"Earth to Melissa."
She shook her head.
"Wow. I was kind of lost there for a while."
David smiled.
"Yes, you were." He paused, "What do you say we analyze the rest of the material that Backmann sent?"
Melissa nodded reluctantly. The hologram disappeared when she touched it and they leaned over the screen and began to read through the rest of the material. After a couple of minutes, their eyes met, and they stood silently and pondering what they just read.
David scrolled through the text on the table until he came to what he was looking for. Two photographs of something he did not recognize. Backmann had mentioned them earlier but he had difficulty visualizing them. The two parts were similar but were not identical. The left looked like a broken part of a ten-centimeter metal circle. The part shimmered in a blue turquoise color and did not resemble anything that David had seen before. In the middle of the part was a hole just over a centimeter that went straight through the section. The other part resembled the first one but shimmered in another color, green-yellow, and instead of a hole, there were two.
She pointed incredulous at the two holograms that rotated in the air in front of them.
"What on earth are those?"
He hesitated.
"They are the reason we are here."
David felt Melissa stare at him.
"Excuse me?"
He did not answer straight away.
"David?"
He cleared his throat as he looked sheepishly at her.
"Backmann told me about it at the end of our conversation last time we spoke. I was not sure how you would react, so I decided not to tell all when we discussed the assignment."
Melissa's eyebrow rose.
"Why would you do something like that?"
David shifted uneasily.
"In retrospect, it sounds really stupid but then it seemed to make sense."
Melissa glared at him.
"We'll talk about this later." She paused and said with a sour voice, "But now you tell me all that Backmann told you. Okay?"
David nodded and knew he was in trouble.
"When Arne Buch died, his wife apparently found a box. A treasure box. When she opened it, she found two Fabergé eggs, and not just any eggs. The two eggs were two of the famous Fabergé eggs that had been lost for generations. "
Melissa nodded.
"Yes, I know. That's what we spoke to Backmann about."
David nodded and lifted his hand and enlarged the two holograms. He used his fingers to zoom all the way towards the Necessaire egg and pointed when he found what he was looking for.
"There - you see?"
Melissa studied that the egg but could not see what David was pointing to. David turned the hologram until she saw it. Melissa gasped.
"Oh my God." She whispered, "It is one of those weird pieces, what is it?"
David seemed a bit more confident now.
"There was also something else in the box. Something amazing. The box contained two eggs, but there seemed to be an empty space in the box for yet another egg. And that’s not all. Those weird colored pieces were hidden in the eggs. One piece in each egg.
Melissa stared at the arch-shaped, glittering piece that lay hidden in the egg.
"What are those?"
David remained silent while Melissa continued.
"Does anything have to do with the spheres?"
"Probably."
Malmoe, Sweden
March 15, 2049
It was hard to breathe. She tried but the air was heavy, she had to struggle for every breath. When she managed to get air into her lungs, it was not enough, and she had to take a new, deep breath. The pale woman with the beautiful silhouette moved forward with a darkened face.
The woman seemed to listen to an un-hearable song that guided her steps. Something that resembled a wet blanket was wound hard around her body. She seemed to trip over an invisible rock and stumbled.
Thin mists of smoke came from her mouth when she gasped. She almost fell, but somehow, she managed to stay upright. She came closer. The air around her was heavy and humid. As if you turned air into water and had to breathe that instead.
The woman stopped, remained still while the dark wet hair hung down and covered her face. Her feet had no shoes but strangely there were no wet footsteps behind her, no traces at all. She carefully tilted her head as she was listening for something.
Her hair still covered her eyes but in some mysterious way, she still seemed able to see. She leaned her head to the other side. She could not really see the woman sharply. She vibrated in a way that made it difficult to focus on her. Hands that were immobile under the wet blanket began to move and struggle to free themselves. Her hair was thrown back and forth, first softly and swinging, then more and more wildly when she struggled to get free.
The humid air became even colder, and the women's rapid breathing accelerated, and clouds spread through her hair like smoke slipping through a prison grating. One arm managed to get free under the blanket and she stretched it straight ahead. Greedily. Manically. The hair slid aside, and the cold, dead, pale green eyes stared. The damp air exploded in a white light.
Maja Buch sat explosively up in bed and quickly drew her breath. Sweat trickled down her forehead and into her eyes. Her heart pounded in her chest. She rubbed it to get rid of the dizzying feeling. The mattress was cold and wet under her. Confused, she looked around while she kicked off the blanket. The horror slowly subsided and reluctantly released her grip on her. She smelled her own sour sweat.
A few deep breaths helped her regain a certain amount of control and she glanced at the clock on the nightstand. Half past four. It had been so basically every morning the past week, weekdays as the weekend. One minute before the alarm clock on her phone started, she woke up with the same nightmare as now. It was always the woman who slowly and relentlessly moved towards her. Maja did not know who the woman was, but she only felt horror when she arrived. Who was she and what did she want?
When Maja was young, she had been a real morning sleeper and often slept through the alarm clock both two and three times, but as she grew older it was as if her inner rhythm changed, and she woke up earlier and earlier. Perhaps it was the fixed routines that eventually had changed her or maybe it was a sign of something else. Stress? Arne's death might have affected her more than she thought. She had never in her past had nightmares about a horrible woman with outstretched arms coming for her.
She put away the damp blanket and took a few deep breaths. She sat on the edge of the bed for a couple of minutes and allowed herself to settle down. Carefully she placed her feet on the floor and she noticed how Mena, their ten-year-old Schaefer Rottweiler lay on the floor next to the bed and how she moved in her sleep. The dog's claws scratched the wooden floor when she raced after a rabbit that only she could see.
Maja stepped over the sleeping dog, careful not wake her, pulled on her clothes and walked down the stairs. When she reached the second final step, she stopped at the alarm control panel and deactivated it. The familiar morning routine was pleasant and provided a measure of security. Their lives were like that now, a lot of routines. There was picking up and dropping off children at the kindergarten and school. And wedged between the logistics where was their jobs and careers that had to be done.
Maja entered the kitchen and filled the coffee machine, poured water into it and turned it on. The darkness outside the window was several shades of grey but not quite night black as the weak moonlight fought the darkness. It was early spring, and the still snow-covered garden reflected some of the moonlight outside. She heard Mena's familiar steps down the stairs, and how the freshly cut claws scraped the steps going down.
Maja walked into the library and sat down in the red, soft velvet sofa they had gotten from her aunt and tucked her legs beneath her. The sofa was soft and perfectly suited to enjoy the morning. She opened her holo-phone and began to scroll through the news,
mail and social media while waiting for the coffee to be ready.
It had been more than three months since the spheres from space came but they were still on top of all news sites. It had been dramatic months for the world. She read one of the headlines on the holo-phone; what do the spheres really want? She scrolled through the text. It explained how to establish a basic contact with the spheres where they were around the world. Now, there were seven different places. Apparently, it was not easy to establish communication with another civilization. She smiled to herself. Sooner or later, the smart researchers would figure it out. But Maja had other things that would occupy her time.
Today, she would pick up her husband, Henrik, who had been on a business trip, at Kastrup. They would have lunch at home and he would work from home in the afternoon and then Maja would have to go to the hairdresser and then later, have coffee with a friend downtown.
A few minutes later, she heard the familiar, gurgling sounds from the coffee machine, which indicated that the coffee was ready. She put her feet down to get up. Mena whimpered when Maja happened to step on one of the dog’s paws, and Maja reached down and hugged the dog who waved her tail.
When she had poured the coffee, she went back to the couch to continue enjoying the calm before the others woke up. This time in the morning before everyone else in the family was awake, was holy to her.
As she sat down on the couch, she glanced over at a photograph of Henrik and her laughing as they sat at a restaurant in Greece. They were both sunburned in the picture and Maja chuckled. It had been the last day of their first joint vacation and most had gone wrong during the trip. The first day it had Shooting Started to rain and when they landed in Greece, the luggage had not been on the carousel where they waited for it. But the journey had nevertheless been magical in front of every adversity the trip posed to them, as well surprised her and especially Henrik's reactions when something happened.
Instead of responding with anger and frustration that most people would have done, Henrik responded differently. His smile was infectious and during their journey, she fell increasingly in love with him. And as if someone had waved a magic wand, the last day had become wonderful. The rain had stopped, and the sun was breaking through the clouds. The early hours were spent in bed, the morning on the beach and the afternoon on a rental car that they used to drive around with. In the evening they spent at an intimate romantic candlelit restaurant. She thanked her lucky star for Henrik and the two wonderful girls they received. The youngest, Lisa, was four years old and Stella was seven.
Henrik had been on a business trip the last few days in Oslo and his flight should land around quarter past ten. Today, however, she had a surprise in store for him. She had had a suspicion this past week and yesterday she had bought a pregnancy test that had shown positive. She could barely contain herself until she met him again. She thought of her mother, Dagmar, and the hard time she must go through now that Arne was dead. Arne was Maja’s father. In any case via blood. They had not had contact for over twenty-five years.
Maja remembered the day when she had stormed out of the spacious apartment on Bredgade. Her father had been unbearably strict, and her mother had not been able to counter Arne’s power over the small family. She remembered how the horror of the unknown had set in when she ran down the stairs, out through the gate and felt light, innocent snowflakes slowly descend on her. She remembered when she looked up and saw her father and mother, their detached glance as they gazed down at her and her father's indifference as he shrugged and disappeared from the window. She shook her head to clear her mind.
Carefully, she put down the coffee cup, took a step over Mena who had once more fallen asleep beside the sofa on the carpet and went back up the stairs. She would walk Mena after she had picked up Henrik so today she would get a later walk.
Softly, she opened the door to Lisa's room and peered in. Lisa was rolled under the blanket and only her fluffy, bright hair emerged like a turtle pulling her head into her shell. Maja went over to the bed and sat down on the edge. Silently, she began to hum as she caressed the thick hair. She felt Lisa moving under the blanket and she smiled to herself. After a minute, Lisa's head peered out and her tired eyes appealed to her mother.
"Please, five minutes more?"
Maja chuckled.
"No, young lady. It's time to get up."
Lisa tried again, and her appealing look worked Maja.
"Please?"
Maja smiled at her youngest daughter.
"Okay, you can stay here while I wake up Stella, but not a minute more."
Lisa pulled her blanket over her head again.
"Thanks, mom, you’re the best!"
Maja went out of the room and turned on the ceiling lamp as she walked out of the room, so the light would help Lisa wake up. She heard how Lisa wound the blanket around her and laughed as she went to her eldest daughter. Stella was already awake when Maja gently knocked on the door and opened it.
"Good morning, mom." Stella sat up in bed, she had heard Maja and Lisa talk and wanted to show her mother that she was not as childish as her sister. Maja sat down beside Stella and hugged her.
"Did you sleep well?"
Stella nodded while removing something from one corner of her eye.
"Yes, I dreamed I traveled to a land far away. But you and dad were not with me."
Maja frowned the forehead.
"No? Why not?"
"I do not know. You just didn’t. I was alone."
Maja studied her daughter and tried to determine if it was a good dream or a nightmare. Her worry evaporated when Stella grinned.
"But it was ok since everything in the land was made of chocolate, so I went around to eat just about anything. Delicious."
Maja smiled and hugged her daughter and helped her out of bed. Together they went and fetched Lisa on the way and went down to the living room where she turned on the big screen mounted on the wall. She wrapped her daughters in two blankets and then went back to the kitchen to get a new cup of coffee.
Around half past seven, they were ready with the morning routine and Maja helped Lisa into the back seat of their silver-gray Volvo. Stella demonstrated demonstratively to her mother that she did not need any help and struggled with the belt. Maja sat in the driver's seat and turned the rear-view mirror, so she could see Stella.
"Need help?"
Stella groaned while struggling with the not-so-cooperative seat belt.
"No!"
Maja glanced over at Lisa, who interested followed her big sister's struggles. Maja peered back in the rearview mirror and saw how Stella became redder and redder in her face and finally, the audible click was heard when the belt buckle slid into the holder and Stella triumphant declared to everyone in the car.
"So, now I'm done. It was easy."
Maja smiled at her daughters and scrolled down the list of destinations on the big screen in the center console. She pressed the icon for the kindergarten and then sat back in the seat. The fully automated car drove out on the white, snowy roadway that glittered in the yellow-colored shine from the streetlights. They chatted about their plans for the day. Lisa was going with her kindergarten on a trip to the local library and Stella was going to have gymnastics. Maja loved these small discussions when she dropped off the children and she looked forward to having a family dinner to the evening. She left Lisa on kindergarten and Stella at school and then headed for Kastrup to pick up Henrik. She put on the holo-screen for the morning's news update while the car drove past a large snowplow that cleared the snow from the roadway.
The car accelerated onto the highway. She looked down at the big screen in the center console. A hologram appeared in front of it and showed a beautiful news couple, a well-groomed man and a gorgeous woman with a little too much lipstick. Just in time to hear the news summary. The woman's little too bright voice proclaimed.
"The latest developments with the spheres have attracted the whole world's attention. Mankind is now appa
rently no longer alone in the universe, and the big question on everyone's lips is, how will this affect the financial markets?"
Maja laughed at the statement. Financial markets? Is that what the whole world is paying attention to?
She was constantly surprised by the short-term view of some news media. The female anchor continued.
"Welcome to you, economist Serge Lyckman.
The camera panned over against an older, gray-haired gentleman who nodded as an answer.
"Thank you. Good to be here."
The male anchor flashed a movie star smile.
"What do you say, Serge, about the spheres and the financial markets?" How does the long-term forecast look to you? "
Serge leaned forward.
"This is, of course, something unique in human history. Now we know that we are not alone and the big question I think we all struggle with is what business opportunities this will bring?"
The camera panned back to the female news anchor who nodded seriously and looked interested.
"And besides the spheres, we also had everything that happened on Tabula Rasa and John Vendrick III. Now that the secret experiments they've been on about advanced cloning programs, who will take over them?" Serge paused theatrically, "We should remember that cloning is big business and there will be many who want to get the hands on the material that Tabula Rasa compiled."
The female anchor who seemed to be tired of just sitting and nodding broke in.
"But are the cloning programs not illegal?"
Serge shrugged.
"Well, yes, they are. But that was not the way I meant", the color of his face changed tone to a more reddish, "What I meant was that there is a lot of money in cloning research and we still do not know the motive of the spheres so it's too early to draw any conclusions. "
Maja had had enough of the confused conversation and turned off the sound as she touched the edge of the screen. A news strip slowly scrolled beneath the holo-screen.
Newsflash: reports of minor seismic activity reported in the Oresund region.
She looked at the newsflash in suprisement. Reports on seismic activity? She had not felt anything. She peered out the window, down at the old quarry that passed to the right and along the edge of the quarry the newly built high-rise buildings that stretched to the sky like stalagmites. She approached the toll station and the car automatically slowed down.
Genesis Page 8
