by Divya Singh
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I woke up the next day; it was 4th April that day. ZA-vi was sitting at my side, staring at me. I looked at him and then saw the time. I woke up early. It was 7 am. It was obvious that he knew about my trip to the ocean and every bit and trick of it. But somehow I was over it and needed to come to terms with the fact that in these four centuries the mankind has succeeded in depleting Earth’s marine life. The oceans are barren. This simply means the earth’s atmosphere must have either crossed the precipice or be on the verge of it.
ZA-vi: “It is the result of poor choices made by the human race. They did not understand that they will themselves have to bear the part of the impact resulting from their choices.”
I quipped: “Can something still be done to change it?”
ZA-vi: ”I am sorry, I am not an expert, but better late than never. It is good to change. We are manmade machines, which are neither responsible nor sufferers of the aftermath.”
I said: “Yes, we should start bringing about the change. There is never any harm in trying.”
ZA-vi got up and obviously went on for some work indispensable. He is a machine which cannot be expected to understand that he was leaving the discussion midway. I saw him stepping out. I turned my face towards the ceiling and began wandering into the world of thoughts. It was just a waste of my time if I thought endlessly and baselessly. I decided to have my meal at the Green Resto. I went there sat amidst the green trees and sipped coffee and took a veg sandwich. Then I learnt from someone at the restaurant that the ship had set sail by the midnight. I was almost over this trip of going out into the ocean as time went past by.
Today I had to do something else. I recalled sitting in the tree garden, that there were embryos in the last two levels of the ship. Should there be any annihilation of the human race they were a bank for regenerating the human race. I was told that they were viable human beings, i.e. they can be made new humans with a certainty of minimal risk of failure.
I was now curious to pay a visit today to the lower floors now. So I left the restaurant then and headed straight towards the elevators. The plan was to go to the last but one floor first and then the ultimate one i.e. first ‘-17’ and then ‘-18’.
As per the information gathered by me from Larissa, there were 70000 embryos stored in the last level, while the penultimate level contained people who were done away with; the people, who suffered from genetic abnormalities. The sufferers were quarantined and left alone to die so that they do not come into direct contact with healthy humans on the ship and endangered healthy people’s lives.
In a way, it was inhuman to me, but I could not be judgmental about the situation as of then. I did not know the medical gravity of the situation, it could have been like, a plague or worse, so although it felt bad, I could not be sure about it, without being fully aware of the consequences of letting them live with the normal people.
Anyways, I had to go pay a visit to see the situation by myself. The elevator doors opened and I stepped onto the ‘-17’th floor. The walls, unlike on the rest of the ship were very thick and strong. The passengers of the elevator were stopped in this enclosure before entering the prison for the quarantined ones, where a board hung reading-
“Proceed with caution: the people you will meet here have been purposely quarantined on this floor. Some of the genetic diseases these people suffer from are contagious and medical sciences do not have any information about them. People coming directly into contact with quarantined will be kept under strict surveillance and shall present a case of special attention and diagnosis. Going in is putting yourself under specified risk. The equipment under the board in the drawer are understood to be sufficient for protection against interacting with the ones quarantined. Going unequipped will be noticed immediately and shall cause your own quarantine. Be careful!”
Now, it seemed like a serious matter to me. But I had to go out and see for myself. It is a strange feeling when you want to do what you are forbidden to at any cost, and there is no stopping. I pulled out the drawer, in which I found a whole space suit, gloves, and a round glass helmet. I had decided to go in, putting these on.
Soon I was ready to go all prepared. I knew they must be keeping a watch on me by cameras. I picked up an interacting rod, which I was meant to leave outside while returning. It must have been some kind of technical device, I didn’t know of. Maybe it would beep when it sensed the tag which was made to identify an infected body, by the extent of danger expected. There was a red light bulb on it, which I thought would glow for the above-mentioned reason.
I came near the door and pushed the red knob on my left reading ‘open’. The heavy doors opened with a screeching clamor. I knew it was a different prison meant to remain closed; hence, everything here would be heavy and strong to present a kind of obstacle to the possible escape of any inmate here.
The light inside was dim, and the enclosures had people who looked dormant, lay still and unattended. I had figured out that they must have ailments as serious as cancers. I moved a few feet; then a loud cry disturbed the peace of my covered ears. I rushed to look towards the left side where it emanated from. It was an old man; he was bald and very skinny. I rushed to the glass pane through which I tried to see through, there were curtains that had covered most of it, but still with an effort I could see the scene behind it.
The old man hung from the bed, with his head buried under towards the ground. I figured out he was vomiting, but still I could not see exactly what went on inside the room and what was that he was suffering from. Then I moved right where the curtains were not covering the confines of the room fully. I was shocked to see a lot of blood spilled on the white flooring. He was vomiting blood! I was extremely moved by the suffering of the old man.
I heard footsteps approaching my position. I turned my face to see, it was an African origin woman, who had dressed like a nurse. I stopped her, saying-
I asked: “Hello! What do you do here, you seem like a nurse. How have you managed to work in a quarantined area?”
She said: “Yes your guess is correct. Please don’t breach the proximity regulation. You are standing closer than you should. I can work in the quarantined area because I am also an inmate. Yes, I have a 3rd stage brain cancer. That was a genetic deformity. So I was quarantined. I am sorry, but now I will have to go.” I noticed that she wore a nurse cap over her bald head. Chemotherapy, I sighed to myself inside the precincts of the helmet.
I moved ahead to see a man with overgrown warts over his limbs and face. His nails looked violet and seemed like sick to me and I couldn’t look any further towards his misery.
In one room, I saw two little Siamese girls who had red faces and were weeping with IV drips going inside their nostrils, their mother sat by their side and looked at me with surprise. I considered them to be suffering from pain and all and turned back.
I walked a few steps ahead, to my right side; there was a corridor, and it was slightly dark in there, a little boy some 4’5” tall stood there facing the opposite wall across the corridor. I was going to say a ‘hi’ before which he turned his face towards me which was almost plain and swollen devoid of any facial features. But dangerous outgrowth formations were visible, which I hated to look at, and then he turned his body towards me and started walking quickly towards me. He got pretty close to me for which I wasn’t ready. I fell down on the ground trying to move backward owing to the uncomfortable safety suit that I was wearing. The stick in my hand beeped vigorously indicating me to flee the place immediately.
I decided to rush back and away from this place, as I remembered the cautious lines of the warning board attached before the start of this place. I got up and stood on my feet quickly and ran away from all these suffering people. I realized then that I could not help them. I turned back and came all the way back to the inside of the strong door which would close this place away from me once and forever.
&n
bsp; I cursed the psychopaths who must have unleashed this hell on earth. I cursed those genetic scientists who must have carried out banned cloning tests or genetic experiments excessively on a number of people, enough to have caused massive destruction of the mankind spanning many generations in 4 centuries’ time.
I have just had witnessed a glimpse of the horrific ‘Contamination’. I was sure the ship’s quarantine regulations were required to ensure the safety of the rest if the medics had a feared regarding spreading of this agony among the healthy living humans on the ship.
My soreness about the inhumanity of the quarantine actions, leaving them to die was lessened to a substantial level, because they were receiving medical attention from among themselves, as far as could be provided to them given the gravity of the circumstances and resource constraints of the ship.
I came out of the corridor, threw the stick outside on my right and closed the strong room. I assumed that I had not breached the proximity regulations anywhere otherwise, I must have been under there continuous surveillance and put under the quarantine or specific diagnoses as specified on the warning board.
Otherwise, I must have been stopped from coming back to this room, before having entered it, had I been feared of spreading the contagious dangerous diseases. But I wasn’t! I unclipped my helmet and stepped out of the precautionary safety suit.
Chapter 25: Tour to the last floor; the embryo bank floor and meeting Lois
