Assoon as he disappeared above the platform, I had a moment to think about myincoherent behavior.
Is it because I’d seen him in myVisions? Because I feel like I know him and yet I don’t?
Or is it only because he’s a Humanand I can finally observe one up close?
Iwas lost in my thoughts and couldn’t seem to find a rational answer to any ofmy questions.
ThenI heard the sounds of two people walking on the wooden bridge that connectedTania’s hut to the climbing tree platform. J and Tania were talking, but theirvoices were so quiet I couldn’t hear anything. I gave a command to my tympanic audioenhancers to boost the volume.
“…were tempted, weren’t you?” I heard the ending of Tania’ssentence as she started climbing down.
“Tania,seriously, you’re being ridiculous!” J said with a defensive tone in his voice.
“AmI?” Tania’s voice was so quiet that J, still standing on the platform, couldn’thave heard it, but I could see in her smile and the tone of her voice that shewas having fun for reasons unclear to me.
Shestepped on the ground, a thick beige towel over her shoulder.
“Goodmorning, Dora! You should have fetched me. Why did you go by yourself?”
Iwatched J while answering Tania, “You already guidedme to this bath area. I assumed I would be able to find the way myself thistime.” My eyes were fixed on J swiftly climbing down the tree. There wassomething…primal in the smoothness of his movements. I kept looking.
“Shallwe go, or do you want to stay a bit and enjoy the view?” she said.
Iquickly looked at her. Her head was tilted sideways and she had a crooked smileon her face.
“What?No! We can go.” And I dashed off in front of her.
“Ah,you’re both such pearls,” Tania said quietly.
“Whatpearls? What are you talking about?” I heard J’s voice call out to Tania as he reachedthe ground.
“Nevermind…never mind,” she said, laughing, and followed me. “Bye, J! See you later.”
Thepath we now took looked a lot more familiar, and although I felt embarrassed tohave to be guided again, I was happy Tania was here.
“Dora,could I please ask you to tell me or J, or anyone else you feel comfortablewith, if you’re going somewhere? It’s not at all that we don’t think you coulddo it, but… there are so many new and different things for you here that you’renot aware of yet. And also some dangers, like drowning.”
Shelifted her arm as if about to touch my shoulder, then dropped it down again,remembering the IP space.
“Justfor a little while longer until you get used to everything here, okay?” shecontinued.
“Yes,Tania. I am in agreement with you.”
“Stevanionis in the same condition as yesterday,” she said after a few moments.
Inodded. That was good. My Vision had shown Stevanion getting sick. Perhaps whatit didn’t show me was Stevanion getting better again.
Andif that was the case, that would mean that… that I wouldn’t need to takeStevanion back to Uni. I could stay here, on Earth, hidden from the Zlathars.
Andstay where J is.
Iwould like that.
Iwould very much like that.
Taniaand I walked in silence for several passes while I juggled my thoughts. Iwanted to know more about J, but I was afraid to ask so bluntly. So I askedanother question that I’d had on my mind ever since I met Old Earth Humans.
“Tania?”
“Yes?”
“Ihave an inquiry about a certain aspect of your previous lives.”
“Inquiry…?”She looked at me, her eyebrows raised. Something in her expression told methere might have been a better way to ask the question.
“Iwas wondering about cryo-preservation.”
“Yes?”
“Whydid the people do it? Why did you doit?”
Herface saddened. “I guess it’s an obvious question to ask…Well,people had very different reasons to go into hibernation. Some of them were simplycurious to see how the world would look in one hundred years. Some were hopingfor a cure for an illness. Some tried to escape from a tragedy they experiencedin their life.”
Shesmiled emptily with sad thoughts crossing her face. “I was one of those.”
Aftera few moments of silence, she continued, “My husband died.”
“Yourhusband? I thought Peter is your husband.”
“Yes,you’re right. Peter is my husband. Well, second husband. Before cryo, I wasmarried to Harry. He was a scientist—a molecular biologist. He worked on…I’m not even sure, some kind of neural-computing… something like that. His labwas at the University of Neurotechnology and Innovation.”
Hergaze was absent, as if she was seeing something far away. “At any rate, therewas an accident, an explosion in the laboratory, and… the whole team died.” Sheshook her head slowly, deep in her thoughts.
Shewas silent for a few passes. I let her take her time, avoiding her eyes, waitinguntil she was ready to continue again.
“Hisproject,” she said at last, “was apparently cuttingedge, new frontier and all that. No one else ever managed to reach the levelthey had.”
Therewas an instant blank veil around my mind, and I realized I was about to see a Visionin real time. Then, abruptly, it stopped.
Nothingelse came.
Suddenly,I realized what I needed to ask. “Do you know the status of the project at thetime of the accident?”
Shewas a bit surprised by my interrogating tone but answered nevertheless. “I’mnot really sure… he wasn’t supposed to talk about it at all. It was top secret.He did say, though, that they managed to include parts of the neural chips in areal computer, but… officially I wasn’t supposed to know that either.”
Allof a sudden, a dim light blurred my sight, like a fog blinding me from theimages of reality, and the Vision scene appeared in front of me in full force.
A large room.
Eight matte-glass desks arrangedin two rows.
Above each desk, shelves full of glass bottles,reagents, and kits.
Two walls with old-looking automation systems, bluelight below the machines indicating they were operational.
The next moment, the explosion starts in slow motion.
Volatile fire bubbles, bursting in several places inthe room at the same time, then expanding with enormous speed to the rest ofthe room, breaking windows, walls, floors, ceiling…
TheVision was gone. I was kneeling on the ground, my gaze empty.
Did I just see the past?
“Dora,are you all right?” Tania was now crouching next to me, touching my shoulder.
“Yes,Tania. I am
