Ark-13: An Odyssey (9 page)

Log Entry # 9

“And then there were 500…” Cyrus Holder started his orientation speech the next day on the stage to the 500 colonists seated before him. The other Councilmen and I sat on the stage behind Cyrus.

“So how are we going to pull this off? First I would like to introduce you to your government. Each of the thirteen Arks have five councilmen and women who will serve a very important role for the society that is the Ark. These people will serve as the governing body of the Ark. So without further adieu, let me introduce the Assembly. Director of Resources – Andrew Langford. Chief Justice – Jake Hansen. Director of Personnel - Sophia Chen. Executor of Law – Jim Booker. Chairman of the Assembly – Sigh Pritcher.” We stood at the sound of each of our names.

“We launch tomorrow morning! We will board the Ark at 4 AM and each of you will enter your assigned pods in the Stacks. But before then we have a couple of business matters to go over. An armport will be implanted in each and every one of you.” Cyrus held up his arm, revealing his. “This is a monitoring device that will be able to give readings on your entire physiological make up. Why have these? Because if someone gets sick, we need to know and we also need to know to what extent. We will be breathing the same air for the unforeseeable future. A contagion in our isolated environment is tantamount to extinction. How do you use it?” Cyrus’s hand plunged into his pocket. He extracted from it a cord.

“This is what we call a holographic. Each of you will be issued one. It has over 200 gigabytes of RAM. You plug it in to anything around the Ark, including yourself, and you will be able to navigate a menu that allows you to do a host of things. You can watch movies on this, you can listen to music, you can check your vital signs, you can read a book, and you can even message another colonist. The list is endless. Along with the Ark, it will be GENESIS’s last and greatest invention…”

“After we are done here you can proceed through those double doors to the clinic where they will implant your armport. And don’t worry… it doesn’t hurt.” Cyrus took a long pause and shuffled his notes at the podium. I could see that Cyrus’s hand was trembling.

“I understand that there is a strange mixture of emotions brewing in each and every one of you now. You have learned that everything you see will be no more. You have had to keep this information from the world, from those you love most. You have had to part from your friends and families. Telling them that you were going out of town for two months to build houses in Haiti with our non-profit organization Alliance. But you knew you would not be coming back.” Cyrus adjusted himself.

“Let me share with you my story. Three years ago, my company GENESIS Enterprises discovered something. It was far off in the stars, heading our way. An asteroid that would bring Armageddon with it. At one point, I was one of four people who knew this information. At first we didn’t know what to do with the information. We could tell the government, which we did, but we knew they wouldn’t be able to do anything. The moment we learned that the world would end was the moment that nothing mattered anymore.” Cyrus sniffled and wiped his eyes, before they welled up.

“But I woke up the next day and realized that we, as humans, mattered now more than ever. I would have to build an Ark. Thirteen of them. We would have to perpetuate the human race. But why?” He looked over the colonists.

“Why do it? Even though we have no chance to survive here, what are the chances of us surviving out there? Ask yourself this one simple question. Why did you come?” He steadied a long gaze over the colonists.

“Because the strongest force in humans is self-preservation. Surviving is what we do. Humanity was created here, but it won’t die here. We…Will...Live…On…” And then Jim Booker, seated next to me began clapping. At first he was alone and then another joined and another and then the entire hangar was applauding.

⊶
<
>
⊷

I stood in line with Jim Booker and Meredith Jones. We were beginning to get to know each other, sharing pleasantries and speculating about what the Ark would be like. Meredith seemed shaken yet strong through it all, while Jim came across as excited to get it underway.

I remember seeing Andrew walking by toward his cot.

“Hey Andrew!” Jim shouted. Andrew turned to us in line. “Aren’t you going to get your armport?”

Andrew smiled and rolled his sleeve up revealing his.

“Got it yesterday. And Cyrus was lying, it hurts like you wouldn’t believe!” We all laughed, trying to adapt to the surroundings and the people as best as we could.

“So what did you guys think?” I asked Jim and Meredith, nodding toward the stage where Cyrus spoke.

“He’s our Savior what can I say…” Jim beamed in admiration.

“I don’t know… something is a little off with him. I got a bad feeling about this.”

“Well, is it the end of the world?” I asked Meredith with the casual platitude.

“Yes… in fact it is…”

⊶
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>
⊷

I was sitting in the chair next to Meredith as a lady in a white lab coat with a GENESIS logo patch rolled our sleeves up. She fastened a tourniquet around my bicep and waited for my veins to bulge. I remember looking over to Meredith and smiling at her.

She smiled back. It was a vulnerable smile, one that would stay with me. I had just lost everything and although I was still adjusting to it all, I found warmth in her presence.

“You know he was wrong.” Meredith spoke up as the GENESIS employee smacked my forearm.

“Who?”

“Cyrus was wrong… he said the most powerful force in human beings is self-preservation.”

“Oh yeah… what else would it be?”

“Love,” she said, plainly. What she said struck me and I remember seeing a wedding band around her finger.

“But you’re married…and you are leaving him behind to save yourself...” The GENESIS scientist brandished a large device with a trigger.

“I don’t love him…” she said correcting me with a flirtatious smile.

“I guess people come to grips with their true feelings when the end is near.”

“Amen to that.” Then the GENESIS scientist lowered the shot to my arm and pulled the trigger. A searing pain lodged through my forearm and ran all the way from shoulder to wrist. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move as my entire arm ran with a stabbing tingle. She pulled the device away and there left in my arm was the circular armport.

I remember staring at it for a long while in that chair. And that was the moment I began to share in Meredith’s fear. It was the first time I had ever felt branded in my life –like cattle being led to the slaughter.

“What the hell is going on?!” Jim Booker huffed from the door. Lucy popped out of the back room with a tray of prescriptions on cue, as Jake stayed in the back room and powered down his holographic.

“Jim, I don’t think you should be here… Coop is still recovering,” Lucy spoke kindly but direct.

“I’m not going anywhere until he is thrown in the Pen!” His voice elevated to a yell, which brought Jake out from the back room.

“Woah, woah, woah Jim… everything’s fine,” Jake tried to ease him into a calm.

“What are you doing here?!” The question had a subtle accusation laced within it. Jake and Jim’s eyes connected in a silent moment, one of deep seeded mistrust.

“I was collecting Nurse Lucy’s statement from the events that happened at Eclipse tonight.” The explanation appeared sensible enough to Jim, appropriately blocking his accusation.

“I can tell you what happened. He was drunk and came after me for no reason at all!” Jim continued still hot and untethered.

“I will collect your statement as well. We’ll bring it to a verdict vote at the Assembly and I’m afraid you will be unable to vote as you are a prosecuting party in this instance. In fact, I was asking Nurse Lucy here if she wouldn’t mind acting as a proxy in your stead, as she was close to the incident—”

“This is ridiculous! We don’t need to vote on jack! He assaulted me and as Chief Executor—”

For the first time, Jake raised his voice.

“As Chief Justice of this Ark, I feel the need to remind you that every colonist is due a fair and just trial before the Assembly. Innocent until proven guilty, Mr. Booker!” A fire raged behind Jake’s eyes as he squared his shoulders to Jim as if he could charge at any second.

Then Lucy interrupted the standoff.

“I don’t care what happened. I care about one thing – him getting better. And if I’m going to be honest with both of you – you are raising the blood pressure in the room—”

“This is Assembly business, Lucy,
you
wouldn’t understand—” Jim fired back with as much indignation as he could, but not before Jake grabbed his shirt and pinned him up against the Sick Bay wall. An assortment of medications fell off a nearby tray as Jim’s back impacted the wall. Jake gritted his teeth and eyed him furiously.

“Shut up, Jim! She’s doing her job!” Jake ordered through his clenched jaw. He was only a few inches away from his face as his control teetered on the brink.

“So am I…” Jim responded back, calmly.

At this moment Sigh Pritcher entered the Sick Bay and immediately noticed the ensuing altercation. His sights froze on Jake who was still pinning Jim against the wall with as much fury as he had, yet somehow still in control.

“Well, looks like our government is about as dysfunctional as it was back on earth…” Jake released his grip on Jim’s shirt. Jim dusted himself and straightened his shirt, moving on in the conversation but not forgetting the odd reaction from Jake. Sigh’s eyes fell to Coop, concerned for his fellow colonist.

“How’s he doing?” Sigh asked through an exhale.

“He’ll be fine. But he needs space!” Lucy adjusted Coop’s pillow and reeled back at Jim with a direct order.

Coop interrupted the exchange by shifting awake. Lucy came to his bedside, plugged her holographic into his armport and started to navigate his overwritten vitals as if interested in certain metrics.

“Well hello, beautiful…” Coop smiled up at his nurse.

“Hey there, Coop,” Lucy smiled back and put her hand on his cheek. “How ya feelin’?”

“Fine… it’s just…” Coop winced in pain and brought his hand up to his chest. “My heart is racing.”

“What are you doing here?!” Coop mustered up his tone as his eyes met Jim.

“Just trying to figure out why you randomly assaulted me!”

“Because you’re an asshole…” Coop bit back. Lucy couldn’t help but choke on a muted chuckle.

“Something strange is going on here…” Booker’s nose twitched as if he was sniffing out their rebellion.

“You are right…” Jake spoke up, addressing the room. “Something strange
is
going on here… our planet has been destroyed!”

“That’s not what I mean! Something is up. I can feel it. Rebellion is stirring…” Jim suggested to everyone’s disquiet.

“What? What do you mean?” Jake asked with his best poker face.

“I don’t know but something strange is going on…”

“There is no rebellion, Jim… come on… we should give him space,” Sigh began to herd Jake and Jim out of the Sick Bay. Jim would not turn, though.

“Want to see something strange?” Jim asked, to which Sigh stopped. Jim nodded toward Coop’s vitals. “He said his heart is racing… but his vitals say his heart rate is only 98 beats per minute. How do you explain that?”

Jim arched his eyebrows as if concluding his prosecution. Many silent moments passed as the accusation settled and each person processed its implications. Coop laid silent and guilt slowly began to seep into his expression. Jake’s eyes darted to Lucy with a slight panic behind them. Lucy broke the silence.

“Yeah, I know his vitals are all off… probably because the shock from the electrostaffs short circuited his body monitor!”

They breathed a sigh of relief at finding the logic in her thesis. But Jim Booker remained skeptical as he brought a finger to his chin, thinking through the possibilities.

“I just think it’s…
strange
…” Jim turned on his own accord and slowly left the Sick Bay leaving the others to ponder.

Log Entry # 10

I remember my last night on Earth. The sunset was beautiful over the Gulf of Alaska. It was a swirling portrait of reds and oranges across the sky, as if it was one last encore performance before the end. I was sitting outside of the hangar under a tree by myself, so I had time to do some thinking.

Cyrus Holder was walking my way.

“Hello there…” He called to me as he approached.

“Hey Mr. Holder.” He helped himself to a seat next to me against the tree.

“Gonna miss it?” he asked, as if we were old friends catching up.

“Yeah… I mean, this planet was pretty amazing when you look at it that way. We can breathe air. We can drink water.”

“How are you doing?” he asked.

“Can I tell ya something?”

“Sure…”

“Before you walked up, I was saying my first prayer in probably ten years. I don’t even know if God exists,” I admitted

“Oh well, that’s normal,” Cyrus shrugged.

“What do you mean?”

“Have you looked at what the world has become lately? It started with cyber space and then came the nanos and here we are now with holographics and armports in our arms. People are suspended between humanity and technology. The lines are blurred so the question has become where does one end and the other begin? The problem is that line is so blurred now that no one knows what is real anymore…”

I took a moment to digest his words.

“So it is natural for you to try to make that critical distinction as you bid farewell to humanity as you know it. What are we really losing here?” I remember thinking of my family.

“Do you think there is an afterlife?” I had to ask him.

“It’s human nature to believe that our soul will go on after this life. It’s part of self preservation. That instinct is so strong in us that we have to ask the question, ‘what’s next?’”

I wasn’t expecting him to get preachy about it.

“What’s even more interesting is that if asking that question is in fact a naturally occurring phenomenon from within us, it indicates one of two things.”

“And what’s that?”

“That either our nature is lying to us, or it knows somehow beyond our brain’s capacity that an afterlife does in fact exist. As for me… I am a scientist. I have to see it to believe it and I soon will.” I sat up from the tree at hearing this and looked over at him with disbelief.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not going…” Cyrus said very matter-of-factly. “I am staying right here. In fact I will probably watch the end of the world from this very tree.” Again, I could tell he was as serious as a heart attack.

“The cancer?” I looked down, saddened for the man.

“Stage three… pancreatic… somehow all the tabloids got it right. I’ll be dead in a year anyway.” He gulped down with great difficulty and continued. “Everyone is asking what is going to happen to the company, they never stopped to ask what is going to happen to the world…”

“But you did.” I raised my hand to his shoulder, offering as much comfort as possible.

“I did… I was always looking out to the stars for what is next. And then I found the Pale Horse. It was my responsibility to build the Arks. My resources, my intelligence and my team. I had to do it because I was the only one who could.” He exhaled a long, troubled sigh. “But I have so many things to answer for. And I figured it’s about time that I did…”

He patted me on the back and walked back to the Hangar.

Cyrus’s words struck me to the core. I was never a religious person by any means. I wasn’t raised going to church at all. I had been a couple of times to Catholic mass with my grandmother, but no one really taught me anything. What I heard about the Church was mostly bad, but of course I heard it from the news and everything sounded bad when coming from the news.

It’s just odd.

My whole life I had thought the whole Jesus Christ thing was a story that weird people wearing Birkenstocks and creepy smiles told. I was not the guy to hold your hand and sing ‘Kumbaya’, I’d much rather listen to Coltrane and drink a six pack of beer. But as I sat there under the tree, I was praying. To what? To whom? I don’t really know. I guess people on Earth would call it God, so for prosperity’s sake I will too.

Maybe that makes me a victim to some massive conspiracy that people call religion and faith. Maybe I’ve gone crazy. Maybe I’m desperate. That all could be true. But I can say one thing, though. In that moment, when I was looking out to the Gulf at the last sunset I would ever see, knowing that everything would soon be annihilated and that my friends were gone and that my family was gone. In that moment prayer was the only thing I had.