Chapter 5 – Worried

My home dome was 36f, i.e. it was inside dome #36 and branchpoint f. That’s pretty much how we used addresses here on Venus, we would state a dome and then the branchpoint. Some domes have only about 10 branchpoints while others can have up to 90. This one was a relatively small dome as it was a residential dome where people lived, so it didn’t have many branchpoints. We have 25 original big domes that were built in the first year or so of our arrival on Venus and about 60 or so smaller residential domes. It seems little, but you’ll be surprised how little of the total Earth population actually survived since the whole incidence on Earth.
Chloe was sleeping when I arrived. I therefore decided not to wake her up and went to the kitchen to get myself some dinner. I was still thinking intensively about today’s mission. I wanted to figure out who was that robber, whom was he working for and what was he after. The thoughts gave me a headache and I couldn’t concentrate on cooking. At this moment my sweet Chloe walked into the kitchen.
- “You’re back, finally.” She said as she entered.
- “Hey darling. Unfortunately today’s mission was a failure, so we had to see our boss afterwards. Sorry about that.” I explained.
- “Why? What happened?” Chloe was interested.
- “We underestimated a robber. He was much more slick than we imagined.”
- “Well I’m sure you’ll catch him very soon. You’re the best V.E.N.U.S. member.”
- “3rd best actually.” I corrected her.
- “Oh come on, I’m sure you’re better than those two champions. They just got lucky. But you know, your time will also come.” Chloe said sweetly.
- “I thought my time has gone past already.”
- “Well I know that you’re destined for something big. You’re a very clever and capable guy.”
- “Thanks darling. I hope you’re right, but I’m not doing it for popularity. I’m doing it because I like order and security.” I said.
She didn’t say anything else, she just came up to me and kissed me.
- “Need help with cooking?” she asked, “You look tired. Let me help you.”
- “All right.” I decided not to stop her.
We had a nice dinner, watched a movie and then went to bed. It was a long while since movies were being made. Since the whole incident on Earth and arrival on Venus no-one got a chance to make movies, but as the life on Venus is getting more stable people can afford now to make movies and so we hope that this year the movie industry will continue to exist.
Once in bed I told Chloe that I’ve got to get up early so I could go to work and work out how to catch that thief. She was getting worried about me and tried to calm me, but it was so hard to let go of all the thoughts. She suggested for me to sleep in ‘Mind-B2 deactivator’. It’s a special kind of head gear that allows you to relax and to let go of every thought that is in your head at that moment. As long as you wear it you will be relaxed. And despite so many mechanical and electronic things inside it, it was still very comfy to wear. The B1 and B2 models are far safer than the A models that used to exist about 5 years ago. With A models prolonged wearing of mind deactivator could actually cause severe brain damage and in some rare cases even schizophrenia. The A models are not on the market anymore.
But mind deactivators are really effective and as soon as I put it on I switched off automatically and that helped me get enough sleep for the next day.