Birds chirped their melodies and the breeze carried their tune through the meadow. Insects shuffled silently through the clovers and grass, dancing to their own songs. Two suns hung unmoving in the sky as if to indicate that they, too, would like the day to carry on forever.

Two figures sat on the edge of a hill that overlooked the fields of lavender and poppy; the man was in a deep sleep, the woman cradling his head in her lap. She gently stroked his hair, knowing that any second he would wake up, and when he did he would return to the place that sent him here. He’d return to the pain while she would be left behind in the peace, counting down the days until he returned. This would be the only time she’d see him while he was still innocent of the future. As if on cue, his body shuddered as he came to.

When Eimose opened his eyes he was shocked to see the woman staring down at him. Her eyes seemed to disappear into the sky and her skin glowed with sunlight. Her dark green hair draped around his vision so he could only focus on her and the light smile that played on her lips. His pulse quickened as he caught himself entranced, the rational part of his brain struggling to catch up.

“Who--Who are you?” He choked out. “Wait, how am I alive?”

He bolted up and quickly examined himself, nearly jumping for joy when he saw that his left arm had returned to its normal size and color. His chest wasn’t shredded into ribbons either, which should have been the first thing he noticed. And that was also the point when he realized he most certainly wasn’t in that underground bunker anymore. His jaw hung open and all he could do was stand there and try to process what the hell was going on.

“The view is pretty breathtaking,” The woman spoke up. “And to be honest, you’re not really alive anymore.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“I think you know what that means.”

“So...is this nirvana?”

She snorted with laughter.

“Most definitely not. There’s no way either of us could make it there.”

“We’re in the underworld then.”

“Not that either.”

“So where exactly am I if I’m dead?” He shouted in annoyance.

The woman turned to face the fields ahead, her dress swaying softly in the breeze. Although Eimose admitted that he demanded answers, he didn’t mind gazing at her for a few more minutes. She looked no older than him, but there was an air around her that told him she’d seen things meant to be forgotten.

“You can call this place Padova just for the sake of giving things names. It was given to me as an exchange weighed in someone else's favor. But that’s old news and there’s no use in looking back if you’re trying to move forward.” She turned to him and gave him a playful smile. “And since I know your future, I’m going to tell you what to do next.”

____________________________________________________________________________

71K 27N.E.

Spec2 is asking more questions than I have answers to, but I suppose that’s a good thing. Her learning capacity is remarkable and she’s already gotten a basic understanding of how to communicate but she struggles with technical terms.

She’s starting to ask why her skin is darker than all the other people in this compound, but that would mean telling her that outside this weird boundary there’s very little sun and then probably going into the full-blown history of why that came to be. At this point, have no idea what to believe.

I just now remembered that there should be at least one more clone of the girl in the crystals. Or maybe two? Fuck, I wouldn’t be surprised if GreenHouse made ten more copies just as a backup. I wonder if any of them also got a janitor as a tutor.

Totally switching gears, we’ve been discovering a ridiculous amount of new species of plants and insects, too many. I understand that this region is still very new, but it should not have the ability to naturally evolve so quickly that we find five or six new varieties of flora every time we go out. The scientists here definitely have something to do with it but I have no way of finding out.

On a brighter note, I was just granted clearance to leave the compound whenever I want so I don’t have to keep filling out those freaking forms. I’m planning on seeing the night sky tonight for the first time.

Tomorrow I will petition to Doctor Jamir to let the girl remain out of her stasis tube when lessons are over. I’ve been trying to make them as long as possible so she can at least see the sunset, but I can only stretch out my teaching so much. This marks the thirteenth time I’ll be petitioning but I doubt he’ll say yes this time around. It did take a month of me constantly filling out those forms to finally go in and out whenever I want, and this is no different. I just want to give Spec2 the chance to feel normal.

I wonder if she dreams when she’s put into her stasis tube.

Aside from that, I think the scientists might stop hating us now that I’ve got my own access. I mean, what else were we supposed to do when we were stuck inside besides switch the salt and sugar or jump out and scare them when they rounded a corner? The girl is five years old, she needs to have some fun. Hell, I need to have some fun. To be honest, I think Spec2 might be the only person here I can stand being around at this point. Everyone’s favorite thing to do here is look down at me or tell me no. They should all take a page from Spec2’s book and run around barefoot once in a while.

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Also, I need to find out if eating dirt will kill a person. I don’t really care for it, but Spec2 eats it by the handful. On another side note, I haven’t seen her go to the bathroom, so I have to find out what’s up with that. Is she just really constipated or does she not need to go at all? Small children can’t die from not pooping, can they?

Alright, so tomorrow I have to petition to Doctor Jamir and make sure Spec2 won’t suddenly explode from obstructed bowels.

Pater tapped his pen against his lips, wondering if he had anything else to write in his journal. He glossed over what he’d written, shrugged, then shut it and stuck it under his mattress. His stomach growled in contempt, a reminder that he’d forgotten to eat all day since he’d been busy teaching Spec2 about the different colors of the visible light spectrum and how light worked, though they mostly ended up coloring pictures of plants and extinct animals rather than get into the full logistics of light.

Too lazy to cook he decided on hitting the communal kitchen. As he left his room and approached the break area, his footsteps tapping lightly on the brown concrete ground, imperceivable to anyone not listening closely. Soon the indistinct mumblings ricochet down the corridor to his ears, revealing that scientists were having an in-depth conversation in the break area ahead of him. He debated turning around and finding another one but his stomach protested loudly and urged him forward.

“Just spit it out, it’s not like we don’t know how to keep secrets,” A male voice said loudly.

Pater stopped in his tracks. Why would people talk about secrets at full volume? He thought about doubling back to give these people privacy, but this time it was his curiosity and not his stomach that kept him in place.

“Come on. Come on,” The male whined. “Tell me. Come on.”

“Fine, just shut up.” An annoyed female voice relented. “You remember that project I talked to you about two weeks ago?”

“The one about the super-something fusion?”

“Superfluid fission,” she corrected. “So, in theory, it would work, but it obviously doesn’t because we don’t have the labs to collapse a star. Well, apparently one of the other Headquarter labs used my research and have a working model.”

“Okay, pretend I’m five and explain why you need a collapsed star.”

The woman sighed exasperatedly. “Superfluid gets created when a star collapses into a neutron star. The gravity exerted on the particles actually makes the electrons and protons smash together to create neutrons, hence the name. What I hypothesized was that we could reverse those effects by placing it in extreme negative pressure in an anti-gravity vacuum so the electrons and protons would unbind, creating unlimited quantities of energy.”

“Wow. Is that really how you’d explain it to a five-year-old?” The man chortled. “But seriously, that would totally work, so why aren’t we already doing it?”

“It’s doable but only if you’ve got a collapsed sun in your back pocket that hasn’t already become a black hole.”

“Aw, damn, just gave mine away last week,” he joked. “Wait, but another lab got it to work? How?”

“I don’t know all the details, but they must have access to some sort of new equipment I don’t have.” Pater could tell by the sound of metal clinking against plastic the woman was getting agitated. “Testing’s only been going for about a week but the reports are saying the output is thousands of times greater than the input.”

“You and your team are getting credit though, right?”

“I really don’t know--you know how Greenhouse is with their breakthroughs,” she sighed.

“You know what, screw them. You should be proud you were the one who made this happen. In ten years we’ll be running safe, superfluid fusion reactors and it’ll all be because of you.”

“Fission,” the female corrected again, this time a smile lilting her voice. “Now it’s your turn to tell me something.”

“Okay, okay, let me think,’ stated the man, humming while he thought.

“What about that Spec2?” The woman offered.

Pater’s heart just about stopped beating.

“I think I’ve pretty much told you everything about her. Oooh, but we’re going to start radioactive testing on her tomorrow, so that’ll be interesting.”

“But we don’t have anything radioactive at this place so what’s the point?”

“Well, depending on the girl’s reaction to levels of toxic matter this could really benefit all of us in the future. I mean, she lives off a diet of sunlight, sugar, and water and can digest anything else like a normal human being. Her waste is fertilizer that increases plant growth speeds. She heals faster than us. She releases oxygen instead of CO2. If she’s impervious to the toxic wastelands, that could mean her DNA holds the key to solving our crisis. In scientific terms, she’s a fucking miracle.”

“Are you saying you’re planning on changing our DNA?” The female asked in awe. “Is that even possible?”

“Yes, but our trials have killed all of the lab rats so far, so it’s far from perfect. The easiest way to get a generation of humans like her is to literally create clones of her and send them out to screw everyone in sight. We wouldn’t actually see any effects of that new generation for millennia, and we need a solution now. I’m open to ideas if you have any.”

“I wouldn’t even know where to start. I get mechanics, not biology. If we’re talking about nanobots that could target specific signatures of DNA that control the respiratory system--”

“That’s it!” The man exclaimed, nearly causing Pater to leap back. “Can you make bots that can change a persona’s DNA to match hers?”

“I mean, maybe. There’s a huge possibility we’ll be creating tumors rather than changing DNA so I’ll have to check with my team first before I agree to this project.”

“Gods, I can’t believe it took me this long to ask your opinion. You, my dear, are a life-saver, literally.”

Pater heard them shuffling around and assumed that they were getting up to get back to their labs, meaning they would see him eavesdropping. Could he quietly get back twenty feet and pretend he was just now waking up? Should he walk in now and feign oblivion? Should he just turn around and calmly walk back to his room and pretend he never stopped by the break room in the first place? His feet chose for him as he casually strolled into the room, giving the two a polite smile as he opened the fridge to check its contents. The scientists paid him no bother and he could hear them continue their conversation about the ways they could approach their theory. It paid to be invisible.

His stomach turned when he realized how many tests those people had been running on an unconscious child; no wonder the Doctor kept denying his request to let her remain out of her stasis tube for a night. The appetite that had driven him to this area didn’t seem as important as what he’d overheard. But what could a tutor do in the face of an entity that could kill him where he stood if they so wished? Nothing. Nothing but make Spec2’s waking moments something to live for.

When he got back to his dorm he opened up his journal and crossed out his tasks for tomorrow having discovered the answers to his inquiries.

That night he slept under the open sky, the arm of Andromeda reaching across the sky toward the stars it could not grasp. If only the girl could do the same.