Chapter 21
The flight was slower on the way back, as they had to stop several times for a while to rest and warm up. Without a cockpit windshield, it was getting pretty cold. Eventually with help from another flying drone, Simon had been able to rig up a pair of harnesses beneath the flyers. After that, the flight had been much quicker, if still just as cold and terrifying. By the time they returned, Simon's arms were still sore, and his stomach felt like it was turning inside out. Still, one day of airborne terror beat five days of walking through the wilderness.
Just before they got within sight of Harmony, their drones split apart. Simon's drone continued on course to the northern airlock, while Diana's circled around behind module warehouse. It was supposed to drop her off there, so she could enter from the west in secret. How she'd be able to keep her absence a secret, he had no idea. Maybe it would be better if he didn't know.
For some reason, Noah had agreed to keep Diana's participation in this little venture a secret. He hadn't said why, and that worried Simon. Maybe he was just letting them stew a bit before punishing them, or maybe he wanted their punishment to be private. Or maybe, just maybe, he was considering letting them off the hook. That was a weird saying, Simon had always thought. If fishermen on Earth put worms on hooks, and then took them off, the impaled worms would probably still die. It wasn't like they weren't in trouble anymore.
He entered the airlock quickly, letting the decon sweep proceed. From the close quarters, he could tell he didn't smell too good. It may have been cold outside, but both he and Diana had been sweating a lot with all the physical effort.
When the inner door opened, he was inundated with clapping! Simon stepped out to see most of the settlement there, applauding him in a wide circle around the airlock. He stepped forward nervously, moving over to where Tycho, Hippo, Massimo and Sarah were waiting. He shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with the crowd, as a bunch of them swarmed around. Simon caught sight of Diana coming in through the now-opened middle door, and hid a smile. No one looked like they'd seen her.
There were drones in attendance as well, clapping as well as their plastic hands could keep up. So much for his hopes of returning quietly. He endured the adulation as best he could, hoping it would be over soon.
Noah dismissed the others to their beds, given how late it was, and some of his drones were already in the dorms prepping the kids for sleep. One drone remained in the dining room though, as most of the first class assembled around it. Adam and Massimo had apparently just arrived too, still shivering and bundled up. For once Adam didn't look at him as if he was some kind of walking disappointment. He even nodded over in Simon’s direction!
"I know you're all tired, and you've had a pretty rough day," Noah began. "You've shouldered burdens well beyond your age, whether here or on Earth. I can't feel pride, but I can assure that if I could, it's all I'd be feeling right now. You took the tools I gave you, and used them well. You worked together to survive, both in Harmony and out near my core drives. You kept everyone safe, both in the dorms and in the cold-storage unit. From what I can tell, the cell samples are all still viable," he added, and Simon let out a breath of relief.
There were others who felt the same, he could tell. The last of the modules would be coming down from orbit in a few more years, and then all of those precious DNA samples would be here. Turning New Eden into the paradise it was named for would be impossible without them. For most of the kids here though, it was more about experiencing these animals and plants for themselves for the first time.
"What about those armed drones back at your core drives?" Simon put in, still a little sore about that. He'd thought about it on the way over. The smart move would be to keep quiet about it, hoping that Noah would use it as a reason to go easy on him and Diana. Still, other people might someday go up there, and they deserved to know about the turrets filled with spinning death. "I could have been killed, and then who would have put your com array back together?"
The others looked at him in surprise, and he quickly explained what had happened just outside Noah's core. "I'm sorry, Simon," Noah said softly. "I was programmed to build those as soon as I landed, in case of hostile life on this planet. Fortunately it was never necessary to build more than a handful. There were no hostile life forms here to contend with."
"Not hostile maybe, but definitely harmful," Adam said, coughing a little. "Didn't you check the air for those algae things years ago?"
Simon listened as Massimo and Bez explained the alien 'infestation' of their air supply, and shook his head slowly. He didn't need to show skepticism, though. Noah beat him to it. "I apologize again, because there's been a misunderstanding here. That alga is not extraterrestrial at all. It's called Chlorella vulgaris, and I've been using it since I first built this dome. It's part of the O2 generation process. I'd been programmed to also supply it as a food source, but it seems the alga's genome was affected during the long trip from Earth. It's no longer nutritious, and has become light enough to mix with the air."
Simon didn't even know how to think about that. This was Hippo's area, and Anton's, not his. "You can fix it though, right?"
"Of course. The drones told me what was going on almost as soon as it happened, but I couldn't fix the problem until I could respond to their signals. Once I got back in contact with the dome, I introduced a counteragent into the air. Everyone inside the dome should be back to normal in a few days." There was a sense of relief at that, though Hippo looked a bit irked that he hadn't known about this ahead of time, and Bez was right there with him.
"Massimo, Adam, you will be pleased to know that your plan would most likely have worked. There was limestone near where you were, more than enough to dry out the air in this dome. By my calculations, you were only minutes away from finding it yourselves."
They did look pleased, as the crowd clapped for them as well. Noah turned to face Argent. "As for your efforts at the solar cells, you were able to restore power to the electrolysis plant, and to Harmony itself."
Adam led the round of applause this time, and Argent looked down, shuffling his feet. Noah held up a hand. "That said, you would have been unable to keep the refrigeration units inside the sample warehouse going. The bag you used to carry your replacement circuitry was not completely watertight. During your swim across the strait, about a third of your equipment was compromised. You would have been forced to return to Harmony, on foot, to get more, and that would have taken too long."
Argent grimaced. "I still got a ways to go then, I guess."
"You kept them breathing," Simon reminded him, clapping him on the shoulder. "You and Bez both. I'm happy enough for that." Argent looked a little happier after hearing that.
The drone's head tilted slightly. "I've calculated the odds of this mission succeeding to this point. The odds of Harmony having an electrical engineer skilled enough to repair my array was about seventy percent. The odds that Simon's pilot training was enough for him to fly the plane successfully was at forty-three percent."
Simon tried not to look too guilty when he heard that. Noah was still keeping his and Diana's secret for some reason, and he wasn't about to complain about it.
Noah went on steadily. "The odds of you being able to correctly identify that the problem was an EMP was at fifty-two percent," he added to Tycho on the side. "The odds of you being able to neutralize the algae without my input was actually over sixty, though being able to do so in time to save everyone was under twenty-one, and those were only the most obvious calculations. All told, the chances that we would all survive this event, with the cell samples intact, was under .8%. Well done, everyone. Well done indeed. Now, most of you should be in bed by now, and the rest have some cleaning up to do first. Off you go, everyone."
He gave a pointed glance to Simon, as the crowd broke up, and then repeated it for Diana. Simon looked over at her, and they both followed his drone off to the left, down one of the hallways towards the kitchen. Once they were all there, Noah looked around, and closed the kitchen door. It was just the three of them.
-.-
He folded his mechanical arms. "Don't take my delay in your punishment as me condoning what you've done. I simply didn't want to add further confusion to your siblings, after such a long and hard day. I may yet tell them everything. It depends on how you explain yourselves. How completely you explain yourselves, here and now. Clearly, you've been communicating with each other in secret for a long time. Tell me how."
Simon shared an uncomfortable glance with Diana, and slowly, they started to tell the story. They traded off, little by little, but nothing they said was untrue. How it had started at the Naming Day, and how Simon had convinced Diana to use flashlights and tap code at first. How it had developed into consoles and lasers, how they'd read books together, and then talked about them afterwards. The whole story of what they'd been up to so far. Sheesh, it had only been a few months since Naming Day, but it felt like a lifetime ago!
Noah had seemed particularly disturbed by how Simon had been able to disable their trackers. Simon was quick to assure him that he hadn't done any reprogramming of Noah's core directives or anything. Just some minor priority shifting in the tracker system. It sounded bad even saying that much.
For her part, Diana was quick to take responsibility. She claimed she'd urged Simon to teach her and set up the simulator, even though he'd done it as a birthday surprise for her. She said it had been her idea from the start. So... not entirely a true story, then. Still, he was grateful she wanted to protect him. From their late-night conversations, he'd learned how much she cared for the kids in her care, how she protected them at first, until they were older and could to it for themselves.
Their story finally petered out, and Noah just stared at them for a long time. He closed his 'eyes' briefly, in a simulation of frustration. "Did neither of you give any thought to the Doctrines of the Faith? To the place a woman must have, as a caretaker of children, or nurse of the sick? As a teacher and advisor? It's not your place to just decide, independently of a man, to take action that might be disastrous! You chose to communicate with Simon, despite the rules, and you enabled her in that, Simon. You both did it in secret because you knew it was wrong. Diana, you chose to learn how to fly, and then you chose to take that plane up into the mountains. They weren't your decisions to make!"
"But she didn't!" Simon protested. "I asked her to fly the plane! I knew I couldn't do it. She was willing to—”
"Simon," she cut him off, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I can speak for myself."
"Right," he muttered, looking down at his feet.
Diana took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders, and looked Noah right in the eye. "I accept responsibility for all my actions. If you need to punish me for what I've done, fine. If you have to tell everyone what I did, and make a big public deal of it, that's fine too. Just remember that if I hadn't done that, and if Simon hadn't given me the chance to learn how, you would still be stuck alone and mute, up on that plateau. No voice, no arms, or hands. Able to see and hear what's going on around you, but not being able to do a thing about any of it!"
She sighed. "That's how I feel every day, Noah. Thanks to Simon, I know what's going on in the boys' side, and what projects they're doing. I know about Tycho's telescope, and Adam and John's constitution. I know Simon's just trying to help, but in some ways it only makes it worse! I want to help too! I can see what's going on, but the rules of the Faith keep me from helping. I'm just like you were, only I started out that way!"
Simon had never thought about it that way before. He'd known she was unhappy, but feeling trapped like that? It sounded horrible.
Diana shook her head. "As for the rules about women, Deborah herself was a warrior, wasn't she? In the Bible she led men into battle, as one of the Judges! If we're supposed to live according to the Bible's teachings, shouldn't we live according to all of them? I'm not saying all the girls are like me, or like Deborah, but shouldn't some be allowed to act like her if they want to?"
Simon remembered the Bible stories they'd all read earlier on. Bible studies had been a part of life for as long as any of them could remember, and he knew all about the various Judges before Israel had any kings. He hadn't thought of Diana herself when reading about Deborah, but it was a good connection.
Noah shook his head. "The Doctrines of the Faith are part of my core programming—I can't just ignore them. No matter how useful your actions were to me, and to Harmony."
Feeling incredulous, Simon had to speak up at that. "Useful?" He bit out, barely remembering to keep his voice down. "If she hadn't flown that plane, you'd still be stuck up there! Those cell samples in storage would be jelly by now, and a bunch of kids here in the dome would probably be dead! Your mission would have failed, Noah! It sounds to me like the Doctrines are getting in the way here, not helping."
Both of them were staring at him as if he'd just grown horns or something. Simon took a deep breath and tried to focus. "Look, before all this started, Argent told me something that got me thinking. I think... that the historical files you're missing weren't lost. I think they were deleted. On purpose, by the Cradle scientists themselves! The missing data is so specific, and what's left doesn't contradict anything the Faith histories say. I've been over it again and again. I think that they did this to you intentionally, Noah. And if they could do that, maybe they were wrong about the Doctrines, too!"
Noah shook his head. "I was given detailed files about how to raise you kids. I was told specifically what to do and how to do it. They anticipated problems such as this. This is just a rebellious phase, typical of teenaged behavior. You're rebelling against authority, and using justifications to make it sound reasonable to yourselves."
"Or we're right, and you're the one lying to yourself," Simon retorted, feeling like he was beating his head against a wall here.
Again, Diana put a hand on his shoulder, and he relaxed a bit. She stepped towards Noah, speaking up in Simon's place. "Noah, we're not asking to turn Harmony inside out or anything. So far, I'm the only girl I've seen who resents being boxed in like this. All the others follow Sarah's example, and don't talk much about what's going on outside our half of the dome, unless it's about the next time they get to see the boys at a dinner or a movie. I'm not trying to change any of that. I'm not Boudica—I don't want to be some kind of revolutionary or anything. I just want to fly. Please, just let me keep the secret and keep learning how."
Simon had seen into Noah's programming. He still didn't understand most of it, but he'd seen the directives themselves, and how they pushed him and pulled him this way and that. Right now Noah's programming was telling him to punish them for disobeying the Doctrines. It was also telling him that punishing them would mean revealing what they'd done. Some would condemn her, and some would be inspired by her. Some people would start questioning the Doctrines themselves, like Diana was doing. He smiled slowly as he realized which of Noah's directives would win out.
"Very well," Noah said finally. "In the interests of maintaining Harmony, and yes, I recognize the irony in that statement, I will keep the secret for now. I expect both of your cooperation in this. And I expect you," he focused on Diana, "to let me know immediately if any other girls start to show signs of discontent like you have."
"What will you do to them?" Simon asked suspiciously.
"Gently guide them back into following the Doctrines, of course," he said immediately. "The only reason Diana got so far out of the norm is because I didn't know about her. And one of the only reasons I'm allowing her to stay out of the norm is because Harmony is still too fragile to deal with publicly forcing her back into place. As long as you both keep the secret, I'm willing to, as well."
Simon didn't like the sound of that, but Diana seemed happy with it. She extended a hand to Noah's drone, and, after a moment, he shook it. Maybe it would work out in the end, Simon hoped, but he was afraid it might just get worse. Noah might decide Harmony was strong enough, eventually, and then she'd be punished. Along with Simon.
"As for you," he looked back at Simon. "I can't allow you to alter my settings anymore. You are denied access to my core programming from now on, understood?"
He nodded. "I get it. It felt wrong, doing it at all, so it's kind of a relief now that I can't."
"Does anyone else know that you can, or could, hide their trackers from me?"
Simon hesitated. He'd deleted the tracker history from Noah's memory, so Noah couldn't confirm where they'd been after the fact. Still, he might have heard Argent say something after the blackout. It was best to tell him the truth. "Argent kinda found out. When he found the simulator. He likes to visit the greenhouse after hours to do some work on his commissary stuff."
Noah couldn't possibly know about their trip to steal seeds. Simon had deleted that as well. Maybe he was turning out to be more like the Cradle scientists than he'd thought.
"I see. Does Argent know about Diana?"
Simon shook his head. "Not what she can do. He thinks that we're together, actually, and that it's why I went over to the girls' side that one night. I... let him keep thinking that. It's better that way."
Diana's eyes widened. "You didn't tell me he thought that."
"I didn't want it to be weird," he said helplessly. And truthfully. As much as he liked Diana, he'd never looked at her, or any other girl for that matter, like that. Adam and Massimo and some of the others were starting to court some of the girls during their social engagements, but Simon had never really cared about that. After a moment, he remembered what Noah was talking about. "So, what do I tell 'Gent, now that I can't make trackers invisible to you anymore?"
"Nothing. As far as Argent is concerned, you can still hide people from me. Just be sure to tell me when he asks you to do so. If he tells anyone else what you can 'do', tell me that as well."
Simon gaped at him, before remembering to close his mouth. Somehow he'd expected both him and Argent to be put in detention for the next two months because of this. But boys breaking the rules apparently wasn’t a threat to the Doctrines. "You're... going to let him keep breaking the rules? Even after all this?"
Noah's voice took on a wry tone. "It's been made abundantly clear to me that children must be allowed a certain amount of misbehavior, to a point. As long as they're not putting themselves in danger, or anyone else, I'll be content just monitoring the situation. If Argent thinks he's 'getting away' with things, and tells anyone else, at least I'll be able to keep them all safe while they're at it. If things get out of hand, I can 'discover' what they're up to, and punish everyone involved."
Simon shook his head. Parenting was complicated, but at least Noah could handle complicated. "Can we, uh, go now? I don't want Diana to get in trouble being in the boys' side so late."
Diana rolled her eyes at him, but he just clenched his jaw. She might resent it, but he wasn't wrong.
After what seemed like a small eternity, Noah nodded. "I'll make your excuses with Sarah and the others who've noticed you're missing. Off to bed, both of you."
Diana reached out and squeezed Simon's hand, and then they both sped off.
