Rowan: The EcoPan

The Return Of Eden (Pt 2)

[Twelve Years Later]
I take a step back, looking at the hologram screen in front of me and take a deep breath. My heart starts racing and my hands shake. I've never been so afraid in my life, which is saying a lot. Suddenly, Aaron appears before me.

"Is it completed now?" He asks with his hands together behind his back. "I think you have had quite enough time."

"I--I think I am," I stutter in amazement. "After all these years I just wanted to be back with them and now I might be able to and..."

"I know this is overwhelming for you Rowan. You're always welcome to stay...you remember the deal, don't you?"

"I do," I sigh. "But I never truly thought this day would come. I never thought I could do it." I recall the day about twelve years ago when Aaron reluctantly agreed to my deal so long ago. I realized that I couldn't be the EcoPan, but I couldn't let humanity down either, so I came up with an idea. I will still become the EcoPan when I am old and content in my life, but in the meantime, I can be a normal, happy person. Or as normal as I get. I would temporarily be relieved of my duties as the EcoPan and then live my normal life if I can make the EcoPans procedures. If I can give the EcoPan a functioning database to run off of for the rest of my life, however long it may be, I can go home to my friends. It's been a long twelve years, yet also a short twelve years as I made these careful calculations as the other half the EcoPan. And now, I think I succeeded. I think I might have a running database that I can leave Aaron with for the next sixty or seventy years. Now, I might be able to go home. I might hold my family again. Like I explained to Lachlan, I feel time differently than them. I don't feel time, I observe it. I feel like I saw them just this morning but I also have an understanding that I've been waiting on them for forever and I want them back.

Well, you succeeded Rowan. Truly I didn't think you were going to succeed either, but here we are.

"I can go back home?" I ask with a gulp. Aaron nods.

You are the EcoPan as much as I. I don't control you, you don't control me. Although, I do believe you have persuaded me in much. I can no longer stop you from leaving, Aaron says and I feel frozen. I can leave. Now. It won't be the same, I know that, but I don't feel like it's been twelve years. I feel like when I wake up I can throw my arms around them and kiss them and they'll love me again, but it's been so long for them. I guess you could assume I would keep connections with Ash, mom, and Lark, and I would have but I couldn't. To preserve energy and direct it towards my calculation, Aaron cut off any non-vital ability of the EcoPan. And talking to humans in a non-critical situation isn't vital to him. It must feel like they haven't spoken to me in forever. Well, now I'll be with them again...am I ready for that?

"So...I'm allowed to leave now?" I ask. I can hardly believe it.

I'm afraid you are, He says and I can tell he's observing me. It's a strange thing. We're still one as the EcoPan but we still have moments, like now, where I need to speak to know, not as him and Yarrow allows us to be separate. I can't blame him for being curious about what I'm about to do next, quite honestly I'm curious too. What do I do next?

Do what you truly want. What we both have always truly wanted, Yarrow pleads. I know you have had no awareness of time, but I have. All this time I've been wanting to go home. I have feelings too Rowan and I miss our family. I miss our home. Let's go back.

I have moments hesitance. I don't know what anything will be like when I get home or who anyone would be. Quite honestly, I don't know if it's the right thing to do, but I'm doing it. I'm going home. Aaron, who is still reading my thoughts after all these years, nods his head.