“Thiswill happen soon,” J continued. “We only have about two to three weeks.”
“That’swhy it’s important that the group leaves fairly soon,” said Mike.
“Iunderstand.”
“Ifyou do manage to get inside the facility,” said Mike after a moment’s break, “wewere also hoping that you can help us to access thecomputer system, in case it’s too advanced for us to understand.”
“Whatis your need for a computer system?” I asked.
Janswered my question. “Well, first of all, accessing information about… well,everything, would be really valuable to us. Until now, we only had the knowledgethat someone had remembered or worked with. Before cryo, knowledge wasavailable at our fingertips. We could find out things about health, medication,building, cooking—everything, really—by connecting to the Internet.We don’t have that information. And now is the time when we really need it.”
“Iunderstand. I myself do not have great expertise in the area of computer technology.However”—I lifted my arm, showing the E-band—“there is a highprobability that this interface will be able to connect to a computer once it isfully charged.”
“Thatsounds great!” J said and nodded to the other two.
Mikecontinued enthusiastically, “What we are also hoping to find is some informationthat will help us figure out how to power up our underground installation.”
“Youwant to go back and live underground?”
“Oh,for heaven’s sake, no!” Mike said and laughed. “But there is a wholeinfrastructure down there, like fridge rooms and heating stations… but it’s allout of juice.”
Juice?
“Batterypower,” J said, answering my unspoken question. I looked at J, his lips curlinginto a half smile.
Ilowered my gaze to the ground, distracted for a few moments.
“So,”I said, after I gathered my thoughts again, “if your installation has no moreelectricity, why then were your cryo-crèches still functional?”
“Well,we think that low power actually initiated the de-freeze process. When it wasclear that the crèche maintenance power was running out, the thaw program wasinitiated—and we woke up,” J explained.
“Iunderstand,” I said.
“Wewill have a rundown of the trip at Mike’s hut in two days’ time, an hour aftersunset,” said J. “Could you please come? Perhaps you can give us some valuablepointers even before we leave.”
“Iwill, of course, help you to the best of my abilities. But I cannot guaranteethe success of this expedition.”
“Weunderstand that, Dora,” J said, looking at me with an enigmatic glow in hiseyes. “But you are the best hope we’ve had in years.”
Chapter 9
Thatnight was full of dreams—dark, damp, suffocating—with broken harshvoices and hooded creatures. I woke up several times, each time cold andcovered in sweat. I greeted the morning with relief, a bright and fresh dawn asthe birds’ songs echoed in the trees above my cottage.
Withmy clothes sticking to my skin, it was obvious I needed one of those bathsagain. I smiled within, looking forward to it.
People should be in baths at leasthalf of their waking time.
Idecided to search for the pool myself. Tania had showed me the way, andalthough I hadn’t tracked it on my nano-map, I was confident I could retrace oursteps.
Itook the path across familiar bridges to the end of the village and climbeddown the tree. Thick, green ferns reaching up to my hips completely covered theground. As I walked, I kept brushing the ferns with my open hand, enjoying theirsoft and malleable leaves. Fifty steps into the forest, I slowed down, lookingaround. I started to wonder if I had taken the right way. The images I wasreceiving here did not correspond to the data saved by my optic nerve cam. Ifrowned.
“Andwhere are you off to?” a deep voice called out behind me.
Iturned around and saw J, holding some kind of tool in one hand and several beigetextile bags in the other.
“Iam going to have a bath,” I said, trying to maintain the Senthien tone in myvoice.
Hechuckled quietly. “Perhaps you’d like to take the opposite direction then? Thisis a path into the forest. It’s easy to get lost if you don’t know the way.”
Iturned, looking at the densely intricate flora ahead, and then turned back toJ. “All right. Could you then tell me which direction I should take?”
“Withpleasure.” He smiled broadly, his white teeth contrasting his tanned face.
Myeyes were glued on his features. Bronzed, slightly rough skin, lines at theouter corners of his eyes where his skin creased when he laughed, and the mostwonderful smile…
“Shallwe go?” J raised his eyebrows.
Ilooked back up into his eyes. “O—of course.”
Ipressed my lips together and looked away.
For the Moons of Senthia, Dora! Connect to your brain, this is humiliating…
Itried hard not to look at him as we walked back.
“Doyou know how to swim, Dora?”
“No.”I quickly glanced at his face and then looked back at the path.
“Okay,well, someone should be there with you. You know,” he said a bit more quietly,“so you don’t go under the water and—stay there. Ah…I could take you…”
Thenhe coughed once and said, “Shall I call for one of the girls to take you? Perhapsthat’s better.”
Hisvoice was low, and he sounded confused. I looked at him, trying to figure outthe sudden change in his tone, but he wasn’t looking at me. His gaze wasunfocused as he looked into the distance.
“Yes,J. I think this is advisable. I thank you.”
Henodded and continued walking. I was stealing glances at him, but stopped wheneverI saw him looking back. There was so much I wanted to know about him, but noneof the words actually came out. Here I was, the calm, collected and eloquentSenthien—and my tongue was tied. I frowned and bent my head lower to theground.
Wereached the tree I used to climb down.
“Letme get someone to take you, all right? And I guess you need a towel, too?”
“Yes,that would be helpful.”
Heclimbed up quickly, jumping over two or three climbing steps at a time. Iwatched him, dazzled, my eyes following the tight muscles working on his armsand legs, intertwining and stretching as he effortlessly ascended to the top ofthe
