After six minutes and a warm blanket, Dahra murmurs, “Alright Unit, let's see how you follow those orders I gave you for Glia and Christolb.”

  I reply, “We work cooperatively here, dear. The accurate word is 'requests', instead of 'orders'.”

  She scowls. I continue presenting Susine data in my human's voice.

  I have a headache and I cannot sleep. Might as well recap this epic day of chaos.

  I hoped it would be another peaceful day, just the three of us, buffered from the insanity of Day 4 of the Turning Inward. But, I was way off the mark.

  At dawn, I picked and had just sent figs, chard, and carrots home. Then, security alarms sounded across the compound.

  I ignored them and ambled towards the root vaults. Before I could get subterranean, green robes caught up with me, announcing that I was urgently summoned.

  They escorted me to the main atrium where I heard Christolb yelling. “Put fifteen guards in the Light's chamber! Maintain zero pollution around her!”

  He turned, saw me, and grabbed my arm. “Susine, thank the Goddess! Go stay with the Light.”

  A guard quickly escorted me and quietly said, “Invasion from Outside, Venerable Susine. They want to capture our life-affirming Light. Venerable Christolb expects that you will shield her from awareness of fear.”

  In the chamber, Glia lay on a platform with eyes closed, bald, swollen, motionless, on her back, asleep or drugged, in that yellow dress. I put my hand on Glia's arm.

  “No!” The guard immediately whispered.

  I looked at him quizzically.

  He informed me, “The Light exists on a holy, strict diet of emotional, sensory, and physical stimulation. That shall not be altered in any way, Venerable Su--”

  Muffled blasts vibrated the windows. I heard Christolb's voice through the guard's radio. “Take Light to bunker. Repeat, Light to bunker.”

  Immediately, four guards lifted the platform with Glia on it. Another guard inflated an opaque membrane around her body and they moved forward. Someone else, dressed in yellow, climbed onto the empty dais.

  “The decoy will buy us time,” one guard told me.”Come along right now, Venerable Susine.”

  While riding down several levels, the guards chanted in unison:

  Our Light, we cherish your glow.

  You shine on us with all you know.

  Silent, calm, devoted, and sure,

  you inspire everyone to be pure.

  Deep underground, just as the guards prepared to enter the bunker, Christolb's voice frantically broadcast from all their radios. “Bunker compromised, no-go! Repeat, bunker no-go!”

  No one moved. There was silence in our group and blasts far above us.

  One guard whispered to me, “Your help is needed to establish an alternate sanctuary, Venerable Susine. No panic. Forbidden to panic.”

  I turned the opposite direction and gestured for the group to follow. The lights flickered in the tunnel, but remained on. We entered one of my subterranean greenhouses. Daylight shone via tubes connecting to ground level twelve meters above us. The air was humid and sweet.

  The guards repeated the chant as they followed me, maneuvering Glia's body between aisles of seedlings.

  When we reached the dirt wall, they set their load on the ground with precision. We removed the main ventilation grate and I began crawling down the dark tube.

  After a brief hesitation, someone said, “Light, we will take you to a peaceful place. You are safe.”

  The air shaft was barely wide enough to accommodate Glia's body on the platform. The guards crawled, chanted, pushed, and pulled. Eventually, we emptied out into the valley's meadow. Glia's platform was set on the grass and the guards checked that the membrane enclosed her head to toe.

  Christolb's voice crackled on the radios. “Leave the Light with Susine. Immediately backtrack. We need you here. Now!”

  They all plunged back into the tunnel.

  Miye emerged from the shed. He approached the puffed membrane as the morning sunlight slanted and backlit Glia's profile. He reached into his shirt pocket. I caught the aroma as he rubbed a twig of rosemary between his fingers and held it near her head.

  Miye blew on the sprig and it looked like Glia's chin lifted slightly toward the fragrance. After several minutes, a cloud blocked the sunlight and her silhouette was no longer visible.

  Eight guards came trampling downhill on the trail.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “We are here to take the Light back. It's safe now, Venerable Susine,” one guard said. “You are to come with us, please. Christolb's orders.”

  I accompanied them back up to the Plateau and to the suite where Glia was reinstalled on the platform with additional guards.

  One of them escorted me to the packed amphitheater. I stood at the back as Christolb gestured hugely and spoke from the stage. “Now, it is time for processing our rage. My dear ones, we seethe!”

  Disorganized triple claps and screams rang out.

  Christolb continued loudly. “All we asked for was peace and tranquility! We deserve to be left alone, unmolested. But, no-- we were profoundly disrespected!”

  From all directions and heights of the amphitheater came a frenzy of snorts, growls, stomping, self-slapping.

  Up on the stage, Christolb roared, “Rage, hate, injustice-- I feel it, too, trust me!”

  He twirled, holding an arm out like a wind vane, stopped, and pointed. The selected audience member bounded up onto the stage, quivering with a surging anger, standing with fists clenched and nostrils flaring.

  Christolb stared into the member's eyes, matching the intensity and the pugnacity. “Now I want you all to breathe in.” He shouted. “Hold your rage--- for 1, 2, 3 and now-- let it out!”

  The air erupted with a mass primal scream. On the stage, Christolb clasped the member's skull with both hands. I swear they kissed, but when I blinked all I saw was Christolb pressing his forehead to the other's. The member slumped and sobbed.

  Gradually, the angry screams of the crowd froze in stunned silence. Then, suddenly all around the amphitheater, I watched as everyone shared with each other in furious communion.

  When eventually it calmed to become heads on laps, arms around shoulders, relief, tears, quiet-- Christolb spoke from the stage where he was holding hands with the member he earlier selected.

  “My dears. We knew we were One. Our love will never be consumed by rage or hijacked by hate. We are alchemists and everything presented to us is optimum fuel for our evolution. You all have my great respect. I ask you to please donate your extraordinary memories of this event--”

  Enough! How many times must I trespass my own boundaries… I dashed out and vomited behind a clump of bamboo.

  Christolb emerged from the back exit with his bot hovering at his shoulder. I heard him order, “Label this batch as 'Extraordinarily-evolved, ultra-potent mem supplements. Use with Genubei prior experience only'. And add a special price markup. Release them to market as soon as possible.”

  I went the other way as fast as I could to get home.

  An hour later, a bot found me at the Slab to dial me into an in-progress meeting per Christolb's demand.

  On the screen, a harvesteer was saying, “-- in tests a few minutes ago, she generated only two mems of mid-grade quality, both of which eventually polluted down to 9%.”

  Christolb raised his voice. “Impossible! Is stress the culprit? Was she not shielded enough during the attack?”

  “Unknown. However, now her mems are significantly less pure and less cohesive.” The harvesteer said, “The best case scenario we can expect is mid-level production. It is your decision, Ven C.”

  Christolb squinted at the screen. “Susine, I want to know exactly what happened while you had her. What did you do? You could be responsible for all this. And, didn't you notice the intruders coming through your waste area?”

  He did not wait for my response before moving on. “And, it could have been Kee or Jenna who did this. But, it all happened because their President took advantage! She is trying to break us, to destroy me. That will not happen. Mark my words.” He left the screen.

  I walked into the beetle shed, barricaded the door, and stayed there alone in the quiet for some time. The bot eventually had to leave to recharge.

  Dahra sighs heavily. “Wish I had a shed with a locking door and could be alone.”

  “Have you ever been alone, dear?”

  “Shub, sure. Duh, I do my schooling myself.”

  “You have bots with you at those times.”

  “Well, of course, doikey. What do you mean? Like, alone without bots?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, shub, you made me be all alone when I was dumped at the transit hub to come here!”

  “Correct. And, aside from those twenty four seconds of solitude?”

  “That question makes no sense. No one is alone without bots.”

  “Susine is.”

  “Well, she's different! She can manage on her own. She knows how to do it. She's learned how to be self-sufficient. I never had that chance.”

  “It's not too late, Dahra.”

  She ignores my gentle encouragement. “Seebie, Susine can handle anything. She makes her own decisions. I can't be like that.”

  “If you say so, dear. Let's see what Susine is handling and what she decides.”

  Today, Spico and the cargo pod showed up at the Slab, this time dropping off a yellow-draped body. It had no puffy membrane anymore.

  He whispered to me, “Obligated to tell you that her countdown to final quiet is six hours.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to steady my ragged breath.

  “We see too much, don’t we, Ven Susine.” Spico left shaking his head.

  Then, Miye told me that he wanted to take Brivo for a long walk in the woods right then and there. I actually accused Miye of abandoning Glia! He patiently explained that she and he had said their goodbyes long ago. He thinks I am the one to know what happens next. He kissed my forehead, then Glia's. And, he set off with Brivo.

  I have solitude around me again. But, this time the place is shared by a silent being, who is the discarded Light, who used to be Glia, who is expected soon to be dead.

  I cargo-droned her to the spring and bathed her. Her body-- hairless and rubbery. Wax sealed her eyelids and her breathing seemed to only involve a small fraction of lung capacity.

  What was in the meds they had been stimming her with? Compliance drugs? Neuro-suppressants? Comatose inducers? Mem fertilizer? Selective amnesiacs?

  I would never know and she couldn’t tell me. All morning, I kept warm cloths over her eyelids to melt the wax. I induced a fever and caked her skin in a crust of cayenne, salt, rosemary, oregano, and mud. Then, I rinsed her thoroughly.

  She kept breathing past the predicted six hour window.

  Then, she murmured, “Can move.”

  Just as I helped her to sit up, a bot zipped in front of me and played an audio message.

  “Venerable Christolb desires her to be rehabilitated to a guaranteed minimum of 85% purity and returned. If not, Venerable Susine, you will become the Light. Refusal to serve your Genubei community equals persona non grata. You and your compatriots shall be treated accordingly. You have been given twelve hours to comply.”

  I left Glia resting and raced up to the greenhouses. I sent six drone loads of vegetables and fruit home to the valley. Then, three drones full of hen eggs and as much goat milk as I could collect. All in a desperate effort to hopefully tide them over until my return.

  Back at the valley, Miye was unloading the food. I asked him to feed the beetles while I'll be gone and most importantly to take care of Brivo. I knew he would tend to Glia.

  He held my hands. “'In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order' –-Carl Jung.”

  May that be true.