by Mara Amberly
“Have you ever noticed differences in time or just distance?” he asked.
Nessa shrugged because she wasn’t sure. “I don’t know, but more often than not it’s around the same time of day. I’ve noticed big differences in the technology level of the places I’ve visited, but I don’t know if the date was the same in all of them. I think it was in some.”
A gunshot rang out somewhere in the distance. Nessa and James exchanged cautious glances and moved closer to a large tree nearby, as they had been standing in the open.
Nessa crouched down and began picking up small rocks. When she had several handfuls, she walked back over and placed them in a line in front of the portal. She still had her handbag with her, and she pulled out one of many ribbons. This one was blue and she tied it to a tree branch a dozen paces from the portal. There was a danger that someone walking through the woods might see it, but this place seemed deserted except for themselves.
“Let’s explore the area then,” James said. “I have my boot knife. I can mark some of the trees as we move on and create a path that we can follow back when the time comes.
“It may be easier for you to follow than me, but I have more ribbons and some chalk,” she said. Nessa looked up and around, trying to find a landmark that could be easily recognised at a distance. There weren’t any, so she knew she’d have to be careful in creating a path she could follow. It needed to be obvious to her but subtle to others.
“Oh and I have a compass,” she said.
James looked pleased. “That makes things much easier.” He waited and watched on as she took it out of her bag and opened the lid.
She used it to try and get her bearings. “North is that way,” she said, indicating the direction away from the portal. “Your King’s castle was north of the portal before. What do you think that means?”
James shrugged. “The portal’s in a different place so it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. The King cleared the trees near Derin, because he knew they could be used strategically against him. Of course, so could the whole bloody city. We could go north-west, as that’s where the forest remains nearest the city. That’s if we were approaching from the same direction.”
It seemed as good an option as any. They set out at once, James in front while Nessa followed a short way behind. She tried to memorise the details of the route they took, and every so often she marked white circles on trees and rocks with her chalk or tied on a red ribbon.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Pandora's Home Dimension;
Terania Settlement, Alverron – 7:00 a.m.
Morning came too quickly and Pandora was woken by the unwelcome beeping of her alarm.
“Computer, knock that off please... thank you!” She breathed a grateful sigh when it stopped.
Pandora couldn’t remember having any dreams, but she wasn’t sure if she’d just forgotten them. She had to work later but the time was flexible, and as she awakened more, she remembered how compelled she’d felt to visit the library. She hadn’t been there in a while, but it was more than that – visiting the library helped her feel close to her birth family because there were journals and photographs there. She was certain she remembered seeing a necklace like her own in one of her grandmother’s photographs. They weren’t digitised like so many recent images in Terania Settlement; these were on paper. She did have one photograph of her grandmother in her apartment, but it didn’t show the necklace.
It also brought to mind her adoptive parents, Linda and Owen. Her feelings toward Linda were warm and she realised she should catch up with her again soon. Owen and Pandora had argued a lot over the years and he didn’t approve of Kailen as her partner. He’d tried to keep them apart and drive a wedge between them, and it didn’t work. Now that Pandora was an adult and lived by herself, she wasn’t going to put up with that anymore. She’d kept her distance from her adoptive parents for a while, but a week or two had turned into months. She decided she should make some plans with them after she got home from work. It occurred to her then that in missing her birth family, maybe she was missing her adoptive parents too. She was still angry with Owen, but she was used to him being a constant in her life. Lately, things had just felt so quiet but it was a relief to not argue all the time or feel the need to justify her choices.
Pandora felt reflective today and there was a sense of rightness about most things in her life right now. It was as if many things set in motion over a long period of time were now as they needed to be. Even though she wanted to travel beyond the settlement, Pandora had hope, and she sensed that the settlement was on the verge of an important scientific discovery. She felt like wonders existed not far beyond her door. They only needed to be discovered.
Pandora washed and dressed for the day. Her ivory top was elasticated and soft to the touch, and it clung loosely to her curves. She paired it with dark pants that were plain but comfortable. Her shiny, curly hair was difficult to tame, but once combed, she pinned it back with clips. She felt much tidier once she was dressed and her hair was done. After that she put on her necklace, closing the clasp beneath her long hair, and almost reverently put on the ring Kailen had bought her. She took a moment to admire her ring and the locket, with its glittering white stone, in the mirror. She wondered about the eight-rayed star, which Lydia had told her symbolised hope. Could it be the symbol for something specific as well?
She couldn’t hear others in the complex stirring from their apartments yet, but she often rose earlier than they did. Pandora checked that her backpack held everything she needed on the way out, and then she left her apartment and made her way to the eating hall. There were a few other occupants dining when she got there, but no one disturbed her as she made herself warm tea and helped herself to the fruit and oats, which she knew the settlers grew themselves.
She drew several glances while she ate but her thoughts were elsewhere. Pandora played with her necklace and kept finding excuses to look at her ring. It felt amazing to her to have a piece of jewellery that Kailen gave her. It wasn’t that she felt it was a big step, but she was tactile and found a connection through the ring that had seemed more tenuous before. She felt a different vibe from the necklace, and while the sealed nature of the locket hadn’t figured strongly in her thoughts, she wondered now what was in there. After all, she was wearing it around her neck. Shouldn’t she know?
“It’s not the box, but it’s important.”
The voice came out of the blue as she was eating her breakfast. Pandora looked up, but there was nobody there. It was a woman who’d spoken – an older woman. Was she hearing things now? She looked around her and listened. There was a light buzz of conversation as people talked, laughed and ate at neighbouring tables, but none were that close. None seemed to match the disembodied voice she’d heard.
“Hello?” she whispered questioningly in a voice only she could hear – seemingly to thin air and vacant space. She wasn’t surprised when there was no answer, but she thought there might be.
“So now I’m hearing voices. Great.” One of the women at the next table – a redhead with wavy hair looked at Pandora as if she’d spoken to her, but she shook her head and continued eating her breakfast.
She relaxed at the table for a few minutes after, not hurrying on as she’d planned. She found herself admiring the necklace again and she took it off to examine it. It wasn’t so strange a thing to do in a dining hall, she reasoned. The eight-rayed star engraved on the front had a tiny white jewel in it. She noticed it had many facets, but it was so small, she wondered how the jeweller had got it in there and made it stay put in just the right way. She ran her finger over the locket and it felt smooth, other than a slight indentation where the stone was. The locket itself was like a rectangular canister, but its edges were smooth and there was no easy way to open it. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to be opened, but when Pandora shook it, it felt like there might be something wedged inside.
Her curiousity peaked; she wiped off the fruit knife and tried to
pry open the locket with it. She was sure the dull blade was too thick for that purpose, but she heard a subtle click. She cautiously opened the locket and looked inside. There was a key tucked in tightly inside. It was silver with two small, lustrous clear-blue stones – one small and one larger. It looked old-fashioned, with a design not used for hundreds of years. Most locks were electronic now. She liked it as soon as she saw it, and it took some effort to dislodge the key from the locket. She loved the way the key’s stones caught the light. It might have been many years since they’d seen the light of day.
It’s a good thing Lydia didn’t find the key in there. Now what do you open, I wonder?
***
Time passed quickly and Pandora wanted to make the most of it before work. She took the stairs up from the dining hall into a corridor that was always poorly-lit. Unlike the inner market, it didn’t have windows. She soon reached another staircase – this one was a square spiral, and two floors up, she found the entrance to the library. This was one of the first buildings of the original settlement built and its architecture was more solid than most. She always found the air cooler here, but there was never a reason for it other than perhaps the materials they’d used in its construction.
Normally this area would be bustling with people but it was currently quiet, because it was early in the morning. Pandora found the library door open and made her way inside. Almost at once, she recognised the calming smell of old books – and part of that was probably dust and not just paper, but she liked it. Somehow it made her feel relaxed and at ease, and like she was in her own element.
She walked down between tall rows of shelves toward the back, left-hand side of the library. Like the library in general, it was quiet. She noticed Stella, a librarian she knew, wheeling around a trolley of books, re-stocking the shelves. Pandora didn’t disturb her; she made her way to the small study room that she knew was there. The room was the size of a medium office with bookshelves along two of its walls, and framed photographs and pictures on the others. A single window looked out on to another, more open section of the library. There was a white rectangular study table in the middle of the room. Several chairs sat around the table unused. There was no one in the room but her.
The shelves in this room contained some of the journals of people who had lived in the settlement in times past. A lot of books that the library held were written by people who had lived here. This room held the work journals of council members, Scientists and Engineers for the most part, going back at least ten generations. A lot of scientific knowledge and advancements had come about through these books. However, it wasn’t the books that Pandora was interested in right now.
She set down her bag on the table and made her way over to the pictures that hung on the wall. There were many from floor to ceiling, all in old frames that were sturdy but showed strong signs of wear and handling. She’d thoroughly examined these pictures before, so she knew where the photographs of her grandmother were. Looking at them, and leaning in carefully to make out the finest details, her suspicions were confirmed. Her grandmother, Emily, was wearing a necklace just like the one she wore now. Pandora touched her necklace when she realised it. It was identical. It made her wonder who had inherited it and sold it on at the market, unless of course there were duplicates around. She could go back and ask Lydia, but it didn’t seem as important as having the necklace now. It might only have helped confirm for her that it had once been Emily’s.
There’s no hurry, but I’ll ask her about it when I see her again.
There was a crisp sound of footsteps and Pandora turned when she heard them. A tall man approached the doorway of the office. His hair was dark and his eyes were a cold grey, their expression seemingly relaxed, but there was liveliness there. She wondered if he might be a Scientist because he was a stranger to her and his appearance was clean cut, but he wasn’t dressed as one. Instead, he wore a shirt of brown over black cotton trousers. The fact she didn’t know him put Pandora on her guard.
She returned to examining the pictures, expecting to be left alone while he did his own thing, but he spoke to her.
“You’re Pandora aren’t you? I had a feeling I might find you here.” His voice was unexpectedly deep and he seemed to be well-informed about her already.
Now how do you know that?
Pandora gazed at him curiously and not without a small bit of wariness.
“What do you want?” She was surprised how calm and even her voice sounded, because she was growing nervous, even though he’d just arrived.
“My name is Bastian. You don’t need to worry. I, uh...” He hesitated as he struggled to find the phrasing he sought. “I want to give you an opportunity to do some work with us. I’m from Davenport Settlement.”
Pandora was surprised to hear him admit this, though it seemed like he must’ve been from somewhere else. “What kind of work? And Davenport – that’s hundreds of miles to the north of here. How could you get here?”
He smiled at her mysteriously, which she found annoyingly arrogant. It gave the impression he was someone important or thought he should be, and was privy to a great secret. He may have known things she didn’t, but Pandora didn’t like him much already.
“Yes, it is a long way and the work would be scientific in nature. If you come in and talk with us, we can answer all of your questions.” ‘I’ had now become ‘we’, she noticed.
Pandora picked up her bag and moved toward the door. Bastian watched her, stepping aside as she passed him. At least he didn’t block her way, but he followed her outside the room.
Pandora wanted to ask who he was, and who he was representing, but he had already answered those questions to some extent. He just hadn’t answered them to her satisfaction.
“How do you know who I am? I haven’t spoken to you before. I wasn’t even sure I was going to come here until today, so I don’t know how you could possibly know unless you followed me. This doesn’t seem like a chance meeting.” She didn’t remember seeing him in the dining hall either.
He looked a bit taken aback, as if he hadn’t anticipated this response from her or that he might have his motives challenged.
“I’ve read your personnel file, Pandora. There are few people from the settlements who have spent significant time outside without protective gear and shown little or no long-term effects. You’re one of them.”
There was a sound further off in the library, but the source of it was out of sight. It sounded like children talking.
“I was a baby when that happened, and as I understand it, I needed saving after being out there.” Pandora defended the story she’d been told, knowing it might not be true at all.
“It wasn’t because of environmental toxicity,” he explained. “It was from dehydration and sun exposure. You were tucked inside your mother’s coat, a cloth over your face, yet you lived and she died after breathing the same air and being in the same conditions. We think you may hold the key to better tolerating the environment.”
Pandora had always felt that she belonged out there and it might have been why. Still, she’d never heard such a detailed explanation of what happened when she arrived at Terania Settlement. She thought Bastian was telling her the truth about this, but how could she even know for sure?
“I was told there was no record with that level of detail from when I arrived at the settlement. I checked the library of documents and computer records.” She’d even asked Helene to check at her higher access level, but she’d found no relevant entries, at least so far as she told Pandora.
“It was reported by the medical centre where you were treated. They may not have recorded much information, but they reported it to the council.” He seemed patient enough to explain, and while Pandora hadn’t known another library of information existed for the council beyond the resources she knew about, it made sense that it would.
“There’s a lot more I can tell you and show you if you meet with us. Come to building J-7 by the gate and ask for m
e.”
Pandora had wondered if this might come up, but she hadn’t quite believed it would. What were they going to do? Make her dreams a reality about seeing the outer world or study her? She didn’t like the idea of being turned into a test subject like the plants in her own tests. It could be informative but wasn’t it the population at large that mattered most?
“So what would my part be in all of this?” Pandora liked options but her instincts told her she had reason to be wary.
“Some tests and if you’re up for it, a field trip or two, I imagine. There are those who could explain better or give you a clearer picture than I could.” The smile he gave her urged her to think about it.
She was. “For now, I have to get to work or I’ll be late.”
His smile tightened, and his expression turned more passive a moment later. “We’ve already spoken with the Scientists in charge and got you out of your day’s work, but it’s your decision. Find us in J-7 when you’re ready.” With that, he turned away and when she didn’t ask him any further questions, Bastian left.
He knows I’ll be coming, and why wouldn’t I be? It sounds like a shot at everything I ever wanted.
Pandora considered for a moment just how many people she’d told about wanting to leave and explore the world out there. As much as she kept to herself a fair bit, the answer was over the last ten years, she’d told a lot of people. She’d told Kailen of course, but also those who she worked with at the lab. It was why Helene hadn’t been surprised at just how interested she was in the finds that she wasn’t supposed to know about.
I think I’m going to go to work anyway, just in case Bastian – if that’s really his name – wasn’t entirely honest. Even if he was, someone should know where I’m going. Maybe Kailen should too. While she trusted Helene, she wouldn’t put it past her to keep quiet if she was instructed to by her superiors, who were the senior Scientists and members of the council. Pandora knew Kailen well enough to be sure he’d always put her first, even if it meant breaking the law. That’s what made him so trustworthy and reliable, and why he needed to know what she was considering.