The Garden

by Craig W. Turner

  A smile crossed Keegan’s face as Amy held her hand out to Landon to see if he was good with the suggestion. Beside him, Landon nodded his acceptance.

  “You have a preference as to which side you want to take?” Amy asked. Keegan noticed that a half-dozen more SATP staffers had gathered around the table, bringing the total up to about 20. Landon shook his head, so Amy said, “I’ll take Evolution, then. Let’s see what you’ve got, Bible Boy.”

  “What?” Landon asked.

  “Don’t mind her,” Keegan said. “She’s trying to get in your head.”

  “Does she know I’m Hindu?”

  Keegan laughed.

  With Amy’s blessing, Landon picked up the ball off the table, but then stopped and looked at Robert. “Let me get this straight,” he said. “Creationism versus Evolution, meaning the actual creation of man, yes? We’re not talking about the Creation story versus, say, the Big Bang Theory?”

  “Are they mutually exclusive?” Robert asked, again glancing at Keegan.

  “In a way, yes,” Landon said, “when you’re talking about conducting a debate that is going to allow a maximum of 10 points to be made for each side. On one hand, you have the Creation story in contrast to the geological history of the planet, and on the other, the origin of mankind. Those are two very different topics.”

  Keegan was getting a kick out of Landon’s specificity. He was taking this seriously. “Let’s call it ‘Intelligent Design,’” he interjected. “Landon pro, Amy con.”

  Landon was looking up at him, thinking, then nodded. “Okay, that will work,” he said, then turned and focused his aim on the cups in front of Amy. “This is kind of funny, but I wrote a paper during college on this very topic that received some attention. That was a long time ago, though, so we’ll have to see what I can remember.” He held up the ball and inspected it. “I must tell you, this isn’t my thing. And I already had a margarita over there. I’ll be curious to see how this goes.” He bounced the ball off the table, planting it into the center cup of Amy’s array. As though they were witnessing something of significance, the crowd erupted. Amy quickly picked up the beer, removed the ball and started drinking. Landon fumbled for a moment, not expecting her quickness, but then refocused. “Let’s see… Every major religion in the world has a Creation story tied to some explanation of intelligent design,” he said. “Plus, a path of history outlined that supports the creation of mankind…” She finished, so he stopped, then laughed. “Ah, I see – you’ve got to be on your toes. This is a timed test.”

  Not to be outdone, Amy picked up the ball and eyed the array of cups across the table. “I’m dedicating this game to Charles Darwin,” she said, “who would have celebrated his 300th birthday earlier this year.”

  Landon turned and looked at Keegan, who shook his head, smiling. “I don’t know how…” he said.

  Amy dunked her first ball in the lead cup and went right into her talking points as Landon reached for it and started drinking. “The notion that the Earth is only approximately 6,000 years old, as Creationists claim, is easily disproved by geologic, animal and human evidence dating far beyond that time frame – in fact, the geologic record places the age of our planet at close to 4.4 billion years old. Even human remains have been dated further back-”

  Landon put the cup down and wiped his lips, laughing. “My goodness, you’re fast,” he said. Everyone around the table laughed, and Keegan reached over and rubbed Landon’s shoulders like a prizefighter.

  “You’ve got this,” he said over the noise of the party.

  Landon plunked his second ball into a cup as more people gathered to watch the battle. “You’re citing New Earth Creationism when you talk about the Earth being 6,000 years old, whereas Old Earth Creationists would argue that while the events in the Bible happened in that geologic timeframe, due to the absence of time as we understand it today, the Earth may have-” She was done.

  Beer splattered onto the table as Amy connected again. “Old Earth, New Earth, it doesn’t matter,” she said as Landon guzzled. “The absolute age of the Earth can most accurately be measured through radioactive decay of its rocks. Because of plate tectonics’ process of recycling the Earth’s crust, the oldest rock formations have been dated to more than four billion years old. However, some of the hardest minerals on Earth, such as zircons-”

  Landon stopped her by setting his cup down. Keegan could feel the tension growing as Landon bounced his third ball into another of her cups, smiling as he figured out what to say next. Keegan was envious – it had been a long time since losing to Amy had been fun for him.

  “Ok,” Landon said, speaking more quickly. “An evolutionist would say that homo sapiens existed for 190,000 years or so before beginning to make written records of their history only about four-to-five thousand years ago. These were ‘people’ who supposedly built megalithic monuments, made artistic paintings and etchings in caves, and knew how to follow lunar phases. But they waited 185,000 years to begin to record history? And only a slightly shorter time before discovering-” Amy put her cup down, but Landon finished his thought. “… agriculture.”

  “Hey-” Amy said, pointing, then looked at Keegan to plead her case. “My cup was down.”

  He laughed and shrugged. “I’ll allow it?”

  The crowd was into it as they traded volleys back and forth, each connecting on a run of tosses until Amy missed her seventh throw, leaving the door open for Landon. But he missed on his next throw, allowing her back into the contest as the crowd and the noise grew. A hole of which she took advantage to tie the game:

  “Throughout the universe, galaxies and galaxy clusters are systematically moving away from us, and the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it moves,” she said, speaking quickly as he drank. “We can’t assume that we are at the center of the universe, or any other significant vantage point, so it suggests that everything-” He slapped his empty cup on the table, and she stopped.

  He started a new streak with his next ball, picking up where he’d left off: "Evolutionary anthropologists say that homo sapiens existed for at least 185,000 years before agriculture began, during which time the world population of humans was roughly constant, between one and ten million. All that time they were burying their dead, which means they would have to have buried at least eight billion bodies. Which are nowhere to be found."

  Amy was nodding, enjoying the competition. “Good, good,” she said, tossing a ball into one of Landon’s cups. “The contradictions in The Bible itself point to loose interpretation of the Creation story,” she continued. “After the Fall of Man, Adam and Eve’s son Cain goes into the village and finds a wife. Where’d the wife come from, and where’d the village come from? Even the timeline in the first few chapters of Genesis-”

  Landon’s turn, with the game coming to its thrilling conclusion. Ball. Cup. Argument: “The timeline was written with a purpose,” he said, “the first chapter representing God’s perspective, and the second representing its impact of the Creation of the species on man. The fact that there may have been people outside the Garden of Eden does not necessitate an argument that they arrived there some other way-” There was one cup left at Amy’s end of the table, with two still standing in front of Landon. As Keegan watched, Landon shook his head and looked up at him. “It’s a good thing the beer takes a little bit to hit you.”

  “The game is yours,” he said.

  Now Amy, for the first time Keegan had ever seen, was forced to exert tremendous focus to stay alive in the game. He watched her channel her “inner Zen” that she often mentioned and bounce her ball into one of the two remaining cups, admitting a slight sigh of relief as it disappeared with a golden splash.

  The crowd went berserk.

  Her sigh was ill-advised, though, as Landon downed two or three gulps before she even spoke. She tried to catch up, “The odds are not stacked against the natural origin of life. The probability of the simplest building block forming is about 1 in 10 to the 40th powe
r. This is a huge number. But billions of trials would have happened every single moment on primordial Earth-”

  Within a second after Landon set his empty cup down, the noise of the crowd disappeared. Suddenly, the deep bass of whatever background music was playing was the only apparent sound, as everyone present – now three or four deep around the table – waited to learn the outcome of the game.

  Next to Keegan, Landon took in a deep breath as he measured the throw in his mind. He was unwaveringly focused on the single cup set in front of Amy. After a long, dramatic pause, he flicked his wrist forward and tossed the ball.

  It hit the table on cue, but deflected impotently off the rim of the cup.

  Groans filled the room, the onlookers clearly hoping for the upset victory. Keegan looked across the table at Amy, who was grinning. The two of them knew it was over, even if everyone else still held out hope for a Landon victory. He reached over and thumped Landon twice on the back.

  As expected, Amy calmly bounced the ball into the last cup. Landon smiled and threw his hands in the air, then picked it up and started to drink. “The beauty of this argument,” she said, “is that nothing that my worthy opponent has said can be backed up with empirical evidence. It’s merely speculation based on myths and traditions, as well as tired attempts to link random unexplained phenomena to the question – not the answers, but the question – of how things came to be. The delineation between New Earth, Old Earth, intelligent design, creation myths, are all ways to explain away something that can’t actually be explained, resorting ultimately to a declaration that, while the arguments can’t be justified scientifically and, in many instances, defy logic, ‘faith’ is what ultimately holds the universe together… What are you doing?”

  Everyone, including Keegan, turned their attention to see that Landon had been milking his last cup. He laughed and shrugged. “I just wanted to hear your closing arguments.”

  People groaned again, and the crowd immediately began to disperse. Keegan stepped forward, making eye contact with anyone left at the table, and pointing randomly at them. “Who’s next?” he said, then pointed at Amy. “Another one?”

  “No, I’m done,” Amy said, waving her hand. “It’s not often I get pushed to the limit like that. Usually I don’t end up drinking all that much.”

  “That’s your secret?” Keegan asked, then smiled at Landon.

  “That’s it,” Amy said.

  “Well, we know that for next time.”

  Two other players grabbed the table, so Keegan turned to Landon again, but he’d walked away. A moment later, Robert standing next to him.

  “Well, that was interesting,” Robert said.

  Keegan nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said. “He knows his stuff.”

  Robert sighed. “My guess is the point is moot, anyway, though.”

  “Why’s that?”

  He shook his head. “I know your hopes are up, Keegan, but it’s not going to happen. Not after today.”

  “Not you, too.”

  “It’s not about how I feel about it,” Robert said, shaking his head. “Or how Claire feels about it. I’m being a realist.”

  “Since when?” he asked, but knew the answer to the question already. “Because of one bad experience?”

  “One was enough.” Robert reached up and patted him on the arm. “We’ll talk more tomorrow. Thanks for the bourbon. Very thoughtful of you. Enjoy yourself tonight.”

  Keegan shook his head as Robert walked away, wondering why they’d just forced Landon through that exercise if he had no intention of moving forward.

  CHAPTER 13

  The public-facing nature of SATP required the team, no matter what the circumstances, to be adept at putting on a façade when necessary. It was an essential skill on days like today, as Claire funneled a hoard of 7th graders from Willow Ridge Middle School in High Point, a twenty-minute maglev ride from SATP’s Greensboro headquarters via the Tar Heel Line that originated in Charlotte, through the facility.

  While visiting students would come from all over the country, SATP had a relationship with several schools in the immediate area to help cultivate local talent at an early age. Willow Ridge was one of those schools, which was one of the reasons they’d been granted the opportunity to tour on such an important day – immediately following Robert’s return from his Egypt mission. They hadn’t forewarned the students, but Robert, himself, would be doing a “pop-in” within the next ten minutes. Robert’s surprise appearances were always incredibly exciting, even for Claire. The students’ reactions were priceless.

  Claire took on the bulk of the school presentations, something she hoped that Landon, who now accompanied her as part of his “orientation” – if that’s what his trial-by-fire could be called – would help share going forward. For SATP, an important part of controlling time travel was transparency. While classified activity took place every day, the public had access to specified areas of the campus that highlighted time travel science and the process. It was long believed, instilled into the scientific world by leaders such as Pierre La Tourre and Abigail Fisher, that the next generation of thinkers could never be inspired with the “good stuff” behind walls and out-of-sight. The public area of SATP was a grand homage to science, and a tribute to what humankind had accomplished over time. Everyone and anyone were invited into this area to learn, to enjoy, and to be amazed at what humans are capable of.

  Claire had been given oversight of SATP’s education functions because of her background, having served on the design team for the Canadian national school system’s current version of the SMART (Science, Math, Analytics, Reasoning and Technology) curriculum utilized exclusively for 7th and 8th grade science instruction. From that role, she had vast experience in translating high-level, complicated material into palatable teaching tools. By her count, she’d conducted more than 350 tours since she started with SATP, and was pleased to often get handwritten notes from students who had been inspired to pursue advanced studies in science. She had several of these hanging on a corkboard in her apartment. One of her prior tourists had even been one of the finalists competing with Landon for India’s vacated seat on the SATP team.

  Claire generally led with experience and intellect, but she knew it was her meditation exercises that allowed her to get through a day like this one. It had been a long while since a man had really, truly, gotten to her, but Keegan had somehow found a way. Her mind kept returning to her premonition when they were exploring getting together that if things went sour it was going to be bad for her. She hadn’t been able to shake it. Him? He was carefree and aloof, and seeing her every day at work seemed to be no problem at all. But she’d foolishly opened that piece of her heart that she usually kept shut nice and tight, and it was to her detriment. Perhaps if he wasn’t so bee-headed, but he was. So, it took an hour of clearing her thoughts and glass of wine from a bottle she kept stashed in her apartment to calm her down before facing the 7th graders. And it worked. She was doing well.

  Today’s presentation was a little different, though, with Robert’s impending arrival. She couldn’t be too wordy, as her usual allotment of time was abbreviated. Science was cool, but Robert Mulvaney was most certainly cooler – a legend in popular science, with the lasting star appeal and place in history equal to a Babe Ruth or Michael Jackson. He’d been featured in every journal and newsfeed worldwide, and even became the first scientist in anyone’s memory to secure high-profile endorsements for products with no real connection to science: while his promotion of Hydron energy supplement bars made sense, his ad for Coca-Cola had nothing to do with why he was famous. He’d written 14 books, seven on time travel, appeared in four movies playing himself as the science expert (and one in a cameo playing a dashing young President of the United States) and had already been invited to initiate the ball drop for the upcoming 200th anniversary of the renowned Times Square event on New Year’s Eve. And today, the 7th graders from Willow Ridge would get to meet him, before he’d barely had time to b
rush the sands of ancient Egypt from his feet.

  For all Robert’s accolades, many of Claire’s colleagues at SATP were understandably jealous. Robert’s good looks and persona often swallowed the attention given to the program, when there were multitudes who worked tirelessly to make it a success. Their envy was never meant to detract from what he brought to the table, but it was frustrating for some, especially Keegan. She saw things differently. Every initiative, every project, every colleague she had the chance to meet, was a learning experience for her. She’d learned so much from Robert, particularly in how to take his deep technical knowledge and make it exciting. Which was just as important for the SATP leadership, many of whom were not scientists but politicians that had to approve multi-billion-dollar science budgets every year, as it was for 7th graders. She was grateful for her relationship with Robert and for the coattails it provided.

  Checking her watch, Claire ushered the last few of the 150 or so Willow Ridge kids into an auditorium overlooking a bustling technology center. The students settled into their seats, threatening the capacity of the room as dozens of scientists worked below, unaware of their presence. What they were seeing was the actual engine of SATP – management of the systems that allowed space and time displacement, exabytes of data being collected and analyzed by a team of computer scientists and astrophysicists to enable time travel and protect the personnel engaged in it. Claire’s own beginnings with time travel science were in that very lab, as were most of the team members’ – not many at SATP had enjoyed the luxury of access to the limited research equipment housed at select molecular physics schools around the world before joining the program. They started when they got here.

  She looked at the faces of the students as they took in what they were seeing. Behind the impressive array of computers and servers was the time travel lab itself. The students had already “seen” the inside via a virtual reality demonstration on the first part of their tour, but for obvious security reasons there was no public access to the facility. From this vantage point, it looked like an enormous metal ice cream cone turned upside-down. When, in fact, it housed the most advanced piece of technology ever created by man. This room only afforded a view of the top of the time lab. They would get the chance to see more later.