Rain Like Tears

"The world is raining like tears" thought Ran.

Sitting in the speeding tram watching the bustle of the city blur by his window, Ran whispered to himself, "I have failed them".

"Who am I?" thought Ran defiantly, a moment of anger rising from his chest. "I am Ran Chedayin of the Chedayin Ascendants. We are fifth family of the grand Ascendency. There was tradition to uphold, there were expectations."

Ran sighed. The sense of unmet expectations almost a physical weight on his shoulders as he watched the marvels of Masian engineering and architecture whisk by his moisture streaked window.

The tram slowed and came to a halt with a gentle lurch, unloading and loading passengers. Ran was barely aware of others in his section, his gaze settling on a tree. Confined to an elaborate decorated planter, the tree is withering as it strains unsuccessfully against the confines of the artificial barrier.

"I am that Tree" Ran thought to himself.

"I am a biologist, I make things grow. I do not build or fix THINGS, I work with LIFE!"

A woman's voice cut into his consciousness and Ran glanced toward the front of the tram where an elderly Hoja struggled with her broken traveler. The traveler left wheel apparently got caught in the Tram door bending the axel and making it unstable.

Several young men quickly got up from various seats and surrounded the traveler. They pulled various tools from their fix-packs and passed them back and forth. In an almost synchronistic unison, flawless in their execution as they evaluated, diagnosed and then fixed the broken traveler. There was no unnecessary conversation or movement. It was an economy of collaborative effort. It was the Masian Way.

The Hoja graced the young men with a smile and a blessing of gratitude as they return back to their respective seats. Ran noticed that very few people besides himself took notice of this interchange, so common in their society.

"I need a fix" thought Ran. His hand absently brushed his waist where his utility belt held tools not for repair and construction, but for taking and analyzing biological samples.

"I am not an engineer. I do not like electronics or mechanics. I cannot stand to wear a fixpack. It is as heavy as the burdens that are placed upon me by my birthright!"

"I am not a tinkerer.. well I am, but not of inorganics. I fix organics. I love to fix and understand organics from other worlds. Living things. Growing things."

"Open up the DNA sequence of a Rubian Jasperweed and compare the evolutionary migration variance with its parent organism from Gedel-3 and you have my attention. Was the variance in response to environmental variables or was it a natural mutation? Like the Chaka grain of Shelayma Five that self mutates every 67th generation?"

"Maybe that is what I am: a mutation? I do not fit in this world, this time", His mind travelled back to the tree and how it was stifled by the walls of metal and stone.

"I am loathe to follow the traditions of my family. I will surely die as that tree will die." He knew it as a certainty.

"Narine! Ah Narine! She is so beautiful, so sensitive. She deserves a better husband than I can possible be to her." They had known each other for so long, since childhood and had developed a very special and close bond.

He recalled her face when she learned that he was declaring his field of study as Exobiology at the Central Concordium University. She was concerned, perhaps even horrified, that he would so deviate from family tradition. All of his brothers and his father were of the Artificer class and he too was of this highest strata. Great thinkers, great builders. It was this legacy that Narine's parents had desired to link their own family into. It had all been arranged when they were much younger and it was a matter of tradition!

She was supportive, as was expected of her, but he could tell that she was unhappy. His chosen course would bring a measure of shame to both families.

By their impending marriage, they both would be looked upon as a Grudner, the lowest caste of Masian Society. Even though his work was far beyond just growing food and tending gardens, the association would be an ugly ever present reminder that he was no longer considered an Artificer.

"There goes 'Ran' the Grudner!" thought Ran bitterly.

There was a reason why only Narine knew of his true calling and field of study. No one else in his family knew of his path. None would approve and no one would understand.

The Tram slowed down to a stop, a pleasant automated voice announced the current location as bustling passengers jostled on and off the tram car.

Ran spotted a group of Grudners, all dressed in course brackish clothing and clutched their oversized hoods huddled in the rain. It looked to be a family, several adults or near adults and two children. Their hoods were down deliberately avoiding eye contact with other tram passengers, trying to be invisible and not to cause undue attention. None wore fixpacks but two of the adults wore utility belts with various gardening tools attached.

Ran noticed a small pallet with small pots of plants nearby. It looked to be Jhen, the staple plant that produced grain consumed by this region. Nearly everything had Jhen in it. Ran glanced around trying to spot which rooftop garden was going to receive the infusion of new plants and realized that it was going on top of the tram stop station. It mildly surprised him that that this was being condoned by the Tram authorities. The news reports of food shortages must be more dire than he thought. Historically, the tram authorities were well known for evicting Grudner clans from their land to make way for their need to move people from one town to the next.

As Ran contemplated this minor revelation, the tram gently lurched and it picked up speed to the next destination: Cardan Central. The city center with it’s restaurants, shops, exotic goods, auction houses, bazars, everything one could imagine packed into three radial decamerts. Ran tended to avoid the city center in the past and this trip was one very rare exception. Today he was to register with the Komissaraite the merging of his Chedayin ancestry with that of Narine's, the Acyplchin ancestry. In doing so, thus would officially and forever link their two families once their he and Narine had taken their respective vows.

Worry again enveloped Ran as he considered the next stop. Meeting with Narine was both a pleasure and a source of anxiety. Sometimes he wished he had kept his secret to himself and just let everyone believe he was still attending the regional university engineering school.

The tram automated voice announced their arrival and Ran found himself standing and waiting for the doors to open. His mind was out of balance with his feelings as he stepped off the tram into an atmosphere controlled facility where pleasant music wafted from somewhere above in the enclosed windowed dome of Cardan Central.

“Ran!, shouted Narine.

As Ran turned to the voice he saw her quickly walking toward him. Her smile dazzling and her whole demeanor showed she was excited and glad to see him.

She embraced him slightly, warmly. He smiled back. He could not help himself, she had this effect on him. They had practically grown up together. Her eyes did not appear as sad and resigned as they had since he told her of his secret.

“Come I want to show you what I found!” she exclaimed, as she grabbed his arm and practically pulled him along the moving quick-walk.

“I know you are going to love this, and ever since I listened to it I have been thinking of you! No, I have been thinking of "us", she quickly amended.”

In a few moments she stepped off the quick-walk with Ran in tow. She pointed up to a massive Vidscreen, which repeated highlights of Concordium News. Ran rarely paid much attention to Concordium News, being so immersed in school work and research himself.

As he watched, a segment appeared of the first interstellar Masian colony which landed on a distant solar system just weeks before. Ran recalled it had something to do with the quantum gates and a galactic colonization effort by the Concordium

The news was encouraging and the report focused on the Masian colony leader giving a factual update of the progress that the colony had made in so short of time. Temporary housing had been constructed, initial power grids laid down fed by portable solar receptors and a new social order and new colony government form implemented and he went on to speak of the successes and the new emerging social order.

Ran's attention focused on the background, barely listening to the words of the leader. The plants were like nothing he had seen before. He observed a bush, it was covered with unique purple flowers with three petals and a darker blue center. It had a portion of its thorny roots exposed above ground. He began to get excited. This was something new, something never seen before.

Narine interrupted his thoughts with an exclamation, "There! Did you hear that?"

Coming back to the present Ran was a bit confused. He replayed in his mind the words he had heard but did not entirely process.

He stared up at the Vidscreen, almost in disbelief. He understood the ramifications of what he had just heard and it washed over him like a cool summer rain. Weight lifted from his chest as he, at last, had found a solution that freed him from the constraints of his ancestry.

He looked at Narine who was watching him closely. She smiled uncertainly. An unasked question hung in the silence between them. Finally she ventured "What did you see?"

He smiled as he took her hands in his and said simply "I saw hope!"

"Yes!" she exclaimed, "Yes!". She excitedly embraced him and held him tightly.

In that moment Ran knew that it would all be just fine.

(by James Landes)