Chapter Ten

Eva, Rosa, and Aura prepared for the upcoming summit, an annual international gathering of the best of the best in the scientific community. This year’s event had a particular urgency and critical theme to the session tracks.

“Vik, you’re old enough now, and this time, if you’d like… You have a choice. You can go with Aura, Dad, and me to the summit, or you may stay with Choe. She’s staying home with her mother since Aura is coming to the convention with us.”

Viktoriya was twelve, and it made her feel special to have this big decision to make on her own. She decided to spend the week at Choe’s.

Usually, when she visited or stayed with her, it was at her Aunt Aura’s apartment. But Aura was a critical part of the summit meeting with her parents, and she did not want to be at the convention just listening to boring lectures over and over.

It was at Choe’s with her or bust.

“I’ll stay with Choe, Mom. I enjoy going to D.C., but not when I’m going to be stuck in a hotel.”

* * *

Eva tilted her head back, looking up at the massive overhead banner inside the convention center lobby.

The room was unusually tall, and the columns stood high on the sides of the sheer window at the entrance floor.

People darted around, rode escalators, and made coffee and snack runs before going into their scheduled sessions.

Fourth Annual TITAN World Summit, the banner read. And although it was beautifully designed, with strategically bright colors and fonts, every scientist there knew what it really signified.

Even though they had started with the very best intentions, it only meant one thing.

A frozen end of the world.

The Frost.

Eva sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. It had been four long years since the United Nations Special TITAN Committee first summoned scientists from around the globe to assemble and try to determine what to do to counter the adverse effects of TITAN.

She shook her head in frustration, tearing her eyes away from the sign. It took them almost a year just to decide to turn off TITAN, and at that time, the models and simulations did not improve.

The saviors of the planet could not reach a consensus on how to undo the mess they had ultimately made of things.

She turned, looking out of the large windows of the conference hall lobby. Snow was piling up outside, and many of her colleagues were having trouble getting to the complex because of the unexpected Frost spike that had descended on the area. But despite it becoming the new normal, nobody could entirely accept it yet.

A gentle hand tapped on her shoulder. “Crazy, isn’t it? They should have made this a virtual event.”

She turned to see her husband holding out a fresh mug of coffee. His few gray hairs shined a little brighter in the foyer lighting.

She grabbed the warm beverage and took a sip, but the mug was full to the top, and she twisted to her side, narrowly dodging the spill.

He giggled at her clumsiness.

“Thanks! What blend is it?”

“Um, Acrobat-ia, from the looks of how you’re flinging around there!” he joked, laughing back at her.

“Two creams and two sugars, the way I like it. With a splash of the flying trapeze! Thank you,” she said and chuckled from behind the white mug.

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She smiled back at him and went to take another sip. That time, she caught the comforting hot beverage on her lips, much to her satisfaction.

“TITAN mugs, who would have thought?” she continued.

“Any word from Aura?”

He shook his head, nervously tapping his chin, his dark eyes looking a little worried. “Nothing yet, hun. I just hope she’s driving safely in this snow!”

She sighed and scanned the busy lobby for any sight of Aura. Finally, she turned back to him and lowered her voice.

“Do you think we should tell her now? About the ship?”

“I’m uncertain. It may be too soon. We need her help with the project, but I think it has to be the right time.”

“She’d certainly be on board,” Eva argued, placing her hand on her hip. If anyone found out what they were doing, there would be a field day.

“I’m just not sure, at least not yet,” Rosa said, matching the quietness of her voice while rubbing his eyebrows.

“Some of our colleagues—maybe even most of them—still think we handled the TITAN simulation data leak. Even after all this time.”

She looked past her husband to the rest of the researchers preparing for the conference.

Large black screens mounted on the tall columns cycled the sessions’ names, dates, and times in bold white letters on a colorful background, showing the crowd the many topics by categories.

“Oh, Dr. Reginald is holding a Transporting Gases from Mars session. Great, and then tomorrow Orbital Trajectory Corrections via Mass Adjustments,” she muttered to herself.

The tall lobby of the arena was filled with banners, vendor tables, and stations selling the latest wares. The indiscernible, tenor-pitched din created by hundreds of the scientific attendees filled the air.

Some of their colleague’s gazes lingered on the pair much longer than they should, and Eva noticed whispers had followed them since the information became public.

She sighed.

Rosa was right. And it wasn’t just the time that had gone by—every investigation opened into the matter swiftly, concluded that neither they—nor anyone on their team, leaked the information.

Yet, with no other suspects, they had been ostracized from the scientific community. Their only saving grace was that their scientific prowess was still extremely valuable because of their involvement in TITAN and the Mars missions.

That and Edmund, the Director of iNASA-Climate—had fervently gone to bat for them both.

Rosa took her hand in his, snapping her out of the spiraling thoughts.

“We just can’t be sure how she would react. At least not yet.”

“I know,” she said, grimacing while shifting her stance.

“I just feel so deceitful, so guilty… Aura is our friend, after all.”

“And if she were in our position, I’m sure she’d hide what we’re doing too, for everyone’s safety,” he reasoned. He smiled weakly.

“We’ll tell her when the time is right. She’ll come with us, I’m certain of it. She’ll be on board.”

As if on cue, the clatter of loud footsteps on the tiled floor, along with the unhappy grumbling of the crowd in the lobby, drew their attention toward the transparent doorway.

Aura came flinging out of the enormous automatic revolving doors, running toward them. Almost entirely covered in snow, a backpack over her shoulder and two tablets in her arms, she bounded toward them.

“I’m here, I’m here!” she yelled across the room as a group of climate technicians in white coats jumped out of her way. “I’m so sorry; I’m here!”

When she finally broke through the crowds of people and reached them, she was breathless.

Eva couldn’t help but laugh at the minor scene her friend had caused.

“The damn cold completely froze out my car’s sensors. I actually had to drive the thing! On my own! It was utterly barbaric and so primitive. I had to use the steering wheel thing.”

Aura tousled the snow out of her hair.

Rosa laughed at Aura’s antics and said, “We need to solve this Frost crisis just to keep you off the road, if for nothing else.”

Eva smirked, ready to join in on her husband’s joke.

“Seriously, I’m not sure which is more dangerous, TITAN or Aura’s driving!”

“Ha. Ha. You two,” Aura said, grabbing the coffee straight from Eva’s hands and taking a big sip.

She immediately spat the coffee right back into the mug and shoved it back into her friend’s hands.

Eva looked wide-eyed down at the beverage in disgust.

Aura fake gagged. “Oh, God, Eva, whatever did you put in that? It’s so yuk, sweet!”

“Sugar. Remember sugar?” she said simply, giving her a gaze with her right eyebrow raised.

Eva walked just a few feet away to the refreshments area, placed the mug on a white cloth covered round table marked for dirty dishes, and then walked back to her husband and friend.

Aura, in a teasing voice, said, “It’s almost as if you haven’t even learned about the pandemic of the last century. Did you not even make it through second grade?”

Eva smiled and shook her head. “No, must’ve skipped it! But we learned to add sugar to our coffee when we graduated.”

Rosa chuckled at their antics. “All right, all right, you two!”

Eva beamed.

She loved being with Rosa and Aura. It felt like the old days, the times before TITAN and the Frost.

She felt hopeful that maybe it would be that way again one day, for good.

“Don’t worry, Rosa.” Aura rolled her eyes and motioned to the tablets under her arm with her chin. “I have our models and presentation right here. Are the two of you ready?”

Eva nodded. “Well, ready as we’ll ever be.”

And with that, the trio turned toward the largest of the conference rooms and made their way into the auditorium with the monitor at the entrance displaying “DAY 3 - TRACK 2A * KUZLAND-LEIGHEY * COMBATING the FROST.”