by A. L. Knorr
"It's an honor to meet you, too," Georjie said, very politely.
"So, what did you guys think of the presentation?" He didn't wait for us to answer and began to speak rapidly. "I've seen it so many times I know it by heart. I helped build it, in my own way, you know with feedback and stuff." He waved a hand. "But I'm sorry I didn't get to see your faces when you first caught wind of our idea. What do you think? What do you think?"
He enunciated all of his consonants, which gave him a robotic air.
We glanced at one another, not sure what to say. I wondered what Miss Marks might think of her boss’s tactic of mining for a reaction before we were ready to give one.
Finally, Akiko responded. "It's…ambitious, to say the least."
Mr. Nakesh nodded vigorously. "Of course, we don't do anything if it isn't ambitious, otherwise what's the point? Who wants to do things that are boring? We have the means to rock the world with this project. So, you have questions? Well, come on, let’s get into it."
The door opened and Miss Marks burst into the room with Hiroki on her heels.
"You're here!" A spot of color had appeared on each cheekbone. "Thank goodness. But I was hoping to give you a proper introduction." She smiled at us apologetically and took a deep breath. “Let’s do this properly.”
There was a lot of body language going on while she spoke. Miss Marks seemed both frazzled and embarrassed, but exerting enormous will to hide both. Hiroki's movements were both wooden and animated. He had taken off his glasses, put them back on again, removed a clipboard that had been tucked up under his arm, transferred it to under his other arm, shuffled backward to the wall, decided not to stand there and shuffled forward again. The whole effect was comical and made me feel like I'd been thrust into a slapstick play.
"…He's, uh, founded a dozen tech firms worldwide…" Miss Marks was going on about Mr. Nakesh's accomplishments when Hiroki finally settled on taking the empty seat between Georjie and Mr. Nakesh.
"It's all right, Jody. They don't need my entire resume." Mr. Nakesh laughed and waved her off, mid-sentence. "Let's get to the good stuff. Project Expansion."
I tried not to look at my friends—I was afraid their expressions would set me to giggling.
He spun the chair and put his back to Miss Marks, facing us once again. He slapped Hiroki's back. "Nice to see you, my man." He pointed a finger-gun in Hiroki's direction. "Picked this dude up from MIT and right out from under NASA's nose. No one more brilliant in astrophysics has ever been born."
Hiroki shifted uncomfortably under this. His entire face flushed cherry red. "Well, I…"
I noticed Petra stared at the two of them, bemused. I wondered what she was thinking.
"Whatever your questions are, don't leave any out. Hiroki here is writing a project pitch, thousands of pages long. He and his team are preparing a document answering in detail all of the questions you can think of as well as many you'll never think of. No one embarks upon a project of this magnitude and expense with a doubt factor of more than one percent. We have sales to make and they don't happen without a thorough F-A-Q sheet… in this case, maybe an F-A-Q tome." Mr. Nakesh chuckled at his own joke.
"Sales?" Targa came to life at this statement. "What are you selling?"
"Property inside the domes, of course," Mr. Nakesh replied, with another hand-tapping rhythm on the back of his chair.
"You're already selling property?" Confusion clouded her face. "But the domes don't even exist yet."
"It's all conditional," Mr. Nakesh said with another floppy wave of his hand. "If the project fails then the sales don't go through, naturally. We're investing billions in this project, we have to make our money back or we'll go under. This is the way things work in business. One of our competitors has already sold property on another planet…"
"How do you sell something that doesn't belong to you?" Akiko narrowed her eyes at the billionaire.
"It belongs to whoever can reach it first, then viably explore and develop it. This is how it has always been. But let's not get off track—”
“Who are you selling the properties inside the domes to?” Targa asked.
“Just like any developer with a large tract of land, we've plotted maps and zoned them for residential, commercial, agricultural, and recreational. But before you get the idea that this project is strictly for profit, we also intend to offer a heavily-subsidized portion for middle-income families—to be won by impartial lottery—and we've also set aside a percentage for charity."
Georjie leaned forward in her chair and asked, “Just how large are these domes supposed to be?”
“Huge,” Mr. Nakesh said. “Big as countries, some of them.”
Georjie blinked a couple of times and stared at him, as though calculating the amount of work that would be required.
"How will people get in and out of the domes? What about oxygen and weather and crops?" I asked. "I'm more concerned about this than how you'll divvy up the property. How can it possibly be sustainable?"
"All great questions," Mr. Nakesh said smoothly. "Hiroki is working with Petra on how to create a doorway in the force-fields. While it's something we haven't figured out yet, I am fully confident we will. We just need more time with her kind of technology."
"What about jobs and businesses?" Georjie asked.
"This is simple," Mr. Nakesh spread his hands and shrugged. "Economy is fueled by supply and demand, and it would be no different inside the domes. We've already documented and laid out solutions for these very questions. The things that we are not yet able to solve require the prototype to be built first, as we need to work from a living model. Everything moves in stages. We risk getting lost in the weeds if we focus on these later details. Do you all understand the general thrust of the project?" Mr. Nakesh tucked his chin down and gazed at each of us in turn.
"Yes, I get it," Georjie said. "There is a lot I don't understand, and so many things that seem like they might not work, but I get what you're trying to do."
"Yes, I understand," I added. "In principle."
Akiko just nodded and said, "I get your objectives."
Petra and Targa also said they understood.
"Good." Mr. Nakesh looked at his watch and then stood. "Continue to ask Hiroki questions. He may not have a satisfactory answer yet, he may not have an answer at all, but one thing you can know for certain is that we understand that you will not sign any contracts until you're satisfied.”
Hiroki nodded and added, “We get that.”
"I would do no different,” Mr. Nakesh went on, “and it is the least I would expect from intelligent young people such as yourselves. This is a huge project, the terms of which we can work out together when the time is right. But trust me please when I say that making this prototype is not just for our benefit, but also for yours. I'm confident that when you put your skills to this use, you will need no further inspiration from us.”
Miss Marks stepped in again. “You'll be chomping at the bit to make it a reality.”
Mr. Nakesh glanced at Miss Marks as though he’d forgotten for a moment that she was in the room, then went on. “Building a small prototype is on the schedule for today, but only if you agree. So," he gave us a glittering grin, "can we proceed with this next step?"
Targa spoke up first. "I'm game to try."
I looked at her with surprise. Of all of us, I had thought Targa would be the first to walk away. After all, she had Antoni waiting for her in Poland, and she’d inherited a huge company she had to figure out what to do with. This project could keep her busy for years if she agreed to it.
"Really? I'm surprised, Targa." Georjie evidently shared my feelings.
"Why?" Targa shrugged. "I'm curious to see if it might actually work. Like Mr. Nakesh said, we're not committing to anything other than this next step." Her bright blue eyes caught mine and held them, issuing a good-natured challenge. "You can't tell me you're not itching to unleash your powers on this?"
"I…" I swallowed. Sh
e wasn't wrong, but…Arcturus…
"I'm in," Georjie said when I didn't finish my answer. "I was in as soon as I understood what this could mean for humanity."
Mr. Nakesh and Hiroki exchanged an enthusiastic look. Even Miss Marks was now beaming with joy.
Georjie held up her hands. "Don't get too excited. I'm not saying I'm signing the contract or anything. I'm just saying, if my friends are game to build this prototype with me, then I'm up for it." She turned to me. "So? What do you say, Saxony?"
Georjie and Targa's enthusiasm gave me the little push I needed. I kept reminding myself that I hadn't signed anything yet, and there was no pressure. Yet. This was a chance to put our powers together to create something bigger than ourselves. I blinked at this realization and gazed at my friends. Between us, we held the powers of creation—this was why TNC wanted to work with us. I finally allowed the possibility that this crazy plan might actually work to seep in.
I smiled. "If you guys are in, then I'm in."
"Yeah!" Hiroki gave a fist-pump that looked so hilarious on the scientist that the room burst out laughing. The energy and feeling of camaraderie was building among our little group.
"And what do you think, Akiko?" Mr. Nakesh surprised me by asking for her opinion directly. "I know you're important to these ladies," he said, giving her a tiny bow of the head, "and whoever is important to them is important to me."
Akiko looked as surprised as the rest of us were. "I guess I'm taking the fifth," she finally said. "After all, TNC isn't looking for anything from me. But since you've all decided to build this prototype, you can bet I want a front row seat."
"That's it then," Georjie said, turning to Mr. Nakesh and standing up. "Bring it on."
12
Saxony
"The diameter of the earth is 12,742 kilometers," Hiroki said as we walked from the all-purpose vehicles which had carried us through the woods toward the land they'd earmarked for the prototype. He was carrying a bag of tools over his shoulder and I eyeballed it, wondering what kind of equipment a scientist would need for a project like this. "We’ve plotted out 2.7 kilometers of land, the borders of which just reach the shores of the Atlantic." He gave Targa a smile. "That was done with you in mind."
The sound of waves and seabirds could be heard in the distance. Mr. Nakesh and Miss Marks trailed behind us. We walked with Hiroki while he gave us further instruction. Ahead of us, the land which had been clear-cut was occupied by a single crane. Dangling from the crane was a platform with a railing. The platform looked large enough to hold half a dozen people. I squinted at the crane's cockpit and saw there was a man sitting inside studying something in his hand like a book or a map. He looked up as we approached.
"In terms of the visual acuity of the human eye," Hiroki said, "the curvature of the earth drops at 7.85 centimeters per kilometer. We aren't able to mimic the visual effect of the sun disappearing below the horizon at the size of our prototype, so you'll just have to trust me that once scaled up, we will be able to mimic the optics of a real sunrise, sunset, and the moon's orbit. You won't even know the difference."
"Are you following all this?" I muttered to Akiko, falling back a little. "I don't get it."
She nodded. "A healthy human eye can see as far as fifty kilometers. At just under three clicks across, the prototype is too small to enable the sun to appear like the real sun because it can't disappear below the horizon. But in a dome that is thousands of kilometers across, a small sun should, in theory, disappear in the distance due to perspective. Provided the land inside the dome is actually flat and doesn't follow the curve of the earth." She shrugged. "If it does, then the sun and moon would simply disappear below the horizon as normal."
My face must have looked blank because Akiko stopped talking. She had an amused tilt at the corner of her mouth. She jerked her chin toward Hiroki. "Just pay attention."
Hiroki and Petra were walking together with Georjie and Targa on either side, listening. Hiroki talked with his hands. Akiko and I caught up.
Hiroki said, "The fellow in the crane is Mr. Biden. He's agreed to help us out today."
Hiroki waved to Mr. Biden and the arm of the crane lowered the platform to the ground where Hiroki had us step onto it. Mr. Nakesh and Miss Marks stepped up with us. Miss Marks had traded her power suit for khaki pants and a fatigue jacket, with a cute pair of white sneakers. Cat-eye sunglasses hid her eyes, while a pair of mirrored aviators perched on Mr. Nakesh's nose.
"The masks, Hiroki?" Miss Marks murmured.
Hiroki blinked. "I almost forgot." He bent to his bag and retrieved a bunch of tinted goggles and face masks. He handed them out to us. "Better put these on."
We all put the glasses on and settled the masks over our mouths and noses. Miss Marks tucked her sunglasses into a fancy pearly case and dropped them into the shoulder bag she carried. Mr. Nakesh hooked his on his collar.
"The first step is you two." Hiroki beckoned to Georjie and Targa. "Step up beside me at the railing here. I want to show you something that will help. It’s a blueprint of sorts."
The crane lifted us into the air while we shifted around to let Georjie and Targa have the best view of the land below.
"See the border flags?" Hiroki pointed to the small orange flags nearly lost in the ground cover. They staked out a broad arch which swung behind us and curved off gently to either side. Given that we were making a round dome, I presumed they marked out a full circle.
The platform came to a halt and swayed gently. "Now, if you watch, you'll see something else that we've delineated." He picked up a remote control the size of a key-fob and flicked a switch. "Watch."
Thin, neon green lines appeared. They appeared to have no obvious order. They were being projected onto the ground by lasers fixed to the crane's arm.
"My team did a lot of calculations for this part of the prototype," Hiroki said, leaning his elbows on the railing of our platform. He pointed a finger down at the lines before us, tracing them. "You won't be able to tell because it's too big, but the laser maps out the continents as they looked on early maps when people thought the world was flat. We took our inspiration from the United Nations flag and logo. It closely resembles a flat-earth map as well. Because we're creating a place for humans to live that is, if we consider within the dome the only safe zone for life, not actually a globe but under a dome, we thought we would take an existing model rather than trying to create our own." He pointed to the edges of the dome. "The Arctic would technically be a shelf that runs around the perimeter of the dome, but we've left that part out, too. We really just need the main continents for our experiment today."
“The actual domes wouldn’t be laid out this way, would they?” Akiko asked.
“No,” Hiroki shook his head. “We thought that following a flat-earth map would be interesting and challenging for you guys. Give you a chance to really show off your powers. We needed a template to work with, and the flat-earth map already existed, so it was easy for us to borrow.”
He turned to address Georjie and Targa. "Working together, can the two of you put the water where it is supposed to be, and the continents where they are supposed to be, as mapped out by the lasers? I can help guide you, as it'll be difficult at first."
Targa and Georjie looked at each other.
"At the same time?" Georjie asked Hiroki.
"As you wish," he answered. "However suits you."
"I need to have my feet in the dirt," Georjie said.
"Oh!" Hiroki looked surprised. He signaled the crane operator again, his cheeks pink. "Of course,” he said, as though he’d known it all along. “I just wanted you to have an overhead view of the project first."
I shared a look with Akiko. It was clear Hiroki hadn't known Georjie needed to have her feet in the soil. No big deal. He wasn't omniscient. So why did he feel the need to cover it up and pretend he'd known all along?
The platform began to move again, lowering us to the ground. Once close enough, Georjie kicked off her
sneakers and jumped down, landing barefoot in the soil.
"Can you still see the lasers?" Hiroki asked.
"I'll be able to in a moment," Georjie replied, cryptically. She pushed her goggles up into her hair and pulled the mask away from her mouth. “These are just annoying,” she muttered.
Hiroki turned to Targa and hefted his bag. He seemed flustered. "We can go back to the vehicles and drive you down to the ocean, Targa."
But Targa shook her head. "I don't need to be in the water to control it."
"Ah, of course." Hiroki's cheeks flushed pink and I noticed Jody and Mr. Nakesh sharing what I thought was an unhappy glance. Hiroki put his bag down again and signaled to Mr. Biden, and we were hoisted into the sky.
Once again, Hiroki had shown ignorance about Elementals. These two bits of evidence left me wondering just how many supernaturals Hiroki had actually worked with. I glanced at Petra and there was a wrinkle of concern between her brows which I could see even under the goggles. I wondered if she had noticed Hiroki's blunders.
Georjayna's feet were planted in the soil, ankle-deep.
A dull and deep groaning sound rose to our ears. My heart began to pound in response, as it sounded like the very ground underneath us had a serious bellyache. Higher pitched twangs as well as loud snapping sounds punctuated the yawning growl of displeasure. It took me several seconds to realize what we were hearing—roots deep underground, stretching and breaking. The pure force Georjie had to be exerting was eye-watering.
We leaned over the railing, watching the terrain for signs of movement. Vertigo swept over me as the topography began to heave and shift. Cracks appeared in the dirt, yawning open and then collapsing. Lumpy mounds rose rapidly as though punched violently from underneath. The crackling and groaning sounds popped and echoed and reverberated through the air. It sounded like some colossal wooden hinge badly in need of lubrication was being pried open by Herculean fingers.
