Authors: S D Taylor
“Are they listening to us now?” Gaby looked around without trying to be too obvious.
“I am sure they have the ability to listen in if they want to. I suspect that the nanobots they put inside us have little microphones in them or whatever their version of a listening device would be. But I don’t know. We need to get out and about so we can talk more freely. We may be less noticeable when we are in a crowd.”
Erin’s stomach rumbled softly. “Let’s get going as soon as Peter gets back. Whatever food they have, I need some.”
The three of them got up and walked slowly to the open end of the courtyard, the opposite from where they had been sitting. Erin decided they were heading east. There was a ramp that dropped at a steep degree angle to the ground below. There was a single stairway in the center that led down the steeply sloping ramp. Stretching out from the compound were open fields that led to the foothills about a mile away. There were some trees growing on the foothills and the mountains in the distance, but Erin imagined that in her time these hills would have been covered with a thick blanket of evergreens.
“What about the air? Dara warned us about it and said we might need to wear masks until we had adapted to it.” Erin looked back to see if Peter was back.
“I think the nanobots running around inside us have taken care of it. They must put some drug or mineral supplement in our systems that correct for the atmosphere. We should be ok. Let me know if you start to feel bad. I found a mask in my room and I assume you guys have them as well but I haven’t had any problems since the first day.” Doug was ready to go as Peter came walking up to the group.
“I didn’t notice the mask, but I didn’t spend much time in my room.” Wearing one of the dark blue jumpsuits, Peter was judged as presentable and they all headed down the stairway to the field below. It was covered with a lush green grass that was uniformly about two inches high. Erin wondered if they mowed it or just engineered it to stop growing at that height.
They could see the power towers far to the north, stretching skyward to an unbelievable height. Doug wondered how long it had taken to build them and who came up with the idea. They walked in silence for a few minutes, staring around at this unfamiliar world and unsure whether to be interested or terrified.
“Any idea where we are going to eat?” Erin had caught up with Doug and took him by the arm.
“I’ve been over here a couple of times since I arrived. There is a fish place that isn’t bad. It’s called ‘Fishtara.’ It seems that the science of marketing hasn’t evolved too far in the last three hundred years. At least it isn’t called ‘Fishateria.’”
Erin laughed as they walked along. “The way you said that, it almost feels like we are on some demented vacation trip and you are the tour guide.”
Doug smiled cynically at that thought. “I guess you could view it that way. But it seems like the vacation to hell. No matter how many small tastes of freedom they give us, we are still very much their prisoners. But for now, let’s just have lunch and forget about our troubles for a little while.”
Chapter 29
They followed Doug up the trail to the top of the hill where the restaurant was located. It featured a panoramic view of the city and the harbor in the distance. Like all the buildings in Selenton, the one that housed the Fishtara restaurant featured flowing curves and a shiny exterior surface that disguised the many windows that offered the customers a spectacular view. Doug explained that the food was pretty good but there was a limited selection. Actually no selection since there was only a single item offered each day. Upon entering the restaurant, scanners registered your presence and you were automatically billed for your meal as you picked it up from the serving counter on a lightweight metal tray. Seating was completely open with many different sizes of tables and chairs at different levels of the restaurant dining area.
Splashes of bright colors filled the room and formed geometric designs that covered the floor, tables, and chairs and retained their shape even when things were moved. Erin took her chair, which was part of a large blue triangle and moved it into the adjoining orange circle and it immediately adjusted to the new color scheme of its location. As it crossed the border of the two colors it was momentarily two colors. She wondered if the nanobots they made them swallow had the ability to turn humans different colors as well.
The four of them found a pentagon-shaped table on the top level that offered a good view of the city to the south and the ocean to the west. Peter smiled as he sat down and contemplated digging in with his spife utensil. “It is good to eat at a restaurant again, even if this one is a little strange.”
Erin stared at the bowls of food that sat on the table in front of her. There were three bowls for each person, one with small square pieces of cooked salmon, a second bowl with a mixture of seaweed, asparagus and broccoli and a third one with an oatmeal-like substance that she hoped tasted better than it looked. There was a glass of a thin green liquid as well, but Erin had limited expectations for what it might taste like. It looked like something from a health food store that was supposed to be good for you.
Gaby tried the oatmeal-like substance first, showing a certain bravery that impressed Doug. “It has a strong cinnamon flavor and is not very sweet. I like it, but it is hard to tell if it is meant to be a dessert or a side dish.”
Doug ate with zeal as he continued to enjoy restaurant meals after a nearly twenty year hiatus. Erin smiled at his enthusiasm as she tried the salmon. It had some spices she wasn’t familiar with but it was good. At least the food in this strange world was reasonable and one less thing they had to worry about. But she knew she would have to get over her craving for a cheeseburger.
“You chose this place so we could watch when the ships come and go from the command center, didn’t you.” Peter stared at Doug as he said it quietly.
Doug said nothing, but nodded slightly and gave Peter a brief smile.
Erin strained to identify the various types of vessels in the harbor below. Dara’s boat was distinctive due to the hover vehicle pad located just behind the bridge. There were several of them at the Yir-Lak compound dock and it would be an important piece of intelligence if they could determine the sailing schedule and average length of time each boat was away from the base.
Erin looked at Doug and smiled. “How many variations of this meal do they offer? Have you been here every day since you arrived?”
“Not every day. But I have managed to cover the past seven. They don’t always have salmon. The halibut is excellent. They don’t usually serve the cinnamon oatmeal. That is a new one in my experience. I just hope I can afford to keep coming here since it is such a great lookout point. The Yir-Lak boats seem to depart between 1pm and 3pm. Arrivals are in the late morning. Maybe we can work it in shifts and see what we can observe.”
Gaby leaned forward. “Peter and I could eat lunch early. You and Erin could eat later. Would that work?”
“Actually, I was hoping you and Peter could cover the observations for a week. I wanted to test the amount of freedom they are going to give us and I want Erin to come with me.” Erin looked at him with surprise at this suggestion. It would provide a perfect opportunity for her to tell him about Jelk’s plan that they visit Lopfa. But she couldn’t say anything verbally and Jelk said not to mention it to Peter and Gaby.
“Where are we going? Do you think it is wise to spilt up?” Erin rapidly tried to process the idea of leaving with this older version of Doug and leaving Peter and Gaby behind. But Peter didn’t have any reservations about the new plan. “Good idea, Doug. We can cover more ground if we split up. We can also see if we receive the same treatment from the authorities if we try some different things.”
Erin turned to Doug. “What if we discover some way to get home and we need to act immediately. How can we communicate with each other? I wouldn’t want to leave anyone behind. Unless they wanted to be left behind.”
Doug shot her a quick, intense glance but then turned quickly to Peter. “Erin is right. We need some way to check in with each other. Think about it and we can discuss it later.” Doug held his finger to his lip in a brief gesture that could have been interpreted as wiping his mouth. Peter nodded and instinctively looked around in subtle ways. It occurred to him that they may have said too much until he realized that Doug was probably telling whoever was listening exactly what he wanted them to overhear. It was “game on” in Peter’s view.
Erin polished off the last of her salmon and realized that she was the last one eating. “Sorry to take so long. I was spending too much time analyzing what I was eating.”
Doug reached over and squeezed her arm. “No problem. I was just checking out the rest of the crowd. I seem to be getting some attention from the other diners, especially the kids. With the population control policies, you don’t see many people over forty. Certainly not much gray hair. I know there are lots of people here who want to ask me how I survived so long. Just by being here I am planting a few doubts. If anyone can survive as long as I have, there must be some way for them to get past their thirty-sixth birthday as well. It seems like our best chance to find some help around here is to find somebody who isn’t thrilled about dying at age thirty-six.”
Erin glanced around the restaurant. The family groups. The young couples. The groups of friends. “You would probably find that everyone here wants to live beyond thirty-six. The challenge is finding anyone who would admit it.” Erin stared at Doug so intently that he was about to say something when she winked at him. He turned quickly and said something to Peter but squeezed her hand under the table. She grasped his hand and turned it over, spelling out the word “Jelk” on his hand with her finger. He didn’t look at her but turned over her hand and spelled out the word “Lopfa” and a question mark. Erin squeezed his hand. He then spelled out the word “Dara” on her hand. She wasn’t chewing anything at the time, but she suddenly seemed to choke on something. Peter handed her the glass of green liquid and it seemed to help. Erin thought it tasted like an unsweetened lime mocha. She decided that she shouldn’t think about Dara while eating.
After their meal, Erin, Peter, Gaby and Doug made their way back towards the Yir-Lak compound where they were “staying.” After their most satisfying meal in two weeks, they were suddenly quiet as they contemplated what lay ahead. When they arrived back at the courtyard, the light was gradually declining, a reminder of how far north they were. Doug and Erin sat down at one of the tables as Peter and Gaby continued on towards their rooms. “See you tomorrow.” Peter turned as Erin said that and nodded. “Tomorrow.” Gaby reached back and took his hand.
Doug pulled out a chair for Erin but before she sat down he said quietly, “want to go for a walk before it gets dark?”
She looked up in surprise and held his glance for a minute. He didn’t say anything but she had an idea of what he wanted to talk about. But they had to find a way to communicate without being heard or seen by the monitors. Neither of them knew how it was done, but they were certain that any verbal communication could be tracked. Since she didn’t have Jelk’s ability with telepathy, she wondered what Doug had in mind. But she couldn’t ask. “Sure, let’s get a little more exercise and work off that big dinner.”
Doug smiled at her B movie acting speech and she couldn’t help but laugh when she saw the look on his face. Being with this older version of Doug was equal parts comforting and strange. It was definitely the Doug she had come to know, but with enough subtle changes to make her sense how much history had taken place in his life and his relationship with her older version. She felt like she had skipped through volumes two through six of a seven part series. The characters had grown and changed, but she could only infer how that had happened or why or even what the result was. What did this Doug think about the Erin he had spent all those years with? Was their relationship still about passion and constant discovery, or was it more like a comfortable set of slippers that you love to wear but can do without if you misplace them under the sofa? From her chat with the older Erin, she was pretty sure they had kept the passion alive through everything.
Doug saw her looking at him and sensed her conflicted feelings. “Don’t go falling in love with me. My heart belongs to someone else. And I am counting the seconds until I can be back with her, holding her in my arms.” He smiled as he said it and it completely disarmed Erin. She felt tears in her eyes as she hugged him.
“She’s a lucky woman, Doug. I hope the day comes soon when you guys are back together.”
Doug held her for a couple of seconds and then quietly said, “Let’s get going.”
Erin nodded and they headed back to the trail they had taken back from the restaurant. But this time, they headed to the north. The trail headed through the open fields until it gradually descended towards the water where it turned east. The lush grass gradually thinned out near the water and was replaced by periodic tufts of grass and bushes separated by bare, dry ground. They walked in silence, looking at the high mountains to the north and east that were sparsely covered with pine trees. Next to a patch of open ground, Doug glanced around and then headed a little ways off the trail and sat down on the bare ground, motioning for Erin to do the same.