Chapter Two
The night had been long. Shortly after Raimes had given the go-ahead for Ellis to start her tests, she had been set up in one of the old labs down the hall. Gradually she had accepted equipment requested from Walters. Walters had helped set up some of it and then left when he saw he was no longer needed, stating ‘He was needed over with the cryptologist’s team.’
Ellis sat watching the screens. She had gotten the samples they had originally taken when they retrieved the object for the U-pd dating. She had never done it before but had seen references to it in the archives. To be honest she had never done any of this before. She was, after all, a soil specialist. It had been years since anyone had needed to date anything from this planet let alone possibly another one.
Ellis had been called in by chance from one of the outlying farming districts. She and a few others were rounded up after there had been a report on something being found in the badlands. They had in the past been asked to look at things that had been discovered from the revolt. Usually military in nature, they would analyse it and determine if it can be used for the farming districts. Most of it was trashed but they would find something occasionally that was blacklisted. Some form of technology that had been used to destroy or pollute, and then, then it was treated with the highest security until it was destroyed. It had been over 100 years of then sifting through what was left after the nuclear fallout. Quarantining huge acreages of land and set about rebuilding.
The Government would always give the same reminder to everyone, that in the past humanity had relied too much on destructive technology and it had resulted in the devastation of nearly half the planet. The general rule now was to only use what they needed to keep the population alive and try to fix the damage that had been caused. Everything else pertaining to the ‘revolt’ was classified and restricted to the capitol. For the most part, the majority of the population was happy to keep doing their job, playing their part to hopefully repair the damage to the planet. So, history wasn't a huge deal for them, only the future or the present.
She looked at the computer screens and listened to their gentle humming and buzzing. She was actually somewhat in awe of how many they had. And they looked new. Most of the computers she used were few and far between, and a lot older than these. She imagined for a moment what it would have been like, before the revolt. When technology wasn't policed but embraced. She probably would have been a doctor, or a physicist, maybe even an astronaut. Her mind drifted back to the books she had read. About the Apollo missions, NASA, the space program and the artificial interstellar intelligence program. It was all so fascinating and inspiring.
How exciting it would have been to be one of those scientists. Working on the mysteries of the universe instead of analyzing soil samples, monitoring radiation levels. It wasn't boring work, but it wasn't fulfilling like she wanted it to be. Then again, she had no choice.
Ellis had always looked outward, her father described her as having feet ten foot off the ground. “Ten feet off the ground, and never looking down” He would tut at her, his rough farming hands scruffing her hair. And, he was right. She had no concern for what was behind her, it always felt like being held back, and she hated that feeling.
Her father worked the farms as a mechanical engineer and had heavily influenced her curiosity. He had leant her some of the books he had managed to save and find in the old ghost towns and derelict buildings they would clear for new farmland. Each night they would read one, sometimes all the way through in one sitting. Longer ones across a week. With every book, her curiosity grew.
She wanted to know what was out there, beyond the sky, beyond whatever was beyond that. As a girl, her dream was to one-day kick-off from that dusty, dirty ground. Jumping so high that she shot up into the clouds, feeling the nimbus vapour touch her face as she journeyed out into the upper atmosphere and beyond.
One day, she would tell herself. And now, maybe that day was closer than she cared to admit. Her eyes refocused on the flashing lights of the hard drives. The monitor flashed - 98%. Another whirr and buzz - 99%.
Ellis felt her heart rise into her mouth. Her skin tingled and she suddenly felt so nervous it felt sickening… - 100%.
Leaning forward the room turned darker and the monitor went blank for a moment. Then it flashed, 450 million years.
to be continued…