CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel (10 page)

“Clearly.
We looked at the older holes and their spikes are higher, and the first signs
of damage started nearly ten years ago, right after they approved the new set
of holes. Those first holes are five to six years older. So it took about seven
years after they started being used for us to see these spikes.

“So
basically we know that if we are seeing this with the two dozen initial holes,
we can expect to see the spikes show up in the same pattern for the newer
ones,” Mave nodded pensively.

“And,
some of the older holes from the second round are what show up here,” Rupert said
as he let himself continue processing what he was seeing, what he knew, and
what he could predict when he started putting the pieces together.

“They
can’t make any more holes, Mave and it is dangerous to continue using the
oldest ones, just like you and Stephen said.”

“I
know. Can you show that in a picture, graph, or chart? Make it clear as the
water out there?” Mave pointed at the ocean outside the window.

The
view outside of the windows reminded Mave once more about why they had to choose
this place to set up camp. Then she remembered and shuddered as she thought of
the people funding the program and the ARC. It was safely away from any fault
lines and its location in the coldest place on earth, meant that even with
global warming it could remain habitable, for a time.

The
Antarctic Research Center sprawled above ground and beneath the surface across
nearly two and a half acres, and two submarines could be anchored to it from
the main control areas where the science lab and science center were located. The
main building itself was nearly 70,000 square feet with enough living units to
house just over 800 people. Four additional outpost buildings totaled another
10,000 square feet and could house up to another 220 people.

Every
month, when supplies were delivered, an extra portion was delivered to the
long-term supply storage. This area was kept under tight security and was
accessible for emergency purposes only by a limited group of cleared personnel.
The ARC, along with the long-term storage, was subject to inspection by
UniCorps and the World Consensus when they sent representatives from the
respective Science Divisions at the end of each work season.

They’d
be coming soon and before arrived they would have received all of the
information being pulled together. It spelled out barely a sliver of hope in what
was a mountain of doom.

Mave
sighed as she thought about the children. She realized that most of them were
no longer children but were crossing over or had already crossed into the
status of para-adults. She and the other Keepers had been assigned to them to
ensure they were guided towards their collective mission. They were the most
important part of her own personal mission.

They
were eight children with their own missions that they didn’t even know about
yet. She sometimes worried for them, but she and the other Keepers could only
guide them. Their choices and actions were still their own, unless it became an
issue of life or death, or became mission critical, then the Unseens would step
in.

Mave
faulted her generation and the generations before her for more than two hundred
years, that had put them all in this situation. The mindset that led them to
the pile of mess they were now trying to dig their way out of went even further
back than that. They had failed to stop the madness of excess when they had the
chance, and had just kept pushing it down the line. Now they were running out
of time.

Rupert
stopped and put down the tablet he held to stare at Mave. She was somewhere
else. He’d been sitting there talking to her for nearly a minute before he
realized she wasn’t paying any attention to him.

“Are
you coming back anytime soon?” Rupert asked, interrupting her thoughts.

“What?”
Mave asked. She didn’t realize how long she’d been in her own world. 

“I
think I found something else. Look at this map from our survey the year we
started this project. Now look at the one before they started the last twenty
holes. Now this is what we measured this week.” He paused letting her take in
the images. “Notice anything?” Rupert asked.

Mave
looked at him confused. “Give me a hint what I should even be looking for.”

Rupert
brought up the definition of some of the lines, highlighting them in a bright yellowish
orange. “Look at the fault lines. I just made them brighter for you.” He
stepped back letting her get closer.

“Am
I mistaken or am I seeing what I think I’m seeing? Are those lines bigger? And
there,” Mave said pointing to a line that ran from the northern tip of Southern
Allegiance down and across the top corner, “is that a new one?” she asked with
a wide eyed look that blended recognition and confusion.
This couldn’t
really be possible
.

“You
are not mistaken, my dear. This is the proverbial smoking gun,” he added. 

“Rupert,
what does that even mean? Smoking gun? Where do you come up with this stuff?” 

“It’s
an old saying. Never mind. What’s important is that we have it.”

Antarctic Research Center

“
Stella will be
at the hangar in an hour
and sixteen minutes. Are you still going with me to meet her?” Stephen asked
his dad before turning back around in his chair. Although it didn’t show on his
face, Stephen was relieved and happy that it was finally time for her to come
home.

He
played with his yellow cup filled with hot chocolate. At least it was hot an
hour ago. It had since cooled to room temperature and was no longer appealing
as he gently twirled the ribbons of chocolate around the top with his index finger.
He’d finished his part of the report and was now at a loss of what to do next, aside
from wait.

There
was no one to talk to since everyone was running around as if it was the end of
the world. Occasionally, someone would ask him to run some data or look at some
probabilities or enter something or even make coffee, but otherwise he was
nearly invisible.

Sleep
was hard to relax into with all that was happening. Even after letting it claim
him the night before, he’d woken much earlier than normal that morning. Waking
so early had given him plenty of time to get work done on his class project,
which he’d based on the work he was doing on the ARC.

He’d
waited until after he knew others would be up and working before he meandered
through the halls to the science center to keep an eye on the progress and for
a little company while he waited for Stella to return. When he’d gotten to the
science center he quickly realized that everyone had been up early that day.

He
waited anxiously for confirmation that they were really going to do something –
the right thing. After waiting more than an hour, Zura finally came out of the
ROC room with a look of satisfaction.

“I’ve
got it all together. We are ready and I think it’ll make sense to our funders,
thanks to all of you working so hard.” For the first time in months, she looked
content with the work they’d done but Stephen was waiting for whatever else she
would say next – what he assumed would be orders.

“Can
each of you take a section to review before I send it off?” she asked Johan,
Rupert, and Mave.

“Do
you all think we should wait until after the Gala to send this? Or do we send
it before the Gala and ruin the party?” It was evident that Zura had already
thought about it but was hoping that what she thought of as the best idea was
shared by her team. The annual Gala was the one time every year she felt like
they actually did something fun as a group.

The
ARC had more than a hundred people working hard to keep it running. Most of the
staff she saw hardly more than once or twice a month, if that. They were
working behind the scenes and in the field. Their grueling schedule and
demanding work made it so that she rarely got to tell them thank you and honor
them face to face.

If
she sent the report before the Gala, it would mean being on with UniCorps and
the World Consensus science divisions instead of with her people celebrating
their hard work. Even better, she actually might get to spend some time with
her kids if she delayed sending the report for just one night.

“Zura?”
Johan said louder. He’d started answering her question and realized she hadn’t
heard him.

“Yeah?
So what do you all think?” she said, still not really listening. She was
nervous and her hands shook ever so slightly as she tried to push off the other
feeling just beginning to tickle at the back of her neck - fear.

“Why
do you want to wait, Zura?” Mave asked.

“I
didn’t say I wanted to wait. I was just asking what you thought about the
timing of delivery. Before or after the Gala,” she said trying to be casual. 

“Zura,
we all know you better than that,” Johan said, with a soft smile trying to let
her know it was okay.

“What
if they get this report tonight, before the Gala, and they start reading it
immediately? I can’t send it without marking it Urgent and so they
will
open it up. Once they open it up, they
will
read it. Once they read it,
they
will
call me for a teleconference, and then I
will
have to
pull all of you, well most of you, into a room and out of the party to answer
questions and get drilled. So instead of enjoying the one fun thing we do the
entire time we are on this block of ice, I have to pull everyone out of the
party to be on a teleconference.” Zura caught her breath and sat down,
frustrated. She hated feeling owned, but they were all owned.

“Why
don’t we plan to send it ridiculously early the next morning? There’s not much
that we can do or they can do if they see the report tonight versus tomorrow
morning. After all, it is the weekend and most of their staff will be gone. Just
the jerks who run the place, I mean the officers, will be interested enough to
open it,” Mave said confidently.

“She’s
got a point, Zura. Waiting what amounts to ten or twelve hours won’t matter.
Not in the grand scheme of things. Trust me,” Johan agreed.

Zura
suddenly felt better. She didn’t know what she would do without either of them,
even if Johan did get under her skin sometimes.

“You’re
right, both of you. We get one night a year when we can celebrate as friends, party,
toast, and have a good time. Let’s not ruin it. There’ll be plenty of bad days
ahead so why add one more any sooner?” Zura forced a smile.

“Okay,
you three,” she said looking at Johan, Mave, and Rupert, “you’ve got your parts
to read and get back to me by the end of today. Johan are you going to the
hangar with Stephen? I still need your eyes on this too and we don’t have much
time. I mean you should go, but can you please come right back?” Zura didn’t
hesitate to take charge when it came to their work. Her eyes lingered on them
as they went off in their separate directions. She missed them. All of them.

“Dad,
wait. We need to head towards the hangar in twenty minutes to get Stella.”

“Yes,
Stephen. I know. I have the time too,” Johan said before putting the report
down on the desk. “I’m going to get my outside gear on and you should too. I’ll
meet you by the hangar’s exit door in fifteen minutes okay?”

“Fifteen
minutes,” Stephen said checking his watch again. He started out of the science
center and Zura followed behind him into the tunnel.

“Can
I walk with you?” Zura asked as she caught up to him.

“You’re
my mom, mom. You also run the place,” Stephen said with a confused look on his
face.

“Stephen,
I need you to do something for me while you are out there in the hangar. Is
that okay?” Zura said searching his eyes rather than saying anything more.

“Yes.
What is it?” he asked.

“I
need you to take something with you. I need you to give it to the pilot,
Jonathan Adams. He’s the only one you can give it to. He’s a longtime friend of
mine. It’s very important that you keep it safe and that you don’t say anything
about it. Stephen, look at me. I am trusting you with this.” Zura’s eyes
penetrated his. She was more intense than usual, which worried Stephen.

“Why
don’t you ask Dad to do it?” Stephen asked worried. He looked at the palm of
his hand which held a tiny microdot used to store data.

It
was attached to the outside of a small silvery candy wrapper that camouflaged
it.

“I
can’t. He can’t do it. Only you can. It’s better this way. I need you to trust
me.” Zura closed Stephen’s hand around the candy wrapper. She searched his eyes
for a sign of understanding. Stephen looked at the candy wrapper then back at
Zura before nodding once and walking away.

He
strode quickly to his bedroom, closed the door abruptly, and put the candy
wrapper down on the desk. He only had ten minutes left before he was supposed to
meet his dad. Before he did that he had to know what was on the microdot.
What
was she giving to the pilot and why? 

Stephen
put on a coat warm enough for the cold air that got into the hangar. He then
checked the lock on the door before throwing himself into the chair. He opened
up the reader sitting near his computing system and placed the silver piece of
candy in the holder. He directed the laser scanner over the dot and quickly
made a copy of it to his own microdot before opening the single folder stored.
It simply read ‘Noah’.

He
clicked the folder name and more files than could fit on his viewer showed. It
would take time he didn’t have to think about where to even begin. The ARC was
so big that he would need all two minutes he had left to jog to the hangar,
where he would meet his dad and wait for Stella.

Stephen
closed the folder and removed the original microdot from the reader. He placed
it inside of a small plastic bag and into his coat pocket. His curiosity raced
ahead of him as he stood up from his seat and prepared to leave. Stephen pulled
the door open, pausing just long enough to move his copy of the data to a
hidden storage compartment under his desk.

Stephen
walked out of his bedroom door quickly. He now had to hustle down the network
of tunnels, past the great hall where they were preparing for the ball, to the end
where he would find the hangar’s exit door. Stephen inhaled deeply taking in
the smell of the cakes and pies already baking. He wasn’t excited about the gala
but they always had the best desserts.

Stephen
pushed against the door and as it released under his pressure the cold air hit
his face. He hadn’t used the door since Stella left at the beginning of the
week. There was no need to be cold if you didn’t have to be, even if you could
handle it better than most.

“You
made it. Her craft should be coming any moment, based on my tracker,” Johan
showed Stephen his watch with a small light beeping on a tiny screen resembling
a radar. “They are all ready for her.” Johan stuffed his hands in his pocket.
He could handle the cold just as well as Stephen, but Zura would balk if either
went out without their coats.

There
was no way Stephen would have missed it or even been late for Stella’s return. He
was more excited than anyone else that she was coming back home.

“So
what are you going to do the rest of the day? You should finally have some free
time. Your mom didn’t give you a job today,” Johan said with a smile that said
he already knew.

“Stella
is coming home. I’m going to spend the free time with her.”

“Of
course. What was I even thinking?” Johan joked to a dead- pan faced Stephen.

Johan
and Stephen monitored the skies outside the hangar door for the six person
aircraft that would be carrying Stella. Soon, a small shadow began creeping
along the snow packed ground and then the craft came into view of the short runway.
It slowed down and came to a hover as it entered the open hangar.

Stephen
left the corner by the door where he stood with Johan, partially protected from
the cold wind. Knowing Stella, she’d step off that craft with a regular jacket
rather than a coat meant for late fall in Antarctica.

He
was right. The door opened and steps lowered to reveal Stella in her lighter
jacket. She came off the craft waving with one hand and carrying a small
suitcase with the other. A man who looked like the pilot came off behind her,
carrying what was clearly Stella’s other suitcase.

Stephen
walked over to Stella and gave her an awkward hug, lightly tapping her back.
“Why aren’t you wearing a real coat? You’re gonna get pneumonia,” he said
worried.

“I
missed you too, little brother. Besides, I do have a real coat on. It’s all I
need to walk forty yards to the door,” Stella said as she gave Stephen a hug.

Johan
walked up behind Stephen giving her a big welcome home hug before he took the
bags from Stella and the pilot. Stephen read the name J. Adams on his uniform.
That’s
him
, thought Stephen. As Johan walked towards the doors to go back inside
the main building, Stella lingered, watching Stephen.

“Hi
Mr. Adams. I haven’t seen you in a few years. Usually, you must be on the
larger runs when I don’t get to come out. Can I see your craft?” asked Stephen.

“That’s
right. Is it Stephen?” Adams asked.

“Yes.
Stephen.”

“Come
on up. I’ve got a few minutes before turning her around,” Adams said, inviting
Stephen up the steps.

“You
guys can go ahead inside where it’s warm. I’m just going to check out this
craft for one minute and then I’ll be right back inside,” Stephen said as he
walked toward the aircraft.

Stella
looked at him with her head tilted just slightly, before following Johan back
to the door he and Stephen had walked through minutes before. Once inside
Stephen was legitimately impressed. The craft was small but clean and neat. He
knew the craft was still on and being powered, but the power source was quiet,
only giving off a vibration that could easily be ignored.

The
windows, tinted from the inside, displayed the outside and inside temperatures
on the tempered glass panes. The seats were modern and streamlined but had
cushioning covered by a soft smooth material. He ran his hand over the chair
and then sat down turning it all the way around and then back again.