The Eden Project: Humanity's Last Chance (9 page)

Disappointingly, Doctor Wescott never made a return visit but Claudia did come back in the third month for a card game which was comforting in the way that all laid-back, every day diversions were within the dome.

Today she would see them all and she decided it was a good thing. She missed each of them, even Doctor Quarna who she had once thought would become more than a colleague outside the dome after the ships had launched and were beyond reach of earthly communication.

She knew any chance of a growing bond between them was lost when she violated his trust. They have not laid eyes on each other or exchanged a scrollpad message during the four months of her isolation.

At least he did not have her incinerated, she thought. That’s something. Not romantic movie love, but something.

* * *

SHE ENTERED THE CONFERENCE ROOM just after Doctor Pappas who met her with an uneven smile, then hurried into the room to take a seat before having to engage her with actual words. An odd start. Already seated were Doctor Naseer and Claudia. Doctor Pappas took the seat between them.

Lotte took a seat opposite on the far end of the table and hoped Doctor Wescott would soon arrive to sit next to her, providing a buffer between herself and Doctor Quarna. That could be too much too soon. With time the awkwardness would lessen between them, but today was to be just a baby step toward rebuilding work relationships with all. She knew the one with Doctor Quarna would take the most time.

“That’s everyone,” Doctor Naseer said.

She did not know why at first, but a chilling certainty shot suddenly through her bloodstream. Doctor Quarna and Doctor Wescott were not coming. All details beyond the children’s health had been restricted. Doctor Quarna had limited her access completely, but why were they violating his decree now? She could not bear to answer that question or to even take her next breath. Her blood froze and made her tremble.

“What’s happened?” It was hardly a whisper, but she recognized that it was her voice and that it was loud enough for the others to hear.

Doctor Naseer considered her question glancing to the other two hoping someone else would answer. She could see in their faces her worst fears were about to be realized.

“Doctor Wescott’s infection has become active,” Claudia answered in Doctor Naseer’s place. “He asked to talk to you.”

Doctor Pappas and Doctor Naseer hung their heads, hiding something. Shame, she thought. She studied Claudia’s eyes who stared at her with a subdued sympathy. She knew what this meant. It was late.

“When?” Lotte demanded.

Doctor Naseer found the courage to address her. He touched Claudia’s shoulder letting her off the hook. “Today’s Jim’s last day.”

Doctor Becker gasped and fell back to her chair struggling for oxygen. Claudia darted around the table to offer her a consoling arm. Doctor Becker covered her face and eventually began to breathe again into her own palm.

“You’ve known for weeks and you waited until now?” Doctor Becker dropped her hand from her face to glare at Naseer with a razor sharp contempt. “Where’s Doctor Quarna?”

They would not answer her.

“I want to speak to him.” Doctor Becker shook her head angrily, disbelieving. “Tell that coward to show his face. He’s gone too far.”

“I’m here, Doctor Becker.” His voice came from everywhere at once, coming at her from every speaker in the room. “We’ll patch Jim through to you now,” Doctor Quarna instructed. “He’s already past the threshold. There’s no guarantees what we’re about to see.”

She did not care that he had heard her use of the word coward. In fact she wanted more. “I’ll never forgive you for this,” she assured him, then turned to include the others in the room. “Any of you.”

The feed from a holding chamber appeared on a wall panel. Doctor Jim Wescott wearing slacks and a plain gray t-shirt stood with his back to the camera looking out a small window to the sea. All eyes watched with trepidation as he turned around.

“We’re here with you, Jim.” Doctor Quarna’s voice seemed to cause no reaction from Doctor Wescott. Instead, he stared into the camera.

Doctor Becker held her heart at the sight of his sunken eyes and gaunt face. A long skin lesion cut across his bleach-white forehead. She had a hard time looking into his haunting eyes that were drained of their color. They were pale blue, almost white, and his pupils had shrunken down to the size of pin holes.

“Indeed, you are here, though sadly I am not.” Doctor Wescott grinned with defeated pride, oddly enamored by his choice of words. His voice was rough and hoarse. When he smiled, you could see that his gums were both bloody and scabbed.

No one said anything as they waited, watching their friend who was sliding past the threshold of sanity in front of their eyes.

“It’s as if I can hear your thoughts. My senses have become acute, almost mystical. You are thinking I am going insane. This is what we have always thought.” Doctor Wescott shook his head, his eyes locked on his own misshapen fingers, fully concentrated on ideas as if on the road to scientific discovery.

“Jim, Lotte is here. You have requested her,” Doctor Quarna said, attempting to redirect Doctor Wescott’s ramble.

“Do you each remember the name Masuda?”

Doctor Becker looked across to Doctors Pappas and Naseer. They had all heard of Masuda.

“Yes, Jim. I think we have all heard of him,” Doctor Naseer stated. “He had some radical ideas on possible effects of the C1 virus.”

Doctor Wescott laughed suddenly at Naseer. “You see I knew not only that you would say that but I knew that it would be you, Chandresh, who said it.” Doctor Wescott smiled, but his smiled turned manic and he groaned angrily and shook his head.

The other doctors sat back in alarm at the sight of his unraveling.

He calmed and exhaled. Blood from his gums had leaked onto his dry, chapped lips. “Forgive me, it is a struggle to stay patient with my thoughts.” He turned his haunting eyes directly at the camera. “Masuda’s assertion was that people with higher intellectual capacities could channel the effects.”

“He believed it could enhance genius.” Doctor Quarna’s voice held a new tone. He had become curious.

“The C1 virus had the potential to be evolutionary, accessing the untapped regions within the mind,” Doctor Wescott said with palpable sadness, almost regret. “He was right, my sense of anticipation is off the charts and I can remember the past with photographic clarity.”

Doctor Naseer and Doctor Pappas looked to each other immediately buying into the possibilities of this new discovery. Doctor Becker and Claudia were concerned by the regretful tone in which Doctor Wescott spoke.

“Jim,” Doctor Becker finally said, “can you stay with us a while longer? These discoveries are important.”

For the first time, a sweet smile overtook him and he was for a moment completely himself. “Lotte, my dear, even to my most ghastly impulse your voice is soothing.” He covered his mouth realizing his teeth and lips were bloodied. “I must be a sight to behold.”

“We see YOU, Jim. Nothing else,” Dr. Becker said.

“Masuda talked about blood intelligence, that the effects on the brain could be so pervasive that we could communicate with our blood.” His voice trailed off. He seemed to lose interest. “Doctor Quarna, please.”

Doctor Quarna cleared his throat and took over for Doctor Wescott. “Masuda was convinced that among the many incredible effects to the superior brain, someone of rare intellect would be able to supercharge their own immune system. They would be able to locate and destroy even the smallest impurities in the blood, even in our cells.”

“The ability to end all disease, even reverse aging,” Doctor Wescott added almost mournfully. “Sounds good, right?” He looked back into the camera, blood smudged just below his lips. “But don’t forget the last part of his work. The part we all know to be true.”

A chill swept conference room A. “The blood of the uninfected can stall the ill effects of the virus, a temporary stay if you will, to calm the savage soul,” Doctor Pappas said as if drawing from a horrible memory.

“Good for you, Doctor Pappas,” Doctor Wescott said with a wink. “But let me add to that. I know I am capable of anything, but I don’t care. My only concern is this horrible itch to my upper gums.” He opened his mouth and pulled open his upper lip wider to reveal the grotesque blood and scabbing of his upper gums.

“Here.” He pointed at what they could not take their eyes off of anyway. “There is a horrible hunger that creates the itch and then I can only scratch it begging for it to stop.”

The conference room, the screen and the speakers all remained quiet. Doctor Wescott stood and walked back to the window. “The only thing that can stop the itch would be to satiate my gums with blood and tissue. Yours, the children’s, it makes no difference. The itch is so great.”

He turned and nodded sadly across the room to the camera. He walked slowly to a small console in the middle of the chamber. A single red button appeared in the console screen. “Are we a go, Nathan?”

Panic washed over Doctor Becker’s face. She hoped she would never hear Doctor Quarna’s response to that question.

“Yes,” Dr Quarna said, weakly. “You are online.”

On the screen, Doctor Wescott stared down innocently at the console. In the conference room, Doctor Becker searched for a solution.

“Thanks for your service to the Eden Project, Jim,” Doctor Quarna said. “And thanks for your help these last few weeks from quarantine. The children will remember you even in the new worlds.”

“Stay with us, Jim. Please, just a few more days,” Doctor Becker pleaded through welling tears. “There’s so much more we can learn from you.”

“That is not the mission, Lotte. You know that.” He took a deep breath and stepped squarely in front of the console. “Do you remember the old fairytales, Lotte? Remember the ones where a beautiful girl would subdue the beast? With her lightest touch she could make him beautiful too.”

He looked up to the screen, waited for her to respond and then nodded when she never did. “Of course you remember.” He took deep breaths attempting to regulate his breathing. He dropped his gaze to the red button. “But those were just fairytales, my love.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks and she covered her mouth.

“Nothing and no one could ever subdue this beast.” Doctor Wescott’s right hand reached forward to meet the red button on the touch screen.

A sudden hiss, then an orange flash enveloped him in fire just before the screen went black. The sound of the rushing flames of incineration lingered in Lotte’s mind long after the speakers had been shut off.

Adam and Zeke watched Tuna and Ozzie battle each other within the flight simulator. Tuna slid his left hand down a small control screen while pulling back on a grooved lever with his right hand. His seat rocked back in unison with his efforts. He fought the controls mightily trying to catch Ozzie who was always just ahead of him on their side-by-side display screens.

“You got him this time, kid,” Adam said, eagerly moving his body to the motion of Tuna’s simulator. “Stay in there, Tuna.”

Sweat moistened Tuna’s forehead while Ozzie confidently weaved through an asteroid belt. Zeke grinned while his eyes darted after Ozzie’s ship on the screen. Adam leaned forward trying to will Tuna to victory.

Ozzie’s ship hit open space on his screen, passed through a green mist and 8:31:26 came up on his screen, his final time.

Zeke patted Ozzie’s back. “Solid time, Oz.”

Tuna passed through the green mist and 8:31:34 came up on his screen. Tuna’s time dissolved and was replaced by the words PERSONAL BEST.

They celebrated Tuna’s new record with a round of back slaps and shoulder punches. Adam beamed proudly. Zeke took pause to notice Adam’s extreme enthusiasm, but quickly returned his attention to the revelry and rubbed Tuna’s hair in approval.

Ten feet behind them Sylvia, Maya and Gen regarded the boys’ excitement with confused indifference. “Why exactly would they be racing through an asteroid belt?” Maya asked, derisively. “It’s a good way to get us all killed.”

Maya and Sylvia grinned watching Zeke and Adam step back, pull out their scrollpads and set them next to two others on a nearby console. They returned to the simulators, sat down and belted themselves tightly into the seats. Ozzie and Tuna stood behind them, exchanging shoulder punches out of respect for their close race.

With everyone fixated on the next battle, Gen leaked away from her friends and moved quietly to the shadowy console where the four scrollpads lay. She slid her scrollpad out of its holster and set it on the console. In the same motion, she grabbed one of the other scrollpads and slid into her holster.

She walked back behind Maya and Sylvia unnoticed.

The three girls watched the race begin, with Adam and Zeke both weaving madly through an oncoming barrage of asteroids. At one point Adam spun his ship so that he was completely upside down in his simulator seat and yet he still weaved expertly through the maddening rush of projectiles.

Everyone smiled at Adam’s ridiculous skill level and sense of flare, everyone except Zeke who furrowed his brow and pulled just ahead in the race. Gen picked that moment to whisper a goodbye to her friends and quickly exit flight simulation.