The Eden Project: Humanity's Last Chance (17 page)

The kids gasped, leaned forward and glanced to each other having been rocked by those words. Pre-launch protocol. They were not scheduled to begin pre-launch protocol for five months and the launch was still nearly six months away. They were not expecting this. It had never crossed their minds. They were not ready. Even with weeks of pre-launch ahead they were not and would not be ready.

“Twenty days is not enough time,” Zeke pleaded. “Most of the backup flight personnel are still failing their simulations.”

“We have a filtration system down in nearly a third of ES4,” Ozzie added. “I have a two-week overhaul happening. I can’t pull engineering off that.”

“The suits,” Sylvia said vacantly. “We have thirty more spacesuits to test, alter and fit down to the size of the little ones.”

“Enough!” Adam barked. “We have twenty days. We can find workarounds in that time. We’ll make do.” The room silenced. Adam became as harsh and commanding as Doctor Quarna. “Why are we going into pre-launch?”

Doctor Quarna eyed the strong-willed boy measuring favorably his ability to lead. “It’s a precaution. We need to put it in motion just in case. And we are trimming the protocol to eight days.”

The kids were thunderstruck by this new number. They could not even rage against it. Adam sat back unable to respond.

“It may turn out to be nothing,” Doctor Naseer added with an unconvincing smile. “Maybe just a helpful drill.”

“But we will not treat it like a drill,” Doctor Quarna clarified. “And no matter what scenario unfolds, you must proceed with a level head and breezy confidence.” He rose and limped toward the door. “The doctors will outline the accelerated protocol.”

He left the room, leaving the other doctors and kids in various states of stunned. They were anything but breezy and confident.

Doctor Becker found Doctor Quarna standing behind Claudia in the control room. The mark on the western grid had moved closer.

“It’s moving slowly,” Claudia said glancing back to Doctor Becker. “Only twenty miles since yesterday, but in our direction.”

Doctor Becker nodded, less concerned than she should have been. She was preoccupied. “Nathan, can I talk with you a moment?”

They stepped out into the corridor. Doctor Quarna leaned back against the wall for support. Doctor Becker considered many ways to begin. None of them seemed to be the right way.

“It’s not his fault the place he came from.”

Doctor Quarna chuckled from sheer frustration. “You’re talking about the boy?” His disappointment was total. “Of course you are.”

She felt boxed in by his total dismissal and could not readily respond. He rolled his eyes and pushed himself off the wall to return to control. She watched him go, then changed her mind and chased after him, grabbing his arm roughly. He grimaced as much from frustration as the pain in his ribs.

She walked around him to face him. “You know it’s true. Hoss came to the same conclusion. The boy’s immune.”

He exhaled, fought off the desire to scream and tried to step around her. She quickly cut off his path.

“Why did you talk to the boy without a suit?” She put her hand on his shoulder, tenderly. Every time she touched him lately, it pained him.

He took her hand in his, held it comfortably for a moment. “Lotte, we are no longer what we could have been. It would be better if you did not touch me.”

It was clear they would have been more than colleagues and almost were recently, immediately preceding her betrayal with Doctor Hossler and then her forced isolation.

“He could be put into an air tight chamber on one of the ships. Tuna’s ship like Doc Hossler suggested.”

“This is really just becoming sad.” He eyed her with a complete lack of trust and respect. “It was not enough you sent out a human boomerang into that world to bring back potential annihilation onto us all, but now you want to take the advice of one of the infected.”

“Remember what Doctor Wescott observed? It can make you smarter too in certain stages of it.” She was grabbing at straws, which never worked really, especially with a man like Doctor Quarna.

How had a voice he once found seductive become the last voice in the world he wanted to hear? “Lotte, we are not in the people saving business. We are in the species saving business. We can talk about the boy only after the 117 have safely left our atmosphere.”

Doctor Becker let him escape past her. She stood there without direction, doubting her own judgment, trusting his, and devastated for the small boy they called Trumpet.

* * *

THE CHATTER AND BUZZ that usually accompanied morning in the dome had been reduced to a tomblike attention to pre-launch work tasks. The traffic up and down the starship ramps was heavier than it had ever been.

The youngest kids were still naïve enough to be cheerful, but they always mimicked their elders which today meant to stay busy and keep chit chat to a minimum.

Adam climbed down the ladder from the lookout post. When he got to the ground, he found Ozzie waiting for him. Adam had heard from Tuna about the fight the girls had the night before, the fight about his inappropriate relationship with Gen. He had no interest in discussing it.

“We need to talk,” Ozzie started.

“No. Not about what the girls talked about. It’s pointless.” Adam walked down the wall of the dome to avoid a few passing kids. Ozzie joined him much to Adam’s dismay. “Listen, Oz, we might be launched in eight days. That will put an end to all of this.”

“Don’t you think it should be resolved before then?”

“Nothing to resolve. It happened. It wasn’t planned. She goes on one ship. I go on the other. All four ships target different corners of the galaxy for colonial exploration.” Adam made no effort to hide his displeasure at the topic. “It’s a classic non-issue.”

“Sylvia was Gen’s best friend. Is this how you want them to say goodbye? They will be forever hurt by this. And Zeke? You didn’t always see eye to eye but you’re like brothers. You know you are.”

Adam let go, craning his neck to consider the face of the ES3, his massive ship. It towered over everything. They did not always look up. It became easy to forget the size of their ships, the vastness of the universe and the permanence of forever.

Ozzie had tried, but Adam was ignoring him and admiring his ship. “If not for you, brother, do it for the girls. Make this right.” Ozzie punched his friend’s shoulder softly like boys often did in the Eden Project and left Adam alone with his thoughts.

* * *

TUNA HAD BEEN UP through the night. Translating one hundred year old computer language would have been a breeze, but there were a few functions that had become obsolete in the century of tech evolution that had separated him from that language.

Three major workarounds turned night into day, but finally he had it nailed down. He began mapping the area between himself and the huge ship that was out there some ninety miles away.

He hit the speak button on his scrollpad, “Got it. We should be good to go. It’s mapping.”

“Nice work, Tuna!” Claudia said on his scrollpad.

“I started the grid a mile out. Might take hours to map all the way to the mystery ship.”

“Well done. I have the ship at 84 miles and closing. This makes all the difference. Copy.”

“Copy,” Tuna said.

“Go get some sleep, Tuna. We need your mind fresh the coming days.”

“Copy.” He liked saying the word copy. Claudia was the only Project staff member who said that. It felt like one of those old war movies he loved. Sleep? Sure, why not? Later. Now that the SAR mapping tool had been Tuna-fied and linked to Claudia, he could flip back to his satellite.

If he could figure out how to point the thing and then find the ship before nightfall, he would show Claudia. If not, why tell them? He would only get in trouble again for unauthorized activities.

* * *

TRUMPET PACED AROUND his chamber barefoot wearing gray pants and a faded brown tee shirt. The clothes were oversized on him. His hands were empty. He kept squeezing his grip. He felt vulnerable without a weapon. The trumpet was nowhere in sight.

Doctor Becker showed up at the viewing window. She tried to hide her despair from him. Not only did he notice her sadness, but he could feel it. She lifted her right hand to show him what she held. The trumpet. His smile appeared and vanished in an instant. It was a definite improvement over his last attempt on Doctor Hossler’s boat.

She buzzed herself into his chamber. He did not run to her. He did not snatch the trumpet. He did not bludgeon her with it. He backed away shyly from the slight woman.

“It’s okay. Take it. It’s yours.”

She stretched her arm out to him, offering up the trumpet. He did not move. He studied her and the trumpet a long time without taking it. When she nodded again, he snatched it violently out of her hand, startling her at first, but ultimately making her laugh.

“Any friend of Doctor Hossler’s is a friend of mine.”

When he realized the mouthpiece was missing he was let down. His disappointment meant one thing. He could play. Her little test had worked. She quickly produced the mouthpiece and held it out in the palm of her hand. He warmed to her, moved his hand slowly to hers, felt her hand and lifted the mouthpiece out of her palm.

She walked away giving him some space. He watched suspiciously until she stopped moving. He nodded for some reason like they were in agreement, but about what she did not know. He put the mouthpiece back where it belonged and his trumpet was complete.

“Can you play it?”

He considered the question and considered her. Somewhere along the line he had learned even questions could be tricks. He decided to trust her. He nodded. He could play the trumpet.

“That’s good,” she said, encouraging him. “I think I have an idea.

* * *

SYLVIA TURNED THE OTHER WAY when Gen approached hoping she would pass. No such luck. She had come to talk to her.

“Hey, Gen,” Maya said kindly before tapping Cassie’s shoulder.

Maya and Cassie walked away to allow Sylvia and Gen to talk. They were standing just down the corridor from the commissary.

“Adam and I have always been like oil and water,” Gen began, “I don’t know what it means but I went to find Tuna under the trees and Adam was there. We kissed. It didn’t make any sense.”

Sylvia listened, still hurt but weighing Gen’s words.

“You’re my best friend, Sylvia. I feel horrible and I’m sorry.”

“I thought Cassie was your best friend?” Sylvia said, softly.

“Yeah, well, she’s everybody’s best friend. That doesn’t count.”

Sylvia smiled slightly, happy to have Gen back in her life.

“I don’t want to lie to you, Syl. It’s fun to kiss a boy, but Adam’s not my boy and it won’t happen again.”

Sylvia spotted him first and then Gen. Adam. He was standing ten feet away, in the door frame to the boy’s restroom. They could tell by his face he had heard them. At least the last bit. The bit about it won’t happen again.

“Good,” he said. “You’re friends.” He turned left instead of right and walked away from the commissary.

* * *

THE ORIGINAL EIGHT had dinner as six that night. Tuna and Adam never showed up. They had pizza and asparagus. They had limited, but pleasant conversation considering the stress they were all under and no one ever mentioned Adam. Cassie reminded them Tuna was working with Claudia on tech stuff.

Having Gen back in the fold helped to keep things cheery. At one point Zeke and Gen exchanged a few words. This pleased the others greatly.

The other tables were less cheery. Exhaustion and uncertainty had fatigued the younger kids so when the first kids started to stand up, the commissary quickly began to clear.

It was at exactly that moment something unforgettable happened. It started with a whisper, a woman’s encouraging voice, followed by silence and then, finally, a slow haunting note rose up and filled the entirety of the dome with music.

They stood at the tray return, between tables; they turned back from the door. They even listened from the corridor. Isaac heard it from the restroom. Doctor Quarna listened from his lab. Adam heard it from the dark space underneath his ship where he sat hidden from everyone.

It played on every speaker. It played loud, ringing sweetly in their ears, rising and falling with the boy’s fingers. He made his trumpet speak to the hearts and souls of the scant few survivors of the species.

A holiday song from a lost time played loudly, sorrowfully, to a world without holidays. The power of the music overwhelmed them. The trumpet reached inside them, massaging their fears and calming their savage souls.

Inside ES2 Tuna slept soundly until Claudia buzzed in on his scrollpad. “Tuna, listen. It’s Trumpet,” she said, then piped the song into his flight deck. He woke to the pleasant sound of the trumpet song.

Doctor Pappas and Doctor Naseer found Doctor Becker at the console in the lab next to the boy’s chamber. They stopped cold when they saw the boy playing his trumpet through the viewing window.

Doctor Pappas shook his head with a sly smile and approached the console. He reached around her to punch a few buttons.