Iris (The Color of Water and Sky Book 1)

by Andrew Gates

  “I will never understand you, Baltir. I didn’t expect you to be so passive with this. It’s like you don’t even care.”

  “Are we on this subject again?” Baltir sighed. “Look, my job isn’t to fucking critique what’s right or wrong. I’m in a very special position here. I work the system to my advantage. So long as it works, it works. Yeah, maybe the government could do a lot of shit better, but that’s how it is. I’m taking advantage of how the system works and I’m going with it.”

  He turned for a moment and looked at Tracey, perhaps worried that he had offended him. They nodded to each other and the hacker turned back towards the computers again.

  “No offense, I know you lost a brother, and I will help you. You’re my friend. I don’t know what you have planned and I don’t want to know. But just know this: nothing is going to come from any sort of rebellion. If that’s what you want, you’ll just end up hurting yourself.”

  Your brother is just the spark, Tracey, but this bomb inside of you has been building for years. Tracey remembered the words. Although it was just a dream, the words were as clear as any memory. He remembered his daughter and the pool of blood. Drowning. No, it won’t come true. I won’t explode.

  After another tap of the screen, Damien’s face appeared on the monitor in front of them. It was an old image, probably taken five years ago. He looked so young back then, yet so similar. Tracey smiled as he saw it.

  “Here is your brother’s file,” Baltir explained. He turned toward Tracey again for a few moments and then turned back to the screen. He put his hands away from the monitor and gave him some time to look at the image. “Is this the first time you’ve seen him since he went missing?”

  Tracey did not answer. He was too transfixed, not so much on the image of his brother, but rather in his memories. He remembered growing up together, running through the yellow zones, skipping school to play on the pods and even their shared eagerness to join the Navy. They shared some good times. And now he’s been attacked. Attacked on Ortega’s mission. All those good times could never come back thanks to the fat man in power.

  He remembered what Baltir said about a rebellion. Do I have a moral obligation to stop those who do harm? But the pool of blood was fresh on his mind too. He remembered Ortega taunting him, standing over him as the Atlantic Station ripped apart. If only I could set off the bomb without destroying everything I love. Is this dream possible too?

  “Hey man, you good?” Baltir asked.

  Tracey did not realize he had been silent.

  “Uh, yeah I’m good. It’s just… it’s weird seeing this picture of him. He hasn’t looked like that in years, but it’s also so similar,” he replied.

  “Well, take your time. I know this is hard for you,” the hacker responded in a sympathetic tone. It’s good to see someone who cares, Tracey realized. After doctor Parnel and the teacher, Miss What’s-her-name, it was good to see a bit of compassion.

  “Thanks, but it’s fine. I can see it. Where’s the ship?”

  Baltir tapped another icon on the screen and the image of a submarine appeared. It was smashed up pretty badly, with significant burns all around, especially on its underside. The bow of the vessel looked like it had been smashed into a wall and the top had a gaping hole.

  “There’s your brother’s sub,” the hacker said as Tracey studied the image. Baltir pointed to the hole on the roof of the vehicle. “Tell me that hole there isn’t the most suspicious fucking thing you’ve ever seen.”

  Tracey leaned in to study it closer. The shape of the hole was incredible, almost a perfect circle. Nothing he knew could produce a hole with that kind of accuracy.

  “Yup, that’s pretty weird,” he responded.

  “I don’t know what hit it or why. Parnel’s team probably knows more about this than I do. I’m no fucking forensic scientist. I don’t know what scuffed up the bottom there, what smashed it from the front or what made that weird fucking hole. But I know one thing: that hole is way too accurate to be an accident. Somebody put that there. I don’t know if it was a claw, or a sawblade or what.”

  “What else can you find?” Tracey asked. Baltir paused, as if confused by this question.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, can you get into some more classified stuff? Maybe they’re covering this up. Maybe there’s a secret mission that explains this shit to us,” Tracey replied, remaining hopeful despite his doubts.

  “Look man, I highly doubt there’s some secret mission we’re going to find that explains how the hell a fucking circle appeared on the roof of this submarine,” Baltir said, clearly resistant.

  “You said you would help me.”

  “I will, but I just don’t think there’s-”

  “Help me look,” Tracey responded. “If there’s a chance we can find a clue, let’s find it. How about this… just look up one thing for me, okay? Just one thing. Have there been any more classified scouting or test missions since this one?”

  “No,” Baltir replied, “I’ve been checking every day.”

  “Then I want to find out whatever mission was happening before this one. The last classified mission before this sub got totally fucked up. Can you find that for me? Just do it once and I’ll be out of here.”

  Baltir shifted in his chair and wiped his head with his hand. He glanced back at Tracey and then to the can of beer resting on the table. Tracey did not even see it until now.

  “Look, I guarantee the government knows nothing about this fucking hole. I know because I’ve never seen these guys as frantic as they are right now. Your investigation is proof. Parnel is interviewing metal workers, oceanographers, she’s even bringing some surface historian on board. The only reason Parnel would go through all this trouble is because she knows nothing about what’s going on and that scares the shit out of her,” he explained. “You know what the government is having me do now? I was reprogramming the station’s escape pods right before you got here. Up until now, the pods could only be ejected from a single point in the Strategic Action Room as a last resort measure. Now they want these things to be deployable on site with a fucking passcode. Now why would they have me program a fucking passcode? That’s not my normal job. See what I’m saying? They’re fucking scared.”

  He won’t give in. Is there something he doesn’t want me to see, or is he afraid?

  “Just take a look. Just for my sake,” he said. “Maybe you’re right, but let me see. Just look at the last mission and that’s it.”

  Baltir sighed. He knew Tracey would not back down.

  “Okay man,” he finally gave in, “and just so you know, literally everything we’ve talked about today is totally classified. You know that, right?” He turned back around, took another sip of beer and began pressing icons on the screen. Tracey was just glad to see him finally working on it.

  “Of course. You don’t have to tell me that.”

  Baltir continued doing something with the computer system and did not look back towards his friend. It was like he was transfixed.

  “I trust you. I just want you to know, I’m helping you because I’m your fucking friend. I’m not working for you. Just remember that,” he clarified.

  And for someone who’s survival depends on being the best at your job, you’re not taking any of this nearly as seriously as you should, Tracey thought.

  “Do you want the rest of my beer? I only had a few sips.”

  “Sure,” Tracey said, accepting it. He wasted no time drinking what was left.

  “Just so you know,” Baltir continued as he worked, “I don’t know what you plan to do. I know you and I know how much you loved your brother. If anything should go wrong, I want to you remember 010454010.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s a palindrome, so it should be easy to remember. 010454010. Got it?” he asked.

  Tracey did not understand.

  “Uh… yeah 010545-”

  “010454010,” Baltir clarified.

 
; What the fuck is that all about?

  “Okay, man. Sure!” Tracey finally said, confused.

  After a few more moments of tapping on the screen, Baltir turned and faced his friend.

  “Alright,” he said, “I found it. It looks like the last mission before the Cassidy X20 test was a video camera probe launch, about one week prior. It was built to be buoyant, carried to the top to take images of the sea above the sea. There’s a lot of technical data here. I don’t think it has anything to do with the submarine mission. Like I said, it’s irrelevant.”

  “Fuck.”

  One look was all he wanted. Nothing. No clues.

  “Looks like the mission was successful though,” Baltir continued. “Wait, what’s this?” Tracey looked up with attention, despite not following what was happening on screen.

  After another tap of the finger, the screen suddenly lit up with color.

  Light.

  For a moment, light was all Tracey could see, like someone was shining a beam into his eyes. Monitors in the Atlantic Station never displayed images this bright, whatever it was. Tracey let his eyes focus for a moment and took another look. After a moment, he realized that most of the light in the image seemed to be coming from the top right, emanating from a glowing point just barely filling the frame. The light sprinkled into a colorless void decorated with whiffs of white smoke. An uneven granular surface took up the foreground of the image, like tan speckles piled on top of each other. It sloped up and down like the curves of a woman’s naked body.

  “What the hell is this?” Tracey finally asked, never taking his eyes from the screen.

  Baltir adjusted in his chair and stared at the image. He remained quiet like a nervous cadet on the first day.

  Tracey studied it as the white whiffs of smoke slowly rolled across the great void. The smoke is moving, Tracey realized. The smoke is moving!

  “It’s a video,” Tracey said out loud. “This is the fucking video from that probe. It worked. You found footage!” He could hardly contain himself. Tracey suddenly felt like a child again, discovering a whole new world for the first time.

  “It’s not smoke,” Baltir replied in monotone. “It’s water vapor. It’s condensed water vapor. Do you realize what we’re looking at right now?”

  Tracey did not answer, though he had a pretty good guess.

  Baltir turned around and faced him.

  “This is the sea above the water,” he answered. “Sheer emptiness.”

  “And that light?” Tracey asked. “Is that the Lord Beyond Both Seas?” The light was so majestic, so beautiful.

  Divine.

  Tracey had never seen anything so bright before in his life. Down here in the station, everything was dark. Fucking dark.

  “No, it’s the sun,” Baltir answered, turning back towards the monitor again. “It was used as a perpetual energy source during the surface era. It’s condensed superheated gas with a mass so large that its gravitational pull keeps the Earth in constant orbit.”

  Tracey just stared blankly, not following Baltir’s description.

  “And that mass there? The tan. Is that the surface?”

  “It is,” Baltir replied, nodding. “It’s so smooth. So undisturbed. Look at it! Look at the way it curves. It rolls like the ocean floor, but dry.”

  Undisturbed.

  I’m seeing this. I’m actually seeing this.

  For a moment Tracey forgot about his problems. He forgot about the investigation, his AWOL status, Dr. Parnel, the dream, the government, even his brother. For this brief moment, none of that mattered.

  I’m seeing this, he realized again. A glimpse of another world. A glimpse of peace. The last time he was here, he had been in his dream, flying up into the sky in a world of white.

  This is it, he thought to himself. The sea above the water

  AFTER THE AMBUSH IN HER classroom, Iris felt like nothing could surprise her anymore. When she walked into her room this morning, the teacher was sure her students would shout and protest in the middle of class. In fact, Iris had been nervously waiting for that moment since the kids took their seats. Yet halfway into her second section, all seemed to be going well. The students whose parents had spoken against her simply sat quietly during the lecture on ancient Egypt. None of them said a word.

  Despite her nerves, time flew by quickly. Iris sent the students their homework assignments when her lecture was finished and waited as they slowly trailed out of the room. She sighed and wiped her head as the last student exited. This was her first break after two stressful classes.

  After catching her breath, the teacher left the room and wandered down the halls by the science classrooms, hoping to run into Dan. But as she strolled through the grey halls, she saw no one but students busily wandering around her. She was disappointed, but not particularly surprised. Iris was not sure why she had such a fascination with the Greek anyway. He looked handsome with his strong jaw, broad shoulders and curly dark hair, but there were many other handsome men out there who she did not go out of her way to run into. Maybe it’s because he talked to me, she thought. He smiled at me. He asked me my name, my age, my job.

  Right as she was about to give up, Iris spotted Dan walking out from the men’s room. Today he wore a white shirt with no tie. It looks good on him, the young teacher thought. She suddenly felt awkward in her purple collared shirt and brown khaki pants.

  “Good morning, Ms. Vitneskja,” he said as he saw her. Iris was always surprised whenever a fellow teacher would refer to her by her last name. Tim wanted them all to refer to each other this way in front of the students, but she was not quite used to it yet.

  “Mr. Georgopolis,” she replied. Suddenly Iris realized how awkward she must have looked standing completely still in the middle of the hallway. She started walking towards him, but realized this must have been awkward too.

  “What are you doing on this side of the school?” He had a grin on his face as students walked around them. They finally reached each other and stood in the center of the hallway.

  Iris found herself smiling and fumbling with her fingers. For a moment she did not know what to say. Dan seemed to be amused by her awkwardness. He chuckled, shook his head and patted her on the back.

  “Sorry,” Iris eventually said.

  Dan chuckled again.

  “Sorry for what?”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she replied, realizing how stupid she must have sounded.

  “Hey, I heard about what happened yesterday with the parents,” Dan said, abruptly changing tones. Iris was thankful the conversation was finally going somewhere. “Are you okay?”

  “Well, it’s a lot of stress,” she replied. “First it was just one parent but he invited three others to come join him. It took me by surprise.”

  “Are you teaching a class right now?”

  “Right now? Oh, no.” She noticed she was fumbling with the bottom of her shirt now.

  “Me neither. I’m curious to know how the meeting went. Do you have time to talk about it?”

  “You mean, right now?”

  “Yes,” Dan replied, looking around. “But not here. I don’t think we should be talking about parent meetings in front of the students.”

  The students did not seem to pay the two teachers any mind. They carried their pods down the halls, talked to each other and visited their lockers. This was pretty typical. Oftentimes Iris felt like a ghost amongst the students. It was as if she could see and hear what they did but was invisible to them. Come to think of it, I feel like that around some of the teachers too.

  “Well, okay,” she replied. Even though the kids seemed to pay them no mind, it was probably best to go somewhere else.

  “My classroom is right here. There shouldn’t be anyone in it right now,” he said, motioning towards a door behind her.

  They went to his classroom and Iris took a seat at one of the desks. Rather than sit behind his table, Dan joined her in the student seating.

  “So what happ
ened at the meeting?” he asked. He looked into her eyes with curiosity.

  “The teachers have been told all the details, haven’t they?” Iris asked.

  “Well yes,” Dan replied, “but only what we heard in the morning meeting. All that was based on the summary you gave Jorge. I want to get your take.”

  “You know Clinton Obsanjo’s dad?” Iris asked.

  Dan paused for a moment and then shook his head.

  “I’ve never taught that student. But he was the one who organized the meeting, right?”

  Iris nodded.

  “It was supposed to be just him.”

  “So he just invited other people in?” Dan asked, interrupting her.

  “I think he called people ahead of time. Came up with some sort of plan to interrupt the meeting. Jorge didn’t know about it. The other parents just walked in during the meeting and backed him up. They knew which room to go into and everything,” she explained.

  “What did they say?” he asked.

  Iris sighed and looked down towards the desk.

  “A lot of them really truly do not believe in the Descent. They fought me on it.”

  “Did you try to convince them? What did you do?” Dan asked.

  “I tried… but honestly I don’t care what they think. I just want to avoid a lawsuit. I’m more worried that they’ll get their kids to turn against me. Tell them not to pay attention in class. I just wish I could get them on my side. If I convince the kids, then that’s all that matters,” she answered. She remembered the goal she made to Jorge. Get at least half of them interested in history, or all of them if I can, she reminded herself.

  “I think that’s the right approach,” Dan agreed. “Get the students on board. That’s what’s important.” He smiled as he said this. Dan’s smile made Iris smile back. Stop acting like a little girl, she told herself. She was a 30-year-old woman, not one of her students. But Iris’s smile only made Dan smile harder and before they knew it, the two started laughing.