The Experiment (26 page)

We all stood there waiting for him to say what it was…

“I don’t really understand what’s happening but the natives have already gone back to mining…”

Kayin got on. “What do you mean!?”

“I mean they’re still mining… We can’t get them to stop. Every time we try they just start chanting that
weird word they call us and work even faster… We don’t know what to do!”

Kayin looked at me. “I knew this would happen because of 3’s plan!”

He told Cassian to stand by and started calling for 3 over the radio.

Eventually the pilot that was transporting 3 to the other sites answered and said he was down at one of the mines talking to the natives.

I said “… Maybe they’re doing it because they’re grateful?.. Maybe 3 explained that we need it to save our planet?”

Kayin started to leave the flight room. “I don’t know but I’m going down there right now.”

I stopped him. “Wait for 3 to get back… I have a feeling he knows what’s going on… Plus you can’t communicate with them anyway Kayin… It’s a waste of time.”

He turned around. “Atlas, this defeats the whole purpose of what we did!.. If they won’t stop working we might as well have just let this play out!”

I suppose in some ways he was right… “No, you’re wrong… They’re doing it by choice. They won’t be suffering in those storage rooms anymore and getting injections that might kill them… Horus and Neros were brought to justice and their work will never fall into the wrong hands on Aeris… We accomplished a lot Kayin… Just wait until we see what 3 has to say.

We don’t know anything yet.”

He sighed and got back on the radio “Cassian, stand by for orders and tell everyone to let them be, all they’ll do is scare them and make it worse…”

Then he called to the pilot and told him to have 3 contact us the moment he’s back on the ship.

Kayin looked at me. I could see that he was extremely annoyed and growing more impatient by the minute… Emotions will still running high and it would probably be like this for quite some time. Especially since the natives still worship us.

Just as 3 predicted… Due to extreme fear and reverence, they would continue to mine because they know their creators wanted it… That it’s what pleased us…

I said “All we can do is wait…”

After another twenty minutes or so, we finally heard 3’s voice on the radio. We were all standing off to the side talking so I ran over.

“3! Still haven’t thought of a name yet?”

I could hear him laughing when he came back on. “Not yet Atlas… I promise you’ll be the first to know.”

Kayin walked up and took over. “3, why am I getting reports that the natives refuse to stop mining? You can’t just convince them to leave?.. What’s going on?”

“I only have six more sites to go to Kayin… Then I’ll come back to the Sirius and explain everything, I
promise… It turns out I was wrong about a few things… We have a new situation… Or rather an old one that has reemerged… We’ll have plenty of time to talk when I get back to you, just be patient for me! Ok guys?”

Kayin slammed his hand on the console. “Why do I feel like he’s always trying to purposely upset me? Why can’t he just explain it right now!.. Atlas get him back on and try to talk to him.”

“I will if you want… but I think we should just listen to what he says… 3 said we have a new situation and I have a feeling he’s the only one who can deal with it... He probably just needs a little time and some help. Which includes us being patient Kayin.”

Kayin sighed… “Fine, we’ll just wait.”

Sara touched my arm. “We aren’t needed for a while… You want to go to the observation room and talk?”

I looked at Kayin and he waved me away. “Might as well… Apparently we have to stand here like idiots and wait for his lordship 3 to tell us what’s going on…”

I laughed. “Come on Kayin, he’s been a big help… And I think he’s kind of funny. I can’t help but laugh when you two go back and forth… If I’m not mistaken don’t friends usually do that?”

He shot me a cold glare. ”Get out…”

Sara and both started laughing. I said “Alright, alright I’m gone” and we left.

On the way Sara didn’t waste any time, she asked “So do you still…”

I already knew what she was going to say, so before she finished I replied “Yes.”

“It’s so strange isn’t it?.. It’s like I’ve known you all my life or something.”

I laughed. “Oh you have no idea how much better that makes me feel… I didn’t even know how to tell you that. I was worried you’d think it was crazy or weird…”

Then I got serious. “Not being able to see you reminded me of times when I lost people I really cared about… You know what I mean?”

She nodded. “Yes!.. And I really did think it would stop a long time ago but… Well here we are.”

“Yeah…”

I’d been thinking about this moment for so long… So much of my time was spent thinking about her and what this would be like… Now I was nervous and couldn’t figure out what to say. It was just like when we first met…

“So what did you do before you joined the ACI?”

I wasn’t sure about how eager I was to answer this question… She was on the science team; that means she came from the upper class in the Capital... Someone like me was below her…

I hesitantly said “Well… After I finished school I just kinda had odd jobs here and there… Delivery driver,
worked in a factory for a while… I always wanted to join the ACI and take part in the Sirius missions, just didn’t really think it was possible until I found out my neighbor did it… What about you?”

I asked, even though I kind of already knew what she was going to say… Though I could be wrong…

“My parents were crazy… They were both retired from the ACI so it was all they cared about. Basically, I went to school my whole life and now I’m here… And I recently took part in seizing a giant spaceship from some evil tyrants…”

We looked at each other and laughed.

“I know it’s so…”

“Crazy?”

“Yeah.”

I was so nice to finally be around her and just talk… It’s one of the few things I thought about every single day. And the longer it lasted the more comfortable I felt. My nerves were quickly fading and being replaced by the want to be even closer to her…

“Believe it not, I never wanted to be a scientist… And I never got a chance to try anything else so to this day I still don’t know what I want to do. What I do know is that I’ll be quitting my job with the ACI once we get back.”

She paused and lightly laughed.

“For the longest time I was so mad at my parents for forcing me into this life. They’re the reason I wound
up on this ship and I hated them for it… Now I’m glad that I got to help free the natives.”

“It’s funny you say that… I came to a similar realization myself. Just up until recently I hated myself for making what I used to think was the worst decision of my life… Right, now there’s nowhere else I’d rather be…”

She took my hand again….

When we got to the observation room she stopped and said. “I knew you spent a lot of your nights here… I always wanted to go too but I was afraid of running into you. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hide everything from you for long.”

I opened the door and she continued. “If I didn’t eventually get reassigned to studying the plant life on the planet I would have gone crazy. It was pretty boring but at least I got to spend time on the planet now and then… It’s so beautiful isn’t it?”

“So much so that it changes the way you see everything doesn’t it?.. Have you ever studied the history of Aeris?”

“Just a little in school. I was always so busy with other things… Why?”

“Well I’ve read many description of what Aeris used to look like before human industry ruined it… From what I can tell, one day Aeris will look very similar to this planet again.”

When we sat down she leaned up against me.

“You don’t mind do you?”

“No, of course not… You know I feel the same way…”

She paused for a few moments and I felt her body relax. “So Aeris used to have blue oceans?”

“Yes, and vast forests, further than the eye can see… In some parts of the world it was so thick it was totally unexplored.”

I leaned back a little and got more comfortable.

“There were even millions of different creatures, just like on X-451…”

Sara didn’t respond so I looked down at her… She looked at me and put her hand up to my face, then I felt her lips touch mine…

Chapter 16

T
he moment my eyes opened, I panicked… I could just feel that I slept through the night.

I woke up Sara and said. “I’m pretty sure it’s the next day, we’ve gotta go.”

She jumped out of bed and we put on our uniforms.

Before we walked out the door she stopped me. “It was nice to finally get to you know you.”

“Sorry… Just kind of panicked…”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure Kayin would have sent word if he heard anything.”

I took her hand, leaned down and kissed her.

We stood there for a few moments, looking into each other’s eyes and I said “I’ve been wanting for this for so long… When I said I thought about you every day, I meant it.”

“I know… me too Atlas.”

“Believe it or not… When I first met you, I already knew... That’s why you were my last thought before I was put in stasis.”

She smiled and kissed me again. “Ok, now we can go… Was that too much to ask?”

When we got to the flight room I could immediately tell 3 hadn’t made contact yet. Kayin looked really irritated...

As soon as I got close he said. “He’s got one hour! And then I’m gonna go find that hairball and make
him tell me what’s goin on!”

Kayin looked exhausted… He had dark rings around his eyes, and I could even hear it in his voice… Now that I think of it, he probably hasn’t slept in almost 48 hours…

I said “Kayin, you haven’t slept in days have you?”

“How could sleep with all this going on?.. Glad you two had a good time!”

I knew he was just upset but… “Hey come on man, don’t take it out on us!”

He glared at me but then his face relaxed. “I know, sorry…”

I walked over to him. “Just be patient. He still had six more sites to go to when we last heard from him… We might not hear from him again until tomorrow. It’s going to take some time.”

“Atlas we need to get started today. I already ordered all the soldiers to assist the other miners. There’s no need to guard the sites anymore… But I haven’t been able to coordinate anything else yet because I don’t know what’s happening with the natives.”

…”I need to know what’s going on right now!”

I got a little upset. “We’ve been waiting years!.. We can wait another day if we have to. According the 3 this has turned into a really delicate situation… And that requires patience Kayin!”

He jokingly put his hands up. “You’re right, you’re
right… I’m just talkin to talk. I’ll shut up about it.”

Sara came over. “Would it really be so bad if the natives helped us finish as a way of saying thank you?”

“Yes!… I don’t want to see even one more of them die in those mines Sara… The treatment Horus came up with wasn’t perfect… It can still kill them long after it’s been administered if they overexert themselves… It seems like it weakens their hearts…”

He sighed. “Look just give me a few minutes to calm down… I’m sorry.”

I patted him on the shoulder and we walked over to the front and looked out at X-451. There was a small amount of asirium in the front of the flight room. Even though the pilots didn’t fly by sight they still always had a section for them to see out of.

Sara leaned against me. “I’m sure it’s a beautiful day…”

“…When I first started going down we spent a night in the woods during the full moon… There was something special about it. I can’t really describe it, just the way the light of the full moon affected everything made me want to just stay here… I felt so peaceful.”

“It would be nice to have a small house over by that lake, just in front of the tree line… I love living in the Capital, every time I looked up at the buildings and amazing detail of everything, it takes my breath
away… But there’s just something about nature that can’t be contended with…”

I turned to her and smiled.

“Believe it not, I’ve been thinking about that too… There’s just something about this planet that makes me want to stay, Aeris doesn’t seem like such a great place anymore…”

Sara looked down I could see her eyes start to tear…

“Seeing all this makes it even harder to believe anyone could have ever wanted to harm Aeris in the first place… What good is power over a planet that’s lost everything that makes it special?

“I don’t understand it either Sara… I guess our ancestors just lost touch with what was truly important…”

Neither one of us said anything for a while. I think it’s because we both knew staying was just a dream… We had to go back to Aeris and face our government and the ACI. In reality, even when we finished mining all the chrysos, this would all be far from over…

I wanted to give Kayin time to cool down but I also had something I wanted to talk to him about. After 15 minutes or so I told Sara to come with me and went back over to him. I wanted her input too.

I walked over and leaned up against the main console. I heard it make a noise, so I jumped back and looked at it… Kayin laughed and said “You didn’t do anything, don’t worry.”

I scratched the back of my head and lightly laughed. “Hey I need to talk to you about something… It’s a long way away, but it’s been on my mind.”

He looked calm enough to be interested and really listen. “Yeah of course.”

“I don’t think it’s safe to return to the Aurora.”

They both looked confused and Kayin said “What do you mean?”

“Think about it you two… The ACI obviously has a great deal of control over the government. They specifically sent Horus here to make advancements in human intelligence for THEM… Using the natives to mine the chrysos was just a bonus… I don’t think they’re going to be happy. And if they would knowingly promote something like this, then it’s safe to say they would kill all of us too… Or bury our story and make sure we go to prison.”