Kids, we are all kids. I am one of ten in total, sitting around a large table in what seems to be the headquarters of the plane- no, spaceship. Whatever it is we are on. They told us that it is called Genesis 11 and that it will be our base of operations for now. That was all they said. We wait, now, for the board of directors to arrive and give us a briefing.
I look across the room, at the other children. All of them seem to be my age, all as nervous to talk as the last. There are a couple employees roaming around the room, in the background. Some operate machines, giving orders. I overhear one of them mention 'launch sequence', so maybe we will be off soon. And here they come.
Walking through the door is a group, very important people. At the back, I notice directors of Babel Communications. I recognise one of them to be from the wikipedia page me and PJ looked on last night. He was as excited as I am for this, but also as confused. I don't know when I will see him again.
The rest of the group strides into view. At the front, a man introduces himself. His voice booming. "Hello, everyone! So so sorry to delay you, I bet you are dying to know what is going on here!"
He stands in front of our table, with the group of Babel directors just behind him.
"My name, is Marcus Defoe." We all get the impression that he is a leader. Perhaps their king. *"You were chosen to be the forefront of the most serious space exploration known to mankind."
I pull out my earphones, and stop my music with one push of a button on my player. I carried my music player with me almost everywhere I went. I was sure to bring it with me, who knows if there is music in space. I focus on Defoe, who is leaning over the table to have a closer look at us, getting onto our level. One of the girls on the other side of our table flinches at this, leaning back.
"Your journey is important to Humanity, and will be written in the history books for sure."
He goes on about something important and boring, I zoned out halfway through. About the future of mankind, pushing the limits of space, all that jazz. "Now, you were all promised payment."
I lean forward in my chair, along with the other kids. I guess we all like money.
"Your reward is like no other occupation. We have set up a fund for each and every one of you, so that every month, fifty thousand dollars will be inserted into your account. This will continue for the rest of your lives."
Holy shit! That's insane! How rich are these guys, if they can put together... I think to myself, working out the numbers in my head. Half a million bucks every month of every year, just for us kids. Everyone is reacting the same way I am, one boy has his mouth open wide.
Defoe starts again "as well as this, we will also ensure only the best medical and healthcare support to you and your families, when needed. We beleive that this is an understatement to our gratitude for what you will end up achieving for us, and as long as you work and co-operate with us, we will stick to our word."
My mind goes to Moms. I need this, she needs this. There is nothing I won't do for her, and these guys at Babel have it laid out plain and simple. Anyone who grows up in Detroit would learn to grab at anything that stands in your way, this is perfect.
"Before we continue, does anybody want to drop out?" Defoe asks. We all look around the room, staring for the mad kid who is not smart enough to quit on this. No hands are raised.
"Great. Glad that you are all with us."
One girl speaks up. Her skin is lighter than mine, I would guess Mexican or somewhere in South America. Her hair is soft, straitened out perfectly, like she was preparing herself for a date. She tucks her hair behind her ear slowly as she asks the question. "Sir, Defoe. What exactly are we doing?"
"Ah, miss Morning Rodriguez! Let me explain to you all, after you have all signed this form. By writing your name, you agree to the contract, that you will complete our requests, and keep the expedition safe and confidential."
I nod, wanting to look serious and helpful in this meeting, as I know that somebody will be watching me. One of the men in the back of the group hands out papers to each of us, and passes around a pen inscribed with Babel Communications' logo. I am third to take mine, and quick to put my pen down afterwards. I look over at the other kids, which is when I notice. They are not all writing in English. A boy across the table from me puts down a couple symbols, from an asian dialect that I cannot identify. How does he understand English? I realise now that the group they have brought is very diverse, purposefully perhaps. There is no way that all of them understand the perfect English that Defoe speaks. I file this under M for mysterious.
The group of Babel directors turn around to speak amongst themselves, giving us a chance to look around nervously again. There are 5 girls and 5 boys, including me. I think, these are going to be my friends now, whether I like it or not. Not exactly PJ and the boys back home. I'll never get to sneak out at night to meet them in the park. I'll never get caught whispering to them in class. I'll never share that bond I had with people back home. But we are venturing into space together, this will be a different friendship.
The girl who spoke earlier, who Defoe introduced as 'Morning', smiles around. She looks confident, out of us all, but as eager to learn at us all. Another boy, as black as me, scratches his arm impatiently. And Defoe does as we hope, turning around to face us again.
Now, the mission objective. I feel like I am in a secret space spy team, just like James Bond in the movie PJ showed me. A screen appears at the back of the room, flickering on almost instantly. The directors clear out of the way so that we can see properly. Oh to play video games with Pops on a screen this big and detailed.
An image flashes up, of a planet. Not one in our solar system, or anything we studied in school. My science teacher, Dr Greyman, talked about stars and planets scattered across the universe, and that there were more stars and planets than there are grains of sand on earth. This must be one of them.
"Eden."
How very biblical of you, Babel. Nicely done.
"This is our destination. Life on this planet is possible. Over 60 years ago, we discovered this planet with our telescopes. It took us twenty-seven years to first reach Eden, and to first step foot on the planet. The reason you did not see this on TV, is as we did not know what we would find down there, and if it was safe. We found two important things, among the chaos of our first arrival."
The screen flicks over, with one of the fancy presentation effects me and PJ put on all of our school work. On the screen is a strange looking human, well, it doesn't look like a human. An alien.
"First, we found a humanoid alien species, Adamites. Adamites are the only intelligent species on Eden, and let's say. We were not welcome. They fought us, but we fought back. Not many survived."
Defoe gestures to his hand, which is withered and damaged, assumably by one of these Adamites.
"After some time of conflict, we agreed that killing, no matter how unjustified, would lead to more killing. They kept sending troops, so did we. A meeting happened, and an agreement was cleared that we could send down our workers down to Eden under one condition. That they are children."
Oh right. That's why they need us. I start to worry, that I may be attacked or killed by the Adamites, but I trick myself into forgetting about it as Defoe continues.
"What you will do on the planet, is simple. You will mine Nyxia." The screen changes again, this time the slide flutters away like a bird to reveal the next picture behind. I spot Defoe looking back to a woman in his group, who is giggling.
"Anyway. This is no ordinary material. Let me show you." Defoe pulls out a small cube, just a little bigger than my thumb. It is blacker than the night sky. The darkness of it draws us in, to have a closer look. And then it changes.
In front of our eyes, it transforms, swirling and morphing quickly, until instead there lay a sphere in Defoe's hand. Another quick manipulation forms it into a dagger, and back into a cube.
"I just changed this with my mind." Defoe stops to see our reactions. Two of us laughed, two of us smiled, the rest were silent. But we all stared closer. One boy almost leaning on top of the table to see it even closer.
"You will all learn to manipulate Nyxia the way I have done. This material, is our main objective. You will mine it, and send it back to us. As long as you meet our quotas and expectations, we will too." Defoe signals towards the contracts we all signed.
Defoe goes on to explain in more detail about Nyxia. The different ways they use this material, the quantities of ore deposits on Eden, and how each mining location can store amounts of Nyxia worth around 50 billion dollars each. No matter they are so rich. He shows us a map, covered in colourful spots and areas. He tells us that each black dot represents a mine of Nyxia, each green dot is a Babel station that we will operate from, three in total. And the red areas indicate land that is out of bounds to us humans, which covers the majority of the planet. We all note to not go anywhere near it, in hopes to not end up like Defoe's hand. Or worse.
The girl next to me speaks, but I cannot understand a word in her language. Defoe can.
"Good question. The reason they asked for children to be sent out, well. Their species is dying. There are low amounts of female Adamites left, and thus have been unable to reproduce and continue to a new generation. The youngest Adamite is over twenty years old."
I put the pieces of the puzzle together. They haven't seen children in years, they have no children of their own. They don't like us on their planet, but for a chance to meet some children again, they will make the exception. And while we visit, we take their Nyxia. And then Babel give us heaps of money. I can do that.
Defoe speaks again, anticipating our reaction to the next dump of information he will leave to us. I should be taking notes.
"The flight through space will take less than a year. This will not be a holiday, throughout the journey you will be learning about the planet and it's species, how to survive. You will also have physical tests and challenges." He flicks the screen over again, revealling an empty scoreboard. There are 10 spaces, each with a score of zero entered in.
"Throughout these tests, challenges and lessons, you will be scored on how you perform, and all scorings will go onto this screen, and counted up by the end of our space travel and inevitable journey onto Eden."
Great.
"As you can see, there are ten of you in total. Only eight of you will step on Eden.'
Writer's Note
Wow, a lot to take in! Very similar introduction to the start of of the original story, however you may notice one change. Morning is on Genesis 11. I hope you notice and enjoy these slight tweaks, that will start small and eventually change the entire outcome and ending to the story.
Cavo
* Extract from 'Nyxia' by Scott Reinten