Greta appeared to be examining her for something and Marina looked right back at her. Her colorful coveralls were at odds with her serious and quiet expression. She was taller than Marina and possessed an angular frame of such spare flesh that the planes of her face were sharp and bold. Though she knew Greta was at least a decade older than herself, to Marina the woman looked ageless, both old and young at once. It was perhaps that she kept her expression so carefully neutral that this was so. The lines she saw on her own face and that of her husband, the ones that showed a lifetime of laughter and smiles, were entirely absent from Greta’s.
When the historian didn’t speak, Marina cocked her head and asked, “What is it?”
Still Greta didn’t speak. Instead, she reached out and closed the door again. The little noises of IT disappeared behind the thick door once more and Greta drove her point home by leaning back against the door. Marina knew that she wouldn’t be leaving until whatever Greta wanted was obtained. Her stomach tightened nervously and she had to purposely loosen her grip on her satchel to avoid white knuckles that would give her away.
Greta crossed her arms in front of her chest and said, “You have something more to tell me about the watch, don’t you?”
It seemed to Marina as if the room grew very cool and she suddenly had a strong need to pee. The historian was gazing at her with that level look and she knew she would never be able to convincingly lie about anything. She could only hope to avoid it and she thought her odds at success in that were very close to zero. She had been taken off guard. No doubt that was Greta’s intent and that made it hard to hold back.
To gain a few moments of time, she turned away from Greta and shuffled back toward the chair she just rose from. She said, “If you don’t mind, I really can’t stand for long.”
That seemed to take Greta aback, perhaps because it showed rudeness on her part by allowing someone injured to stand only to be waylaid. Either way, Marina was gratified to see a tick of expression on the Historian’s still face and her arms uncross.
Greta paused and then strode around the table to regain her own seat directly across from Marina at the table. Marina thought the choice interesting. Either she did it because she sees this as an adversarial situation or because she naturally avoids change. After all, she could have easily chosen either seat to the side of Marina and not had to go as far in the doing.
Marina knew she would need to answer the question quickly so that Greta wouldn’t get the impression that this was a delaying tactic, though it certainly was, so she answered, “It’s about the objects, of course.”
Greta nodded and motioned for her to continue.
“Well,” she paused and considered her next words carefully, “these objects depict things differently than here in the silo, at least some of them do, yet they are recognizable. Would you mind bringing out the objects you kept back for a moment?”
The older woman seemed a little hesitant now but she reached for the envelope she had tucked into the largest pocket of her coveralls and withdrew it. She had used her kerchief as a cushion for the objects and now she carefully unrolled it, laying the objects onto the envelope. The watch came last.
Marina reached over and took up the watch, clicked it open and turned it around so that Greta could see the whole scene. “What do you see here other than the killing of an animal?”
Greta apparently knew precisely where Marina was going with this and gave one short and sharp nod of her head. “I realize the animals are different and the scene is, well, less ordered than we might expect.”
She was referring to the precise lines of crops and the grids of trees where such existed within the silo. In the watch there was a scene of wild abundance, as if an entire farming level had been let go and seeds flung everywhere.
Marina picked up the funny clip that had star shapes and stripes with the fierce animal above. She pointed to the animal and said, “And this?”
“We don’t know what that is exactly. We’ve been able to find no actual description of it anywhere, but we see the same animal in different postures on many such items as you’ve brought here.” She shrugged. “It is a type of bird, such as that depicted in some of the children’s books and on the puzzle boards. The appearance is certainly different in character but it has many similarities. It must have existed at some point in the past here and then died out.”
The thudding in Marina’s heart increased in pace and she knew the time was now or never. If she admitted what she found and explained that she wanted to talk to a historian about it she might be able to live a life after remediation.
Until the words came out of her mouth she wasn’t sure what she would say. It was her mouth more than her brain that decided for her and she would never know if it was cowardice or bravery that made her say what she did, “I think these objects are trying to tell us a story. I think that we might melt down the story before anyone realizes we should be listening.”
Greta’s eyebrows rose a little and the action put a few wrinkles in her brow. It was the most movement Marina had seen in her face thus far. “You sound a bit like a Historian.” She leaned forward now, elbows on the table, “What makes you think that?”
“There is more here than meets the eye,” she replied and waved her hand over the collection of items on the envelope. “Take the watches for example. I brought you a selection of them, but one entire box of items I received from that hotel storage was watches and those bands with blank screens that look like watchbands. I looked in the back of two and they are both filled with electronics. I think they are watches too.”
“And…?”
“And, ask yourself this question. Why would so many people in the silo need watches? I’ve received all this from just one level. There are probably a lot more of them out there and I’m very curious to see how many. But why? There are clocks everywhere. Why would so many people need watches? Can you tell me?” Marina’s voice remained quiet as she asked each question.
“I think that you might have already decided on a reasonable answer. Let me tell you if I agree with your assessment,” Greta replied, her voice as even and enigmatic as ever.
Greta’s response meant that she was correct, or close to it. “I think these come from outside, from the First People,” at this Greta blinked once, and gave a nod so tiny it might not have been a nod at all, or might be denied to be one.
She said nothing so Marina forged on, “But you said that was possible of all these artifacts so that is no shocking revelation. It is the implication of that no one else seemed to recognize that I think is most important.”
“And that is?”
“That they were capable of doing this on the outside, before the silo called them. If there were only the few humans being randomly born into bands of Others and they were trying to survive to get to the silo, how did they stop and create the specialized tools and develop the infrastructure necessary to create just this one thing?”
She held the watch up now, its terrible beauty and ominous meaning only truly clear to one person in the room it seemed to Marina. “There was more to the outside than I know of and I have to wonder, do you know what that more is? Are you keeping it from us? What more is there to know?”
At these final words, the Historian began to frown and sat straighter in her chair. She held up a hand to stem the flow of words from Marina’s mouth and said, “We are straying toward territory that is not ours to discuss, or at least not mine to discuss with you outside specific situations. Before we talk further I will need to consult with the other Historians. Let me just say this on the subject. We are the first to admit that our history is incomplete.”