Bubble

Chapter 25

I was a very active person, and there was always something I had to do. From the crack of dawn, I was up working on a crazy project, or reading anything about science that I could get my hands on. But the morning after Dr. Truman was arrested, I just sat in my bed, watching old movies on my plexipad. Work had been cancelled for the day, and I didn't really feel like doing much.

When I had woken up, I had nearly thought the events of the previous night had been a dream, until dad assured me that it most definitely wasn't. I wasn't upset because I was close to Dr. Truman, we were just co workers, but I was more pissed that someone I thought I could trust betrayed the colony. It had put me in a funk the whole day.

"Emma?" dad said as he slid my door open and walked into my room. He came over and sat on the edge of my bed. "I know you're not up to doing much, but I need you to come down to the command center with me to talk with Dr. Truman," he told me, a cautious tone in his voice.

I was confused, but I nodded and told him that I would be out in a minute.

After I had gotten changed out of my pajamas, we walked down to the security section of the large command centre building. Dad held open a door for me, and I walked in to find Dr. Truman sitting at a wooden table in a plain room. There was only one window, but it had a nice view of the jungle beyond the fence, and let a decent amount of light into the room. Dr. Truman looked tired, but better than I would have expected. Captain Deller was extremely protective of the Eos, and was so mad about the security breach that I assumed the hacker would have been severely punished when they were caught.

Dr. Truman looked up at the sound of someone entering, and her eyes widened when she saw me, her mouth opening to speak. I averted my eyes to the floor, and tried to contain my frustration towards the woman.

"Emma..." she started.

"Why?" I asked, my tone cool and harsh. "You have such a great life here; you're such a great scientist!" I argued.

Dr. Truman looked hurt by my words, and her eyes became glassy. "It's not like that Emma. It wasn't my choice and I tried to get out of it but..." she trailed off and a tear rolled down her cheek.

I let out an exasperated sigh, frustrated by her excuses. "But what?!" I heaved out.

"But they threatened to kill my husband," Dr. Truman squeaked, barely above a whisper. My tense shoulders relaxed a little as I processed her words, realising there was more to the story than I had originally thought.

"They told me that they would sent me to Eos, and if I helped get them information and completed my job, they would keep him alive and send him here after everything had been done," she continued, trying to further explain her actions. "They...they wanted me to help them make the tesseract stabilised on this end, so they could bring things through easier and more frequently. I tried to tell them that there is not a way for us to harness that kind of energy here, but they didn't believe me. I had no choice. I never wanted to betray Eos."

I took a deep breath and tried to think about the information. "Okay," I said quietly, letting her know that I believed her story. Dr. Truman may have gotten slightly off the hook, but I was not in much of a forgiving mood. Dad stepped out of the corner from where he had been supervising our conversation.

"But that's not all..." he continued for Dr. Truman. "According to the doctor here, the government has their calculations wrong. If they attempt to do what they're planning, it will collapse the tesseract, and destroy everything on both ends. But, she also says there is a way to destabilise the tesseract so that nothing can get through it. And it's not reversible."

My brain was going into overload at the influx of information, but I continuously nodded my head to tell them that I was understanding. Still confused as to what I was doing here, I opened my mouth to ask, but dad cut me off.

"You are the only other scientist that knows anything about this, and we need to keep it that way. You and Dr. Truman will have to work together on the project. This can only be done when the tesseract is open, so you will both have to be prepared to do this quickly when the time comes. The materials are still being prepped, so you won't start for a few days, but you'll have a private lab set up here when you do start working," dad finished.

"Wait," I said, holding up her hand. "It's irreversible? Are we really ready to be cut off? The population in barely hovering at five-thousand." I raised my eyebrows at dad, before turning to Dr. Truman. "I don't know how much you've been lying about, but let's hope those college degrees weren't just part of a fake resume," I told her, my tone icy. "If we are able to do this, can the colony even stay above water?"

"It's a risk both ways, but we have a better chance of survival if we cut ourselves off from Earth."

I took a deep breath. It was almost too much for me to handle. In less than twenty-four hours, I had learned that Dr. Truman was the security breach, that she was being blackmailed into it, and now that I would need to work with her in order to save everyone. The fate of the world literally rested on my shoulders.