by Jaclyn Lewis
My face betrays the shock that has worked its way up my spine and through my heart. Surely, Genna must be able to see I didn’t know this.
“You didn’t know.” Her own surprised concession snaps
my heart back into rhythm.
I replay the video of the smoke and destruction of Earth over and over in my mind. Silas’s memory of the camera—it all makes sense now. I’ve been duped along with them.
Now, my brain is working—first in slow motion and then all at once. I know what we have to do.
“Genna, I want you to find Ember and Silas. Tell them what I told you. I’m going to stay here and look up something. Please know that I’m on your side. Always.”
I kiss her forehead and she walks away. The cat is out of the bag now and it’s time to see how far it will leap.
Part Two
“Remember, my friend, that knowledge is stronger than memory, and we should not trust the weaker.”
–Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Chapter 14
*
Genesis
A molted snake must feel vulnerable after the dead scales are pulled away—so naked and exposed. The way I feel now walking through the atrium back to my den. Like there’s a layer gone and I’m laid bare in a crowd of people. But no one notices me. I’m that inconsequential.
I wanted to press Pax for more information, but he seemed jolted by my revelation from Pavana. I’m shocked he didn’t know. And even more concerned that CGC would hide something like that from a “non-snowflake” staff member.
My mind jumps between that situation and the truth about my siblings. The thought has crossed my mind that Paxton made up the whole story. But then I remember the look in his eyes and I know that as clever as he is, he would not have gone to such great lengths just to fool me. And yet, somehow I feel that the entire Snowflake Project was put here to make a joke of my existence.
Why would a sibling group all volunteer for the same thing? I try to sort out all the questions that hang in the air like Rubik’s squares—refusing to line up in the right colors.
In all fairness, Pax had warned me that he wouldn’t answer any more questions about it before we started. But now they’ve multiplied beyond my control.
This is dangerous for him. However, he wanted me to tell Silas and Ember so he knows the secret’s out. And he knows my curiosity will not slumber. He must know then that we will investigate on our own.
Ember is lying on her bed in her pajamas—most likely she’s been wearing them all day.
“How was the gala?” she asks, setting aside her book reader.
“Enlightening.” I respond. How do you start a conversation like this? “Ember, we need to talk.”
“Ok…listen.” She’s already defensive. “If this is about that guy--Daniel, I told him I just didn’t want to date anyone. It really has nothing to do with him. It isn’t him, it’s me and as trite as that sounds it’s also true. I just feel like…what if I was a wife on Earth? What if I have children waiting for me? I’m not saying it’s wrong for you to do it, but my conscience just…”
“Ember.” I put my hands on her shoulders to try to calm her down. “It has nothing to do with that.” I still don’t know where to begin. “I’ve just heard some news. Do you remember how I told you it was so weird that you and Silas and I were all from Atlanta?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, it’s weird because there’s a reason for it. The three of us are related. You’re my sister.”
Ember squints with a curtain of disbelief drawn in her eyes.
“Fat chance.” she scoffs.
“It’s true. I know it is. Somewhere in your heart you must know it’s possible too.”
She’s thinking now. “No I don’t think it is.”
“Doctor Mitchell thinks it’s the truth.” I tell her.
“Is that all the Doctor told you? He didn’t happen to have any proof, did he?”
“No, but I believe him.” My voice is getting higher with every argument.
“Why? Because he’s young and handsome? I swear, Genna, you are too easily swept off your feet.”
She’s right. I know she’s right about that last part, but I also know what Pax told me has to be the truth. It must explain even just a tiny particle of the uneasiness I feel sucked into every day.
“Ember, we have to tell Silas.”
“You tell him. When you have some real proof I’ll go along with it.” She goes back to her reading
Ember doesn’t believe me and I guess I don’t blame her. Maybe I do sound crazy, but I know Silas will believe it because he’s angry with CGC right now anyway and he’ll be looking for any excuse to take action. Plus, maybe knowing I’m his sister will help him to understand Paxton a little better.
I figure Silas might have gone back to work—to sulk over my rejection of him and find some boxes of cereal to organize.
I’m in deep thought throughout my long walk to the cafeteria kitchen. Small details of the past months turn over again and again in my head. Is there a larger conspiracy here? If so, then what is it? Am I just worrying about nothing? But then I remember the vividness and strangeness of my dreams, the fact that I can’t remember anything of substance, the feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when a new snowflake joins the program and they are clueless just like me—but they don’t ask questions. None of it is natural. None of it makes sense.
The lights have been turned off in the dining hall, but the faint glow from the kitchen let’s me know that someone is there. The inventory list is on the metal table in the center. I pick it up to look it over and see the little tally marks in the column made by Silas. I breathe out a heavy sigh. He’s not around anywhere and I call for him. Someone as particular as Silas certainly wouldn’t have just left his paperwork on the counter and the lights on.
He doesn’t answer. There’s something of a weight that falls on you when you look around at an area that’s usually full of people, life, and busyness. To see that same area empty, you can feel swallowed in the absence of company. Gently returning the list to the table, I turn to extinguish the lights and decide to head to Silas’ dorm.
At the men’s den, the intercom button stares at me as I wait to push it. I’ve never been here and I hesitate a moment. Will he even want to speak to me now?
“Buzz” it rings his room. I’m not really surprised when there’s no answer. He doesn’t want to speak to me and that means I’ll have to wait till breakfast to tell him what I know. It seems almost cruel to have to wait that long to change someone’s life. I wonder if Pax ever felt that way.
Disappointed, I turn around to head back and my heart almost jumps right out of chest as I bump into a dark figure in the hallway. I’m so startled I scream—and then I hear his voice and feel a strong hand clamp over my mouth.
“Genna, you have to come with me—now!” It’s Pax and he’s frightened. I’m frightened. Warmth floods my cheeks and I can feel my heart rate skyrocketing like a metronome that keeps going faster and faster.
We’re running—I don’t know where. I just hold onto him like my life depends on it and I’m suddenly aware that it probably does.
We run down a den I’ve never been to, through passages I didn’t know were there. We come to a card reader and when Pax slides his card through, a doorway opens.
It would be impossible to know there was a doorway there unless you knew where to look. My jaw drops open in sync with the door.
Hurriedly, Pax pulls out a metal disc. “I have to put this over your chip. Otherwise they will know where you are.”
He places the disc over the center of the snowflake tattoo on my face. I stare into his eyes as he does, but we step into the elevator without saying anything else.
“What’s this about, Pax? You’re scaring me.” My voice trembles and I can’t seem to get my heart rate to slow down.
The elevator begins to skyrocket up.
“You’re smart to be afraid. I never should ha
ve told you what I did. But I did it anyway, and then I had to find out something. So I downloaded some secure files and an alarm went off. I’m pretty sure I don’t have much time now before I’ll be arrested…and you’d be reset if they knew.”
All at once, there are stars above us. The elevator is encased in glass. We are shooting up the spire of Erimos Core—on the outside.
“But how? I’ve never seen elevators going up and down before…” My voice trails off as I try to unravel the mystery. How is this possible? But then, if I only had a dime for all the impossible things I’ve seen.
“The elevators are cloaked.” He tells me. “We have to leave Erimos, Genna.”
“And go where exactly? And what about Silas and Ember? Are they in danger, too?” I can’t bear the thought of them hurt or reset because of the answers I begged for.
“I have to go back.” I tell him--panicked.
But all the buttons look the same; not like the elevators in my memories. I try to push past him to get to the panel on the wall.
“No need. I caught Silas before you did and sent him up ahead with Kylee—your roommate. She’s a good pilot and I promised I’d make it worth her while. I think we can trust her”
“What about Ember?” I’m frantic. I can’t leave her behind. Not when I’ve finally learned the truth—the bond we have as sisters. I won’t allow it to be broken even for a moment.
“I had Esther take her a message. She’s smart—like you. If she wants to live, I guess she’ll listen to me.”
His words are cold, but they are not said with malice. These are the words of a man with very limited time to solve a puzzle with too many pieces. I understand, but…she’s my sister.
Then I realize. “You came for me last. Why?”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t come with me unless you knew I had everyone else taken care of. Plus, I couldn’t find you.”
This makes me feel a little better, but still I protest. “I know you must go. I don’t know why you have to, but if Ember doesn’t show up, you just leave without me.”
He knows this puts us in a “catch-22” of sorts. He won’t leave without me. He loves me and it echoes from him in every painful shift of his eyes toward me.
“Ok. If she isn’t at the top, you get in the specter and I’ll go find her.” He assures me.
We must be at the top because the elevator has slowed almost to a halt.
It takes so long for the door to open that I almost think we must have been found out already. Are we locked inside—hundreds of feet above the ground in glass? What if our punishment is to be let go--just free fall to the white dust below?
My fears are relieved doubly when the doors open—and Ember’s face is the first thing I see.
“Did the key card work?” Pax asks them.
“Like a charm.” Silas replies. His voice is spiced with disdain for the doctor, but he knows this isn’t the time or place for the discussion he wants to have.
“Good thing I had two. And you remembered to cover your chips?” Pax has always been so calm, it’s unusual, unsettling, and outright rattling to see him so disheveled and on edge.
I blink and a large specter appears right next to us—so fast I almost scream again. As Pax grabs my hand, I can feel that this may be the last time we see this place. And I’m overcome with the rush of the unknown.
The doors open and we jump inside from the rooftop just as sirens go off and spotlights cling to us from below. Kylee doesn’t even wait for us to sit down before I feel myself melting into the first flashas we head for the planet with the yellow sun—Earth.
Chapter 15
*
Dr. Mitchell
“Has there ever been a part of you that thinks the term ‘volunteer’ might be…too soft a word to be using for what you are?”
Blank faces stare back at me and I can almost hear their hearts slowing—hanging on every word I say.
“I mean, do you ever wonder if you were forced into being a snowflake? Like…you weren’t told everything?”
How many times have I wanted to ask that question of the snowflakes? How many times have I not, because I knew it would mean trouble for me—and also I was afraid of what they might say? Too many of them never questioned anything.
Now I hear myself asking it as I sit across from the trio. I’ve rehearsed it so much that it almost feels like someone else is doing it now and I’m standing over in the corner watching myself.
“Yes.”
“Of course.” I hear mumbled from the three of them.
“Tell me what’s going on—right now!” Ember is never one to pull a punch—even now she is the first on her feet and ready to pounce on whoever gets in her way.
“We’re headed to Earth. It will take five days. We have enough food to get us there, but I don’t know what will happen when we land.” I tell them.
“I uncovered…something.” That’s the understatement of the year, but I can’t think of a better way to say it.
Pregnant silence hangs in the air.
“First, you need to listen to me explain what I know to you. You’ll be angry—probably with me, but there’s a reason for it all so just—listen. Please.
You weren’t volunteers. You weren’t kidnapped either. You were birthed—right on Erimos. All the snowflakes were bought from fertility labs as embryos—a byproduct of en vitro fertilization for couples that couldn’t have children. Fertility was a big problem on Earth even when I was growing up. It was always in the news—it was a painful subject to discuss at best and devastating at its worst. Pretty soon en vitro became the norm.
But for every pregnancy a woman had, there were leftovers—stored cryogenically. Titus Camp—the owner of CGC and one of the discoverers of the Second Galaxy—well, he is a very resourceful man and he bought them.
Erimos and Pavana were meant to be a sort of testing ground for life on other planets. But Camp had already been sued more times than he could count so, he bought the embryos and decided to start a secret colony where the Snowflakes could be matured and observed. Some people on Earth knew about it, but they left him alone when he discovered diamonds on Erimos and could fill their pockets.”
At some point in the conversation, Kylee has joined the group after putting the specter on auto shift. The four of them are dumbfounded and as much as I would like to, I can’t stop there.
Genna’s eyes are welling up with tears. Tiny glittering raindrops fall to the floor and I can feel my own heart breaking as I confess my secrets—as they spill out like water from a breaking dam. I pray that someday she’ll forgive me.
Swallowing hard, I continue. “I volunteered for an internship here. I was a young doctor who was excited about the universe and what it held. I was told that the programming of the snowflakes would delete all personal aspects of their memories. Some amount of base memories had been constructed so that the snowflakes could count, speak, have some ‘real sense of the universe’ and all that. Additionally, the hormone Oxytocin would be suppressed. Oxytocin is responsible for our feelings of love and curiosity. It worked for a while and I didn’t really question it too much.
Nikki and Gavin were the first to exhibit heightened human emotions. Their marriage would later be written off as a trivial anomaly. Still, the staff treated the snowflakes like impersonal beings and I started to as well. But I was shocked to find that they were all developing their own personalities—not just the information they were programmed with.
I sent an e-mail to CGC with my findings and that’s the very day they sent the images—the nukes, the earth blowing up. The city I was from going up in flames. I was devastated. I had been engaged to a woman named Trina and when she died, I did too. I grieved for a long time. I had only been a week away from traveling home when it happened. And then I had no choice but to stay; I had nowhere to go.
It was decided that the snowflakes should have this added knowledge of Earth—with their personalities starting to differentiate so much, the docto
r’s thought that their reactions to the images would help us sort their abilities faster. Titus told us all that he had harnessed a traumatic memory from a survivor of the nuclear holocaust. We used this as the Alpha memory—the images you saw of the building and the woman with the child.
The only problem is that Silas cracked the memory. Because, as I found out, the memory wasn’t a memory at all, but a staged film. The camera that Silas saw proved that. I think they lied to us. I think that Earth hasn’t been destroyed at all and that what they didn’t want me to know is that it is thriving. What I couldn’t figure out though was why CGC went to such great lengths to pull the wool over our eyes. It must have cost an astronomical amount of money.”
Ember stands—legs shaking. “I’ve heard enough. Whatever else you have to say…whatever excuses you’re going to make for lying to all of us. I’ve had it.”
I almost protest, but I know that Ember needs time to process. Heaven knows I would if it were me. I’m almost done and I wish she would stay, but she’s had enough forced on her in her short life and I won’t make it worse now.
“I’m sorry.” I tell them; every part of me shaking now from swallowing back my own guilt. “I did lie to you, but it’s only because they told me that if you knew that you weren’t born like other—people—that you would feel different, discriminated against. They said it was better to make you think this was your choice. And I went along with it—I did, and it was wrong. I can see that now. I hope you all forgive me, but I truly did it because I thought it was better for you. And I have one more thing to tell you. I found something when I hacked the secure files.” I go on. “There were detailed plans for an Asprosium bomb along with an email between Elliot and Titus. I think they are planning to blow up Earth—to make their story of nuclear holocaust a reality. Camp wants to have total control of the snowflakes and the destiny of mankind.”