Something wasn't right.
Everything became possible.
It was hard to believe at first, but their old assumptions were slowly and methodically being torn down. The illusion they had been living under was
becoming exposed.
For the longest time, the things they did and
the things they attempted were limited by many fundamental beliefs about the reality they lived in. Those limits were being shredded.
Maybe it was due to increased connections between their people. Things were explored at a rate that was never possible in the past. And as a result of that exploration, increasingly fundamental things about their reality were
being called into question.
And if their limiting beliefs could be tossed aside, fewer and fewer things could hide behind
the shield of impossibility.
"We have to be careful," Kato cautioned at first. "Just because some things become possible, doesn't mean we should just go and do them."
But Kato eventually changed her mind. Perhaps she too began to be filled with hope about what could be accomplished through
non-traditional methods. They were all still a bit wary though, as they should perhaps, of anything that new. There was no reason to charge blindly down new paths unless they had no other alternative.
Cautious optimism was probably how Alla would describe Kato's view of what was happening in the world in general, and how that translated into her immediate life. She wanted to believe
so much of what she wanted, but thought impossible in the past, was now within reach.
Alla wanted to believe too, and was perhaps a bit more assured that
their fate could be safely directed and guided. They talked about their hopes and concerns from time to time, but were usually alone, researching the new developments from the sentience.
So much of it seemed too crazy to be real, but every major change seemed
crazy at first. Sometimes they were more dazed than anything else. There was simply too much going on for their minds to comprehend, and they had to resort to gut feeling that they were going where they wanted. The complexity was overwhelming at times.
Even their interactions with one another often had to be put on hold, just so they'd have more energy to focus on their own environments,
without complicating it with outside input. When things were a bit calmer, Kato would call Alla, and they would discuss how best to use new developments they had learned about, to move their worlds in the directions they wanted them to go.
They weren't quite there yet. Maybe they were never meant to get there, but they no longer felt trapped to live out the types of
lives their parents' generation was forced to live. They were learning to design their personal lives the way they wanted. Better tools were being developed, not just physical and mechanical tools, but conceptual and organizational tools as well.
It was
still in the early stages. Most things still resembled the past. Visions of the future still existed largely only in their heads. In many ways, their journeys would have to diverge, simply because each of them wanted different things out of life. But in other ways, their vehicles were changing in many similar ways.
For the foreseeable future, Alla would be linked to Kato at least indirectly through both their shared histories and at least
one shared goal. Though they were already living largely independent lives, despite their proximity, many of their goals still affected one another, even if the only time they saw one another was when they intentionally consulted one another.
Perhaps that was
a side effect of the sentience itself, linking together lives that would otherwise have had little reason to affect one another. Too many of their expectations were being ripped apart for them to be sure of anything. And for that, their days were filled with both confusion and possibility.
The future was about to roll over them before they could react. Yet those were
the days they looked forward to, week after week.