The Roke Discovery Page 2

  “Probably spam.” The alerts were often just adverts. Still, the droid doggedly followed her, rolling back and forth on the counter as she busied herself in her kitchenette.

  Taking a bottle of SeaCrest water out of the cold unit, Olie drank deeply. She then closed the unit door and commanded her hydrator to prepare dinner. Her small living room consisted of a faux leather loveseat and coffee table, and as she stood before the floor-to-ceiling window she could just make out the skyscrapers of the distant city. She still remembered the stories her father told of thick smog sitting on the tallest structures when he was a boy and forest fires that raged on for days. The air was clean now—or cleaner without so many fossil fuels—but the days just kept getting hotter.

  Olie turned and took a seat on the couch. “Is there anything about the explosion at SeaCrest on the adnews?”

  She knew that there was. She’d seen journalists and their mini-drones at work before she’d left, but her telesphere was so old and finicky that it responded better to questions than directives.

  The sphere again began to spin and presented her with a report on the blast. A woman’s voice relayed little more than the information Olie had been able to glean on the ground. Still, she couldn’t stop thinking about what that wounded employee had said.

  “An… animal.”

  Wildlife sightings were extremely rare, and even more so in industrial zones. Endangered species were the norm, and it was highly unlikely that an animal would have found its way out of a protection zone and into the plant. And even then, how could it have caused the explosion?

  Images of billowing smoke were appearing on the sphere before her. Despite reassurances from the executives being interviewed, her line of work was in fact dangerous. She’d heard of a SeaCrest employee who’d drowned in the desalination tank, another crushed by a runaway vice hauler. Nothing like either of those incidents had happened in the time Olie had been employed with the desalination group. But she’d been with SeaCrest for less than a year—just since returning from Mars. Still, after today she was already starting to ask herself whether she really wanted to work at SeaCrest through another cycle.

  The telesphere switched to a camera outside her front door. In the image a muscular young man with bleached hair had just started knocking. What was Jayson doing here?

  Olie had met Jayson Belsey on Mars where they served at the same ground station. After a whirlwind romance spanning from Mars to Earth, their relationship had come to a sudden end once Olie began discussing returning to space. And now he was at her front door.

  “Open,” Olie said, rising to greet her unexpected ex.

  As Olie’s door opened, she could see Jayson grinning from the doorframe, revealing a couple liters of Hard20 that he held. Flavorless and calorie-free with high ABV, it got the job done.

  “What, don’t you answer your calls anymore?” he said as he walked past her and into the room. It was that unabashed confidence that had grabbed Olie’s attention when she first met Jayson. As much as she used to love it, it could also get old.

  Olie glanced down at her wrist. There were a couple of missed vid calls on her band. “I silence it on my commute so I can focus on driving. You know that, Jay.”

  “That self-drive mod is going to get you killed one day,” Jayson muttered as he cracked open a tube of alcoholic water and sat down on the faux leather chair. Jayson pointed at the report on the telesphere. “I was worried.” he said, taking a slug from the tube.

  “Well you don’t need to be. I can take care of myself.”

  “That’s the understatement of the century,” said Jayson with a smile. “But still, I worry.” He offered her a tube of her own.

  “Thanks.” She reached out and took a sip, closing her eyes as the refreshing burn worked its way down her throat.

  “I thought you might need that,” he replied.

  “Yeah,” said Olie. “As far as long days go, this was one of the longest. I – uh… I still can’t really believe what happened.”

  Jayson shook his head and drank in silence. They had spent enough time together that Jayson knew when to talk and when to stay quiet.

  “I’m surprised Mona let you out long enough to come and see me.”

  Jayson began to laugh but it caught in his throat. “You know she doesn’t mind.”

  “Are you sure?” said Olie, attempting to be playful and failing.

  “Absolutely certain.”

  “I don’t know. She might be the jealous type.”

  Jayson shook his head. “She really bothers you, doesn’t she?”

  Olie shrugged. “She’s fine.”

  “And helpful.”

  “I’m sure she is.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing. Just that I bet she’s very helpful to you.”

  An awkward silence filled the room, broken only by the sound of Jayson’s shifting.

  “You know, I think every piece of tech here was invented before the 22nd century,” he said, looking around the room.

  “So? I like old things.”

  “Olie, this is a total Luddite pad you have here.”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “Is it?”

  “I want to live on the fucking moon! Or at least be based there. Does that sound Luddite to you?”

  Jayson winced at the comment.

  “What?”

  “What’s so wrong with Earth?” he asked quietly.

  “A lot of things: corruption, overpopulation, famine… I don’t really want to talk about this again.”

  “Yeah, okay, me neither” said Jayson. “All I know is that one tour on Mars was enough for me.”

  “Well, there’s more out there than just Mars, you know.”

  “Neptune?” asked Jayson.

  “Yeah, maybe.” She took another sip of the Hard20. “Why are you worried? You’ll have Mona to take care of you.”

  “I don’t need someone to take care of me, Olie.”

  “Well, when you do, I know Mona can do it.”

  Olie stood up just as Jayson leaned back with his drink in his hand. The telesphere obscured his view of Olie, so he asked it to descend to the coffee table.

  “Speaking of capabilities, we’re getting pretty close to perfecting our mods,” Jayson said, attempting to shift the conversation towards his research.

  Olie didn’t bite. She didn’t feel like talking about plants for an hour.

  Ignoring Jayson, she stood up and walked to the kitchen. “Are you hungry?” she asked.

  “Sure, I could eat.”

  Olie turned to the hydrator and issued a command, then looked over at a frowning Jayson in the living room. Dammit, now she felt bad.

  “Which one?”

  “Which what?”

  “Which mod?” said Olie.

  “Oh, well, I think we can stave off tuber rot now.” Jayson loved talking about his plants. “The variety we’re introducing are resistant to the fungi that pops up under increased temperatures. We could grow these in Africa. The fucking Sahara. French fries in the desert, Ol.”

  Olie returned to the living room with two trays of food. “You’d think that would already be possible.”

  Accepting his tray, Jayson said, “It hasn’t been hot enough here in the U.S. to necessitate funding the research. It’s always us first, the rest of the planet later. And never until we absolutely have to.”

  Olie took a bite of chicken substitute. “And sometimes not until after.”

  “Yeah, well, we could be eating a lot more real food again very soon.”

  Covering her mouth, Olie said, “I used to eat real food from time to time.”

  “I know. With your Dad,” Jayson chewed.

  Olie nodded. Growing up, she and her sister had loved going hunting with their dad.

  “Good luck finding any deer now. Outside of the preserves there’s not enough forest for them.”

  “Do you think we’ll ever get them back?”

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nbsp; “They have the DNA of most animals in banks. Once the environment can sustain them, they’ll clone them. Like I always say, plants come first! But you’ll never see it if you run off to the moon.”

  “Or if I go beyond the moon, I might find a planet that’s still alive. One that doesn’t need to be rehabilitated. I could even eat food that wasn’t cloned or made in a lab. Even you’d move for that.”

  A pause. Jayson seemed to be thinking hard about something.

  “You’re right,” he said, finishing off the Hard20. “I think I would.”

  “See?” said Olie as she punched him playfully on the shoulder. “There are still things we can agree on.”

  Chapter Three

  Olie was determined not to let the previous days’ events prevent her from her morning exercise routine. Following the chaotic scene at the plant, Olie had been unsure if she’d even have work for the rest of the week, but her line manager had sent her an audio message late in the night saying they needed all hands on deck today.

  As Olie stepped up to her exercise machine, it extended a pair of arms to allow for shoulder presses before shifting them down to bench position at the end of her set. Olie performed several reps of the bench press and commanded the machine to increase the weight for her final few. Starting the day with physical training was also one of the habits from her Mars days that she still enjoyed. Wiping sweat from her brow, Olie bent down and pressed a button to tighten her sneakers for her morning jog. It was brisk out—or at least as brisk as things got those days—and Olie pulled her thin hood up over her head as she began jogging down a brown dirt path toward the coast. Her short black hair was tied back as she cut along the path, the breeze whipping through her hooded sweatshirt.

  Olie’s long, lithe frame darted easily down her favorite running trail. Before long she was running along a ridge that overlooked the Pacific Ocean, a favorite part of her run. The waves were crashing on a rehabilitated beach below, and the sun was beginning to rise in the east. A light haze hung over the horizon, and Olie took deep breaths of the cool air.

  The trail had once been covered by lush forest, most of which had long been reduced to cinder. Most of the stumps and limbs that were still visible were blackened or ash-colored, although occasionally she’d encounter a lone tree that had been left standing despite the rampaging fire, or a young sapling struggling through the devastated forest floor. These stood ominously like silhouettes in the early morning light, and Olie leapt over fallen logs and traversed switchbacks on the path until she was moving across brown sand and smooth pebbles.

  As she rounded the bend that brought her from them trail to the beach, she saw something in the distance rolling around in the sand. Curious, she began to approach the strange, rolling object. It was an animal—uncommon enough in its own right—but stranger still it didn’t appear to be spooked by her presence. In fact, it hardly seemed to be noticing her at all. It looked like some kind of starfish, except that it was rolling along on its arms as if doing cartwheels. Olie crept along cautiously, not wanting to startle the animal.

  “Hey little guy. What’re you?”

  The moment she spoke, the creature darted erratically across the sand and then curled into a ball, tucking itself inward like a hedgehog or armadillo. Olie stopped and put her hands on her knees as she bent over to take a closer look. A light from her band shone down on the animal, which was just smaller than her fist.

  “C’mon. I won’t bite.”

  The creature began to cautiously open—only to close again swiftly upon seeing the bright light. Olie took a step closer and tapped the band on her forearm, which prompted an image of the creature to appear on her band. She punched the screen a couple of times, then whispered: “Search, um, land… starfish. Landfish? Whatever’s in this photo.”

  The search returned nothing. Olie furrowed her brow and tried again, but still no match. NOVA was supposed to be a comprehensive collection of human knowledge. What was this?

  Unfurling, the creature now seemed less afraid and more curious about his running companion. He inched closer, rolling back any time Olie moved too quickly. Against her better judgement, she reached out toward him very, very slowly. The animal remained still. Olie then stroked what appeared to be his brown fur, interrupted by a single white-furred stripe running down his middle. He received her petting only for a moment before darting away. She’d never seen anything like him before. He was emitting short bursts of air along with his slight movements back and forth in the sand.

  “Are you scared? Don’t worry, I’m nothing to be afraid of.”

  She took a step closer and reached down to touch him again. This time he didn’t move. Olie slowly placed her hand around him before grasping him firmly and picking him up.

  The creature was hefty—much heavier than she thought he should be, considering his size. With the creature now resting in her palm, Olie shone her flashlight on him once more. He spread his small arms, revealing one beady eye and an orifice that appeared to be a mouth. How long had it been since she’d last seen an animal, let alone touched one? For a moment she forgot about NOVA and simply marveled at the animal.

  Before long, though, the potential significance of the encounter returned to her. Olie couldn’t remember a time where NOVA had been unable to access information on a subject. Could there be a bug in the search? Olie tapped impatiently on her band, wondering whether she’d need to run a systems analysis when she returned home. Staring down at the animal, she knew that she needed to take him with her. If NOVA couldn’t help her, she’d have to hold on to the little guy until someone could.

  “We’ve got to know more about you. Sorry, guy, but you’re coming home with me.”

  The light went off and the creature balled up again, just the right size for Olie’s pocket. Turning around, she began jogging back home, this time with a purpose to her step.

  Once she was back in her apartment, Olie placed the animal in a shoebox-sized plastic container emptied of chicken substitute. She then set the container on her kitchen surface beside the tall windows that overlooked the sea and pulled some leftovers out of the cold unit along with a small cup of water.

  Olie paused to look down at the cup. Her thoughts returned to the beach where she’d just met the little creature. “Wait, do you even like fresh water?”

  Turning around, she decided to fill up a bowl with table salt and water and set it in the corner of the box along with some leftover dehydrated tofu. The container was getting crowded, but at least now she had her bases covered in case the animal needed to submerge in salt water or eat.

  With the apartment’s system at her disposal and not just her band, Olie used the screen built inside the kitchen table to search for any relevant information. She enlarged the photograph she’d taken with her bodysuit and ran another search. Maybe she’d had poor service.

  Still nothing.

  Hearing a ding, Olie rose to take a brewed cup of coffee out of her espresso mixer before returning to the table with a clear mug. The coffee steamed beside her as she reached into the plastic container and cautiously stroked the animal’s fur. It was completely dry, and Olie marveled at how soft it was. Emboldened by the animal’s calm, she picked him up and stroked what she believed was his back.

  The creature slowly opened in Olie’s palm. In the morning light streaming into her apartment, she was able to see what appeared to be tiny teeth inside the orifice at the center of his belly and a layer of feathers beneath the downy fur. A singular eye, which seemed to be fixed open, was just above that orifice. Reaching for a leg, Olie gasped and quickly recoiled when the animal contracted back into a sphere.

  “It’s okay, buddy. It’s just me.”

  The animal responded with a quick puff of air. The emission jettisoned the creature out of her grasp, and Olie had to use both hands to keep it from falling to the floor. The gas was odorless and seemed to emanate from where the five legs converged.

  “Come on, open up. It’s okay.”
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br />   The little creature stretched one appendage up and out, and Olie noticed that he seemed to be sniffing the air. There was another, smaller orifice like a snout at the tip of this arm. This nostril was also glistening. Olie reached out to touch the forelimb, but it recoiled again before she could investigate more closely.

  After taking a deep breath, Olie placed the creature back in the empty food packaging. She stood over him for a time with her hands on her hips. He was a strange creature, but Olie thought there must be someone who would know something about him. Maybe Jayson? But that was its own can of worms. Especially if it meant meeting two nights in a row.

  Whatever he was, he would have to wait. People needed water, and the desalination plant was the best way to do it. Plus, she was running late already.

  Chapter Four

  Olie noticed the police drones and their flashing lights well in advance of the security gates at the plant. Once inside the parking garage, she parked her bike and hurried toward the desalination center with a new sense of dread. Had there been another accident? After the blast the day before, she was already a little uncertain of what to expect. The facility hadn’t shut down, and the demand for water was so high that employees were still expected to report to work despite potential hazards.

  As Olie walked toward the facility, she saw that the main building was locked and a crowd of SeaCrest employees had gathered outside, an angry buzz surrounding the group. Olie moved quickly among them, searching for a fellow technician or even a supervisor. Instead she ran into Dim.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I work here, last I checked,” Dim replied, absentmindedly rubbing his red beard.

  “Even after that?” Olie gestured to Dim’s injured leg.

  “Can’t waste the sick time,” said Dim with a shrug. “And I’ve got it better than that guy you found beside line 9. Newton. He died, Olie.”

  “He died?” She’d hardly known him, but the knowledge punched her in the gut. Was she the last person he spoke to? Who was he leaving behind?