The Lonely Whelk (5 page)

“
During the alien asteroid
stream, we also lost power in Corridors 3, 5, and 7. Those were
coffin rooms. We lost a lot of good people. I am sorry. We held a
service and taped it – watch video log 11137.

“
Currently we are three
weeks out from the planet. My instructions were to wake you at two
weeks, but I am afraid I will die first, and I am the last one.
Jacobs died last night.

Hawkings moved out of the view of the camera
to show a still body lying on the floor behind him.

“
We’re in the secondary
pilot chamber and I can’t move him.”

Holland let out a gasp. It was too much. Her
emotions were overriding her logic and it felt as though a giant
weight had settled on her shoulders.

“
Anyway, I’m coming to wake
you up, now. I hope I can stay alive long enough to actually talk
to you. I have missed you so much, little sister. Whatever happens,
I want you to know that I love you and am so proud of you. Keep it
up, Holland, and good luck.”

Holland collapsed into tears and sobbed
herself into a temporary and debatably-needed sleep.

Maxwell reached downtown much sooner than
anticipated. He sat down on a bench to watch the people go by.

“
Look at them all,” he
said to Maddy. “They have no idea what’s about to happen – no idea
at all.”

“
You can’t see the future
either,” Maddy said.

“
I am still different,
though. I have a special ability to, not see the future exactly,
but to understand it.”

Maddy nodded. “That makes sense. You are an
amazing person!”

A broad smile crossed his features. “I knew
you would understand,” he whispered. “You always do.”

A street vendor walked by selling morning
donuts.

“
Excuse me, sir,” Maxwell
called.

“
Hello, there,” the vendor
replied.

“
I would like two of those,
one for me and one for my beautiful friend, here.” He gestured to
the air behind him.

“
Of course, Mr. Dippings.”
The vendor nodded politely to Maxwell and then said, “Looking
lovely today, Ms. Maddy.”

Maxwell beamed, and paid for the two donuts.
“You have a nice day now!”

He offered a donut to the beautiful woman
walking beside him.

“
I think since we are
early,” Maxwell said, waving to the vendor and walking down the
sidewalk, “perhaps we shall go look for the key before our meeting.
This will save time later on.”

“
It is on the way,” Maddy
replied.

“
You’re right! It is on the
way, so it makes sense anyway.”

This part of town was largely filled with
shops. Yofstek’s Slumgum and the Boollery Toy Store were two of his
favourites, and he tipped his hat to the curators of William
Oliphant, bookseller, and Pete’s Clocks.

“
Maybe we can stop by the
new candy store on our way home, Maddy, if it’s not too late,” he
said. Maddy loved candy.

Slowly, the quaint shops turned into brick
and metal office buildings and corporate headquarters. He led Maddy
right up to The Globe.

“
Welcome to the Globe,
Maddy!” he said. “The most famous building on the
planet!”

“
It’s so tall!” she
exclaimed.

He followed the sidewalk towards the main
entrance, but veered off through the grass towards the gardens
which surrounded the building. “These gardens are always so nice
and well-kept,” he said. “Although, I feel that the money might be
better spent on housing for the poor.”

Tall bushes rose up around him as he stepped
into the garden. Brightly coloured flowers lined the path, and
small and large statues hid among the foliage.

“
John always hides his key
in a different place,” he continued, walking towards the fountain
in the main part of the garden, “but usually there is always one in
a fountain somewhere.”

The main fountain hosted a sculpture of a
giant man holding a well-placed pitcher. On his head he wore a
hedgehog. Maxwell began to feel along the edge of the pool, looking
for the loose stone that housed the key. Maddy stayed back to keep
watch.

“
Excuse me,” a man said,
stepping out from behind the man and the hedgehog.

Maddy shrieked.

Maxwell gasped. “What were you doing hiding
behind that there statue? Now you’ve startled Maddy!”

“
Who is Maddy?”

Maxwell frowned and turned towards her.
“Don’t be rude! She’s standing right here!”

“
I see.” The man raised one
eyebrow.

“
What do you want?” Maxwell
asked haughtily.

“
Well, my name is Rock and
I am head of security here at the Globe. I noticed that you appear
to be looking for something. Can I help you?”

“
Oh, probably not.” Maxwell
swallowed and looked back and forth from the fountain to the Globe
building. He couldn’t give away his plan, not when he was so close.
“I seem to have lost my… my…” His eyes lit on the statue. “…my
hedgehog.”

“
Oh really.” Rock gestured
towards the nearby fountain. “Does your hedgehog habitually hide in
fountains?”

“
Oh, ha ha,” Maxwell
pretended to laugh. “Hedgehogs are funny creatures, aren’t they?
Aren’t they, Maddy?”

Maddy nodded. “Yes, they are!”

He turned back to the security guard and
gave his head a definitive nod. “See? Maddy agrees.”

Rock frowned slightly in Maddy’s direction.
“Well, I don’t mean to be rude, but this is government property.
You either need to be an employee, or signed in as a visitor. If
you sign in with our front desk then I will be glad to help you
look for your lost… hedgehog… myself.”

“
Oh, no, no, it’s no
problem. He’s probably run home!” Maxwell said. He could feel
himself getting agitated and anxious. All of this lying was hard
work. “Hedgehogs are sneaky little creatures. I will just be going
then, won’t I? Since I don’t see him here. Maddy, come
along.”

“
Well, okay then,” Rock
said. “Next time he runs away, just come sign in at the desk and
you can look for him all you want.”

“
Thank you, sir,” Maxwell
said, and, grabbing Maddy’s hand, walked rapidly out of the
gardens.

Kaia followed John around the corridors of
the Globe, watching him stomp and mutter as he passed different
rooms. Occasionally a scientist would stop him to ask a question or
make a suggestion, and John would give a cursory nod or a
long-winded reply, depending on his interest in the subject.

One man stopped and looked at Kaia for a
moment.

“
She’s fine,” John said,
before the man launched into some explanation about rocket
fuel.

After he left, she asked, “Am I allowed to
know everything that goes on around here?” She was surprised that
no one felt the need to whisper about their projects or was
concerned that a stranger was listening in.

“
No, but you have pretty
high clearance,” John replied. “You’re working in the Door Room,
and it’s nearly impossible to control everything that comes through
the Doors. As a result, anyone that works in there has to be able
to keep a secret.”

“
What’s the biggest secret
I’m allowed to know about?” Kaia asked, curious.

John pursed his lips for a second. “Probably
the Whelk.”

“
The one that landed on
Septimar?”

“
Yes.”

“
Oh.” Kaia frowned. “I know
all about that already.”

“
No, you know what they
tell you,” John answered, still striding forward at a rapid pace.
“You don’t actually know what you think you know.”

“
So what’s the secret?” she
asked.

“
We will discuss that in
time,” he replied, “but for right now, I have work to
do!”

They rounded a corner in the hall, and John
abruptly stopped in front of a doorway. He turned to Kaia.

“
I have to teach, because I
am a teacher.”

Kaia nodded. “What would you like me to
do?”

“
Sit in on the class, of
course!” He straightened his tie and buttoned his jacket. “You
don’t need to always sit in on classes, as you mostly know
everything I will be teaching, but I may ask you to some days. This
is one of those days. It will happen more often in the beginning,
while you’re still meeting people and getting the lay of the land.
I think you’ll enjoy it, though. I’m an excellent
teacher.”

Kaia grinned. She had seen some of his
public lectures at different universities and also on television.
He was an excellent speaker and both entertaining and
informative.

She followed John into a classroom where six
students sat, chatting quietly. The room was large, round, and
painted like a cold, rocky beach. Strange-looking iridescent bulbs
swung from the ceiling, creating an unusual atmosphere.

“
Who can tell me what a
Door is?” John asked, striding to the center of the room as the
students fell quiet.

Kaia slipped into a seat in the back of the
room, as one of the other students muttered to himself, “Seriously,
does he think we’re dumb?” She turned and frowned at him.

“
Stewart.” John pointed at
another student who held his hand in the air.

“
A Door is an
inter-dimensional object which allows matter to traverse great
lengths of space with only a very small amount of energy,” he
stated clearly.

“
Thank you,” said John,
“for providing us with the textbook definition. But the textbook
definition doesn’t apply here. We are working with a scientific
phenomenon, the likes of which have never been seen before. I’d
like you all to meet Kaia, our newest intern.” All the students in
the class turned to look at her. “Kaia, please tell us: what is a
Door?”

“
Well…” she said slowly,
thinking carefully, “a Door is literally a door, except that rather
than allowing your physical body to move from one space to another
in close proximity, it allows you to move from one room to another
room which may be zero or hundreds or billions of miles away. It’s
like a bridge over huge oceans of space.”

“
A bridge – perfect. A Door
is a bridge!” John turned and drew a picture of a bridge on his
teaching tab. It appeared on the wall behind him. “So a bridge
takes you from one side of a river or a gorge or a chasm to the
other, correct?” His eyebrows began dancing around his forehead.
Kaia stared at them, fascinated.

“
But what if—”

The student who had muttered to himself when
Kaia came in, interrupted John in a very straightforward manner:
“Mr. John. The Doors are so different than anything we’ve ever seen
before – scientifically speaking – in a new science, hypotheticals
just don’t make sense.”

John frowned. Kaia decided that she didn’t
like it when John frowned. The expression didn’t quite seem to fit
on his face.

“
First of all, Boris,” John
began. His voice sounded harsh; it almost had a metallic ring.
“Doors have been around for longer than this planet has been
colonized. It is not a ‘new science.’ While the government spreads
the propaganda that Door travel is illegal and unsafe, here we are
traveling through Doors every single day without harm. In fact,
there are Doors all over this planet in people’s homes, basements,
freezers – and they know about them. And
we
know about them.
It’s not rare, it’s not new.

“
Secondly, you should
always apply hypotheticals to science — old or new! How are we
supposed to ever think of new things if we never allow ourselves to
think outside the box? There are many ways to think outside the
box, and hypotheticals are one very useful method that nearly
everyone can follow.”

John stopped talking and stared at
Boris.

Boris shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He
didn’t meet John’s eyes.

Kaia raised her hand. “So, if we know so
much about them, what is left to hypothesize?”

“
Excellent question,” John
replied, removing his glare from Boris and turning a smile towards
Kaia. “And the answer is, apparently, a lot.”

He turned and looked at the bridge. “As I
was saying, a bridge takes you from one side of the river to the
other. But what if the bridge took you from one side of the river
to three other sides of the river? Or three different places on the
river?”

Kaia frowned. “You mean like it splits in
the middle once you go through?”

“
Exactly!” John
straightened his tie with an unconscious gesture. “It splits!
You’ve all seen those massive highway systems that the people on
Earth like to build, right? Giant concrete structures which are so
huge they are barely comprehensible, massive feats of engineering
which allow you go any number of directions without seeming to
leave the road, even though the signs indicate that you are moving
from one road to another.”

“
Would there be signs
inside the Doors?” another student asked.

“
That, Felicia, my
favourite tree-hugging biologist,” John answered, “is where
cognitive mathematics comes into play!”

The group of students groaned.

“
Did anyone in here pass
cognitive mathematics?”