"This is quite the privilege," said Paul. "A look behind the curtain. It may feel like we are breaking the illusion here-some of you probably forgot you were even inside a dome-but knowing what really makes the insides of this living facility work is the true magic."
I felt like there hadn"t been a single moment when I"d forgotten where I was. Maybe it was easier to accept Eden"s illusion if you"d always been here.
We watched the tiny cl.u.s.ter of wooden camp buildings shrink, getting lost among the treetops. The lake spread out away from us, sparkling, and in the distance I caught a brief glimpse of shining towers and gla.s.s, the EdenWest city, but then we were up into the first misty layer of SimClouds. You could see them being spun by little jets on the dome wall. I tried to keep my gaze out the window, but sometimes I had to stare at the floor. I"d never been up nearly this high in anything.
The elevator came to a stop and there was a series of clicks. The car stayed vertical, but shook slightly and began ascending at an angle, following the curve of the wall. I stumbled a little and brushed against Paige"s back. She turned around, her magenta-streaked ponytail flipping over her shoulder. She was chewing a thick piece of gum. It smelled like the Citrus Blast bug juice and combined with a soapy clean smell that always seemed to be around the Arctic Foxes. She was tall and glanced slightly downward at me.
"Sorry," I said immediately.
The two girls to her right were looking back at me, too. Pairs of eyes ringed by thick blue and lavender makeup.
Paige spoke in between chews. "It"s all right." She squinted at me, almost like she was trying to figure out what I was. "What happened to your neck, anyway?" She kind of scowled when she said it, like my wounds were a bad fashion choice.
"It"s from when I drowned," I said quietly, thinking that I shouldn"t feel embarra.s.sed but then feeling that way anyway.
She turned away. The three Foxes ducked together and conferred. The girl next to Paige, her black hair striped with glittery teal and held up in a swirl by two sticks, shot a glance back at me again with her thin, dark eyes.
More huddling, then they all cracked up. I looked around for a place to move, but we were packed tight.
The girls turned back around. Paige looked me up and down while talking to the others. "I don"t know...."
"What?" I asked.
"Mina thinks you have CP," said Paige, c.o.c.king her head at the girl beside her. Other Arctic Foxes cracked up now. She looked me over again. "I guess it"s possible possible...."
"Him?" Leech suddenly called from nearby. "That"s the Turtle!"
Paige whipped around to him. "You are so mean!" she snapped, but with a smile, and she punched him in the shoulder and then she and Leech were the center of the universe again, and I was alone in my slice of s.p.a.ce against the back wall, having no idea what Paige had meant.
"CP means "Cute PoTENtial,"" said Xane from nearby.
"Oh," I said.
"Lucky," he added.
Knowing what that meant only made my nerves hum faster. I felt my face starting to burn. What did you do if you had CP? Were there ways you were supposed to act? Things you had to start saying? Was I now expected to work my way up to "real" cute? It felt like another thing I had no idea about and I wondered if I"d been better off when I thought I was invisible to the Arctic Foxes.
A blinding light speared through the windows, making us all squint. We were pa.s.sing a bank of SafeSun lamps, ten enormous round bulbs. You could see the heat shimmering around them.
Above that, things got darker. The roof of the dome arced overhead, and now we could see the giant triangular panels and the crisscrossing girders. We were above the hazy atmosphere of the place. The ground was lost from sight. The light up here was pale and electric and almost reminded me of being back underground at Hub.
The elevator slowed and stopped. The doors slid open and we stepped out into a metal-floored room. To our right were clear doors. We had just filed out when a tiny tram arrived. We boarded, and the tram shot ahead. Out the front window, I could see the little track, suspended in a steel superstructure that hung down from the dome roof.
"EdenWest was completed in 2056," said Paul, extending his hand toward the window and sounding moderately bored. "It took fifteen years to build, a colossal effort, like we were the Egyptians building a pyramid. But, that"s what happens when you get enough people who want to save themselves"-Paul said this with more interest-"and a board of directors with a vision. vision."
"How big is the dome?" Noah asked.
"The base is six kilometers in diameter," said Paul. "It"s home to two hundred thousand people, not including those currently enrolled in our Existential Services program."
I wondered what this was. Then I heard Leech explaining it to Noah: "When you"re gonna die in Eden, you can opt to be frozen until we figure out how to cure diseases and live forever and stuff."
I thought about back at Hub, where everybody got cremated when they died. People either had their ashes donated to the struggling gardens, or scattered off the caldera rim by full moon.
I"d heard that in the Edens, and up north in the Habitable Zone, life expectancy was still in the nineties, if you were born there. Out at Hub, it was down near fifty-five, and that was higher than the worldwide average, which was closer to forty-five. Those numbers were partly because n.o.body could get advanced treatment for cancers, partly because of infant deaths due to malnourishment or the toxic plumes that hit the water supply now and then, but also because every ten years or so, one of the new resistant plagues would sweep through and shave off the old and young and weak. There were no Existential Services when the plagues came.
We sped past a series of hanging cranes moving a new triangular dome panel into place. "As you can see," Paul continued, his voice flattening out to a nearly sleep-inducing disinterest, "we are constantly upgrading the OzoneSim panels in response to atmospheric radiation levels."
I vaguely remembered my view from the lake bottom, of the roof panels having burn marks. All the panels around us up here looked spotless and white, free of damage. I wondered if what I"d seen had been some trick that the water had played on me. Or maybe they worked harder to keep this part of the dome looking good for visitors like us.
"My parents are worried about the dome integrity," said Sonja quietly.
"They make her wear one of those deflector helmets around town," added Paige, half laughing.
Sonja"s face got red.
Paul shook his head, his tone like a weary teacher"s. "All your parents need to do is follow our standard protocol based on the DI Index. There"s no reason to worry."
The tram kept speeding forward, then finally slowed down.
Ahead was the round Eagle Eye observatory. It hung down below the dome roof like the bottom half of a ball. Two rings of windows looked out over the whole of EdenWest. An enormous spiky antenna array extended down from beneath, its end brushing the tops of the SimClouds.
The doors whooshed open and we all filed out into a short hallway. "This," said Paul, "is where we monitor every aspect of the Eden experience."
Another set of doors opened to a wide, round room. There were three ringed levels, getting smaller and stepping down toward the center. Each level had banks of computer screens. Workers busied from one monitor to the next. It made me think of how I pictured the technicians inside me. Like EdenWest was a giant organism itself.
Paul looked over the bustling room. One of the workers stopped in front of us. She stood up straight and smiled big. "Oh, h.e.l.lo, Mr. Jacobsen, it"s nice to-"
Paul talked over her like he hadn"t even heard what she was saying. "Aaron Cane."
"Oh, sure, right. Um..." The worker turned and began scanning the room, hopping up on her toes.
"Here!" Aaron was standing among a group of workers, surveying a set of monitor screens. "Now, does everyone understand that this this is the readout for the humidity controls and is the readout for the humidity controls and this this is the meter for vapor control, not the other way around? I"d appreciate it if we had a long and happy life of me is the meter for vapor control, not the other way around? I"d appreciate it if we had a long and happy life of me not not having to remind you of that and you having to remind you of that and you not not s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g it up anymore. Got it?" s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g it up anymore. Got it?"
The workers around him mumbled in agreement.
"Good," Aaron said with a dramatic sigh. "Thank you." He stepped away from them and walked up the steps to us.
"Aaron, I told you the guests would be here now," said Paul. His tone was still ultra-calm, and yet there was maybe an annoyed edge to it.
"Right." Aaron looked at us, fixing his gla.s.ses and rubbing his hands through his short black hair before shoving them into his pockets. "How could I forget the lovely children? It"s not as if I spend every waking minute of my day ensuring the operation of an entire living habitat." I could see us all flinching at this, hating being called children, and also thrown off by the sarcasm, as if Aaron couldn"t have wanted less to do with us.
"Aaron," said Paul, like a parent lecturing a child, "please show the campers around."
"Right, okay." Aaron glanced about. "Let"s see, what could your half-formed brains comprehend... ? Actually, probably not much less than my capable staff here." Aaron said this just as two workers were walking by, maybe for exactly that reason. I saw them scowl to themselves once they were past him.
"Follow me, lemmings," said Aaron. He led us down a set of steps and around the first ring of workstations.
I heard whispering and saw some Arctic Foxes pointing excitedly at the seated workers we were now pa.s.sing. One was looking at a map of the entire complex, lit up with tiny green dots moving around. A close-up screen showed one of the mechanical b.u.t.terflies. The woman typed in a command, then slid her finger on a touch pad, moving the creature around. Small windows displayed wobbly, curved views: what the b.u.t.terflies were seeing. It made me wonder: were the b.u.t.terflies a form of surveillance?
Beside her was a man doing the same with hummingbirds, then a woman who seemed to be configuring bat wake-up times. A falcon, a trio of deer. All fake. And all possibly keeping watch. With that many cameras, there wouldn"t be much that could escape Eden"s eye.
"Over here," Aaron was saying up ahead, "is where we"re monitoring internal and external atmospheric conditions. You can see here, inside the dome it"s a comfy twenty-four degrees Celsius, and outside, a french frying thirty-eight. Humidity in here, sixty-eight percent; out there, nine percent."
I was half listening, but the itching had started up in my neck again. I tapped my knuckles against the bandages.
"From here," Aaron continued, "we control all the weather in the dome. Want to see it rain?"
"Totally," said Leech.
This idea seemed to actually excite Aaron. "Okay." He tapped at the monitor and slid a few bars up and down. He looked up and gestured with his chin. "Look out that window to the right, everyone...."
We did, and saw a dark gray cloud start to spin itself into existence off in the distance. It grew, up and out, and then a blur of rain began to appear beneath it.
"And there we go," said Aaron. "Just call me G.o.d."
"Can you do lightning?" asked Leech.
"How about making the moon come up?" asked Paige.
Aaron smiled. "Of course I can do all those things, even reverse the constellations, or make new ones-"
"And yet I think we wouldn"t want to alarm the people far below," said Paul from behind us.
Aaron"s face straightened back to normal. "Right." He moved his fingers, and the rain cloud began to feather apart and dissipate.
"You should show them this," Leech called, sounding like a know-it-all because of his previous visits. He had moved across the aisle and was pointing at another screen.
"Can you please"-Aaron rushed over and pushed Leech back from the consoles-"keep the greasy fingers off the equipment."
Leech stumbled back and I saw him look at Paul, like he was hoping Paul would say something in his defense, much like he"d bragged about so many times. But Paul was quiet. "Jeez, watch it," Leech mumbled, but it lacked his usual edge.
"Nothing broken or soiled," Aaron was saying, looking over the console. "Sure, I suppose everyone can see this."
We moved over and saw five camera views displayed. They showed panoramic views of the outside world, flicking from one angle to the next, always down the side of a dome. Labels beneath identified each Eden location.
"Wow, cool, a pyramid!" said Mike, pointing at the camera marked EdenEast. For a moment, we all saw the giant stone structure, perfectly pointed and immense, before the camera switched. Now, we could see a large statue like an animal sitting, though it was nowhere near the size of the pyramid.
"Guess we can"t expect any of you to know that"s the Great Pyramid at Giza," said Aaron. "And the Sphinx."
I actually knew what they were, but had no interest in telling Aaron that.
"What"s that?" Xane was pointing at the view in the EdenCentre camera. Far below, on the burned brown plains, stood a series of tall stones in a circle.
"That would be Stonehenge," said Aaron.
"It"s believed to be an ancient astronomical clock," added Paul.
"The other domes are near cooler stuff," said Jalen, like he was disappointed that EdenWest wasn"t.
"Yes," said Paul, "my counterparts in the other Edens have much nicer things to look at." I thought about how Paul had said there were Viking ruins near here. I figured he"d mention that, but he didn"t.
"What about this one?" Bunsen was pointing at the screen for EdenSouth. It was blank.
"Aaron," said Paul, "why don"t you show them something else."
"What happened to EdenSouth?" Noah asked.
Leech punched him in the shoulder. "Shut up."
"Ow, okay, fine."
"Yes, let"s go find something else to amuse you," said Aaron.
I had heard that EdenSouth was destroyed in an attack by the followers of Heliad-7. n.o.body knew much about them. There were rumors that they were some kind of sun-worshipping cult modeled after ancient religions.
"How about this?" Beaker asked. He was looking at the next bank of monitors. I was near the back of the group and could see what he saw. It was a circular grid of triangular s.p.a.ces. Most were colored green, many were yellow, and a few were red.
"That there, my young and curious friend... ," said Aaron, his teeth gritted as he darted over and slapped at the screen, making it go dark, "was not what I asked you to look at, was it?" He threw up his hands. "This is a workplace, not a nursery!"
"Sorry," Beaker mumbled.
A loud beeping sounded throughout the room.
"Mr. Cane," a young woman called from a nearby console. "We have another fail in arc segment fourteen."
Something boomed in the distance, and the entire Eye shuddered. Everyone stumbled, grabbing tables and railings for support. For a second I wondered if the Eye was going to drop free, and imagined us falling to our deaths, but the shaking subsided.
Another alarm began beeping. Aaron glanced at Paul. "You want to take them out?" he asked.
"They are old enough to know the true dangers that we face," said Paul, "and to see our response."
Aaron scowled. "Fine. Kill the alarms and bring it up!" he called.
A large video projection illuminated in the center of the room. We all saw the dome wall and a triangular panel that had caught fire. Black smoke billowed from it. Chunks were melting off and falling in little molten streaks.
"Okay, scramble air units," said Aaron, moving around us and tapping on a monitor. Screens flashed beneath his flying fingers.
"And now let"s open the arc fourteen emergency vent." A vibration shook the room again, and on the screen we saw a large, multipanel section of the dome slide completely open. The smoke immediately began to siphon out of it, up into the blinding real sky.
Meanwhile, two small helicopter-type vehicles were soaring toward the fire. They each had two short wings with propellers on the end. As they neared, the blades rotated to vertical, making the two-person craft hover. Streams of pink fire suppressant burst from their underbellies, coating the burning panel. The flames died out.
"Give me a heat reading on the surrounding panels," said Aaron.
"Stable," called out a nearby worker.
"Close vents," said Aaron. He stopped typing. "Deploy RadDefense to replace that tile." He turned and looked at us. "And that, children, is how it"s done."
Leech and Paige and a few others burst into applause.