by RS McCoy
Then, without warning, he walked out.
Aida sat in her chair, the one still warm from his body, and tried to let her thoughts return to work. No sooner had she pulled up the files on 196 and set them to hover over her desk then Calvin returned with his tablet tucked under his arm.
“The aquatic images are back with some of the prelims. Would you mind if I join you while you look them over, Dr. Perkins?” A wide smile consumed his features. His emerald eyes blazed.
Aida stifled a laugh and said as evenly as she could, “I would be honored to have your professional opinion on such an important matter, Dr. Hill.”
He sank into the chair with the smile of a man who is satisfied in his secrets. Aida realized, she too, was satisfied.
MICHAEL
LRF-AQ
AUGUST 24, 2232
“Ready to be impressed?” Abigail teased from the doorway. Her eyes glinted with victory. She wore a simple dress the color of coffee. Michael couldn’t help but marvel how it seemed to make her skin glow.
“You always impress, my dear.” It wasn’t a lie. “What do you have for me?”
“Oh, some files.”
His eyebrows shot up. “The digital autopsy reports?”
Abigail’s features twisted into a gloating smile. “Why yes, director. I have secured two autopsy reports.” With a wink, she added, “Just for you.”
What Michael wouldn’t give to be the person that occupied her thoughts from lights on to lights off, as she did for him.
He shook his head to clear it. The files were in. He needed to focus.
Michael would have much rather had all seven, even those before his appointment as director, but he could work with two. “How’d you get these?”
“I pulled some old strings. It wasn’t easy, but I’m very good.”
Now he was going to have to hear about it from her for weeks. Then again, he’d been asking her for weeks.
He sat up in his office chair and pulled in close to his desk, his hands already working to find to the files on the server. Then he saw it: Autopsy YGr42.
Yanna Grienke, the astrophysicist that died four months ago. She was young, late twenties, but one of their rising stars. Her research into orbital projections of interplanetary vehicles could have revolutionized interspace travel. Her death had been a blow to the field.
On the left side of the screen, a generic outline of the human form appeared in three dimensions. On the right, the autopsy report scrolled past.
Michael reread the entire file twice, but didn’t find anything related to a cause of death. On the human form, the red mark on the head was the only indication.
He searched the report again, this time focusing on anything related to the head, an injury, a preexisting condition. Nothing.
Abigail stood on the opposite side of his desk and watched as he pulled up the other file: JPa42.
While Michael had known Dr. Grienke and spoken to her more than a dozen times, he held Dr. Parr in an entirely different regard. He was one of their best. Dr. Parr had revolutionized the field of Planetary Systems after a major loss of data in some sort of freak accident. Without him, the study of planets for future colonization would never be where it is today. He was a great Scholar, a great man. Michael was privileged to have known him.
Michael’s esteem for the late Dr. Parr made him quite uncomfortable looking through the autopsy, as if he was a child peeking under the skirt of business woman. He didn’t want to see Dr. Parr so exposed.
He only continued because he knew it would be for the good of the LRF staff. If he could prevent even one more death, then it would be worth it.
Much to his disappointment, the file was largely the same. A red mark across his neck and no indication of any injury.
“What does this mark indicate?” he asked Abigail with his finger on the red patch.
“How should I know? A throat injury? Or is it somewhere else in the neck?”
“Why isn’t it listed in the report? If it caused his death, why didn’t they document that?”
“Maybe he choked? Was he eating when he died?” Scholars were immune to a whole host of medical and genetic ailments, but Dr. Parr wouldn’t be the first to die of a more lackluster cause.
There was only one person to ask.
TO: AIDA PERKINS, PLANETARY SYSTEMS
FROM: MICHAEL FILMORE, LRF DIRECTOR
MSG: WAS DR. PARR EATING AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH?
Thirty seconds later,
TO: MICHAEL FILMORE, LRF DIRECTOR
FROM: AIDA PERKINS, PLANETARY SYSTEMS
MSG: NO.
Michael was less than surprised. Between the mysterious deaths, secret files, and forged documents, the picture was starting to clear.
“Get me the Vicereine. Now.”
“Why?” Abigail’s features twisted with concern.
“Just do it.”
Abigail returned to her corner desk and worked for several minutes. “She’s in meetings all day. She doesn’t have an opening for five days.”
“It’s an emergency.”
“Michael, it’s not an emergency. You can’t just—”
“Get her on the line. Whatever it takes.” Abigail looked as if she wanted to argue it further, but like the intelligent woman she was, she thought better of it.
Another hour passed before Vicereine Masry’s face hovered in holograph over his desk. Her charcoal hair was slicked into a Scholar bun. Her face was like stone, her lips and jaw tight with stress or aggravation. She blinked at him as if he was a child showing her a flower. “This had better be good, Filmore.”
“Have you seen the autopsy files from the LRF?”
She sighed. “Not personally.”
“Who processed the reports?”
“They were sent to the facility in New York. Standard procedure for off-world cadavers. You know this.”
Michael held back his cringe at the use of the word ‘cadaver’. He would not, and could not, consider Dr. Parr that way.
“These autopsy reports are forged. There’s no cause of death and inconsistent data. Either someone got sloppy or made an attempt to keep the information out of the report.”
“This isn’t your concern, Director. Your primary objective is to keep the LRF operational.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed. She was hiding something. He had to find a way to get her to crack. “My job is to maintain the LRF, including its personnel. If I don’t have clear insight into what is killing my Scholars, then I can’t be reasonably expected to keep them safe. This is data I need access to.”
Masry’s lips pursed even tighter. “I’m forwarding your comm to the facility in New York. The information is top-level security. Understood?”
Michael’s pulse raced. Now he was getting somewhere.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Now I have to find the four minutes you’ve wasted. Don’t bother me with this again.” As if sucked into a black hole, Masry’s face disappeared. Only a flashing white icon at the top of his display indicated the call was live, though Michael didn’t know with who.
When a new face appeared, it was a mid-forties man with salt and pepper hair and a hint of smile. “Good morning, Director Filmore. I’m Silas Arrenstein. I understand you have some questions for me.”
THEO
CPI-AO-301, NEW YORK
AUGUST 26, 2232
He tapped his knuckles on the door and waited. His stomach twisted in knots like man bound for the noose.
Dr. Arrenstein opened the door and didn’t punch him. Theo figured that was a good start.
Without a word, Dr. Arrenstein walked back to his window with a drink in his hand.
The open door was the only sign Theo could come in. He walked in but didn’t go past the leather sofa. Instead, he stood behind it and tried to think of how to start. A thousand times he’d replayed this conversation in his mind, but now that he was here, his mind was blank.
Dr. Arrenstein turned around and leaned against
the window frame. Sparse stubble covered his chin and his eyes looked glassed over.
Theo had no doubt he was quite drunk.
He’d never seen the director so casual. The top two buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He sipped his drink and stared at Theo, waiting.
Somehow, Dr. Arrenstein always made him nervous, even more so now. The hairs on his arms stood up as if he were on trial.
“Is there anything I can do? For Mable I mean.” He’d heard the rumors.
“She’s resting in her room. I think it’s best that we don’t bother her.”
Theo nodded. He expected no less. “So it’s true? She had a bug?”
Dr. Arrenstein nodded in return. “Was that all you wanted to know?”
Theo gulped down his fear as best he could. “I, uh, I wanted to talk to you. If you have another minute.” Theo’s hands fidgeted in front of him, refusing to be still.
“I have lots of minutes. What do you have to say?” Dr. Arrenstein spoke with even tone and a hint of something else, fun? Maybe he enjoyed this.
Even if he did, Theo was resigned to his fate. He straightened his stance and cleared his throat.
“I know I messed up and you have every right to rearrange the teams, but I want to request to stay with Mable.”
Theo watched as Dr. Arrenstein became entranced with the ice he swirled in his glass. He drained the last of the liquid and said, “What makes you think I would ever agree to that?”
“I didn’t. But I owed it to her to try.” Theo sighed. It had been a bad idea from the start. Acknowledging his defeat, Theo turned for the door.
“Kaufman?”
Perking up, Theo turned and answered, “Yes, sir?”
“I expected better from you.”
A choke rose in his throat. Theo didn’t know how to respond. Seventeen years old and he was still nothing but a disappointment.
Theo walked back to his room with heavy steps. How did he get this way? How did he become this person? He sported some of the finest genetics this side of the Atlantic, and still he couldn’t find his place.
He failed as a Scholar in less than a day. He’d failed so spectacularly, he managed to kill a boy in the process. At CPI, he lasted longer but still blew his changes at any sort of success. And he’d nearly killed Mable.
Theo was lost. He had everything going for him and he still couldn’t make anything of it. Would he always be so useless? It was a blanket of disappointment that threatened to suffocate him.
He had to make a change. He had to do something, to prove he wasn’t a total loss, if only to himself. He would go back to basics and figure out a way to make it work.
Alone in his room, Theo sat at his desk and set to work on the only meaningful project he could think of. He dismantled his tablet, desk lamp, and the alarm over the door but was still a few parts short.
Desperate for the last two pieces, he jogged across the corridor to Osip’s room. “Hey, do you know where I can find a coin cell?”
Osip stared back at him as if he’d spoken in an ancient Siberien tongue. “A coin huh?” He ran a hand through his long blonde hair and blinked.
“A coin cell. It’s a small Lithium-based power source for microbots.”
Osip chuckled. “Yeah, I don’t think we have anything like that around here. You can always order one.”
Theo cocked his head to the side. “Order one? From where?”
“Kinda like we do for clothes. Got your tablet? I can show you how to download the apps.”
Theo spent ten minutes reassembling his tablet before he could bring it to Osip. “The tablets come pre-loaded with the basic Closet app. Clothes, shoes, all that jazz. There are a few others you can download. This one is for media. I really only use the music but there’s books and vids, too. This one, the Gear Door, has all kinds of tech stuff. Any kind of tablet upgrades, screen replacements, that sort of thing. If you need some robot shit, that’s where it’ll be.”
A wide world of opportunities opened before him. Theo skimmed through the home page of the tech app and already spotted a few items that could work. He wouldn’t know until he got them in his hands and opened them up. “Nick keeps tabs on what we order?”
Osip narrowed his eyes and smirked. “What are you up to?”
Theo shook his head and decided it was worth the risk. “Thanks for the apps.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Osip laughed as Theo collected his things and left.
At his own desk, Theo allowed himself only five minutes to pull together enough songs for a decent playlist. It wasn’t the well-thought out masterpiece of some of his old ones, but it would do. He turned on his audio devices and set to work.
ABRAHAM
LUNA COLONY
AUGUST 26, 2232
While Abraham had no memory of attending school of any kind, he was certain this wasn’t how it was done.
After a full day of work in the greenhouse and animal room, after making dinner and eating with the children, after reading time and putting them to bed, Charlene offered to teach him.
“It’ll be fun. Maybe it’ll help you remember something?” Her dark eyes were bright as she looked up at him with a smile.
Abraham shrugged. “I guess it can’t hurt.”
“I’ll get the tablet. You get the wine?”
“Meet you back in five.” Abraham fished a decanter of red wine from storage and poured them each a glass. Charlene bounded down the hall and slid into her chair a moment later.
“What am I going to learn?” He handed her the glass and sat in the opposing chair.
She kept her eyes on the tablet and made several motions before she answered. “Animals.”
In the air above the table, a dozen different creatures hovered. “Okay, you’re options are: domestic animals, African safari, rainforests, arctic, plains, freshwater, marine, or specialty groups. Those are the ones on islands or some of the more unique environments.”
Abraham stared at the display at a complete loss.
“How about rain forests? That’s a nice easy one to get started.” Charlene tapped a red-eyed creature. She took a sip of the wine and cringed. “It’s better,” she lied.
“Okay, so first of all, a rainforest was an area of dense tree and plant growth. They would get incredible amounts of rain every year, so they were always really humid. The plants would fruit year round. It was a really lush place to live.”
The screen showed a wide forest so vast, he could only see the tops of the trees. On and on it stretched, putting his little greenhouse to shame. “This is on Earth?”
“Oh, no. Not anymore. The last rainforests were documented in the 2060s.”
“What happened to them?”
“We cut down the trees for a few centuries. Then after the war, no one really cared about saving the planet anymore. Everyone just kind of decided Earth was lost, so everyone took for themselves. Whatever parts were left were gone in a few years.”
It sounded like a story to scare children. All this green on Earth and humans killed it? It didn’t seem possible.
“Anyway, so with all the trees,” Charlene continued. “There are a ton of animals called herbivores, or animals that eat plants.” The trees gave way to a series of creatures. She pointed to each one as she described them. “A lot of them are insects. Caterpillars that become these gorgeous butterflies. Leaf insects look like leaves and stick insects look like sticks. More beetles than you could believe. Millions of species of beetles. Then there are some larger herbivores, like fruit bats and squirrels, some birds like macaws, toucans, that sort of thing.”
Abraham gaped up at the display, trying to take it all in. He sipped his wine in silence as she went on, about primates, about reptiles and amphibians that lived in the humid forests. There was even a crab that lived in some kind of water-filled plants. He was in awe of the sheer diversity of animals.
“Am I going too fast?”
“What? No.”
&
nbsp; “You’re just staring. I thought I lost you.”
“It’s a lot.” There was no use in denying it.
Charlene swiped the display away. “We don’t have to do it all at once. We can do more later. We could make this part of our routine if you want. Wine and lessons after the kids are in bed.” She smiled and leaned in awaiting his response.
Abraham smiled back. “You won’t be tired after teaching the kids all day?”
“No. It’ll be nice to talk to an adult for a change. I love those kids to death, but sometimes I just need a real conversation, you know?” She took a big sip of wine.
He couldn’t help but feel that he failed her in that respect. Abraham was hardly a talker. “What happened to the last man that was here?”
“Gregor?” Charlene shrugged. “It just didn’t work out. He was great for the first few months then he started to lose it. I think he wasn’t geared for it. He got tired of all the work and he never really connected with any of the kids.”
Abraham blinked. Without his work in the greenhouse and the children, there wasn’t much left in Luna. No wonder they’d taken him away. “And the one before that?”
“His name was Josh. He really liked it here but he couldn’t get any of the crops to grow. We ate corn and potatoes at every meal. I was so sick of eggs for breakfast.” Charlene chuckled. “Who would have thought? On Earth, eggs are expensive. Here, we ate so many we begged him for anything else.”
Charlene stood without warning and walked around the table. When she reached him, she slid a leg across his lap and straddled his thighs. “We’ve never had it so good.” She leaned forward and left a slow, lingering kiss on his cheek.
Abraham’s heart threatened to pound clear out of his chest. Never had she been so close, so bold. Was it the wine? He couldn’t even think with her pressed to his chest.
When she pulled back, she leaned her head back and laughed. “Too fast?”
Abraham nodded with eyes wide. He had no idea what was going on.
Charlene leaned forward again. This time, she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed. For at least a minute, they sat that way, locked in place.