Iris (The Color of Water and Sky Book 1)

by Andrew Gates

  Iris stood up angrily. Who does she think she is to lecture me on my life? She knocked the chair over as her butt bumped into it, sending it slamming onto the floor.

  “How dare you come to my classroom and tell me that I am behind!” she declared. “You don’t know my life. You don’t know my circumstances!”

  The woman stepped forward again. But rather than match Iris’s volume, she remained calm and composed.

  “If you are so sure you are right, why are you so defensive?”

  “Because you don’t know me, miss…” Iris had forgotten the woman’s name.

  “Parnel,” the woman replied. “Doctor Sanja Parnel.” Her correction only made Iris feel more embarrassed. “Look, I didn’t come here to offend you today, Miss Vitneskja, I merely came to tell you that this job is real and we need your help. You’re brilliant apparently. Everyone in your line of work seems to think so. If anything, you should take it as a compliment.”

  Iris paused and thought to herself as things seemed to quiet down. The energy of the room had been as volatile as the splashing of ocean waves, rising and falling, rising and falling. But now the highest wave had crashed and there were no more waves, only the calm sea.

  She lifted up her hands. Her palms were as red as uncooked meat product and her skin sticky with sweat. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.

  “Alright,” she finally agreed, “I’ll help you so long as you can promise to move the field trip and have this lawsuit dropped.”

  “You don’t want any money?” Dr. Parnel asked.

  Iris shook her head.

  “Money is not important,” she replied.

  Dr. Parnel smiled. Somehow it seemed out of place. Perhaps it was the way the smile appeared with holographic image in the way, but more likely it, was simply that the smile did not match the person. So even you can smile too, Iris thought, even if it looks wrong.

  “Good,” she said. The smile disappeared as soon as the word came from her lips. “That makes it easy.” She turned and faced the big man. “Yuri,” she said, now addressing the man behind her, “load up the video file for our friend here. I’ll join you in a few moments after I make a call.”

  “What are you doing?” Iris asked, wondering why the doctor was not starting the video herself.

  “Moving your field trip around, of course.”

  Iris could not help but smile at this news. With a grin on her face, she picked up her chair and sat down again as the big man took the pod in his hands.

  Iris wiped her eyes as the information came to an end. She let in a strong inhale and leaned forward towards her desk, considering what she had just seen. As far as she could tell, Dr. Parnel was right. This destruction was no accident. The video was like nothing she expected and filled her with a level of fear she had not experienced since childhood. She could feel her heart beating through her chest and found herself looking up towards the ceiling of the room to make sure it was still intact. And now I’ve become paranoid, she thought to herself.

  The video featured two Navy pilots, one woman and one man. Some of the dialog had been censored, such as details on the depth of the craft and the location of the orb. But for the most part, Iris had seen it all. She saw the glowing light and the curiosity in the eyes of the crewmen. Iris could hardly believe something so beautiful could cause so much destruction, especially after so many years of peace. Though it was not featured in the video, Iris could imagine the plasma cannon emerging from the glowing orb like a dark silhouette. Just the image in her mind made her shutter.

  But the video recording was not all. Dr. Parnel had informed Iris of some later discoveries as well. Apparently the male pilot released more information before the craft’s destruction and spoke of the weapon that destroyed them, the front window of the submarine had been smashed through (likely by water pressure) and neither body had been found. Parnel went onto explain that the female had likely escaped only to meet her demise out in the ocean and the male had likely been taken before the investigators could reach the craft, which only opened the door for more questions.

  The doctor waited for a few moments to let the information sink in. Iris must have been visibly distraught by this news, as Dr. Parnel waited for quite a long time. Eventually she uncrossed her arms and looked down at Iris, who remained seated in her chair.

  “You’ve been briefed to the fullest extent that I have the authority to do. So that’s it. That’s the story. Do you think you can help us?” she asked in a tone that suggested she did not like asking for help.

  Iris did not respond. She glanced down. Her hands were shaking.

  “Miss Vitneskja?” she said, trying to get her attention. But still, Iris was unresponsive.

  Eventually the teacher raised her head, meeting the doctor’s eyes. They held their glances for a few moments but no words were produced.

  “Iris,” Sanja eventually said.

  Somehow calling her by her first name managed to wake her up from whatever trance she was in. Iris blinked a few times and took a deep breath.

  “Uh… yes, uh… of course. I can help,” she eventually replied.

  “I will expect a full report of your findings by the end of the week and every week after that. I want to know if any surface cultures ever had access to technology like this or reason to use it. I expect your findings to be detailed, of course,” she explained.

  Iris nodded. She was always very thorough. Detail would not be an issue.

  “Yes, uh… yes. I understand.”

  The woman seemed pleased by this news. She turned to the big man behind her, who uncrossed his arms too. She nodded to him and he nodded back, as if signifying it was time to go.

  “I will need to see that footage again, of course,” Iris said, fearing Dr. Parnel would walk away at any moment. “And the data as well.”

  The doctor nodded.

  “Of course. We will supply you with everything you were shown in this meeting for your own personal research, but I must remind you that the information-”

  “Is classified, I know,” Iris interrupted, “but what I meant was, I want to see your classified data as well.”

  Dr. Parnel’s face twitched ever so subtly. She then froze in place for a moment. Iris could see the engines turning in her head. I’ve done it, Iris thought to herself, finally I’ve challenged her.

  “You mean information on depth, speed, temperature, these kind of details?” she asked.

  Iris nodded.

  “Yes, I want the numbers. It will help me with my work,” she answered honestly.

  The woman let out a sigh, moved her lips to the side as if trying to think and then turned towards the big man again. He simply raised his shoulders when they made eye contact. I’ve definitely defeated her, Iris realized. Finally.

  Dr. Parnel turned around.

  “Very well,” she said. “I’ll see what I can do. I’ll call the Navy and see if I can get you an uncensored copy of the file. But for now do the best you can with what you have.”

  Iris smiled.

  “Yes, of course. Thank you, doctor,” she replied. “And thank you for what else you did too… you know, with… the trip and the lawsuit.”

  Iris expected the woman to respond courteously, but to her surprise, she simply turned towards the door and walked away.

  “Goodbye, Miss Vitneskja.”

  “Wait,” Iris said, causing the woman and the man to stop in their tracks. “I’m just curious. If I didn’t agree to help you, were you really going to have him hurt me?” She gestured towards the man.

  The woman in grey smiled again, but the man smiled even harder. His was the only one that resembled a real smile though.

  “Of course not, dear. But of course, you didn’t know that, did you?” she responded. Before waiting for an answer, the woman pushed herself out the door with her suited man not far behind.

  I’ve been played, Iris realized, but perhaps it’s for the better.

  As the door closed
behind her, a chill ran up Iris’s spine. She was alone now, and for some reason that fact did not provide her with the comfort it normally did. The walls around her suddenly seemed very thin, very fragile. The door leading to the hall felt more like a hinge than a barrier and she could hear the creaks and cracks of the floor like they were as loud as a crashing power scooter. We’re surrounded by nothing but water, she thought. These walls are the only thing protecting us from our deaths. Have we always been this vulnerable?

  She wanted to tell somebody what she had just learned. The words were practically swimming off her tongue like a deep sea eel jolting towards a nearby prey. But she was bound by law to keep it secret. I must obey, she knew. If this information got public, it would cause widespread chaos. As much as it pained her to hold this information to herself, she understood the dangers of its knowledge.

  Iris finally found the courage to stand up from her table. She glanced down at the snowflake on her sweater. Somehow it had lost its charm since she put it on early this morning. What she once found beautiful now only evoked a feeling of artificiality. The snowflake was no longer a snowflake, just a mere image provided to invoke a false sense of beauty. Now it was only colors and shapes organized in a pattern of a long gone naturally forming ice crystal not seen by the likes of humanity in hundreds of years.

  She looked away from her sweater and walked towards the door. As she pressed it forward, the light from the hall poured into the dark classroom, causing her to cover her eyes for a brief moment before stepping out.

  The guards were gone, but the students still cluttered around the outside of the classroom anyway, as if expecting something more to happen. No one said anything. They simply stared at Iris as she walked out.

  “Go to your classes,” she said instinctively, “there’s nothing more to see.”

  A few students slowly began to walk away but many remained anyway. Iris did not have the patience to engage them further, so she simply ignored them and continued down the hall. Iris just wanted to get away, find the restroom and think to herself in peace for a few moments. But before she could even reach the end of the hallway, Hope Davis appeared before her with furiousness in her eyes as fiery as the tight red dress around her skinny waist. The bright white pearls around her neck bounced up and down as she paced quickly towards her.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Hope asked angrily.

  Iris had never seen her so upset. While Hope had always openly objected to many of Iris’s doings, she had never raised her voice before, especially in the middle of the hallway surrounded by students. Iris knew right away that this was a new, more dangerous Hope Davis than she had encountered before. This is the last thing I need right now.

  “Mrs. Davis, I don’t have time for this,” Iris replied, not slowing down.

  Hope followed alongside Iris as she walked through the hall. Students began to quiet down all around them, leaning over, trying to catch whatever they could hear.

  “Don’t Mrs. Davis me, Iris. I never liked you. I know you knew that. But look what you’ve done now! You’ve brought armed Navy men to our school! What did they want from you, Iris? What did you do?”

  Iris continued walking. She just wanted to get away. She picked up her pace and walked through large crowds of students, hoping to lose the sticky teacher at her side. But the persistent woman followed her all the way to the bathroom at the end of the hall. As Iris pressed against the door, Hope moved in the way, blocking her.

  “What did you do to bring them here?” Hope asked. “Have you done something illegal?”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  “So why are they here? You realize what you’re doing, right Iris? These kids see armed men in their school. This is somewhere they should feel safe. This is bad for all of us. Whatever you’ve done to bring them here, I hope you’re finished and I hope justice will be met.”

  “It’s not like that. Now can I please get through?” Iris asked impatiently. Half of Hope’s words just went in one ear and right out the other.

  Hope sighed and moved aside, letting her into the room.

  “This had better be over, Iris. First you bring a lawsuit, now this! Our school was working fine before you got here!” The door closed before Hope could say any more.

  What a bitch.

  Iris walked quickly to the first available stall she could find and closed the door behind her. She took a deep breath, calmly pulled down her pants and closed her eyes.

  All her life she had studied the world, but she knew that she never wanted to be a part of it. The outside world was a dangerous place and she liked the comfort that came with seclusion. But now she was forced to be a part of it. The darkness is behind me, she realized. I have stepped into the light.

  Seconds turned to minutes and minutes turned into a half hour. All the time Iris remained seated. Finally she heard the students in the hall loudly moving from one class to the next. Another class period has already begun, she realized. Iris decided she had waited long enough. When she finally emerged from the stall, the history teacher washed her hands thoroughly and stopped to study herself in the mirror. She was still as pale as always, but now she looked as if she had just woken up from a long sleep.

  She was Iris Vitneskja. Her name meant “knowledge” in the old tongue of the island of her ancestors. Knowledge, she reminded herself. The name fit her well.

  “And so it begins,” she said aloud.

  She had not noticed it before, but her blonde roots were starting to show.

  SOMETIMES IT SEEMED LIKE WHENEVER THE walls were yellow the world moved two times faster. People busily rushed by all around him, this way and that. The large grey doors were easy to spot on the far side of the busy crowd. It took the boy a few seconds to push through. Once he did, he walked through the automatic doors and time seemed to slow back down again.

  Jallah felt his pocket, making sure he remembered his school pod. Last week he had forgotten to bring it and Mr. Georgopolis called his parents telling them to bring it over. Jallah had never felt so embarrassed before.

  Today was just like any other so far. He rushed to finish homework as he ate breakfast, grabbed something to wear and ran out the door. Today he chose a purple shirt he liked with a five-sided yellow shape in the middle. It was an old shirt he got when he was eight. Back then it hung down almost to his knees, but these days it fit him just right.

  Jallah decided to take a longer route to get to his locker this morning. He wanted to pass by the locker of one of his classmates, a younger girl named Margery. He did not know why he was so eager. Perhaps he wanted to see her, or maybe he wanted her to see him. He did not even know if he would say anything to her if they ran into each other. But for some reason he felt compelled to walk by her today.

  Margery was a very smart girl, probably the smartest in their history class. She had skipped two grades but did not look much younger than the other kids, at least not to Jallah. She had such a nice smile and wavy light blonde hair that reminded him of the bright walls of the transition zones. But mostly he liked it when she looked at him with her mysterious colorless eyes. He could not explain why, but he enjoyed it very much.

  He turned his head to see if she was there as he walked past her locker. Unfortunately, she wasn’t. Instead, Jallah’s friend Louis ran up to him with excitement. Aloysious Colburn was a light-skinned fat kid, pale as a residence wall, who always wore plain white shirts to match. This day was no exception, as he wore a large white shirt with brown shorts. As he approached, he panted like he had not run in years.

  “Jallah,” he said with excitement.

  Jallah was not used to seeing him run. He found it amusing.

  “What is it?”

  Louis paused for a moment to catch his breath. Jallah only found this even more amusing. No matter what he did, Aloysious Colburn was a fat kid, too out of shape to be running around. After a quick rest, he stood up straight.

  “Clinton is pissed, you gotta see this!” he finally
answered.

  Clinton was a dark-skinned kid, like Jallah, but not so smart and quick to bad temper. One time Clinton had knocked over Jallah’s entire plate of beans in the school cafeteria after a comment about how the ground must have been filled with beans back in the days of the surface. He never understood why that comment had made him so angry, but whatever the reason, Jallah assumed it must have been over something stupid. He was always reacting rudely to things people said or did. To put it simply, the kid was a brat.

  “Really?” Jallah asked. Louis nodded. “Pissed about what?”

  Louis shrugged, but Jallah did not care. If Clinton was pissed, that was a sight to see. He deserves whatever he got, Jallah thought to himself.

  Louis led him through the halls of students, panting like a Meganet programmer visiting the fitness center for the first time. The sight could not help but make Jallah smile, that and the knowledge that one of this least favorite classmates was upset about something. When they finally reached the destination, near Mr. Walten’s classroom, a huge mob of kids had assembled in a circle pressed tightly together. Louis stopped to catch his breath but Jallah pushed forward, squeezing through the crowd to get a look. When he finally reached the center, he saw Clinton wide eyed and angry, staring at Principle Hanson. But he was not alone. His father stood next to him, a large round man with patchy unmaintained facial hair. He looked as if he had not showered in days. A pool of sweat formed across the top of his large black t-shirt, causing it to stick against the top of his chest.

  “The authority?” Clinton’s dad hollered. “The authority is not there!”