Emotional Sci-Fi
Before the Rain
by Rodriac Copen
The storm came from the west with strong winds, filling the sky like a black stain slowly sliding across the plains.
Daniel Vega
watched the portable radar propped on the hood of the pickup truck as
the wind whipped his rain jacket. In the distance, the sky seemed to
tear apart in electric silences. Lights flickering on and off among the
clouds revealed lightning strikes that had not yet reached the ground.
The air already had that metallic, ozone-like smell that precedes lightning.
—“ We shouldn’t be here,” one of the technicians shouted . “The cell is closing too fast.”
Daniel
looked up. In a dazzling spectacle, the clouds were slowly swirling above them. Beautiful, and at the same time, terrifying.
—“ Five more minutes.”— he said . —“I just want to finish the measurement.”—
The coach shook his head.
—“ You’re crazy, did you know that?”—
Daniel
barely smiled.
—“ That’s what they say about all meteorologists.”—
Then disaster struck. He didn't hear the thunder. He simply saw the light.
A
white explosion fell less than twenty meters from him. The entire field
vibrated as if the air had been struck by a gigantic hand. Daniel felt something hot pierce his head and the world disappeared under an unbearable buzzing sound.
When he woke up, he was lying in wet mud. And the beeping had started. It never stopped.
The migraines appeared weeks after the incident. Then the insomnia started.
These were followed by episodes of strange perception.
Inexplicably, Daniel
could sense when a storm was approaching, even before satellites could
detect it. Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night
convinced he heard voices hidden behind the electrical hum of urban
transformers.
The doctors spoke of post-traumatic stress. Others evaluated epilepsy.
Or neurological damage. But nothing fully explained what was happening to him.
Until she ended up consulting at the Helix Institute
on the recommendation of an acquaintance.
The
building was literally sandwiched between two structures of concrete
and dark glass on the outskirts of the city. It was a quiet place where
people walked around talking in hushed tones, as if it were a library,
and knowledge needed whispers to exist.
Dr. Mirek received him in an office lit by blue screens.
—“ His case is extremely... unique.”—
—“ In my experience, that phrase usually means bad news.”—
The doctor grimaced, trying not to agree with that observation.
—“ Actually, it means we don’t really understand what’s happening inside your brain to maintain those aftereffects.”—
She
slid some images onto the table. They included MRIs, neural maps, and
strange patterns that were trying to reach some conclusion.
—“ But that’s not all we have. We want to propose that you participate in an experimental study.”—
Daniel let out a tired laugh.
—“ Experimental… how much?”—
The doctor hesitated for a moment before answering.
—“ A lot… but it’s a non-invasive method.”—
The machine looked like a device built to tear holes in reality. It looked like a machine from hell.
Superconducting rings, gigantic coils. Cryogenic conduits covered in vapor. Everything vibrated with a deep hum that
Daniel felt directly in his bones.
—“ Is this still an MRI machine?”— he asked.
A technician looked up.
—“ They more or less work with the same principles, but this team is more powerful.”—
—“ That’s very reassuring.”—
They laid him down inside the structure as the lights gradually dimmed.
When everything was ready, a voice spoke from the loudspeakers:
—“ Initiating pulse sequence.”—
And
the study began. Meanwhile, outside, weather conditions were changing.
Hundreds of kilometers above Earth, a geomagnetic storm struck the
planet's magnetosphere.
The
screens on the medical equipment began to flicker. Alarms sounded as
flashing red lights disrupted the peace and quiet of the technicians
operating the equipment.
—“ We have field fluctuation!”—
—“ Shut down the system!”—
The warnings came too late. Daniel , completely immobilized by the restraint straps that held him in position, felt something pierce his mind.
It
wasn't pain. Or at least it didn't feel exactly like pain. It was as if
a door had been ripped off its hinges, and a sudden feeling of
dizziness washed over her. And behind that door… there were muffled,
distant voices. Amidst the lethargy that gripped her, they seemed to
reach her by the thousands.
It was as if the entire universe were breathing down his neck. He lost consciousness.
He
woke up three days later. As he slowly regained consciousness, it
seemed to him that the ringing in his ears (which doctors called
tinnitus) was a little worse.
At night she realized that her insomnia had also worsened.
Days
passed, and some nights she had the feeling she heard whole words
whispered to her. She listened, but they weren't sounds at all; they
were more like ideas or thoughts, as if they were telepathic messages.
Of course, at first he thought he was losing his mind.
A couple of weeks passed. And when he was recovered enough to return to his job, fortune seemed to prove him right.
Those
ideas or thoughts that came to him, in some inexplicable way, allowed
him to predict a solar storm before the orbital observatories warned the
weather systems.
In
the midst of the storm of ideas that overwhelmed him, whoever was
contacting him, or more precisely his mind, told him that the warning
messages came from something he interpreted as the " Galactic Confederation ".
-Those messages made it easier for him to describe the possibility of an underwater earthquake hours before it happened.
He published online climatic coordinates of storms that were impossible to know so far in advance.
Likewise, people began to make fun of him.
“ THE WEATHER MAN WHO TALKS TO ALIEN SPIRITS.”
The viral spread of the headlines destroyed it quickly and systematically.
Finally, tired of the ridicule and discrediting, Daniel
left the institute, as well as his former career.
He ended up working at a small rural television station in the town of Blackwater .
Every
night he appeared in front of a digital map announcing rain, winds and
temperatures for towns that almost no one remembered.
Meanwhile, the voices kept coming.
—“ Your peers aren’t listening.”—
The voice, as it usually did, appeared inside his mind while Daniel smoked alone, in the back of the channel's recording studio.
—“ I already noticed.”—
he replied mentally.
He had become cautious. If he openly admitted to receiving those messages, people looked at him with suspicion.
By then, communications were something he had grown accustomed to. And Daniel knew that most of the messages came directly from the Confederacy commander, named Solveig .
He received a persistent message:
—“ Atmospheric degradation is accelerating.”—
Daniel closed his eyes to better concentrate on the answer.
-" I know."-
—“ Your species doesn’t seem to react to abstract warnings.”— said Solveig .
—“ You
must understand… humanity doesn’t react very well to real threats
either. It almost always reacts after catastrophes. That’s something
we’re good at.”—
Commander Solveig seemed to understand the weariness in her voice.
—“ We are considering sending an observer.”—
Daniel let out a bitter, skeptical laugh.
—“ Of course. And you also think they won’t think she’s crazy?”—
Millions of kilometers from Earth , the Galactic Confederation was discussing the fate of the planet of humans.
The majority of Council members declined to intervene directly.
—“ Every known species has freedom of action and choice.”—
—“ The human species has already chosen its path.”—
—“ Civilizations have the right to destroy themselves if that is their destiny.”—
—“ We cannot alter the evolutionary processes of civilizations.”—
But Commander Solveig refused to give up easily. Discreetly and keeping a low profile, he tried to find volunteers for a possible secret mission on Earth .
The plan was for an agent of the Confederation to arrive on the primitive planet of humans and try to find the means that would allow the Earthling Daniel Vega to convince his fellow humans.
He tried to convince dozens of agents individually, but they all philosophically aligned themselves with the members of the Council .
But a woman named Tayet , with whom he shared the same planetary origin, remained silent, observing the images of the blue planet while Solveig explained the importance of that mission to her.
The images showed current footage of Earth . Oceans. Clouds. Storms. Abundant life.
That
stirred an ancient instinct within her. The nostalgic memory of what
had once been her own world. And she understood Commander Solveig 's stubbornness in trying to save Earth .
Both her commander and Tayet herself found Earth
reminiscent of their home planet. Before the heat. Before the loss of the seas. Before the dry air and the desert land.
Before their species forgot how to bring children into the world without laboratories.
—“ You already have your volunteer.”— she finally said.
Solveig 's heart nearly
leaped with joy. The commander remained motionless for a couple of
seconds. He studied her intently. He needed to make sure she understood
not only the importance of her secret mission, but also the dangers of
infiltrating human society.
—“ Why are you accepting this mission? What are your reasons?”—
Tayet took a while to respond.
—“ Because their planet is still alive. It still has a chance to be saved.”—
The woman named Tayet arrived on the outskirts of the town of Blackwater
one rainy night. The silent craft landed without incident, undetected
by humans, a couple of kilometers from the nearest houses.
She had been provided with simple human clothing. She wore her abundant dark hair and had calm eyes.
Ready to descend, Commander Solveig
thanked her for her bravery. And given the ferocity of the Homo sapiens
on that planet, he asked her to carefully avoid identifying herself as
an extraterrestrial. Even to Daniel Vega .
The
team provided her with everything she needed to infiltrate the planet
as just another human. Seeing her, no one would have guessed she wasn't
from Earth . Based on everything they had studied telepathically about the planet, and thanks to Daniel 's thoughts , Tayet
had meticulously prepared for the mission.
Using the alias Liv Keller , her first action was to find accommodation. Then she went to the television station where Daniel worked . As a cover, she posed as a freelance cameraman.
During the interview, the director barely looked up.
—“ Do you know how to operate these types of cameras?”— he asked, pointing at the equipment.
-" Yeah."-
—“ Perfect. You start tomorrow. Don't be late.”—
In the recording studio, she met Daniel Vega
. He was alone at a desk, reviewing weather maps. He had deep dark
circles under his eyes. And on the counter were a couple of empty coffee
cups.
The first thing she noticed in their contact was a silent sadness, almost attached to her body.
—“ Are you the new one?”— he asked while looking at her briefly.
-" Yeah."-
-" What is your name?"-
She hesitated briefly. And she was about to give him her real name because she hadn't yet adopted her earthly name.
—“ Liv. Liv Keller.”—
Daniel nodded.
—“ Well, Liv… welcome to the worst television channel in the Western Hemisphere.”—
The days slowly began to turn into weeks.
Liv
observed humans the way an anthropologist observes strange creatures. The contradictions ultimately baffled her.
People
used to destroy the things they loved. They lied constantly. They hurt
each other, sometimes gratuitously and senselessly. But they were also a
race that laughed, sang, and helped strangers. They cried for animals.
They hugged people knowing that one day they would die.
That last part disturbed her deeply.
One night she found Daniel watching the rain from the canal parking lot, getting soaked. She approached him.
—“ Do you like the rain?”— asked Liv .
—“ Before, yes.”—
-" And now?"-
Daniel smiled bitterly.
—“ Now it reminds me of everything we're losing.”—
She watched the raindrops hitting the asphalt. On her planet, rain had disappeared centuries ago.
—“ In my city”—
he lied —“it rains very little.”—
Daniel
smiled.
—“ So you still don’t know how beautiful a storm smells in these meadows.”—
She looked at him in silence. And for the first time, she felt something akin to sadness.
Over time, Liv
began to fall in love with him. Not suddenly. Not in a human way. It
was a slow, painstaking process. As she got to know him, the feeling was
like a crack in her soul, gradually expanding.
They became very good friends, and she learned that Daniel
was still trying to warn the world. He posted messages on his social
media, information on his website, and the predictions that Commander Solveig sent him telepathically. He did everything humanly possible to convince the world, but no one listened to him seriously.
One early morning, after arriving from a particularly humiliating interview, he sat alone in the armchair.
—“ Maybe they’re right. And I really am crazy.”— he said.
Liv stayed by his side. By then, he had already confessed to her about the telepathic transmissions.
—“ No. You're not.”—
—“ I don’t mean to be rude, but how can you be so sure?”—
She gazed at him for a long time. “ Because I hear the stars too ,” she thought. But she couldn’t say it. Instead, she replied:
—“ Because people who are crazy don’t keep trying to save others.”—
Daniel lowered his gaze. For the first time in a long time, someone seemed to truly see him.
Months
passed. The global climate worsened. Many cities were flooded. Constant
storms ravaged coastlines. Hurricanes and tornadoes battered cities.
Countless wildfires were visible from low Earth orbit.
Then came the Confederation's final response. They concluded that humanity would not change. And Commander Solveig decided to end Tayet
's mission .
They sent him a telepathic message to meet him in the same place where they had left him upon his arrival on Earth .
The
commander descended silently in the early shadows of night. They were
near a forest. And they could smell the dampness. The countryside was
shrouded in a still, evocative mist.
Liv walked slowly to meet Solveig .
He looked at her. And then he looked at her belly. He understood immediately.
—“ I see you’ve made a decision.”—
She nodded.
-" Yeah."-
—“ You know this planet will collapse.”—
—“ I know, commander.”—
—“ You can still come back to us.”—
The woman who pretended to be Liv looked towards the dark horizon.
Somewhere far away, the lights of Blackwater flickered in the rain.
—“ I don’t want to go back.”— Tears ran down her cheeks.
The commander of the Galactic Confederation
remained silent for a few seconds.
Then he said:
—“ That child will be from Earth. And a telepath. Perhaps he can convince them.”—
Liv could only manage to caress her belly. Solveig , before leaving, said:
—“ If you are ever in danger… we will send a ship for you, for the child… and for him too. You just have to ask me.”—
Liv smiled in gratitude. That meant much more than it seemed.
Then
it began to rain. The commander slowly raised his eyes to the sky. The
raindrops struck his face. And for a moment, something akin to pain
appeared in his eyes.
—“ Do you remember?”— she asked gently —“Our planet smelled like this too… before the collapse began.”—
Liv closed her eyes. Yes. She remembered.
The last rain came a couple of months later. Toxic. Slow and persistent.
On
television, news reports showed images of a partially flooded coastal
city while reporters discussed evacuations and air pollution.
Daniel turned off the sound. The apartment remained silent. Liv sat by the window watching the rain fall on the town of Blackwater .
He approached slowly. He placed a hand on her stomach.
The boy seemed to respond to his father's touch. He barely moved. And Daniel , puzzled, felt a message of love coming from his son.
Outside,
the world continued to crumble. But inside that small room, something
warm still existed. Something real. The woman named Liv placed her hand on his, as they both felt the gentle movements of her belly.
— Are you scared? — he asked.
Daniel
watched the rain through the glass. And then he looked at her.
-" Yeah."-
-" Me too."-
They remained like that for a long time.
Two beings from different worlds.
Listening together to the sound of the rain before the end.
END
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