2240 return to planet ea.., p.11
2240: Return to Planet Earth, page 11
I looked at her with frustration and said, “If he had this nano drive with him, it’s because he was going to share it with us. This means he had nothing to hide. You think power is the greatest weakness of humankind, but in your case it’s love. Out of love for your mother, you’re willing to risk everyone else in this world.”
Mia stared at me for a moment and then said firmly, “I love every single living thing in this world, and if this means I take risks to save us all, I’ll take them. I want to open this bunker to give everyone the same chance to live. If that makes me weak, then call me weak. The Blake I met at The Tower thought my way too. I just don’t know where that Blake went.”
After she pronounced those words, I realized her statement was true. I used to think like that a couple of days ago when I was in The Tower, protected from any harm. Now I was afraid, and I was still looking for approval and protection from my uncle before taking any actions. They were military and had been trained to take risks and save lives. I wasn’t.
Mia called for a vote again, and I saw everyone’s hands raising in the air in front of me. They would go and open the doors of the bunker even without my vote, but they were looking at me expectedly, so I said, “I…I’m sorry. You’re right. I don’t know where that Blake went. I guess it’s been locked in fear when all I knew to be true started crumbling. I vote yes, but I want to be down there when those doors open.”
Mia smiled at me without saying a word, but I could hear her in my head saying, “There’s the Blake I know.” I automatically smiled back, even if I was still a bit upset about her thinking I was a killer.
Everyone except Robert and Eliza walked back to the site. Robert was staying to check on my uncle and review his research, and Eliza still needed time to recover. We all took the same positions we had before the high-hypersonic plane had ambushed us that morning. I took my antimatter gun and melted the entry door to execute Mia’s plan. We walked down the concrete stairs to enter the decontamination chamber. There were old red medical suits hanging on one of the side walls. Right in front of us was a steel door with a wide glass window. Next to the door, a camara that seemed inactive was embedded in the concrete, protected by something that look like fiberglass. Melissa and Taylor quickly welded the door handle, to prevent anyone from coming out before we understood the condition of the bunker. I had the radio prepared to try to communicate with anyone possibly inside.
“Hello, do you copy? Is someone in this bunker?” I said several times with no response. Then I tried something different. “Is anyone here? It’s safe to walk the Earth now. We just have a few questions.” Nothing. Not even a sound.
“Blake, maybe your uncle’s right,” Melissa said.
“That’s not possible,” Mia said. “I know she’s here.” She started banging on the steel door. I got close to her to grab her hands. She resisted for a moment, but I was able to hold her tight.
“Mia, stop hurting yourself. It’s not your fault!” I said while watching Mia let a tear fall down her cheek.
“Blake, she’s gone. She’s truly gone.” I pulled her into a hug and held her close to me, so she would stop punching the steel door and hurting herself.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your precious love moment for the second time today,” Gabriela said, “but was that camera always on?” I stopped hugging Mia and quickly looked at the dead camara I saw when we entered. There was a small red dot on the side of the camara which wasn’t there when we entered. I grabbed the radio and said again, “Does someone copy? My name is Blake and we’re here to help.”
“If you want to help, why did you weld the door?” a mature female voice with a Spanish accent said through the radio.
Mia grabbed the radio out of my hands and said desperately, “Sorry. I really am sorry. We’re truly here to help. Who are you? Are you all alright? How many are you?”
“What we really want to know,” Gabriela said in a tired and uninterested tone, “is if there’s a mutated bacterium that produces acute radiation in this bunker, or if we can just open this door and get it over with?” Gabriela would frustrate anyone, but she was honest, loyal, funny, and a good friend.
“That is what you were told?” the woman asked.
“I’m sorry our friend here is so insensitive,” I said, “but yes, that’s what my uncle told us. He’s a researcher.”
“So if we have the mutated bacteria that produces intense radiation here, why aren’t we dead? Was that the reason the building above us was bombarded, and we were left without any communication with the world?” We were all silent. I was nervous and confused. Was my uncle wrong? Did he really commit an atrocity as everyone else thought he did?
As we didn’t provide any response, the woman said, “By the way, I am Maria Mendes, and we are 98 people here. Now that you’ve opened a hole in the asoros, I can get satellite internet, and I’ll get you our tracking data for the radiation in the bunker. I believe someone’s been lying to you, and based on the look in your faces I think you agree. Over and out.”
We walked up to the street level to talk with more privacy. “It’s so exhausting to not know who’s at fault here,” Melissa said. “Everyone seems to be telling the truth and I believe them all, but none of the stories ad up.” The reality was that we all had the same confusion in our heads.
“What if what everyone is saying is what they really believe is true?” I said. Everyone looked confused, so I continued. “Let’s put it this way. My uncle thinks there’s a mutated bacteria that produces intense radiation when there’s no sun, because he did research and that was the outcome. Down there they’re alive, so they don’t think there’s any radiation at all. Bottom line, either something went wrong with the test my uncle did or…”
“Someone altered the results,” Mia finished my line.
“Now, I like this theory,” Taylor said. “It makes more sense. Maybe Cora did something to the tests so it’d show that the bacteria could mutate into irradiating higher levels of radiation. Which, by the way, makes no sense. UV light would make anything more radioactive, not less.”
“That could all be possible,” Gabriela said, “but what’s to gain in all of this for the queen and the princess?” That question was a good one, but we didn’t have the answer to that yet.
We called Robert through holotime, so that he could explore any possible mistakes or alterations the sample could have had done to it during the research that could’ve led to erroneous results. We then received the information about the bacteria level in the bunker, which we also sent along to Robert for review.
We walked down the stairs again into the decontamination chamber to talk to Maria. Mia grabbed the radio and asked the question she had been waiting so long to ask: “Maria, you know I’m looking for my mother. I am Mia Bennet and her name is Beatrix Bennet. She was Space Force just like me, and she came to Galactic Mining Enterprises because she thought you could look for me in space. Is she here?”
There was sustained silence, and then the camara on the wall generated a hologram which seemed like Maria Mendes, a woman in her sixties with silver hair and brown wrinkled skin. “I recognized who most of you are when I saw you walking down those stairs. You were famous here. ‘Youngest crew in space disappeared in the belt.’ And you, kid, you’re Christina’s son, right?” How did she know my mom? I couldn’t even ask the question. I was speechless.
“And yes, Mia, your mother’s here. I’ll answer all the questions you have, but first you have to get us out of here. Also, be sure you have Sixfirix for your mother.” Her hologram quickly disappeared. Sixfirix is the medical cure for cancer. We have plenty of doses in the Tower and they’re easily manufactured, but you need essential raw materials they may not have had in the bunker.
“My mom has cancer? Can I talk to her?” Mia said, but no one answered.
I got closer to her and grabbed her hands, saying, “But you were right, they’re here. We’ll get all the answers we want soon. If she needs Sixfirix, we have plenty in The Tower.”
“Don’t worry, we have it in the spaceship too,” Gabriela said. “I’m thinking now that maybe my twin sister is down there too.”
“Oh my God, there’s two of you?” Taylor said.
CHAPTER XVI
MIA: THE 98
I was thrilled and anxious at the same time to know my mom was there, even if I still couldn’t talk to her. I knew she was there; I could feel it. If she had cancer, I would be able to cure her. I wanted to open those doors right away, because I knew deep inside that this ‘mutated virus’ was a charade to cover up something larger. However, I had a plan and I had to honor it. I couldn’t just open the doors and betray everyone, even if I was right. If I couldn’t stick to my own plan, I would lose their loyalty, and most importantly I would now lose Blake once and for all. For obvious reasons, he was still distant and upset, but he was slowly starting to forgive me. I knew he was struggling about pardoning me, but he was getting there.
Robert was under pressure, taking a long time to make a professional decision about the bacteria in the bunker and Harry’s research. He didn’t want to be doomed to be the one who fully brought humankind to extinction because there were mutated bacteria in the bunker and he didn’t catch it, but at the same time there were inconsistencies in Harry’s research. Taylor and Eliza were also helping him out, and I was just there as motivation. I was an aerospace engineer; I didn’t understand anything about biological elements producing radiation. Blake and Gabriela stayed at the bunker to wait for any other communication or status updates of the 98 in the bunker.
“I’m just not sure,” Robert said with desperation. “I can’t make a decision. It would all be so much easier if Harry would just wake up.”
“Or it would make it more complicated,” I said.
“Facts are facts,” Taylor said. “There seems to be an alteration in Harry’s research on lighting exposure that could significantly change the results. He wouldn’t be able to see this flaw unless he had looked at the bad logs…” He continued explaining but it was so technical, I didn’t understand a word of it, so I stopped him and asked to just summarize. He said, “Bottom line, we’re no experts—I think only Harry and Marcus would really know—but I think the samples were altered on purpose. Besides, those people are alive, and it’s hard to argue with that.”
“I scanned the bunker three times,” Robert said, “and there’s no alarming concentration of radiation. My data matches what this lady gave you.” They were implying that it was safe to open it, but the reality was that they didn’t want the responsibility to be in their hands.
I was about to take responsibility myself and open the doors, when Eliza analyzed the situation even further and asked, “Is there any chance Maria is telling you your mom is there just to get us to open the doors, regardless of the conditions inside the bunker? You haven’t been able to talk to her or see her.” She had a good point and I didn’t have an answer, but I now had a point to negotiate.
I went down to the bunker, took the radio, and said, “Maria, I want to believe you. Everything indicates that what you’re saying is right. But you need to give us more. You say you knew Blake’s mom and that my mom is there, but we need to know more to trust you. I need to talk to my mother.”
Her hologram appeared immediately in front of us and said, “You need more proof? How do I know you won’t just fly away and leave us here? We trusted someone already and they bombarded us.” There was a long pause and then she added, “Your mom’s in a cryosleep chamber. She’s been there for eight years. If we take her out, she needs Sixfirix injected in her blood in the next twenty-four hours, otherwise she dies.” She then showed a hologram of my mom in a cryosleep chamber. She was a few years older than when I left Earth and she had gained a couple of pounds too. Her cheeks were bigger, and they were red because of the low temperature of her body in the frozen chamber. She was there; Maria wasn’t lying.
“And for you, Blake,” she continued, “your mother was brave and honest, and that’s why she was killed. There, I guess now I’ve given you more information. There’s more to come with proof, but before that you need to open the doors for the 98.” She quickly disconnected the hologram.
“My mom was killed?” Blake said with not much surprise. He knew deep down that was the case, thus he added, “My mom died right around the same time this bunker was bombarded. Her boyfriend died around the same time as well. Now Mia almost gets killed in an identical way as my mother when she found this bunker. All the deaths look like accidents, and they’re all related to this bunker. I doubt this is because of an invisible radiation, otherwise they would be dead. Right?”
“Taylor thinks someone altered your uncle’s research,” I said, “and that the bacteria levels Maria gave us matched what Robert got from the radar.”
“Let’s open this freaking door,” Blake said. “I need to know what happened to my mother.”
He started kicking the steel door, and I stopped him by putting myself in front of it. “Why don’t you use your antimatter gun instead?” I said gently.
Blake adjusted his antimatter gun to destroy the steel door, while Taylor came from the ship bringing Sixfirix doses for my mother. We all stood behind Blake when he lifted his gun towards the door. He pulled the trigger and a white light inundated the decontamination room. We all covered our eyes and when the light dissipated, we all looked up again to see that the door and part of the concrete around it was gone. We hesitated, unsure if we should walk in or wait for someone, but everything cleared up when Maria appeared on the door a few minutes later followed by other inhabitants of the bunker. Sometimes holovideos can be deceiving; Maria looked shorter in real life.
“I knew you’d make the right choice,” she said. “We’re all really grateful. I guess we have lots to talk about. A promise is a promise.”
“Gabriela, help them out to the ship for any medical attention they need,” I said. “I need to look for my mother.” I said. Maria gave me the directions, but before going down I waited for all of them to walk out and see the sunlight. They were all ages and they looked happy, shaking hands and expressing their gratitude. They had been locked in here for twenty years without knowing if they would ever come out. When everyone had exited, I entered the bunker and ran to the location of the cryosleep chambers. My ribs were still hurting from the hydrogen explosion, but the goal of finding my mother was bigger than any pain.
I got to the room of cryosleep chambers. There were five and only one was occupied. My mother was in it. I pressed the button next the door, and I saw the ice melting inside slowly. The doors opened after thirty seconds and my mom walked out with the same difficulty breathing as anyone does who comes out of these kinds of chambers. She coughed several times and she was holding on to me to not fall. I could tell she was happy to see me; she just couldn’t express herself. I helped her sit down on a chair in the room while she recovered her breath. She looked weak and affected by the cancer.
“Mia, it’s you,” she said. You found me. How?” She hugged me very tightly.
“There’s so much we need to talk about,” I said while a happy tear ran down my face.
I heard a noise behind me by the door, and when I turned around, I saw Blake. “I…I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t want to interrupt anything. I just wanted to know if you need help with the injection.” I was so excited about seeing my mom that I had forgotten about the Sixfirix. Blake approached us to try help me out even if I honestly didn’t need any help.
“So, you know about my cancer,” Mom said. “What else do you know? What year is this? And who is this nice young man?” I injected the dose in her arm, one of six she would need to regenerate cells in her body and recover from cancer.
“It’s 2240 this is Blake…my friend,” I replied. “He lives in Los Angeles, Mom, just like we used to.” My mom knew me well, and knew that when I said “friend,” I was actually saying “it’s complicated and I kind of like him.”
“So, Blake, you must be from The Tower, then.”
“Yes, I am. Everyone seems to know who we are, but none of us in The Tower knew about this bunker until a few weeks back when Mia found it.”
“You were young, so it was probably hidden from you. But there’ll be time to talk about this. So now tell me, how did you two meet? What happened in space, Mia? How did you make it back to Earth?” We started telling her the whole story while we helped her out of the bunker. There was so much to talk about, but after so many years in the ground, she deserved to see the blue sky.
When she stepped out of the bunker, she looked at the sky mesmerized. It was around six in the early evening and the sun was setting, painting the sky with pink, orange and yellow. Even in the 23rd century, even if you could create any environment you wanted with your holotablet, knowing that what you’re looking is real is fulfilling. It doesn’t matter how good virtual reality is; contemplating the real sky and feeling the wind on your face makes you feel alive.
After the sun set, my mom came with us to the spaceship. Gabriela and Eliza welcomed my mother as if she was their own. It felt for a moment like all the threats were gone, and we were back just as a happy family again. Unfortunately, Gabriela had learned that day that her twin sister wasn’t in that bunker. My mother told her that Marianna went on a highly classified mission to Teengarden’s Star B, a possible habitable planet twelve light years away. Humans had never travelled so far yet, but it was one of the most promising planets to be habitable for humans. Project SURVIVE included that expedition, and none of us knew since it was highly classified and not recorded in the database at The Hills. My mother only knew because Marianna told her herself in an encrypted message right before leaving. Apparently, they had kept in contact since our disappearance in space, and had tried to find us together with no luck.
By then, Robert and Taylor had scanned everyone, confirming that no one had radiation sickness. We decided to have the much-needed conversation with my mother and Maria the next day, so to let everyone rest from the very long and complicated day we had had. My mom stayed with us in the ship while the rest of the 98 chose to go to a small smart building close by in the city. My mom and I talked as much as we could, until she was too tired and had to go to sleep. We talked about everything that had happened since I had opened my eyes in the space station: realizing that humankind was wiped out, learning Marcus was no longer my boyfriend, finding The Tower, meeting Blake, finding the bunker and almost getting killed in a flycar race. She shared all she had done to try to find me: talking to everyone in Space Force and the US government with no success, and eventually having to ally with Galactic Mining Enterprises, but then with the radioactivity starting before they ever could begin the search. We talked about everything except who and why they bombed their building. That conversation was planned for the day after.
