New Eden

by Kishore Tipirneni

  Next to the pictures was a Bluetooth speaker. Joshua pushed the pairing button on the device and paired it to his phone. He lay down on the couch and browsed the music library on his phone.

  Meanwhile, Rachael dropped her keys and the day’s mail on the kitchen countertop before opening the refrigerator door and taking out a carton of orange juice. Pouring a tall glass and taking a long sip, she thought she’d never tasted anything sweeter in her life. She realized that the alcohol had left her dehydrated.

  “Hey, Josh!” she called. “Want some juice? Water? Anything?”

  There was no reply.

  “Josh?”

  She walked into her spare bedroom, which she used as an office. She preferred order and neatness, but she’d never been able to tame the clutter since she was always working on multiple articles at any given time.

  “Josh?”

  She walked down the hall, stopped, and saw Joshua lying on her couch. She thought his unshaven face was rugged and appealing in the muted light of the single floor lamp of the room.

  “I’m beat,” he said. “I guess I really did have more to drink than I thought. You were right. I couldn’t have handled the Harley tonight. Thanks for looking out for me.”

  Rachael sat on the smaller couch and stared at Joshua blankly. Myriad thoughts coursed through her mind—spookyons, aliens, dancing, and the kiss that she and Joshua had shared on the dance floor.

  “Anything the matter?” Joshua asked.

  “Just reflecting,” Rachael answered.

  “This is definitely a day I’ll never forget.”

  “Me neither,” Rachael replied. She saw that Joshua was just a little too tall to fit on the couch. “You don’t look very comfortable.”

  “It’s fine. I’ll be okay.”

  That was not entirely the response she had hoped for. “Okay,” she sighed. “Let me get you a blanket and pillow.”

  Joshua stared at her as she walked to the bedroom. He selected a song from his music library on his phone, “You’ll Accompany Me” from Bob Seger, and started playing it. A minute later, Rachael emerged from her bedroom empty-handed.

  “No spare blankets?” Joshua asked.

  Rachael didn’t say a word. Instead she grasped Joshua’s hand and led him to her bedroom. The music wafted to the bedroom from the living room. Joshua sat down on the bed and smiled as Rachael sat next to him, slipped her arm around his waist, and lay her head on his shoulder. He was about to speak when she silenced him by putting her index finger vertically across his lips.

  “How did you know that I love this song?” she asked.

  “I didn’t. Just how I’m feeling at the moment.”

  “You are a romantic, aren’t you Dr. Andrews?”

  “Only with the right person.” Joshua appeared reflective as he stared into Rachael’s eyes. “We did have a real moment at the club, didn’t we? I mean, that wasn’t my imagination, was it? It wasn’t just the Gray Goose and the music, right?”

  “No, it wasn’t the Gray Goose or the music. It was spooky action at no distance,” Rachael answered, poking her index finger at his chest. She repeated the phrase more slowly, playfully jabbing him to punctuate each word. “Spooky . . . action . . . at . . . no . . . distance.”

  “So we’re entangled?”

  “Not yet, but the night’s not over.”

  Joshua pulled her body close, kissed her cheeks, and then her lips as they reclined and began to make out. After several minutes, the song finished, and Joshua ceased his amorous activity and sat up to better see the woman he was in bed with. He used spread fingers as a comb to straighten his tousled hair.

  “You’re incredible,” he said. “I’ve never met anyone like you.”

  “Come on, Josh,” she said, catching her breath and brushing hair from her eyes. “You can do better than that. I’ve heard better dialogue on a soap opera while waiting in a doctor’s office.”

  “I forgot,” Joshua said with a small eye roll. “You’re a writer.”

  “That’s right, and you just interrupted an intense scene we were collaborating on.”

  A serious look replaced the smile on his face as he traced her lips lightly with his index finger. “You’re beautiful, intelligent, and self-confident.” He spoke the words quietly but seriously. “I find that to be a combination very hard to resist.”

  “That’s a little better.” Rachael closed her eyes as Joshua stroked her hair. “And you don’t have to resist.”

  Joshua slid his arm behind Rachael’s neck and pulled her to his lips. They fell into each other’s arms. A few minutes later, the lights were dimmed, and no more words were spoken.

  19

  Black SUVs

  Joshua awoke the next morning to an empty bed as he took a few moments to get his bearings. Propping himself on his elbows, he squinted because of the light seeping through levered blinds and looked at the side of the bed where Rachael had fallen asleep a few hours earlier. He touched the pillow and smiled, reflecting on how the lyrics of a few songs had moved them from friends to lovers in a matter of hours.

  He heard the shower running in Rachael’s bathroom, a sound both pleasing and intimate. He glanced at the clock on the nightstand, which read 7:50 a.m., and reclined again, his hands laced behind his head. He usually rose at five to jog and get to the lab early. Listening to the running water, he thought of entering the bathroom, but reconsidered since he wasn’t sure where their relationship was headed. The chemistry between him and Rachael had developed quickly—some things move faster than the speed of light, he thought—although it had felt natural and unforced. Still, he didn’t want to be presumptuous. Instead, he got up and dressed, his mind still brain-fogged from downing shots at the Rock Candy. He’d been more than a little buzzed at the club, and it occurred to him that if he felt this groggy, then Vinod must be all but comatose.

  “Gotta get some coffee,” he said aloud to himself, swinging his feet over the edge of the bed. “The neurotransmitters aren’t firing yet at full strength.”

  He shuffled into Rachael’s kitchen and found a Keurig coffee machine. He scrounged around the cabinets, found a dark roast—the perfect prescription for what ailed him, he thought—placed it in the machine, and started it up. The sound was music to his ears—still ringing from the much louder music of the dance club. After the machine finished, he sat down at the round kitchen table—a natural wood finish—with his mug of coffee, the side of which had the slogan SCIENTISTS MAKE DISCOVERIES—WRITERS MAKE THEIR REPUTATIONS. The caffeine and humor rapidly brushed away the cobwebs.

  Glancing at the Keurig, its simple black configuration caused the image of the Bowman sphere nesting in the interface module—a simple process of association—to flash through his mind, and he was suddenly focused on the critical decision he and Rachael would make in the next few hours as to how to present their discovery to the world. His focus was short-lived, however.

  Barefoot, Rachael walked in, dressed in jeans and a blouse, a towel wrapped around her head. Joshua thought she looked as beautiful as ever even in casual clothes, and his eye was drawn to the slight wiggle in her hip thanks to the contour of her faded jeans. He was now fully awake as he watched Rachael’s lithe form move about the kitchen.

  “Good morning,” she said with a smile.

  “Good morning. I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself to some of your coffee.”

  “Of course not,” Rachael replied, “although the latte is more expensive if you want another cup. The tip jar is on the counter, by the way.”

  “So now you’re a barista?”

  “Only when I’m not helping to discover extraterrestrial life.” Rachael made herself a cup and sat next to Joshua, both hands folded around the cup. “This is my home, silly, not a bed and breakfast. You don’t need to ask for permission.”

  “Got it,” Joshua said. “Anyway, that was really amazing—what happened yesterday, that is.”

  “Which part?” Rachael asked with a bemused exp
ression. “Talking with aliens, dancing at the Rock Candy, or spending the night with me? Choose your answer carefully.”

  “All three,” Joshua replied with a smile before turning to face her. “Listen, Rachael, I know we only met a couple of days ago, but believe me, this is not the norm for me. I’m not the kind of guy who’s into one-night stands. All of yesterday, including last night, was special for me. As Vinod might say, I felt a kind of synergy with you by my side. What I’m saying is that I really have strong feelings towards you, and well, I just wanted you to know that.”

  The warmth of Rachael’s smile was highlighted by the morning sun streaming through the window over the kitchen sink.

  She’s beautiful. Poetry in motion. God—another cliché! I’ve fallen hard.

  “I appreciate the candor. Does it surprise you that the feelings are mutual?” Rachael reached out and covered Joshua’s hand with hers as they drank their morning caffeine.

  “I was hoping you’d say that. I’ve felt a connection since we met, no spookyons required.”

  Many incredible events had transpired over the past two days, but meeting Joshua had impacted Rachael the most. She leaned closer to him, her shoulder touching his arm. It felt natural that they should be sitting together after all they’d been through the day before. And their emotional connection on the dance floor had been unanticipated but electric. She thought back to her conversation with Joshua about God and how things don’t happen by random chance. Like Joshua, she felt they were destined to be sitting next to each other at this moment, which was, of course, a most unscientific way to view things.

  But it’s what I believe. We met for a reason, and I’m really into this guy after just forty-eight hours.

  “Have you made a decision on what we should do next about making further contact with Seth?” she asked.

  “Yeah. I still believe we should call Robert Langdon. He’s the director of NASA that I alluded to last night. What do you think?”

  “If you feel that you can trust him, then I think that would be the best choice. Unless you think notifying the university might be a better option. I presume they own the spookyon.”

  Joshua sipped his coffee, giving the suggestion some thought.

  “They technically own my work, but we captured a primordial particle by accident, and the ensuing dialogue with Seth was not part of my research grant or what I was hired to do at the lab. This is my own discovery. Our discovery. This is too big an event to get mired in academic bureaucracy and wrangling.”

  “The board isn’t going to be happy. It will surely invoke ownership regardless. There could be some legal wrangling.”

  “I can’t see them circumventing NASA, and even if they claim the discovery as theirs, universities give credit to their faculty members all the time. Besides, they wouldn’t dare throw me under the bus or it would reflect badly on them. I’ll give them a ton of good publicity, and their alums will fill their coffers pretty fast.”

  “I agree. Langdon it is.”

  “Good. I’ll call him now. I want you here with me when I talk to him. He needs to know all the details, including who was there when Seth came through. I want complete transparency.”

  Joshua took out his phone, dialed the director, and placed his phone on speaker so Rachael could hear the conversation. He placed the phone on the table, waiting for an answer.

  “Hello,” Robert Langdon said when the call was put through. His tone of voice was low and businesslike.

  “Good morning, Robert. This is Joshua Andrews.”

  “Dr. Andrews, how are things going?” The director’s voice was now cordial and enthusiastic. “Any progress on creating spookyons in that underground hideaway of yours?”

  Joshua paused, took a deep breath, and looked at Rachael for moral support. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I’m here with Rachael Miller, who’s a reporter with Scientific American, and we have something very exciting to share with you.”

  “Hello, Mr. Langdon,” Rachael said. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Hi, Miss Miller. I’m a big fan of yours. I’ve read many of your articles, in fact. Very impressive work. You write with accuracy and clarity, but also have a stylistic flare. If you ever leave journalism, you’d make a great public relations director here at NASA given your communication skills and knowledge of science.”

  The director of NASA knew of her? “Thank you. I’m flattered.” Taken aback, she looked at Joshua and mouthed three words: A job offer?

  “What’s this exciting news you two have to share with me?” Langdon asked. “Got some entangled spookyons?”

  “Yes and no,” Joshua replied slowly. “But it’s much bigger than that.”

  “Bigger? In what way?”

  Joshua and Rachael relayed the happenings of the last couple of days, including the creation of the spheres, receiving the signal in the bat cave, the running of Vinod’s algorithm, and a summary of their conversation with Seth, although they omitted specific scientific details, such as the aliens’ ability to engineer DNA. Joshua didn’t want to put the director on information overload, and he thought too many details—shape-shifting aliens, for one—might result in his account being relegated to the category of science fiction.

  When they had finished, Langdon, on the verge of shock, said nothing for several seconds. The story was unbelievable, but he knew that Joshua was not one to kid around. He knew that no matter how outrageous the story sounded—primordial spookyons and an algorithm to teach English to aliens were especially difficult to swallow—they were telling the truth.

  “My God, you have a penchant for understatement,” Langdon said. “Exciting? To say the least! Congratulations, you two. You’ve actually made first contact with an alien species. I never thought it would happen in my lifetime.”

  “Thanks,” Joshua said, grateful that the director hadn’t laughed out loud or hung up on him. “We weren’t sure what to do next, but we thought contacting you made sense.”

  Joshua heaved a sigh of relief as he held Rachael’s hand.

  “Well, I’m glad you did. I assure you that calling me was the right thing to do. A lot of scientists, eager for recognition, would have put this on social media immediately.”

  Joshua declined to provide details as to how Vinod had been seconds away from doing just that. It would do nothing to bolster the director’s confidence in the three.

  There was another pause on the line, and Joshua grew paranoid. Was Robert routing the call to others? Recording it? He thought he heard the faintest clicking sound on the other end of the line. Vinod’s words of warning were already echoing in his mind.

  “Uh . . . who else knows about this?” Langdon continued. The last words were added with caution, giving Joshua yet another reason to be suspicious.

  “No one,” Joshua replied. “Just Rachael, Vinod, and myself.”

  “No one at the Bowman Particle Research Center? Or at the university?”

  “Just us three. The university had nothing to do with it.”

  There was another pause on the line, this one longer than the first.

  “That’s good,” Langdon said. “Very good. You may not know this because it’s not public information, but we actually have protocols in place at NASA on what to do in case of first contact. They’ve been on the books for years. Where is the Bowman sphere presently?”

  “It’s back at the lab,” Joshua said, “although we’re not there now. We’re in Palo Alto, but we’ll be heading to the lab shortly.”

  “Okay, I need to make some phone calls, but stay the course. Don’t tell anyone else about this, as tempting as it might seem. Something like this has to be . . .” He didn’t finish his sentence. “I’ll contact you soon with the next steps. Truly amazing, guys, and once again—congratulations.”

  “Steps?” Rachael asked. “Can you be a little more specific?”

  “Unfortunately, not at this time.”

  “Sounds good,” Joshua replied, signaling to Rac
hael that she shouldn’t ask any further questions. “We’ll wait to hear back from you.” He ended the call, feeling relieved that he’d finally been able to share the dramatic news with someone he deemed trustworthy.

  “Why can’t he tell us what he’s going to do?” Rachael asked, clearly bothered. “And did you notice his hesitation towards the end of the call?”

  “Yes, but I don’t think he wanted to describe NASA’s protocols for such an extraordinary discovery over a non-secure line. I was concerned too, but in retrospect, I think he was as overwhelmed as we were yesterday and didn’t know quite how to respond.” Joshua thought for a moment, as if trying to convince himself of his own answer. “Yes, we had to tell someone, and if I were Robert Langdon, I’d be very careful about what I said over the phone.”

  Rachael took a deep breath and considered the response. “Okay, makes sense. Sounds like we really blindsided him, though.”

  “Of course we did. There’s no easy way to break such an extraordinary discovery. We’ll just have to wait and see what he comes up with.”

  Joshua and Rachael finished their morning coffees, and Joshua grabbed both cups, rinsed them in the sink, and sat back down next to Rachael. “Now then—you almost ready?” he asked. “I’d like to get back to the lab and get out of these clothes.”

  “Sure,” Rachael replied. “Let me fix my hair.”

  Joshua grabbed her hand before she could get up from the table. “Rachael, I’m so glad that I took your interview,” he said as he leaned over to kiss her. “One of the best decisions I ever made. Sorry for being so grumpy that day.”

  “Not to worry. You made up for it on the dance floor—and in other ways.”