The Eden Project: Humanity's Last Chance Page 4

  The element she worried most about was using one of the kids to help with the plan. Adam was to delay the lookouts and give Doctor Hossler enough of a head start so he could outrun anyone in pursuit.

  What did Doctor Quarna mean by contingency? He spoke the word with such a fatalistic tone. There was darkness in his eyes, some unspoken doom. He made her feel like she had inflicted an unwanted burden onto him.

  They entered the control room to find every camera screen focused on a small boat on the sea. This was the work of Milo and Isaac. On one of the screens a camera slowly zoomed in on the distant boat, just close enough to find a man on the boat wearing an orange rain hat and an orange rain coat. He turned slightly and they could all see him, Doctor Hossler, concentrating on the task of sailing the boat. His face was already drenched from his efforts.

  Doctor Quarna bent over and hung his head, heart struck by the discovery of the expected. He turned to Doctor Becker, still bent over, and shook his head with the deepest dread she’d ever seen.

  Contingency? What the hell was the contingency? She started to understand, but fought off the truth. What an awful word.

  “Every boat is rigged with explosives,” Dr Quarna finally explained. He stood and looked desperately up to the heavens.

  “No. You can’t possibly,” Doctor Becker pleaded.

  “Thanks to you, I can’t possibly not.”

  Claudia started to understand and turned sadly back to the screen where Doctor Hossler worked diligently at his escape.

  Doctor Quarna walked slowly to the control panel and stared down at the empty seat there. He became resigned to his fate. “I will have to blow him off the water.” He took his seat. His hands moved to the controls.

  Doctor Becker looked to the screen. What had she done?

  * * *

  THE LAST OF THE KIDS ran to the west dome to join the gathering crowd. The siren wailed in their ears and yet they remained dumbstruck with awe. It was a sight they had never even dreamed, a boat out on their own lonely patch of sea.

  Gen and Tuna stood among them, their initial wonder having turned to concern. They knew Doctor Hossler was making his escape.

  Above them on the lookout deck, Milo and Isaac sat working the security cameras. Adam stepped to the glass. His mouth formed a slight smile as he watched Doctor Hossler leaving the island behind.

  Then it changed. A sudden jolt of doom overtook him.

  A red light started flashing on the bridge of the boat. Doctor Hossler stopped working the sail and stared at the light. Inside the dome the kids turned to each other. No one understood the meaning of the flashing light.

  It came to Gen first as a feeling, a devastating sense of certainty. No one would ever be allowed off this island, not before the 117 pure born were safely launched and outside the earth’s atmosphere.

  Doctor Hossler would not be allowed to sail away. That red light could only mean one thing. All threats must be eliminated. The feeling was an idea now, one too big for her to carry.

  She considered the line of kids pressed against the glass. What was about to happen? What would even those eight year olds have to witness and remember?

  The red light flashed and Doctor Hossler ignored it. He sailed further out into the unknown. Gen realized they would have to prevent his escape. She knew the kids would have to see it done.

  The alarm siren changed, it pulsed faster and with horrible urgency, the red light on the boat pulsed faster as well. They were connected, to each other and to Doctor Hossler’s fate.

  “Adam!” Gen screamed. She had formed the word, his name, without a plan, just some primitive impulse. “Adam!” she screamed again.

  Everyone turned to her. Adam glanced down from above. She stared up into his eyes. He opened his hands to her and when he did it, her mind received the answer.

  “Show them the dome! Show them us!” She said while Adam tried desperately to figure her out. “Show them! Show them all of us.”

  He surveyed the floor below, all those young faces. He understood and spun around to Milo.

  “Milo, now! Show the control room the dome, the kids’ faces. They need to see them.” Milo looked up at Adam defiantly. He had zero tolerance for any more of Adam’s manipulative tricks.

  “And why would I do anything you say?”

  “Milo, forget me. You know what they have to do. They have to blow up that boat.” Adam pointed down to where the others kids watched the red light flashing on Doctor Hossler’s boat. “He’ll be out of range soon. They have no choice. They have to blow up that boat. All those kids, even the little ones, will watch them do that, Milo.”

  Milo turned to Isaac looking for courage. Instead, he could see dread overtaking Isaac. Adam’s words had taken effect and Isaac was not even one of the little ones.

  “Show them. Show the doctors. Show them all those innocent faces. Now, Milo!”

  Milo peered into Adam’s eyes trying to find his own answer. He gave up, spun back to the controls and hit a few quick buttons. Adam saw all screens change to the floor of the dome.

  * * *

  DOCTOR QUARNA WATCHED the boat distance itself from the island. The pulsing siren blared from above him. He shook his head. Claudia and Doctor Becker stood behind him mortified. He clicked on his keyboard to pull up a red control module on another screen.

  A few more clicks started a high-pitched hum and then, finally, the word ARMED appeared on the screen.

  “He’s given me no choice.” Doctor Quarna opened a code box on the screen asking for a sequence number.

  “Nathan, stop! Think about what you’re doing. You are not capable of this,” Doctor Becker pleaded. She set her hand tenderly on his shoulder. “Just let him go. He’ll never speak a word of this place. You won’t do this. Please, Nathan, you’re not a killer.”

  Doctor Quarna slowly removed her hand from his shoulder. “If you think I won’t protect this project from anything or anyone, then you don’t understand me at all, Doctor Becker.”

  He started to type the sequence code. Doctor Becker stood in disbelief while she watched him typing the long code. She had no choice. She jumped on his back and grabbed his arms.

  Doctor Quarna spun her around, grabbed her arms and restrained her in a violent bear hug. He nodded to Claudia to come to his assistance.

  “Claudia, can you take care of this for me?”

  The compact, but powerful Claudia easily took control of the delicate body of Doctor Becker to allow Doctor Quarna to finish.

  “Claudia, you can’t want this. Can you really be so heartless? Hoss is your friend. Please!” Doctor Becker pleaded without hope.

  Doctor Quarna started over with the sequence code. “In one way or another we all sacrificed our lives for this project.” He glanced back at Doctor Becker regretfully. He finished entering the sequence code this time and lifted a finger above the ENTER key.

  Doctor Becker could not watch. She hung her head.

  “Wait!” Claudia yelled.

  Doctor Quarna held his hand above the button. He exhaled and closed his eyes deeply frustrated. “What is it now?”

  “It’s the dome. Look.”

  Doctor Becker lifted her head to the images of sweet, concerned faces. The kids were on every screen. They were all watching the sea, waiting for the final act of this strange happening.

  Doctor Quarna saw the faces too, but his hand remained just above the button. No one must ever leave the Dome. No one. Not until humanity’s last chance was fully realized.

  They watched the camera slowly panning the faces of those kids who seemed younger and more innocent than ever before. An unknown fear grew in their eyes.

  They had started to realize what the siren meant.

  The camera stopped moving. It focused on Ada’s small face. She stared out through the glass confused. Involuntary tears began to well in her big blue eyes.

  “Nathan,” Doctor Becker said, waiting for him to look at her. “Hoss would die before he said anything about th
is place to anyone.”

  His anger still brimmed over. He peered into her eyes and through her, blaming her for everything and wanting to make sure she knew it.

  He turned back to Ada, exhaled his fevered contempt and then slammed down a few quick keystrokes. The sequence screen closed, the control module closed, the cameras turned off and the siren stopped screaming its manic cry. Doctor Hossler would sail on.

  The silence now was nearly as deafening as the sirens had been.

  -8-The last of daylight touched down on the distant sea. Darkness was coming. Adam sat up on his perch and watched anyway, watched the sea fading to black. The glimmering blue ocean would soon disappear just as Doctor Hossler’s boat had disappeared hours before, cutting slowly through those salty waters and disappearing into the world beyond.

  Gen walked down the ramp of Eden Sphere 1 carrying a wicker basket full of ripe tomatoes. She reached the floor of the dome and took a sharp left toward the main corridor. She adjusted her grip on the overfull basket. A tomato rolled right off the top.

  She carefully set the basket down and squatted to pick up the escaped tomato. She spotted Adam above in his usual place staring sadly out on the darkening waters.

  She clutched the tomato with both hands and watched Adam. The clever teenage rebel seemed more like a conflicted boy to her. Did she really fear this lost boy? Was he really so dangerous? Could he single-handedly bring about the end of the human race?

  Maybe she had been too hard on him. Sure, he had helped put them all at risk by helping Doctor Hossler leave the Dome, but his intentions were obviously generous and he had put himself at risk. It was only a matter of time before Doctor Quarna would learn the whole story and he would have to explain his actions with the lookouts.

  She knew that and she knew something more. Adam had a generous soul, a heroic soul, even if misguided and possibly dangerous. When he shifted his weight, Gen startled to action. She stood and quickly placed the tomato safely in her basket. When she turned to go she captured a glimpse of Adam glancing back at her. She pretended she did not see him and walked out of the room never looking back.

  Zeke spotted her entering the corridor. He hurried to her aid. With a knight’s confidence he was able to slide the fragile basket right out of her hands smoothly without hesitation.

  Not a single precariously stacked tomato jostled or fell.

  That boy could take her breath away. No one existed in space and time with as much physical grace as Zeke. He kept everything strong, silent and certain. He would build a life with her, a strong and graceful life where nothing ever jostled, where nothing ever fell.

  She knew Adam would lead a different life, one where things would shatter and break and explode into thousands of what? Shards of sharp glass under her bare feet? Or could it be that they would explode into all the dark places and light them up like stars in a lonely sky, stars that sparkle and burn and leave you breathless?

  Her brain was sick with him now. She wanted to escape those thoughts. Is love really madness? It felt clear to her that it was and that because of it worlds would always end in madness.

  “Are you okay?” Zeke finally asked her.

  Zeke was there. She had forgotten him so quickly, something she could never find a way to do with Adam.

  “Gen, do you need to sit down?”

  “Oh Zeke, no, I’m sorry, I’m just famished,” she finally offered. “The sooner I cut up these tomatoes for dinner the better.”

  She set her hand on Zeke’s back. He grinned happily. When they reached the kitchen he backed carefully through the swinging door carrying the tomato basket.

  Gen stopped for a moment holding the door. She looked down the corridor to the commissary. The kids were gathering for dinner. The energy from their bright faces and cheery voices had done what Adam or Zeke could not do, lightened her mood.

  She rolled up her sleeves and stepped into the kitchen.

  * * *

  TUNA STRUGGLED DOWN the main corridor of ES2 attempting to hold onto his scrollpad, a small plastic repair kit and an odd-shaped computer component. When he looked up he spotted an unwelcome visitor boarding his ship.

  Adam walked toward Tuna without his usual dangerous smile. Instead he was so intently serious it gave Tuna a shudder. Tuna stopped in his tracks. Adam approached and passed him without making eye contact.

  Tuna’s eyes followed Adam down the corridor behind him until he turned and disappeared into AUDIO RELAY SYSTEMS. Tuna sighed at the inevitability of it all.

  When he entered AUDIO RELAY SYSTEMS, he found Adam in front of the four gray computer screens hypnotized by the flashing prompts in their centers. Tuna set down what he was carrying.

  Adam stepped back slightly to give Tuna room.

  “Yeah,” Tuna surrendered. “Considering wind conditions, sea conditions and the fact he grew up in a seaside fishing village which means he will have been on his sail at least half the afternoon to conserve fuel, I’d say Old Hoss has traveled about 78 to 94 nautical miles by now.”

  Tuna stepped in front of Adam who simply received Tuna’s calculations with an earnest nod. Tuna exhaled and began to pound his way through the minefield of passwords with little concern.

  Adam could feel the world slipping away from him more each day. He would not leave this planet without at least trying to learn what was out there. Maybe there would be some new discovery or some turn in the fortunes of the uninfected who had gone underground years ago.

  The paternal donor from whom Adam had been created had lived more than 100 years ago. He had been a professional athlete who left behind all the fame and fortune of the sporting arena to fight alongside anonymous grunts in a thankless war. His physical gifts and uncommon bravery were just beginning to be the stuff of legend when a missile sailed quietly down an abandoned street and tore through his chest.

  He died in an instant. He died childless.

  More than a century later, Adam was born inside the glass dome of the Eden Project, the last civilized building in the world. He felt the burden of that blood, the burden of a hero’s mission. Would his father be proud of him had he ever known of his existence?

  There were battles somewhere out in the world and yet Adam found himself inside this domed arena safe and sound and well fed. Now was the time to follow the call that he felt had been frozen all those years within his father’s seed.

  He liked to think he could feel what his long ago father must have felt, an embarrassment of riches. He would fight for the people no matter the cost. He would not abandon them.

  “There,” Tuna whispered while the static quickly surrounded the boys, hissing quietly out of speakers all around them.

  Adam refocused on the task at hand. They must make contact.

  They could hear the music emerging, instrumental and symphonic like a slow moving wave washing warmly through the bloodstream. Tuna smiled at the sound. Adam struggled to find the proper emotion.

  “Is this the same guy? The DJ?” Adam asked, confused. “It sounds different.”

  “It’s just different music, big guy. It’s still him playing it.”

  Tuna reluctantly pressed the down arrow to adjust the frequency. The music disappeared as he fished through different levels of static trying to find some other point of contact.

  Adam moved in close to the screens and Tuna. “You have some idea about Doctor Hossler?”

  “I do,” Tuna said. “They would be communicating somewhere in the hundreds I believe.”

  “They?”

  “The boat and the doctors.”

  A light bulb went off in Adam’s head. The other doctors could have been in contact with Old Hoss, but what would they talk about? Betrayal? Putting humanity’s future at risk for one’s own selfish agenda? He realized that neither Doctor Hossler nor Doctor Quarna would likely reach out to each other.

  They searched slowly down through the 200s and 100s and heard nothing but louder static or lesser static. How would they know the frequency to
attempt to send a message? Maybe they could find out somehow, maybe Doctor Becker could slip him that information, but what would Doctor Hossler see but open waters for hundreds of miles? And once he made land he would leave the boat and the radio behind.

  “If Hoss doesn’t talk to anyone, how will we find the frequency?” Tuna wondered aloud as he slowly went down one click at a time.

  “Let’s just go back to the DJ,” Adam suggested.

  When they returned to 468.99 the instrumental music was fading.

  “The song’s over,” Tuna said, stating the obvious.

  “Yeah, I can hear,” Adam replied. “Shush.”

  First a quiet cough. Was the DJ infected? More static and silence. They glanced at each other anxiously. Tuna turned up the volume hoping to hear the voice again.

  “That ends an hour of non-stop melancholia,” the DJ reflected quietly. “A requiem for the world’s final traveler who glides away on the deserted sea, filling his sails with what he calls hope even though the horizon is ever lost, ever beyond his reach.”

  The silence that followed was loaded with ideas until they heard a song begin, a whisper of a melody that rose to an echo of longing upon the lonely waters.

  Adam bent his face trying to understand. “He said an hour of non-stop melancholia. What did he mean by that?”

  “I think he meant sad music,” Tuna concluded. “An hour of sad music for a traveler.”

  “A traveler?” Adam spit out as fast as he could. “Maybe he saw Hoss out there.” For the first time optimism washed over Adam. “He saw him alright. We made contact.”

  Tuna was less enthused. “Yeah, it’s possible. Sure. That could mean he saw someone and if he did, it would likely be Doctor Hossler.” Tuna stopped, careful not to tread too heavily on Adam’s hope. “Or, maybe, he might be talking about himself, alone on his own boat playing music to no one. Why? He might just mean his music would never be heard, never reach the horizon which would be other people’s ears.”