Intentionality

by Rebekah Johnson

  On entering the medical bay my first sight was that of Willem, broken but not down. He stumbled towards us on his crutches, trailing a drip attached to his left arm. He had been stitched and bandaged, but more importantly saved. His skin though still pallid was at least warm, unlike the last memory I had of him before I was captured. I felt the heat of his cheeks as we embraced. I looked into his eyes to ascertain how he was really feeling but what I got was tears of joy.

  “Mae, look!” shrieked Lily from behind me.

  Before I turned I could hear her feet gathering speed as she ran away from me down the corridor.

  Standing together, discussing something incredibly serious were both Skye and a Doctor in a white coat. My vision was impaired by the tears, but I felt sure I recognised that stance; slightly tilted head, hand comforting the other person’s arm as usual…

  It was Grace.

  As she paid more attention to the explosion of sound and speed barrelling down her quiet ward, she became more animated, flinging her arms wide to welcome Lily.

  “We got them all out Mae. We hid them in the tunnels. We didn’t know what was going on at first but when Craig began E-mailing it became very clear that the girls from your Harvest were all in danger…” admitted Elizabeth. “… but that’s why the patrols were out looking. That’s why Willem got hurt isn’t it?”

  “No Elizabeth, Willem got hurt because Natura was feeding her greed. She desperately needed my sister and me to keep her and her Grid monstrosity alive. She had no idea that her little world was crumbling around her ears. She displayed no remorse, or fear when she had us dragged up to her palace reception room. You must not blame yourselves, not after everything your family have sacrificed.”

  Grace arrived then to comfort the girls; she offered them food, rest, the safety of her ward and a nurse to talk to. Whilst we imparted what we knew about the torture chair together with our opinions with regards to what it may or may not do to an Acer’s body and mind.

  Skye has been reading through the notes kept by the technicians and scientists. They may unravel some of the mystery surrounding our twin creation. My hope is that they tell us about where the disposed of Grid girls are resting. Some of these notes are in languages she does not recognise.

  We are needed at last for the gift of communication, our long forgotten Evo-skill. It is my intention to use it!

  Epilogue

  The state funeral was drab, hurriedly arranged and with no focus on tradition, beyond the need for the event itself. There were no floral tributes from loved ones, no folding of the city flag or a soldier lined salute as the coffin entered its final resting place. No one complained or protested her unexplained and sudden passing. There was no commotion of mourning, wailing citizens, or desperate acts of devotion in memory of Natura. The quick, efficient event that lasted no more than an hour was surprisingly uneventful. For all the sacrifices Natura had made, her citizens were not overly attentive towards her final farewell. They came out into the streets for a short moment while her hearse ambled past. Then they receded back into their offices.

  My guess is that the topic of conversation once back at their desks was not how upset they were to be losing their leader. More likely that the discrete discussions would have been much focussed on what will now happen to the quality of their standard of life now that the last in the line of natural rulers was buried. Only a handful of dignitaries attended the church service, not willing to be seen to condone her actions. The well-planned gesture, as predicted, must however have worked to quell the hysteria. By the time Mrs Jones and Mrs Alder made their prepared address to the city, through a news agency broadcast, we had solved the problem of power. It had been lying at the foot of The Nest for decades, untapped and uncharted, Willem’s Abyss.

  Dawn and Paul worked tirelessly to transfer the untapped hydro-power into that which was useable by us on the land. We found that there were some stores of residual power in The Grid but as we were not powering the perimeter fence, our requirement was ironically very low. The citizens of Intentionality had already tapped into solar and wind power by themselves years ago as they strove to be more thoughtful towards their environment.

  There were of course arguments and demonstrations along the way. But everyone likes a good story don’t they? What the people of Intentionality really responded to was the opportunity for family reunions. Lily and I spent hours researching the family history of those initial surviving families. It seems that it was not unusual for parents and children to be dragged away from their container homes in the dead of the night if they were found to have emerging Evo-gene capabilities. We were spurred on in the dead of the night by the thought that we may find out what happened to Willem’s great grandmother, when she was taken to be an Acer. Alas these records are not immediately accessible. The first volumes of inventory registers make note of highly confidential papers (called Evolution Documents) needing to travel to the vault, but we have found no mention of this place on the blueprints for the palace as of yet.

  The family reunions have made the transition of shared living, a positive progression, with some lone Acers even choosing to live beyond the perimeter fencing, back with the relatives of their ancestral link.

  An investigation into Natura’s leadership and the council set up to monitor her is ongoing. The commander that first spoke to us during that harrowing few moments when Lily and I were fighting for our lives, is helping us to piece together the identities of the personnel in Natura’s most trusted and informed leadership team, which is surprisingly small. It has become abundantly clear to us all that she had a mental condition, which influenced her character and her decision-making. Mostly she led by threatening her personnel, rather than informing them. It seems not many Acers even in her coveted inner circle, actually knew the extremes she was going to. Those who are guilty will of course be punished, according to their crimes. It is with great relief however that we find ourselves in a situation where the leader is no longer our responsibility.

  Willem is planning a trip back into the Polar Ocean. He intends to find the other Nests. At least one is listed in the journals of the scientists, as a place for Harvest and another is listed as ‘The Nest of Eternal Peace’.

  The latest discovery is a port called ‘Haven’, it is hidden over the snow-capped mountains behind Intentionality. Of course no one recently has had need to trek that far for goods, but Haven is the last recorded sighting of the breakaway leader Morris Ward. Craig and Luke have decided to follow that trail to its natural conclusion. They are hoping to find a ‘sister’ city, founded and developed by Morris Ward himself.

  They leave tomorrow.

  That brings me to the here and now. We chose to develop a new event, a memorial and a way to move forward. Not one copied from the time before the Evo-shift and not an adaptation of a Natura truth bending exercise. We have called it ‘The Commitment’ to signify our intention to remember our losses, but in turn to make connections and promises, plans and assurances. That we will move on, using every positive force and advantage we have on offer. Never again are we to segregate and demean or humiliate. We are incredibly aware of our luck in surviving the Evo-shift, forever grateful to those who took charge during that monstrous time, but we don’t need to marshal the people of this generation, as they did all those many years ago. Our people are not frozen in fear. We intend to build Intentionality as a region, not solely as a defended city. Our citizens will have the freedom to roam and grow, new citizens will be welcome to join our society, as we explore and possibly find neighbours in other areas around our planet.

  We have no records to tell us what happened to those Grid girls in the generation before ours. We have only the records of their names from The Nest and their serial numbers, which were accessed by Julia whilst working through The Grid computer database. This wealth of information tells us not only what we have lost in their Evo-skill, in addition it informs us as to what they looked like, but it is nothing more than a scientific ta
ble of fact. Clearly, what these girls thought, the bonds they made with others and their personality were of no consequence to the Natura regime. As a result we have no way of knowing how their life would have complimented Intentionality, or added to its rich mix of skills.

  Mrs Alder and Mrs Jones can fill in parts of that jigsaw, they had contact of course with many of those girls in The Nest, and understandably they find that delving into this memory of so many teenagers lost is at the moment an unbearable task. One which we are not prepared to put them through. We wanted also to find a way of thanking them posthumously for their sacrifice. The Grand Acer who we have decided as a mark of respect and at the request of his daughters is to remain in his final resting place inside the sunken sub. The area has been classified a nature reserve.

  It is here, by the ocean’s edge, that we stand united this evening. We are enveloped in a cove and shadowed by that cliff I scaled making my escape. Who would have imagined this place could be so beautiful.

  Summer has of course once more organised the memorial. We are clothed in sombre colours matching the deep blue of the ocean. Each of us has chosen the name of a Grid girl. We have written it on one of the perfectly folded paper boats prepared lovingly by Elizabeth and Julia. They are white to represent innocence, each one bearing the flag of Intentionality, teamed sensitively with the phrase ‘Thank you’. As the sun dips below the horizon we will set each boat down onto the ocean waves, they will sail away to freedom, releasing those tortured souls. Elizabeth and Julia will release a wreath for their father, it is also white but in the shape of a heart. My hope is that they will be left alone to perform this final act, but that they will feel able to join us as their surrogate family and lean on us for support later on in the evening.

  After the memorial will come a treasured moment of reflection, a silence of no more than twenty minutes. This is the length of time it generally took for one rotation of the Ascension program, precious time to plan a new path for the coming year, to cement our intentions, to let go of our past. The beach is a perfect place for this reflection, with lots of room to sit, bury your toes or contemplate the grains of sand. Of course the soothing, repetitive sound of the lapping waves will enhance the feeling of calm undisturbed thought.

  Then we will celebrate how far we have come as a group. Summer has produced cocktails and canapés especially for the occasion. Behind us there is newly laid decking and comfortable chairs to sit and contemplate or to make new friends. The cold of this region at this time of the year is a consideration. With time and goodwill, large, glass fronted wooden shacks are to be erected with heated rooms. However, for this year we will make do with large beach fires, warm throws and lots of warm food.

  Everyone involved with our incoming government has been invited, many have arrived. Of course our special and most treasured guests are the first few Grids girls to recover. Mrs Alder truly worked a miracle with her inspirational deprogramming idea. The girls who entered The Grid last are the ones who have responded the most miraculously. Some came back to us within hours of accessing the new program. Once the brainwashing of the Ascension test had been removed and replaced by the soothing images and sounds of the natural world, the girls literally woke up. Fortunately these girls have not been tainted by any loss of ability. They have in effect been asleep for a prolonged length of time. This is not the story for everyone. The worst affected are predictably those who have been under the influence of the Ascension program for months on end. These poor girls are the ones that we were sent to replace. They have not woken and show no sign of doing so. Grace fears that they never will. She has experienced varied successes with the girls who are partially awake. Some are floating, lost between being conscious and a perpetual dream state. Grace is experimenting with sound and smell as a vehicle to help them find their way back to us.

  We have planned for the commemoration to evolve into a celebration which will continue through the night, deliberately planned this way so that we leave on a positive note during the new day’s sunrise. We have the rest of the night to appreciate what we have; in a way what we have always had in common. The skies above us at eventide during this season are a wondrous sight; magical evolving colours sweep across the horizon. They wisp upwards as they pass over our heads on their journey towards the mainland. With every moment their hue deepens and in turn lightens with an unbelievable cross-matching of the colour spectrum, quite poignant and relative to our evolving mix of citizens.

  The success of ‘The Commitment’ will be measured by the proceeding days. We should leave our beach haven refreshed, closer. Well prepared for a future of hard work, tough decisions, love, joy, patience, kindness and empathy towards one another.

  Anything is possible if we continue to work as a team. Fundamentally no one person should feel less than another because of their differences.

  No more secrets, no more lies…

  Intentionality

  “The Family of Intentionality is reborn.

  Amongst the seedlings of hope,

  Its leaves have grown strong,

  Its buds ready to bloom.

  A place to inspire,

  Our destiny and our legacy.”

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to take this opportunity to thank my gorgeous children and husband for their patience and support throughout the eighteen months it took to complete this, my first novel. Friends, too many to name, have also given me their advice along the way, some you will find in the pages of the book.

  I am also indebted to my already over-worked sister for giving me her time and positive words whilst reading and editing the first very rough draft and to my cousin who also gave up her time to be my trial reader.

  Grateful thanks finally go to my mum who has been a huge source of encouragement, both during the editing phase and the final push towards getting this very selfish ‘fortieth birthday challenge’ into print.

  With love always,

  Bek