The Soulmate Curse

Sojourner

The first proper day of camp was brutal. Zhen was functioning on thirty minutes of sleep and probably about three pints of caffeinated drinks running through her veins. She tried to focus on what Finn was saying, but all she could think about was how she couldn't wait to be alone with her again that night. Finn was gorgeous, with the ocean of red curls, piercing green eyes and a dusting of freckles on her cheek bones, but all girls were gorgeous in Zhen's eyes. It was when Finn spoke that Zhen knew she was hooked. That heavy Irish accent drenched every word she spoke in whimsy. She could listen to her talk all day. There was something else too. Her scent. She was bathed in an herbal aroma that reached Zhen's very core. Today, she had a delicate fragrance of rose floating in perfect balance above the other herbal notes. Zhen was drowning in her infatuation for Finn, but she didn't mind. It was a fun game trying to focus through it all.

To complete their objective that day, Zhen, Finn, and the Martins had to work through all their breaks to finally have something to present at the end of the day. What they had was added to the work of all the other groups and the Open Source Collective took another couple of hours to stitch it all together to come up with something cohesive. Just as the clock struck midnight, the OSC had uploaded a new piece of software that could be used by local investigative journalists all over the world to stay completely and absolutely camouflaged in the shadows as they investigated corrupt government officials.

"This seems like a dangerous piece of tech to have out there," said Mrs. Martin, talking about the software they'd just launched. "It's not just journalists who'll use it."

They were packing up and getting ready to go back to their rooms for the night.

"Technology isn't good or evil," said Zhen. "People's choices are."

"And we've made the choice to create this," Said Finn, wrapping herself up in her stylish backpack-jacket hybrid. Like everyone else, she preferred to wear clothes decked by wearables and other tech, electronics monitoring her body functions, locations, and all sorts of other stats. It annoyed Zhen when people insisted on calling all that machinery fashion, but not so much when Finn did.

"We'll see you two lovely ladies tomorrow," said Mr. Martin, pulling Zhen away from staring at Finn. She turned to face them instead. His hand was on his wife's waist as they walked away.

Zhen turned back to Finn. The red head was taking off a cochlear bud from behind her right ear. It was one of those one that had a little microphone and nanoprocessor that translated spoken words to the language of choice before sending it to the ear. They were designed for use by people in a foreign country, where they didn't know the language. However, the ear buds had quickly been appropriated by people who wanted to learn a new language. Zhen was impressed that Finn had kept the buds on for the whole session. Technical language was difficult enough to navigate in native tongue.

"What language were you listening in?" Zhen asked.

"French," Finn smiled, quickly looking away. That shy smile gave Zhen another reason why she was so into this girl.

"I'm not so good at learning new languages," said Zhen.

"Me neither," said Finn. "It's taken me three years to get to the point where I can finally understand technical vocabulary."

"Jeez," Zhen whistled. "That's a long time to keep at it."

"It's not so bad," said Finn. She was ready to leave. "Don't you have to learn Russian and Japanese to be an astronaut?"

"Yeah," said Zhen, picking up her grandfather's old backpack and slinging it over her shoulder. "It's the one part of training that I am not looking forward to."

"I can give you tips. If you want."

"It's a date."

Finn turned to walk away. "I'm out of here. See you tomorrow?"

"Sure."

Back in her room, Zhen cleaned up, mixed a new batch of her caffeine drink, filled up a travel mug, and headed over to Finn's room. So, maybe she shouldn't have been heading over there. Maybe she should just let Finn rest. Maybe she should be resting. Or maybe life was short, and this camp was shorter, and she needed to go after what made her heart pound fast and her breath catch at the mere thought of her. Definitely that last one. She might as well. She was already at her door.

"You knocked this time," said Finn, rubbing those beautiful green eyes.

Zhen handed her the travel mug. "You encrypted Ares better than my skills can punch through. I'm impressed."

"My mum helped. She works with blockchain cryptography," said Finn. She took a big gulp of the drink, then invited her in.

Zhen smiled and walked in. "That's cheating."

Finn was wearing her pyjamas again. They were loose grey cotton pants with white stars polka-dotted all over it, and an equally loose tee, same grey with a large white star at the front. It was all she had on. Zhen couldn't stop the thought streaking through her mind. The thought that the grey tee was worn and washed enough to almost see-through status. And she kind of liked that.

"Where to tonight?" asked Finn, the caffeine jolting her awake.

"To the batting cages."

Zhen had mapped out Elk Grove High the last time she'd been here. It was a fairly large place, but she knew where they were headed. There were batting cages at the far end of the sports field. The cages were always secured and set up with alarms and a ton of sensors, but secure digital systems were like puzzle toys to Zhen, and she loved solving them. Before long, they were in the batting cages and activating the pitching machine, convincing it's AI that it was okay to let them play at 2 in the morning. Finn went first. The thwack of a hit in the quiet, heavy night air was satisfying. Zhen lit up a joint and smoked as Finn batted.

"As a Simulationist, do you believe in aliens? Other entities sharing this relatively infinite universe with us?" Finn asked between hits. Her accent got thicker when they were alone. Zhen liked to think it was because she felt comfortable enough to just be her when they were together. She took a few seconds to think about her answer.

"The theory of evolution by way of natural selection guarantees that we can't possibly see all of reality, right?" said Zhen. She took another drag.

"Agreed," said Finn. She made another hit before she added, "Every conscious being sees only that which aids its survival. Bees see UV radiation bouncing off flowers with nectar, but we don't because that doesn't aid us in our survival."

"Exactly," said Zhen.

Finn's batting round was over. She switched the bat for Zhen's joint. Zhen hit two balls before she continued.

"So, if we're rendering a simulation of the universe as we go, based on the goal of survival," started Zhen. She hit another ball. "And the discovery, or even observance, of alien lifeforms doesn't factor into our survival, then it follows that there might as well be aliens all around us, and we can't see them because we don't need to, to survive."

Finn took another hit of the joint and watched as Zhen smacked another ball.

"Or it could mean aliens don't exist. At least not in this particular simulated rendering," said Finn. "If you believe that sort of thing, of course."

Zhen turned to her. "Shit. That's kind of a scary thought. That we're all there is."

"Or comforting," said Finn with a smile. "Depending on how you look at it."