The Locket

He did not understand today. He sat in his room awaiting for the group to arrive. His room was gray, the only color he had ever known. The walls were the same from floor to ceiling. The ceiling itself was this same wretched neutrality. The floor was dull to the point of no different. He had other colors in life such as the green blanket upon his bed, colored images in textbooks, and small objects and signs placed throughout the metallic confines of the ship he lived endless days, months, and years to in a drab existence. Always there was only gray, nonetheless. He had a small end table near the bed, the bed itself, a closet, and a desk filled with his drab uniforms. All of which were gray. The room was without windows. He had no understanding of day and night, but grayness was everywhere. In his hands, however, he held the locket she had given him. It was not gray. The heart was rose gold with a ruby inlaid, and he only knew this because she had said so. He only knew it was as beautiful as her voice. The chain gleamed like her eyes singing life as it had done when he first met her months ago. He held it tight in his hands as he had done endlessly since...well, since he did not understand today nor did he understand since either. He only knew that his gut was tied up in knots and his heart was empty. He saw the door handle turn, and they entered his room. He looked only down as they entered.

Father was the first to speak. Staff referred to him as Sir or Captain, but he only knew him as father. Father was disappointed, or so he had said, but that felt almost a century ago. It had been only days. He knew that discipline was to come. And it would come swift today. For those who violate were to be punished.

Father said softly, “Please stand by 061003. It is time.”

“Yes father,” he responded.

He suddenly felt a sharp pain to his cheek. Father had reached out and hit him with the back of his hand. He saw a flash in his head, and tasted blood in his mouth.

“YOU will CALL me SIR! Father shouted at him with spittle flying from his mouth.

Father turned abruptly and spoke out of earshot to a staff member who wore a darker shade of gray called black with a white square in the collar. He only knew this man as the teacher who always spoke of Jesus. He did not know who this Jesus was, but he must have been important because this man always spoke of him.

The man wearing the black garments turned toward him after speaking quietly with the Captain. He began to talk to him about Jesus, and how Jesus would take him to the afterlife because he had given his life to erase all men’s sins. 061003 did not know what sins were because he had only lived life in the sinless gray of the ship from birth. He did not understand this man anymore than he had understood today, yesterday, or the day before. Time was the only substance taught for education here on the ship. The man placed his hand upon his shoulder and proceeded to offer a prayer. He pushed the man’s hand away, and continued to look down on the floor.

He thought of how he had met her months ago at the mess hall while the man in black continued to drone on about what was to be prayed about. He soon was away from the voice inside his head as he stood looking at her for the first time in his memory. He had never seen a woman before her on the ship. She was tall, bronzed and with brown eyes. She was not gray. Her hair was shoulder length and very dark in color but not another shade of that color he saw everywhere. He felt a flutter inside his stomach not unlike the feeling he felt at present, but...it was a beautiful feeling for that moment.

Outside of this memory, they requested he stand. He did so standing tall and with confidence. They could take his body, but they would never take his heart. That was his to keep and it belonged to her. To Lara. And he kept his mind filled with only the thoughts of her, the only rose he had ever known. And a wondrous person she was.

He stood up and was surrounded by staff. They were strong muscular men. They looked like him, but they were strong, wearing blue work coveralls. He was but a dreamer in a dreamless world, so he had escaped to within and barely noticed the men who began to guide him outside of the room and into the hall. They did not need to restrain him. Where could a man run and hide deep on a ship fathoms from civilization?

He thought of secret moments where they would meet up over the short time they would know each other. His required routine was always required, therefore; it was always the same. He had precisely 22 minutes every day they could meet and it was never a minute early or late. The clocks onboard the vessel were accurate to the miniscule of a second. He had shower, breakfast, study, chores, 22 minutes, and then bed. It never changed in the years he had lived aboard this object made for man, by man. It was almost surreal to know he himself was a man.

He remembered closing his eyes the first time they had kissed each other’s lips. Hers had been soft, warm, and gentle. It was a quick touch at first but it became deeper. Greater. That moment they were one voice, and one song as he could hear the slight, musical beating of her heart.

The men surrounding him pushed him further, but it remained a slow pace down the hall. They had all the time in the world in the bowels of a ship. He passed a large sign along the walls. He knew what the words printed stated without ever needing to look at them. He had passed them a million times perhaps in his life, maybe more. The words stated WITH LOVE COMES HATE, AND WITH HATE COMES WAR. L0VE VIOLATES ALL! He did not believe these words in the slightest. He had Lara to thank for that. The letters were printed charcoal always on the color that never ended. The hall stretched for an eternity, but the floor shined like her smile. His chores always included the floor of this hallway, and he took pride in this. At the end of the corridor, there was the clock “Tick, tick, tick...Click!” It endlessly sang as dull as the colors surrounding it. But he continued to think of her even as he gripped the locket in his hand, the chain bouncing slightly against his wrist with each step. One of the men escorting him tried to grab the locket from him, but his grip remained steadfast and strong. Father intervened with a sharp bark of an order, 'Leave it alone.’ he said and with a dry smile added, “he won’t need it where he is going.”

He thought of her laughter and the sparkle in her eye as they turned right and proceeded to the door for AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY! Months ago, he would have been excited to find out what was beyond that door. His curiosity had always acted on overdrive. But not today. He closed his eyes and only thought of her.

When they had been found both were lying by each other’s side naked hiding nothing as lovers often do. They had become one. He regretted this moment because of a mistake. They had fallen asleep after and normally he would have been watching the time to ensure safety for both. Both knew the law of the ship was to not have love. The signs were printed everywhere as a reminder. He had been designed to be the perfect man without feeling. They blamed hate on love and war on love, yet he was being designed to be perfect in all including killing. Killing was for hate and killing was for war. His education was academic and physical because somebody somewhere needed perfect killers. But 061003 was not like the rest. He had never been. He spent endless hours reading about art, of history, and of love, hate, and death in a millennia of printed history. His peers excelled at physical training. He excelled at learning. Father had thought this might make him the leader a group would need, so he allowed him to feast his eyes upon endless hours of intellectual reading. But this only awoke a need for human interaction and contact. Lara found him and brought this to him like no other human would have prior.

They brought him to the room, opened a watertight door and sent him in. They closed it behind him, but he felt safe as long as he held the locket in his hand. He stood there gazing out at father, and realized his peers were now gathering outside of thick 15 cm glass peering in at him. Some with smiles. One, 060347, had been his friend. He watched him fist bump another peer. The door opened once more as they shoved Lara in. They had not even offered her clothing as she was as naked as when he last saw her days ago. Her nose was bloodied as if hit with violent force. She rushed to him and hugged him as he wrapped his arms tightly around her. He shielded her from the many eyes peering in to give her some decency from their wandering eyes.

He could see Father speaking to the men. His men. He had listened through many of Father’s speeches and they always were motivating. He imagined him starting out with the US government having sent him down here, thousands of miles to the ocean floor on the great underwater base, the USS Sublimity to create equality, diversity, and soldiers of great honor and devotion to the great flag of Old Glory in the year 2021. In the decades since, he would tell them, he did just that. And the men would shout an excited hooyah. Hell, 061003 would have before all of this as well. He would then proceed to inform them that he took no great weight from his heart because if you violate, you must be punished. He would finish up and let his XO know to administer the punishment. Afterwards, he would give his men, and 061003’s former peers a day of rest and a celebrational meal for dinner.

He saw the moving lips of the man he called Father slow, then close. He saw him nod to the XO and this man nodded back. The XO proceeded to a panel nearby and punched in some numbers on a keypad. He heard a whir for a moment nearby him, and Lara jumped a bit. He could see she was now crying, and she clung to him tighter as he returned in strength still holding the locket in his hand. The room began to rapidly fill with water. She looked at him and said with a heavy heart, “I love you!” He responded with the same words, and held her closer and tighter. The room soon enclosed them in the salt of ocean water. He continued to hold her until he felt her weaken, and then nothing. He began to drift himself. He could be happy though. He had finished his life with love. His world went dark even as he smiled, a man who had lived complete, and his grip on the locket loosened. It floated away into the darkness.