Greta waved her arm across the table to indicate all the books arrayed there and said, “They all have it. Every single dirt farm has this period of strangeness. One of them even has an entry where a farmer says he dreamed he had a child but woke up and there wasn’t one.”
“Could everyone have had Remediation? That can’t happen, right?” Marina asked.
Piotr shook his head and responded, “No way. That wouldn’t even be possible that I’m aware of. Who would do it? Who would monitor the people?”
“Right,” Greta agreed. “Whatever this was it seems very unlikely that it would just occur to farms like that at different times. While I really dislike saying these words, I have to assume that this was a silo-wide occurrence. Or else it affected all the farms at the same time.”
Taylor broke in. “No way. If all the farmers just started going loopy someone else would have written something or there would be some evidence of it being corrected. Like a gap or something. This just trickles off in all the books.”
Greta nodded again.
“But what about that timeline? That isn’t very long ago. I mean, it is, but not really. I thought the First Heroes were…I don’t know…like thousands of years ago or something,” Marina said. It made her uneasy that the length of that timeline was so short.
The historian sighed. “That’s what is making me feel very uncomfortable. Taylor was right. Given the uncertainty of using ‘Orchard Years’, this looks like 110 years, 130 at most, when Graham died. And since we are given to understand that he died in the battle…”
“Then the time of the First Heroes is only three times as old as I am,” Piotr said.
“How could we get that so wrong?” Taylor asked, sounding as confused as he looked.
With a shrug, Greta said, “I think that all those entries that looked like they were done by remediation are probably how that happened. I’m thinking the entire silo got remediated and somehow history got changed.”
Taylor had begun shaking his head as she said the words. As soon as she was done he burst out, “No. Not possible.”
Marina didn’t want to get into an argument so she interrupted it before it could begin. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter in the details. It only matters that it changes our timeline. Because you’re missing the big picture here, Taylor. If it happened that recently, then that means that the Others were aggressively seeking our destruction not too long ago.”
“And,” Piotr took up the thread, “then it is possible that the nuke or whatever it was didn’t happen as far back as we think either.”
“Exactly!” Marina exclaimed and gave him a grim smile.
“Assuming all this is true, what next?” asked Piotr.
“Now we see what we can find that goes back further. We see if we can find the First People,” Greta said and slammed the book closed.
Chapter Fifteen
Marina went home and enjoyed a few days with her family after two solid weeks of work. Piotr and Taylor had also gone home, each of them having family to see. Taylor seemed to anticipate seeing his cat more than his parents or girlfriend, which earned him some well-deserved teasing.
So wrapped up in what they were doing were they that they might not have taken any time off, except that Marina’s husband kept coming up to ask when he might expect her. The last time it was said with a certain tone that made Marina think he was asking if she was ever coming home. They all really did need a break, no matter how momentous their discoveries.
As relieved as she was to see her own compartment and her daughter, she was almost immediately anxious to return to work. It was hard to refrain from talking about what she was doing with her family. Joseph made it easy on her by steering the conversation gently away whenever it started to come up. She overheard him having a stern conversation with Sela after he’d had to do that several times, telling her she needed to stop asking about it. She was grateful for his understanding, but sorry it had to be that way.
Understanding or not, she felt a gap between them that hadn’t been there before. It was like her duties at the Memoriam were a barrier between them. Even during her two nights at home, when she rested her head on his chest and his arm encircled her the way it had almost every night of their adult lives, she felt he wasn’t entirely with her. It wasn’t anything she could pin down or describe exactly. It was more like a distance had developed between them that she worried she had caused. Never one to shy away from intimacy, he hadn’t even given her the slightest hint he desired her in that way. At bedtime she was left with no idea that he had anything on his mind other than sleep.
It wasn’t all awkwardness and distance, however. The ingredients for a favorite meal were waiting for her and she prepared it for them her first night home. The next day was a day off for Joseph and Sela so they spent the entire day together, strolling the bazaar and doing a little shopping. They listened to a truly wretched series of poems that all seemed to be written under the inspiration of unrequited love. They watched a puppet show that had them all in stitches. They ate their supper at one of the little food stalls, standing around a wobbly table and trying not to let their noses run as they dipped hot fried corn cakes into a spicy sauce.
Marina had never learned the art of creating these kind of sauces, a combination of savory and sweet and hot so delicious and tempting it was worth the red eyes and loose sinuses. To go with it they shared a skewer of rabbit meat marinated in something even more delicious. Even though rabbit was the least costly meat within the silo, it was still very dear and they savored each morsel. To cool their burning mouths, they each had water flavored with a small chunk of dehydrated lemon in it. Lemon water wasn’t as dear, but it was a unanimous family favorite and treat.
They shopped for the fruits and vegetables and other goods the family would need with Marina gone. She ensured she selected things easier and faster to prepare than she might otherwise have. With her not there, they would need to be able to confidently feed themselves. Joseph was only a passable cook and they had been eating in the cafeteria more while Marina was gone. It showed in their moods and puffy faces.
As they made their way back up the stairs to their level and compartment, sated and happy, Marina felt the smallest bit of the barrier between them fall away. It didn’t last though, and by the time they were saying goodnight to Sela and getting ready for bed, she felt the distance again.
When Marina kissed him goodbye as he went for his shift on the morning of her departure, she could sense the questions in him. She had no idea how to make it right. Instead, she lifted a hand, cupped his cheek and said, “I’ll be back. I promise. This work won’t last forever.”
She could tell from his expression that this didn’t give him the answers he wanted. A resigned sort of expression came over his face and he said, “I love you. Come home soon.” He smiled then, but it wasn’t a big smile or a very genuine one. He added, “Don’t make me come up there and get you again.”
Marina returned the smile but felt hers probably looked as real as his did. “I won’t. Love you.”
She felt guilty at how relieved she was when she closed the door behind him and was alone with her thoughts. It had been a strain for her to contain her excitement for her work. It was a like a low level drain on her energy to remain guarded. For the first time since the day she first kissed Joseph, she had a momentary wish that she was unencumbered. It was just a quick moment and she knocked on the concrete wall absently for luck so she wouldn’t get her wish.