by A. Bernette
“There is still the matter of the other work being done on the ARC,” Phillips said.
“We talked to Johan about it while we were checking on the progress. The farming is going very well. We can see a lot of progress being made there and it seems it will be able to self-sustain soon. The other project with the specimens has given us some concern. We have an updated plan and that plan requires us to advance the timeline,” Phillips continued.
Zura shuddered inside with the term specimens. She’d never liked that term and she’d only been given enough information to keep it operational. They had placed Johan over that project and she only had clearance to a certain point.
“What’s the concern, Dr. Phillips?” she asked him.
“Well, those of us from UniCorps and Admiral General Mylar are all concerned about the age of the samples and that they may be too young. We are hopeful we can fast track this program to be ready in the next year. I know that moves the timeline up a bit, but everything else will be ready in that time, and the need will be greater,” he said calmly, as if he hadn’t just asked her to shave almost two years off of a project that they’d been cultivating for more than twenty years, with an ambiguous justification.
They still wouldn’t be clear about it and although she wasn’t one hundred percent sure how the specimens would be used and why they needed to be ready in a year, she knew what it meant for her team. She couldn’t refuse and she didn’t want to agree. She sat there silently for a moment looking at Phillips, Tomas, Ashby, and Mylar.
They were all so smug and self-assured. It was only an order and directive to them. For her team, for her, it was giving up their freedom and personal life for a whole year. It was her kids either being isolated on Antarctica for a year or being separated from them just as they were turning into para-adults.
“What happens if we don’t finish in a year?” Zura asked.
“That isn’t an option, Zura,” Dr. Ashby now spoke.
“I don’t think you understand, Zura. We have people we have to answer to as well. They demand that all phases of the program be ready before the Winter comes here in Antarctica next year. As I told Johan, if you can’t do it or if you think it is too much for you, we’ll find someone who can,” Admiral General Mylar said.
“Now, I don’t expect that you all will need to be packing up completely for home since this is going to be home for a while longer. I will grant you a leave of four weeks to get your affairs in order back in Northern Allegiance and make sure your kids get settled, wherever you choose. This isn’t a vacation though. I expect an initial report in two weeks on how we can meet the adjusted timeline and then a detailed programmatic plan by the time you return here in four weeks.
“My children’s sixteenth birthday is June seventeenth, sir. Four weeks from our departure date would have us back here before their birthday celebration. This is an important milestone for them,” she said, looking to Johan for support.
“Can we come back after the celebration Admiral General? It’s just a day or two,” Johan asked.
“I’m sorry but we have a very strict timeline and need you back here four weeks from your departure date. I will be meeting you back here at that time. Arrangements are already being made for the transport of new, more appropriately aged specimens so that they can be prepared over the next year. We recognize it takes time for preparation to occur. We are trying to do our part too. We must be finished with all phases and be ready by the World Memorial Celebration the last week of May next year. There is no wiggle room around that. I apologize for the inconvenience, Johan and Zura, but certainly your children are old enough that they should understand,” Mylar said
“How could you possibly know Admiral General Mylar? You never had children,” Zura said, as she stood and pushed away from the table. “I assume we are done then.”
Admiral General Mylar stood up with his back straight. “Yes, we are done. We will see ourselves out. Johan, can you arrange for our transport to come after dinner this evening?” Mylar asked him casually.
“Yes, sir. You all will be dining in the main dining hall. The chef has prepared a special course for you,” Johan told their guests.
“Won’t you be joining us?” Silver asked.
“No, Representative Silver. Not tonight. I’m sorry but we have a great deal to do before we leave and we need to wrap up a few things,” Zura answered. She couldn’t even fake a smile. She felt like her insides were boiling and could feel the heat rising. If it weren’t for her deep brown skin she was certain they’d see the blood under it, coloring her cheeks.
She stood near one of the windows and watched the guests walk out, followed by Rupert who would lead them back to their quarters. Johan and Mave stayed behind with her in the beautiful room that felt like it was suffocating her.
“Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhh!” Zura exploded before mumbling a string of curse words under her breath. Even those failed to diminish the anger she felt at the moment. “Who the heck do they think they are? It’s not right. It just isn’t. They want to force us to stay on this blasted frozen block of ice for a whole fricking year! Want us to just let our babies have their sixteenth birthday celebration without us? Want to have us keep them here isolated or with my parents for six months until the Spring comes back? My parents aren’t that young anymore, Johan. They can’t keep up with two para-adults and Stephen has barely even hit puberty! I’ll be damned if I’m playing these stupid games this time. They are the reason our kids had to be born here, with all those risks.” Zura ranted, her voice rising along with the heat under her constricting uniform collar. She adjusted the collar and unbuttoned the top button before falling into her seat and spinning towards the ocean.
“I know, Zura. It’s not fair. But it’s not all bad,” Johan said as he tried to comfort her.
She shot him a withering look. “Not all bad? Tell me, please, Johan Anders, what is the good part?” she demanded.
Johan looked at Mave for help and Mave just shrugged. She was already thinking about what this all meant for the mission.
Johan knew Zura was impossible when she was like this.
“I don’t really know. I just know we may be done with this project sooner and then get on with living a normal life for once,” he answered her, giving the smile Zura had fallen in love with. He pulled her into his chest to hold her. She hugged him back trying to muster a little smile as she spoke.
“I’m still pissed off. I guess I’ll ask the kids what they want to do. And you’ll have to ask your sister if she can keep them in case they don’t want to stay,” Zura said, trying to build a plan so she didn’t feel so out of control.
“I just feel like we don’t have much more time with them and them being gone for six months is a lot of time to miss at this point,” she said with tears welling up in her eyes.
Chapter Thirty-One
Departure
Antarctic Research Center
Stephen waited outside of Stella’s door. They were finally going home, but this time would be different. When they came back to the ARC they’d be para-adults. If they got caught by the wrong people in the ‘No Entry’ areas, they could be in much more serious trouble.
After the pyramid stair incident the twins had been put on near lockdown. Their time of exploring beneath the main level had quickly ended and the new files from Marco hadn’t done them any good. They needed some kind of key to make sense of what all the letters and codes meant. This key file wasn’t even a part of the Noah folder.
Stephen had been wondering why his mother had wanted the pilot to get a copy but since the representatives from World Consensus and UniCorps had left, no one had much to say. Even Mave was in her own world. Their parents had never done so much to prepare to leave before. Johan was spending countless hours on the lower levels and Zura was locked up either in the ROC room, working alone, or in the science center.
They’d talked to them a few days before about what was happening, but there were never any details.
Everything was classified, top-secret, or required confidentiality agreements which they were too young to legally sign for two more years. Stephen felt confused. Things were out of order and it made him uncomfortable. He wanted to feel a sense of control and normalcy again.
Johan’s sister Edela agreed to come stay with Stephen and Stella for the Winter months. Her own children were grown and in University and her very busy partner had reluctantly agreed to come visit her in New South City between work trips.
As a top ranked consultant on social systems development she was always traveling to work with the established regions and the smaller local systems. It was a lucrative career for Leif, and it allowed Edela the flexibility to raise their two children and pursue her own career as a successful author and illustrator of children’s books.
When they got the news, Stella jumped at the chance to stay in New South City with her favorite Aunt and be back home where there were other people her age. Neither of them was happy that their parents would be stuck working all winter, and Stephen had been reluctant to stay in New South City but Stella wasn’t going to stay on the ARC. He didn’t mind the ARC as much - and he had projects to work on there. He could actually be helpful to the team, but Zura didn’t want him to stay.
Mave had better plans for them, at least that’s what she’d promised. Spending their break on the ARC wasn’t fair to them. Aside from that, things were going to be intense and she wouldn’t be able to give either of them much attention.
Stephen and Stella left their unit to meet everyone else in the great hall and then they would all fly out according to regions. Mave had decided to go back to Northern Allegiance with them and Rupert was going back to his home on one of the islands off the northeastern coast of the Southern Allegiance Region. He needed the break since they’d be on duty for the next year and he’d already been told by Mylar that he would be taking on the expanded responsibility of scientific data analysis for the new specimens and comparing them to the old.
It was a role he didn’t look forward to, in a job that was becoming more and more uncomfortable. He was a peaceful and honest man and the idea of not speaking up troubled him as much as it did the rest of the team. With the specimens, he wasn’t sure what he was getting into.
Mylar wasn’t forthcoming with exactly what Rupert would be doing. It required new confidentiality agreements and at the same time he was being processed for a higher clearance level. Rupert could only assume the lack of information was because Mylar knew Rupert might not willingly go along. Rupert prided himself with always being one to think freely and though he wasn’t one to speak just to hear himself, he also wasn’t one to be kept quiet.
Rupert stood in his room and packed a couple of uniforms and then the digital frame that only showed one picture – him with Mave at the gala. She looked so beautiful that night. If only she would have been his life partner, he’d be the happiest man alive. For them it wasn’t an option, she always had other plans.
Rupert looked around at the room he’d occupied for six months out of each of the last eighteen years. His room was rather sparse and there wasn’t much to take with him that was sentimental or very valuable.
He took a picture Stephen had drawn for him years before and the knitted hat that Stella had gotten for his fiftieth birthday. It held all of his hair back and he always wore it when he was back at home. That’s it. There wasn’t much else there to take, especially since they were expected back in just four weeks.
Dozens of people milled about the great hall; all waiting for the various transports to take them back to their regions. Rupert walked in, his normal limp slightly more pronounced. He’d spent so much time over the years with the people in that room.
There were too many goodbyes he needed to say before he left for Southern Allegiance. Some staff had to return in four weeks for the extended assignment while others would have the luxury of staying away until Spring returned.
There were unanswered questions and grumbling permeated the room at a low steady volume. Zura’s hands were tied and her voice was silenced. Just like her, her team couldn’t say anything either. She knew some of them were returning to the same areas they’d labeled as hot zones and she couldn’t even give them a warning.
UniCorps had sent someone along with SEP Agents to supervise the departures. They wanted to make sure no one was smuggling any sensitive or confidential data, materials, or specimens off the ARC. There were body scanners set up at the doors leading from the dining hall to the corridor to the outside. SEP Agents manned the body scanners and another was stationed at the exit door. He sent back anyone who hadn’t been registered as cleared by the body scanner.
Johan, Mave, Zura, Rupert, and the twins stood against the back wall, near the corner. They would be the last to go. Mave was nervous, as was everyone else. They didn’t want any trouble and the departure needed to go smoothly. Rupert moved to stand beside Mave, resting again on the wall. He’d miss her and hadn’t really had the chance to tell her goodbye. In a couple of hours they’d be headed out on different transporters.
“Is your leg okay, Rupert? You seem to be walking with more of a limp today,” Mave asked, looking at his knee.
“Yeah, it’s fine. It’s just the weather getting cooler and you know how that bothers where it is connected.”
“I don’t know why you don’t just upgrade it and let them fuse it so you don’t have that problem anymore. They’ve been doing it for years now.”
“Because, this one works fine,” Rupert argued with a knowing smile.
“Except when it’s too cold or when it’s too hot,” Mave laughed at him.
“Hey, I get around fine with it. It does everything yours does, except a little better and it’s stronger,” Rupert said.
He had his reasons for not upgrading and when the doctors had offered him the upgraded prosthetic he’d turned it down. Instead, he chose to donate to an organization that provided children with prosthetics. Without the upgrade he wouldn’t have to pay for the additional medical maintenance. It may not have seemed like much to some, but every year since he’d been on the ARC he’d donated the cost of a prosthetic limb to a para-adult.
By the time they reached para-adult status most of those in need of a prosthetic were into their full sized limbs and there was less chance of outgrowing it too fast. It was also the age when he’d lost his leg and a generous gift from a donor was how he’d gotten his first prosthetic leg. He’d since upgraded but couldn’t justify a new one now and this one served another purpose.
The room was slowly thinning out as people passed through the security scanners. They were going by Regions but Rupert was waiting as long as he could before leaving. The rest were all going to the same place and so the Northern Allegiance Transporter would be the last to load.
He heard them call Southern Liberty Region and he sighed. He wanted so badly to hug and kiss Mave right there.
“Will you walk with me over to the scanner, Mave?” he asked her.
“Yeah, come on,” she said before taking his arm.
Rupert gave a half open smile to Mave and said, “I’m really going to miss you, Mave.”
“I know. On the bright side, at least it’s only four weeks this time. Usually, we are away from this place for six months,” she said to him in an almost whisper.
“Right. Four weeks will be gone in no time,” he said in a distant sounding voice.
The line was going too fast and he wished he had more time. He let others leaving for Southern Allegiance go ahead of him. He lingered near the back so he could spend just a few more moments with Mave.
“You act like you don’t want to leave, Rupert,” Mave teased. “You could just stay here for the four weeks and skip this whole process.”
“I don’t want to go, but I also don’t want to stay. We all have to do what we have to do, right?” he said.
Mave looked at him from the side of her eye. She couldn’t tell whether the odd response was because he was goi
ng to miss her. She was going to miss him too. She couldn’t imagine spending as much time as she did on the ARC without his quiet strength, his laughter, his smile, and the way he could piece together a picture that made sense from seemingly senseless pieces. Mave loved him even if she could never really let him know.
After all this time and as far as she’d come on her mission, it would be worse if he knew just how much she loved him and yet still refused to be with him. She thought about how many times she felt like telling the Council and Dr. Lima to just screw it. So many times she’d wanted to walk away and have a normal life; only to have to step back and remember why she had chosen the life she had. Unfortunately, this was as normal as it would get for her.
It was finally just Rupert and Mave in the line. There was no one else to let go ahead of them.
Rupert turned to her. “I have to go now, Mave. But before I do, I have to say something to you. I know you don’t want to hear it but if I don’t say it, then I might regret it.” Mave tried to stop him but Rupert wouldn’t let her, this time.
“No, Mave. Don’t stop me. I have to tell you that I love you. I have loved you since the day I met you. I have never stopped loving you and I never will. What I do, I do because I feel it is right. One day, when I leave this existence and am held accountable for my life, I don’t want it said that I didn’t live an honest life. I must be honest now and going forward, and that includes with you. Mave, I honestly love you.”
Mave’s eyes were beginning show the first signs of tears forming in the corners as Rupert leaned in to give her a kiss. He then hugged her and in those stretching seconds he never wanted to let her go. After holding her for far too little time, the SEP Agent cleared his throat to get their attention.
“Are you ready, sir? The transport will be departing soon,” the agent said.
“Yes. Yes. Thank you,” Rupert slowly let his arms drop from the embrace and stepped away from Mave onto the body scanner system. The lights shined all over his body, showing a skeletal image except where his prosthetic limb was. There, the metal blocked much of the light but you could see the wires and connections. Once the scan was completed the agent waved Rupert through.