by Teya Tapler
She pressed the button and looked at Zander. He appeared to be asleep but no one could stay asleep without moving around especially when there were so many people next to the bed or after that irritating alarm. Evan knew that Zander was in comma - the terrible state when the patient’s soul hid deep inside leaving the loved ones to wander why did that happen, did the person hurt, and when would they wake up.
Zander’s face looked calm. There was nothing left from the tense expression he had while hanging upside down in her car after the crash. They have cleaned the blood and bandaged his head. Obviously gauze was still being used for some type of injuries. His right arm was in a light blue colored cast from his shoulder down to the wrist where it continued by carefully wrapping around each finger like ivy around a tree. The cast was gently immobilizing his arm instead of totally covering it the way she had seen in the 21st century hospitals. His skin was fully exposed in the areas between the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints.
“Hi, it’s me Evan,” Evan gently touched his right arm between the elbow and the wrist. “You cannot see me now but I know that you can hear me… We made it to your time… I’m all right and in one piece… You’re in one piece too, just asleep for now.”
Evan couldn’t focus on her thoughts. Talking to Zander and not getting lost in his deep blue, purple tinted eyes made her uncomfortable. The things she wanted to say didn’t come out right but hoping that deep inside he was hearing her she didn’t want to cut the thin connection she was establishing with Zander. She had forgotten the other three members of the Anaconda team standing behind her, in her mind she was alone with Zander. With her soft voice Evan told him about her life during the last three years, starting her story backwards with her internship in Analysis4All. Omitting Alex and Ollie all together, she talked about her assignments, her boss Cheryl and the big project she was so happy to work on.
After twenty minutes Mary put a hand on Evan’s shoulder and she got up. It was time to leave. Evan stroke Zander’s hand one last time, pressed the button on the wall to arm the system and followed Mary towards the corridor where Emil and Peter were waiting patiently. She stopped right before the exit, turned back and returned to the bed. Evan quickly pressed the button on the wall and stretched to reach Zander’s head she kissed him, “I love you too, Zander!” pressed the button again and left the room.
The door closed automatically and a green light above it indicated that the system had assumed full control over that environment.
Evan looked at the three people waiting for her. The two tall men with black T-shirts and black jeans, dressed just like Zander, and the woman with deep green, multi-pocketed cargo pants and brown T-shirt. They were her family now. She combed her short hair with two hands and tried to smile.
“Thank you for letting me see him. I feel much better now.”
“Come on!” Mary said, “Let’s go shopping. You’ll love the stores here.” She hugged Evan and they led the small group out of the hospital.
***
As the four of them headed towards the exit a tall and lanky build male nurse with bushy eyebrows appeared from behind the corner. Ollie waited for the group to go outside then approached room 1096 and pressed the stolen badge to the doorknob. The green light above the door went dark and the door opened with a low humming sound.
So you‘re the one in the car with her? In his thoughts Ollie started a conversation with Zander. If it wasn’t for you, she might have been dead already. Why did you have to show up and spoil everything? Couldn’t you just not do your time and space traveling thing for once?
After messing up his last assignment and not killing Evan in the 21st century, Ollie had lost the Chancellors benevolence and had been officially threatened to reconsider and re-examine his behavior and tactics or his existence was to be revealed to the police. Since then Ollie had carefully followed Evan’s every step. He was monitoring the emergency frequencies when he heard the call for ambulance to the Anaconda team base. The Chancellor was going to be very happy when he learned those latest developments. Ollie knew that his benefactor, as he lovingly referred to the Chancellor in his thoughts, was going to appreciate the information and will begin to change his mind. Ollie was seeing the perfect opportunity to restore his status to its previous level.
Ollie looked at the motionless patient on the bed in front of him. The monitor was showing various imaging and lab results among Zander’s vital signs that didn’t make sense to Ollie. He only understood that the patient’s body temperature was normal. That wasn’t information worthy for the Chancellor’s ears. Probably Ollie could tweak the controls and inflict some additional damage. For example he could change the room temperature and request a special cocktail to be delivered in the patient’s blood stream, or maybe he could kill him here with bare hands and disguise the event as an accident, leaving it to be counted as another sick person who had succumbed to his wounds. The ideas kept coming into Ollie’s mind. Unconsciously he had started to smile enjoying the possible developments of all those ideas.
“Excuse me, is there a problem here?” The voice of the nurse standing next to him pulled Ollie out of his trance.
“Everything’s okay. I just double-checked the settings after the visitors. He’s all set,” Ollie trotted to the hospital exit angry that the nurse had interfered. That would have been a great gift for his benefactor.
Ollie’s phone bracelet vibrated and he took the call.
“Don’t do anything stupid!” The Chancellor yelled from the other side.
“I won’t,” Ollie instinctively looked around.
“I have your location in the hospital. Do not try to improvise anything! Remember that this mess is because of you!” The Chancellor yelled once more and abruptly ended the call.
“Okay,” Ollie said to the dead phone line. Someone had already informed the Chancellor about all that. Someone else was faster and better than Ollie in tracking Evan and her friends. Someone, most likely the perfect Alex, with the right people skills had extracted that information after charming the nurses at the reception.
Ollie didn’t like Alex from the very beginning. He didn’t like working with him and being his busboy. Even though Alex let him choose the way they would kill Evan, Ollie felt Alex’s eyes at the back of his head during every step of the execution process. Ollie didn’t like being replaced in the Chancellor’s eyes by anyone, especially by Alex. Angry at the whole world Ollie kicked the trash bin outside the hospital entrance and clenched his fists in his pockets.
Chapter 20
Evan was very busy during her first month in the 25th century; she got registered and counted in the census, she was fingerprinted and had her organic signature and other biometrics taken for the record, learned how to shop, how to travel via public transport and how to set a transcaster gun. Her new friends even put forward an application for a locator chip for Evan to formally welcome her as part of their group and scheduled drive-flying lessons for her so that she could use their moveseat on her own. On the outside everything was slowly coming into place and Evan seemed to like the new world and the innovations and technologies not yet seen. She was visiting Zander in the hospital to share with him the new developments every day. He laid motionless and quiet but the rhythm of his heart and breathing echoed in the room, giving her signs for better days ahead.
From the inside, Evan’s introduction to the new world looked very different. The new world was slowly becoming her home but she couldn’t think of it as home yet. That world was too busy and too crowded and not all people she loved were around. She missed her mother and leaving her father and sister, in the 21st century, without saying good bye made her feel guilty every so often. Her new friends helped her take the load off her shoulders by watching 21st century movies and listening together to her favorite music, but that wasn’t helping her acclimate as fast as she needed to. Evan felt a little bit out of place. Her thoughts would go back home to her sister, friends and parents and then jump into wondering how
Zander was, when would he wake up. Being the only one talking during their meetings and not being able to hear his voice had started to leave its mark on her.
Today Evan was to complete the task that started it all. She was to help destroy the pearls.
The event was expected to be a private ceremony held at a public location. Since the huge publicity after the first ceremony all activities related to the retrieval and further analysis of the pearls and their powers had been kept top secret. Today’s event was no exception. Only the Earth’s representatives, the Anaconda team members and the scientists with professor Wilderness were going to attend. They were transcasting themselves from various locations to avoid any suspicions.
Evan, Emil, Peter and Mary entered the Galactic Committee Hall where the initial ceremony for casting the pearls through time and space was held over a year ago. Their small group was the first to arrive.
Evan entered the Galactic Committee Hall timidly, browsing her surroundings as if expecting the worst to happen. The enormity of the structure made her feel tiny and the sense of being unimportant rushed and settled in her. Then the graceful lines of the construction and its beauty changed everything and she looked at her surroundings speechless and astonished.
The room was huge, compared to anything she had seen in her lifetime. It felt bigger than the Superdome in New Orleans and taller than the Empire State Building in New York City. The enormous room with the thirty balcony loggias surrounding the middle stage echoed with their steps. Each movement sounded like big raindrops falling on the leaves during a tropical storm when the distinct drumming of each drop was combined with the unique rhythm of the rest of the raindrops making them sound like a choir.
Evan looked around. It was her first time in the Galactic Committee Hall. The place reminded her of something she had seen back in her time…and yet it wasn’t even close to it. All the colors, materials and textures, the way the background and the center of the room were lit, the patterns around the banisters, the shapes of the objects and the curves of the columns were far more modern than any futuristic design she had seen in the 21st century.
Seeing her reaction, Mary pulled her aside and pointed to a plaque next to the entrance. It described the design and purpose of the room and showcased pictures of the architect and the builders group. Evan started reading. The text was in English with some unknown to her words that were likely added to the English language dictionary in the latest 400 years. It was interesting to see that people’s good work was still appreciated in the 25th century.
The scientists entered the hall from the door at the other side. They were too far for Evan to notice or hear them. Their long procession moved slow ensuring that the transportation crates floating among them remained equally spaced between each other at all times. When the group approached the Anaconda team professor Wilderness moved toward Emil.
“Emil, we brought the pearls. Once the group of representatives is here we’ll get started,” she said.
“I think they are here already.” Emil nodded towards the first level balcony behind her where a group with ultramarine robes, white wigs and well powdered faces was waving at them.
The representatives had occupied the balcony loggia usually assigned to another nation during formal events, just because it offered the best view that day. They shuffled the floating chairs around, all of them trying to sit on the front row at the same time. Those who had brought cameras to record the event for posterity tried to position them on top of the handrail in front of everyone. That was creating problems for the security guards who had to enforce rules without making the representatives angry. There was a potential for the preparations to escalate into an undesirable exchange of unpleasant remarks if the event didn’t start sooner.
The professor’s phone bracelet vibrated gently and flashed in green. She touched its side and popped open the holographic screen. Seeing the Chancellor’s name floating in midair she straightened her posture, took the call and said politely, “This is professor Wilderness. How may I help you Chancellor?”
Emil saw her turn towards the robed group and nod. Then she ended the call.
“We can begin, they’re all here.” Brianna said. “Where’s the girl?”
“She’s here Brianna, but we’re one person short,” Emil said.
”Not a problem! She’s the only one we need. Tell her to join me at the transcaster.” Brianna said then added with a softer voice, “Emil, I hope Zander recovers quickly.”
“Thank you,” Emil replied.
The scientists had started to unpack the pearls. Each pearl had been meticulously wrapped in a star shaped scarf and placed in its own container. The scientists were carefully taking those containers out of the sturdy transportation crates and then opening their lids with a special crowbar like tool avoiding human contact at all cost.
Emil came to Evan who was still reading the plaque. Detecting his arrival she turned. Their eyes met.
“Is it time?” She said.
“Yes. Brianna, Professor Wilderness, the only woman among the white-coats over there, will meet you at the transcaster.” Emil pointed with his whole hand to the slightly raised, round base at the distance. “She’ll explain what they need you to do.”
Evan went to the center of the room. As she approached the crates with the pearls, each pearl started to emit a calming glow and then switched off as she moved away. The scientists stopped their work and watched with astonishment.
“Hi, I’m professor Wilderness, you must be Evan?” A hazel-eyed woman in white lab-coat stretched her hand in front of Evan.
“Yes, I’m Evan. Hi!” Evan shook her hand in reply.
“How are-” professor Wilderness started but Evan interrupted her.
“Just tell me what I need to do. I’m sorry for not being polite or social,“ her voice sank.
“Sure,” Professor Wilderness said. “We need you to take the pearls one by one from their current positions and put them in this arrangement on the transcaster here,” she showed a small drawing to Evan. The four pearls were making a square base with the fifth one propped in the middle.
Evan moved towards the crates.
“Wait for my signal before you position the last pearl.” Professor Wilderness said and joined the scientist’s group heading towards the control room together with Peter, Emil and Mary.
Evan approached the pearls which were lined up in their containers at the edge of the stage. The one closest to her started to glow. She picked it up with both hands and hugged it closer to her chest. The pearl was heavier than she remembered and its shape was preventing her from carrying it differently. When the pearl touched her chest its glow turned into a bright color-changing light. Everyone gasped while unbothered by the light or the spectator’s reaction Evan carried the pearl to the round transcaster base. When she moved the heavy pearl away from her chest to put it down the bright light turned to glow and then when she distanced herself the glow stopped all together.
Slowly and methodically Evan took each pearl in her arms, lovingly carried it to the transcaster base and carefully positioned it there. First each pearl started to glow then began to emit the bright color-changing light then again glowed before darkening as placed to rest. Evan repeated that four times until there was only one pearl left. She scanned the room for professor Wilderness and found her in the control room consulting with her colleagues. After a short and agitated conversation with her group, the Professor nodded back to Evan indicating she can go ahead and complete the structure.
Evan picked up the pearl and a few steps later she stumbled and dropped it on the floor as her image flashed in blue as she got transcasted. Emil, Peter and Mary ran on the stage, grasping to catch her before she faded away.
“We’ll bring you back! Don’t worry!” was all that Emil could tell Evan before she disappeared completely. “We’ll bring you back. Don’t worry.” He repeated quietly as if trying to convince himself that was possible.
Everyone in the
room became agitated. The group of Earth’s representatives in the Galactic Committee raised their voices, expressing their thoughts, giving orders and commands, sharing opinions and their frustration all the same time. The scientists were having their discussion hidden in the control room their gestures seen through the opaque window.
Professor Wilderness pushed her phone into Emil’s hands.
“It’s for you,” she nodded towards the powdered wigs group.
“This is Emil,” Emil said.
“Is it necessary to be reminiscent? You must transport her back to us.” Emil heard the familiar hissing voice of the Chancellor as shouting at the other end of the line. “Your mission to repossess the person who could assist us destroying the pearls is not yet finished!”
The call ended abruptly.
Emil looked toward the balcony loggia and nodded in confirmation then he turned toward Peter and Mary and said, “Let’s gather the security footage and the environmental details before we leave. We have a lot of work to do.”
