1.
Nira stood and looked at the magnet at the bottom of the water tank, spinning rapidly and creating a water vortex. Gustav, her Pekingese dog, stood alert next to her, barking at the vortex, identifying the danger. Nira wondered how she would feel when she dives head first into the vortex. Since there is no water in it, only at its rims, Nira wondered if it would feel like sky diving. The tank was 25 meter deep, and above it was a ceiling double this height, so when she would arrive to the bottom of the water tank, will the impact make her pass out? And what if she will hit the magnet first? No, Nira told herself, there is still water above the magnet, it is not moving fast enough.
Nira turned around and nodded toward the control room behind her.
“Increasing the current to 1,500 ampere,” Yuri’s voice called from the speaker.
The speed of the magnet increased, the vortex widened and deepened and the water around it started to lather around it. Gustav moved back horrified and resumed barking at the tank. He knew that the water was exposing something unknown, and Nira thought his instincts were not incorrect.
With a nod, Nira ordered to open the ceiling. A young monkey was lowered with a claw that carried him over the heart of the vortex, and paused. The monkey was suspended above the tank, and Nira pitied him. There is a population of 40 thousand man and women in the Gulf, apparently the only population that survived, as far as she knew, and they were all dependant on her, on her experiments. They were starving, stealing in envy, being frighteningly selfish without realising that they are the future of what was left of the country. Perhaps even of the world.
Nira turned sharply and made a mark to the control room. The young monkey, whose name is Bristol, began falling toward the center of the vortex. Screaming for help, he dived and dived, while the cameras around the room are monitoring his fall from several angles, until he disappeared. Later, when Nira sat down to analyse every detail of the experiment and its results, she saw that the monkey’s fall was slowed down as he approached the bottom of the tank, when all of a sudden he stopped mid-air, several centimeters above the magnet at the bottom. Then, like the statutes Nira used to see in museums as a child before they were dismantled and transformed into residences for the Gulf’s population, the monkey froze gracefully mid-scream, and was sucked into the wormhole at the bottom of the vortex.
Now, all Nira had to do was wait for signs of life from the sensors that were placed on the young monkey’s body, inside and out. She climbed up to the control room and Yuri and Daniel met her with optimistic smiles.
“What are you so happy about?”
“Well, first of all, Bristol was not disintegrated to his molecules the moment he went through the singularity, so that’s a start-” Yuri, the Facility’s zoologist, begun to say.
“Still, we don’t have any information Yuri, hold off the celebration,” Nira said and walked to her computer to analyse the first images from the cameras. “It appears he crossed over smoothly, but we still need to see how he reacts to the other side.”
“Look here. According to the biological signs, I assume that the transition moment hasn’t caused him too much stress. At least not enough to cause a heart attack,” said Daniel, the Facility’s bio-chemist and Nira’s partner. “Frankly, my main concern was that he will lose his mind, but it appears the vortex had a mesmerizing effect on him.”
Yuri looked at the footage as well. “Indeed, Daniel. Nevertheless, in the profile images it appears that Bristol is gazing at the singularity with such wisdom-“
“Well, I’m taking Gustav for a walk,” Nira cut him off. “Please update me when I return if the information started transmitting.”
Nira got up from her chair. Daniel and Yuri exchanged an embarrassed look, while Nira collected Gustav’s leash and went to the door. When she was already in the hall, she remembered that she forgot the bag to pick up after Gustav and the scent-neutralizing spray. She turned and got back up the stairs to the control room but stopped outside the door when she heard Daniel and Yuri talk about her.
“She was not listening to a word,” Yuri noted.
“I’m not sure about that.”
“Perhaps it is for the best. I am occasionally filled with guilt about the experiments.”
“I know, so do I,” Daniel said and sighed. “But when Nira conducts these experiments she only sees the future of the Gulf. Forty thousand people that are counting on her to succeed and find a way out of this pit before the genetic damage becomes irreversible.”
“I am afraid that the damage is already irreversible,” Yuri coughed. Nira peeked into the room and saw Yuri pointing at her screen saver. The screen featured images of humans from the 21st Century, where they all, men and women, had lush hair. Short for the most part for males and long for females.
“I don’t understand why she insists on torturing herself like this,” Daniel murmured and turned off the screen.
Nira remembered she had another can of spray in the quarters and backtracked silently.
Half an hour later Gustav was hopping joyfully in the blue halls of the Facility, an effect crated thanks to its submerged nature, under the Gulf of Eilat. The grey halls in area A of the Facility, which was close to the Quartet’s offices and the commercial center, always felt endless to Nira, surrounding her from all directions, smooth and grey with exception to the few quarter doors in that part of the Facility. The more affluent families were living on the eastern side of the Facility, which was close to what used to be the Underwater Observatory, and were awarded accordingly with larger quarters than those Nira and Daniel had, and that were located in the halls dedicated to the scientists of the Facility. Nira didn’t like the fact that their quarters were closer to the commercial center and the offices of the Quartet.
Nira led Gustav to the transparent space, which used to serve as Eilat’s Coral World Underwater Observatory, dozens of years before the nuclear attack and even before the disease outbreak that incited it. She walked in the room surrounded by glass walls all around her, looking at the reefs that survived the attack and wondered if they always glowed in the dark. Daniel claimed it was due to the radioactive radiation that mutated the reefs, just like it mutated the humans that survived the attack. Nira sighed while she looked at the reefs. The fact they glowed in the dark countered in her opinion all the evolutional laws she read about, and Yuri agreed with her. The only reason why these reefs survived was because their predators were wiped out of existence. But others will come.
Nira went back to the lab and she saw through the window that separated her lab and Daniel and Yuri’s, that they resumed their research. Daniel seemed so invested in her microscope, that Nira could not stop herself from smiling. She knocked gently on the window and Daniel and Yuri looked up. Nira slid open the window.
“Are you tired of walking?” Daniel grinned while Yuri rolled his eyes and turned back to his computer.
“Gustav did his needs so I thought I’d bring some to Yuri,” Nira replied.
“Such a shame I had already finished my research on feces last year,” Yuri noted without looking up from the screen, which had a three-dimensional model of a whale. His notes on the screen looked like ants to Nira.
Nira went back to her seat and turned on the computer while the exhausted Gustav went for a nap in his bed in the corner of the room. This screen also showed humans from the 21st Century, just like the pictures on the computer in the control room. Nira lifted her hand unintentionally to her head, where her hair should have been.
“You’re a real masochist sometimes, you know that?” Daniel said from the door and walked inside.
“Yes, my partner says that sometimes,” Nira sighed. Daniel came up to her and hugged her from the back while Nira looked at the screen with sorrow. “I can’t imagine us like this. Or Gustav with ears or a tail. And I can’t imagine what it was like living above ground.”
“If Bristol reacts well, we might find out,” Daniel said quietly.
“It creeps me out whenever you and Yuri call them by their names,” Nira said and shook her head. Daniel didn’t respond. “Do you ever think that we can go back up already?” Nira asked.
“I think about it sometimes, but we can’t examine it empirically,” Daniel replied seriously while still hugging Nira. “You know I run periodic molecular tests, but they are from the Red Sea. I don’t think it can move us forward as fast as examining dirt from the ground could have, but it is too dangerous to expose the Facility to the radiation,” Daniel shrugged.
Nira knew that the only reason why the forty thousand people in the Gulf were alive was that after the outbreak in Africa, and after the first signs of the outbreak in neighbouring Middle-Eastern countries, the Israeli government has ordered the construction of an underground facility. This facility, surrounded by meters of led, intended to protect the residents from an attack by its neighbours, in an attempt to take over clean territories and especially in the area of Eilat. The government didn’t anticipate that this will save the lives of thousands, and not just the citizens of the state, after China attacked the Middle-East with nuclear missiles in an attempt to prevent the disease from spreading to Asia. But it had irrevocable genetic consequences. Nira, a fourth generation after the attack, and a fifth after the disease, did not know her ancestors who walked above the ground. She only knew the vitamin pills, the desalinated water coolers, purple leaved plants that produced oxygen through artificial photosynthesis, living on an allowance and in austerity for things like paper and wax candles, and the life underground in perpetual shadow.
And then, four years ago, Nira discovered the wormhole that opened in Area A of the Facility and caused a lot of chaos. The discovery was as amazing as it was random. She was researching the fish tank, when fish started disappearing suddenly. The Quartet instructed the Ministry of Science to find an explanation, and Nira sure did. She didn’t know where the wormhole leads to, but she was convinced that the answer to that question will be a lifeline to the population of the entire Gulf. She convinced the Quartet to build an alternative water tank and transfer the fish to it, and ever since then, she has used the water tank to conduct experiments and analyse the wormhole and its other side. She installed the magnet at the bottom of the water tank to facilitate the access to the wormhole, but Nira also found the vortex to be beautiful, elegant.
“Well, today I sent a human-like animal through the wormhole for the first time,” Nira said. “It is already a step forward from the mouse we used before, and the fish that swam through the singularity on their own. But it is still going on very slowly.”
Daniel sighed. She kissed Nira and got up to leave, leaving her deep in her thoughts. Suddenly Nira noticed that the distress light which tracked Bristol’s biological signs, was turned on.
“Daniel!” Daniel ran back into the room with Yuri right behind her. Daniel turned on the printer, when lines of data flowed out on the expensive paper that was allocated sparingly by the Quartet.
Yuri turned on the other computer in the room, while Daniel began analysing the data that was being printed. Three pages overall, on both sides.
“There are a few short sentences and formulas at the beginning that indicate the oxygen levels on the other side,” Daniel noted. “Bristol survived, it appears, and it seems also that there is atmosphere on the other side, where the oxygen level is 19%.”
“Just like it was with the mouse, it is enough for survival,” Nira’s heart leaped.
“This is an initial report about Bristol receiving vitamins from an external source,” noted Yuri and looked up from the screen, confused.
“Is it possible that there is a sun-like star on the other side?” asked Nira.
All the data seemed positive. Nira leaned back, confused. If the signs indicate that everything is supposedly well, then why did the distress light turned on?
“Perhaps the monkey is suspended in time?” Nira wondered aloud. “Is it in a place where the gravitation is so heavy that the time-space continuum has twisted so much it reports everything is fine while relatively the monkey has died many hours ago and the information still hasn’t arrived?”
“Perhaps he encountered other beings and was imprisoned for their experiments, and we are receiving information that everything is orderly due to it being orderly in the cage?” Yuri suggested. “Or are those Bristol’s reports or has he been eaten, and the equipment has not been digested yet? In such a case humans must beware of any encounter with such predators on the other side.”
“It really is strange,” noted Daniel while continuing to examine the results.
Nira remembered her grandparents’ stories about how their own grandparents had appliances called Tele-visions that showed science fiction stories that discussed those situations exactly, as the one Nira was experiencing now. The Gulf had only one projector that was allocated once a week to “the Leak” pub, where Nira and Daniel visited from time to time. It was used to screen weekly movies that survived the attack, and most of them were drama and comedy movies from the 20th and 21st Centuries, and several romantic comedies. But sometimes Nira and Daniel managed to sneak disks and watch movies on their home computer. Nira resumed focusing on the experiment and she decided that she can’t reach a dead end. She must receive more information.
“We need to conduct another control experiment,” Nira said, and Daniel and Yuri stopped in apprehension.
“You will have to convince the Quartet to sacrifice another monkey,” noted Yuri.
“Yes,” replied Nira. “But let’s give it a few more days and we will re-examine it if the results are changing. Maybe the second experiment will become redundant,” she added without believing it herself.
Nira knew she had to convince the Quartet to sacrifice another monkey to control and compare this experiment’s results, but she ended-up chosing to wait another month to verify that the results are not due to a time-space delay or of delayed digestion by an external predator. Nira noted that waiting a month still did not guarantee that the experiment was successful, because the monkey can be suspended in a slower time-space continuum or the equipment indestructible. In that case she would need to wait years to verify the results. But she needs to act fast.
After about a month, and after Nira, Daniel and Yuri checked the data several times and presented it to the stern lab director, Sari, Nira knew that she doesn’t have a choice and she couldn’t postpone turning to the Quartet any longer. She expected that convincing the politicians would not be easy, but she had to try, for the future of the people of the Gulf depended on that.
In fact, during the time that passed since Nira conducted the experiment, and until she was to deliver the speech to the Quarter, about a week after her request, the results became increasingly more optimistic. According to Yuri’s report, Bristol managed to survive during that time, the vitamins continued to absorb in his cells, and according to Daniel, the Bio-electric equipment reported an external stimulation, probably an indication of electro-magnetic radiation from a sun-like star, and that the monkey fed regularly.
So Nira underwent through the usual pipes, submitted her request through her computer in the Quartet’s online system, slipped five meal cards to Debra, the Quartet’s head assistant and the person responsible for the prioritization of requests, and she quickly found herself standing in the weekly rally in front of the Quartet. Daniel sat in the second row, alongside curious public representatives and public influencers. These were, in Nira’s opinion, opportunistic vultures that did not understand in importance of the issue the Gulf was facing, cheap public inciters that the Quartet cared too much about.
But this was not important. Nira focused and began.
“Gentlemen and ladies, I requested this audience in front of you to give you an update about the results of the latest experiment that took place about a month ago in the phisi-teleportic tank of the Facility. As you are aware, the purpose of this experiment as was approved by the Quartet, was to examine if the wormhole at the bottom of the tank lead to a habitable location, and if a human-like mammal can endure the transition. The previous experiments, as you know, included a mouse and a miniature tracker that tried to document the other side of the wormhole with a camera but transmitted only static noise, supposedly due to the damage at the time of transition.
“Yet,” she continued, “the previous experiments proved that since the wormhole remains open to the sub-atomic particle leakage of most likely non-dangerous particles, the computer labs in the Facility receive transmissions from the other side, and we can process the data and read it with the programs written by Firas and the Facility’s programmer staff.”
Nira nodded toward Firas, who sat to Daniel’s left. Firas was the Chief Programmer in the Facility for the past decade, and in these moments he was yawning and playing with his earring. Firas raised his hand and waved at the audience to the sound of scattered applause. Nira laughed inside when she noticed the reprimanding look Daniel shot at him. Nira returned to her speech, the highlight approaching.
Nira took a deep breath and declared, “At 12:35 on Thursday, the 14th of April on the 103rd year to the quarantine, a monkey was transferred in the wormhole, and as of now, it is still living, breathing, feeding properly, receiving vitamins externally and naturally, and its vital signs indicate it is calm and at peace.”
Nira felt the audience stir. At least she didn’t lose them in the scientific part. She saw Daniel smiling at her from the audience, and opened her mouth to continue. Eliana, the Senior Quarter member, cut her off.
“Doctor Vilna, what is the condition of the mouse?” asked Eliana from the front row.
“Excuse me?” asked Nira in surprise.
“The mouse that was transferred through the wormhole half a year ago with the Quartet’s approval. What is his condition?” Eliana asked again.
“Ahem,” Nira cleared her throat and looked at her papers. “According to the data I have here, apparently due to an overload on the data transmission, the data from the mouse was cut off simultaneously as the monkey transferred.”
“Dear Doctor Vilna, I do not understand what you wish we would do with this information,” Phineas, a Quartet member, rose from his chair next to Eliana. “I have listened to your speech, at length, but your goal remains unclear.”
Nira had anticipated Phineas’ aggression but Eliana’s question caught her off guard. Nira began to stutter her reply but Phineas cut her off once again.
“Doctor Vilna, the Quartet’s time is limited.”
“Of course, I-” Nira began.
“As you must be aware, we must handle the upkeep of the Facility and still hold three criminal trials later today. We must prepare for them.”
Nira tightened her jaw in anger. To her understanding, most of the Quartet’s members’ time was spent on artificial tanning beds and the spa installations in the Facility, and not worrying about the residents. But that was a fight for another time.
“Distinguished listeners, the reason that my research has been approved in the first place, is that it is crucial to our survival. The fact of the matter is, that the genetic damages caused to the population of the Gulf in an underground environment that recycles its radiation and cannot filter it, is immense.” Daniel nodded in agreement in the crowd, and Eliana seemed pleased for a reason Nira didn’t understand yet. “There are several issues, and I submit that the main one is the fact that the humans are not the same humans that existed 4 generations ago. But for the general public the main problem is that at the current growth rate of the population, compared with the construction rate of new residence halls in the far off areas, C and D, soon the people of the Gulf will have to limit their procreation rate. My research might bring an end to both those problems.”
“Carry on,” instructed Eliana. Phineas sat down begrudgingly under Eliana’s glare.
“My computer has pictures from the start of the 21st Century, pictures I inherited from my parents. Everyone has abundant hair, ten fingers on their palms, and a nose sticking out of their heads. Can you imagine a world where we won’t have to wonder in fear if our children will have a nose or ten fingers? In the past, our ancestors climbed on trees, we might be able to do it again. And how about our pets that survived? The cats and dogs of the Facility were supposed to be born with a tail and ears. Some don’t have eyes; others don’t have other organs that used to be considered as evolutionarily vital, but now the radiation has made them non-existent. Yet it appears that these genetic changes might still be reversible in Doctor Alexander’s lab.”
Nira gestured toward Daniel, and Eliana turned a curious look at her, one the Nira didn’t particularly like.
“We still don’t understand why are you wasting our time, doctor. Get to the point please,” Phineas noted rudely.
“The point, as I was beginning to say,” emphasized Nira, “That I wish to proceed with my experiments.”
Nira shot and angry and begging look at the Quartet members. “The food cards can only work to a certain degree, and soon the growth rate will overcome not only the construction rate, but the food development and production rate. In order to survive, live and exist in honour, while maintaining our humanity and preventing further genetic distortions in the population, we must find a way to get out of the Gulf, and expand our living space. In order to do that, I wish to conduct another experiment with a human-like mammal. A second monkey that will be transferred through the wormhole, to ratify the experiment results.”
Eliana rose into the silence that followed Nira’s speech, “Thank you Dr. Vilna. The members of the Quartet will discuss your request,” she said, and the meeting adjourned.
After she got off the stage, Nira sat next to Daniel, who squeezed her hand in encouragement. “You spoke well. Maybe you needed to simplify the terms more for, them but you’ve said enough.”
“I still don’t think they understand the urgency yet. I should have scared them a bit more.”
Daniel laughed. “They only fear the end of their octopi supply, which will mean they will have to start eating our food,” she whispered.
“I guess,” Nira chuckled.
After they returned from the break, the members of the Quartet responded in a speech. Eliana got up first, being the General Leader of the Gulf due to her position as the Senior Quartet Member of the Facility, the Governmental organisation of the Gulf, and as the Quartet member in charge of science and culture. Nira had hoped that Eliana will express more excitement or conviction than she did, but she gave a concise and short speech that supported Nira’s proposal to experiment on another monkey. When Eliana returned to her assigned seat in the first row, Nira glared at her. Nira knew that Phineas, Daria and Matityahu, the other members of the Quartet, will fiercely object.
“We are not the last remnant of humanity, assuming that would be pretentious,” Phineas began tiredly. As part of his position as commissioner of enforcement and Eliana’s second, Nira hoped that he would see the advantages of her plan. But as usual, Phineas was unfathomably selfish.
“Humanity outlasted the black plague, the World Wars, the Middle Ages. It survived this as well. We need to focus our efforts on improving the quality of life for the Gulf population, we need to be concerned with our interests first. And our interest is to regulate birth rate, as I have suggested before, to monitor the population’s growth until the nation will come and rescue us. We need to maintain status-quo, not chase down irrelevant scientific fantasies.”
“Scientists are so preoccupied with solving the mysteries of their own creation that they forget that there are more important issues than themselves and their pleasures,” Daria, the third Quartet member, reprimanded. She was in charge of the technology and energy in the Facility, yet abstained from any direct contact with Nira thus far. Part of her position as the commissioner of Gulf Affairs, who was in charge of the contact between the Facility and the general Gulf population, it was rare to see her roaming the Facility halls when there weren’t any assemblies of discussions. But Nira had hoped that as the commissioner of energy Daria could see the advantages of the wormhole. She was wrong however, and unfortunately Nira found Daria’s speech to be the most convincing.
“Monkeys are required for the many experiments that take place in the Facility. It is enough that we have sacrificed one monkey for your ambitious experiment Doctor Vilna. To be frank, we approved this based on your word that the experiment will further our knowledge about the other side, and despite the fact that none of us understands how this wormhole works. But one monkey is not enough for the doctor, and we are not wiser today than we have been before the experiment. She needs to ‘validate’ the results. But in the world that we live in, we cannot allow it. And I also ask, why? The experiment was successful, and that is enough. Now we need to send a message to the other side, let’s focus on that.
“My dear,” Daria continued, “there is no need to find problems where there are not any. In fact, if according to her, the situation is so concerning, then we should move ahead. We cannot satisfy any scientific whim, and Doctor Vilna’s offer is wasteful, disrespectful to our scarce resources and to the residents of the Gulf. It was clearly intended more to promote her own ambition than anything else, and therefore should be rejected.”
Nira looked at the audience increasingly desperately. Daniel closed her eyes in disappointment, and several of the public representatives nodded in agreement when Daria concluded her speech, and began staring at Nira.
However, Matityahu, the fourth Quartet member, was the worst. As the commissioner of health, education and welfare, among other things, most of the Gulf’s resources were actually under his command. But Matityahu was also the Head Rabbi of the Facility, and the Minister of Religions, and while Nira didn’t had bad experiences with him directly, she knew that Daniel despised the way he utilised the religion for his personal benefit and self-promotion. Nira looked at Daniel briefly and saw her lip curl with contempt.
“So we need to sacrifice another monkey now? To verify that the experiment was successful? Why do we need to verify it if the computer data indicates that it was successful? Do we need to doubt our scientists’ ability to read the data correctly now? That is their job! Or perhaps our computers are faulty? Or the optic fibers lack in receiving messages? How could it be otherwise that the computers will show misleading data? The scientist’s claims are unfounded, lack any reason and in fact are intended to create mass hysteria in order to sacrifice another animal when in fact what we need to sacrifice is this experiment, and transfer the resources to somewhere else, such as the development of the institutions of faith and entertainment in the Facility.”
“The data didn’t go through the optic fibers, it’s flat out misleading the public, cheap demagogy-” Daniel began saying, but Nira wasn’t listening to her anymore.
Frustrated, Nira got up and went past Daniel, got out of the discussion hall and marched toward the lab. Gustav barked heartily upon her return and wagged his butt.
“There are pressing matters to deal with, Gustav,” she said and waved her hand.
She started preparing the equipment and opened her personal computer. She opened the Facility’s monkey files and examined the data of the five remaining monkeys. Two fertile males, a pregnant female, an elderly male considered by the others as the father of the group, and an elderly female, cruel and violent. Just as Nira was debating herself between the elderly male, and the elderly female, Daniel walked into the room.
“You still want to conduct the experiment?” She said, disappointed.
“Of course. A group of bored crooks won’t tell me what is best for the people of the Gulf,” Nira spat.
“You know that it is their job to know.”
“You said it yourself, they were spewing lies,” Nira said angrily and raised her voice. She stood up and started pacing around the room. “And when was the last time they went to the joint residences at Area D?” Nira turned toward Daniel. “What do they know about the thefts, the assaults and the strange deaths that happen there?” She turned back, returning to her computer and reviewing the data.
“Nira, think about it rationally, please,” Daniel approached her. “If you do this, it will be the end of your career.”
Nira paused.
“And then who will help the people of the Gulf? You are doing this for them, correct?” Daniel said hesitantly.
“Of course,” Nira replied, her anger subsiding and her mind returning to thinking clearly.
She looked at the screen and reviewed the options. She will perform the experiment, but she will have to be less blunt. Maybe if she will pitch a more concrete suggestion to the Quartet. Nira thought that it will be better for the group to be left with the male, who was the leader, than with the female who caused perpetual discomfort to the group and the scientists that surrounded it. Nira wondered how much it was her personal resentment against the elderly monkey named Medea, or if these were scientific considerations that guided her. But the choice was made.
A knock on the door made Nira and Daniel jump and made Gustav bark in panic.
“Yes?” Nira called, while she’s turning off the computer screen and Daniel is opening the door.
Eliana Asia and Phineas Mariano, the Quartet members, entered the lab, still wearing their robes from the recent deliberation. Nira stood up in fear, glancing at her screen to make sure it was indeed turned off.
“What can I help you with?” she asked as politely as she could at that moment.
Eliana smiled and entered the room, while Phineas remained at the door.
“Come in, my friend, and close the door behind you,” Eliana gestured while sitting down on a one of the chairs.
“I object, Eliana, please note that I object,” he said and entered the room, while closing the door behind him.
“Your objection has been noted my friend, now let’s proceed,” she looked at Daniel. “Could you please leave us with doctor Vilna?”
“I am her full partner, ma’am,” Daniel said nervously.
“You are correct,” Eliana said, “But we must discuss topics that exceeds said partnership.”
Daniel looked at Nira that nodded her head, and left the room.
Eliana followed her with her eyes and when she left, she turned to Nira with a harsh look. “You could have had what you wanted, dear Nira, if you were a bit more patient.”
“There’s no more time for patience Eliana,” Nira fired back. “The people are climbing each other, living in constant anxiety, a feeling of an impending doom that can drop on them at any moment, and they act accordingly. I would expect that at least your deputy will understand that,” she said, looking at Phineas.
“We have managed to contain the people’s pain for 4 generations, Doctor Vilna,” noted Phineas while sitting on a chair across the room, as far away from Nira as possible.
“She is right, my friend,” Eliana sighed. “The population growth in the Gulf and the knowledge of no foreseeable solution to allow people some rest from the constant radiation filtration in the Facility and from creating new resources are exhausting the population.”
“So we need to act as I suggested and finally put a limit to this growth! To legislate like they did in the end of the 20th Century, and to enforce it properly.”
If you remember China, then you must remember the people’s counter response,” Nira noted and crossed her arms. “Murdering babies and trafficking in children on the one hand, and on the other hand deep and long-lasting mental harm caused to the children who grew up from a young age with the entire dynasty’s fate on their shoulders.”
“But look at the economic prosperity that was caused thanks to that!” Phineas shot back.
“If you think the economic prosperity was caused due to the one-child-policy, you need to go back to the Transitioning Class,” Nira said condescendingly. “If the disease and the bombing wouldn’t have destroyed most of humanity, the social disaster forecasts, caused by the limitation of birth-rate, would have come true. You cannot limit reproduction and not expect the economy to collapse in the long run.”
“And that is exactly the problem, dear Nira, you will not receive what you wish by insinuating the Quartet members that they need to return to school,” Eliana said.
“So you want appeasement? Servility? Submissiveness? That is not the scientific way I know, and that is not how history is made,” Nira said.
“Is this your true goal?” Eliana narrowed her eyes, examining Nira with interest.
“Also. All of it. And why is it wrong?” Nira lifted her hands in desperation. “History was built on the shoulders of giants, men and women who were not afraid to speak their mind, to do the impossible, what was right to do, even when politicians like you refused to see the shifting reality. We must adapt, otherwise we will be extinct.”
“That wasn’t my intention-” Eliana began saying.
“Your fear of extinction is the result of a childish paranoia, Nira,” Phineas said.
“Phineas, my friend, we are not here to spar,” reprimanded Eliana.
“I have heard enough, Eliana,” Phineas stood up.
“Sit down, Phineas,” Eliana instructed him. “Please,” she added, and he sat back down with a sour face.
“I am sorry if it bothers you, but this is my opinion,” Nira said. “I am not a crowd pleaser, I leave that to you, but I am asking you to see the inevitable future that we face, and I am asking your help in preventing it.”
“You have our permission to advance in alternative ways Doctor Vilna,” Eliana said. “There won’t be another debate on the matter, but we have discussed it after the session was concluded and we decided to partially approve your request.”
Nira contemplated Eliana’s words.
“I can conduct another experiment,” Nira said.
“Yes, with a mouse,” Eliana replied.
“I will not receive another monkey,” Nira asked.
“No.”
“I thank you,” Nira nodded.
“If your convictions are so strong, then I suggest you take advantage of this opportunity to verify the results in other ways, Doctor Vilna,” Phineas said.
Nira nodded again and walked Phineas and Eliana to the door. Eliana turned to look at Nira.
“Blessed you be, my dear.”
The following day Nira replaced Tal, the duty inspector in the cage room, according to their arrangement. Once every couple of weeks Nira would hang out in the cage room and Tal would meet with his friends for a cards game and gambling, that were illegal in the Facility. Since Tal was Eliana’s nephew the charges against him were dropped several times after he has been arrested, but his family was starting to give up on him and the arrangement with Nira helped him avoid getting arrested again. Nira on her part loved the company of animals from a very young age, and preferred it over the company of many people since she found the animals caused her less anxiety. That evening Nira had a different goal.
Nira tracked down Medea, and met a monkey wide awake, as if she was waiting especially for her. Nira shivered, and while she was looking at Medea’s sad look in its intelligent eyes, she fired two tranquilizing shots at the monkey. Just in case, Nira told herself, so it won’t wake up in the middle of the experiment and awake the entire Facility. Nira began to shake. She took a deep breath and used the mechanical arm to transfer Medea to the mobile cage.
Nira led Medea to the water tank hall and up toward the ceiling of the Facility and placed it in the claws, well wrapped in the metallic arms that may lead to its death. Nira shook her head, she pitied the monkey but felt like the pity was meant for the survivors, and humans need to survive first. Gustav was waiting for Nira tied in the control room above the water tank. Nira activated the electric current, and the magnet at the bottom of the tank started spinning. She amplified the current to 1,500 Amperes.
The water whipped at the vortex rims, and Gustav hopped on the table, barking at the water tank, looking at Nira in fear. Nira returned Gustav’s look pensively. Could it be that the other side is not built for humans, but rather only for smaller animals, stronger than them, faster than them? Better than them, Nira whispered. The monkeys were just as intelligent as humans, she knew. Their intelligence was expressed differently than humans, which is why, for hundreds of years, if not thousands, humans assumed they are an inferior animal, along with all its species and subspecies. But when Darwin published “The Descent of Man”, humanity understood that in fact monkeys and humans are closer than what was imagined. Is it not possible that the future is in their hands of all places? Nira asked herself. Do they not possess the same right we do, their bigger and controlling siblings, to survive? And what about our dog siblings?
Gustav looked back at Nira in confusion mixed with excitement. Nira looked at him with big eyes, which weren’t common for her, and then picked him up. She felt him relishing the warmth of her embrace, but then he felt her shaking and resumed his barking with renewed fear. She put him on the floor, tightened his leash and scribbled something in the notepad in front of her. She tore off the page and placed it on the screen, got up from her chair and got out.
When Nira returned Medea to her cage twenty minutes later, the elderly monkey opened her eyes slightly and looked at Nira sleepily. Nira thought she saw Medea nodding, so she nodded back to her, turned on her heels and left. Tal still hasn’t returned from the game, Nira hasn’t been away for more than an hour. She locked the room behind her and went back to the water tank.
Nira got up the spiral staircase in the water tank room that led to the claws above it. She connected herself to the equipment, swallowed the electronic pill, examined the camera on the claws and placed it on herself. Before she got in them, Nira set the claws to auto-pilot, tuning them to five minutes, and in the meantime she listened to Gustav, barking from the control room window.
Her heart started pounding as if it were about to depart from her body, demanding to stay, and after a few moments the claws were activated, lowering Nira and pausing above the water tank, above the heart of the vortex. She took a deep breath, wondering what she will meet on the other side, and collected her body to a fetal position. That way, her fall will be less painful when she hits the bottom. The claws released Nira, which started to free fall into the heart of the vortex, the air resisting her body at first, but becoming surprisingly less resistant as she progresses.
She slows down, closes her eyes, hopeful, as she is sucked into the wormhole.