Nehru, the Canal City Part 1

The air is a little hot but not uncomfortable. The leaves of the old oak sway above, its rustling providing a soothing white noise. Luna delicately weaves flowers together. Asa stares at her work intently.

“This is gonna take a while. Watching me’s gonna be boring.” She says. “Hm, let’s see… What do you want to be when you grow up?”

He places a chubby hand on his chin, his brows furrowed in concentration. “A Knight,, like my dad! He says that it’s called a ‘Defender’ in Inizio, though. He’s from Litora.” He says, eyes glowing. “Or maybe an archeologist... Or any job where I could work in ruins...”

“A Defender, huh?”

“What do you want to do?”

She thinks silently. Her face grows perplexed as she draws a blank. A heartbeat later, she smiles. “If you’ll become a Defender, I guess I will too.”

“That’s a good idea. We can work together everyday!”

Luna gives him a lively nod.

☼

”This is boring…” Groans Mint. “And my arms hurt.”

Hanging onto someone’s waist for hours is actually pretty tiring. “We’ve only got another hour to go, so just hang on.” Asa assures him.

Mint grumbles. “Look on the bright side. You’re building endurance. Other trips will be easier.” Asa says.

Complaining isn’t going to pass the time, Mint supposes. “Can you tell me about Nehru?”

Asa smirks. He loves to explain things. “It’s one of the oldest settler cities. It has a complex canal system, like Venice.”

“What’s Venice?”

“A famous city back on Earth. Canals run through almost every part of it. They’re like roads and people can ride down them in boats.”

Mint can’t imagine what that’d look like, but it’s intriguing. “Why use boats? Wouldn’t a car or bike be better?”

“I don’t think they had those when Venice was constructed.”

“That makes sense, I guess… Nue didn’t used to have cars either.” He says thoughtfully. “But Earth people brought cars here when they came, right? Why does Nehru rely on boats?”

“Well, when we first came here, we of course didn’t have an automotive industry set up yet. The cars we brought weren’t enough for the entire population. A car-focused society wasn’t possible at the time, so they had to find alternatives.” Asa Says. “Nehru probably has its own reasons. What do you think, Mimo?”

Mimo searches his database. “Nehru is a canal based city located on the peninsula of the same name. It’s bordered by Taitan Lake, which runs from the Northern Sea. The city’s design was largely influenced by its largest sponsor Gautam Bajaj, a wealthy passenger from the First Deck of The Inspiration. His primary influence was the city of Venice on Earth.”

“One of the goals of Nehru’s design was to create a city non-reliant on gasoline, since oil had largely fallen out of favor.”

“Thanks, Mimo.” The tablet closes his eyes like he’s smiling. He’s proud of himself. It seems that Asa and Mimo both enjoy giving explanations.

“Gasoline?”

“Earth largely relied on oils like gasoline for power. They form when organic material gets compacted underground for millions of years.” Says Asa. “It was horrible for the environment and a big part of the reason people wanted to leave Earth.”

What could’ve been so bad that it made people want to leave their home planet? Mint shivers at the thought.

“Thankfully, the people already on Nue don’t use oil as a power source. You guys are a lot smarter than us.”

“I guess.” Mint agrees halfheartedly. Didn’t Nue’s ancient people destroy each other?

“We’ve learned from our mistakes, though. I think humanity can grow, even though it may take a long time and have setbacks. It may not always seem like it, but we’re getting wiser with time.”

Mint reflects on Asa’s words. He’s older but so optimistic. Is that sort of trust in mankind something that comes with maturity?

The bumpy, dirt road his eyes had fixed on gradually transitions into a smoother, brick one. After a minute or so, the bike stops at a small building. A gate with a flimsy, striped bar blocks the way.

He recognizes this from the time his family took him on a vacation. It’s a checkpoint! I do know some outside world things.

He had been too little to read at the time, so what he didn’t notice was the strange runes on the signs. He could read the parts in Common, like “SLOW DOWN” and “We only accept payment in Yingium”, but he couldn’t read the languages above it.

They vaguely resembled his language, Alma, but were too different to read a single character. Asa notices him squinting at the “We only accept payment in Yingium” sign with a strained expression.

“Can you speak Common, but not read it?” He asks.

Mint points at the strange languages, exasperated. “What are those?”

His voice comes out as a helpless whine. Asa examines the sign and it clicks. “Ohh. That’s Urdu and Hindi.”

“Do I have to speak those?” Mint is worried. I only speak two languages!

“No, they speak English.”

His anxiety spikes. “What’s English?”

I’ve never heard of that one either! He adds internally. Asa chuckles. “Common. That’s what it’s actually called.”

Mint lets out a breath. “I thought it was just called Common!”

“Well, on Earth it’s spoken in a country called England.”

“That’s confusing…”

“I know. It’s really interesting, though. I can tell you about it later, but I have to pay the toll real quick. Stretch your legs some if you want. I’ll be right back.” Asa walks through the door.

“Oh, okay…” Says Mint, sounding like a lost puppy. Being alone in a new place feels weird, even when it’s only for a little while.

☼

The inside of the toll booth is actually quite spacious. It’s more like a shack than a booth. It’s set up so that someone could comfortably spend all day there.

An air conditioner buzzes and there’s a small living area with a sofa and a coffee table lined with magazines. There’s also a tiny fridge for use by the operator. On the desk sits a statue of Ganesha.

Behind it sits an elderly man, old enough that his sagging upper eyelid seems to cover his entire eye. Asa isn’t sure how he can see. His head is half bald and his wispy beard extends past his knees.

He raises one of his eyebrows. They’re so long that it seems they could compete with the beard. The flabby skin rises like a stage curtain, revealing a thin slit of eye that peeks up at Asa. Somehow, he seems to be paying more attention to cleaning his pipe, like one eyeball is on him and the other is on it.

“You’re new.” Says the operator, with an Indian accent. “Did you bring identification? Don’t bother. We don’t care.”

He lowers the brow and returns complete focus to cleaning the pipe. “Just put the money on the counter. We still accept livestock. Litora forced us to put that sign up.”

“Why?”

“It was a compromise. We install a toll booth and give them the money from it, they don’t install cameras. A lot of the ancient people who come to trade don’t have Yingium, so we accept anything valuable, under the table.”

“Litora didn’t like that. They threatened us and made us put a sign up. It’s not gonna change anything, though~.” He hums a cheerful song to show how little he cares about Litora’s orders.

Asa relaxes. He knows Nehru resists Litora’s surveillance, but he had worried that they had been pressured to install cameras in the checkpoint. That’s why he didn’t bring Mint in.

He could’ve been labelled as an accomplice. Asa smiles. This old man’s pretty entertaining. “I can tell you don’t like Litora very much.”

The operator suddenly springs to life. “Don’t like very much? That’s an understatement! Let me tell you. When I was a young man, this one guy from Litora who moved in next door…”

☼

Mint stares into the sky. He’s getting bored of standing. He tried leaning against the toll booth wall, but didn’t know if that was rude, so he stood up straight again.

“They’re taking a long time…” He says to himself. Something moves in the corner of his vision.

A girl with ratty, white hair and a tattered cloak is climbing over the bar. Isn’t that against the rules? Well, she was already inside the city, so I guess not. He thinks.

“Hey! You’re a healer, right?” She calls, smiling. Mint gets a bad feeling.

That’s not the sort of tone that takes ‘no’ for an answer. If he gives her that information, she’ll consider that an agreement to do whatever thing she’s going to tell him to do.

She looks a little miffed that she’d been ignored, but quickly replaces it with the same, friendly smile. She hops to the ground and runs to him, suddenly acting distressed.

“My friend’s hurt!” She cries.

Now that she’s closer, he can see that she’s very beautiful, in a rough and tumble kind of way. The light gives her hair a ghostly glow. She had to be about his age, but her face is worn.

There’s already light creasing on her forehead and smile lines. He finds it rather charming, along with the snaggle tooth that occasionally peeks from her mouth. The most striking part though, had to be her eyes.

Sharp and elegant red eyes that seemed too good for anyone who could gaze upon them. They’re both bewitching and regal, looking like they’d belong to royalty. These are eyes that no one can disobey.

Whatever desire they have, you must fulfill. You have no choice in the matter. If she wasn’t so dirty, he might swear she was a princess. She grabs his hand and drags him towards the gate, her fingers digging into his wrist painfully.

“Hey, where are you taking me?”

“You’re a healer, aren’t you? You have to help them!” She pleads. It stings more than any normal pleading he’s heard. The gaze she shoots over her shoulder hurts like the prick of a needle, unpleasant, but not serious enough to cause a stir without looking like the unreasonable one. As she pulls him, his feet instinctually follow.

“I haven’t been let past the checkpoint, yet!”

“They don’t even care about that, anyways. People jump the gate all the time. It’s fine.” She assures. It doesn’t make him feel any better.

The girl places a hand on the post and hops the barrier. She then turns around and waits for him. Mint stares at the striped bar in front of him.

“Come on! What are you waiting for?” She urges.

Mint follows her lead, placing a hand on the post and using it to pivot his body. His long robe gets stuck on the bar and tangles up his legs.

He plummets to the ground, head first, but swings his weight around and just barely catches himself on one foot. She ignores his wobbling and walks on without him.

He rushes to catch up, feeling offended. That was kind of mean, but it's unfair of me to jump to conclusions. Maybe she’s just in a hurry because her friend is hurt. I shouldn’t judge her for being thoughtless when she’s scared.

Mint’s getting a stomachache from the situation. He doesn’t want to leave Asa, but, as a healer, he can’t ignore someone in an emergency. I’ll have to help quickly and get back as soon as possible.