Saving Earth.

Chapter 5

The day had arrived for them to make their way to the surface. Auggie and Abbey were already there with their parents when he'd arrived twenty minutes early. He wondered if either of them had trouble sleeping like he had. The earliness of their arrival answered his question.

Auggie was in one corner of the room in deep discussions with his father. His mother was standing off to the side, wringing her hands and sniffling into a hanky. Auggie threw his mother a disgusted look every minute or so. His father just ignored her.

Abbey and her parents were in the opposite corner. Tears were flowing all around. The suddenness of the decision to send Abbey to the surface had meant that she and her parents had only one night to accustom themselves to what was happening. Of course her parents, being loyal and patriotic members of their society, would never think of stopping her. But that didn't mean that she would be any less missed or they would be any less sad.

Marcus had slept poorly that night. After hours and hours of tossing and turning he decided to give up trying and walk around the dome one last time. The hallway was dark as it always was at that time of the night. His people used the lowering and increasing of light to simulate night and day so as to keep their circadian rhythms on track. Just as the humans had night and day. His father had told him that when they first landed this precaution had not been taken. The lights were left on in the hallways 24/7. They found that people would develop their own sleeping patterns. Some would sleep twelve hours and then be awake twenty four. Others would be awake eighteen and then sleep six. Nothing could be accomplished because everyone was on their own cycle. However once they started turning the lights off and on at regular intervals everyone in the community synced up and work progressed smoothly.

He now walked slowly through the halls so the echoes from his shoes would not wake anyone. He remembered running through these halls as a young child, playing with his friends, getting into trouble from the adults. At the time his mother had been alive and a centurion would bring him home to her once a week or more complaining of his behavior. She would always say the right things to the centurions, telling them she would punish him. But as soon as the door was closed the two of them would laugh and giggle like kids replaying his offenses. His mother would then always tell him to never let them break his spirit. To always pursue his passion. He never really understood what she was talking about until after she passed away. His father took over the raising of him and when the centurions brought him to his office there was no laughing and giggling after they left. His father made it very clear to him that he thought his mother had failed him in assimilating into the culture and that would change from that time forward.

He missed his mother very much. If she were still alive he wasn't sure that he could go through with this new part of his life. The temptation to stay with her might be too great. The temptation to stay with is father was not. While he respected him immensely their relationship had never blossomed into what he'd had with is mother.

After walking the halls and reminiscing for several more hours he knew it was useless trying to sleep. He returned to his quarters, showered, packed and arrived at the meeting area early, or so he thought. His father now walked in and waived him over to a corner of the room.

“Marcus, are you ready?”

“Yes, sir.”