proper, he went on at length about the failures of humanity's collective spirit. The species, he claimed, was becoming lost to the void, wandering in the vast wilderness of space, and the wisest amongst them were duty bound to steer it back to the righteous path.

Weslan nearly drifted off during the drama. Like so many of the Adjudicate's plays, it lacked any excitement or passion. The main character showed up to work, scolded a sloppy colleague, behaved correctly, and won a promotion. For Weslan, this was something that everyone experienced, and he didn't see the point of dramatizing it. He supposed he was experiencing a weakness of spirit in his failure to take interest, but after all the work he had been doing, he was probably due a little indulgence.