Athena's Choice

by Adam Boostrom

  Athena nodded, as though she understood.

  The man spoke again, “You must come with me if you want to save her. You must come with me to the home of the buffalo.”

  Another powerful animal approached and turned his body to the side. He offered his bare back to Athena. She accepted the invitation and climbed aboard. Seconds later, she found herself riding in the midst of the trampling herd, surrounded on every side by large, galloping beasts. There were tens of thousands of them, maybe more. Their stomping hooves echoed across the empty plains.

  Zooming along, the buffalo herd raced west, faster than a heli-car, faster than a hyperloop. Soon, snow-capped mountains appeared off in the distance. The air took on a flavor of pine. Cold wind rushed past. Athena lowered her head to avoid the wind’s stinging bite. Resolutely, she dug her fingers deep within her mount's thick mane. When the galloping herd finally stopped, it was in front of the remains of a badly-damaged, rectangular, stone building, covered in a dense, green overgrowth.

  Athena recognized the ruin instantly. This was the same building she had painted that morning. The same structure that had been forcing its way onto her mind’s eye ever since. Numerous chunks of the building’s exterior were missing — many more than Athena had previously realized. Also, six, square columns stood in fragments where once an entrance appeared to have been. Green vines stretched across the building’s ruinous gaps, intricately connecting the various pieces of fallen and eroding rock. It seemed as though Mother Nature were reaching out with her green hands, working intently to reclaim that which had once been hers.

  The man motioned with his arm for Athena to get off and to venture inside. He spoke again in his deep voice. “The truth is in the library. You must find the truth to save her.”

  Sliding off her mount, Athena approached the ruin. A triangle of vines blocked her entry. She extended her right hand and tugged downward upon the vines. They neatly tore away, falling to the ground.

  Once inside, her eyes took a minute to adjust to the dark. An over-powering smell of mildew invaded her nostrils. Rain had seeped in through the damaged roof and turned the interior woodwork into a fungal playground. Athena had to fight the urge to wretch.

  Along the towering walls stood countless shelves of what could only be described as pulpy mush. Athena, however, suspected that they had once been row upon row of books. She had never held a book in her hands, but she’d seen them in pictures. She knew what they looked like.

  Further exploration of the interior revealed less water-logged sections. In those, Athena found collections of partially-intact manuscripts. She picked up one such manuscript and ruffled the edges of its pages against her thumb, creating a pleasant sensation.

  Upon completing her inspection of the main floor, Athena traveled downstairs to a finished basement. There, she discovered more piles of debris, but also something else. Tucked away at the end of the room stood an entire wall of undamaged volumes. The ceiling above them had collapsed in just such a way as to offer complete protection from the elements. She approached the protected section and noticed that one of the books there was not like the others. This special book appeared to be glowing brightly orange. As Athena neared the incandescent volume, she turned her head sideways to read its binding: “Original Sin is Real.”

  Hesitantly, Athena reached out her hand to pry the book from its shelf. At the first hint of a touch, however, its binding burned her fingers. Her hand recoiled in pain, but it was too late. Quickly, her whole arm became completely engulfed in fierce flames. A horrified expression overwhelmed her as she looked upon her burning flesh. Seconds later, the fire spread down her torso and across her entire body. Searing, blinding pain became the only thought Athena could hold in her head, as her entire self was swallowed inside the fiery blaze.

  June 8, 2099

  8

  Athena jolted awake to find herself still peacefully gliding above the wooded tree-line. She looked immediately to her hands and arms, and felt a mix of surprise and relief to find them unharmed and unburnt. The scorching pain had felt so real, she thought, it couldn’t possibly have come from a dream. To make sure, she brought her forearms up to her cheeks and felt the cool touch of healthy skin.

  With her eyes closed, her mind replayed the buffalo’s cryptic warnings:

  “The truth is in the library…You must find the truth to save her.”

  Athena clicked her finger twice into the air, bringing up the flight plan for her remaining voyage. Chicago lay half-an-hour away. Still to come on her journey, Athena knew she must first fly over the expansive wind farms of western Michigan: thousands of machines churning endlessly in their effort to feed electricity to the hungry capital. After that, her voyage would take her across the great Lake Michigan itself. There, she would need to dart between the dozens of hundred-story hydroponics towers which sprouted up from the lake. Vertical farms unto themselves, the white towers gleamed and sparkled like seashells in the sun. Athena knew all this because her school had taken several field trips to see those fully-automated food-factories. For the rest of her life, she never forgot the sight of so many colorful crops growing on top of one another: enough fresh fruits and vegetables to feed millions.

  “Aasha,” the gray-eyed girl called out into the empty car, seizing what little time she had left.

  “How can I help you, Athena?”

  “Please run a search for me on…‘Original sin.’”

  In nano-seconds, Aasha scanned through the nine hundred billion online articles that populated in response to Athena’s query. “Original sin,” she replied, “is the religious doctrine shared by many monotheistic traditions concerning the fall of man.”

  Athena remembered her many high-school friends who liked to regularly attend church. Not once, though, had she ever felt the need to join them. “I'm sorry, Aasha, but you’re going to have to remind me…what exactly does that religious doctrine say?”

  “The doctrine of original sin, also called ancestral sin, states that all humanity is not born innocent, but rather is born flawed, and desirous of sin, as a consequence of Adam’s disobeying God and eating from the fruit of the tree of knowledge.”

  Athena stopped to meditate on the very mysterious puzzle piece being recovered from the depths of her dreaming subconscious. “Aasha…what? Why on earth would my brain be thinking about something like that?”

  “Let me check.”

  Working at the speed of light, Aasha accessed the electronic folder wherein the last several weeks of Athena’s recordings were stored. Those recordings kept an almost completely-unbroken audio and visual record of everything she had done, seen, and heard. Mostly, the recordings consisted of early mornings spent painting by the lake, and lazy evenings spent relaxing on the couch with Nomi as they watched new episodes of their favorite reality show, 18 E. Mars. Parsing through the hundreds of hours of detailed video files, Aasha searched for any interaction which could have brought the strange religious concept of ‘original sin’ to prominence in Athena’s mind. However, no such past event seemed to exist.

  “I can find no recent experience in your history,” explained the home computer, “in which you have encountered the phrase ‘original sin’ in any way. Would you like me to search older recordings?”

  “Yes.”

  Seconds later, Aasha replied. “When you were in seventh grade, you took part in a discussion that included fourteen instances of the phrase ‘original sin.’ Would you like to watch the recording of that discussion?”

  “Yes.”

  As she continued her flight west, the display of Athena’s digital contact lenses sprang to life, projecting a fully-formed-replay of her junior-high, world-history classroom. In the replay, a circle of eight girls, dressed in green plaid school uniforms, sat at desks around their educator, Ms. Culver. The projection of Ms. Culver looked every bit as grandmotherly as Athena remembered her. She had white hair and large, red-rimmed glasses.

  As Ms. Culver moderated, the class disc
ussed the concept of original sin. They deliberated on whether mankind’s punishment fit the crime and debated the evils of human curiosity. The whole discussion lasted about twenty minutes — and then it was over. Nothing unusual had occurred.

  When the recording finished, Athena once again found herself alone, traveling toward Chicago at the speed of sound, no closer to an understanding for any of it.

  Customer Review

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  June 8, 2099

  9

  As she peered through the heli-car’s glass flooring, Athena observed the landscape below shift abruptly from green to blue. Not long after, the massive North American capital came into view. It seemed to Athena that every time she visited Chicago, the city had added another three or four skyscrapers to its skyline. Hundred-story towers stretched all the way from Wrigleyville in the north to Hyde Park in the south.

  When the shoreline neared, the heli-car began a gradual descent before finally coming to a stop at the first available dock in Burnham Harbor. Still distracted by her dream, Athena disembarked from the car without checking first to see if the walkway was clear. Two drones and an elderly woman immediately bumped into her causing her to apologize profusely. Instantly, Athena recalled why she had decided to move to the countryside. For her, the appealing glamour of urban beauty was entirely offset by the stressful clamor of urban congestion; no matter where she went, she was in someone’s way.

  To guide Athena on her journey, Public Safety had added a set of lime-green footprints to her display. Making sure not to bump into anyone else, Athena followed the green path down the harbor’s main walkway and up to a line of waiting city-cars — small, cheap, local transportation provided to every citizen free-of-charge. Once there, Athena climbed into the fourth car in line which Public Safety had also outlined in lime-green. As soon as her seatbelt was secure, the car took off at a breakneck speed.

  Commuting within the nation’s capital could be a memorable affair. The entire traffic grid was centrally-planned so that every car would reach its destination quickly. The result was a frenzy of cars making six, seven, or eight turns at high speed in circuitous routes that never necessitated stopping. Citizens lacking inner-ear augmentation were advised to walk.

  While the city-car careened around corners, Athena turned her attention to a small 3D that played advertisements on the surface of the car’s control-less front dash.

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  June 8, 2099

  10

  When the city-car finally came to a stop, Athena sat in the shadow of the imposing Public Safety National Headquarters. Over a hundred stories tall, and constructed in the shape of an enormous police shield, the PSHQ tended to either inspire or intimidate everyone who laid eyes on it. With a deep breath and a long exhale, Athena exited her city-car and made her way inside.

  Past the front entrance, the trail of lime-green footprints led across a massive lobby to a security desk located at the opposite end of the lobby. Athena spied a pair of PS officers conversing as they leaned against a nearby wall, but neither of them seemed to pay any particular attention to her or her loud footsteps as they echoed across the marble floor. Never before in her life had Athena been inside this building. Nor, for that matter, had she ever had any official business to do with Public Safety. Crime rates in the NAU were below 1%, and had been for decades. Most citizens went their whole lives without ever seeing an actual PS officer in the flesh.

  When she reached the center of the lobby, Athena paused to take in the building’s striking aesthetic. Straight lines, right angles, and hard shiny surfaces met her gaze in every direction. More than anything, the style reminded her of a Piet Mondrian composition: clean, memorable, and direct.

  As Athena approached the security desk, she observed that it had been made from a single piece of solid glass. Just above the desk, a security holo hovered. As Athena prepared to speak to the holo, it spoke first to her:

  “Athena Vosh, SSID 74525-85372, you may proceed.”

  The lime-green footprints led past the security desk and into the fifth of a set of six all-glass, pill-shaped elevators. Each of the elevators levitated within individual, glass tubes, and each contained no buttons nor controls of any kind. Instead, they offered their occupants clean and unobstructed views in every direction.

  Upon entering the elevator, Athena found herself unable to stop marveling at the building’s sleek design. She attempted to share a quick feed with Nomi, but quickly discovered that all her communications with the outside world had been blocked. Seconds later, a powerful jolt nearly knocked Athena to her knees as the elevator rocketed up to the fortieth floor.

  The NAU Times

  June 8th, 2099

  Breaking News: Lazarus Genome Stolen!

  CHICAGO — (AP) — In a Times exclusive, multiple high-level sources at Helix have confirmed the earlier reports. The Lazarus Genome has been stolen. Details are still coming in. The crime is believed to have taken place sometime on the night of June 7th. It is not yet known whether the perpetrator’s main goal was theft or sabotage.

  Officials at Public Safety have verified that they are aware of and are investigating the crime. Details into that investigation, including who will lead it, remain unavailable. Representatives from Public Safety have declined to comment further.

  This story will be updated throughout the day as new information becomes available.

  June 8, 2099

  11

  The elevator jolted to a stop. Through its transparent doors, Athena saw the figures of two Public Safety officers waiting for her. Both of them wore the traditional PS uniform, crisp and blue. As soon as the elevator doors opened, each of the two officers grabbed Athena by an arm. Together, they ushered her into an empty back-hallway.

  “Am I under arrest?” Athena asked.

  The officers exchanged a quick look between themselves and then turned again to Athena. “The captain wants to speak with you in private,” said the woman on Athena’s left. “That’s all we know.”

  The trio marched into a small room behind an unmarked door. There, the officers released Athena and told her to wait. “Captain Bell will be with you shortly.”

  Inside the room stood three chairs gathered around a solid metal desk. The walls were beige on beige, the atmosphere sterile. Athena paced the room for a turn and then lowered herself into one of the chairs. Deprived of her in
ternet connection, minutes of waiting felt like hours. To pass the time, she activated her display's paint mode and doodled all over the walls. At one point, she drew a cartoonish buffalo chewing methodically on an unlabeled, hardcover book. Just as her masterpiece neared completion, however, her interviewer arrived.

  “Athena Vosh!” announced Captain Bell as she burst into the room with her long black hair waving behind her. “It’s not often that we are so fortunate as to cross paths with someone like you.”

  The captain flashed her signature smirk; instantly, Athena realized where she had seen that smile before. It had originally belonged to none other than the most famous woman in all of art: Mona Lisa. Just like Leonardo da Vinci’s legendary muse, no matter what Captain Bell said or did, she always seemed to be hiding a slight grin in plain sight.

  Standing next to one of the available chairs, Captain Bell began her interrogation. “So tell me, Ms. Vosh. How exactly did you manage to steal the Lazarus Genome without ever leaving your home?”

  Athena blinked twice. Her face went blank. “I seriously don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Captain Bell paused, waiting. With all her concentration, she stared at the face of the girl seated before her. “I see…” she continued. “So you didn’t steal the genome yourself, but you helped to steal it? How much did they pay you?”

  “Look!” Athena’s blood pressure began to spike. “Is this some kind of a game? I know my rights. I’ve done nothing wrong. What do you want from me?”

  Again, Captain Bell paused before responding. Athena could tell she was being studied; her responses measured for authenticity. After every exchange, the Public Safety captain examined her expressions intently, aided in the evaluation, no doubt, by a PS app designed to check for observable signs of physiological stress and discomfort.