by Joseph Rhea
“Eden? As in the Garden of Eden from that old story?”
She nodded her head and then gently took Jake’s small piece of moss and placed it back on the ground. “If this truly is the birthplace of humanity, then it is our duty to take care of it.”
Jake nodded. “So that’s why you don’t care about docks or the whereabouts of my ship,” he said. “You have no intentions of ever leaving here, do you?”
She looked sideways at him. “To go where? Back to Civica? From what your crew told me, Civica seems to have fallen apart. What would there be to go back to?”
“You mean, besides people?”
She looked away. “We have people here, Jake. There are even children. With the addition of you seven, we will one day have many more.” She looked back at him. “This is the beginning, don’t you see? A new start for civilization. A new start for humanity. A new start for us.”
Jake looked down at his now dirty hands. “I guess it’s just a little hard to take in all at once. I’ve spent my whole life being fairly miserable, and it’s hard to deal with the fact that things are so much better here.” He looked at Raines. “How are you dealing with all of this? I thought you hated open spaces.”
“I hated large cities,” he said, “but this is quite different. It’s like a color-color-blind man seeing colors for the first time. Part of you wants to reject the change, just because it makes you uncomfortable.” He patted Jake on the back. “Give yourself a few days. When you are strong enough, I’ll take you on a hike down the river. You’ll see things you won’t believe. I’ve only been here a few days longer than you, and I’ve already seen enough to last me a lifetime.” He smiled. “And yet, I think if I hiked every day for a year, I would still find things to amaze me.”
He let Raines help him stand back up. “I look forward to that hike,” he said then took one more look around before hobbling back into the hut.
Chapter 17
A week later, when he was mostly recovered, Jake sat alone on a grass-covered bluff overlooking the river valley north of the village, enjoying the late morning sunlight. His mother’s people had made up compass directions for their new world long before, calling the convex wall, or the center of the tube circle, “north” with the opposite wall, “south.” That made the sun’s motion east-to-west, which matched the layout of most of the larger cities in Civica.
“Have you ever felt a sun this hot?” AJ asked as she stepped up behind him.
“Seems like kind of a waste,” he replied, but he was lying; the light and heat felt good on his cold skin. Ever since he woke up there, he had felt chilled, as though he would never feel warm again. Another side effect of going so many days without clean air. “Do you think the sun in Capitol City was like this once?”
“Maybe a couple of hundred years ago,” she said as she sat down on the grass across from him. She looked at the nearby tree line and snapped her fingers. “Waiter!” she yelled. “A couple of shots of your finest for me and my friend.” When no one responded, she sighed and leaned back on her newly tanned arms. “Lousy service here.”
Friend, he thought. Since when did we drop the formalities? Aloud, he said, “So where is everyone?”
She put her feet up on a rock, and he noticed that she was barefoot. Jessie’s hatred of shoes had claimed another victim. “Well, let’s see. Dr. Wood said he was going to explore the eastern valley today, supposedly looking for medicinal plants. Jane and Jessie told me they were going to follow him, ‘discreetly’ was the word, to see what he was really up to. Norman and Vee are still trying to figure out where this place came from, who built it, and what happened to them.”
“They should have asked my mother to help them,” he said.
“Probably, but I think they enjoy doing the work themselves.”
“It is a little weird, isn’t it?” he said. “The things we feared our entire lives, the very things that kept us from leaving Civica, the Novum, ended up helping us. They carried us here but kept our ships; why?”
She shook her head. “I have no idea.”
“And this place,” he continued, “a single structure this big, this new, this perfect, just abandoned?”
“This place wasn’t abandoned,” she said.
“I know, I know,” he said. “No sign that it was ever occupied when my parents got here.” He looked at a small plant growing in the grass. “I mean, when my mother and the other survivors first came here.”
“I’m sorry, Jake,” she said. “Your mother was lucky that…” She looked down at the same plant. “The Council was responsible for sabotaging both of our ships. Someone there will pay for what happened to your father and the others.”
“No, they won’t,” he said. “Civica and its problems are more than five thousand kilometers away from here. We can never go back there, and they don’t even know this place exists.” He looked at her. “Everyone in the Council is probably dead by now anyway.”
“We’ve been gone almost two months,” she said. “Everyone we knew is probably dead by now, too.”
“All the more reason to start living in the present, I guess,” he replied. “Speaking of which, what do you plan to do for work here?”
She looked up at the sky. “This place is never too hot and never too cold, it’s filled with edible plants of every type, and the river water is drinkable. Who says I need to do anything?”
“You plan to spend the rest of your days just sitting on the grass, watching the sun go round and round?”
She raised one eyebrow. “Seems to be working for you.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
She frowned. “I’ve been a Shipper most of my life. If there are no ships, or other cities close enough to carry supplies to, then I don’t know what I’ll do.”
He looked back at the ring of huts behind them. “This place is growing, you know? Someday it will be a thriving colony, like Civica. Maybe better. I hope better.”
“The survivors have already had more than a dozen children among them, including your stepsister,” she said then looked worried. “I’m sorry, Jake, is that a sore topic?”
It was, but he didn’t want it to be. “No, it’s okay,” he said, looking at her. “I’m glad my mom found someone else. People shouldn’t be alone.”
“I suppose that’s good advice,” she said, staring back at him.
He looked at the tree line and imagined a row of buildings standing there. “You know, you could always build something. This village needs a proper Guild bar, and since you’re the only Guild member within five thousand kilometers, I think the burden falls to you.”
“Only if you agree to come and work for me,” she said with a hint of a smile on her face.
“Me? Work for you?”
“I need waiters who won’t steal from the till, and you’ve proven yourself fairly trustworthy.”
“Fairly?”
She stood suddenly. “Jake, I never got the chance—”
“Did I tell you about the song?” he asked, quickly changing the subject. “After the ship died, I heard the same song we all heard before Rubicon. That’s why I left in the shuttle; I went looking for its source. I asked my mother about it, but she had no clue where it came from. Raines thinks I just hallucinated—”
“You told me, Jake, and I’m really sorry you had to go through all of that. You almost died trying to save us. And…speaking of that, I want to—”
“Skip it,” he said. “It was my stupid idea to come out here, so it was my job to make sure you all made it here in one piece.” An image of Ash spinning away from him filled his thoughts. “I only wish everyone would have made it.”
She stood in front of him. “You did your best, Jake, and the rest of us owe you our lives.” He started to make a joke, but she cut him off. “I’m serious, Jake. You not only took us out of a bad situation back in Civica, you discovered a whole new colony. This place is like something out of a childhood story.” She looked back at the landscape.
“If this really is Earth, then it’s a place to start over again.”
“Leave the past behind?” he asked. “Is that possible?
She pulled him to his feet with surprising ease. He expected her to give him one of her trademark, hand-on-the-chest, “thank you” speeches, but instead, she stood on her toes and kissed him gently on the cheek. “Anything is possible,” she said and then turned and walked away. Just before she disappeared over a ridge, she yelled back, “People shouldn’t be alone, Jake Stone.”
He smiled, and the smile lingered long after she was gone. Then he sat back down on the grass and kicked off his shoes. One more victim, he thought. The sun was warm on his face, and he felt a weight, unknown until that moment, suddenly lift off his shoulders. He took a slow, deep breath, and realized that for the first time in many years, perhaps for the first time in his life, he had found his home.
THE END
The journey continues with
Novum: Revelation
Learn more at
JosephRhea.com/Novum4
About the Author
Joseph Rhea is a scientist, science fiction author, computer game designer, and believer in moving humanity forward, not backward. He was advised by his high school English teacher to pursue a life of writing. Instead, he chose a career in engineering and science, driven by a need to explore the world and help create new technologies. Now, three decades later, he has come full circle as a new voice in realistic science fiction.
Learn more at JosephRhea.com
Books by Joseph Rhea
Standalone Novels:
Cyberdrome
Novum Series:
Novum: Genesis
Novum: Exile
Novum: Rubicon
Novum: Revelation
Novum: Apocalypse
Learn more at JosephRhea.com
Credits and Permissions
Lyrics from “20 Years” by Kawehi Wight.
Copyright © 2014 Kawehi Wight.
Reprinted by permission.
(www.kawehi.com)
