The Senthien (Descendants of Earth Book 1)

by Tara Jade Brown

  “Aren’t you guys afraid?” asked J.

  “Of what?”

  “Of radiation? Or nuclear waste that takes ages to decay?”

  “Nuclear microgenerators are highly stable and clean,” I said, almost surprised by their questions. “And used-up generators that do not produce anymore are ported to waste planets and moons. There is no danger.”

  They all nodded slowly, accepting this new concept.

  “What about fusion power?” asked Patrick. “I know there were a lot of successful trials and experiments in that direction, but none of this was being used for real before our cryo-time.”

  “You are correct. Fusion power was used too, but the large-scale production was perfected on Descendant worlds. However, the most used power source in Uni is bioenergy.”

  “Bioenergy? What kind of bioenergy?” asked Patrick.

  “KCFC,” I said.

  They all looked at me without saying a word.

  “Should we… know what this means?”

  I looked at them and then checked my nanoprobes to see when the research for KCFC started. Ah, yes—not in their time.

  “Krebs Cycle Fuel Cell,” I said. “It is the ultimate fusion power cell that makes energy by joining hydrogen and oxygen without producing waste.”

  “Krebs cycle?” said Simon. “Isn’t that the energy production in living cells?”

  “Yes. The principle is taken from a living organism, but then transferred to a synthetic environment.”

  “What kind of synthetic environment?” asked Patrick.

  “I am sorry, Patrick. I do not have all the details. It is proprietary information developed by Loreans and Booleans.”

  “Hmm, pity. That would be interesting to know…”

  “I know that the initial research happened in the late pre-Ev period, but the final technology was developed only on the new planets. For this reason, I doubt that you would find this technology here.”

  “Basically, we don’t really know what power source we’ll find out here, do we?” asked Simon, looking around at everyone.

  Patrick and J shrugged.

  “See and be surprised, aye?” said Peter.

  After a few moments of silence, Rick said, “Does anyone want the last piece of meat?”

  Everyone shook their heads.

  “Great! I’ll volunteer then,” Rick said and stabbed the last piece.

  Everyone got up and put their plates and cutlery into a washing bag. I did the same.

  “Who’s youngest?” asked Simon.

  “I am. I know,” mumbled Rick with a full mouth and grabbed the bag as soon as all the plates were in. Recognizing the pattern, I smiled. It would take a while until it was my turn to wash the utensils.

  Frank and Simon headed off to their tents, and Peter picked up an empty leather bag and followed Rick to the small stream to fetch water so he could put out the fire.

  J and I were the only ones left.

  I looked at him but immediately dropped my gaze when I saw him glancing at me. I so much wanted to talk to him. There were so many things about him that I wanted to know, but every time I had an opportunity, there was a heavy weight on my chest, as if my heart was being squeezed into a sphere smaller than its volume.

  And, like always, I dealt with this confusing feeling the only way I could: by placing a calm Senthien façade over my mixed emotions.

  “Good night, J,” I said in a monotonous voice, knowing my face looked like I’d seen it on the holos: calm and cold.

  He took a few moments to respond, puzzled by my quick departure.

  “Um… okay. Good night, Dora. Sleep well.”

  “I shall.”

  The moment I turned away, my façade dropped and a deep pressure pushed painfully against my solar plexus.

  I closed my eyes. The Senthien in me made it impossible to do what I wanted to do the most. I wanted to be Human—for him—but I simply didn’t know how.

  Chapter 13

  Peter woke us up early the next morning. We had a short morning meal, where I sat in the outer circle around the remains of the last night’s fire, hoping no one would notice me. I was still fenced in by my self-made Senthien wall, though I could not stop glancing at J whenever I thought he wasn’t looking. Every now and then, he caught me and his face relaxed into a barely noticeable smile.

  We packed our gear and were soon on our way. The vegetation was just slightly different here than at the village. I wouldn’t have even noticed the difference myself, but my nanoprobes automatically compared the images on my optic nerve cam and communicated this information. The soil was drier and darker. The grass layer was almost gone, and the majority of the trees in these woods had needlelike leaves. And they smelled fabulous.

  We walked for almost sixty passes when J lifted his hand to slow us down.

  “I think we’re approaching the gorge,” he said.

  Within a few passes we reached the end of the forest that opened up into a narrow clearing, which disappeared four IPs from where we stood.

  “Slowly now,” J said and came to the edge of the cliff. Several IPs below the steep rocks, a clear blue river was rushing past. The gorge wasn’t very wide, but the rocks leading to the river were so steep it was virtually impossible to climb down.

  I swallowed involuntarily and then looked at J. He looked back and smiled. “We’re not climbing down, don’t worry.”

  Then he looked upstream, shielding his eyes with his hand.

  “Do you see it?” asked Peter.

  “No, not yet…” He was slowly scanning the other side of the river. And then he stopped. “There it is, I see it!”

  “I don’t,” said Rick, frowning.

  “You can’t see the cable: it’s too thin to see it from this distance,” said J. “But look at the river’s edge. Last time we marked it with red rope. On the tree. See it?”

  “Ah, yeah, I see it. Cool! I’m so looking forward to trying it out!” said Rick, hopping from one leg to the other.

  “Let’s go!” J said and started walking along the edge of the gorge. “Just be careful, everyone,” he said but looked at me.

  It only took us a few passes to reach the tree where the rope cable was attached on this side of the river.

  “Are we sure it works?” asked Peter.

  “Yeah, I checked it,” said Patrick. “Fynn and I did a perimeter check two weeks ago. Tried it out. Runs smoothly.”

  “So, who’s going first?” asked J, looking around.

  “I’ll do it,” said Patrick, stepping to the large tree a few IPs away from the edge. The thick metal cable was attached to a small mechanism on the tree, and it stretched over the river to the tree on the other side. On our side, the cable could be positioned higher or lower on the mechanism, making the attachment site either higher or lower than the cable attachment on the other side of the river.

  Patrick pulled few small ropes on the mechanism to raise the cable higher. Then he reached down to his bag and took out a leather harness with a metal wheel and multiple belts. He hooked the wheel of the harness on the cable and sat in the leather sling while J checked all the bindings.

  “Peter, could you please have a look too?” said J and stepped back.

  Rick, standing close to me, explained, “They always do double or triple checks with things like that.”

  I nodded, not looking at Rick, my eyes fixed on the cable system. This just seems life-threatening.

  “Good to go,” said Peter.

  Patrick swung away from the edge. There was a high zipping sound as he slid down the rope, shouting over the noise of the river rushing through the gorge.

  “Why is he shouting?” I asked out loud.

  “It’s fun!” answered J and smiled. Once we could see Patrick on the other side, J pulled the ropes of the mechanism to bring the cable attachment to the lowest position.

  “You want to go next?” he asked me.

  I shook my head.

  J tilted his head, looki
ng at me. “Dora, why don’t you? If you stay here and keep looking at people sliding down, you’ll get more and more nervous. Come, I’ll help you in.”

  “In where? There’s no seat!”

  “There is now.” He smiled as the leather sling slid back along the cable. He knelt down with one knee and held the sling open for me. I came closer.

  “You need to put both feet here…” He looked up at me. “I’ll hold the sling.”

  I lifted one foot and aimed for the gap in the leather seat, but I lost my balance and stood again on both feet.

  “Hold onto my shoulder,” he said.

  I blinked at him twice. He wants me to touch him?

  I stood still.

  “What?” he asked.

  “The IP, mate,” said Peter.

  “Ah, the IP…” He nodded to Peter and then looked back at me. “Okay, can you just try and forget about the IP distance for a moment… or two, or three?”

  He gave me an encouraging smile.

  “Okay,” I said in a low voice, as he positioned the sling again.

  I squeezed my jaw and very slowly put my palm on his shoulder. His shirt was thin, and I could feel his skin stretching over his shoulder muscles.

  His eyes then moved away from the sling and shifted up my body until he was looking at me in the eyes.

  I swallowed. My heat started racing; I could feel it in the veins of my neck. My legs all of a sudden became very weak, and once again, I felt this yearning somewhere deep inside me.

  What was that?

  I moved my hips slightly and voluntarily squeezed my pelvic muscles to release the pressure. He tensed his jaw muscles and swallowed, then lowered his gaze to the sling he held open for me. I put one foot in and then the other. J stood up, not looking me in the eyes. My hand was still on his shoulder. I somehow… forgot to move it away. He arranged the harness so it reached my hips and tightened the band at the front. As he did that, he also pulled me closer to him, and then—he looked at me and I looked at him. For a moment, time stood still, our eyes glued to each other’s.

  My heart was beating wildly from him being so close, from feeling his skin under my palm through his thin shirt. I had the feeling that my stomach was filled with a thousand bubbles, hundreds of them bursting at the same time. Little black dots started appearing at the edges of my vision, and I was afraid I would soon lose consciousness if we stayed close like this.

  “Guys, you’re all cute, but we don’t have all day!” said Simon.

  We both dropped our gaze. J took a deep breath, and then he moved behind me to fasten one more strap. I looked down at my hand that had touched him, still dazzled by this tactile experience.

  How can the body have such an influence on the mind?

  I lifted my head, closed my eyes, and relaxed the tense muscles in my body.

  J moved around to my front again.

  “You’re set,” he said in a low voice. “Peter,” he turned and called with a stronger voice, “could you please check the straps?”

  I opened my eyes just as J stepped back to give Peter space.

  Peter circled around me, touching and pulling a few straps to check the hold. “Aye, good to go,” he said and moved away.

  J came closer and gave me the smile. The one I’d seen him do in my Visions, the one no one else did quite like him.

  I wanted to sigh, but I refrained.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  I nodded. “I think so.”

  “You don’t need to hold on, the straps work fine. But you can hold them if it gives you comfort.”

  I grabbed both straps attached to the cable and nodded.

  “It starts slow, but then picks up speed halfway down,” he explained. “Don’t worry about it; it will slow down again before you reach the other end.”

  I nodded again and looked down the cliff one more time.

  “And—you need to jump to get going.”

  “Jump?” I repeated, disbelieving.

  “Yeah, jump. Would you like me to help you?”

  “Help? Me?”

  “Yes—would you like me to give you a little push?”

  “No! Thank you. I will manage,” I said as I looked down to the rushing water.

  “And it doesn’t help if you look down. Just look straight to the other side.”

  “Yes,” I said, half automatically. “Just straight.”

  “You’ll be fine,” he said and smiled again. “See you on the other side.”

  I attempted a smile, probably failing miserably.

  I looked to the other side where Patrick was waiting and then jumped, the sling swinging into empty space. At first the speed was slow, but then quickly accelerated. The wind picked up, blowing the hair off my face.

  I held my breath in one silent, exhilarating moment, with the adrenaline raising my heartbeat and the sweat moistening my skin. The air rushing past me made my eyes teary and my throat dry. The whistling sound of the sliding mechanism just above my head mixed with the wind blowing rapidly next to my ears. Just when I thought it was too much and the adrenaline would make me faint, the leather sling decelerated and came to a slow stop on the other side of the gorge.

  My feet touched the ground, and at the same time Patrick grabbed hold of my harness straps and brought me to a complete stop.

  “You seem to have enjoyed that,” he said, with a smile.

  “It was… unbelievable!” I could hardly catch my breath. My heart was racing and my palms were sweating. “Do we take the same route back?”

  “What, you’d like to try it again?”

  I nodded.

  “Yeah, we’re coming back the same way. You’ll get another ride, don’t worry,” he said. As I stepped out, Patrick let go of the sling and it rolled back along the cable to the other side, where the rest of the group waited.

  Once everyone was across, we continued on. I was at the back as usual, my eyes on the ground, listening to the conversations of the others, but I was mainly interested in hearing J.

  He was quiet for the last few passes, and I looked up to see him. At the same moment, he turned around and saw me looking, and he stopped walking and waited for me to catch up.

  “Patrick said you enjoyed the cable slide,” he said, falling into pace with me.

  “Yes,” I said in my usual neutral tone.

  “Mmm.”

  We were silent for a while, and I wondered if I should have said something more in answer to his question.

  “I guess Earth is very different than your own world?” he tried again.

  “Yes.”

  He sighed, obviously not content with my answer.

  I didn’t understand. I’d told him the truth; what else would he want to know?

  “So, where do you live? I mean, where did you live, before the… teleportation error?”

  “I lived on Senthia,” I said, and looked at him. He met my gaze, and I looked down again.

  “Senthia has two moons,” I said and glanced at him again.

  “Do they look like our moon?”

  “No.”

  He arched his eyebrows. “What do they look like?”

  “They are a lot smaller than Earth’s moon. They are both white, but one has a wonderful purple hue. It is one of my favorite wall images.”

  “Wall images? Like paintings?”

  “No. Like walls. Only it is an image.”

  He sighed again.

  I lowered my head. I must be doing something wrong.

  I looked to the front, observing the other members of the group. They were talking in a lively fashion and their conversation flowed easily, melting from one sentence to another.

  But our dialog seemed so disjointed.

  I am not like that. I could converse without any difficulty at all, but—I glanced at J—not with him.

  I looked at the ground below my feet.

  I do want to talk to him.

  And I want to know everything about him.

  I can’t jus
t let it slip like this!

  I took a deep breath, then turned my head to him and said, “J?”

  “Yes?” he said so suddenly I almost jumped. “Ah, sorry… I didn’t expect you to… say my name,” he said, his beautiful smile appearing on his face. I looked at him, and then I forgot what I wanted to ask him.

  He took a quick breath, looking in front to the others for a moment and then back at me.

  “What did you want to say?” he asked.

  “You…” I closed my eyes for a moment, then looked at him again. “You are close to breaking the IP border.”

  He looked at the space between us and moved a little bit away while still walking.

  “I’m sorry. Is this better?”

  “Yes. Thank you.”

  “No problem.”

  “How come Earth Humans know about IP distances?”

  “I heard the Jumpers joking about it.”

  I nodded. “And when you first encountered Jumpers, did you know who they were?”

  “We didn’t.” He shook his head. “At first, we thought they were other Humans that had been cryo-preserved as well, but at some other location. Of course, we soon found out where they came from. And more kept coming.”

  “How did you know where to find them? And when to find them? Peter said you always know when portation occurs.”

  “That’s right. Whenever a teleportation happens, it leaves a bright shining light in the sky, like half a rainbow, only it’s pure white. And it touches the Earth just at the drop point, and for some reason it always happens in the same location.”

  “Must be a natural porting field resonator,” I said to myself.

  “Sorry?”

  “Porting field resonator,” I said, turning to him. “In Uni, all the porting channels connect to porting chambers. Here on Earth, however, it seems the porting can be established without a chamber.”

  He looked at me uneasily and said, “You think you could use the same place to teleport back to Uni?”

  “The data I have now is inconclusive, but I think this possibility exists.”

  “Would you… want to go back?”

  I thought again about my imminent port to the Zlathar planet, and my immense relief when I realized that I had accidently managed to escape.