Mike took out two parchments of paper: one that looked like a map, another that had a blueprint of a compound drawn on it.
“J drew the route of the trip during the previous expeditions,” Mike said, pointing to one piece of paper. “J?”
“All right, so this is mainly for Dora, Frank and Rick, who weren’t with us on our previous scavenging trips. The route hasn’t changed much, so I don’t expect we’ll find anything out of the ordinary now. The path over the river,” J said as he touched the map with the stick, “should still be accessible, so I don’t see a problem there either.”
“Thanks, J. Patrick, you want to explain about the blueprint of the complex?”
“Sure, Mike,” Patrick said and turned to me. “Dora, before the cryo, I worked at South Cape University of Technology. This is the place where we are going. I made a map of all the buildings at the time. This building here was the IT department.” He pointed to a square in the middle of the compound. “Servers, storage, and mainframe devices for the whole institute, but also some groups doing IT research. I was in one of the research groups. I was working with Dr. Janfeld. He was the leading scientist on a—”
Mike coughed.
“Ahem. Never mind,” said Patrick. “Anyhow, the first time we came there after we woke up, this building was gone. Completely.”
“Where are the computers, then?” I asked.
“My best guess is that they are here,” he said, pointing to another square near the original IT building. “This building didn’t exist when I was working there.”
I nodded. “And was this the place you could not enter?”
“Aye,” said Peter. “We forgot the key.”
“A key? Like a password?” I said.
“No, he meant a real key,” Simon said, grinning. “A piece of metal with a specific pattern that fits a specific lock.”
I nodded. “All right. So, will you bring the key now?”
They all laughed.
“Sorry, Dora, that was just a joke,” explained Peter.
I nodded, slightly embarrassed.
“No lock there, I’m afraid,” continued Patrick. “Just a sliding metal door.”
There was a brief moment of silence when I felt people were expecting me to say something more, but when I didn’t, Mike said, “Frank, do you have everything you might need?”
As Frank started to answer Mike’s question, my eyes returned to the compound blueprint. The sides of my sight blurred just slightly, the level of conversation in the room dipped as if I was hearing it from another room, and then—it was gone.
A Vision?
I bent down and slid the blueprint closer to me with my fingers.
The very next moment, all the talk muted completely and the orange light of my surroundings vanished behind the white veil.
Three large screens.
OLED.
Not an AI—an older system.
Then I see a map. I can’t interpret it, but the people around me are happy.
I don’t know what the map means, but I know that we will be able to access the computer system. Somehow.
“Dora, are you okay?” J was looking at me with interest. The others turned as well.
“I was… just interested in the drawing.” I looked at them, hoping my lie would hold up.
“All right.” J nodded, holding my gaze for a while longer, but then turning to the group and the discussion.
They continued talking and I kept observing them, once again I was intrigued by how subtle facial expressions and certain voice intonations influenced the meaning of the content. I felt inadequate to pick up all the details of communication these Old Earth Humans used. All face-to-face communication in Uni, and particularly on Senthia, was exclusively verbal. If a word was not said, it wasn’t meant, either.
“…which would then make it easy for us to find it,” said Peter, and everyone else nodded.
And—I just missed some of the verbal communication as well. I tried to pick up what they were talking about.
“And if that’s the case, then let’s just hope it still works,” said Simon. “Otherwise, we’ll stay in the Stone Age forever.”
“I thought this was the Middle Ages,” said Peter and smiled.
Simon smiled back. “You know what I mean.”
Everyone else laughed as well.
I looked at J. His teeth contrasted his tanned skin, and he had small dimples in his cheeks when smiling. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
Then he looked at me, and the dimples slowly disappeared.
We kept looking at each other. And neither of us could stop it.
Peter coughed and said, “May I interrupt?”
J blinked and then turned to Peter. “Sorry—what?”
Everyone laughed, and I had the strangest feeling it was about us.
“Peter, J, all fine?” Mike turned to them.
“Mmm.” Peter nodded. “Food’s ready. Tents are already packed. We’re good to go.”
“Simon?”
“I’ll have everything ready by the time we leave.”
“What’s still missing?” asked Peter.
“Plantain and comfrey. We used the last one for Carmen.”
“Aye, I remember. Was a tough call,” said Peter, shaking his head.
“Ended well, though,” said Simon.
“Thanks to you, buddy!” Peter inclined his head in an emphatic nod in Simon’s direction. Simon smiled.
“All right. We are basically set for the trip. Dora?” said Mike.
I turned to look at him.
“We need to talk about the expansion of the village now. You’re welcome to stay, if you want to, but we’re not going to discuss the hike anymore. Do you have any questions?”
“No, Mike, I think everything is clear. I thank you.”
“No worries. If you do have questions, just bug any one of the team to help you, okay?” he said. Then he turned to the group. “Rick, could I please ask you to fetch Sandra and Tony?” He turned to me and said in a lower voice, “They are our architects, you see.”
“Right away, Mike, right away,” said Rick, already on his way out.
“I wish he listened to me like that!” said Peter once Rick was out of the doors.
Mike laughed. “It never works on your own children, you know.”
“You should feel lucky,” said Patrick turning to Peter. “This means he really accepts you as his father.”
“Aye. I feel better already.” Peter shook his head again.
And everyone laughed.
While waiting for their architects, they spontaneously formed three groups based on discussion topics. J, Patrick, and Peter were standing while talking, and J was facing in my direction. Every now and then I peeked at J, and every so often, I saw him looking back at me. Then Peter moved closer to Patrick and J’s window between them was gone.
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to make order in the messy clutter of my confused thoughts.
What did all this mean? Why was he looking at me? And why was I looking at him so much?
I opened my eyes and slowly exhaled. There has to be a logical interpretation. There is one for everything. All I need to do is find the premise, and the solution will appear, as it always does.
Good.
I felt content with my plan.
I stood and looked at Mike. As soon as he saw me, he waved. “Good night, Dora. Sleep well.”
“Good night,” I said to everyone. They all turned to me and said good night, before returning to their discussions.
Just before stepping out, I peeked one more time in J’s direction. He was talking to Patrick but then saw me looking. He stopped then, tilted his head, and smiled just slightly. Patrick turned to see what had caught J’s attention, then grinned and turned back to him.
I quickly stepped out before there was time for me to misunderstand yet another nonverbal communication.
I stopped outside Mike’s door. The fresh evening air w
ashed over my face. It helped me to relax, and to focus again.
There were too many unknowns for me to extrapolate the solution. The only pattern I could detect was my increased heartbeat and—I exhaled a breath I didn’t know I was holding in—my breathing problems, combined with the strangest instinctive, almost visceral feeling somewhere deep inside me, so deep I could not even locate it.
I sighed and closed my eyes.
The next moment, I heard footsteps on the bridge. I opened my eyes and saw Tania approaching quickly. She stopped in front of me and said in a low voice, “Dora, Stevanion is dead.”
Chapter 11
I looked at her with my mouth opened, but no words came out.
“My condolences,” she said. “I am so sorry. Would you like to come and see him?”
There was a silence in my mind.
After a while, I said, shakily, “N—no…”
I was confused, and none of my higher intelligence brain centers told me how to behave in this situation. I simply didn’t know how to react.
“We will prepare the funeral tomorrow. It will be in the clearing a bit farther away from the village. Downwind. I will come to pick you up, all right?”
I nodded.
“If you need anything—anything at all—let me know.” She lowered her head, still looking at me, making sure I understood.
“Yes.” My voice was nothing but a whisper.
She looked at me for a few moments. Her body language told me she wanted to come closer, but she restrained herself.
“I’ll go and tell Mike,” she said.
I nodded.
She looped around me and entered Mike’s hut.
It was late evening. I felt tired and exhausted, but I could not sleep. I was looking at the wooden wall of my hut, almost white from the bright moonlight, with a few dark leaf-shaped shadows from the trees outside.
I didn’t feel sad.
I felt empty.
Stevanion didn’t mean much to me. I didn’t really know him. I had almost never seen him back at Senthia. But now that he was gone, I realized I did miss him. Or, to be more precise, I missed the place in my life where he used to be. And although this was a very small hole, it reminded me of a much larger hole that I had sealed inside me, a long time ago.
I sighed.
It was connected, all of it. Stevanion came with me. And he died.
And I lived.
And I knew why.
I shook my head, trying to chase away these thoughts and place logical barriers around my feelings.
I was too late to bring him back to the Anas. I had failed.
He shouldn’t have come on the port with me. He would have still been alive. I should have gone alone.
I pressed the heels of my palms to my closed eyes.
It was my fault we’d been ported here. This was clear to me. And then I’d brought him to the Humans—and he got the flu.
My throat felt tighter, my eyes stung.
It was my fault.
It was my fault that he died. I shouldn’t have brought him to the Humans. But how could I have—
I took a deep breath and held it in. Then I slowly exhaled, placed my arms next to my body, and tried to relax. Using a trained pattern of breathing techniques and focused relaxation of all my muscles, one at a time, I calmed myself down.
It took more than fifteen passes to completely relax my body, and by then I was starting to fall asleep.
Right then, I heard footsteps on the wooden bridge leading to my hut, and a moment later on the outside platform as well. There was a knock on the side of the door.
“Dora?” I heard J’s whisper. “Dora, are you awake?”
My heart rate picked up immediately. I stood and walked to the door. I moved the heavy curtain of leaves. “J?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to wake you…”
“No, no, I wasn’t asleep, it’s okay. Do you… do you want to come in?”
He smiled but shook his head. “No, that’s fine, you need to get some sleep. I just came here to tell you that… that I’m very sorry. About Stevanion.”
He looked down at the floor between us.
“Thank you, J. I appreciate it.”
“How do you feel?” he said, looking back at me. “Are you okay? Do you feel… ill?”
With this strange feeling I had in my stomach I almost said that I did, but I knew what he was asking, so I shook my head. “No, J. I feel healthy.”
He exhaled loudly. “Ah, good!”
One side of his face was lit by moonlight; the other was in shadow. He opened his mouth to say something but paused for a moment, thinking.
Then he closed his mouth, obviously deciding not to voice what he had in mind. Instead, he said, “I should let you get some sleep. Good night, Dora. Sleep well.”
I nodded. “Good night, J.”
He turned and walked back to the bridge. I let the curtain drop, then moved a leaf just slightly with my finger so I could still look at him through the gap in the curtain. Scruffy black hair, thin shirt over his broad shoulders, trousers hanging loosely over his hips, the buttock muscles moving as he walked—and I was doing it again! I was eyeing him just as Julie had said. And I had no idea why!
After he stepped off the bridge, he turned in my direction one more time.
I froze in place, stopped breathing, and hoped he didn’t realize I was hiding behind the curtain, watching him. He then turned and stepped on the neighboring bridge.
I finally let out the breath I had been holding in and turned to face the room.
But I didn’t see it. I didn’t see the wooden floor, the table or the cupboard. I didn’t notice the intricate moonlight patterns anymore. I saw J, half of his face in the dark and half lit by silvery light, eyebrows casting a shadow over his eyes.
Beautiful…
With my back against the wall, I slowly sat down. Then I did something unthinkable, something no Senthien would do. I imagined I touched his face, and I could almost feel his skin, warm under my palm.
I closed my eyes and sighed.
About two hundred people gathered around the clearing, even more than at the bonfire. I was standing close to Old Mike. Next to him were Tania and Peter. J was standing just behind me. Although all of them were careful not to stand too close to me, with so many people it was impossible to give me my needed IP space. I was entering their interpersonal space, and they were entering mine. But somehow, at this very moment, I did not mind.
It was strange, being at Stevanion’s funeral. I didn’t know what to feel or how to act. The only person linking me to my Uni world was now white and rigid, lying on a platform of wood and branches, in his skinsuit once again. His hands were crossed on his chest, and underneath them was a small branch with thick succulent leaves. This, I assumed, meant something, but I didn’t want to ask. Not now.
I felt empty and I felt lost. I felt like running with no direction, but I also felt like falling, deep, deep underground.
And somehow, having all these people around me, surrounding me, entering my IP space, actually helped me in the strangest way.
Their personal spaces acted like bubbles, and they pressed against me from all sides.
They supported me.
And kept me from falling.
Mike stepped forward and then turned around to face the crowd. Everyone fell silent.
“Friends. We are here to say goodbye to Barka Stevanion Narth. Although he belongs to the Senthien species of the Descendants, we will give him a Human funeral, because he is—a Human,” he said it in a low tone, his eyes flickering to the group of Jumpers to his right.
I looked at them as well. In the front were Julie, Sarah, and three others, probably the women from the Boolean Institute. Most of the other Jumpers looked down, but Julie’s eyes were on me. She narrowed them to thin slits and kept her gaze. I did not know what this nonverbal communication meant, but it gave me shivers nevertheless. Whatever it meant, it definitely wasn’t friend
ly.
I turned back to Mike and realized I missed what he was saying. I deliberately let go of my thoughts of Julie and paid attention.
“His path led him somewhere he didn’t plan to go. And because of it, he is now gone. Let him have peaceful rest.”
Peaceful rest? I looked at Mike, not understanding. He’s not going to wake up.
Perhaps it’s one of those Human expressions again…
“Dora.” I snapped out of my thoughts. “Would you like to say a few words, as you are the one who knew him best?”
For a moment, I stopped breathing, surprised by Mike’s question. Then I stepped out next to him, leaving a few IPs between us. I did not turn to the crowd. Instead, I looked at the corpse.
This wasn’t Stevanion anymore.
It wasn’t anyone.
It was just a body.
“I did not know him,” I said, not having any idea what to say next. “There are people who knew him a lot better than I did… they are the ones who should be standing in my place.”
I paused for a long while.
“He was not supposed to be here. He should have stayed in Uni. He should not have come… he should not have come…”
My next words came in a whisper.
“And it is my fault that he’s dead. The port mistake happened – because of me.”
Mike took a step toward me and said in a gentle voice, “It was an accident, Dora. It’s no one’s fault.”
I looked at the ground in front of me, my gaze empty.
“Dora, do you want to light the fire?” asked Peter from behind me.
I turned to him and looked at him for a moment, incredulous at the question he just posed. Then I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“Do you mind if I do it?” he asked.
“No… please do,” I whispered and took a step backward.
Peter walked to the wooden platform and took a torch, which was already burning next to it.
He bent down and held the torch between the branches for some time. Then, they caught fire, and it spread through the whole pyre with surprising speed. One person in the crowd started singing and a few other people joined her. I didn’t understand the language they used, but I couldn’t have imagined a more graceful farewell for anyone.
The Senthien (Descendants of Earth Book 1) Page 12
