Frank’s return message, my son and I concur that the procedure you described was proper. We will continue to test why this anomaly in the commissary occurred.
Paul opened the string attached to the word why and it read, Test successful. System ready for serious content. Hopefully, Frank passed my message to Albert. Our next objective would be to communicate an uncensored message to Earth, first one in a thousand years, if Earth Base remained accessible. And if the secret code could pass the censors one more time.
Paul suggested I compose my cover letter while he returned home to retrieve Marty’s binary formula from his daughter’s droid. He’d have her insert his coded message into my DNA. He assigned the conjunction and as the secret word using the system he and Frank devised, probably because teenage girls would use it often in their normal writing. I resented the insult. Rather than constructing a series of run-on sentences, I composed a poem to disguise the excessive use of the conjunction as necessary for meter and rhyme.
The adults considered my content frivolous, but were pleased with the twenty-four-hundred letter-spaces my twenty four ands gave them. They utilized the entire sequence of my DNA to explain in binary code the formula to decipher the hidden letters attached to a certain word. Once established, the system could be used repeatedly. My only opportunity left was to include a secret message through a scattering of literary allusions and metaphors.
Marty: I’m not sure what one can say that will be relevant a year from now, but here goes. I’ll start with my age, the same as yours when you receive this memo to spare you having to calculate it. I grew up in a world quite different from yours, yet I am sure we experience many of the same problems with parents, friends and changing bodies. I am a virgin and probably will remain so when you receive this message, but if all goes well, I will have a daughter by then.
Thank you for listing all your female ancestors. I am sorry I haven’t access to mine on this end. You will note how little our DNA structure has changed over the past millennium.
I wish to share a poem I created to honor some of your mothers and the daughters they bore.
Adam’s your madam and daughter was Seth,
And what husband and father be named?
Marty and Ariel the last to this time,
Seek husband and husband to further our line.
With daughter and son and possibly more,
Through Albert, my Caesar, and I of the Nile,
A proud Cleopatra attired in satin and gold.
Marty make proud, Phyllis and Luther,
If still aboard this life and possibly old.
Of Mohammad and Pope and Paul and Peter,
I’d like to know more.
And of Savior and Jesus,
The sounds of their names I truly adore.
Who is Mary and Joseph and Angel and David?
A litany of ancestors mothers of all.
Tell me as much as you can recall,
So I can no longer know nothing of them!
I relied on my sister’s cunning not only to understand the multi-levels of coded language, but also to keep private that which I intended for the two of us. Presumably, she’d pass Paul’s message to the proper authorities. During the two-year wait for her response, I’d write love/hate letters and have Sera post them to Albert Caesar, while I birth and nurture his child. I will scrutinize the data library for any residual references to religion. If God is as important to Earthlings as I suspected, the realm couldn’t have completely wiped out the concept. After all, it did allow Biblical stories of a Creator to entertain children. I will consider these stories and the narrative Marty sent me as factual and piece together whatever the data library has to offer.
Mother returned from her encounter at the Stork and plopped onto the sofa, Dad rushing to place a pillow behind her head and a hassock under her feet. Sera retreated to her closet and the lights throughout the house dimmed. Dad left the room, and from the kitchen, I heard ice cubes clink.
I asked, “What’s the condition of the Stork?” and whispered, “Albert’s sperm?”
“While I take a minute to gather my thoughts, go next door and tell Paul and Betty to come over. Sally and her droid too. We’re all in this together.”
Paul and Betty stood at the entryway as I opened our door. He said, “May we come in? I heard your mother return.”
“Yes, quickly. Sera will be recharging for less than an hour.”
Paul nodded and Betty appeared bewildered.
“Mother said to bring Sally and Clara.”
Betty said, “I would rather my granddaughter not be privy to information about the babies.” In a hushed tone, “She’s only six.”
Going on sixteen, I thought but didn’t argue.
Dad sat holding Mother’s hand and pointed toward the kitchen chairs he had set in front of the sofa. “Would either of you like a drink?” I knew immediately which of us three he’d excluded.
Paul said, “No thanks. Let’s hear what Martha learned first. Then Ariel and I have something to share.”
Mother gagged on an ice cube. “I prefer to start with that second part you mentioned.”
Silence, all eyes remained fixed on Mother.
She sighed. “The Stork’s laboratory has been replicated but not activated.”
Paul said, “I knew it. We’ll have to kiss ass, if the Realm had one, to make the damn thing work.”
Mother took a long sip. “That’s not the worst part. A crack developed in the shielding on the cryogenic sperm bank. There’s no way of knowing the amount of radiation they’ve been exposed to.”
Betty asked, “Will a genetic test be able to spot any DNA damage?”
“Not without thawing each specimen.”
“The last hope of ten emasculated men?” Dad had never expressed interest in additional children or admitted to an assault on his body as well as his ego.
I tried to recall the boys romping on the rooftop during the grand opening and visualized two toddlers. I faced my mother and whispered, “Albert’s…?” I sensed heads turn and eyes fix on me. “Albert is going through puberty.” I faked embarrassment and added, “Probably. I noticed facial hair the last time we met.” The direction of my curiosity changed. “Will he . . .?” I glanced around the group. “Be fixed?”
Mother said, “I don’t know what will be done to the boys on that side, but it doesn’t really matter. The incubator and its storage facilities are on this side. Those boys—there are three including Albert—won’t be able to contribute to the sperm bank for fifty years.”
Paul slammed his fist into the palm of his hand. “We must protect their bodies from mutilation.”
Dad asked, “Isn’t there a degree of safety in the Realm’s primary directive, human survival? To prevent reproduction would be a sure fire way to violate that ruling.”
Paul said, “Perhaps the Realm considers our demise a means of protecting that goal. We ten families had been selected because of our pioneer spirit and unique skills. Those same qualities might just threaten its primary purpose.”
Dad nodded. “It granted us special privileges like penthouses and permission to meet on a regular basis.”
Betty added, “The rest of the population probably appreciates our absence.”
Paul wagged a finger. “Frank! He’s the rat. The last to join us. The realm raised him to the fortieth floor to infiltrate our group.”
Dad said, “Well if that’s true, he too has been duped. He’s in the same boat as the rest of us.”
Mother added, “And about to lose his lineage.”
I said, “Albert needs to be warned not to cooperate, if he’s approached by droids for body alterations.”
“Yes, but how?” Dad asked.
“Through a message to his father,” I blurted. Time to redirect our discussion.
Paul said, “Ariel is correct and this leads into what she and I have to share. It’s a solution to a different situation, but it might help solve part of our present dile
mma.”
“Let’s hear it.” Mother glanced toward her empty glass.
“Frank and I developed a means of communicating covertly, and Ariel helped us test it this afternoon.”
“How so?” Betty glared at her husband. “You never even hinted at that capability.”
“It’s a system that he and that wizard kid of his worked out with the help of a droid he trusted.” Paul glanced around the group. “Implicitly trusted, he had stressed.” He continued, “We toyed with the system while troubleshooting back on Mission One, just to see if we could get it past the censors. Ariel convinced me to test it now that we are separated, and it worked. Our coded message wasn’t detected by the Realm.”
Betty asked, “How can you be so sure?”
He shrugged. “No clicks and pauses interrupting the information flow like when Realm bleeps words or thoughts it doesn’t like. Frank responded to my communiqué, encoding his approval to use the system for serious business.”
Father said, “Which would be to warn him of our predicament and to protect his son.”
“Will do, as soon as I get back to my computer.”
“And just how did you and my daughter become co-conspirators?” A mock-serious tone in Mother’s voice, and Betty hadn’t broken her continuous glare.
Paul said, “This afternoon when you ran off and left us alone, she twisted my arm to help her pass a love note to her boyfriend.”
I wanted to object to Paul’s cover story but couldn’t think of a better one.
“You risked exposing a critical tool for puppy love.” Betty upped her angst.
Paul glanced at me and winked. “You tell her.”
“I conceived the idea to test the system’s reliability with an unimportant message. By the way, it would hardly qualify as a love note. Through my research, I found some interesting facts about Rome that would interest Albert.” I chided, “It is my specialty.”
Paul said, “I may as well admit here and now; I explained our role in deciding Ariel’s tutorial.”
From Betty’s expression, he might just as well have confessed to having sex with me.
“Thank you for stopping that bit of dishonesty.” Dad’s eyes met mine. “I’m sorry, Honey.”
Mother’s pinched smile indicated some insight. “And just what did you offer Paul in return for this little favor?”
Paul said, “You better tell them. They’ll never believe me.”
“A possible breakthrough in communicating with Earth.” The lights in the room brightened and I whispered, “Please, no more discussion about it.” Sera appeared through my bedroom doorway.
Mother said, “Sera, come and join us. We were just discussing the problems at the incubator.”
ARIEL GORDON: JOURNAL ENTRY #8
SUNDAY, JULY 16, 3150
“Perhaps I should accompany you in case you need assistance,” Sera coaxed, as Mother and I prepared to depart for her lab.
“Let’s not chance your being sighted by some idle droid programmed to report anomalies.”
“I’m not exactly an anomaly,” Sera huffed.
“Until we decide on your status, it’s best to remain under cover.”
“Yesterday . . .”
“We were careless but lucky. Besides, you’ll probably be stuck in the lab for nine months at a time, if we can’t initiate the incubator.”
“Any tasks for me to perform while you’re away?”
Clean the bathroom. I had no cause to get haughty with Sera, so I bit my tongue and silently apologized in case she had her telepathic radar on. I reflected on the extent of my secrets and realized the futility of keeping anything from Sera, unless I remained focused and kept a safe distance from her.
Mother led me down the hall, past Paul and Betty’s apartment, and through the door to Paul’s office adjacent to the commissary. Workbenches along one wall displayed the ordinary tools any repair person might use, while media consoles and electronic gadgets and laboratory equipment occupied the opposite side. The range of demands placed on a single individual astounded me, and I wondered if Albert and his father had similar facilities.
Mother walked directly to Paul’s desk at the narrowing of the wedge-shaped room and gathered a metallic blanket draped over the back of his chair. “Paul said this might stop the radiation leak in the incubator room.” She stepped around the desk and opened a door to what looked like a cabinet. “Be careful, there aren’t any safety rails around the opening.”
As the area slowly illuminated, I found myself on a doughnut-shaped platform staring into the dark abyss of its central hole. Distant flashing lights and crackling noises punctuated the space. Mother waved her hand, and a transparent disk dropped from the ceiling and seated itself in the hole in the floor. She stepped on it and beckoned me to follow. It descended into an abyss amid a cacophony of gurgling, burping, and clanging. A pool of light followed us, and the sounds became muted as the disk sealed the opening to a lower chamber. Lightning-like flashes continued to emanate from below, inviting or daring us to descend to the heart and stomach of our habitat. It had no soul.
I yawned and compressed my palms against my ears to adjust to the increased atmospheric pressure, and my knees buckled from the increased gravity.
Mother grabbed my arm and said, “Sorry, I forgot to warn you.”
She flicked a switch illuminating a five-sided area with a flat floor on which we stood. The perimeter was honeycombed with rows of cup-sized compartments, their glass doors frosted from translucent to opaque. Across the group labeled MALE SPERM appeared an inch-wide crack with flashes of white light reflecting off the entire section. Mother unfurled the quilt and draped it over the gash, shiny side facing out. Compartments aligning the opposing wall labeled FEMALE EGGS snuggled amidst a mortar of ice that oozed out rendering the glass doors opaque.
I asked, “Can we be sure the refrigeration continued while the area wasn’t attended?”
“Absolute zero degree temperature of deep space behind the containers presents uninterrupted cold.” She opened a compartment and scratched away the frost that had obscured the name etched in glass. I was shocked to read Ariel Gordon.
“While I slept, you did this to me?” I imagined Sera violating my body, my mother assisting.
She said, “Not your egg but Albert’s sperm. Had I registered his donation, the medical droids would have been alerted to proceed with his sterilization.”
“How did Sera . . .?
“I just told her to move his semen to a more convenient place, while I glanced the other way.” Apparently, Mother didn’t share my level of curiosity.
I stared into the frosted glass and felt the reluctance of a bride on her wedding night. “You want to impregnate me now? What if I’m no longer ovulating? I’ll have to check with Sera.” I envied women on Earth who experienced periods on a regular schedule. I thought of Marty and wondered how and if she would ever opt to become a mother.
“Now is not the proper time for a variety of reasons. We will want to harvest a series of eggs as insurance in the event anything goes wrong with the pregnancy. No one knows how the female body will react to conception after a thousand-year gap.”
Ready to scream let’s do it the usual way, I considered my commitment to Albert. “How is the harvesting done?”
“One egg at a time when it ripens, but we can accelerate the process. Let’s set a goal to initiate your pregnancy within six months.”
“I’ll have a bit of news for Marty in my next letter.”
“Are you ready to tell me what you included in your first correspondence?”
I nodded. “Soon, but I still don’t want Sera to know.”
“Why the mistrust of your personal avatar?”
“She is much more than my plaything.” I paced the circumference of the lab, stopping to gaze at the male and then female side, my motive unclear until that very minute. The discovery washed over me like the ice spreading across the only part of Albert I might ever get to touch
. If I tell mother she will think I’m crazy. She’ll tell the conspirators. They’ll destroy the closest thing I’ve had as a friend. It doesn’t matter. Sera will detect my suspicion. Maybe Mother and I could entice her to introduce God into our world.
After a second trip around the lab, passing my awestruck mother twice, I paused at Albert’s gift to me. I craved to have a part of him inside my body immediately, yet I feared it. I glanced up at my mother who remained steadfast as a park statue, and I strolling along a path of Flowers? Trees? Ponds with gold fish? No! Radiated sperm and healthy frozen eggs.
I broke eye contact, my voice hoarse. I rasped, “Sera is our Realm on Mission Two.”
I made two more rounds through the ice park before collapsing into my mother’s outstretched arms.
Sera’s limp body slumped on our kitchen chair across from me. Paul had propped it there after Mother removed her program capsule and commanded the remaining droid to shut down. Seeing the lifeless body that had mimicked mine since we were toddlers unnerved me. I had an out-of-body experience, a premonition of my mother and father grieving over my lifeless body. Paul and Betty sat across from my parents, she casting suspicious glances at me and then at my look-alike avatar. Sally’s droid hadn’t been constructed to resemble her granddaughter.
Paul said, “I’m surprised you could deactivate her. Didn’t she object?”
Mother sighed. “She’s fully aware of our intentions, but I’m not so sure we comprehend her capabilities.”
Dad glanced around the room and said, “Unless Ariel’s presumption is wrong, Sera’s a dead Realm, yet our habitat still functions.”
LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME Page 8
