I

Tenzin was alone in Syracuse for the first time, but she barely even noticed it. Yes, it would have been nice to have been at least offered the chance to join the team on the expedition, but she could hardly blame Derrin for wanting her to stay behind on this venture, specifically. A voice in her head told her that it was because she was being under-estimated, because she was a woman, because none of the crew respected her and her abilities, but she knew that this was all just because of her paranoia. Derrin only wanted her to be safe, and he knew that she had work to take care of here, with the gopher dissection. If she were honest with herself, had Derrin offered to take her along on the trip, she likely would have turned him down, anyway. There were more pressing matters at hand, and her pride demanded that she be the one to disassemble the rodent.

It had not been a great amount of fun, learning that Mikhail was going on the trip and she was not. After all, she would have been able to offer more helpful insight than he was. Still, she did prefer to be alone in Syracuse, if the other option was sharing it with Mikhail. She had read all of Mikhail’s work, and found it to be well-versed and insightful. She disagreed with some of his observations, but that simply demonstrated the diversity in Euroasian culture, and the social climate in pre-reversionist Russia. Before meeting him, she would have been anxious, even excited by the prospect of being trapped in a scientific cabal with him. After having spent the limited time with him that she had, her view of him had been modified. She had no doubt that he was still brilliant; the papers that she had read were evidence of that. There was simply too much personality to chip through in order to access the brilliance, and she did not have time for that at the moment.

They were stuck together, so she would likely need to find the time at some point. Right now, though, she was busy.

Walking into her lab, she pulled the gopher’s body out of the containment drawer and, once again, lay it out on the table. Looking at the grotesque corpse still gave her chills, as she remembered the creature attacking her, with it’s teeth savagely tearing into her suit, breaking the skin on her leg. Her mind froze as she visualized the animal’s saliva, entering her body, contaminating her blood stream with the foreign toxins that it introduced. She tried not to think about the effects that it had on her, turning her into a weak, giggling, girl, dependent on others to carry her. In her mind, she saw the gopher, slightly anthropomorphic, laughing at her pain. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, remembering who she was.

“Archimedes,” she called, “would you be interested in aiding me with the dissection of the brain and the blood analysis?”

“I thought you would never ask,” Archimedes answered her immediately, walking through the door, this time wearing a standard lab coat. “It’s always enjoyable working with you, Dr. St. Crow.”

Tenzin almost jumped at the speed with which Archimedes arrived, then laughed quietly despite herself. Archimedes was everywhere, so it made sense that he would appear, the moment that she alerted him. It was only for their benefit that he conformed to typical human behavior, walking the halls the way that a human would, and taking time to arrive, when alerted.

“Did I do something humorous?” Archimedes asked, as he peered over the body of the gopher.

“No, it was me,” Tenzin replied. Walking to the opposite side of the room, she pulled a thin knife, along with a precision laser unit, out of a drawer.

“I have been watching this room for quite awhile,” Archimedes observed “and I can say with some certainty that you have done nothing humorous.”

“Well, thank you for that,” Tenzin sighed, as she advanced on the table to begin her work. “I like to think that I use very little humor in my methodology. I actually take great pride in the fact that no one has ever accused me of being very fun at all.”

Archimedes frowned, and looked at Tenzin with confusion. “I sense that your comment is sarcastic, but I’m not quite sure why. Please understand that my observation that you hadn’t done anything humorous was not meant as a critique. If anything, it was praise. The things that I find humor in are generally at the expense of the team, and you have entertained me the least. I’m a jackass, remember?”

Tenzin nodded. “I do,” she said, beginning to cut into the gopher’s cranium with the knife. “I can only imagine the things that you might find funny about me, but I would rather you not enlighten me, as to what those things are. You are the only individual that I feel completely comfortable working with, and I suspect that this feeling is shared by many of my human collaborators. I would prefer to leave our relationship untarnished.”

“I sense that something is bothering you, Dr. St. Crow,” Archimedes muttered, as he stared over Tenzin’s shoulder, watching her carefully making the incision. “Had I sympathetic programing, I would likely seek to comfort you. As I do not, I will simply ask if your emotional state is compromising your work in any way.”

Tenzin chose to ignore that comment as she carefully pealed the gopher’s skin away from it’s scull, scraping samplings of the moist viscera into a test-tube, and passing it to Archimedes. “Test this,” she instructed him. “Let me know about any genetic anomalies. I’m going to start getting through the skull, into the gray matter, to see what I can determine.”

Archimedes bowed slightly as he accepted the tube. “Your wish, m’lady,” he paraphrased the cliche, with a canned Oldworld British accent that Tenzin recognized from cinema. She smiled at him charitably, and he turned away, heading toward a free testing area.

Taking the laser between her fingers, Tenzin aimed it precisely at the skull, and cut a small hole in the cranium. After creating the hole, she very carefully traced parietal suture, and continued up the sagital crest. The backside of the skull opened, revealing the brain. Tenzin stared at it for a moment, perplexed. While there did not appear to be anything wrong with it, something about it annoyed her.

“It’s as we expected,” Archimedes’ voice made her jump slightly, as her focus was violently torn back to reality. “The sample that you’ve supplied me with definitely contains properties which are inconsistent with the gophers that we’re familiar with. The toxicity levels and chemical balances, for instance, are awkward.”

“Archimedes, come look at this,” Tenzin instructed him, motioning to the exposed brain.

Setting the sample aside for a moment, Archimedes slid up next to Tenzin, leaned in, and frowned. “Fascinating,” he muttered.

“Am I seeing that correctly?” Tenzin queried. “It looks like an irritation in the frontal lobe.”

Archimedes nodded, without looking away from the gopher’s brain. “There sure is,” he confirmed. “It looks to be in the precise areas which register heat and color, enhancing those senses.”

Tenzin frowned at Archimedes for a moment before shaking her head. “There’s no way that you could know that, exactly,” she grumbled.

“There’s not,” Archimedes conceded, “but it is a fairly educated theory. For further information, we would probably need to run observational tests on a live subject, but as it seems right now--”

“The creatures will be attracted to fire,” Tenzin completed his thought. “I need to alert the group, immediately.”

As she prepared to inform the rest of the group of the dangers that could occur, should one of the creatures actually be set on fire, a thought crept into her mind. It was hazardous, of course, but she may have discovered a relatively safe way to capture a live specimen.

II

Bart took a cutting laser from his bag, and cut a sampling from one of flowering plants along the way. “This appears similar to Maiden’s Wreath,” he muttered as he deposited the sample into an airtight container. “That would make sense, with it being native to this area, but I should run diagnostics to test for discrepancies.”

I know zat I am zee low man on ze roster, here,” Mikhail’s analytical voice interrupted his mental flow, “but does it make sense for you to be taking random samples from plants that do not appear to have changed? Ve vill run out of room in our case soon, if you continue to do zis.”

“I’m just trying to be as efficient as possible,” Bart replied, considering his vocal habits more closely. The first comment had meant to have been an observation that he made to himself, but the communication devices within the hazmat suits (which he was still not completely convinced that they needed) were sensitive, broadcasting his monologue to every member of the team. Before the experiment, he had grown accustomed to working alone, so talking to himself was a habit that he would need to break. It was nice to have other associates in the field with him, but it would take some time to get used to.

“He’s doing his job,” Derrin informed the group from where he was, at the head of the group, clearing the way. “Bart’s just trying to collect as much data as he can about the indigenous life here, and how it was effected by the atmospheric change. That means taking samples and recording information about new plant life, as well as old.”

Bart thought that he had said that, pretty effectively, when he had claimed to be working efficiently. Still, it was nice, knowing that Derrin understood the situation, at least.

They had been walking for roughly two hours now, with very little altercation. The overgrowth had slowed their progress significantly, and they had only traveled a little more than three miles. While he had spotted a few unidentified flying species who, as of yet, had not behaved in a manner which suggested that they were anything but common birds, and a few insects which he had collected for further examination, there had been very little conflict. Bart had to admit to himself that he was slightly disappointed. While the relative safety of the group was nice, he had mentally prepared himself for action.

There were still four miles to go, of course. That was plenty of time for things to fall apart.

As if reading his thoughts, the Oracle on his wrist sprang to life, alerting him of an incoming message. Looking around, he saw the other members of the group reacting to the message, meaning that it was meant for all of them.

“All right,” Derrin instructed “let’s form a circle. We’ll broadcast the message together.”

Bart slid into place between Claire and Mikhail. He liked to imagine that Claire was gratefully smiling at him for providing a buffer, but he could not confirm that through the dark shade of her facial panel. He always liked to think that Claire was reacting favorably toward him, though, so maybe it truly was in his imagination.

Derrin’s voice commanded his attention: “All right, message transmitting in 3, 2, 1...”

Simultaneously, every member of the group pressed their transmission button and, as a result, a life-sized hologram of Tenzin appeared in the center of the circle.

“I’ve been studying the gopher’s brain,” she began in her no-nonsense, business-first, way. “Some irregularities have presented themselves, which warrant further investigation. An agitation, contained within the sample’s frontal lobe, seems to suggest a sensitivity and attraction toward heat. This, when combined with the radioactivity in the creature’s DNA, presents significant risks to our safety.”

“Ебена мать,” Mikhail gasped in Russian.

“Further investigation is warranted to judge whether this was a singular anomaly or a genetic regularity,” the message continued. “For the moment, though, err on the side of caution. Keep fire to a minimum and, under no circumstances, allow the gophers anywhere near a flame. I repeat, do not allow a gopher to reach the fire. Dr. St. Crow, ending transmission.”

As quick as it appeared, Tenzin’s image disappeared. The group stood in silence for a moment or two.

“Can someone please tell me what’s going on?” Josh asked eventually. “Would I be right in suggesting that we have radioactive rodents with inbred pyromania?”

“Pyromania is a mental disorder,” Claire corrected him gently. “It’s usually coupled with OCD, an inferiority complex, and depression. I doubt that these gophers were bullied on Academy playgrounds.”

“The diagnosis isn’t completely off-base, though,” Bart broke in. “If what Tenzin is suggesting is true, the gophers will be attracted to the light and warmth of fire, similar to moths.”

“Zees rodents have radioactive DNA?” Mikhail cried, causing Bart to jump slightly. Vhy vas I not told of zis?”

“I’m sorry, Mikhail,” Derrin apologized. “A lot happened yesterday and you should have been briefed in the collected data before we left the base. Yes, Dr. St. Crow was attacked by a creature, whose genetic structure was similar to a large gopher. The creature was killed, and it’s body was brought back to the base. Upon examination, traces of radioactivity were found in the creature’s organs and, apparently, it’s DNA.”

“So, ve have small nuclear bombs running about,” Mikhail growled “and vhat’s more, zhey vant to be set on fire and explode?”

Silence fell over the group as the reality of the statement sank in.

“Holy shit,” Josh finally gasped.

“I believe I already said zat,” Mikhail grumbled.

Derrin quickly spoke up, attempting to calm the group with assurances that nothing had been confirmed yet, more data would need to be collected in order to make a definitive deduction. Bart listened as closely as his terrified brain would allow him to. He tried to regain his calm by reminding himself of the opportunities for discovery that the world provided. He attempted to get excited once more at the chance to contribute to the history of a newly birthed world. At the moment, however, his vivid imagination was interfering with those thoughts, by broadcasting a steady stream of small, rodent-sized, mushroom clouds.

III

The hazmat suit still felt cumbersome. Tenzin was aware that fashion and comfort were likely not the highest of priorities for the manufacturers of such suits, but the compromised mobility still irritated her. She would have been more comfortable in one of her kimonos, obviously, but the chance of hazards had not been completely alleviated yet, and Archimedes would not approve of a trip out of Syracuse, even only a few feet, without protective gear.

As she went into the armory to select a tranquilizing gun, Tenzin realized that she probably ought to have warned the group about the use of firearms against the gophers. She trusted Derrin and Bart to realize that before firing a gun at a highly volatile target with contaminating properties, but she was not sure sure as to how many members of the party had firearms. She had to assume that they all did, since that would have been the most defensive tactic.

There was no point to calling the group back, simply to tell them not to shoot the gophers. It would have seemed redundant, and she trusted that Derrin had already addressed the situation. From the little amount of information that she had collect from and about the “rugged survivalist”, he was not the type to run into danger, guns blazing, despite what his film adaptations had suggested.

Tenzin checked the loading capacity of the tranq-gun that she was holding, and loaded the six shots, sticking six spares into her bag. Slinging the gun over her shoulder, she walked from the armory, into the garage, where she picked up a firewand and an extinguisher. With a sigh, she pulled the headgear associated with the hazmay suits, over head, and proceeded toward the garage door.

“Excuse me, Dr. St. Crow,” Archimedes appeared in front of her, before she could signal for the door to open. “May I ask what you are intending to do on the exterior?”

Tenzin froze, her hand reaching to the trigger to open the door, feeling as though she was about to be chided for doing something naughty. “I’ve told you that I need live gophers, in order to test certain aspects of the DNA which may have been compromised,” she answered, attempting to sound as confident as possible. “With the evidence that the animals would be attracted to fire, I was going to go out to collect two live creatures, to be kept in isolation for closer study.”

Archimedes frowned and looked around. “How did you intend to get them to the isolating area?” he asked. “I would hope that you realize that you can’t bring radioactive creatures into the base without going through decontamination.”

Tenzin nodded. “I did think of that,” she confirmed. “Since the decontamination process would compromise my research, I was going to suggest that we transport the unconscious animals in an isolated chamber to an area where they could be contained without threat of contamination.”

Archimedes smirked: “Your pupils dilated and your pulse just quickened. You didn’t think of that at all, did you?”

Tenzin blushed. To be honest, she had not, and it was poor taste for her to be lying, especially to Archimedes. She had been trying to save face, which was foolish, since Archimedes didn’t give a shit. If anything, he was more entertained by the fact that she had attempted to lie.

She was grateful for him, catching him in the lie, though. She had gotten overly excited and neglected to consider the idea that Syracuse wouldn’t allow live, radioactive, elements within the base.

Archimedes laughed in a slightly gloating fashion. “Not to worry, Dr. St. Crow,” he assured her. “I actually have an idea on how the animal can be contained without contaminating the base.”

Tenzin nodded, triggered the door, and readied the gun. As the door opened, she began marching toward it. Tenzin was familiar with gun theory, since she had shot them before, but she missed her bow. Shooting the creature with a tranquilizer was much more humane than beating it into unconsciousness, though.

Walking out the door, Tenzin found a space, a few yards from the base. Carefully, she began to build a small pile of brush and twigs. Tenzin had never had to build a campfire before, but as long as she followed the logical methods, she should be able to keep it contained to a small area. If she had not been in such a rush, she would have dug a small trench around the pyre, but that may have been over-complicating the process, anyway. Once the pile was large enough, Tenzin placed stones around the pit, in order to better contain the spark. She then brought the firestick to a ready position, turned the instrument on, and after waiting a few seconds for it to power up, she ignited the pyre.

The dry mound took to flame immediately, consuming the dried material quickly. Tenzin began to search for more dried twigs with which to feed the flame with. Fortunately, there was no shortage of stock, including sticks, leaves, and ground cover. Once the flame had reached a sustainable level, Tenzin stood aside, wondering if her experiment would work and, if it did, how well. If it did not work, there was no loss, and she would simply need to think of another way to accomplish her goals. If it worked too well, there was no one around to care for her irradiated body.

Of course, if it worked extremely well, there likely wouldn’t be enough irradiated body left to care for.

A rustling in the brush at the edge of the woods, to the left of the fire, alerted her to the activity. Quickly, Tenzin brought the tranquiler to ready, watching the area where from which the sound had come. She did not have to watch long: almost immediately, one of the rodents, larger than the one which she had dissected, charged out of the wood, racing toward the fire with the urgency of a toddler, running toward their mother. Tenzin fired the first shot too quickly, missing the beast narrowly, with the tranq-bullet grazing it’s back and disappearing into the wood. In response, the creature stopped short in their quest for fire, turned to her, and growled loudly, rearing up savagely to it’s hind legs. Tenzin knew that it was attempting to intimidate her and, had she not been so focused on her task, it may have worked. As the beast reared up, however, Tenzin fired two shots into it’s soft belly. Placing it’s paws on the ground again, the gopher looked at Tenzin with a whimper of surprise, confusion, and injured pride. Tenzin locked eyes with it, making sure that the beast knew who had beaten it. In acknowledgment of her success, the gopher crumbled to the ground, and lay still.

Tenzin quickly pulled the extinguisher out, but not before she heard a second gopher approaching from directly in front of the pyre. As she fired the extinguisher into the pyre, squelching the fire, a second gopher charged out of the woods and dove through the air in desperation, toward the smoldering remains. Turning quickly, Tenzin batted at the creature with the extinguisher, sending it’s body backward, away from the object of it’s desire. Fortunately, this one was smaller than either the dissected gopher or the original, and it’s body fell head over heal. While the creature recovered itself, Tenzin dropped the extinguisher, and quickly readied the gun again. The creature’s size did nothing to lessen it’s rage, and it did not even bother posturing before charging for Tenzin. She fired a shot into the creature’s back before jumping quickly aside, out of the creature’s line of fire. In passing, the gopher struck at her with it’s paw, but it was unable to connect. It turned on her drunkenly, as if preparing to strike again, but all the energy drained out it’s body. It collapsed, unconscious, it’s lust for vengeance going unfulfilled.

The fear that Tenzin had not realized she was feeling quickly turned to adrenaline, as she thrust her fist into the air, screaming a martial artist’s “HAI!!” into the atmosphere. As she re-entered the base, she removed her helmet, beaming excitedly.

“That was quite impressive, Dr. St. Crow,” Archimedes laughed. “From where I was watching, you handled that expertly. If I were being honest, the odds were not in your favor. It was needlessly reckless for you to attempt such a venture alone.”

“The others would have objected,” Tenzin replied, shaking her head. “This was the only way that I could guarantee the experiment was performed according to my specifications.”

Archimedes nodded. “I am aware of that, but it does not change the fact that you probably ought to have died.”

With a confused frown, Tenzin looked up at Archimedes’ smirking face. “If my life was in danger,” she queried “why did you not try to stop me?”

Archimedes looked to her with eyes that seemed to reflect something akin to respect. “I like to think I know you better than that,” he chuckled.

Tenzin laughed at his response. It seemed so genuine, even though she knew that it was simply programming. “All right,” she breathed deeply, centering her thoughts again. “You said that you had a solution for the containment issue. I’m ready to hear it.”

“As you know, the exterior of Syracuse is lined with sensors, reading atmospheric conditions,” Archimedes said, moving to a monitor near the door, displaying a view of the outside. “While you were outside playing Beastmaster, I was modifying a few of them to emit a laser array. That array would encompass a five foot radius, creating a cage for the captured beast, or beasts, should you choose to contain them both. The cage would allow for airflow, but nothing larger than oxygen particles could pass through, or leave, the array, unless specified by you, or another approved Sleeper.”

Tenzin nodded. “That’s perfect,” she approved. “I’ll head back outside to move the bodies. Are you able to mark the area with the lasers, so that I know where to deposit them?”

“I am,” Archimedes nodded. “Congratulations, Dr. St. Crow: you are now the proud owner of the first pets on a new world. I don’t suppose you will be providing names for them, will you?”

Tenzin reflected on the prospect for a moment. Proving names to two feral gophers seemed needlessly sentimental. Still, they were her prizes. It only seemed right that she claim her victory.

“The larger one is Fat Man,” she said, pointing to the motionless bodies on the screen “and the small one will be called Little Boy.”

“Appropriate names, if not slightly in poor taste,” Archimedes nodded. “Apparently, political correctness died with the government.”

“Hey,” Tenzin frowned “it’s not as if I named them Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

IV

It was beginning to bother him, how little conflict they had encountered on their trek to Whispering Lake. Derrin knew that he should not be complaining, since the journey had gone fairly smoothly, but it still almost felt unreal, like something was lulling them into a sense of calm, preparing to strike them when their guard was down. Here they were, nearly to the edge of Whispering Lake, and while he had heard evidence of animals in the brush, the group had seen very few of them, first hand.

That was not to say that the journey had been conflict-free. A grouping of five gophers had attacked them, but Bart, Derrin, and Mikhail had made quick work of them with the blades they were carrying. Derrin could have sworn that he a saw a lynx, pacing through the wood, but it had not bothered them. A few unidentified birds could be heard singing in the trees, and Bart had collected a few insects for further studies. The high point of the trip was when the same type of flying beast which they had observed on their first excursion had soared over them, casting a massive shadow over the group. Both Mikhail and Clare had dove for the ground, as if avoiding an air strike, and Josh had once again readied his crossbow. From the massive size of the creature, Derrin wondered what effect he expected his arrow to have on the creature. Still, it was good that he was not frightened to defend the group, if need be.

Since Tenzin was not there to contradict him, Josh had once again presented his dragon theory. Bart had filled in as the voice of reason, claiming (as Tenzin had) that he had seen feathers. Mikhail laughed at the notion of a gigantic, flying lizard, reminding them (as he usually did) that he was from Russia, where evil creatures like the zmaj and the zmay gorynych were threats, and there was no was no need to be intimidated by these pithy American dragons. Derrin bit his tongue and hid behind his smirk, choosing to not inform the rest of the group that those dragons were all mythological, and Mikhail could not have possibly encountered them. He did not need to undermine Mikhail. He simply needed to be entertained by him. From the expression on both Claire and Bart’s face, they did not believe him either. It was still entertaining, listening to Mikhail talk about his adventures.

Every aspect of this world seemed slightly askew. Even the sky, which was relatively clear, was a clearer, more distinct shade of blue than he was accustomed to. The greens in the plants were brighter, the soil was darker and more refined, the insects sounded louder and appeared larger, and the birds that he spotted had foreign aspects to their coats and plumage. He knew that this was not in his imagination, that these things were accurate perceptions, but they still made him feel as though he were losing his mind. He had lived every day of his 39 years, believing that the sky was a certain color, now he saw that his perception had been wrong the entire time. Each step that he took felt like a descent further into madness. It would be a long time before he started to accept that this was his Earth again.

This wasn’t his Earth, not any longer. This was a strange, alien planet that did not recognize him as a resident.

There was a break in the treeline a couple hundred yards in front of him, and he could see a body of water just past that. A quick check to his GPS system confirmed that this was, in fact, Whispering Lake. They had made it.

“Just up ahead, guys,” Derrin called out to the group who were following him diligently.

“Thank the spirits,” Josh sighed. “We’ve actually gone 7.43 miles. I was about to call up Archimedes to see if we had taken a wrong turn somewhere. I’ll make a note of it on the report.”

“Yes,” Bart laughed “be sure to scold the automated intelligence unit for not being more precise with it’s location approximation.”

“That wasn’t what I meant,” Josh muttered in reply, blushing slightly. “I’m the cartographer, remember? I kind of need an exact location, in order to get the scale right.”

Bart accepted the explanation, passing his comment off as a misunderstood joke. Derrin was only half listening, as his attention was focused on the water.

After walking the remaining distance, he emerged from the woods, into a clearing of untamed grass. Behind him, he heard the rest of the team cheering and laughing, while a smile crept onto his face.

“Bart, Josh,” he called out, turning to face the exhilarated team “you guys come with me. We need to test the water’s alkalinity levels, and hopefully secure the area. Claire, can you and Ruscov find a suitable place to build a campsite? From the looks of it, we’re going to be spending the night here, as we suspected.”

Claire’s beautiful smile warmed him, and the gleam in her eyes gave him hope again. Their second expedition away from the base had been a success, and he was beginning to feel like a survivor again, rather than an abduction victim. Mikhail saluted him sarcastically, and began to unload the packs, while Josh and Bart moved to stand beside him. Derrin stared into Claire’s eyes for a moment longer. He never wanted to look away.

“We did it, man,” Josh laughed excitedly as he and Bart walked with Derrin toward the water’s edge. “I’ll admit that I had my doubts at first, but dude, we’re all still alive!”

Bart enthusiastically slapped Derrin’s back, slightly jarring him, but Derrin quickly recovered and laughed along with the two of them. “You were a great leader, brother,” Bart applauded him. “I would feel comfortable, following you into darkness.”

“Guys, we only came out seven miles,” Derrin laughed.

“Seven, point four three miles,” Josh quickly corrected him.

“Right,” Derrin continued, “the point is, we haven’t come very far. I think it’s a little early to be giving me the trailblazer merit badge.”

The three of them continued laughing and joking with one another, as they approached the lake. Once there, Josh knelt down to run a diagnostic scan, while Bart prepared a water purification kit.

“Well,” Josh remarked “the water’s fresh. From the looks of the preliminary scan, yes, there are some contaminants, and purification is still going to be beneficial, but things look pretty good. I would suggest drinking the water that we’ve brought with us for the moment, of course, but I don’t see why Whispering Lake couldn’t be a secondary water source, once it has been treated.”

“Is there any evidence of latent radioactivity?” Derrin asked, kicking himself as soon as he heard the words.

Josh laughed. “Yes,” he joked “that’s why I said that it was clean. It was a funny joke to see if I could convince you to drink radioactive sludge.”

Derrin laughed. There was no point to being overly stressed right now. What they had just discovered was, indeed, a beautiful thing. There was hope in the water.

As if in an attempt to mock his newly established feeling of security, a loud, guttural grunting tore through the air, like a foghorn alerting listeners to it’s presence. Derrin jumped, and looked to Josh, who quickly jumped back from the water’s edge, scampering to join the party again.

“What the hell was that?” he asked in a hushed tone.

Derrin quickly scanned the treeline before looking behind him, to where Claire and Mikhail were setting up camp. He was relieved to see that the two of them were keeping low and moving toward him, in order to join the rest of the group.

“I have no idea,” he admitted to Josh. “Get weapons ready, just in case.”

Josh began to load his crossbow, and Derrin pulled out his machete, feeling the revolver that he had strapped to his hip in case of emergency. A voice in his head told him that it would be stupid, even dangerous, to shoot anything without closer examination, especially with the information that they not had about the gophers and their radioactive genes. It still made him feel more comfortable, knowing that the gun was there.

“Guys,” Bart stepped up beside Derrin, gently placing a hand on his shoulder “look at that!”

Derrin looked to where Bart was pointing, and was temporarily awe-struck. Out of the treeline, in another area of the lake, a majestic creature emerged. The beast walked with pride, like an elk, with the grace of a deer. It’s coat was near-shockingly white, and long, reaching toward the ground with silken streams. From it’s head, a beautiful rack of horns emerged. It stepped confidently to the water’s edge and began to drink, ignoring the group completely.

“That is the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen,” Claire breathed, her voice filled with amazement.

“What is that?” Josh asked. “Is that a yak?”

“Yaks aren’t native to this area of the wold,” Bart corrected him. “From it’s size and gait, I would say that it’s probably a moose.”

“That’s amazing!” Josh cheered quietly.

Derrin watched the animal with rapt interest. He had observed moose before, but never been in such close proximity with one before. Of course, if this was a moose, it looked very little like the ones that he had observed, in his own time. Still, watching this creature casually going about it’s life, without caring that there were new observers, reminded him of home.

V

It may be a mistake, confining two angry gophers in the same cage. Watching them closely as they woke up, Tenzin wondered if Fat Man was going to immediately attack Little Boy, or vice versa. In terms of size, Fat Man would destroy Little Boy with relative ease, but perhaps the smaller one’s speed and dexterity would come into play a bit.

“Archimedes,” Tenzin called out, “are you able to join me outside?”

“I am,” Archimedes replied, appearing directly next to the doctor. “I can’t go far from the base, but at this distance, I’m able to reverse the field of vision on one of the cameras located on the outside of the base, so that my image is transmitted to the exterior.”

Tenzin could not stop herself from smirking slightly. “I’m sure that Clarke would find that fascinating,” she nodded. “For me, though, I just wanted to get your opinion on something. Your explanation is a bit wasted on me.”

Archimedes shrugged. “Hearing me speak is it’s own gift,” he informed her without a hint of mirth. “In any effect, what is it that I can do for you?”

Tenzin pointed to the invisible laser cage which contained the two gophers, who were currently staring at each other in an angry haze. “Two things, actually,” she admitted. “Firstly, how do you propose we keep these creatures from killing one another? It is a small cage, and I doubt that they’ll be satisfied, sharing the limited space with one another.”

Archimedes frowned and observed the cage, pausing for a moment as if in thought. Tenzin had not been expecting a pause. She had been half-expecting a snide retort which simultaneously insulted her intelligence and solved her problem. The fact that he was considering her question for a moment almost flattered her. Archimedes, after all, was not shy about the fact that he was more intelligent than any of the other occupants. Of course, watching his facial expressions did nothing to clue her as to what he was actually considering.

“Well,” he replied after a moment of thought, “if you’re interested in soothing their mood, may I suggest soft candlelight and Luther Vandross music? It seems that Little Boy is actually a female.”

Tenzin sighed and rolled her eyes. That did very little to answer her question and, in fact, introduced even more complications. She wanted to avoid having a litter of pint-sized gophers, running about like radioactive cherry-bombs. She also had no idea who Luther Vandross was, or why the gophers would find that calming, but based on the limited information that Archimedes had provided, she assumed that the music had something to do with stimulating romance. She bit her lip and frowned, contemplatively.

“I would rather the two of them not begin raising a family in this environment,” she mumbled to herself.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Archimedes chimed in, uninvited. “For one thing, property value is considerably higher here, and the educational system in this area seems excellent. It may be difficult for Fat Man to find work in his field, though.”

“Right, table that for a moment,” Tenzin instructed him, holding up her hand impassively. “We should embed tracking chips in them, anyway, so perhaps we should modify them to emit a shock when one shows aggressive behavior toward the other?”

“Bravo, Dr. St. Crow,” Archimedes nodded. “That sounds like a logical solution. It should also prevent unwanted pregnancy, which was something that, I assume from your inference, you were concerned with. I would recommend waiting a bit before tranquilizing them again, simply to avoid the chance of brain damage.”

“All right, this leads me to my next question, regarding Fat Man’s aforementioned daily commute,” Tenzin continued. “Gophers being burrowers by nature, it would seem that this containment field is only a temporary solution. They will, eventually, dig beneath it and escape. Can anything be done about that?”

Once again, Archimedes considered the situation. Tenzin allowed herself to smile this time. When she was able to diagnose a problem before Archimedes considered it, she felt as though she were actually contributing. She was aware that Archimedes had likely considered the shock-solution before she had, but she still patted herself on the back for stating it before he had a chance to.

“While you’re considering that,” she spoke up quickly, jumping at the chance to ask something that had been on her mind, ever since the briefing session, directly after coming out of cryogen. “You said that no one knows who started the final war, correct? The nuclear strikes came from an unidentified location.”

“That’s correct,” Archimedes confirmed, somewhat distractedly, like a computer attempting a secondary program, while it’s main processor was devoted to another task. “Theories, yes; answers, no.”

“If that’s true,” Tenzin continued to probe “how did the Illuminati know when to initiate Sleeper protocol?”

Archimedes’ reaction was startling. He visibly jumped, as if shocked, and his brow furrowed into a darkly confused scowl. Tenzin had not been expecting that response, and viewing it almost made her regret asking the question. The few seconds that it took for him to respond felt like an eternity. Eventually, Archimedes’ eyebrows lifted, his eyes widening in surprise.

“I have not been programmed with that information,” he gasped.

“Well, that’s slightly unsettling,” Tenzin grimaced.

“Unsettling for you,” Archimedes replied. “Imagine how I feel.”

Tenzin bit back the reference to Archimedes’ emotional state being an artificial response found within his programming, since he appeared to already be having an identity crisis. The fact that he could not answer her question was more than unsettling, it was distinctly disturbing. It suggested that whomever had programmed Archimedes had intentionally withheld that information. That was either simply because of neglect or, more likely, it had been intentional to withhold that information from the team. She did not like feeling as though she was being lied to, and the fact that the lie was perpetrated by the organization which had sponsored the entire experiment did very little to relax her paranoia.

Tenzin had just uncovered a conspiracy theory.

VI

The tent was almost half the size of Derrin’s old apartment, the one that he had shared with Suzette. Claire and Mikhail had set it up in an area of low grass, about 500 yards from Whispering Lake. Walking into it, Derrin examined the environment. The tent was designed to protect it’s occupants from any sort of common weather hazard, disregarding a hurricane or an earthquake. The walls were reinforced, strong fabric, shaded in a natural green tint. The mesh flooring blocked out most of the invasive elements, while allowing for a more natural experience, as one could feel the ground beneath their feet. Derrin saw that their traveling supplies had been deposited on one area, which he assumed to be the cooking area. There was a partition between the front and back areas of the tent, which separated the cooking/dining area from the sleeping quarters. Peeking through it, Derrin saw five cots, stationed around the area, each with their own personal effects piled at the base of their designated spots. He tried not to smile when he saw that his bunk was positioned between Bart and Claire. Claire’s bunk was the closest to one of the tent walls, and he had to stifle the thought that, if anyone wanted to get to Claire, they would have to come through him. That was absolutely the wrong way to be thinking about the situation. Of course, since Claire had set up the tent, perhaps that had been her thought as well.

Derrin gathered what he had come to get: five collapsible chairs and a natural heating stone. Bart had suggested that they build a fire, but he had quickly dismissed that notion, thanks to the height of the grass and the chance of fire hazards. The natural heating stone would give the same impression of fire, without the risks. They would not be able to roast sausages over a live flame but, since no one had thought to include sausages in their provisions anyway, that point was moot.

“I hope that someone remembered to bring some alcohol,” Josh’s voice made him jump and stumble with his load a bit. “What use is there in camping out without beer?”

“Well, I could remind you that this was an exploratory outing, the sole purpose of which was to gather information,” Derrin chuckled, attempting to adjust the chairs into an angle, more advantageous to movement. “Or I could just point to the cooler, filled with beer, that’s sitting right over there with the other provisions.”

Josh walked from the place where he had been standing, just inside the front tent flap, away from the beer and toward him. Once there, he took two of the chairs and the heating stone away from Derrin.

“This seems a bit cumbersome,” Josh laughed. “Let me give you a hand.”

Derrin thanked him and, together, they brought the elements out to the others.

“I am not saying zat zhiz venture is useless,” Mikhail was arguing with Bart. “All zat I am saying is zat, since ve have all zhe vater ve need back at base, vhat is zhe point of finding zhe vater elsevhere? Vas dis not simply a vay to feel as though ve vere doing someting more zhan sitting on our ass?”

“We may have plenty of water available to us at Syracuse right now,” Bart sighed “but the same won’t always be true. This is a new world that needs to be explored, and finding access to natural resources is something that needs to be paramount. I’m fairly sure the Illuminati didn’t send us 500 years into the future, simply to sit around watching reruns of Star Trek.”

Derrin began to set up chairs in a crude circle, while Josh handed the heating stone to Claire, then returned to the tent, undoubtedly to bring out the beer. Claire positioned the heating stone in the center of the ring of chairs, and set it to illuminate a twenty foot range. Derrin smiled, sat back in his chair, and gazed up into the sky. There was very little cloud cover, so the moon and stars shown brilliantly.

There had been colonists on the moon and on Mars. They had been promised that they would be the pioneers of the future, crafting new worlds for the future of the human race. Thinking over the situation now, it would have been very difficult for them to maintain their stability, once the support from the Global Space Union ceased. The colonies had been set up to survive for up to fifty years without aid, but it had been much longer than that. They would not have been able to come back to Earth, and Earth would not have been in a position to offer them any help. The chances were better that the colonies were dead.

Derrin lost himself in the stars, considering all the potential that they had, at one point, held. There were planetary systems circling many of them, and GSU had planned expeditions to several of them. There, above him, was Orion and The Great Drink Gourd, shining like beacons of hope and renewed dreams. Derrin wondered how long, if ever, it would be before they were able to plan expeditions to those systems. From where he was sitting, even with the sky clearer than he had ever seen it, and the stars shining brighter than he could remember, the destinations seemed further away now than they had ever been.

“What’s on your mind, brother?” Josh asked as he handed Derrin a beer, and slid into the chair next to him.

Derrin tipped the bottle back, allowing the tangy bitters to glide down his throat. Reaching into his pocket, he produced a cigar.

“I’m just thinking,” he replied as he fumbled in his other pocket for his lighter. “Growing up, we were always told that we were destined for the stars, and that the future would be found there. The first successful martian colony was established, ten years before I was born, and that reality seemed to be approaching. I remember envisioning going to one of those planets and exploring the lunar caverns or climbing Olympus Mons on Mars, like the interstellar version of Sir Edmond Hillary. Now, that future seems a distant dream. We are promising the stars one day and, the next, we’re killing ourselves with nuclear fallout.”

Derrin drew in the cigar, tasting the rich Nicaraguan palette. Whomever had stored the cigars certainly knew how to care for them, as they were well-humidified and flavor-sealed. It was, perhaps, the one thing about the world that felt familiar.

“Ба́бушка гада́ла, на́двое сказа́ла,” Mikhail said, in his native tongue. Every eye turned toward him, as if he had suddenly said something extremely profound, but it was clear that no one had any idea what he had just said.

“Granny vas telling fortunes, said two things,” Mikhail translated for them. “It’s an old Russian proverb. Vat it means, basically, iz zat destiny lies. Ve are told, by parents, by leaders, by society, dat zhe vorld is ours, und ve vill build a future zat vill last forever. Zhese are lies, though, or false promises at least. Zee illusion zat ve have any control over vhat destiny vill do is a lie.”

“That’s kind of dark,” Josh sighed.

“I’m Russian,” Mikhail replied. “Zhe main themes in our literature are ’zhe weather is bad, un life has no meaning’.”

Claire slipped her hand into his unoccupied fingers, as Derrin lifted the cigar to his lips again. He turned to her, and their eyes locked. For a moment, the world felt as though there was hope once more.

“What he’s saying isn’t wrong, though,” Bart said, from where he sat between Claire and Mikhail. “Entire organizations have been built around the idea of controlling destiny, to one degree or another, and each one of them has failed miserably.”

“I would argue that the Illuminati seem to have done a decent job,” Josh argued, as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. “We’re evidence of that, aren’t we?”

“We’re a response,” Derrin replied. “The Sleepers aren’t an attempt to control destiny, but rather to survive it. I have a suspicion that the only reason it worked so far was because nobody besides the people involved knew about it. After all, destiny is determined by our actions, to a certain extent. Had more people known about the situation, it would have undoubtedly undermined the entire situation.”

“That’s always the way of things, isn’t it?” Bart laughed. “As soon as other people hear what you’re planning, they want to get involved. They want to contribute, they want to invest and, eventually, they want to control. That’s where things always get messed up.”

“So, it would seem that the best way to survive destiny’s lies,” Claire spoke up “would be to keep your dreams to yourself and never compromise on your visions.”

There was silence around the circle, as they each considered the statement.

“That seems a little cliché,” Bart muttered.

“I vill think of a Russian vay to say it, un it vill sound better,” Mikhail laughed.

The group continued to laugh and drink together, discussing the things that they had discovered so far. Derrin continued to hold onto Claire’s hand. Feeling her pulse against his own was all the reality that he needed.

This was a new world with a new set of rules. New lies would be told, new truths discovered. A new future was being crafted, right here, with five friends, sitting around a campfire, drinking beer.

Destiny could go fuck itself.   

Next Chapter: Life during the War: The Pauper