The Seeds of Sand

Chapter 9. Gemda

Muq and I decided to leave the next day before Dassan, Chaina and Nolly woke up. It was obvious that they would be angry that we left just like that, but they could not know of our plans. It was better that they remain ignorant.

Muq knew where Marie lived and worked. He told me what the universal spatial coordinates were for that location. I put myself into a deep meditative state, aligned my chlorophyll, set my seeds in motion, and off we went to the government lab where Marie worked.

When we arrived at project Gemda it looked as if forty had passed. And it had. The campus was filled with trees and what used to be a small river but now looked like an arroyo. This river at one time was full of fish and a mecca for locals to enjoy a Sunday afternoon. With the advent of the meteor and solar storms, the river's level lowered, algae choked off the oxygen supply to the fish and the river died. The wind gently blew through my white hair. It was a peaceful place but utterly devoid of higher life forms. At one time this location was teeming with life. I can imagine how Marie enjoyed strolling around the river when the level of water was normal, and life was as normal as could be.

Here was a courtyard with statues and a grass labyrinth that Marie must have walked through on days when her work frustrated her. A tall black triangular statue might have been a location where Marie and Diego stopped to chat and contemplate life or walked by hundreds of times on their way to lunch. I turned the corner and saw the remains of a fountain in a dried out pond. It was surrounded by a few scattered dead trees. I imagined it must have been a beautiful oasis for Marie and Diego to escape to for an afternoon stroll.

There were many tall buildings in this area. What remained of the lab where Marie Carrow worked was among these buildings. Muq and I walked throughout these buildings down the long corridors that were jam packed with scientific equipment. There was not much room to move. What was her life like? Was it like anything I could imagine? I was never a human, and I did not know what human life was like. Heck, I did not even know what my life was like. In many regards I am like a newborn, experiencing the world moment by moment, all of it is new.

I saw another building straight ahead. It was made of limestone brick and had glass windows, which were of uneven thickness. It was a very old building. This must have been her lab, but how could I conclude that without any evidence? Muq and I entered. We saw her name plate on the door of her lab and eventually found the chambers where she laid with Diego, Leon and Sirian.

This is where she spent most of her days, working away, solving important problems. She wanted to prevent tragedies that would unfold because man can only control so much. And although Marie did not want to control things, she just wanted to study them. It was inevitable that control was part of the picture too.

These tall edifices, monuments to human intellect. I saw another courtyard in front of me. There were plants there at one time but now they are long gone. There were plants there but without humans to take care and nurture them, there were be only a sparingly few.

I walked down a sidewalk, a sidewalk that Marie, no doubt did walk down and I looked at the remains of these beautiful botanical gardens and imagined how beautiful they were. Only a few scattered weeds and hardy plants remained. I walked up the steps to the laboratory where she worked. I walked down the hallways. I looked at the dust that had accumulated amongst the equipment there. I wondered what her life was like. If I could just find some diary of hers that would explain everything. Explain to me everything that happened. Why certain decisions were made?

I knew that she had worked with other collaborators like Diego and Leon and Sirian, but there was something different about Marie, I knew it. And I knew I had to uncover it. I knew I had learn as much as I could about her life. Although deep inside me I felt I knew her. I had her DNA after all. Somehow her DNA wasn't connecting to my brain. I needed to learn more; I needed to learn the whole picture. And with Muq here beside me he could help. He could help with most of the details. We could find the details in the database. But there was something there. There was something more. There was something missing. And I knew I had to unlock that key.