CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel (26 page)

“I’m
sorry,” Stella said. 

“I
don’t want to hear it,” Zura said, quieting any conversation before it could
start.

Zura
remained silent as the three of them walked back through the door. She looked
at the keypad on the side of the door. She pushed the door shut and punched in
a code to make it relock. She wasn’t sure how that panel hadn’t been locked but
the technicians would have to fix that immediately. The code she entered was
only a temporary fix.

Zura
didn’t speak a word until they had reached the Exit side of the ‘No Entry’
door. The three walked through and Zura closed the door behind them.

“We
will not speak of any of this until we are back home. Just in case you are
wondering, Stella, yes, you two are in big trouble. You know the rules and you
both can read. It clearly says ‘No Entry’. Right here – plainly. There’s a damn
good reason for it saying that and the two of you decided you were just going
to stroll down to where you had no business going because you were bored. Go to
your rooms. Separate rooms. Find a good read, do some homework, study ahead,
solve world hunger but you won’t be coming back out until dinner.” Zura was
furious.

Her
stomach still churned with the fear of what might have happened. They had no
idea. She didn’t have a real idea, only enough to know there was something down
there that was worthy of her fear.

Zura
marched them back to their individual rooms and then put her watch up to their
security panels, pressing in a code at each door. She would know if they left
their rooms and for how long. They’d managed to get themselves on lockdown, but
they’d also managed to discover another door with a cool staircase and what
felt and looked like intentional scratches or carvings on the handrails. The
twins had been taking pictures of them and recording the clanging sounds they
heard when Zura had found them.

Zura
stopped at her room and went into the restroom. She looked in the mirror and
wiped away the beads of sweat that had formed on her forehead. Her hair had
fallen out of its bun. She tried to recompose herself as she put her hair back
in place. She did actually need to use the restroom and might as well do it
since she said that’s where she was going. 

When
Zura arrived back in the ROC room, she was met with a glare from the Admiral
General. She smiled graciously, first at him, then at everyone else before
taking her seat.

“Thank
you for waiting as I was away. I understand we have a lot more to discuss and
it sounded like you had more to say Admiral General Mylar. You may continue.”

Mylar
looked at her dumbfounded. Most people didn’t speak to him like that. He
recognized that though he was the Admiral General she thought she owned the
room.

“As
I was saying while you were gone, I will be writing up an action report to be
followed by all parties. This will be the official course of action and
anything else will be considered unsanctioned. I understand all the concerns
that have been expressed by your team, Zura, by the Science Institute, and even
by Representatives Magiro and Silver. I will take those concerns into
consideration. However, we cannot risk our long term plans by diverting resources,
time, and attention away from what is necessary.”

“Diverting
them to save the lives of our citizens?” Zura asked, pushing the issue.

“Diverting
them away from the vital work being done here and elsewhere to ensure the
continuity of life, even if it means there are some casualties,” the Admiral
General said to Zura, unwilling to waver from his mission.

“So
you are saying that even if it means hundreds of thousands, millions, or
possibly even billions of casualties, that is acceptable? At what amount of
loss of life is it acceptable to divert resources?” she pushed again.

“That’s
enough, Dr. Zura Bello. You have your job and I have mine. My job is to ensure
continuity. Yours is to provide research and information so that everyone else
can do their jobs. Do you understand that?” he said with his eyes turning into
slits.

Zura
took a moment and looked at him. “I thought your job was peace and security, but
I understand - perfectly,” she said. 

Changing
her tone, she glanced around the room. “I think we’ve done enough for today.
Since there is nothing that my team can do to help prevent the death of
millions or billions of people, we might as well dismiss and begin preparations
to leave in the next few days. You all can get back home a day early.” She gave
a tight lipped smile, aimed at Admiral General Mylar. Every word she said
dripped with sarcasm.

“There
is still the matter of the other work being done on the ARC,” Phillips said. 

“We
talked to Johan about it while we were checking on the progress. The farming is
going very well. We can see a lot of progress being made there and it seems it
will be able to self-sustain soon. The other project with the specimens has
given us some concern. We have an updated plan and that plan requires us to
advance the timeline,” Phillips continued.

Zura
shuddered inside with the term specimens. She’d never liked that term and she’d
only been given enough information to keep it operational. They had placed
Johan over that project and she only had clearance to a certain point.

“What’s
the concern, Dr. Phillips?” she asked him. 

“Well,
those of us from UniCorps and Admiral General Mylar are all concerned about the
age of the samples and that they may be too young. We are hopeful we can fast
track this program to be ready in the next year. I know that moves the timeline
up a bit, but everything else will be ready in that time, and the need will be
greater,” he said calmly, as if he hadn’t just asked her to shave almost two
years off of a project that they’d been cultivating for more than twenty years,
with an ambiguous justification.

They
still wouldn’t be clear about it and although she wasn’t one hundred percent sure
how the specimens would be used and why they needed to be ready in a year, she
knew what it meant for her team. She couldn’t refuse and she didn’t want to agree.
She sat there silently for a moment looking at Phillips, Tomas, Ashby, and
Mylar. 

They
were all so smug and self-assured. It was only an order and directive to them.
For her team, for her, it was giving up their freedom and personal life for a
whole year. It was her kids either being isolated on Antarctica for a year or
being separated from them just as they were turning into para-adults.

“What
happens if we don’t finish in a year?” Zura asked.

“That
isn’t an option, Zura,” Dr. Ashby now spoke.

“I
don’t think you understand, Zura. We have people we have to answer to as well. They
demand that all phases of the program be ready before the Winter comes here in
Antarctica next year. As I told Johan, if you can’t do it or if you think it is
too much for you, we’ll find someone who can,” Admiral General Mylar said.

“Now,
I don’t expect that you all will need to be packing up completely for home
since this is going to be home for a while longer. I will grant you a leave of
four weeks to get your affairs in order back in Northern Allegiance and make
sure your kids get settled, wherever you choose. This isn’t a vacation though.
I expect an initial report in two weeks on how we can meet the adjusted
timeline and then a detailed programmatic plan by the time you return here in
four weeks.

“My
children’s sixteenth birthday is June seventeenth, sir. Four weeks from our
departure date would have us back here before their birthday celebration. This
is an important milestone for them,” she said, looking to Johan for support.

“Can
we come back after the celebration Admiral General? It’s just a day or two,” Johan
asked.

“I’m
sorry but we have a very strict timeline and need you back here four weeks from
your departure date. I will be meeting you back here at that time. Arrangements
are already being made for the transport of new, more appropriately aged specimens
so that they can be prepared over the next year. We recognize it takes time for
preparation to occur. We are trying to do our part too. We must be finished
with all phases and be ready by the World Memorial Celebration the last week of
May next year. There is no wiggle room around that. I apologize for the
inconvenience, Johan and Zura, but certainly your children are old enough that
they should understand,” Mylar said

“How
could you possibly know Admiral General Mylar? You never had children,” Zura
said, as she stood and pushed away from the table. “I assume we are done then.”

Admiral
General Mylar stood up with his back straight. “Yes, we are done. We will see
ourselves out. Johan, can you arrange for our transport to come after dinner
this evening?” Mylar asked him casually. 

“Yes,
sir. You all will be dining in the main dining hall. The chef has prepared a
special course for you,” Johan told their guests.

“Won’t
you be joining us?” Silver asked.

“No,
Representative Silver. Not tonight. I’m sorry but we have a great deal to do
before we leave and we need to wrap up a few things,” Zura answered. She
couldn’t even fake a smile. She felt like her insides were boiling and could
feel the heat rising. If it weren’t for her deep brown skin she was certain they’d
see the blood under it, coloring her cheeks.

She
stood near one of the windows and watched the guests walk out, followed by
Rupert who would lead them back to their quarters. Johan and Mave stayed behind
with her in the beautiful room that felt like it was suffocating her. 

“Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhh!”
Zura exploded before mumbling a string of curse words under her breath. Even
those failed to diminish the anger she felt at the moment. “Who the heck do
they think they are? It’s not right. It just isn’t. They want to force us to
stay on this blasted frozen block of ice for a whole fricking year! Want us to
just let our babies have their sixteenth birthday celebration without us? Want
to have us keep them here isolated or with my parents for six months until the
Spring comes back? My parents aren’t that young anymore, Johan. They can’t keep
up with two para-adults and Stephen has barely even hit puberty! I’ll be damned
if I’m playing these stupid games this time. They are the reason our kids had
to be born here, with all those risks.” Zura ranted, her voice rising along
with the heat under her constricting uniform collar. She adjusted the collar
and unbuttoned the top button before falling into her seat and spinning towards
the ocean. 

“I
know, Zura. It’s not fair. But it’s not all bad,” Johan said as he tried to
comfort her.

She
shot him a withering look. “Not all bad? Tell me, please, Johan Anders, what is
the good part?” she demanded.

Johan
looked at Mave for help and Mave just shrugged. She was already thinking about
what this all meant for the mission. 

Johan
knew Zura was impossible when she was like this.

“I
don’t really know. I just know we may be done with this project sooner and then
get on with living a normal life for once,” he answered her, giving the smile
Zura had fallen in love with. He pulled her into his chest to hold her. She
hugged him back trying to muster a little smile as she spoke.

“I’m
still pissed off. I guess I’ll ask the kids what they want to do. And you’ll
have to ask your sister if she can keep them in case they don’t want to stay,”
Zura said, trying to build a plan so she didn’t feel so out of control.

“I
just feel like we don’t have much more time with them and them being gone for
six months is a lot of time to miss at this point,” she said with tears welling
up in her eyes. 

Antarctic Research Center

Stephen waited outside
of Stella’s door. They were finally going home, but this time would be
different. When they came back to the ARC they’d be para-adults. If they got
caught by the wrong people in the ‘No Entry’ areas, they could be in much more
serious trouble.

After
the pyramid stair incident the twins had been put on near lockdown. Their time
of exploring beneath the main level had quickly ended and the new files from
Marco hadn’t done them any good. They needed some kind of key to make sense of
what all the letters and codes meant. This key file wasn’t even a part of the
Noah folder. 

Stephen
had been wondering why his mother had wanted the pilot to get a copy but since
the representatives from World Consensus and UniCorps had left, no one had much
to say. Even Mave was in her own world. Their parents had never done so much to
prepare to leave before. Johan was spending countless hours on the lower levels
and Zura was locked up either in the ROC room, working alone, or in the science
center. 

They’d
talked to them a few days before about what was happening, but there were never
any details. Everything was classified, top-secret, or required confidentiality
agreements which they were too young to legally sign for two more years. Stephen
felt confused. Things were out of order and it made him uncomfortable. He
wanted to feel a sense of control and normalcy again.

Johan’s
sister Edela agreed to come stay with Stephen and Stella for the Winter months.
Her own children were grown and in University and her very busy partner had
reluctantly agreed to come visit her in New South City between work trips.  

As
a top ranked consultant on social systems development she was always traveling
to work with the established regions and the smaller local systems. It was a
lucrative career for Leif, and it allowed Edela the flexibility to raise their
two children and pursue her own career as a successful author and illustrator of
children’s books.

When
they got the news, Stella jumped at the chance to stay in New South City with
her favorite Aunt and be back home where there were other people her age. Neither
of them was happy that their parents would be stuck working all winter, and Stephen
had been reluctant to stay in New South City but Stella wasn’t going to stay on
the ARC. He didn’t mind the ARC as much - and he had projects to work on there.
He could actually be helpful to the team, but Zura didn’t want him to stay.  

Mave
had better plans for them, at least that’s what she’d promised. Spending their
break on the ARC wasn’t fair to them. Aside from that, things were going to be
intense and she wouldn’t be able to give either of them much attention.

Stephen
and Stella left their unit to meet everyone else in the great hall and then
they would all fly out according to regions. Mave had decided to go back to
Northern Allegiance with them and Rupert was going back to his home on one of
the islands off the northeastern coast of the Southern Allegiance Region. He
needed the break since they’d be on duty for the next year and he’d already
been told by Mylar that he would be taking on the expanded responsibility of
scientific data analysis for the new specimens and comparing them to the old.

It
was a role he didn’t look forward to, in a job that was becoming more and more
uncomfortable. He was a peaceful and honest man and the idea of not speaking up
troubled him as much as it did the rest of the team. With the specimens, he
wasn’t sure what he was getting into. 

Mylar
wasn’t forthcoming with exactly what Rupert would be doing. It required new
confidentiality agreements and at the same time he was being processed for a
higher clearance level. Rupert could only assume the lack of information was
because Mylar knew Rupert might not willingly go along. Rupert prided himself
with always being one to think freely and though he wasn’t one to speak just to
hear himself, he also wasn’t one to be kept quiet. 

Rupert
stood in his room and packed a couple of uniforms and then the digital frame
that only showed one picture – him with Mave at the gala. She looked so
beautiful that night. If only she would have been his life partner, he’d be the
happiest man alive. For them it wasn’t an option, she always had other plans. 

Rupert
looked around at the room he’d occupied for six months out of each of the last
eighteen years. His room was rather sparse and there wasn’t much to take with
him that was sentimental or very valuable. 

He
took a picture Stephen had drawn for him years before and the knitted hat that
Stella had gotten for his fiftieth birthday. It held all of his hair back and
he always wore it when he was back at home.
That’s it.
There wasn’t much
else there to take, especially since they were expected back in just four weeks.

Dozens
of people milled about the great hall; all waiting for the various transports
to take them back to their regions. Rupert walked in, his normal limp slightly
more pronounced. He’d spent so much time over the years with the people in that
room.

There
were too many goodbyes he needed to say before he left for Southern Allegiance.
Some staff had to return in four weeks for the extended assignment while others
would have the luxury of staying away until Spring returned.  

There
were unanswered questions and grumbling permeated the room at a low steady
volume. Zura’s hands were tied and her voice was silenced. Just like her, her
team couldn’t say anything either. She knew some of them were returning to the
same areas they’d labeled as hot zones and she couldn’t even give them a
warning. 

UniCorps
had sent someone along with SEP Agents to supervise the departures. They wanted
to make sure no one was smuggling any sensitive or confidential data, materials,
or specimens off the ARC. There were body scanners set up at the doors leading
from the dining hall to the corridor to the outside. SEP Agents manned the body
scanners and another was stationed at the exit door. He sent back anyone who
hadn’t been registered as cleared by the body scanner. 

Johan,
Mave, Zura, Rupert, and the twins stood against the back wall, near the corner.
They would be the last to go. Mave was nervous, as was everyone else. They
didn’t want any trouble and the departure needed to go smoothly. Rupert moved
to stand beside Mave, resting again on the wall. He’d miss her and hadn’t
really had the chance to tell her goodbye. In a couple of hours they’d be
headed out on different transporters. 

“Is
your leg okay, Rupert? You seem to be walking with more of a limp today,” Mave
asked, looking at his knee.

“Yeah,
it’s fine. It’s just the weather getting cooler and you know how that bothers
where it is connected.”

“I
don’t know why you don’t just upgrade it and let them fuse it so you don’t have
that problem anymore. They’ve been doing it for years now.”

“Because,
this one works fine,” Rupert argued with a knowing smile.

“Except
when it’s too cold or when it’s too hot,” Mave laughed at him.

“Hey,
I get around fine with it. It does everything yours does, except a little
better and it’s stronger,” Rupert said.

He
had his reasons for not upgrading and when the doctors had offered him the
upgraded prosthetic he’d turned it down. Instead, he chose to donate to an
organization that provided children with prosthetics. Without the upgrade he
wouldn’t have to pay for the additional medical maintenance. It may not have
seemed like much to some, but every year since he’d been on the ARC he’d
donated the cost of a prosthetic limb to a para-adult. 

By
the time they reached para-adult status most of those in need of a prosthetic
were into their full sized limbs and there was less chance of outgrowing it too
fast. It was also the age when he’d lost his leg and a generous gift from a
donor was how he’d gotten his first prosthetic leg. He’d since upgraded but
couldn’t justify a new one now and this one served another purpose.

The
room was slowly thinning out as people passed through the security scanners.
They were going by Regions but Rupert was waiting as long as he could before
leaving. The rest were all going to the same place and so the Northern
Allegiance Transporter would be the last to load.

He
heard them call Southern Liberty Region and he sighed. He wanted so badly to
hug and kiss Mave right there.

“Will
you walk with me over to the scanner, Mave?” he asked her.

“Yeah,
come on,” she said before taking his arm. 

Rupert
gave a half open smile to Mave and said, “I’m really going to miss you, Mave.”

“I
know. On the bright side, at least it’s only four weeks this time. Usually, we
are away from this place for six months,” she said to him in an almost whisper.

“Right.
Four weeks will be gone in no time,” he said in a distant sounding voice.

The
line was going too fast and he wished he had more time. He let others leaving
for Southern Allegiance go ahead of him. He lingered near the back so he could
spend just a few more moments with Mave.

“You
act like you don’t want to leave, Rupert,” Mave teased. “You could just stay
here for the four weeks and skip this whole process.”

“I
don’t want to go, but I also don’t want to stay. We all have to do what we have
to do, right?” he said.

Mave
looked at him from the side of her eye. She couldn’t tell whether the odd
response was because he was going to miss her. She was going to miss him too.
She couldn’t imagine spending as much time as she did on the ARC without his
quiet strength, his laughter, his smile, and the way he could piece together a
picture that made sense from seemingly senseless pieces. Mave loved him even if
she could never really let him know.

After
all this time and as far as she’d come on her mission, it would be worse if he
knew just how much she loved him and yet still refused to be with him. She
thought about how many times she felt like telling the Council and Dr. Lima to
just screw it. So many times she’d wanted to walk away and have a normal life;
only to have to step back and remember why she had chosen the life she had.
Unfortunately, this was as normal as it would get for her.

It
was finally just Rupert and Mave in the line. There was no one else to let go
ahead of them. 

Rupert
turned to her. “I have to go now, Mave. But before I do, I have to say
something to you. I know you don’t want to hear it but if I don’t say it, then
I might regret it.” Mave tried to stop him but Rupert wouldn’t let her, this
time.

“No,
Mave. Don’t stop me. I have to tell you that I love you. I have loved you since
the day I met you. I have never stopped loving you and I never will. What I do,
I do because I feel it is right. One day, when I leave this existence and am
held accountable for my life, I don’t want it said that I didn’t live an honest
life. I must be honest now and going forward, and that includes with you. Mave,
I honestly love you.”

Mave’s
eyes were beginning show the first signs of tears forming in the corners as
Rupert leaned in to give her a kiss. He then hugged her and in those stretching
seconds he never wanted to let her go. After holding her for far too little
time, the SEP Agent cleared his throat to get their attention.

“Are
you ready, sir? The transport will be departing soon,” the agent said.

“Yes.
Yes. Thank you,” Rupert slowly let his arms drop from the embrace and stepped
away from Mave onto the body scanner system. The lights shined all over his
body, showing a skeletal image except where his prosthetic limb was. There, the
metal blocked much of the light but you could see the wires and connections.
Once the scan was completed the agent waved Rupert through. 

“I’ll
see you the next go round, Mave,” Rupert said. 

“Goodbye,
Rupert. Take care,” Mave said with a curious look on her face.

Mave
walked back slowly towards Zura, Johan and the twins. She wished she’d said
something back to Rupert, but she didn’t know what to say, and instead chose to
say nothing. 

“Are
you okay, Mave?” Zura asked her. 

“I
really don’t know,” Mave answered, deep in her own thoughts as she found a spot
to lean against the wall and wait in silence. 

The
announcements for Northern Allegiance were being made and the remaining people
were lining up. Zura’s team moved slowly forward as they began making the last
calls for Northern Allegiance. It was time for them to leave, but they all
waited for everyone else to get in line. The only people who’d be staying
behind were the annual crew who lived on the ARC year round to maintain it. 

For
the next year they’d experience the same thing, being on the ARC year round,
and none of them looked forward to the forced change.