The Bright Mirror by VVAA

Author:VVAA [VVAA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: solarpunk, women of future, Future Fiction, cooperation, environment, sustainability, renewable energies, resilience, short stories, Science Fiction, translation, caring, feminism
Publisher: Future Fiction
Published: 2023-11-17T23:00:00+00:00

Markéta made a detour and took a walk around the solar power plant that supplied electricity for the whole village. She passed along the inverter, the switchboard and the flywheel accumulators—carbon fiber composite wheels running in a vacuum enclosure, on magnetic bearings, in cylinders entrenched in the earth. She listened to the familiar humming of the pole-mounted oil-cooled transformer, which calmed her down. She managed to sneak back home without encountering any other village teenagers or neighbors.

She prepared dinner for her mother and disappeared to her room saying she felt tired.

“Golden Fern.” She remembered the Czech fairy tale about the strange plant that could be found and picked only by a virtuous person in need. She sat at her computer station searching for old articles and video commentaries.

She touched the wooden amulet. Was it lost in the woods for all those years? Did it belong to somebody from the Golden Fern expedition? It would have to be twice as old as I am.

The carving certainly wasn’t new, the material had seen a few rains and the edges were worn smooth. But wouldn’t it decay after such a long time?

The Golden Fern logo was shining from the screen. Markéta had no doubt it was the same spiral and leaves as on the amulet. Fascinated, she kept reading about the incident and the calamity that had befallen Far Woodlands more than three decades ago. Almost all official buck-passing statements of the drug corporation were issued by certain Tomáš Nevěděl, which she found grimly funny because “nevěděl” means “didn’t know”. It wasn’t an unprecedented surname but a slightly unusual one.

Suddenly she froze.

“Abdominal pain, diarrhea, numbness,” she read aloud, “are symptoms of chronic arsenic poisoning …” These are my mom’s symptoms. She forced herself to concentrate. But these are also symptoms of a lot of different diseases. The doctor was young, perhaps without enough experience. She continued reading. “The diagnosis is established by testing blood, urine or hair …” He took a sample of all those. Even mom’s hair which I found strange. So, he suspects the cause.

She contemplated her options. Since the Czech Republic had become the world’s largest producer of drugs, living standards had plummeted, making any medicine harder to buy; the quality of medical care had also deteriorated and it was fairly common for the corporations to own huge pieces of land. The international companies did as they pleased, pushing the limits more and more, sometimes acquiring exemptions from the state laws.

Everything used to be better before, or at least that’s what the elderly said their parents had told them. Markéta didn’t remember it otherwise.

She stared at the wooden amulet.

I have to talk to Starej Jirka about this. Now.

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