"Never mistake law for Justice. Justice is an ideal and law is a tool"
L.E. Modessitt Jr.
In the year 2024, the world was a paradox of prosperity and peril. Technological advancements had promised utopia but instead forged invisible chains, binding humanity to the will of colossal corporations that controlled the internet. Presidents had become mere puppets, dancing to the tune of these digital overlords. The global network was fracturing into three dominant blocs: Russia, China, and the rest of the world. Daily scandals of abuse and corruption, once hidden, were now blatantly paraded, and cruelty had become the norm, codified into law.
In this dystopian landscape, "Q" was an ordinary man, standing at 170 cm, with blond hair and blue eyes, he was born in a Paris that had been irrevocably altered by unfulfilled dreams and hollow ambitions. He had traveled the world for pleasure first, then for work, never expecting to find what would become his greatest blessing and curse: love.
Kate entered his life like a tempest. Standing 168 cm tall, she possessed Asian features accented by enigmatic, slightly green-tinged brown eyes that held stories of resilience and sorrow. Her smiles were rare, but when they came, they could brighten the gloomiest of days. Life had not been kind to her; death and despair had visited her often, leaving her guarded and reticent about her past. She had the choice to consolidate her fear with drama and complain, but instead she decided to construct it with science and an outstanding dedication.
At 24 she was a General practicioner and a resident in a prestigious hospital, at 29 she had her own clinic and her future was only as bright as it can be. She had a photographic memory and more than one man made the mistake to take her kindness for weakness.
Their paths crossed in the lounge of an airport. Q, in a moment of contrived spontaneity, asked if the seat beside her was taken. Kate, wary of yet another attempt at flirtation, reluctantly offered it with the aloof grace of a woman accustomed to fending off unwanted advances. Q initiated a casual conversation, which Kate twice ended with polite finality. But on the third attempt, something clicked.
They exchanged contact details, and a month later, she was in France. Three months after that, he was in Manila, where they finally acknowledged their attraction amidst the chaos of a bomb that obliterated their neighborhood. This war was a civilian war, the most violent in modern history.
Pilipino people, who's strength was to speak English had enough of being call for cheap labor and decided to manifest it by an other "Liberation army" which in fact was nothing else than a terrorist group subventioned by powerful entities. It was the begining of the end for humanity as know at this era.
The war was brutal, as wars tend to be, driven by ideology and marked by the slow erosion of her culture. History, as always, was being rewritten by the victors, consigning the defeated to oblivion. It was a sobering sight to witness society's swift pivot from defending her heritage to denigrating it, driven by economic interests and a pervasive mediocrity, but let's be real, what was new for the common folks here? Kids were still in the street, enslaved by dark corporation, the food was still missing for most of the population and anyway this country have been so much disregarded for so long, that even the most violent and prolific war wasn't that much of a big deal for the commoner. Rape, despair, has always been here, their root had only changed.
Despite the turmoil, Q and Kate were each other's anchors. Her body, adorned with scars, was a testament to her past struggles and a reminder of her resilience. Q understood these marks not as mere decorations but as symbols of battles fought and survived. Together, they navigated the chaos, with Kate's strength and Q's steadfast support forming the bedrock of their bond.
Not everyone was suffering from the war, and as often things were like designed for a certain handful of people who had positioned themself at the right time. As if they knew.
Q was a business consultant at that time and unfortunate company events had turned as opportunity for him to grown in his company, to a point he became the most senior consultant to a company who soon would be the number one business consultancy in the whole country. Money was flowing.
"Consultant" is a very grey area in Business, so "Business Consultant" was even more gray. The truth is, he was becoming an expert on printing money deal, and the title was just a legal way to process them.
Q's career led him to a morally gray area. He found himself involved in an arms deal, facilitating the sale of weapons under false pretenses. More the cause was cynical more the name of the deal was noble, such as "Deal of the liberation army" or "Deal of the freedom" etc...
It was a lucrative venture, and as the money flowed, so did the secrets. Information became the new currency, and with it came political machinations and the grim specter of "assisted suicides."
Suddenly Q was invited in political events and his every move was referenced, he was advised not to see certain people and not to talk publicly. And it was a wise advice. He had a secretary and a driver that sole job was to spy on him, and Q had all the pleasure in the world to keep them busy wondering his next move, while giving them jobs that he knew would keep them busy.
When his country first approached him, Q refused to negotiate, knowing that silence could be deemed treasonous. He had much to lose, but he also knew that the tides of war were unpredictable. His wealth, hard-earned, would be meaningless in the face of a military tribunal, where his life would be at the mercy of the victors, and worst, the life of his family.
France of today was far from the France of the book. At the head was a little emperor, gay and married to a man pretending to be a woman.
This was a state secret and they had to use the DGSE, the French secret service to remove all trace of her gender online, and just like that, the past of the president mother as specialized in Transexual work disapeared, her past at the CSAM, the french national health care, as responssible of the person willing to change sex, dissapeared, all trace of the union that happened when they were minor (he was at least 14 when they met and him at least 35).
A country at war has no law, only soldiers.
During this time, Q's outings with Kate often ended in bars. She loved concerts and clubs, which he barely tolerated. The war had transformed an already dark Manila to, if that' possible, an even darker Manila. Were little kids would follow you in the street before, you were now welcome by gangs of hungry kids ready to do anything for the sake of hunger and, boredom. Those kids were the product of highly organized crime, which was becoming the new normal for a career.
Police were inexistant and private organizations started to shoot at will, every morning, as in Delhi long ago, an ambulance would come to pick up dead corpse, the same way they would pick up trash. That was the value of life, and you can imagine the insanity of bars in this context, people were partying like no tomorrow, and most of them really didn't had a tomorrow. Fight, alcohol, drugs, sex, abuse was the new normal, and the definition of rape changed, as the one of pedophilia.
A rape become first not a rape if, i quote "licking baby is not rape", then anal sex became "Not rape too", so called to protect women from the act of vaginal penetration at first, then it becomes the act to put semen in women that was rape, and nothing else, until they said it depended if the allegator was fertil or not, and then just deleted the word "rape" from dictionary for "non consensual human inercourse"
The irony is that this was not pushed by men, but by an organization called "Feminist" that were the voice of women's protection. Many of their members were men that identified as female, and to be honest those were not really the proudest production of genetic.
It was already hard to be a woman born in the Philippines before this, but as of now, again, if possible, was worst.
Death become the new normal, and in chaos and darkness, the light become more visible.
The moral was heavy and they compromised with healthy activities, enjoying each other's company despite the surroundings. They had a bucket list born from a near-death experience: hiking Mount Etna, diving around the Titanic's wreck, dancing on the Great Wall of China, and praying in Izium. Every night ended with a glass—or bottle—of wine, their shared moments of solace.
Note that wine became extremely expensive, like most lluxury product. Not because a lack of production, but because luxury markets were exploding, while the gap, if we can still call this a gap, between those in need of physiologic things were more and more prominent. In the street of manila, the luxury cars were at a all time high, but surrounded by heavily armed private milice.
With the despaire, the sadness, the undertain future around, they would drink to forgot, discussion directed toward plan for family, for peace and hapiness. To be fait they were clearly profiting from this situation. They never had a so much high bank balance, and the value of the money was at a all time high, they could almost retire already and live happily ever. But they didn't. I often wonder what would have happened if they had.
But then came the day Kate returned home, her face etched with worry. She had been approached by her people, compelled to help them. They heard of her husband's position and needed (that was without compromise) "help". They also gave Kate pictures of her relative, happily living in Illocos, the pictures were taken on the spot and no less than 2 weeks. She recognized her neview, eating again his favorite dish: French fries. (For his defence, fried food was the new normal, since no vegetable could grow easily, and it became a luxury to eat vegy)
Q knew it was a mistake, an emotional decision that would lead to chaos. Yet, he also understood that sometimes, mistakes carried a sweetness that victories could never offer. According to the informations he had, the wining side was not Philippines, they had in fact, rotten in corruption, always been on the losing side, yet he tought, they have always find a way to exist, to resist absolutely all opressor since today. Maybe he was wrong about philippines, maybe this country had more in the guts than many wanted to think. Anyway, despite his own will, he was himself half philippino now.
That night they drank to death, one more time, and Kate told him not to accept, to ignore them. But deep down she knew that was the begining of the end, no matter what they would do, they would be a target of one side or another, and in a war, only soldiers lose.
She passed out on his legs, and he could see how much lucky he were. That reminded him how wrong he was to have always though of the future, where his present with her was so good, and he passed out.
So, the next day, Q made his choice.
He became a spy for a country on the brink of defeat, knowing they had little to give but hoping that this act of defiance would grant Kate the closure she sought. The only reason he accepted a death job was to give a better future to the hope of his clan.
Their love story, set against the backdrop of a world teetering on the edge, was a testament to the enduring power of human connection amidst the wreckage of a collapsing society.
As the world around them continued to disintegrate, Q and Kate clung to each other, their love a beacon of hope in the midst of chaos. That very day they would climb a bombed building who used to be the tallest in all phillipines, they lightly cut each other's hand to bleed, and promised each other and the country they would never forgot their value, who they are, who they are truth to, to the people, to the humans.
The following year they navigated the treacherous waters of espionage and deceit, their bond growing stronger with each passing day. They didn't even had a proper training.
From business man and doctor, they were suddenly in the world of big vilain. Mostly they were given certain ressources with certain instructions, mostly to gather informations or ommitcertain details. For Q that means only to make certain people rich or poorer, but for Kate, it means to give life or death, and that is a choice no human should have to make, but that is the burden and fate of practionners. Kate forerver changed, something over matured inside of her, Q could feel her heart became more close, herself became more rigid, something was roting in her, and he coudn't blame her. He tried to cheer her up with flowers, cakes, surprise events, but nothing would do, with time she would become more and more cold. She had eyebag, and obvious difficulty to sleep, her smile was more discreet, her skin became paler.
Every secret mission, every coded message, and every narrow escape only solidified their connection, but deepened Kate's feeling. They were living on borrowed time, but they made each moment count, each on their own way.
The pressure of their clandestine activities began to take its toll. Q's nights grew longer, filled with covert meetings and encrypted communications. Kate, though outwardly strong, carried the weight of their dangerous choices.
Something the lector have to know, is that countrary to popular belief, spies of that era, didn't had to follow strict instructions but more a direction toward this kind of instructions. They didn't had to always apply it and had sufficient liberty, to stay operational. At their level, they had choices, and no one to respond. But they were doing it for their clan, for the people, for themselves.
As planned things was becoming more bad, and the country was that time at the very edge to lose the war, only a surprising attack by some unknow rebel army in Palawan rebalanced a litle the war. The irony being that this rebel army was fighting a liberation army itself rebel.
And every night they found solace in each other's arms, whispering promises of a future that seemed increasingly out of reach.
One evening, after a particularly tense operation, they sat on the balcony of their apartment, overlooking the war-torn cityscape of Manila. The distant sounds of sirens and explosions served as a constant reminder of their precarious situation. Kate leaned into Q, her head resting on his shoulder.
"Do you ever think about what could have been?" she asked, her voice barely audible above the noise.
Q sighed, wrapping his arm around her. "Every day. But I wouldn't trade what we have now for anything. You're the reason I keep fighting."
Kate turned to him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "I'm scared, Q. Scared of what might happen to us, to our future."
He cupped her face in his hands, looking deeply into her eyes. "We'll get through this, Kate. No matter what happens, we have each other. That's what matters."
Their conversation was cut short by the sudden sound of footsteps approaching. They quickly retreated inside, their instincts honed by months of living on the edge. It was one of their contacts, bearing news that would change everything.
The situation had become dire, the rebel army in Palawan wasn't as victorious as reported. The enemy was closing in, and their network had been compromised. They had to leave Manila immediately. Kate's eyes widened with fear, but Q remained resolute.
"We have to go, now," he said, grabbing their pre-packed bags. "We'll find a way out. We always do."
As they made their escape, Q couldn't shake the feeling that this might be the last time they would see their home. They moved through the shadows, evading patrols and checkpoints, their hearts pounding in unison. Every moment was a test of their resolve and their love.
They managed to reach a safe house on the outskirts of the city, not really knewing what next. The situation was too sudden for them to have plan yet. They had always knew this would happen, but they never had the strenght to talk about it, perhaps because they wanted to live in the present a litle bit longer everytime?
It was at that time that they received an unexpected visitor: an old friend of Q's from his days of international travel, a scientist named Dr. Nathaniel Asher. The man was sent by "someone from the top" (Q never knew who, but he suspected)
The man brought with him an extraordinary proposition.
"I've been working on a project," Dr. Asher explained, his voice tinged with urgency. "Cryogenic preservation. We've perfected the technology.
You could be frozen and sent to a distant future, a time when the world might be at peace. It's a chance to escape this madness."
Kate looked at Q, her expression a mix of hope and apprehension. "Can we really do this? Leave everything behind?"
Q took her hand, his eyes filled with determination. "If it means we get a chance at a future together, then yes. We have to try."
That night a secret conversation happened between the 3 of them, instructions from the top for a better future.
The decision was made.
They would undergo the procedure, placing their trust in Dr. Asher and his untested technology. It was a leap of faith, a gamble on the possibility of a better tomorrow.
They stayed in the wait for a time, with each other. That time perhaps is the only they had of "peace". Nothingness and each other, and that time, forever will be engraved in their heart.
The day of the procedure arrived.
Q and Kate stood side by side, their hands intertwined. As they were prepped for cryogenic sleep, they exchanged one last kiss, a promise sealed with their love.
"I'll see you on the other side," Q whispered, his voice filled with emotion.
Kate nodded, tears streaming down her face. "I love you, Q. Forever and always."
With those words, they were placed into the cryogenic chambers. As the freezing process began, their bodies succumbed to the cold, their minds drifting into a dreamless sleep.
Time passed. Decades turned into centuries. The world changed in ways they couldn't have imagined. Yet, deep within their cryogenic chambers, Q and Kate remained, their love preserved against the ravages of time.
When they finally awoke, it was to a world vastly different from the one they had left behind. A new dawn had arrived, filled with possibilities and hope. They stepped into the future hand in hand, ready to face whatever challenges lay ahead.
Their love story, born in the tumult of a crumbling world, had endured the test of time. In this new era, Q and Kate would forge a new path, together, forever bound by the strength of their love and the promise of a brighter future.