The Eden Project: Humanity's Last Chance (10 page)

* * *

HIDDEN BETWEEN ROWS of hydroponic cucumbers, Gen sat on the ground racing through folders on the scrollpad. On the top of the screen was the name Tyler Secondborn. She had taken Tuna’s scrollpad and was busily searching for some desired document.

She stopped on a folder called MISCELLANEOUS.

The understated title made her curious. She opened it to find a single document called “This is how”. She clicked to see the full document title, “This is how the world ends”.

Her adrenaline flushed through her. She opened the document and began reading. She scrolled through pages and saw dates and, yes, personal notes. “Tuna’s diary,” she whispered happily to herself as she scrolled through searching for something specific.

She stopped, frustrated. She stared out at the tall green rows of hydroponic crops and was hit with an idea. She turned her attention back to the screen. She opened the FIND function and typed, “static”. The results popped up and she clicked on the first find. When the entry came up she smiled down at the glow of the screen.

She read the entry out loud, “The crackle of static was hardly warning for that quiet voice from another world. His strange words exploded into my ears.”

Gen looked up from the scrollpad, stunned. “Oh my god,” she said. Her stunned eyes opened wider and she read on.

* * *

TUNA AND ZEKE BOARDED ES1, walked through the depressurization chamber and entered the main corridor. Tuna carried Gen’s scrollpad in his hands. Zeke seemed preoccupied.

“You would have broken the old record, Zeke. That was incredible. He just nosed you out at the end.”

“Yeah, he nosed me out and he still has the record,” Zeke pointed out. “Thanks, Tuna, but don’t feed me compliments. It insults my intelligence. He flew the entire asteroid belt upside down.”

“Adam’s Adam,” Tuna explained, “but you’re easily faster than Ozzie and me.”

Zeke glared down at Tuna. “Never mind that, let’s find Gen. I’m sure she just grabbed your pad by mistake.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you’re right,” Tuna said, not sure at all.

They entered Gen’s gardens and found nothing but green plants and the soft drone of the irrigation systems. A soft misting of nearby plants brought a sudden glisten to the crops to their left. They walked the other way, row to row, trying to spot any sign of Gen. Nothing. They stopped at the end and shook their heads.

“I bet you’re looking for this.” Gen approached from behind. “I knew Tuna would be on his way. I have his life support.”

They turned to find Gen holding his scrollpad. Tuna’s desperate expression humored her. He walked purposefully toward her, handed over her scrollpad and snatched back the one she offered in return.

He gave his scrollpad the once over, making sure it was in one piece, then slid it securely into his holster. He stared at Gen waiting for an explanation.

“What?” Gen said with a laugh. “It was dark in there. I got dizzy with all your crazy flying and grabbed the wrong pad on the way out.”

Zeke, ever the protector, gave Tuna a dismissive look. “That’s what we thought. Right, Tuna?”

Tuna thought no such thing. He continued to consider Gen and her oddly amused expression and evasive eyes. He knew then that she was not so innocent. “Yeah, I’ll see you later,” he said and walked past them.

Zeke watched Tuna leave the gardens, confused. “He actually thinks you stole his scrollpad.”

“Oh, no, he doesn’t. Not really,” Gen redirected, touching Zeke’s chest with her hand gently. “He’s just obsessed with his scrollpad is all.”

Zeke, still overwhelmed with her hand’s soft touch, quickly forgot Tuna’s odd behavior. He reached out in a daze to let his fingers run through the shiny strands of her hair.

His sudden affection caught Gen off guard. She became immediately embarrassed by his love struck eyes. She glanced away, avoiding his stare and stepped back. “Zeke, what are you doing?”

The resistance in her tone, snapped him back to reality. “I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry, I should go, I’m late for a thing,” Zeke stammered and blushed. “I better get going, okay?” He hurried past her, past the rows of crops and darted out of the gardens.

No longer amused, Gen stood alone among the quiet drone of the gardens and wondered about a million things at once. Is it possible to learn so much you lose the ability to understand anything? Is it possible to feel so much you lose a sense of what feelings mean?

Every step forward from here, she thought, would betray all that she once was and ever hoped to be. If she could go back now she would, but no sooner could she regain her former innocence than she could reverse all the ills that befell the world.

Tuna entered the exercise room where dozens of boys were working out with resistance machines. He surveyed the room unsuccessfully and then hurried into the locker room.

Adam stood by an open locker zipping the top of his jumpsuit. When Tuna approached, Adam picked up a towel to dry his hair.

“I know that look, Tuna.” Adam threw the towel over a bench into a tall basket. He reached into the locker, grabbed a comb and started ordering his hair.

“Your girlfriend’s at it again. She took my scrollpad. She’s snooping around or something.”

Adam stopped combing to consider Tuna. “So what possible good is your scrollpad to Gen?”

Tuna sat down and tried to find an answer. “I have no clue why she’d take it. I have thousands of documents on there. Unless she knew what she was looking for, it would be a hopeless search. It’s just what burns me is I know, I know absolutely that she took it on purpose. I could see it in her condescending smile.”

Adam sat down next to Tuna on the bench. A line of logic formed slowly in Adam’s mind. Tuna could see the revelation emerging on his face. “You said it,” Adam began, “she wouldn’t want your scrollpad unless she knew what she was after.”

Tuna shifted uncomfortably in his seat when Adam studied him. “But she wouldn’t have any idea what to search for among all that.”

“Tuna, let’s just say that somehow she knows exactly what to find on there,” Adam hypothesized. “And judging from the way you’ve been talking there is in fact something on there she would want to find.” Adam twisted sideways to grab Tuna by the shoulders. “Well, what is it then, Tuna? What could she find on there?”

“The only thing,” Tuna began and then stopped abruptly.

“What’s the only thing?” Adam demanded after releasing Tuna.

“She could find my diary.”

“Your diary? Really?” Adam laughed with a sense of relief. “Who cares? Or is it she’ll find some inappropriate daydreams you’ve had about your future wedding night with Cassie?” Adam grinned and pushed Tuna away good naturedly.

“It’s not that kind of diary, dill weed,” Tuna answered, pushing Adam back. Tuna knew immediately he had said the wrong thing.

“What kind of diary is it, Tuna?” Adam’s voice hardened. “You put it all down, didn’t you?” Adam probed. “Like some kind of confession.”

“I didn’t realize we were criminals, Adam.” Tuna stood up and started to pace, considering the possibilities. “It doesn’t matter. It’s all written very metaphorically. Only I would really understand it, or, in some cases, maybe you would understand.”

“She may not act like it all the time, but there’s very little that girl doesn’t understand.”

“Save me all your cooing over her, please. She stole my scrollpad.”

“I’m serious, Tuna.”

“Come on, there are passwords and codes, but they’d be of no use to her. How could they be? I didn’t write down where to enter them.”

Adam dropped his head and slowly massaged his temples. “She somehow knew how to find your diary.” He peered back up at Tuna.

“Whatever. We’re good. She’s not up on computer systems anyway. It’s not her thing.” Tuna saw that Adam had nothing more to offer. “And who cares if she finds what we found? Doctor Quarna will discover her too, eventually.” Tuna exhaled, trying to release tension. “Then she’ll get what she deserves like we did.”

Tuna took Adam’s indifferent nod as a sign it was time to go. He quickly walked past rows of lockers and went out the door too upset to notice anyone or anything. Between two rows of lockers Zeke stepped out from the shadows, visibly shaken by what he had just heard.

* * *

LEXI THREW A SMALL red disc into the air. She watched Ada and two other small girls give chase hoping they would be the one to catch it. The disc flew beyond their reach and just as it was to hit the ground, Gen reached down and snatched it out of the air.

The three small girls ran to her gleefully. Gen handed Ada the disc.

“Nice catch,” Lexi yelled running to them.

“Girls, can I borrow Lexi for a little while?” Gen smiled to Ada and the other girls. They quickly agreed and ran off to get more exercise chasing after the disc.

Lexi walked up to Gen, suddenly curious. “You need me?”

“I need someone I can trust,” Gen said scanning the area to make sure they were alone. “How are you with secret missions?”

Lexi checked the area herself, wondering who or what Gen could possibly be worried about. She laughed at the bizarre question. “A secret mission? Really? Is this a game?”

“It’s not a game.” Gen stated matter-of-factly.

“I don’t know,” Lexi began before stopping to consider the offer. She glanced back to watch the girls chasing the disc and then stared down at her feet. “This is truly unexpected,” she finally said, then looked back up to meet Gen’s eyes. “What kind of mission?”

* * *

THEY STOOD IN FRONT of the wall of lights uncertain of what they were about to attempt. Gen pulled her scrollpad from its holster and found the folder she needed.

“I don’t understand it all,” Gen confessed as she handed her scrollpad to Lexi. “Those are from Tuna’s notes. I thought you would be able to make sense of them.”

His name gave Lexi a sudden jolt of regret. “Tuna’s notes? How do you have Tuna’s notes on your scrollpad?”

Gen pointed at the four gray computer screens on the wall. The single prompts flashed on each screen waiting for them to begin.

“It’s better if you don’t know everything.”

“Gen, I’m a high ranking officer on ES2, remember? Tuna’s ship? How can I betray his trust?” Lexi tried to hand Gen back her scrollpad.

Gen pushed the scrollpad back to Lexi and turned to consider the screens and the four flashing prompts. “They were here at these screens on ES3. They were listening to something. I walked in on them. I think about it a lot.” Gen fell deeper into the memory. “Actually, I am haunted by it. It was the old national anthem.”

“On ES3?” Lexi wondered aloud. “You’re saying Tuna was there?”

Gen nodded without turning around.

“And Adam too I’m guessing being ES3,” Lexi said. “Why did they have to go to Audio Relay to listen to an old song?”

“But, you see, it wasn’t the song.” Gen turned around visibly effected by the memory. “It was the static.”

“Like static static?

“Yeah,” Gen said, relaxing as the mystery began to captivate Lexi. “They were receiving the song, Lexi, they were not playing it.”

“It was coming from… out there?” Lexi said, eagerly giving voice to Gen’s spine-tingling implication.

“Yes, exactly,” Gen agreed. “And the looks on their faces. Fear. Exhilaration. Guilt.”

“Is this what started them acting differently?” Lexi’s curiosity was peaked. Gen knew she had her now.

“You noticed that too?”

“Gen, everyone noticed,” Lexi answered. She stepped past Gen to the gray screens. “They don’t spend any time together and Adam is like a Zeke clone.”

“He totally is a Zeke clone, but, no, that happened a little later.”

Lexi set the scrollpad on the console. Her hands began moving from screen to screen, typing in the lengthy passwords. Four unique shapes on each of the four screens.

Gen moved closer watching Lexi slid the shapes off one screen and threw them onto the next. In a flurry of seemingly random moves she was suddenly done. The screens went black.

“The numbers you have in those notes,” Lexi began, “the first two sets were passwords, but the last one looks like a frequency.”

Orange code began to spill down onto the black screens.

Lexi continued to punch through sequences until a high-pitched beep stopped her hands. She punched a few more keys and the orange code disappeared on three screens. The forth screen was black except for a single green frequency number on it.

“352.91,” Lexi said, “That’s us.” She pressed the up arrow. “We want 468.99. That’s what Tuna had in his notes here.”

Gen could barely control her anticipation. The riddle of Adam and Tuna had eaten away at her for months. Every time Adam passed by her without so much as a knowing sneer or sarcastic comment, the desire burned hot within her to find what they had found or heard or learned that completely altered their perspective and flipped their personalities.

The first whispering note made her tremble. A song played from beyond the end of the world. The melody poured into her like a warm, sweet liquid and instantly imbibed her with an unnamed longing, a stray nostalgia from a lost time.