The E Utopia Project (29 page)

“You didn’t tell me she gave
birth,” Cruz said with delight when they reached the cage where the biome’s leopards
lived. “Oh, they’re so beautiful,” he said, looking at the newborn cubs. Cruz
loved big cats and he longed for the day when the felines would roam the
forests of E Utopia as their ancestors roamed the forests of Earth.

The leopards were caged not
only to protect the scientists who worked in the biome, but also the animals in
the biome. The biome was a closed environment. If the leopards were allowed to roam
in the biome, they would have an unfair advantage over their prey and they
could wipe out the entire populations of their prey. The leopards were fed meat
from animal cells grown in culture solution. When they were lucky they got meat
from the animals that died in the biome.

Leopards were the only big
cats in E Utopia’s biomes. Tigers, lions, cheetahs and jaguars were stored in
refrigerators as frozen embryos, waiting to be implanted in female leopards.
The same applied to other groups of closely related species. Only one member of
a group of closely related species lived in the biomes. The other members were
kept as frozen embryos ready to be implanted in a female member of the sister
species. The dog family was represented by Canada’s Rain Forest wolves. Other
dog species were kept as frozen embryos. The horse family was represented by Grevy’s
zebras. The bovine species was represented by the Asian bantengs.

The E Utopian pioneers had
done their best to bring as many species as they could from Earth. They had begun
with species that they thought faced the most imminent risk of being wiped out
by El Monstruo. The most underrepresented animals in the biomes were insects
and marine animals. The E Utopian pioneers had only managed to bring a few
hundred thousands of the millions of Earth’s insect species and marine animal
species. Cruz hoped that the resilience of insects will help most insect
species survive El Monstruo. He hoped to find insects and some plants surviving
when E Utopians returned to Earth after the purging of the polluters.

“It seems everything’s fine
here,” Cruz said after touring the biome for two E Utopian hours.

“Yes, Mr. President,
everything appears to be fine,” Steve Clark said. “But there is a worrying
observation we made.”

“What observation?” Hitchcook
asked, angry Clark had chosen not to tell him about the observation. He ran the
planet when the President was away and Clark was supposed to let him know if
anything was amiss. He had been here only two days ago and Clark had said
nothing.

“Mr. President, are you
conversant with the problem of invasive species that affected many parts of
Earth?”

“Of course I am. How can you
ask me such a question?” Cruz felt like kicking Clark in the groin. He had
spent billions of dollars trying to save the Earth’s wildlife and this insolent
young man had the temerity to ask him whether he knew about the problem of
invasive species. What fueled Cruz’s anger was that he knew that Steve Clark didn’t
join the E Utopia environment because he loved nature. Although Clark had been
an environmental activist of some sort, Cruz knew that the main reason why the
young man agreed to join the E Utopia pioneers was escaping arrest. Clark was
the main suspect in the murder of his girlfriend and he would have been
arrested had Cruz not whisked him into space. Although Cruz believed Clark’s
scientific expertise was valuable to the E Utopia Project, he saw the young man
as a heretic who hadn’t joined the pioneers out of his commitment and
dedication to the green cause. Cruz had told Hitchcook and all the space force
top brass to keep a close eye on Clark.

Clark’s face broke into an
apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, Mr. President. I didn’t mean to insult you. The
main reason why predatory invasive species caused problems on Earth was that
they preyed on indigenous species that were not adapted to escaping from the
new predators. If we put animals from different Earth continents together, we risk
facing the same problem. Animals will come into contact with predators that
they are not adapted to, and entire populations could be wiped out. The same
applies to plants, which can come into contact with herbivores that can wipe
them out. Some plants can become powerful weeds that can choke other plant
life. This—”

“Mr. Clark,” Cruz snapped.
“Spare us the lecture. We’re all environmental activists here and we know all about
invasive species. What do you suggest we do?”

“E Utopia has eight
continents. I suggest that we separate animals that originate from different
continents of the Earth and put them on separate continents. Then we can choose
one continent where we can mix all the species and let the strongest survive.”

“That, Mr. Clark, is a very
good idea. I think we’ll implement it when the time comes to take the animals
and plants outdoors. First we need to study the climates of E Utopia’s
continents and see which continent has a climate closest to the climate of the
home Earth continent of our living organisms.” Cruz looked at his watch. “These
E Utopian hours fly so fast. Let’s go to the Mediterranean biome.”

“One more thing, Mr.
President,” Clark said, eager to impress. “I think we have enough oxygen to
sustain plant life. We should start planting plants outdoors.”

“We’ve already discussed that
with Secretary Hitchcook and we’ve decided that we begin outdoor planting of trees
tomorrow.”

“We’ll put plants from which
Earth continent on this continent?” Clark asked again.

“This continent is the capital
continent of E Utopia. Plants from all over Earth shall grow on this continent.
The other continents can host forests that originate from separate Earth
continents.”

Chapter Nine

Sara breathed deeply and
sighed, rallying her courage. She held the pregnancy test device with a shaking
hand and released a weak stream of urine. She carefully moved the device
through the urine before she checked her watch and sat on the toilet seat, waiting
for the device to finish testing for the presence of HCG hormone in the urine.

After five minutes, she
looked at the device. She leaned back against the cistern in distress when she
saw that a new line had appeared above the device’s control line. She felt like
a star athlete who had failed a drug test just before a big competition. She
had always dreamt of having kids but now wasn’t the right time. She couldn’t
bring a child into a world that was slowly being suffocated by El Monstruo.
When she reconciled with George, her excitement at having him back in her life made
her forget about contraception. But she regained her senses and went on the
pill after four days of love-making. She had apparently closed the dam after
the water had already gushed out.

How could a kid grow in an
environment with no oxygen? The continuing drought would soon result in a
global famine. She knew that infants are susceptible to hyperthermia in hot
conditions. The rising temperatures could spell doom for her child. She wished
she could take her baby out of her womb and keep it as a frozen embryo whilst she
and the rest of the world fought El Monstruo.

She had been feeling faint
and nauseas for the past five days. At first she dismissed her feelings as
exhaustion and work-related pressure but when she discovered that her breasts
had become fuller and more sensitive, she decided to take the dreaded test.

George banged at the door of
the toilet. “Are you alright, darling?”

Sara looked at her watch. She
had been sitting on the toilet sit for fifty minutes. “I’m fine! I’ll be out in
a sec!” She flushed the toilet, wiped tears off her face and walked back to the
bedroom.

“It looks like the
conscientious boss of GEMA is going to be late for work for the first time
ever,” George said.

She forced a smile. “There’s
a first time for everything.”

“Sah, are you alright?”

“I’m alright.”

He held her hands. “You don’t
look alright to me, Sah.”

She summoned another
mirthless smile. “You worry too much.”

“I love you too much.” He pecked
her and studied her face. “Something is wrong, Sah. You can’t fool me. Is it
something I did?”

“Yes, it’s something you
did,” she said. “You made me pregnant.”

He grinned. “You’re pregnant!
This is good news, isn’t it?”

“Good news?” she shouted.
“Are you crazy? We can’t bring a child into a world like this.”

“God!” he gasped with horror.
“Are you suggesting an abortion?”

“Abortion?” she screamed. “Do
I look like the kind of a woman who kills her own children?”

He hugged her. “We’ll be
fine, Sah. I know we’ll be fine. All three of us.”

“It’s my fault. I was careless.”

“It’s not your fault, Sah. It
takes two to make a child.”

She pushed him away. “I’ve
got to take a shower and go to work.”

She scampered to the bathroom
and showered. She couldn’t afford to be late for work. She would soon be a
mother and she had less than nine months to make the world a better place for
her child.

At breakfast, she forced
herself to eat four mouthfuls more than usual. Now she was eating for two.

“I feared something was
wrong,” Nzue told her when she arrived at the GEMA headquarters. “Since I’ve
known you, this is the first time I’ve seen you arrive late at work.”

“I wasn’t feeling well.”

“I compiled the data you
asked me to compile about the effects of silicon dumps.”

“Thanks, Nzue,” she said.
“These dumps will eventually take over forests and arable land. I will look at
the data later.”

She went to her office and
began her daily routine of watching real-time satellite images. She almost
screamed with excitement when a cloud suddenly appeared over the Indian Ocean.
The cloud mass had a different shape from the ones she saw the day before yesterday
but she knew it had been pasted. She took out her phone and contacted Zachary.

“Zack, open your computer and
check the real-time NASA images of the Indian Ocean.”

“Okay. Let me call the administrator.”

“Please be quick.”

Sara printed a screengrab of
the cloud while she waited for Zack to come back on the phone.

“We’ve logged on,” Zack said.

“Okay. Can you see the bow-shaped
cloud mass to the west of Madagascar?”

“Eh… let me see…Yes, I can
see it.”

“Those clouds have been
pasted. They’ll disappear in one flash as if they have been deleted by a
computer. I want you to print a screengrab of the clouds.”

“We’ll do more than print a
screengrab. We’ll capture the whole video and see how the clouds disappear!”

“Good idea. Now let me look
at other areas. I’ll let you know if I find anything suspicious.”

Struggling to control her
excitement, Sara looked at the livestreams, praying for another suspicious
cloud. To her delectation, a cloud just popped out of nowhere in the usual area
above the North Atlantic Sea. Sara immediately reached for her phone.

“Hey Zack, I’ve found another
suspicious cloud.”

“Where?” he asked.

“Over the South Atlantic Ocean,
on a location equidistant from Uruguay and Cape Town. Oh, they made the same
mistake again!”

“What?”

“The picture of the clouds that
they pasted over the South Atlantic is actually the same picture that they
pasted over the Indian Ocean. They just rotated it and squashed it.”

“Let me see,” Zack said.

Sara kept her fingers crossed,
waiting for Zack to respond.

“You’re right, Sara,” Zack
shouted after a minute.

“If you keep looking at the
clouds, you’ll see them vanish. I’m sure the cloud above the Indian Ocean will
vanish first since it appeared first.”

“I won’t take my eyes off the
cloud.”

Zack phoned half an hour
later. “You’re onto something, Sara,” he said breathlessly. “The cloud that was
above the Indian Ocean disappeared at the blink of an eye like you said it
would. We’re still waiting for the second cloud to disappear. This is all so surreal.
Sara, can you please tell me what’s happening?”

“I’m not sure yet but I’m
positive that there are no clouds in that area.”

“So this is a cover up of
some sort?”

“Yes. I believe it is somehow
linked to EL Monstruo.”

“I can feel a chill running
down my spine.”

“Zack, please keep this from
the press.”

“I won’t breathe a word to
anyone. The administrator wants to talk to you.”

“Give him the phone.”

“Hello, Doctor Cummings,” a
hoarse voice said.

“Mr. Durie.”

“This is all bizarre,” the Administrator
of the United States Environmental Protection Agency said. “I’ve never seen
anything like this all my life. We looked at three other satellite imagery stations
and they’re all showing the strange clouds. Doctor Cummings, what the hell is
happening?”

“Sir, I think you should
inform the President about this. This strange occurrence is taking place in two
locations in international airspace or international waters. The President must
send the Navy or the Air Force to investigate.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

“Sir, I understand that your
post is of Cabinet rank, but I advise you not to speak to the President about
this in Cabinet.”

“Why?” Durie asked.

“The people whom we’re
investigating have compromised NASA and several privately owned satellite imagery
companies. If they’ve influence over an agency like NASA, then it’s very
possible that they’ve got influence over other government departments and
possibly members of the Cabinet. We don’t know who’s on our side, sir.”

“Why do you think I’m on your
side, Doctor Cummings?” the EPA Administrator asked.

Sara felt her lips twitch
nervously. “I don’t know. It’s just a gut feeling. Plus Zack said he trusts
you.”

“You can trust me, Doctor
Cummings.”

“You can call me, Sara.”

“Sara, I’ll make an appointment
with the President. He’s a busy man and it might take time for me to see him
outside Cabinet.”

“Do something, Mr. Durie. The
future of the world might very well depend on this.”

“You can call me Tim.”

“Please, Tim, talk to the
President.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll talk to
him.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, Sara.”

“For what?”

“When I heard your speech at
the UN summit, I laughed at you and called you names.”

“That wasn’t personal, Tim.
You didn’t laugh at me. You laughed at my theory. Please keep this away from
the press until we figure out exactly what is happening.”

“Okay. Holy crap!”

“What?”

“The other cloud just
vanished as you predicted!” Tim Durie squeaked. “I’m making an appointment with
the President right away.”

Sara punched the air with joy.
Tim Durie was a respected environmentalist who had served as Administrator of
EPA under two administrations. If anyone could convince the President to order
an inquiry into the matter, it was Durie.

She placed her hands on her
belly, remembering that there was a new life inside her. A new innocent life
that had not asked to be brought into this harsh environment. She opened a
document that had the data about silicon dumps. She couldn’t afford to sit
idle. She had to fight to make the world a better place for her unborn child.

* * *

“We’ve come a long way,
Hitchcook,” Cruz said. “You’ve been doing a pretty good job in my absence.”

“I’m just doing my part for
the green cause, sir,” Hitchcook said humbly.

They were sitting on the
porch of the Planet House, the palace that the E Utopian pioneers had built for
the President of the planet. Its brown color came from the color of its bricks.
Although it had no plaster or paint, Planet House was exquisite. The
solar-powered electric lamps that surrounded the palace turned the night into
day. The grounds around Planet House would have looked much better with lawns,
hedges and trees. The only plants that were in the palace’s gardens were mosses
and lichens. These plants originated from high altitude areas with little
oxygen. They were the only plants that the pioneers had planted outside the
biomes.

“E Utopia will be a great
place to raise a family,” Cruz said. Although he had dated many women, he had
never seriously considered settling down. But now he was in charge of a new
planet that he was going to protect from pollution. He wanted his descendants
to continue his legacy.

“You’re right, Mr.
President,” Hitchcook said, looking at one of the riflemen guarding the palace.
“This is a good place to raise kids. I think I’ll remarry in the near future
when we have completed the oxygenation of E Utopian atmosphere.” His face
hardened and he gritted his teeth when he recalled how he caught his ex-wife
cheating on him. She had been everything to him and he did everything for her
but she thanked him by fucking some punk. His face softened and he smiled when
he imagined her slowly dying of hyperthermia in Earth’s increasingly hot
weather. The earthly world would soon end for non-E Utopians. His ex-wife had
excluded herself from his list of chosen ones. He wished there was a way to let
her know that he had the power to save her but had chosen not to.

Cruz looked at the sky. The
night sky had the same color as Earth’s night sky and the stars shone just as
stars did when seen from Earth at night. Here he could see twice as many stars
at night than he could on Earth. He wondered whether one of the stars he was
looking at was the Sun.

“Dinner is ready, Mr.
President,” a female voice said from behind.

Cruz turned to look at a tall
curvy ensign who was putting on a new space force ceremonial uniform.

“Thank you,” Cruz said.
“We’ll be in the dining room in a minute.”

“Okay, sir.” The ensign
saluted and returned into the palace.

“Wow!” Cruz said. “She’s a
looker.”

“She’s a new recruit. She’s
just finished her training and will be assigned to a ship any day from now.”

“I don’t remember seeing her
before,” Cruz said. “I guess she’s from the group that received orientation from
Ford and Gibbs when I was in Africa donating breathing machines.”

“Was she chosen randomly or
someone specifically selected her to be my maid?” Cruz asked with a quizzical
look on his face.

“I asked Admiral Eawo to
provide an ensign to cook for you during your stay and she volunteered.”