by s. Behr
I felt my mouth crack a hint of a smile, when Hailey, who looked like a kid at a harvest festival said, “I ordered another bowl for you.”
The rule of threes says the average human can survive three minutes without air, three hours without shelter in an extreme climate, three days without water, and three weeks without food. I had fled Hattan a little more than three days ago.
“Does that rule apply to everyone?” I asked Hailey between gulps, who was watching me as if a crazy girl and her fox drinking water was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen.
“Climate, stress, injury, illness, elevation, and activity can dramatically affect those time frames, but since you are an evolved species of human, there are no studies for me to rely upon for a more precise estimation of what your physiology can withstand.”
I slurped down the last of my third bowl of water, my stomach uncomfortably full. “I never really thought about it before,” I said, wiping my chin. “Growing up in Neyr, it’s not something most people worry about.”
Suddenly, I wondered how other realms would survive a drought or if supplies were delayed from Neyr, Exa, or Orlea, which were the other major food supplying realms. In a desert climate like the Phoenix Realm, the water was deep underground. Without a well water conjurer, or a really good telekinetic, it could be weeks before a supply hover arrived.
“How did they do it?” I asked, staring into my empty bowl.
“Who, Princess Violet?”
“The humans before the ice age.”
“And to what ‘it’ are you referring?”
Rehydration had refilled my body and my patience, so I rephrased. “How did the people from before the ice age survive with so many people to take care of? We barely have little more than two million people in all of Amera. I can’t even imagine what a billion would look like, let alone twenty billion, and trying to feed them? That feels impossible.”
Hailey had a faraway look. “At the end, there were one hundred and ninety-six countries. There were at least that many different ideas of how to govern the allocation of resources.” She continued to describe what life was like back then, and the longer she spoke, the more I realized how immensely lucky I had been to grow up in a society like Amera.
As I listened, it struck me, this wasn’t data she was pulling up from some hard drive—these were her memories. She had lived through the end of days for her creators. She had witnessed the billions that starved or succumbed to the elements. Everyone she had ever known was dead, and a profound sadness bloomed in my chest; something I never thought I could feel for an A.I., especially after all she had put me through.
A tiny yowl interrupted Hailey’s reverie. The kit sat up and looked around with big, expectant eyes.
“You’re feeling better.” Relieved to see she had regained some of her spunk, I checked her bandages and found her paw was still warm but the swelling nearly gone. She chewed on my fingers while I changed her bandages. When I was done, she yowled again, nosing my fingers for anything I might be hiding. “I am sorry, girl. I still don’t have anything to feed you.”
I looked at Hailey, wondering when she was going to let us go. If conjuring water wasn’t enough, what would be?
“I don’t believe that you are correct, Your Highness.” Hailey’s innocent smile returned.
“What do you mean?” I dared to hope that we had finally passed.
“Look behind the fox’s right ear, in her fur,” Hailey said, deflating my hopes that she had lifted the ban on the kitchen vaults.
Pulling the fox to me, I checked the back of her head. Tangled in her fur was one perfect apple seed. A mix of fear and hunger overwhelmed me. Conjuring water was one thing but trying to manipulate a seed was something else entirely. Memories of my father swam before me.
“I—I am not sure I can,” I stammered to both Hailey and the fox. “I don’t have soil. I’m not sure what I can do with just the nutrients in the air.”
“Now, that too is something I can help you with.” Hailey’s head tilted and several long, nerve-wracking seconds passed until the panel that produced the bowls opened again. This time there was a container the size of a giant pumpkin filled with soil.
“Where did this come from?” I asked, wondering what else could appear from the magic portal.
She smiled. “That information requires a higher level of security.”
I shook my head. “Of course, how could I forget.”
“I believe that you have what you require to make use of that seed.”
“It’s not that simple,” I whispered, my voice strained. “I’m not sure that I can do this.”
“You didn’t think you could conjure the water either, but you did. By all accounts, it certainly can’t hurt to try,” Hailey encouraged.
I shuddered at how wrong she was. The fox laid her head in my lap and let out a weak sigh. She felt lighter than she had when I found her sitting on my chest by the river. Her body was working hard to fight the infection, and starving just made things worse. My heart twisted, knowing I could put an end to her hunger, but the dread that lingered in me knew it could just as easily be a disaster.
“Is there something we can do to keep her safe? Can you call up a box or shield to keep her in?”
Hailey tilted her head. “I don’t understand the request.”
I was afraid. Afraid of trying and afraid of failing. But I knew soon it wouldn’t matter. I would be too weak to try.
“I just want to make sure that she won’t be harmed if she gets too close,” I said, attempting to mask my fear.
“Yes, of course, that makes sense.” Hailey nodded as a shimmer appeared around the fox. The kit didn’t notice the barrier until she tried to follow me across the room. Two hobbled steps and she bumped into an invisible wall.
“It’s not hurting her, is it?” I winced each time she smashed her head, trying to escape.
“Oh no, Princess, it is an inert energy barrier. It will keep her contained, but it is not armed.”
I stared at the A.I., not wanting to know what an armed barrier meant.
I dismissed the disturbing thought and focused on the task. Dragging the heavy bowl to the center of the room, I reminded myself of what Hailey had said when we first arrived. There was nothing alive in here, except us. That meant I couldn’t cause anything to spontaneously erupt or cave in, and the fox was protected in her little magic bubble. I was out of excuses.
Taking several deep breaths, I pressed the apple seed into the dirt in the center of the pot. I tried to think of everything I could remember about sprouting and growing trees. But when my mind opened up, all I could picture was the first spring I was old enough to remember going to my grandparents’ farm.
Spring had been earlier than usual that year; there was still snow on the mountains far on the northern horizon. The air had been crisp, but the sun warm. My mother had elected to stay at the farmhouse to finish packing the hover, knowing how much every second in that forest meant to my father. He and I had struck out on foot down a well-worn trail leading to a year-round warm spring that even in the coldest of winters, no matter how much snow fell, the water was comfortable to swim in.
I felt the breeze on my face as he carried me on his shoulders up the hill until we reached the crest, and a meadow appeared with a large pond in the center. Thickets of trees with sprays of color dotted the tree line surrounding the outer edge of the grass. The light filtering onto the water was soft and twinkled gently across the steamy surface.
My father had set me down. “Can you smell it, Violet?”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. I closed mine and did the same. The air smelled of fresh grass and morning dew. I opened my eyes to see my father smiling at me.
“Did you smell it?” he asked again with a grin.
“The grass?” I asked, unsure if it was some kind of trick.
He laughed. “No Petal, the flowers. Can you smell them?”
I studied his face and the mea
dow around us. I inhaled again, but still, I only smelled grass. “No, Papa. I don’t.”
“Well, we can’t have that. Our job as the Royal Court of Neyr is to make it the most wonderful place to live.” He picked me up, and we continued along the trail. But then, he stopped abruptly, setting me down as he kneeled on the ground. Gently brushing away leaves and twigs, he exposed a small sprout of a plant. “Hello there,” he cooed as if he were talking to a baby.
On his hands and knees, he cleared away more winter debris in an area several feet wide. “Do you see this, Violet?”
“Yes, Papa.” I studied the little plant in his fingertips.
“This is the flower you were named after, and this over here is your mother’s other favorite flower. Do you know what that is?”
“Lavender,” I declared, proudly.
His laugh had been hearty. “That’s right. Now, do you think your mother would like to see the violets or the lavenders?”
Debating with myself, I finally said, “Both.”
My father grinned and rubbed my cheek. “You always think of the most beautiful things. Okay, violets and lavenders coming up.”
I watched, mesmerized as my father placed his hands on the ground. He surveyed the meadow with his violet eyes. Then a shimmer appeared throughout the meadow, and from the edge of the water to the base of the trees, sprays of green burst through the layer of dried leaves.
Soon, the pale green carpet of sprouts surrounding the pond exploded like tiny floral fireworks, clusters of purple flowers shooting straight and tall, while others plumped outward into rounded sprays that were shades of violet with hints of yellow. My father had watched with joy and awe as the meadow came alive with plants that lay dormant just minutes earlier.
Despite the display happening around us, to me, he had been the most amazing thing in that meadow.
“Can you smell them now?”
I landed back in the present, still able to smell the blooms in this stark room at the Ark.
“Bravo,” I heard Hailey whoop with approval, snapping me out of my reverie.
My eyes opened, and I blinked in confusion as I saw a fully formed tree before me. The bowl was in pieces scattered under the roots that were sprawling outward in all directions. The trunk rose into a canopy, six feet tall, and its branches stretched out several feet wide, all of them full of the green leaves of an apple tree. Looking into the boughs, I saw several clusters of fruit, round and ripe. But I didn’t understand the lavender buds spraying out in haphazard shoots.
Bewildered, I picked a lavender spray off a branch. It smelled of the meadow from my memory. I pulled an apple from the same branch, and the tree tipped as I tugged.
“Oops, can’t have that falling over.” Hailey chuckled. A shimmer of light surrounded the trunk as it had the fox. “It is now secured.”
But I barely heard her. “I must be exhausted. I think I’m seeing things.”
“It appears to be a lavender-apple hybrid. How did you do that with only one kind of seed?” Hailey asked as if I’d meant to do this intentionally.
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how it had happened. I had seen my father grow amazing things a thousand times. But I had never heard of something like this. It would have made some kind of headline in the news feeds, somewhere along with all the documented history of my parents’ achievements, their romance, and even our family. This was new to me.
The fox wobbled over to my side on three legs, demanding attention as I turned the apple in my hand over and over.
“It looks delicious,” Hailey said, admiring the perfect and ripe fruit.
Without thinking, I took a bite, and it was delicious. Breaking a piece off, I crouched down to let the kit sniff it, but she pulled the bigger piece of apple out of my hand and scooted away to devour her treat. Picking several more apples, I carried the fruit and fox back to our picnic by the stairs. Sitting down, I tried to recall what I did to make this happen. But all I remembered was the farm.
“That was magnificent, Princess Violet,” Hailey cheered.
The fox was happily gnawing on her apple when my stomach clenched, reminding me I was still hungry. Eating my apple slowly, I watched Hailey circle the tree until she flickered, reappearing next to us.
“That was the best thing I have seen in more than 13,000 years. You must come from a beautiful city.” She grinned, a hint of envy around her eyes.
“It is,” I answered, my heart heavy. “I don’t think there is a more beautiful place on the entire planet.”
“Don’t worry,” Hailey said as if she could read my mind. “You will see it again.”
“How can you know that?” I sighed.
“I cannot be one hundred percent sure where you will go when you leave here, but I do know that I am so pleased that you have exceeded expectations. I am happy to announce that you are now authorized to assume probationary command of the Ark.” My last bite of apple fell from my mouth as Hailey beamed at me. “Congratulations!”
“Decontamination?” I didn’t like the sound of that, especially after she had declared when we first arrived that comfort had not been a priority to the builders of this Ark.
“Yes, Your Highness. Every time you leave the Ark, you will need to pass through the decontamination system upon reentry. It is the protocol. But if you forgive me for saying, you look like you could use a little refreshing; it seems the journey here was exciting.”
“Um, yes,” I answered, pressing my lips together. I didn’t know if it was because she was from another civilization and I was losing something in the translation, but she looked at me like she had a sense of smell. And I must not smell like a rose.
“This way, Your Highness.” Hailey gestured for me to follow.
“You don’t have to call me that.”
“What would you like me to call you?” she asked as she led me down a corridor under the left bank of stairs.
“Violet is fine,” I said, keeping pace as Hailey led me to a set of frosted glass doors.
“Seems a little too informal for royalty.” Before I could reassure her it was perfectly fine, Hailey spoke to an unseen com. “Level One authorization confirmed, Princess Violet Amplifien.”
The doors opened into a stark room that was dim, except for three bright lights in the ceiling along the right wall. The beams of light made circles on the floor about two feet wide.
“Please place the fox under any one of the lights.”
I did as she asked, and another energy field formed around her.
“Now if you could please remove your garments and stand under any of the other lights.”
“My clothes?”
“Have the bathing customs changed in your society?”
“What do you mean?”
“Do your people shower with your clothes on?”
“No,” I said, wondering if the A.I.s were programmed to joke.
With her annoying, but perfect smile stretched across her face, she continued. “All external contaminants must be removed before we can continue, and unless these are sentimental to you, they will be recycled. With the amount of dirt that has been ground into the fabric, I believe they are past their usefulness, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Sure,” I couldn’t help wondering who set her conversation protocols.
“Wonderful.” Hailey clapped as she turned around. Despite her attitude, I appreciated the irony that the A.I. was conscious of modesty. This was awkward enough, and I was glad I didn’t have a strange face staring at me while I was naked.
Sitting on the bench, I started undressing, feet first. My shoes practically fell off, but my socks were a different story. The skin on my feet had been wet for nearly two days, and the fabric never really got the chance to dry out. Cringing, I peeled away the fabric, careful not to take my skin with it. Slipping off the rest of my suit, my head swam at the sight of a sickening marble of purple, green, and yellow covering nearly all of my skin. I had been everything from frightened to e
nraged to exhausted. But here in the quiet of this room, the aches bloomed all over my body. I stood, attempting to distract myself by focusing on getting through this decontamination process. I gathered up my clothes and saw splotches of dried red mixed in with the mud. Hailey was right; nothing was going to save this suit.
“What should I do with these?” I asked, looking around. The room was completely empty, no furniture, only smooth panels that had small silver seams.
“Oh, yes. Put them in here please.” She pointed as the wall next to me opened, and a drawer appeared. I placed the remnants of my suit in the drawer, and it promptly disappeared.
Although I hated to admit it, Hailey was right. I needed some refreshing. I tried not to focus on the fact that this could be my last shower and concentrated on hoping that the clothes came with this process and that she wouldn’t mind if I took them with me when I left.
Stepping into the cone of light, I announced, “I’m ready.”
“Perfect. One moment please,” she said, her back still to me. She tilted her head, and her ponytail swished.
“This can’t be real. I must be dreaming,” I mumbled.
“No, Princess Violet, I assure you, you are not,” she said, just as a brisk spray shot out from the wall, the floor, and the ceiling.
“Ooow!” I squealed, and the fox howled.
“Perhaps we should have used some sedation on the fox,” Hailey said, and I turned to stare at the back of her head.
“You’re thinking of that now!” I yelled over the cold spray.
“My apologies. It will only be 101 seconds more.” I couldn’t see her face, but I was sure she was smirking. The harsh jets continued to pound my deeply bruised skin, and when I turned and looked at the fox, she was smashed against a nearly invisible shield, pawing and biting at the liquid that sprayed her from every direction.
The smell of lemons and sanitizer filled my nose, and I held my breath, unsure of what chemicals were dousing my body. The people in ancient times had been known to use many concoctions that were eventually replaced by less toxic formulas.