My Dearest Noah,
In just a few short weeks you will be here! I can’t bear the wait. I am inconsolate in my anticipation. My only distraction is helping my father organize the conference at the estate while you’ll be visiting us. I haven’t seen the full guest list yet, but some of the confirmed names are quite interesting and influential. Yesterday my father put me in charge of planning the menus for the event. It seems that it will be quite the gathering.
Do you have any favorite hors d'oeuvres? I want to make this as special for you as I can. It can be anything: Chinese, American, or whatever you want. Just let me know soon. The estate is quite remote and I need to start ordering posthaste.
Your Love,
Lin
Normally I’d hurry and answer her, but there’s another email from her with the names of the attendees that she knows about so far. My index says I’ve heard of a few of them, but it might be a good idea for me to get informed about the rest. I send the list of names to Alan so he can have the team back home do some research for me. It’s always better to go into something like that prepared.
I’m more excited for the conference than I thought I would be. It should give us a rare chance to see what other people working in the field are up to. I make a note to ask my siblings about them too when they’re awake, especially Louise. She’s always reading the latest journals on this stuff. I also like the idea that there will be some more crowd cover for Lin and me. I figure we’re a lot more likely to get some time to slip off alone without being noticed if it’s not just her and her father there.
No sooner do I get my morning email session done when I hear Andrea’s pulsating beat. All the siblings in our part of the fleet are in for morning exercises. Once that’s done, we take turns putting in poles and getting showered. We’ll keep a few of us on pole duty from here to Phnom Penh, lining the river with free power. If we did the math right and the locals put in the effort to connect to all the poles, we should be effectively removing Vietnam’s coal import needs on this trip. That was one of the concerns we heard about when we were getting permission for this trip. Fortunately, industry lobbying isn’t really a thing in Vietnamese politics and the Cambodians were just excited to get some of these rural areas electrified at all, so we didn’t get much organized pushback from any of the folks making money off of burning coal.
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Leftover soup for breakfast is just as good the second day.
The border is coming up. Hopefully, all of our arrangements are in place. Bora and Akara get up ahead of us on the speedboat and will meet us at the checkpoint. In the meantime, the next filter is almost ready. I form rollers underneath it and slide it into the water.
“You got the next one, girls,” I call over to the Geologist contingent.
“All on our own?” Jen asks nervously.
Becky chimes in, “Are you sure?”
“Yes, and yes,” I reassure them. “You can do it, just pick one of you to coordinate the build and use the library functions for collaboration.”
“I’m on it, come help me,” Steph declares confidently. She’s been stepping up more as a leader since the boys left. I think this is good for them. Phil and Stan’s outsized personalities seem to overwhelm the girls when they’re around and this gives them some breathing room to take charge.
The build goes smoothly with Louise and I pulling materials for them as Evan and Andrea continue to put up poles. We deposit it just before we hit the border.
Bora and Akara are over at the small wooden dock of the border station with a pair of uniformed officials in clean, white shirts. They all get onto our speedboat and motor over. Tying the speedboat to the back of the cat, Bora helps the border agents up the steps to the deck where we’re all gathered. They act like they’re teenagers meeting their favorite movie stars. There’s a nominal checking of passports and visas then a whole bunch of pictures that we smile through. Bora translates their gushing excitement at meeting us and their request to see us do something with our nanobots. Andrea obliges them with a dance of her fingers that weaves a Cambodian flag out of thin air, waves it, then lets it disappear. They clap like it was the greatest show they’d ever seen.
Once they’re satisfied, the agents load back on the speedboat and Akara returns them to the dock.
“Sorry about that,” Bora apologizes. “They really wanted to meet you. This trip is very important for my country. The pollution from up the river has been very bad for us. The government has been telling everyone for months that you would save all of our farms.”
“Not a problem, it’s kind of fun feeling famous,” I tell him.
I can see why they’d be emotionally invested in our project. Cambodia is highly dependent on agriculture and the pollution in the river has been especially devastating for them. I lean over the railing and take a good look at the water below. The water remains a foul brown even now that we’re well beyond the muddy delta area. The darkness in the water is all pollution at this point.
We can fix this, Mom. This is my life now, solving things like this. I know I’ll never make up for the lives I’ve taken and ruined, but this is the best I can do. You would be proud of me if you saw me now, right Mom?