by Rayya Deeb
“Hi, Brittany.”
I sensed a palpable tension between the two. Senator Gilroy and his wife walked past me to shake hands with each Wallingsford before taking their seats.
Brittany and I sat down. “Let’s catch up after this,” I said to her.
She nodded. “We can go for a ride if you want.”
“I’d love that.”
I turned to Jennifer. She smiled and looked away, up to the podium where the man cleared his throat and then spoke into the microphone.
“Esteemed members of Congress, Mr. President, Mr. Vice-President, NASA, Southern Gate Electric Corporation and guests. Welcome.”
The crowd cheered. Everyone was thrilled to be here.
My head felt pretty heavy and the pounding didn’t cease between my eyes, but, if anything, the energy here helped. I was really starting to feel excited that I was included in what felt like such a momentous occasion. The last time I was in a room with a few of these people I was being highly scrutinized, and now I was with them, like an apprentice future leader of the world, and it felt incredible. I just needed to get my head back to normal so I could fully engage in this.
The man spoke up as the applause subsided, “For those of you whom I don’t have the pleasure of knowing, I am Rupert Neville, the Director of the Air and Space Museum. I want to thank you all for being here with us today. It is my great honor and privilege to give you a man who truly needs no introduction, for it is his passion and perseverance that have brought us all here today, and for that we are all tremendously grateful.”
I looked at Jennifer and G.W. They were beaming. I felt this way about my dad. I was happy for them but a bit jealous, too.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, our very own United States Congressman Frank Wallingsford!”
Without hesitation the entire room rose for a standing ovation as Wallingsford made his way to the podium with both of his hands up waving to everyone and a gigantic smile on his face.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank YOU!”
More cheers.
I found that I was clapping more than usual, as if this was a concert or something. It just felt big, whatever it was…
“301 million miles away we are making a new home. Today is one of the most exciting days of my life because I get to share this with all of you, and we get to share this with the world! The advances we have made towards absolute peace and prosperity are astounding. The departure is upon us, Ladies and Gents. This is our future!”
Everyone cheered again. It was as though every time Wallingsford opened his mouth the cheers got louder.
He pointed up to the projection. “See that?! That, my friends, is progress. That is what President John F. Kennedy was talking about in 1962 when he said, ‘This country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward— and so will space.’ Indeed, it is one of the greatest tragedies known to mankind that we need to leave our precious Earth, but we, my friends, we will prevail because we are moving forward to live in space! This is no longer a dream. This is our reality. With our stronghold of science, knowledge and information we are moving into an era of a brand-new life in space. We are now welcoming volunteers to depart every two months for a prosperous existence on Mars. These pioneers will be setting up our new home for us and this has all been made possible by two organizations. Today I want to thank the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for their work in exploring our extraordinary universe and handing us access to all that they have uncovered over the years. They are putting their knowledge in great hands with our country’s leading developer in technology and science infrastructure, our very own Southern Gate Exploration. Please join me in welcoming the dashingly intelligent, but not-quite-as-handsome-as his brother, CEO of Southern Gate Exploration, Billy Wallingsford.”
The room erupted in cheers.
Wow. Hearing this with a crowd made it feel monumental. NASA was handing the reins for Mars’ exploration over to SGE Corp. I also recognized that the messaging here, no matter how promising, was heavy-handed Departer propaganda. Everyone was susceptible to it, myself included.
Billy Wallingsford stood up from beside G.W. and waved to the adoring crowd before making his way to the podium to hug his brother Frank Wallingsford, and then he stepped to the microphone as Frank took a step back.
“Thank you for such a warm welcome, and for humoring my little brother. This is such an exciting time. What my brother said could not be more true. Our ancestors looked to the night sky, catalogued the stars and made up great stories of the heavens. Our forefathers searched the heavenly bodies, developed mathematics to describe the motion of the planetary bodies and sent probes into space to make new discoveries. And can you believe it? Now we are right at the forefront, riding the wave they sent to us! We are honored to be in the position to make it possible for all women, men, and children in the world to have a choice to leave our planet and go to Mars to continue the pioneering that our forefathers have done for millennia. We’d love for you to join us today in visiting some of our informational centers here to learn about the advances we are making and how you can contribute. Let’s not ever forget that it is a collective effort that has made, and will continue to make, this all possible! This is a great day for all Americans and all of the world. My thanks to NASA for bestowing this honor upon us by passing the torch to allow SGE to usher in a new era of the good life on the red planet! In closing, I’m going to piggyback off my brother today by quoting President John F. Kennedy. ‘As we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.’”
“Thank you and God bless you all!” Billy trumpeted, and the room went wild.
37
THAT EPIC SPEECH left me questioning my stance. Before today I was anti-Departer, pro-Repairer. Seeing all this imagery, though, and believing in the potential of space exploration, I couldn’t help but imagine that I, along with my family, could very well be one of the pioneers on Mars. Becoming versed in backstory of both the Departers and Repairers allowed me the recognition of the strong sentiments on both sides, and gave me the fortitude to form my own opinions. I didn’t want to be manipulated one way or the other by rhetoric.
The whole audience shuffled to another part of the Air and Space Museum where a gala was set up with a banquet. I was starving so I beelined it for the food as Jennifer got pulled in to talk with some of her parents’ friends.
There was a kids’ table that offered grilled cheese with the crust cut off. That had my name all over it. I saw G.W. spot me enjoying my first bite. He snuck away from the group he’d been mingling with to join me at the kids’ table. “Grilled cheese is my favorite!” he proclaimed.
“I love it!” I said. “I am so grateful for your family bringing me along,” I gushed.
“Ah, we love you, Doro! You’re so awesome.”
“Aw, thanks! But I haven’t done anything that awesome, have I?”
“You’re just more down to earth than the people I am used to, and I appreciate that. You’re the real deal!”
Brittany walked up. G.W. put his arm around her and offered her a bite of grilled cheese. She declined with a polite smile. It was nice to see they were still together and had moved forward after all that they had gone through with that awful flighter crash. I looked at G.W. and how pristine he looked and thought it really was unbelievable that he had bounced right back to normal after that.
“Right, babe? We love Doro, don’t we?!”
“Of course! Actually, Doro, can I steal you for a minute for a bathroom break?”
“Let’s go.” I stuffed the last bite of grilled cheese into my mouth. “Real butter, so good!”
G.W. laughed as we walked away.
Brittany and I made our way through the super chatty crowd and down the hall. I noticed an excess of men in black posted up all over the place, in front of every doorway.
We went into the bathroom. We entered separate stalls and peed then came out to wash our hands. There was another lady in there who smiled at us. I was about to head out, but Brittany held me back and waited for the lady to leave before pulling me into a stall and shutting the door behind us.
Brittany flushed the toilet and spoke with her words hushed under the sound of the flush. “I’ve wanted to talk to you but I couldn’t until we were somewhere private.”
“What’s up? Is everything okay?”
“Yes. I want to hear about your trip.”
I wanted to tell her about my trip, and what a trip it was, but I was limited in more ways than one. We had been really open with each other the last couple of times we hung out, and it threw me off that I had to keep quiet now. It was like nobody could know the complete story with me, myself included, and that kind of hit me in the gut.
“We can discuss that later though, because we don’t have much time,” she said.
I was off the hook for now. She went on, “Doro, you need to watch out for yourself and be very discerning with what you’re being told right now.”
“I know. I’m always watching out.”
“I know you are. But I also know all this departing mission stuff can sound really attractive. The underlying truth to it is very scary.”
“I know it’s scary to think the Earth is almost to the point of being uninhabitable. But it is pretty incredible that they’ve come so far with a solution for a fresh start like this, isn’t it?”
“In some ways, yes, but in other ways it’s completely terrible to be honest.”
I had to play devil’s advocate in order to keep the information coming from each and every perspective on my path.
“In what ways?”
“It is all about those in power usurping complete power.”
“That’s what I was thinking in Seneca, that it was exclusive and what about everyone else in the Aboves? But isn’t this different? Isn’t this an opportunity for everyone to start fresh and have a good life— on Mars.”
Brittany flushed the toilet in our small bathroom stall again and spoke super low and close to me. “Right now these people control the atmosphere on Earth and are systematically making it bad enough that they can convince people to leave Earth to want to live on Mars. They have a way to create an atmosphere on Mars and they are setting up to do it right now, as we speak. They have already recruited millions of people to commit to setting up a colony there so that they can then mine and control all the resources, and the people that come there, too. They have the capability to repair the atmosphere here but they are choosing not to because, if they did, people would choose to stay here. Then there wouldn’t be anyone to do all their dirty work while keeping them rich and in power.”
The sound of the flushing stopped and was replaced by the sound of the door to the bathroom opening. We went dead silent inside our stall. Outside of it we heard a voice—
“Dorothy?” It was Jennifer Wallingsford.
Brittany threw her finger up to her lip to say, “Shhh.”
“No, it’s Brittany,” Brittany replied.
“Oh. G.W. said Doro went to the bathroom.”
“Yes, I saw her washing her hands on my way in.”
“Okay.”
Jennifer didn’t sound too sold. I hoped she wouldn’t look under the door to the stall. I didn’t want to get caught in this super awkward lie. Something was going on between these two and I definitely didn’t want to get embroiled in it.
“If you do see her, please let her know my flighter is ready to go back,” Jennifer said.
“Sure, no problem,” Brittany replied.
Jennifer left the bathroom.
“I want to tell you more but I can’t here,” Brittany said. “We’ll talk when we get back to Seneca. Wait a few and then come out,” Brittany whispered to me.
Brittany stepped out and I was left alone to take a deep breath and collect my thoughts. I really needed to get back so I could dig deeper into the memories I was missing. They’d let me better decipher everything that was going on because I’d be more me than the person I was masquerading as now.
38
ON THE BRINK of rush hour, Jennifer and I took our flighter ride back to the ascension dome. I noticed many more flighters in the air than the last time I was in Washington, D.C. Jennifer appeared to be a bit pensive as she looked out the window.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yes. I just miss my parents. My dad’s been so busy lately with the Mars mission, and my mom with her foundation, that my family hasn’t spent a lot of time together.”
“I can relate to that.”
“I know you can. I know it’s all worth it, though, and soon we will all be in a position to be together, forever, in a whole new world.”
“Literally,” I added with a little laugh. It was funny because it sounded too good to be true, and no matter how cool it would be for inhabiting another planet to become a reality, I wouldn’t believe it until I was standing on red soil looking back at the Pale Blue Dot from millions of miles away.
I was alerted that I had an incoming flex from Ellen and I kind of froze up. I didn’t want to squash this solid rapport between Jennifer and myself by jumping into a conversation with Ellen, so I shot her a flex message.
Hey, Ellen, I’m with a friend, I’ll flex you back later.
Sounds good. Talk soon.
I would connect with Ellen when I was back in the youth residences on my own.
“Listen,” Jennifer said. “I don’t ever want to talk behind anyone’s back, and I think Brittany is a really sweet person. My brother clearly adores her. But the rest of her family doesn’t have our best interest in mind, politically speaking.”
My flex notification went off again. This time it was my mom.
I hit ‘accept’ in my mind and my mom came through.
Honey, how is your head? Are you home from session now?
Hi, Mom! I’m okay. I’m out with my friend, Jennifer Wallingsford. Home soon. Don’t worry about me. I promise I will be in bed soon and will connect with you later.
Okay. Can I bring you a bite?
Maybe tomorrow. I just had a grilled cheese.
Okay, honey. I love you.
Love you, Mom.
I tried to do all that flexing quickly so Jennifer wouldn’t notice I was doing it at all— from my implant, but I think I just came across as aloof.
“Everything okay?” Jennifer asked.
“Yes, completely, I was just thinking I forgot to flex my mom and she’s probably worried.”
“Soon you can let her know just how okay you are. Better than okay. I am literally dreaming of the sunsets from a new perspective with the people I love. These dreams are something I won’t ever let anyone take away from me.”
“Of course you shouldn’t”
“Right? Sadly, if it was up to some people, we’d all die suffering in an apocalyptic wasteland just on the existential principal that Earth is our home.”
“Home is where the heart is,” I said.
On the acoustic carrier ride back into the youth residences a B3 Media broadcast played overhead on monitors. News anchor Becky Hudson reported over video images of a towering cylindrical structure filled with bubbling blue liquid.
“Seneca’s brainchild, The Doromium Project, that has been underway on the Martian planet for three years now is coming back with initial tests showing the blockage of Carbon Dioxide from entering the atmosphere. If everything goes according to plan, people will be walking on the red planet without any special space gear in a matter of a couple of years.”
Video images of humans in spacesuits walking on Mars and waving to the camera intercut with a Senecan flag waving in the breeze.
“And in less than ten years, the Mars we will know will no longer be red but instead covered by emerald green rolling hills and the first generation of Senecan settlers. These are projections of what we expect to
see in under a decade.”
Video images show renderings of: Green forests with red mountains in the background. Manmade lakes being filled with rain pouring from clouds, humans walking on a planet, children playing, the first Martians— the next generation of human evolution.
Everyone on the acoustic carrier watched in amazement and shared in a moment of excitement that really seemed to instill in all of us a sense of camaraderie. We looked around, smiling at one another with big hopeful eyes, but underneath my projected enthusiasm I felt a growing awareness of the media’s manipulation.
39
IT WAS LATER than I expected by the time I got back to my room in the residences, and the day’s excitement had me worn down. I knew I should go to sleep, but I had to put sleep on the back-burner. I needed to get through a large enough chunk of memories in order to feel I’d been productive.
When I walked into the bathroom, I caught a reflection of myself in the mirror and was shocked by the horrendous dark bags under my eyes. I took a quick shower and used my mouth brush. After I was in my pajamas, I drank a cup of water as I sat on the edge of my bed, gearing up for a journey into the archives of my memories. I was just too tired to sit up in a chair at my desk. I had gotten used to the lingering headache that so far was more a nuisance then a debilitation. I just hoped it wouldn't worsen and that the water would help me maintain. I so could have used a mocha, but I wasn't about to put myself in the same position I had last time, curled up in the fetal position for two days or more.
I pulled up my Veil and entered my memory database at the point where I had left off last time. There was a really strong memory that took up a lot of space by copying itself in multiple locations in my brain, so I dove right into it. I was instantly enthralled with meeting one of the most intriguing people I think I've ever come across in my entire life. His gripping green eyes stormed into my mind like thunder and lightning. This guy in his Jimmy Cliff shirt was fierce yet peaceful. He nursed me back to health and he told me his name was Jadel.
