The Engineer's Mechanic (MetiCity Book 1) by L. K. Wintur

Author:L. K. Wintur [Wintur, L. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yellow Panda Publishing
Published: 2024-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO_

“I thought I’d come back to one of you dead or you both in bed. This, I had not predicted. Maybe I underestimated you, boy,” she says, looking up at the damaged doorway. “I had planned to show you both this section of my home when I had returned, but alas, it’s true what they say, sandscavengers never stop moving. Come, I’ll show you the last room before you break something else.” She ushers us into the hallway. Taxia and I give each other nervous glances before I shrug and follow Hypatia.

“So, did you find it?” I ask.

“Of course,” she says matter-of-factly.

“What was in the code?”

“Well, I’d be finding that out right now if you hadn’t insisted on rummaging through my things,” she says, standing before the last door. After a moment, the door opens to a brightly-lit room roughly the size of the holoroom. Unlike the holoroom, though, this one is full of plants.

“It’s a garden, just like the one you used to tend to!” K-2 exclaims excitedly.

“You remember it? I’ve worked many years to try and get it to the quality of my last garden. I can’t help but be elated that the Droid is able to make the correlation.”

“It’s…beautiful,” Taxia says unexpectedly. She walks ahead of us to inspect some pansies that are in full bloom.

“I find this room especially calming. It reminds me of days gone by. Also, it makes me feel like a samurai,” she smiles to herself. “At least that’s what Zelius used to call me…his little samurai. I always liked that,” she says, sniffing a flower with her eyes closed.

“Weren’t samurai like…warriors? What does that have to do with a garden?” I ask.

“The samurai followed a code of Zen Buddhism. When they weren’t at war, this code emphasized the value of meditation and a disdain for the opulence of the imperial court’s lavish standards. The garden you see here resembles the aesthetic of the ancient Japanese gardens of the samurai during the Kamakura period: simple and clean. Often, Zelius would find me in my garden, meditating,” she says, sitting on a stone bench. “Just like this.”

She closes her eyes and crosses her legs.

“The point of meditation is to clear your mind of all thoughts and be present in the moment. When putting your brain at rest, it allows for the memories you’ve made to be properly stored. Without this, you're basically shutting down a computer before it is saved. All progress is lost,” she says calmly, eyes still closed like some guru spouting Confucianism.

“I never could meditate. The UG was all about it. But I've got too many thoughts going on in my head to quiet,” Taxia says, coming over.

“That is how it is for all in the beginning. Eventually, you learn to identify these thoughts, accept them, and let them phase through you like all the rest of the hundred trillion neutrinos that pass through our bodies every second,” she says, getting up now and dusting herself off.

“Or like the beam of light you sent through my friends.

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