Unmoving

The door to The Order of Konn personal library slides open and I enter the spacious white room lined with drive panels that reach from the bottom of the room to the lofty ceilings with drones flying around removing and slotting drives. I reach the receptionist.

"Good day, Sovereign. What are you looking for?"

"Good day, I'm looking for a data drive it seems to be missing in the Citadel personal library, so I thought I'd come here."

He smiles and says, "No problem your Sovereignty, sometimes drives are removed from the Citadel personal library due to them being corrupted and in need of repair," he turns his chair to the computer on his left, "let me check for it on our database, what is the name of the record you are looking for?"

"The Three Broken Arrows of The Apocalypse."

"Ok, just a second-" His face suddenly goes deadly blank, his eyes make brief contact with me before looking at the screen again, "sorry your Sovereignty, we don't seem to have the record you're-"

"Impossible, this database is linked up directly to The Anthropology Ministry's personal database. You have every single record known, check again."

He quickly nods before looking up again and saying "Sorry your Sovereignty, the record doesn't exist."

I clench my fists, deeply inhale, and exhale. I release them before tapping the counter, smiling, and then walking away.

I ride the elevator back up to citadel and call Cassian, saying I'm on my way.

***

I knock on the door of Cassian's apartment. A loud crash comes from the other side through the door and soon it slides open, and I'm met with a tired looking Cassian Smith scratching his torso. He smiles and gestures me to come in. My entourage waits for me outside as I enter. I enter the apartment, its riddled with Wasteland Catacomb souvenirs and photos of his Dune Reaper crew and himself posing at various locations. It's a nice lofty apartment but a downgrade from his mansion in the Save-Fors district.

"You ok from last night?" I ask as he goes into the kitchen.

He chuckles before saying, "Still hanging," he enters the living room holding two glasses of water.

"You undoubtedly had more fun than me," I say holding a thong I found tucked in the coach with a remote. He hurriedly puts down the glasses on the coffee table and grabs the garment and tucks it into a drawer as he laughs awkwardly. I grab a glass and sit down. "So, is that why you live in this dumpster? because your parents won't allow you to bring hookers to the mansion?

He rolls his eyes and sighs before saying "It's not because of that, it's my own freedom, my calm. When you're always in the undergrounds of The Wastelands on months on end, you just want a quiet place to come back to."

I nod and take a sip of water.

"So, what's wrong. You sounded worried on the phone. Which is rare, might I add."

"I actually wanted to ask you about your profession, have you ever heard of the Three Arrows of The Apocalypse?"

He gives a weak smile as he says "Yeah, every Dune Reaper has. It's the 'magnum opus' of all Lost Civilisation artifacts – the mythical lost underground bunkers that contain things from meta humans to undiscovered lost cities."

"How do The Broken Arrows tie in with Lost Haven." I prod.

"Well, it's said that one of the arrows are powering Lost Haven, and the other two contain two meta humans with powers that could bring about the end of the world...." He says as he wiggles his fingers and laughs, "Of course it's all just a hoax that us veteran Dune Reapers tell the rookies to get them on a wild goose chase. Besides do you really believe anything can survive all that nuclear fallout, I mean how'd they even form a civilisation, who'd lead them if they were all a bunch of toddlers?" he takes a sip of his water.

"Nothing, except a Konn."

He stares at me puzzled before saying, "What?"

"Nothing can survive in The Wastelands, except a Konn."

"Well...I guess, but-"

"That would be against Praxis." I finish for him. He stares at me before we burst out laughing.

"What is this? Are you testing me, busting my balls? Is that why you came all this way?"

I shrug as he comes to collect my empty glass. He shakes his head smiling and heads to the kitchen. "You sound like a Equilistor, 'Nothing, except a Konn'."

We continue laughing as he comes back.

"You know, I met a Synthetic yesterday; it was crazy." I speak.

"Oh yeah, why?"

"I went to her house to get a painting for my collection-"

"You normally do that electronically."

"Yeah but-"

"Why would you go to her house?" He says as he stares at me confused, I struggle to gather my bearings as I ponder if he knows about the custom painting before he smiles and says, "See, doesn't feel good huh?" and laughs. I laugh awkwardly with him.

"So, what happened?"

"It was so strange; she was showing me her paintings and while I was deciding on which one, I wanted," I lie, "she starts recurring."

"Bloody nose and everything?"

"Yeah, it was disgusting. To make things worse, she asked me to get her canister."

Cassian gags as I continue.

"And guess what? I nearly did."

Cassian pretends to throw up.

***

Sitting at my table in my room with Alex jumping around I play with the metal box in my hand as my mind flashes to the empty driver in the library. I tap a wall tile and it reveals a box with souvenirs ranging from the metal helmet box to the last remaining piece of the pyramid of Giza. I ignore the nagging voice in my head crying false belief to ease my fears of believing what would happen if the stories were true and place the small metal box next to it and wave off the documents inside as ramblings of grand-uncle Calihan.

" 'Remain unmoving'." I say under my breath echoing Noble Odessa's word.