1.8: The Ride, the REM, and the Riddle

The XO Chronicles
Volume 1 | Chronicle 8

Art woke up naturally from his long sleep,
fully recharged, with no memory of any dream.

As Art came down the stairs and reached the dining room
Leon was already seated at the counter，
and Xixi standing across it.

They stopped talking as Art walked in.
Art perceived that much.

"Good morning, Art. Come sit.
I'll make you breakfast"
Xixi invited.

Art seated at the counter,
made of a continuous piece of wood.
4 meters long and some,
over a meter wide.
Xixi standing on the far edge,
walking, jumping back and forth,
to prepare - and perform -
the breakfast.

Rice washed by hand.
Pickles months in the jar.
Two servings of air-fried centipedes
Straight from the tea plantation.

Everything was fresh to Art.
From the making to the textures of the food.

The fried centipede was crispy on the outside,
faintly chewy with a salted, earthy taste.
It was delightful.
He said so.

"Insects, the greatest source of proteins on earth.
Xixi said.
"The main ingredient of Nomad's cuisines."

Art ate another.

As he swallowed:
"We have to go now",
Leon stood and said,
"and with great honor,
Xixi has agreed to be our Navigator."
"And Leon will remain the mission Leader."
Xixi added.
They looked at each other,
a look with deep trust.
"We leave in 15 minutes."
Leon wrapped up.

Before they left,
Three things happened.

1. Leon set a pair of white shoes
   by the door for Art —
   Teahouse stock, brand new,
   sparkling white.
   Art slid his feet in.
   The shoes hugged his feet just tight enough
   to feel one with the feet.
   
   "You'll love'em more when you start jumping."
   Leon said, and turned onto other things.
   
   Art was once again confirmed that
   Leon always keeps his promise.
2. Xixi went onto the roof of Teahouse,
   and caused a field of mirrors to rise from the garden.
   Each of them went through a calibration sequence,
   as if waking up and stretching,
   from a long sleep underground.
   
   Each mirror is shaped like a disc
   filled flat on the reflective side,
   with a black dot in the middle,
   and solid on the back with the stand attached,
   with a gimbal like connector to allow for free movements.
   
   A minute later, Xixi threw a frisbee-like object into the air
   aiming to go beyond the boundary of the Teahouse garden.
   The moment it crossed the threshold,
   the mirrors all responded swiftly
   to focus the reflection on the object.
   It was evaporated by the concentrated heat,
   within a second.
   
   Art watched all these from the terrace a floor below,
   Xixi looked down and smiled.
3. H/O2 picked a bag full of tea leaves from the plantation
   as souvenirs.
   It was not clear whether he was collecting scientific samples for
   future analysis,
   or personal enjoyment,
   or the party's refreshment.
   He sealed and vacuumed the bag. And tucked it into his torso cavity.

The garage door opened,
there, the FUUUN vehicle was waiting:
a chrome van, with simple lines,
six large, mag-lev, wheels,
gleaming under fine volcanic dust in the air.

Its door slid open,
revealing an interior that was made of wood-lining.
polished, refined,
seats carved into precise curvatures for the bodies
storage intergrated into every turn of surfaces
Mechanical screws and wood joineries
coexist harmoniously.

"It runs on light.
Solar skin, full body."
H/O2 said.

"For all this weight?" Art asked.

"It doesn't go very fast." Leon said.
"But there is a bigger problem."

He laid a hand on the chrome flank.

"The same sun that powers it
will also heat up the interior.
The mirror skin helps significantly,
but not enough.
It is usually balanced by an active cooling system"

"Except that the cooling is dead."
H/O2 laid out the fact and let that sit.

"Without it, this is not a vehicle.
It is an oven on wheels." Xixi joined in,
suited up in her XO gears as well.

Sweat already rolling down the faces
of Leon and Art, and possibly under Xixi's fur,
before they even stepped into the vehicle.

Leon was at the steering wheel,
H/O2 on the front seat,
Xixi and Art at the back,
as the vehicle began to move
out of the the garage
into the sun.

Bob the dog saw them off,
with anticipation of their return.

The car was going downhill,
for only a few minutes,
and the heat was already building up quickly.
A minute became unbearable.

Leon briefed the team:
"This is where we are:
To reach Art's mother,
we need the Calligrapher,
who may know something helpful for our journey.
To reach the Calligrapher in Inokashira,
we need this vehicle.
To survive this vehicle,
we need to replace the cooling unit.
The nearest replacement, we hope,
is just a few more minutes downhill.
At SLEEEP."

The objectives made the next few minutes
more bearable.
The XO gears absorbed most of their sweat.
They arrived at SLEEEP at last.

Contrary to the vehicle,
the building was in black.
At the side of the building
a large white lightbox spells "SLEEEP Fuji".
The party got off the vehicle,
and caught a fresh breeze of cool.

The main entrance was locked,
with a sort of scanner on its side.
H/O2 was already analyzing the security system
when Leon pulled out a small device from his backpack,
and waved it close to the scanner.
The door unlocked.

Art and H/O2 looked at Leon, surprised.

"I used to be a member here." Leon said.
"I guess they never cancelled it."

It was a mere 3-storey building
on a trapezoidal footprint.
As they walked into the narrow lobby,
there was nobody, but the power was running,
and the space was clean.
It was hard to tell whether the space was still
operational or just well-maintained by itself.

"It's always been like this." Leon said.
"Hyper efficient, just enough, for the nomads."

Art couldn't help but notice a map
handdrawn onto every wall in the lobby.
It gave the cold exterior a sudden
change of temperature.

As Art was reading the map and the brush strokes,
H/O2 already found what it needed in the storage beneath the stairs.
It's a black disc that looked like a hockey puck,
just slightly larger.

"Seven spare REMs in storage.
All in good condition" H/O2 said.

"REM," Art said. "Like sleep?"

"Responsive Environmental Modulator,"
Xixi answered.
"It reads a body and tunes the energy that surrounds it —
temperature, airflow, the spectrum of the light,
the frequency the mind settles into.
In the vehicle, it modulates heat.
In the capsule, it modulates sleep.
The same device.
SLEEEP was built around it.
So was FUUUN."

"I can replace the burnt unit in our FUUUN.
Three hours to install, calibrate and test." Assured H/O2.

Leon spoke up
"By then it will be close to midday.
It would be too much heat even for a FUUUN with REM.
We need to wait til the afternoon."

While H/O2 ran the work,
Leon, Art and Xixi came to the second floor,
to find an array of capsules,
quietly waiting.
When Art opened the cover to one of these capsules.
The capsule lit up slowly, as if it too,
was waking from a deep sleep.

"I will stay up," Leon said,
"You two get some SLEEEP."
No one argued:
Art obeyed Leon,
and Xixi knew the protocol.

"Sleep in this pod above me" Xixi told Art.
and he climbed into his pod.
The interior was smooth, thoughtful,
lined with wood, like FUUUN.
The lighting was dim, subtle, atmospheric.
It made him sleepy already.

Art fell asleep as soon as he put his head into the pillow.
The capsules made it very easy.

He saw himself in a room he did not recognize.
the sun beams were entering through the curtains,
the furnishing was clean and thoughtful,
flowers on top of the hearth,
sofas with smooth, wooden frames.
On the beige carpet,
He saw a young, beautiful woman in dark hair
playing with a furry object.
He walked closer,
and saw clearly.
It was not an object.
It was a cat.
It was Xixi.

But not the Xixi he had known so far.
One that seemed not to speak,
mostly on all fours,
and looks at the woman with
full devotion and no calculations.

The lady held Xixi's arm up and put her paws
on her lips, kissing them. Smiling.
"I love you forever, Xixi!", said the woman.

The room was warm.
Not hot, not like most of the world.
It was warm, the kind of warm
that makes one never wants to leave.

Art just sat at the corner of the room,
observing.
Eventually, the woman stood up,
cradling Xixi,
and placed her on a sofa.
"I have to go now," the woman said.
"Be good, I'll be back late tonight."

Then she took her handbag and went out the door.
Xixi watched her walk out,
until the door was fully closed.
She turned around to look at Art,
right into his eyes.
Art startled.

"You are in my dream, Art." Xixi said.
"I can control my actions here.
But I can't control the context.
Obviously, you witnessed a part of my memory."

Art nodded.

"And that's OK. As teammates," Xixi went on.
"We count our lives on each other.
Sharing a few personal secrets help us work
better together."

Art felt his heart warmed up, too.

"I understand that you are looking for your mother, Art.
In that sense we are actually not so different."
Xixi jumped off the sofa and walked towards Art.
and stood up in two legs.
"Leon has already told me about the brief arc of your past 12 years.
And I have agreed to train you to become a full-on XO."

Art's eye widened.

"I can tell that you have a good heart.
Which is why it is important for me to tell you here and now:
The world out there is wild, and merciless.
Rarer than water and batteries, is trust.
You are lucky you have Leon."

"And Leon's lucky to have you." Art replied.
"I can see that he trusts you completely."

Speaking of trust,
Art was still thinking about the promise
the woman made to Xixi.

"Xixi," he said.
"How long is forever?"

Xixi did not answer.
She went back onto four legs.
Carrying the question,
she jumped onto the window sill,
catching that bit of light,
for the fading warmth.

Then a muffled voice,
from everywhere and nowhere.

"Xixi. Art. Wake up."

Leon.

The warm room thinned.
The capsule returned —
the dim light,
the wood,
the hum.

"Get up, quietly." Leon said, looking out the window.
"We've got company."