Seventh 2 Survive (WAYHAUGHT)

28-1

Swan's freighter landed near the settlement. He had made two journeys, Xavier emerging this time, heading to the underground parking lot where the monk waited. The pair would travel on to the facility, too risky to bring Swan's ship closer. Waverly and Nicole were waiting for them in the scientist's quarters. Xavier filled the room as he entered, his weathered features still attractive, a shyness coming over Waverly in his presence.

"We meet," he said, offering her his hand. "Your photo lies."

His grip was firm, his skin rough, his shake vigorous. She glanced at Nicole, who was focused on their dancing hands, Waverly's heart dancing too. Jealous girlfriend much.

Xavier stretched out his hand towards Nicole. "You are one of us now. Welcome."

Reluctantly she accepted the gesture. She already didn't like this Xavier, or his presumption of her.

"I have to ask," Waverly said. "You speak so I can understand you. You don't speak-"

"Sky speak," he replied. "I speak both. Surface and Sky."

"Is that what it's called? Yours is...I like your accent."

Nicole bristled. "I speak both."

Waverly squeezed Nicole's hand. "I love your accent too."

Water served, Xavier was keen to know about the old world.

"It's different," Waverly said. "Very different."

"I have heard liquor rises from the ground. And food can be picked from trees, as you can in this place."

Waverly nodded. "Everything that's grown here was once able to grow outside."

He lifted a beaker to his lips, taking several gulps of disinfected water. "I hear the air can be breathed without a mask."

"Yes," she replied. "And there are oceans and seas and rivers, teaming with life. And so much more."

"There are no domes," he added. "You do not work in domes."

"That's right, we don't work in domes. "There are farms, and orchards."

The more questions he asked the more she could sense his thirst, his desire to absorb every last drop of information he could squeeze from her. And yet, with every new piece of information imparted, she also sensed an enormous reservoir still to be filled, a vast void between her explanation and his understanding. The definition of a strawberry failing to convey the sweetness of its juice.

How to explain a world so different. She remembered her own desperate need to understand the world Haught had travelled from, trying to filter tomorrow's world through the eyes of her today. She thought she understood, that is until she felt beneath her own feet what had become of her beloved Earth. Then she understood, really understood.

If only he could experience what the Earth might be like again. Not that he needed convincing of a renewed world. She could tell by his observations he understood the importance of what the scientist was trying to achieve.

"Orchards and farms," he repeated, without any concept of each. "And no domes."

"I can show you if you like."

The others stared at her.

Nicole grabbed Waverly's hand, dragging her outside, closing the door after them. "No."

"Why not?"

"Because...because, I don't trust him."

"Really," Waverly replied. "We're at extinction level crisis here, so I seriously doubt one more person zooming back to the past is really going to make much of a difference, is it?"