CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Day Two
Everyone slept like the dead that night, physically exhausted and emotionally drained, overwhelmed by their situation. They slept on the floor, snuggled together on thick Persian carpets and under a large down duvet, each wearing a fur-lined hood in addition to their daytime clothes. The purpose of the sleeping arrangement became clear when Larry turned the heat down and let the temperature drop gradually to minus 10 degrees Celsius. The energy saved, he said, would extend the life of the geothermal well by a year or two. Thanks to the masks, carpets, and duvet, as well as their close proximity to one another inside the tent, the sleepers stayed warm. Anna slept in the middle, snugly ensconced between Larry and Elizabeth, snuggling up to one or the other during the course of the night. Jessica slept on the other side of Elizabeth at one end of the tent, and Nicole slept on the other extremity, her head on Larry’s shoulder.
Around 5:00 a.m. the heating came on, and, a little later, gentle artificial sunlight started streaming in. Fresh morning scents of lilac and pine wafted in from the fragrance bowl, and somewhere above them an electronic cardinal began wooing its mate. Larry was the first to awaken, as he often was. He always slept soundly in any circumstance, position, or company—thanks to a combination of hard work, good habits, and a clear conscience, he claimed—but even he had enjoyed deeper-than-normal slumber. He lay still, unwilling to disturb his bedmates, and incapable of disengaging himself from their tight embrace without doing so.
Eventually Nicole stirred, half-awake, and rolled over to the other side. She too was a good sleeper, though she never got enough rest because of her late hours at the hospital. Always on call, her deep early morning slumber after a late-night shift was often interrupted by a beeping pager. (Her medical specialty should have been called on-call-ogy, Anna used to say.) Late hours and work pressures were a thing of the past now, she mused. She felt immensely relieved, but her relief was tinged with a feeling of uncertainty about how she would fill the long hours that had suddenly opened up to her. She rolled back, now fully awake, and kissed Larry on his cheek. She had always found it wonderful to wake up next to him. Though her physical desire for him was never as intense and urgent as it had been for Philip—her chemistry with Larry seemed to be based on affection rather than sensuality—her joy in snuggling up to him only got better over time. It augured well for their old age, she thought.
“Time to get up, honey,” she whispered, her lips scratching against his stubble.
“Yes,” he whispered back, gently brushing stray wisps of her hair off his face. “There’s lots to do, and I’m already peckish.”
“Me too. Must be something in the air here. Come on, let’s get up.”
“I’d love to, but what do I do about this boa constrictor?” said Larry, pointing to Anna. She was the poorest sleeper of them all. She woke up at the slightest sounds, and when she did she struggled to fall back asleep. Unpleasant dreams often troubled her. Some of them were so disturbing that she would go and seek comfort in the arms of her grandmother. Only the two of them knew about her problem. Nicole slept too soundly to notice, and Jessica didn’t pay much attention to what anyone else did. Whenever Larry was around the house, however, Anna slept better, and her dreams were neutral or pleasant. Now, with Larry right next to her and with Elizabeth’s warm, comforting presence on the other side, she slept like a baby for the first time in years.
At that point, as if sensing Larry’s wish, Anna released him, rolled over, and coiled herself around her grandmother. Elizabeth too was awake but unable to get up because Jessica was lying on her arm. Now her hopes of getting up soon were further diminished. Nicole grinned at her rueful expression. Larry sprang up, and soon the two of them were snuggled together on a couch, sipping freshly-brewed coffee.
“Let’s give them half an hour,” said Nicole.
They didn’t have to wait that long. Perhaps it was the aroma of the coffee or the loss of one of her sleep-mates, but it took only a few more minutes for Anna to rise. Elizabeth also rose, no longer able to lie still, awakening Jessica in the process. Soon they too were sipping coffee.
After a quick wash they followed Larry to the Food dome. Turned on remotely from Central, the oven welcomed them with the warm, yeasty odor of a reheated wholegrain loaf. Breakfast was simple: toast, eggs, fruit, and a drink.
“Delicious,” said Elizabeth, after enjoying her first bite of a peach. Jessica devoured a mango with great relish, while the others ate slices of orange and apple. The fruit bowls were emptying fast.
“Glad you like them,” said Larry, replying to a compliment about the fruit. “I’m afraid our own fruit will need more time to ripen. Any idea how long, Anna?”
“Hard to tell under these conditions,” she replied.
“Take a guess?”
“Well …” Anna put her fork down and stood up. “Let’s go and see.”
The others followed her to the Eco dome. Anna strode up to the peach tree and tapped on its trunk. “I think this one will bear fruit in, like, four to six weeks.” She walked around, examining the other trees. “These citrus trees will need another month or so after that. These two, the mango and avocado, haven’t even started flowering, so that’s going to be six months at least.”
“What are those?” asked Nicole, pointing to a cluster of straight-stemmed plants with large, complex leaves.
“Papayas,” said Anna. “they’re still young, but I think they’re a fast-growing dwarf variety. Give them a year or two. They’ll bear so much fruit that we’ll be all papaya-ed out.”
“So we won’t have any fruit shortage?” asked Larry.
“Not once the trees mature,” Anna said. “Full marks on your choice of plants, Larry! With such a variety, we should have some fruit or another most of the time. And vegetables too, from what I can see. Between the beans, peppers, tomatoes, and onions, we’ll keep our kitchen humming nonstop.”
“Wonderful!” said Nicole. “How about bread, Larry?”
“We’ve more than a thousand loaves in cold storage. Large ones. If we eat one a day, we’re good for three years.”
“No bread after that?” asked Jessica, raising an eyebrow.
“We’ll make our own. We’ve several tons of flour in storage.”
“Won’t it go stale?”
“Not in this cold.”
“You’ve got yeast to ferment the dough, right?” asked Anna.
“You bet, and some sourdough starter as well. In fact, we’ve nearly a hundred varieties of them. And a whole bunch of yogurt cultures too. Hopefully some of them will remain viable.”
“You think of everything!” said Anna.
Larry smiled. “I wish! Let me tell you the things I forgot. Fresh eggs and milk, for instance. We’ve only enough for a few more weeks. We do have loads of powdered stuff, though.”
“I’m sure we can manage great with them,” Anna said.
“Our stock of frozen fish is limited, too. Only tinned fish after that.”
“I’ve eaten worse.”
“And even that was hard to get because the organic food places don’t usually carry many animal products.”
“Couldn’t you find some in the supermarket?” asked Jessica.
“Yes, but I wanted to avoid buying conventional food.”
“Foolish paranoia!” said Jessica. “Nothing wrong with commercial foods. If there was, we’d all be dying like flies.” This was a point of discord with her sister, who wouldn’t touch anything that wasn’t marked “organic.” Evidently, Larry had bought into Anna’s philosophy in that matter. “Isn’t that right, Mum?”
Nicole nodded. “In the short term, I wouldn’t worry. But commercial tinned stuff is often loaded with salt, sugar, preservatives, etc. So in the long-term they might be unhealthy.”
“Couldn’t we have raised our own livestock?” Jessica said. “Imagine eating fresh eggs, yogurt, and cheese every day!”
“It would be wonderful, but perhaps it
’s not easy to keep animals here,” said Elizabeth.
“The Biospherans did that, didn’t they?” Jessica asked her sister.
“Well, they had goats and fish,” Anna said. “But they were in sunny Arizona.”
“Why can’t we do that here?”
“Well, we could’ve raised a goat or two, maybe. But the fishpond would freeze solid, right?”
Larry nodded. “Unless we diverted some energy to heat it.” He turned to Jessica. “I did think about keeping livestock. But I was worried about germs and parasites.”
“Zero risk of that,” Jessica said. “New Zealand has—had—more sheep than people, and they did just fine!” She looked at her mother for agreement.
Nicole shrugged. “Hard to say. Livestock are generally safe. But this is such a new environment, you can’t tell what might happen.”
“But what could happen?”
“The germs might mutate. A flu virus could jump from a fowl to a goat and mix with another flu virus there. The hybrid could infect us. It’s improbable, but not impossible. And some animals carry parasites.”
“Ugh!” said Anna. “Once you introduce a parasite like a tapeworm into our ecosystem you’ll find it almost impossible to get rid of it. Unless you douse the place with chemicals.”
“Oh, let it go,” Jessica growled. “I’m outvoted, as always.”
“You never cared much for farm animals anyway.”
Jessica picked up an apple and opened her mouth to take a bite, then changed her mind and put it back in the bowl. “Farm animals I can take or leave, but it would’ve been nice to have a puppy.”
Jessica loved dogs, finding in their cheerful, undemanding, and uncritical company something she rarely experienced in human relationships. Almost pathologically revolted by human odors and bodily fluids—and therefore highly uncomfortable with the sleeping arrangement in the Shell—she had no such revulsion for her slobbering, smelly canine friends. She never got tired of romping with them, allowing them to gnaw on her wrists and tear her clothes to shreds. She would emerge from each such session with her face aglow and her mood elevated. For the rest of the day, she would be as close to good natured as she could. But she rarely got this opportunity. Her pet peeve was that she could not have dogs at home—both Nicole and Anna were allergic to them.
“Yes, it would’ve been really nice,” agreed Larry, an animal lover himself. “Perhaps a St. Bernard or two, and a bunch of spaniels.”
“Nothing like a litter of puppies frisking around to keep our spirits up,” said Elizabeth. “It’s a much better remedy for low spirits than any counseling session. Fortunately, people didn’t know that, or I’d have been out of a job.”
“I love dogs too, though I’m allergic,” said Anna. “But our food here is limited, and they’d be competing with us for it.”
“We couldn’t spare some scraps for a puppy? Are we that selfish?”
Anna clicked her tongue. “Look, this place is designed for our own survival. It’s not a Noah’s Ark for other species, you know.”
Jessica sighed. “Yeah, maybe pets are a luxury.”
It was a rare concession, Elizabeth noted. Usually, Jessica stuck to her guns in any argument, unswayed by facts or logic. She gave her granddaughter a swift, pleased glance. I hope this is a sign of things to come, she thought.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Schedule
When they finished breakfast and returned to Central, Larry passed around a printed schedule to everyone.
“This is a rough daily program I’ve come up with,” he said. “Tell me what you think.”
6 : wake up
6.30 : gym and shower
8.30 : breakfast
9.30–11.30 : work, session 1
11.30–1.30 : work, session 2
1.30 : lunch
2.30–5 : classes
5–7 : cleaning chores and personal time
7 : dinner
8–10 : family time
10 : sleep
“Looks rather regimented,” Nicole said, “but I guess we’ll need some routine.”
Larry nodded. “Yes. But before finalizing it, I’d like your input.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be, like, the evil dictator who listens to no one?” Anna teased.
Larry smiled sheepishly. “I didn’t say I won’t listen to suggestions.”
“The work sessions will be in the outer domes?” asked Nicole.
“That’s right, we’ll go to our respective domes. But never alone. None of us should venture outside Central alone.”
“Because it’s unsafe?”
“Yes. A lot of thought has gone into the Shell’s design, but there are still too many potential risks.” He rummaged inside a drawer under the main console and fished out a set of small pen-shaped devices with blinking blue LED tips. “These are communicators,” he said. “They work wirelessly within domes and use cables between domes. Carry one of these on you at all times. Click the red button and everyone will hear what you say, until you click it off.” He handed the gadgets around. For a few seconds Anna played with hers, clicking it on and off and speaking nonsense words into it until everyone dissolved into giggles.
“Who goes to which work sessions?” asked Jessica.
“I didn’t think it through yet. Since we have five teams, we should be able to send a team to each dome for one of the two sessions. This is what I mean,” he said and drew the following table on the wall:
“It won’t work!” said Jessica.
“Why not?”
“Logic.”
“We have five teams and five domes to work on. Where’s the problem?”
“The teams overlap.”
“I don’t understand.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “Think of it this way. Two sessions, five domes. So one of the sessions should have at least three teams working simultaneously. But each team has two members and there are only five of us.”
“Ah, I get it. At any given session, we can’t have more than two and a half teams.”
Comprehension dawned on the others as well. “Very clever, Jessica!” said Anna. “Beats me how you solve complex logic problems in your head.”
“Yes, well done,” said Larry. “Looks like I’ll have to break the no-single-person rule for myself. Let’s say that we do Health and Air in session one, and Geo, Eco, and Food in session two. I’ll spend half my Geo time solo, and fetch Anna to join me for the second half. We’ll escort Nicole, Anna’s Eco partner, to wherever she wants to go.”
“I could probably go and help out in the kitchen a bit,” said Nicole.
“That won’t work, either,” said Jessica, with a touch of smugness.
“No?”
“No.”
“Could you explain?”
“Where would you put Anna in session one? She has to be in either Eco, her major, or Geo, her minor, right? You’ll be with me in Air, so she can’t join you in Geo, and Mum will be in Health, and can’t join Anna in Eco!”
“Got me again!” said Larry. He thought for a moment and drew this new schedule:
“How about this?” he said.
“Cuts our time in Health short, but we won’t have much work there,” said Nicole. “So works for me.”
“Okay with me too,” said Anna. “I wasn’t planning to become a medical expert, but hey, whatever works.”
Everyone turned toward Jessica, half-expecting her to spot yet another flaw, but she merely shrugged and said: “Inelegant, but the logic is sound.”
Elizabeth noted that the schedule never put the two sisters together at any time. She wondered if this was a conscious choice on Larry’s part or just an accidental fallout of the complicated logic. She debated raising the point but decided to let it go. Keeping the two girls apart will minimize potential conflicts, at least for now, she thought.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Routine
Larry’s complicated schedule worked surprisingly well. By the second week, life a
t the Shell settled into a smooth routine. Nicole was pleased to see that everyone took their morning workout seriously. Anna and Larry had always been keen on fitness, so their enthusiastic participation was only to be expected. But neither Jessica nor Elizabeth had previously shown much interest in working out. To her pleasant surprise, they participated willingly, if not eagerly. As time went by, both got trimmer, while the others continued to stay fit. At least no one will fall sick due to lack of exercise, Nicole thought.
The work sessions ran smoothly as well. At the Air dome, Jessica initially found the equipment hideously complicated, with its tangle of pipes and gauges, and the manuals practically unreadable. She returned to Central from work each day scowling, with her clothes reeking of lubricant, her face streaked with tears, and her hands chapped and bleeding. But things improved as the days went by. Larry taught her whatever he knew. Building on that, and painstakingly figuring out the purpose of each motor, conduit, or gauge, Jessica soon began to feel more at ease. Larry encouraged her to do the basic maintenance tasks, and within a few months she was more adept at them than he was. Knowing her love of solitude, he stayed out of her way as much as possible and eventually let her do all the maintenance by herself.
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