Embedded Files
Compared to the Clemson house, Nora’s home looked barely inhabited. Half of the gray paint on the outer walls had been chipped off revealing the red brick underneath. All of the lights were off despite the sky being overcast as she and her father maintained a policy of only keeping lights on in rooms they were in. The twelve wind turbines and windpump were the only things that gave the landscape motion. Behind the house, an array of solar panels stood, at the moment useless in the gray weather. Nora parked her truck right in front of the house. Her father, Nick Silverton opened the front door as soon as she slammed the truck door.
“It’s so good to see you again!” he said, hugging her tightly.
“Dad, I’ve only been gone for a day.”
“A day is a long time without sunshine.”
Nora smiled, “you’re so cheesy, Dad.”
“I like to think I’m a gouda guy.”
“Ugh,” Nora rolled her eyes,” and one day without your puns is not nearly enough.”
Her father smiled from the praise. “Anyway, it looks like the Clemsons gave us a lot this time, huh?”
“Yeah, we got the essentials: tubers, maize, and legumes.” Nora dug through the bed of the truck. “They also gave us some fruit which was nice, and then, like, a pallet of pies.”
Nick’s smile disappeared upon seeing the stacks of pies. “Nora, how are we going to eat all of this?”
“I don’t know, throw it in the compost or something.”
“Nora.”
“The gifts are just going to get bigger, Dad. You should talk to them, maybe they will listen to you.”
“I’ll write them another letter.” Nick stacked crates of essentials in their faded wagon. “You did deliver the last letter, right?”
Nora froze just as she was about to hand her father several pie boxes. “It’s at their house somewhere?” she laughed.
Nick gave a forgiving smile. “Did you get distracted?”
“Dad!”
“Alright, I’ll say no more,” he put up his hands, “just deliver the next letter, okay?”
“I will,” Nora was resolved, “I’ll pin the letter to my overalls so that Julie will see it when she hugs me.”
“That’s probably not necessary, but it will work,” Nick steadied the stack of food as he pulled the wagon, “now, let’s get these all inside and then you can tell me all about your visit.”
“And yeah, after I got mad at Ian, the whole house was riled up, especially poor Julie.” Nora continued to babble from atop the solar panel, blowing away dust with a compressed air hose.
“They’re really trying to lock you down.” Nick handed her a damp mop.
“By wooing me?”
“Yeah.”
“I know, it’s kind of annoying.” Nora attacked the caked-on dust patches. “I wonder if Julie knows that I don’t like being waited on.”
“She might, but she is also the person that always feels the need to do something to correct a situation.”
“Mhm, and after that, Dawn and I hung out at one of their cabins.”
“Cabins?”
“Yeah, Julie has a cabin where she works on her pet projects. I was helping her design a theater.”
“Wait, a theater?”
“She’s going through a Rome themed hobby which means she wants to make a renaissance style theater.”
“That does sound like Julie actually. It sounds like fun.”
“It was, I totally lost track of time. After that was dinner, and then I played board games with Soren and the others.”
“How is Soren?”
“He’s good!” Nora’s voice pitched higher.
“Did something good happen?” Nick’s perceptiveness was sometimes uncanny.
“Well, yeah…” Nora poked at the edges of the solar panel with the mop, “we had a talk about leaving versus staying.”
“And?” Nick came around to the front of the solar panel to look at Nora while she answered.
“He didn’t say he would leave,” Nora wiped her palms on her jeans, “but he basically said that the idea of leaving made him more scared than anything else, and that having me with him dispelled that fear.”
Nick leaned on a squeegee,” that’s encouraging news, Nora, but you know that’s not concrete enough to make any plans around.”
“What does that mean?”
“What I mean is that you can’t assume that he’ll leave with you come winter.” Nick looked her in the eyes.
“I know, I know,” Nora’s gaze darted to the puddling water at the solar panel’s corner, “come on, let’s get this panel cleaned and go inside.”
Nora scrutinized the bookshelf as if she was appraising a painting. Onl a few lamps were on in the kitchen-dining room, making it hard to read the spines of the oaks. The sky had been overcast most of the day so they didn’t have enough charge stored in the basement too fully light the room while running the electric range. Steam leaked from the kitchen.
“Nora, dinner’s almost ready,” Nick called from the stove.
“I’ll be right there,” shouted Nora. She found the book she was looking for and hurried to the dining room.
“All ready, mashed potatoes and fried tofu,” said Nick, setting the plates down.
“Oh boy, a white dinner,” Nora scanned the table of contents of her book.
“We’ll have the corn and beans tomorrow.” Nick peeked at the cover of the book, “what are you reading there, honey?”
Nora lifted the book for him to see.
“Great Lakes Area Water and Power Board: Hydroelectric Dam Manual 39th edition. Going for the page turners I see.”
“I normally read textbooks for dinner!” said Nora, taking a bite of her tofu. She glanced to see that her father was in full lie detector mode. This was why she never had confidence in acting as a child. “Okay, Julie’s cabin is near the reservoir, and when I was there, I noticed that the water level was unusually low.”
“How low?”
“You could see the normal lowest water lines by a good half meter.” She raised the textbook to obscure part of her face but then lowered it. “And I figured I should be prepared to take a look at it or something.”
“You do know that the dam isn’t due for an inspection for another two years?”
“And who will do the inspection? You and I are the only ones qualified to maintain it and we’ll be gone by then.”
“We most certainly will,” said Nick, “why then pick up the dam manual? I’ll tell you the problem isn’t with the dam.”
“Well, looking at it made me realize that I don’t know much about that particular dam…” she stopped, realizing she had given herself away. She stared at the table.
“Nora,” said Nick. It was a particular pronunciation of that her father only used to express disappointment despite being spoken so gently.
“You’re preparing,” he said, “you’re preparing for a future where you somehow don’t leave with the last Arkship, with me, to reunite with your mother, because you can’t bring yourself to leave Soren and his family. They have been very nice to us, but that doesn’t mean they own our future. When they choose to stay, they make that decision for themselves. I say this not just for me and Stella, but for you. You have so much potential, it would be a tragedy for it to be wasted on a dying planet, slipping back into the stone age.”
“I can help them,” Nora looked up, “with their support, I could—“
“The Clemsons and Pelletiers? Sure, you can help them but you can’t save them. Here, look at this.” Nick reached for his laptop and clicked around a bit before handing it to her.
Nora quickly read the axes and gasped. The axes read “river flow rate (ML/mo)” and “time (year),” between them was a declining line that dropped sharply in the middle.
“This is the prediction for the flow rate of the river that runs through the Clemons’ property and dam. It’s going to all but dry up in a couple of decades. What you saw at the cabin is just the start. You know they can’t live without that dam, and it would go away in your lifetime. I’m not letting that happen to you.”
Nora could feel that she was in bargaining mode but couldn’t stop fighting, “we could figure something out by then—“
“Nora! That sort of short-term thinking is what got us into this mess. If we as a species were a bit more foresighted, like you usually are, Earth would still be habitable and you wouldn’t have to choose between having a future and staying with Soren. It’s the sort of thinking that has the Clemsons believing that staying on Earth is the wisest choice. Are you going to use that sort of logic making such an important decision?”
Nora stared at her clenched fists on her lap. She was feeling too many things at once. Sad at the truth of what her father was saying. Frustration towards Soren and the Clemsons for their stubbornness. Wrathful towards short-term decision making and her selfish ancestors willfully did it despite knowing the consequences. Most strongly, she felt embarrassed from having been caught doing the same. Her cheeks burned and water gathered in her eyes. How did she think she would save let alone help Soren and his family if she could give in to such dangerous thinking so easily?
She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, “you’re right. I let my desires get the better of me. I’m sorry.” She sniffed.
Nick came over to hug her, “it’s okay, Nora. We all do it, that’s why we have people we can trust to talk it over with.”
Nora got up to enter her father’s embrace.
“You’re still the strongest, bravest, and smartest person I know,” he said.
“You always say that.”
“Only so long as it’s true.”
The two hugged each other for a few more moments.
“Do you want some pie?” mumbled her father.
“Not really,” said Nora.
“Well there are several whole pies with your name on them.” Nick held her by her shoulders at arm’s length.
“I can’t eat a whole pie, Dad,” said Nora, laughing,
“I know, neither can I, but there is no room in the fridge or freezer. I guess we’ll compost them and see if our salads smell like pie in a few months.”
“You’re good, still good, a little to the left.” Nora called out instructions as her father eased the pickup truck over the ancient bridge.
“Bridge” was generous, it was now just two pieces of timber at wheel-width from each other, the rest of the bridge was constructed from cheaper wood that had since decayed and fallen into the creek. Nora climbed back into the cabin after her father crossed to the other side.
“The best part is knowing that we’ll have to do it again on the way back,” said Nick.
“The station’s not far from here though, is it?” Nora checked the map clipboard while she took a bite from her bagel.
“That’s right, it’s just beyond this hill at the base of that wind turbine.”
He parked the truck next to a small concrete silo. Wind vanes, anemometers, and rain gauges were arranged neatly around a stalk protruding from the top of the conical structure. Nick retrieved a ring of keys from his bag and unsealed the weather station. Together, they slowly heaved the door open to reveal a rack of servers and RAID arrays. Nick plugged his laptop into the console.
Nora admired her surroundings while her father downloaded weather data. Rolling grassy hills receded into the horizon until they were cut off by sharp mountain ranges. Fluffy white clouds glided across a blue canvas. The wind was brisk but carried a damp texture that threatened of rain.
“You think they would have thought of a better way to get Earth’s super important weather data than by having people drive up and plug in?” wondered Nora aloud.
“I’ve thought about it too,” Nick opened various windows on his laptop to check the basic stats of the station, “this station is not very good. SInce not all regions even have a climate scientist, we won’t be able to get data for all areas for another 200 years when a checkup team is sent.” He struck the enter key and got up.
“But there is no communication system,” he said, stretching, “it was hard enough to ensure that all the silos had enough power just to function,” he looked at the wind turbine and solar panel array, “it would take so much more to be able to beam it to a satellite that would then send it to Altaria.”
“I wonder what that place is like,” Nora searched the sky as if hoping to spot it.
“We’ll find out soon enough,” he put a hand on Nora’s shoulder, “are you excited?”
“I’m excited to see Mom,” said Nora, “there’s a lot I want to talk to her about, I just wish I could do it before we leave.”
“We’re supposed to get a transmission from her tonight.”
“I know! Around midnight, right?”
“Mhm.” Her father took on a more serious tone. “By the way,” he said, “don’t tell any of the Clemsons or Pelletiers about the drying river, okay?”
“Not even Soren?” asked Nora, turning around.
“Not even him.”
“Why not? This might be what convinces them to come with us.”
“I’m worried that instead of convincing them all to leave, the news will just make them view us as their killers.”
“Dad! They’re not savages,” Nora turned her back to Nick, “they can listen to reason as well as you or I. It’s just a matter of getting through to them.”
“Nora, that’s not—”
“It’s going to be hard for you to convince me you understand them,” said Nora with righteous indignation, “especially when you haven’t visited them for over a year.”
“I don’t think they really want to see me.”
“Thomas says he wants to go hunting with you.”
“I think he’s saying that more for you than for me.”
“And what does that mean?”
“Thomas knows that whatever relationship he and I have, it will cease to be when the Arkship leaves. He also knows that it makes you happy to know that your whole family is welcome, not just you.”
Nora crossed her arms, “again, these are quite the claims from someone who only has secondhand accounts.”
Nick remained silent, then put up both hands in calm surrender. He held this pose until Nora uncrossed her arms.
“You’re right,” he said, “I don’t have much evidence for what I’m saying. I guess I’m just worried that something might happen to you if they find out they’re in a worse situation than they thought. I think you’ll also agree that existential threats are not the sort of encouragement that you give to those that are already dug in.”
“True.”
“So please just promise me that you won’t bring up the river flow rate prediction with anyone else,” her father said softly.
“Okay, Dad, I will.”
Rain pounded on the roof of the Silverton house creating a constant drumming while Nora and her father performed checks on their radio equipment. Despite Nature’s best efforts, the roof stubbornly allowed no leaks. Nora just finished setting up the signal receiver system and entertained herself by tuning into different frequencies and listening to the cryptic beeps and hisses of other’s messages. She thought about the satellites that were overhead, repeating for a few days what they received from Altaria and other offworld colonies. She thought about the few other people still on Earth for whom those messages were repeated: other climate scientists, evacuation overseers, people with their reasons.
“Are you all set up?” Nick was seated on a bucket in front of a compact monitor attached to a rat’s nest of wires.
“Yup,” Nora turned the dial back to the Mom frequency, “tuned in and waiting.”
“Alright, the storm is going to make this one difficult, so let’s be careful.” He flicked on another instrument displaying various phase diagrams. “We’ve got a lot of noise on 2200. Put a bandstop there, minus 5 decibels.”
Nora adjusted various dials. She closed her eyes as she explored the radio-space, going in whichever direction caused the static to weaken.
“Alright, that’s perfect.”
“You got the message? What does it say?” Nora looked away from the towering machine for a second hoping to see her mother’s message even though she was too far to see the small screen.
“There’s still a lot of failed checksums,” said Nick, “try increasing the gain.”
Nora rotated the largest dial on the signal processor. “How about now?”
“Still pretty bad. Can you increase by 10 decibels?”
Nora looked at the dial positions and frowned, “we’re 8dB from the maximum rated gain.”
Nick looked up in thought for a moment. He then looked back at Nora. It was her call. She really wanted to hear from her mother.
“Increasing gain by 10dB.” She rotated the dial, being careful to not add a hair over 10 decibels. Immediately, various warning lights blinked on the signal processor. The attic was filled by an angry hum.
“We’re getting something!” Nick fell silent as he scanned the text pouring across the screen.
Nora had to see her mother’s transmission. She craned her neck to try and catch a glimpse of the screen.
Nora then heard a loud pop. She turned to the signal processor and shrieked as sparks burst out of it. She ripped off her headphones while jets of blue smoke shot out of every gap in the machine’s front face. Nick scrambled to his feet and within moments unloaded a fire extinguisher onto the machine. Nora threw open the attic window, immediately getting pelted by cold rain.
Nora was seated on the upside down bucket as she stared at the dead monitor. Its dark screen mocked her for her indiscretion.
“Yeah, the insides are definitely melted,” Nick sat down next to her. He wiped his hands on his jeans, leaving large streaks of soot on them.
Nora sighed deeply, “I was such an idiot.” She buried her face in her hands.
Her father patted her on the back, “easy there, we all make mistakes.”
“I know,” she looked at the smoldering remains of the signal processor, “but I was just thinking about everything we’ve discussed around short-term thinking so I’m embarrassed that I’ve fried our equipment just because I wanted to hear from Mom.”
“Well, allow me to draw an important distinction between short-term thinking and making decisions based on feeling. You can make good decisions based on emotion that benefit you in the long run, and you can make bad decisions that only work for you in the immediate future based on sound logic. As long as you are looking far enough ahead, you will always be doing long term thinking regardless of whether it’s with your head or your heart.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Neither did your mother,” said Nick, “it was one of the few things I had the privilege of teaching her.”
Nora turned to face her father at her mother’s mention, “you read part of the message right? Do you remember any of it?”
“I do in fact. She started by talking about work as usual.”
“What has she been up to?”
“Everything it seems. She is finishing up the planetary mineral assessment, in the middle of the cultivation optimization experiments, coediting the flora and fauna report, overseeing the HVDC global grid design, and she has just taken over the tidal management project because the oceanics head was taking too long.”
“Wow, that sounds like a lot, even for Mom,” Nora was hanging onto every word. She always felt inspired when hearing about her mother’s work.”
“I thought so too,” Nick pushed away some scrap parts before leaning back against the wall, “with everything being done ad hoc, she said it was ready easy to, not necessarily ‘commandeer,’ but ‘help’ with other projects.”
“Now that does sound like Mom.”
“Yeah, I love being around her just to see what she’ll do next,” her father said with nostalgia, “you’re like her in that way but more balanced. It’s actually my hope that you can teach her to relax before she burns out.”
“Don’t worry,” said Nora, beaming, “I’ve noticed that her biggest weakness is organization, so my plan is to manage her calendar to make room for us to go on a spa trip.” A vacant stare formed on her face as she imagined her mother’s calendar after being organized, “and probably a bunch of other leisure time.”
“Perfect,” said Nick, “the only other part of the message I remember is ‘and tell our little star to always be clear with herself about what she really wants.’”
“What I really want?” Nora repeated to herself, “what I really want is to see you, Mom.” She looked at her father, “but I guess that doesn’t really answer the question I have now, huh?”
“It might,” said Nick.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse