The Cost of Coffee, Part 16

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Prompts from

Scoot

• Write about a smoke break

• Corrosive judgement

• "Wouldn't you know it"

• A character who is overjoyed

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Mother remained in a sleep state for hours. Naimeh began to lay her on the sofa in the main room, but Father directed her to the bedroom instead. Points remembered the camera pointing away from the room to the Martianscape outside the window. She wondered what other adjustments Father had made to the AI in there. Naimeh settled Mother in the bed, covering her with a soft blanket, before returning to the living area. Pinta brewed coffee--this moment required both the intense flavor and caffeine of the drink. Father took his cup to the bedroom, where he sat over his wife, thinking silently.

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Pinta and Naimeh sipped the steaming brew quietly before Naimeh slid the checkers board across the table. They abandoned the plan to meet in the vault again tomorrow, but they still needed to talk. Knowing they were monitored by an ever-watching AI, the board was their best option. They began the tedious process of spelling out messages.

N: Sry for notebook. Curious. Poem. Thought danger.
P: Why not me? Why him?
N: Heard arson talk. Air felt tense. Needed guidance.
P: What did he say?
N: Norway. Safe. Bedroom almost safe.
P: AI off?

At that moment, Father came into the living area, holding his empty cup.

"Who's winning?" he said. "Pinta is getting better, Naimeh, so watch out."

Naimeh grinned. "Wouldn't you know it? Just when I think I can beat her, she starts practicing. Did you teach her all your tricks?"

"Most of them," replied Father. "I haven't had time to teach her all of them yet, but she catches on quickly and I suspect she is creating a few moves of her own."

It took Pinta a minute to realize they weren't just talking about checkers. Her mind traced the events of the last weeks —Arturo’s argument, Mother’s strange absences, Naimeh’s warning, and the rumors of private profit creeping into public systems. The testimonies. The seed vault. Father’s paintings. Her world was cracking along seams she hadn’t seen before. She had believed in transparency, equity, and balance. But the truths she thought she knew were unraveling.

***

"Pinta, come walk with me." Father opened the door to the suite. "Naimeh is watching Mother; she has already let her workplace know that she is needed at home. Her reputation for excellent work buys her some grace, and most people are taking time off to watch the testimonies anyway."

Pinta followed him. They walked through the office, where Father rearranged the boxes that opened the portal to the vault. Passing the murals, Pinta's eye caught something new—tiny, almost absurd. A person, perched near an iceberg, casually puffing on a pipe beside a mermaid tail. She stifled a laugh. Only her father would paint a smoke break at the edge of an arctic myth. Only when they settled into the rocky room with its orange glow did Father begin to speak.

"Pinta, I am going to tell you a story. You may not believe it or understand it, but please hear me out and think about this story before you say anything.

When Earth was new, life was filled with plenty and beauty. But one clever creature decided he wanted more than what he needed. He wanted control—and he preferred to manipulate others to get it.

Over time, he corrupted the people. They stopped seeing beauty and abundance, seeing only what they didn't have. Over hundreds of years, envy and distrust turned to greed and avarice and an unrestrained pursuit of power. People began to enslave each other in forced labor and exploitation. The strong crushed the weak, and equality between people was a distant memory."

Pinta watched her father as she began twisting her hair, listening, but not sure where he was going. Father continued,

"Over time, a leader emerged who challenged the king's injustice. The man, Moshe, was part of the enslavers' world, but had been born to the enslaved. The king refused to release the slaves until after a series of increasingly disastrous events. Finally, he acquiesced, and Moshe led the people away from slavery to freedom."

Father took a deep breath, thinking about what the story meant for him and his family in the Bio before adding,

"Freedom doesn't change human nature. Even when people suffer together, the desire for power always reemerges. Before much time had passed, this unified group of former slaves fell to arguing, fighting, and arranging new hierarchies for themselves. And so the cycle continued: unity, corruption, and collapse."

Pinta listened carefully, wondering what Father's words had to do with what was happening in the Bio now. She didn't understand how stories were like puzzles, with each piece having multiple meanings. Was it possible that failure of the Bio's mission of collaboration, cooperation, and councils equaling sustainable efficient thriving was inevitable?

Untangling the hair in her fingers, Pinta had a thought. "That coming to the Bio was our escape? From another kind of slavery? That things were good for a while, but now corruption is breaking us again?"

Father's low chuckle indicated his pleasure. "You are a good thinker, my dear. That is exactly what I suspect. We escaped the old systems. But judgment—corrosive judgment—still follows us. Systems rot. Power creeps in. Even in places built for peace. I don't think it's possible for humans to live in collaborative harmony without some kind of higher morality."

"So, this story is about religion?" Just a few weeks ago, Pinta thought that story and religion had been rightly eradicated from Bio life in favor of science and participation in their self-governance.

Father shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. I told you before that I've been rethinking some things. I haven't come to any conclusions, but I suspect these testimonies are going to reveal more than anyone expects--and what happens after that may require remembering stories, and possibly reconsidering religion. But for now, think about this one story and decide for yourself whether it is possible to have a society without any kind of conflict or corruption."

He stood, and as Pinta watched, he pulled a dozen seeds from a drawer and carefully put them in his pocket. "We must return home, now," he said. "I am a bit worried about your mother."

Together they made their way back to the suite, through quiet hallways where people passed them without eye contact. It seemed everyone was lost in their thoughts today—or they were all avoiding unwanted attention from the AI.

Father put his hand to the door, and Naimeh rushed to them, her eyes bright with joy.

"Come in," she beamed, "Mother is awake, and she has something to say."

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