The khayan
I am Pythagoras, Py for short. My Ky twin is Euclid; everyone just calls him Eu. Our parents were obsessed with the mathematicians of the ancient world, which you where our names come from. Today is my 25th Kahyan, the most important of my adult life, but my life is not even as significant as a single Kahyan. To my world, my people this formation represents togetherness, prosperity, life, and death. The Kahyan years are put on your stone when one to start life as we -know, the other to start life no-one in this life knows.
Why is this Kahyan the most important of my life? Because it’s finally done, after a decade of work, my token is finally ready. The other is that I’m getting older, and soon I’ll be too old to start the family I dream of. I’ve been looking at some components through my jeweler’s loop when Eu popped in to get some cologne. I love him and love rooming with him, but man he can be annoying at times.
"Hey, Romeo! Still working on that lame hologram?"
"At least I don’t buy my tokens from a vending machine."
"Say what you will. I hook up every Kahyan and wake up next to someone gorgeous instead of a table full of chips and LEDs."
"Well, at least we both wake up with ringing in our ears, mine from the music, yours from the screams of disappointment when she sees you in the light. Yuck-clid!"
"Still better than coming back alone, Pirate-ass!"
Normally his lame teasing doesn’t bother me, but today it did; so I slipped a charged capacitor into the front of his underwear, just hope that I'm there to see him get popped. The hologram I made isn’t as big or bright as I’d like, but it’s visible even in daylight. I noticed a bit of dust built up in some parts, cleaning those should at least add a little more pop. This is an easy fix that a trip to The Parts Yard can fix. They have a microscopic soldier station I get to use because I work there. Gary, the owner I’m sure is there now, he lives for tech just as much as I do.
"What's up, Gary! Going to Kahyan tonight?"
"So my wife can have my head? I’m good. This is your night. We’re just going to settle in until The Breath, then have some much needed"
"Oooh! Whoa! Gary, TMI, dude!"
"Rest. Well needed rest, you perv! At our age we take The Breath, stare at the stars until we pass out. Been our thing ever since we met twenty years ago."
"See? That’s what I want."
"Well, you’re an ugly kid, so I trust you’ll find someone beautiful. Mind closing shop when you’re done?"
I close the shop all the time, but this is code for I’m leaving now so don’t lose track of time. I was so focused that when my phone buzzed I jumped a little, good thing I wasn’t working with heat. I answered the call with a tap on my ear, maybe is my Ma wishing me a Happy Ky. When the call started I knew it wasn’t her. It was Eu and his voice was nearly drowned by the music. Hearing that I could feel the adrenaline shoot across my forehead.
"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!"
"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"
"WHERE DO YOU THINK!"
“You better finish whatever you’re doing and get your ass here! Shuttles are about to stop running.”
I still had three connections to clean and needed to get my emotions under control. I had time, but not much. I didn’t know how long it would take to meet her or if I’d meet anyone but this was the first time in ten years I’d brought a token. Maybe that’s why I’d never found her before; I hadn’t put anything meaningful enough together to earn her token. This time was different this token was all of me, and now it carried my anxiety, too.
I forced my breathing to slow and finished the last three connections in no time. A quick resistance check was all I could manage; no time to rerun the whole application had to pray it worked. I locked up, set the alarm, grabbed my scooter, and bolted. Eu was right the shuttles were about to stop running and this must have been the final one. The normally peaceful ride to the valley turned into a Kahyan pre party with massive speakers pumping dance music.
It felt like as soon as I got on I was getting off at the valley. The first person I saw at the stations was Em, who greeted me with her usual emotionless nod.
"’Sup, dork."
Before I could reply, Eu hugged and bounced me around. The cool feeling of his sweat and the heat of his arms grossed me out and comforted me at once. Em threw up a peace sign, tapped her phone, and danced away. That’s Em even at a party she dances to her own beat. My brother and his friends were yelling and dancing as we melted into the celebration.
Somehow we snagged seats in a skip link. Skips are basically elliptical whips that take you from one side of the 100-kilometer-wide valley to the other. As it soars over the crowd you go from zero to a g-force so strong you almost black out. It was my first time on one and that’s when I saw her. She was in the other skip that flew as our pair. It could have been the giddy excitement and wanting to share that with a stranger that started my look, but that didn’t feel true.
It felt like there were invisible hands forcing me to look at her. For less than a millisecond our eyes locked, then we were flung into the air like two boomerangs. As we rotated, the design of this short flight ride was made so that the pods would periodically get so close you could extend a hand and high-five midair. As our pods made this cycle we were both frozen, staring at each other. There was not a question in my mind, this is her. She is the one.
I involuntarily touched my necklace to make sure I hadn’t lost my token. It’s never safe in a skip to wear jewelry but this wasn’t going anywhere. I can’t tell you when it happened, but somehow, I was out of my restraints and moving to her. Eu must have seen it because he was out of his too wrapping his arms round my hips to stop me. In life you only ever have a single shot at anything, this was mine for love and I couldn’t lose her. I fell across the gap, reached into her pod, and put my token into her hand just as the girl beside her raced over and started pushing me away. Two opposing forces were at play with me; Eu pulling me and this crazy chick pushing my face. The one that mattered most was captivating me and we were lost in each other’s gaze. She looked at me and time froze. Her hand brushed my cheek and stole my breath while Eu wrestled me back into my seat then punched me like I was a stranger in a street fight. He never hit, but worse was his constant nagging the whole time. He got locked back into his seat and was still yelling about how dumb that was, so I hit him on the crotch where I’d hidden the capacitor; it discharged with an audible pop, and Eu curled like a cooked shrimp. Back at the station, I sprinted to the opposite platform hoping she’d be there, but she wasn’t, I felt like a fol. I’d given her my token, and she hadn’t given me hers. Kahyan is powerful you lose yourself in emotion and I’d been overtaken. I dropped to my knees overwhelmed and crying. No one noticed but Eu. I felt his heart break for me; we’re twins and seeing me like this was like feeling it for himself. I wanted to rip my brain out to stop my heart from hurting. The pain shot across the cheek she’d touched. First I thought it was the loss of her touch—but it was real. I pulled my hands away and saw a sliver of metal. She’d given me a token. "SHE GAVE ME A TOKEN!" She’d given me a handmade token shaped perfectly for my ear. Eu hugged me tightly as I stood. "SHE GAVE YOU A TOOOOKEN!" he howled, tears in his eyes. "Find her!" I ran to strangers, offering a rushed description as I ricocheted like electricity through the crowd until someone pointed to a tower. I climbed a lighting scaffold to see a level above the crowd and finally looked at the token she’d given me. I slid my thumb across it and gasped. Biotech! A glowing line appeared: dull and thin near me, bright and thick at the far end, always maintaining its vector. I ran to get my scooter and followed the beacon of her token. This wasn’t just Kahyan, it was a quest. I never thought of putting something in my token so that she’d be able to find me. In my mind we would meet, things would click, and we’d never be too far from each other. She had no way of finding me. I was falling in love with someone whose name I didn’t know and voice I hadn’t heard. I needed to get a higher level to somehow navigate this small world and find her. No one travels above the floor on Kahyan apart from the skip-links because the sky belongs to the stars on this night. I knew the rules, but I also knew that I would move mountains for her. The cool air refreshed me as I was led toward the massive speakers by this beacon. I slipped the token back on my ear and dove behind them into the silence. In front of the speakers deafening blasts of bassy air blew my clothes like a free fall from an airplane, but behind them was a deafening silence. Was it the Kahyan itself or seeing her looking up at a projection of the night sky, my token’s hologram. Light danced on her like the random wavering intensities of a campfire. I was speechless and welded to the floor. "Hi," I managed. "I love it," she said, a tear in her eye. "Your token is amazing too. I didn’t even know you’d given it to me. The weight, the smoothness…" "It’s an alloy I created. The circuitry isn’t like yours, I’m stronger at craftsmanship than tech." "Perfect, because I suck at crafting. The casing of mine is crude and heavy." "No, it’s perfect. You need something robust to protect what’s fragile." "Like my heart." We didn’t plan to say it together, but we did. I sat beside her. "I’m Pythagoras, but everyone calls me Py." "I’m Saylah." She leaned into me, her warmth like a winter bed, her voice the tranquility of a rising sun. "I’d like to try something," I said. "I would never have been able test this without meeting you." I rotated the hologram token to activate the vectorizer. The piece pulsed with my heartbeat. "That’s my heartbeat," I said. "So, your heart is in my hands." The pulse quickened; embarrassment flooded me until a sooth chuckle touched my ears. “My hands might not look like it, but they are strong.” She said with a blush. "I’d like to test something too," she continues. "I lined mine with heart tree sap, it cures harder than titanium and has a life of its own at times. There is a bump that would always form, and I couldn’t ever fix it or smooth it out." I’d built a notch in my token so it would lock in its necklace cage; her token fit perfectly. The moment they snapped together, the hologram exploded! It grew larger than I’d ever designed it for and as vivid as the real sky. Waves of light pulsed; two waves, beating with our hearts. A new epoch started. The music peacefully stopped as the lights in the valley, including the hologram all retreated for the stars. Our lights steadied, then synchronized in the final flickers of the shimmering hologram that was pulled back into our interlaced hands. Saylah and I drew our first Breath together, forehead to forehead and nose to nose then walked hand and hand on to the valley floor where we laid down next to strangers who were family too. All holding hands, all looking at the same sky, all breathing together on this start of a new year.
I involuntarily touched my necklace to make sure I hadn’t lost my token. It’s never safe in a skip to wear jewelry but this wasn’t going anywhere. I can’t tell you when it happened, but somehow, I was out of my restraints and moving to her. Eu must have seen it because he was out of his too wrapping his arms round my hips to stop me. In life you only ever have a single shot at anything, this was mine for love and I couldn’t lose her. I fell across the gap, reached into her pod, and put my token into her hand just as the girl beside her raced over and started pushing me away. Two opposing forces were at play with me; Eu pulling me and this crazy chick pushing my face. The one that mattered most was captivating me and we were lost in each other’s gaze. She looked at me and time froze. Her hand brushed my cheek and stole my breath while Eu wrestled me back into my seat then punched me like I was a stranger in a street fight. He never hit, but worse was his constant nagging the whole time. He got locked back into his seat and was still yelling about how dumb that was, so I hit him on the crotch where I’d hidden the capacitor; it discharged with an audible pop, and Eu curled like a cooked shrimp. Back at the station, I sprinted to the opposite platform hoping she’d be there, but she wasn’t, I felt like a fol. I’d given her my token, and she hadn’t given me hers. Kahyan is powerful you lose yourself in emotion and I’d been overtaken. I dropped to my knees overwhelmed and crying. No one noticed but Eu. I felt his heart break for me; we’re twins and seeing me like this was like feeling it for himself. I wanted to rip my brain out to stop my heart from hurting. The pain shot across the cheek she’d touched. First I thought it was the loss of her touch—but it was real. I pulled my hands away and saw a sliver of metal. She’d given me a token. "SHE GAVE ME A TOKEN!" She’d given me a handmade token shaped perfectly for my ear. Eu hugged me tightly as I stood. "SHE GAVE YOU A TOOOOKEN!" he howled, tears in his eyes. "Find her!" I ran to strangers, offering a rushed description as I ricocheted like electricity through the crowd until someone pointed to a tower. I climbed a lighting scaffold to see a level above the crowd and finally looked at the token she’d given me. I slid my thumb across it and gasped. Biotech! A glowing line appeared: dull and thin near me, bright and thick at the far end, always maintaining its vector. I ran to get my scooter and followed the beacon of her token. This wasn’t just Kahyan, it was a quest. I never thought of putting something in my token so that she’d be able to find me. In my mind we would meet, things would click, and we’d never be too far from each other. She had no way of finding me. I was falling in love with someone whose name I didn’t know and voice I hadn’t heard. I needed to get a higher level to somehow navigate this small world and find her. No one travels above the floor on Kahyan apart from the skip-links because the sky belongs to the stars on this night. I knew the rules, but I also knew that I would move mountains for her. The cool air refreshed me as I was led toward the massive speakers by this beacon. I slipped the token back on my ear and dove behind them into the silence. In front of the speakers deafening blasts of bassy air blew my clothes like a free fall from an airplane, but behind them was a deafening silence. Was it the Kahyan itself or seeing her looking up at a projection of the night sky, my token’s hologram. Light danced on her like the random wavering intensities of a campfire. I was speechless and welded to the floor. "Hi," I managed. "I love it," she said, a tear in her eye. "Your token is amazing too. I didn’t even know you’d given it to me. The weight, the smoothness…" "It’s an alloy I created. The circuitry isn’t like yours, I’m stronger at craftsmanship than tech." "Perfect, because I suck at crafting. The casing of mine is crude and heavy." "No, it’s perfect. You need something robust to protect what’s fragile." "Like my heart." We didn’t plan to say it together, but we did. I sat beside her. "I’m Pythagoras, but everyone calls me Py." "I’m Saylah." She leaned into me, her warmth like a winter bed, her voice the tranquility of a rising sun. "I’d like to try something," I said. "I would never have been able test this without meeting you." I rotated the hologram token to activate the vectorizer. The piece pulsed with my heartbeat. "That’s my heartbeat," I said. "So, your heart is in my hands." The pulse quickened; embarrassment flooded me until a sooth chuckle touched my ears. “My hands might not look like it, but they are strong.” She said with a blush. "I’d like to test something too," she continues. "I lined mine with heart tree sap, it cures harder than titanium and has a life of its own at times. There is a bump that would always form, and I couldn’t ever fix it or smooth it out." I’d built a notch in my token so it would lock in its necklace cage; her token fit perfectly. The moment they snapped together, the hologram exploded! It grew larger than I’d ever designed it for and as vivid as the real sky. Waves of light pulsed; two waves, beating with our hearts. A new epoch started. The music peacefully stopped as the lights in the valley, including the hologram all retreated for the stars. Our lights steadied, then synchronized in the final flickers of the shimmering hologram that was pulled back into our interlaced hands. Saylah and I drew our first Breath together, forehead to forehead and nose to nose then walked hand and hand on to the valley floor where we laid down next to strangers who were family too. All holding hands, all looking at the same sky, all breathing together on this start of a new year.