Bubble

Chapter 32

Emma had seen lots of sunrises in her life, whether it be through the thick layers of smog on earth, or in the clear skies of Nova Kai. Being an early bird, you would think she would tire of them, but they never ceased to amaze her. But this sunrise- the one she watched through the slatted windows of a rover- came with mixed feelings. It was as breathtakingly beautiful as always, but brought with it a great deal of sadness. Emma tried to steady her shaky breathing as she soaked in all of nature’s beauty, hoping she would get to continue to see it for many years to come. She felt Will’s hand on her knee, and knew he was trying to calm her, but she continued to drown in her thoughts. It wasn’t until the convoy of rovers began to slow that Emma lifted her head from it’s resting position in her hand to look out over the clearing ahead. The fleet of vehicles strategically parked around the circle, and a group of soldiers set up a perimeter around the area before allowing the rest of the civilians to exit the rovers. Will helped Emma out of the back seat, and she squinted as the bright light hit her eyes; it had been darker in the car.

Emma had only been to the tesseract site once- when they had come through over two months ago. She had been quite disoriented then, and too focused on the trees and bright sky to remember what the area looked like. It was a medium size space, only about ten meters across both ways. Dense jungle surrounded the dirt clearing, except for the small road they had just come in on. She looked for some sort of machine where the tesseract would open, but the only other thing in sight was a giant rock- almost ten feet tall- that stood in the back of the area. A small keypad-like object was mounted to the side, barely visible.

Abigail brushed past her, lugging a suitcase out of the back of one of the rovers, and heading towards the stone. “Is that...” Emma started, walking with her and pointing to the sizable boulder looming before them. Dr. Truman nodded, kneeling down to open the suitcase and laying out the instruments it contained.

“Remember, Emma, that the tesseract is a natural occurring phenomenon in nature. It need only be activated with a machine on one side, and it just so happens to spit out on this end through a rock,” she said, gesturing to the slab of granite.

Emma felt her cheeks tinged red in embarrassment, ashamed that she hadn’t known more about the subject prior to the day. According to everyone she had ever met, she was the brilliant science girl, and aren’t brilliant science girls supposed to know everything? Particularly everything on the subject they are working with to save mankind? Abigail must have picked up on her internal frustrations and paused to look up at her.

“There are no stupid questions, just stupid people. And you, Emma, are certainly not stupid. Quite on the contrary.” She resumed her work, leaving Emma dumbfounded at her comment. Was she really that easy to read? She shook her head and let out a muffled laugh under her breath, turning to retrieve her own suitcase out of the rover.

They worked in silence for the next three hours, fiddling with the little keypad on the boulder and toying with the algorithm on their plexipads. They had long since finished their important work, but tried to look like they still had things to do, although it became impossible after a while. The entire group was on edge, the seemingly endless waiting beginning to take it’s toll. Emma checked her plex for the time, finding it was almost ten.

She stood up from her place on the ground to go and find Will, who was stationed on the edge of the clearing, scanning the opposite tree line intently. He softened as she walked up, lowering his hand that had been previously placed on the handle of his gun. “Hey.” Emma returned his greeting with a small smile, coming to a stop next to him. He cracked some joke about the tesseract, and they talked aimlessly as another half an hour ticked by.

“Wait, you wanted a panda? Like that bear that used to live in Asia?” Emma asked, laughing so hard her stomach hurt. Will nodded, turning pink, and she burst out into another fit of giggles; they had been exchanging funny stories to try and lighten the mood. But her chuckles came to an instant stop as a whirling sound started behind her, and she whipped her head around to find the boulder flickering to life.