Madame President Lucille leaned back and folded her long arms, desperately trying to hold her tongue. An electric light buzzed overhead, the small room shook and dust drifted onto the metal table as a transit vehicle passed far above in Genesis. Women and men sat across from her discussing -- no, arguing against -- the Farm Project. All these people do is whine, she thought, they have nothing to contribute.
Lucille laid her hands flat on the table and raised her voice above the chatter, "I do understand your concerns, but-" they continued to speak over her.
A man with a bulbous nose and small eyes tilted his head towards Lucille, his voice rising by the syllable, drowning out any other speaker, "Up there they all worry about runnin' out of room fer themselves, but down 'ere... in tha same city that keeps 'em alive, we have miles of empty homes and businesses and factories and mines and...and when tha people of Ickwall die, who'll be left, huh?" He took a drag off of his pipe then pointed a stubby finger at her, "Tha Genies, that's who! What's tha use in keepin' yourself alive all those extra years if tha next generation is on that stupid rock?" The last word bounced off the mustard colored walls, half the room winced.
She shook her head and tried to regain control of the conversation, "Up there, down here...what about all of us? Don't you want humanity as a whole to live on, long after your generation dies? I am trying to insure that the race lives on, and repopulating old earth is the only hope." She tried to explain her plan in a way they would understand, "With the children of Ickwall and the money from Genesis, we can go back home. Back to the place we came from hundreds of years ago."
"Who really knows what goes on there, you've led our children into danger before..." A woman with short pink hair added through her nose, just loud enough to be heard, her thin lips tightened into a scowl as she waggled a finger at Lucille.
Lucille squeezed the pen she was holding, exhaling through her nose, anger boiling in her gut, but she made her tone soft,"I want something better for your children and it may not seem like it now, but they are better off on old earth. If the Farm Project is a success, hunger, overpopulation, and civil wars will be a thing of the past. Gone will be the days of squabbling over energy and room. Too many people with not enough to go around equals a loss for everyone." The reality was clear to Lucille, she had been studying the problem since she left Hyde House in Ickwall so many years ago.
"...mines're nearly empty, with no one to work'em we are gonna have to shut 'em down and how will we have energy then?" A large man in a bowler hat pounded his fist on the wooden table for emphasis.
"Old earth is close to being healed, soon we will obtain energy there. There will be jobs enough for everyone." She knew this to be fact, old earth would hold untold fortune if they were smart enough to cultivate a future there.
Voices blended together as they argued among themselves, each person louder than the next, all of them pounding and tapping and flailing around the table. All she could do was sit and wait for them to run out of breath. She waited an eternity and when it seemed like they would never be quiet, she finally stood and called across the table.
"Enough!" She was done being disrespected. She took a moment to gather her thoughts, to remain calm, to maintain some semblance of composure. "That is enough for today, we will pick back up on this topic next week. Until then, try to think of ways to improve the situation. I created this council to help me solve a problem and all that you people seem capable of is criticism and disdain for progress." She grabbed her cloak and stood, surveying the room, "When I come back next week, you will...and you must, treat me with more respect. Every one of you can be replaced."
–
Taking two stairs at a time and humming all the way, Frida ran up the winding staircase in what she now thought of as her home. She always looked forward to Lucille's arrival and just minutes ago she had spotted the woman's vehicle circling the estate's flat roof. Shadows darkened the corners of Lucille's stark, spacious home. Polished black marble with silver flecks chilled Frida's toes as she reached the top of the stairs, her small voice echoed through the hall, " Lucille, is that you?"
Lucille usually went directly to her study when returning home and Frida knew to look for her there, first. Soft classical music played quietly on her caretaker's private floor, and the rising and falling melodies soothed Frida. Lucille's study reminded her of the Library back at the Farm, in some ways. The differences in the spaces were dramatic, though.
An immense window spanning half of the circular room's wall space served as a semi-transparent monitor. Equations, diagrams, informative clips, maps, blueprints, and pictures of people swarmed in color across the glass. Lucille usually stood on a hover disk, maneuvering up and down across the room, physically moving through the information. Once, Frida asked her why she didn't just sit and flip through her work and Lucille's response had came quickly, "I think better on my feet." She had said, as she tapped a black tipped index finger on her temple.
This time, though, Frida found the place empty. The domed ceiling of the circular room displayed the image of the constellations, as seen from the Moon Colony, each star twinkling artificially. The walls were painted eggplant with automated rivers of silver liquid trickling to the floor, pooling at the shiny black baseboards. Frida took a deep breath, savoring the scent of furniture polish and paper. She tiptoed across a plush emerald rug accenting the tall archway leading into the room. She stood, frozen by indecision. She squeezed the soft green fibers of the rug between her bare toes, remembering the feel of grass, a wonder she had taken for granted on the Farm.
Then, she heard a voice. Gentle, sweet, and barely audible. It was repeating her name. She blinked in surprise as a fluttering sensation spread though her chest and waves of warmth raised goosebumps on her arms. Every breath she took slowed her heartbeat. Suddenly, the only thing she could think about was Violet. She looked around the room, searching for the owner of the voice, but she was alone. Something compelled her to observe the room, take in the details, she noticed things she never been interested in before. A happiness took her over and she grinned widely. After a several moments of confusion, and just as quickly as it had come, the strange feeling left Frida.
How odd, she thought. Frida walked forward, still a bit dizzy from the experience, and sat at Lucille's desk to wait. It seemed to rise from the floor, with two slabs of black marble supporting a thin crystal monitor. Hesitantly, Frida dared to tap the screen, sending soft blue script scrolling across the surface. Password, it read. That gave Frida pause, she brushed a sandy blond lock of hair behind an ear and leaned closer. She did not know the password. Footsteps clicked into the room, startling the girl.
"Hyde," Lucille's tight voice rang from the doorway, "the password, if you must know, is Hyde." She stood there with her arms folded, a slick black cloak clasped with a small blue and green globe still draped across her narrow shoulders.
Instant panic froze Frida. "I, I..." she stammered, "I'm sorry. I was looking for you."
"In my desk?" Lucille stepped towards the girl slowly, a half-smile creeping up one side of her angular face.
"I didn't see anything." Frida shrugged and lowered her green eyes.
A single eyebrow shot up as Lucille sat on a long low bench by one of the many bookcases,"Dear, I am not upset, don't fret. I simply want to know why you felt the need to launch an investigation in my personal study." Her words were harder than her tone, she sounded almost amused.
"I was waiting for you in here. What do you do all day when you're gone? I miss when you go." The admission surprised Frida as it left her mouth.
The more time she spent with the woman, the more Frida admired her. But missing Lucille? She often had to remind herself not to become attached, even though she had been kidnapped and drugged by the President. In the beginning she only pretended to like the woman, hoping that someday it would buy her freedom, but now...thinking kindly of Lucille came naturally.
"Oh, I should be the sorry one." Lucille patted the bench for Frida to sit down, "Would you like to know what I did today, then?"
She sat beside Lucille and nodded, pulling one of her legs under her, and leaned back on a teal cushion.
Lucille's hands worked at unpinning the elaborate braid-work that formed a headband across her scalp. "First, in the lab I addressed my staff, made some communications and finished a few projects. Then I met with the Ickwall council, which was an absolute nightmare, don't get me started."
"What did the council talk abut?" Frida still hadn't visited Ickwall, a place she had been yearning to see since she arrived at the Moon Colony.
"The Farm Project, you shouldn't worry about it, you are no longer a part of the movement."
"The movement?" Frida considered herself bright, but she didn't understand Lucille's meaning.
"Yes, the Farm Project has a handful of bases on Earth," Lucille smiled and spoke in a tone more posh than usual, "...each Farm a integral point of wide-scale regional recolonization." Her laugh was almost bitter when she finished.
"Oh, you never told me there were more..." Frida's stomach dropped and she felt duped, even betrayed. She couldn't let on though, she didn't want to risk Lucille sensing discontent. "Where do all the kids come from...and are they all filled with just kids?"
"They come from Ickwall, a place I know all too well. The children can either stay there once they are adults or try to make it on their own in the vast empty landscape. Either way, humanity needs to go back to where it belongs, it is safe on earth now." She spoke slowly, with her eyes distant.
The girl was confused, "But have you been to my Farm? Or any of them? And why don't we remember the Moon Colony, if that where we all came from?"
"That is enough." Lucille's nose jerked up as she stiffened and cut the girl off, "You're simply too young to understand how these things work."
Frida missed being taken seriously. At least on the Farm there were only children, no one could claim superiority based on age alone. "I didn't mean to pry, I'm sorry."
"You are quite alright. I only want to spare your perfect little brain from such maddening nonsense. Would you like me to read to you for a bit? Perhaps we will pick something light tonight..." She stood and began reading off titles from the bookshelves.
Frida chewed her bottom lip, thinking back to her life on the Farm. It was definitely much more difficult to live there than in the Moon Colony and now she knew there were probably thousands of people struggling on Earth, and she was here beside the woman responsible. With that in mind, Frida decided that as soon as an opportunity arose, she would go back to the Farm she came from and tell them the truth.