Intentionality Read online

  The girls chatter.

  I lose my grip on the dream and wake as usual, sweating, but with the reassuring hand of my sister to calm me.

  Seven

  There is a trickle of a knock at the door, like fingernails being tapped to music.

  “Girls are you ready?” whispered Skye. “I’ve been for my run. While I was out on the upper observation deck, I saw someone new enter The Nest from an Intentionality sub. It was a man, he was dressed like a captain in those old films we are shown.”

  Lily opened the door.

  I was still waking up from my night of panic and wonder.

  “Ok, now slowly this time, what did you see, where were you when this occurred and do you think it was really a man from Intentionality?” asked Lily.

  “Lily I know what I saw. I hid long enough perched on a window ledge to get the whole story, so that Summer wouldn’t have to improve the event for the rest of the Seeders, by adding danger and or romance. He parked the sub himself. Got out and strode down the concourse alone. He seemed to be carrying just a small flask like the ones we get with our lunch. Nobody questioned him or even looked.”

  “So, this morning without being announced, a man wearing a uniform entered The Nest. He wasn’t welcomed, stopped or questioned. That so doesn’t sound romantic but it does sound slightly dangerous! You are doing well. Summer will be proud,” joked Lily.

  “Did you follow him after he left the concourse Skye?” I asked

  “Well of course I did! I figured that no one else would be watching, as you were all asleep and with no chaperone to check his behaviour or know his whereabouts, I just felt I wanted to ensure that our little Nest was still the tranquil palace that it has always been,” said Skye.

  “You hadn’t planned to stop him yourself Skye, please tell me that you are not that self-assured or stupid. I haven’t decided which category I would put you into, having already hidden on a window ledge!” Lily commented.

  “I must admit the whole thing does seem utterly bizarre and completely false. Is it April Fool’s day?” I wondered.

  This is an ancient tradition. Apparently, people in England, one of a small group of countries alone in the middle of the sea, liked to play tricks on friends and family, like balancing buckets of water on a door, so that the person who entered the room would get soaked. We like to relive the old traditions that we read about in our history classes, it makes us feel more like part of the living world. You see the only tradition we have is The Harvest and that’s not even an accurate reflection of the ancient ceremony, unless you are counting the Seeders as crops!

  There are many traditions from around the world that of course we cannot try; such as Groundhog Day from a surface country called America. We aren’t likely to see a large rodent hiding in a bush around our decks. We would also struggle with the English Bonfire Night or a religious festival called Diwali. Naked flames and especially those of the exploding bomb type are definitely prohibited! Then of course there is Valentine’s Day, quite a difficult leap of faith when there are no male candidates with which to flirt or send love tokens.

  We do annually celebrate a very cute worldwide phenomenon where supposedly a large man in a red suit visits all, yes all of the children in one night and deposits gifts in a stocking (apparently a stocking was a large woollen sock) I’m not sure of his real name but I think the rough translation is Mr Christmas. Now, of course this seems very far-fetched in my opinion, particularly when you take into account the fact that he was supposed to be navigating from a sleigh and this sleigh was led by a flying mammal called a reindeer, which every other day of the year didn’t even suggest the power of flight amongst its skills. We of course do not have a sleigh or reindeer in The Nest and we have no way of getting things to put in a sock. But we have great fun ordering a special meal from the catering pod, after which we go and deliver to a Seeder of our choice, our handwritten notes of good will along with something we have created from the art materials we are given. I often write a short story about a dream I have had and maybe add the Seeder in, to make it special. After the gift giving we eat in the lunch hall and watch a screening of an old Christmas film. This is my absolute favourite day. Lots of attention is given to getting this day just right. We even submit the name of our chosen Seeder to Summer, weeks in advance so that she can check the names off on a list. Does this make her Mrs Christmas I wonder?

  Of course we tend to hand-pick the fun traditions that need lots of preparation. It helps to have another focus and an outlet for our teenage minds, which aren’t always wanting to study. Well, I say WE. It’s Summer of course that chooses, plans, prepares and leads any chosen tradition, as she does this so very well; like cattle we all go about our jobs without question. Again a little bit like there being 100 girls down here under the ice, not even questioning why.

  Summer’s latest extra-curricular event is The Graduation Ball. This is to celebrate the impending Harvest and then the exciting journey some of us will be lucky enough to take. It is a huge event, a celebration and in no way sad. We will see our fellow Seeders again. They will be waiting for us in Intentionality. We may even be living next door or have the same Evo-gene gifts.

  Summer has been researching our very own Graduation Ball since the last one! This year, we all voted for the theme of Illusion. This really interested us because it is all about reshaping what is already there. By using a mirror or a trick of the hand or a word of persuasion here and there, an Illusion can seem to create a truth from absolute fiction.

  We can create a ballroom from a white empty Edu Pod and rabbits from silk scarves! Well perhaps not the rabbits but we are working on edible invitations. Of course Dawn is the go to girl for basic knowledge and research, Grace being arty has managed to gather a few Seeders together to create the décor. I, Skye and Lily will be putting together the entertainment, but only after this is revised and agreed by her ladyship ‘Summer of The Nest’.

  I am now up and prepared for the day. I am desperate to inform Lily that we shall, I believe, ascend together. However the memory of that hysterical boy on the edge of the park distracts me from my joy. It raises such eerie questions that I must not even open that chapter to the world, therefore disarming its potency. Sometimes I think that if I actually verbalise my dreams they become a real living piece of my memory and I can convince myself that they are in fact the truth. None of my dreams have ever come true or have ever held an ounce of everyday reality. I have never and most likely will never be assisted to the surface by a tusked mammal.

  We type in our exit code and walk into the corridor amongst the vital energies of the other Seeders on their way to class. However none are more vital than our companion, who is busily regaling us with her exhilarating brush with the man of danger, who, for the purposes of her story has now been named ‘The Captain’.

  “The Captain walked at quite a pace girls. It was a good job that it was me following. He looked around only once, at which point I managed to throw myself towards the entrance to the botanical gardens. Perhaps he thought I was a Mono. It was early, so other Seeders hadn’t been called yet. His journey took him to the Acer deck. You will never guess who met him without even being sent for. I know this because he didn’t once use his communicator band. He just strode as steadily and calmly as a soldier on parade,” explained Skye, becoming distracted by her representation of The Captain’s stride pattern.

  “Go on then I can’t guess who it was. Clearly the clue is that it’s a member of the teaching staff, a mentor, or one of the Grand Acers if he went straight to their deck. But what I don’t understand is how it was possible for him to enter and travel around The Nest without a chaperone,” questioned Lily.

  “The welcoming committee was Mrs Alder! Just Mrs Alder! From where I was hidden, she very much knew that he would be arriving.”

  “Did she speak with him, did he stay long, did he and Mrs Alder enter the Acer pods together?” enquired Lily.

  That would be a first! We
had never seen men visiting the women Acers here. Of course some are married and live together in the Acer pods.

  “What like a boyfriend?” I giggled in my head.

  “No Mae, not like a boyfriend! I was thinking that maybe she was taking him to the Grand Acer.” Lily retorted back in our silent way.

  These are the Acers who come with their entire family for a few months, rather like a rota. There is always a Grand Acer in charge but you never really know who it is! I wonder how those families were chosen to stay above ground when we others were destined not to? They are I suppose part of the ruling Acers, the generations linked in some way to Natura and of course initially to Eden.

  I am absolutely certain that the Acers who do live here don’t just have a simple pod or even two pods next door with a hole sawn through the divider, the way that Lily and I do. But it can’t be much fun living the way that they did as Seeders on dry land to suddenly become confined. Maybe that’s why Mrs Alder is so officious all of the time, maybe if she gets good grades for long enough she will be able to re-join Intentionality. More likely this is what her Evo-gene gave her; the ability to teach, the knowledge to enhance the Evo-gene.

  “Well, this is what happened next. She didn’t welcome him with more than a bow and a courteous good morning, that’s for sure. Mrs Alder looked down and took the flask from The Captain. He gave her some instructions I think. They were short sentences she nodded after each one and kept looking at the flask like it was doing the talking. Then he turned around and paced off at his usual speed. Mrs Alder went back into the Acer pods shaking her head.”

  “What happened to The Captain after that?” Lily asked.

  “I followed him again. He walked straight to our deck and began keying in information on all of our external pads. Then he got out a small hand-held machine. But it was at this point that I realised I was too close. He seemed to stop for an instant. I thought that he had definitely heard me, so I just started running again! Great save, don’t you think? He nodded his head as I ran by and I pretended not to notice. I am after all in training and completely focussed at all times!” joked Skye.

  I have never heard of anything so far from normality actually happening outside of my wildest dreams. An intruder gets into The Nest, no, is clearly allowed into The Nest without a chaperone. We are always told that any stranger to The Nest will be chaperoned by one of the Monos. Then the said stranger is allowed to wander around our living pod deck. Where was security at this point? What has happened to the threat of all the cameras reviewing our every move? Are they only sensitive to our Evo-signature? Or, more likely, this visit was planned and cleared by the Grand Acer and they knew exactly what The Captain was doing.

  We continued to travel along the shiny echoing corridors to our edu-pod. It was earlier than usual, so the sounds were easier for me to cope with. We continued to guess the role of ‘The Captain’ but with our limited experience of anything other than what they want us to know, we were sadly lacking in ideas. Lily, ever the optimist, thought it may be a system check and that the flask was just delivered by The Captain because he was coming anyway. Perhaps it was a rare and favourite beverage of the Grand Acers.

  Whatever the reason for the visit, Mrs Alder was at her station and ready to lecture with gusto by the time we sidled in.

  “Girls, it is with enormous pleasure, pride and no small amount of excitement that I have felt the need to bring you to attention early this fine morning,” sang Mrs Alder.

  “Recently, I have received wonderful news regarding your knowledge scores. They are some of the highest on record. This allows us to apply for The Harvest early, in fact we here in The Nest, are to say farewell to you all in just three weeks! We are to be ready for the Ascension tests on October the 8th.”

  Three weeks, that’s twenty-one days! I don’t think they have included me in their calculations. I will not be ready. There are no signs of my Evo-gene maturing. Not that I am expecting to grow a third arm or increase my head size twofold, but I was assuming that I would have a day when I would wake up and the fuzz about my gifts would clear. I would begin to build some understanding of my next step. At this instant in time I have but a weird dream to go on. Absolutely no one else has mentioned being told about their skills in a dream. The only hope I could pin on those dreams is that I am in fact psychic and have been interpreting my dreams incorrectly all along. Perhaps the tusked mammal is actually a representation of Mrs Alder leading me to Ascension.

  “Mae I don’t know what is really going on in your head but can you please remove the vision of Mrs Alder as a hideous sea mammal from my head. It is most unhelpful,” communicated Lily through a stifled giggle.

  There was a small whimper from the back of the room, as we all turned around like a shoal of fish. We witness the imploding mind of Summer trying to work around the new deadline for our Graduation.

  “It’s really unfair girls. We have ordered sumptuous fabric from Intentionality but it won’t arrive until we have already been Acers for a week! Now what will we wear for the dance?”

  Work will begin in earnest after Mrs Alders’ announcement. Each of us will also begin checking our brain and sensory reactions for anything new. Mrs Alder says that sometimes in extreme cases the Seeder has to have their skill explained to them as it is actually new! Like another evolutionary shift. Perhaps that is what we are, my sister and I. There is no record of twins anywhere in the Seeder history. However their occurrence was quite common in the old world. So I can’t see that just being a twin makes us extremely gifted.

  Soon we will be able to think quicker, be able to react to practical situations or answer theoretical questions relating to our gift without having been trained.

  Now that the excitement is over, lessons begin with gusto. I lock down my brain, check my watch and begin the count down for lunch.

  Eight

  September 17th.

  Morning Craig,

  How is life down in the rust bucket with the prisoners?

  Here on dry land, life is rolling on quite interestingly. I went along on an observation mission last night with the Resistance Guards. We think things are beginning to be prepared for another Harvest. All of the usual signs are evident. The disused park on the route is being painted and some of the Acer personnel are being employed in the buildings that are attached. A letter has been dispatched commanding personnel to arrive for cylinder preparation duty. We took a walk along the sub route too. It seems that the tracks are being repaired. This all points to a Harvest, but that is a lot earlier than our intelligence predicted. We need to ask you to do some investigating your side. Just a discrete intelligent question here and there will be adequate. We need an accurate date to begin planning the mission. As I said in my previous contact, we are probably three Harvests away from going live with the takeover mission but we really need to put a plant onto the next sub to facilitate the exploration.

  Hope to hear from you soon, Luke.

  Nine

  September 17th.

  Mate,

  Need to talk.

  Questions from above.

  Meet @ air hole. Two o’clock. C.

  KK. I’ll be the one in the rubber dive suit! Will.

  September 18th.

  Luke,

  I have spoken to Willem. He says that he noticed the accelerated learning class adding an extra early morning session to their timetable yesterday as he went on duty. Interestingly, our boy Willem tells me he has broken all the rules by helping one of the twins when he found her drowning in the air hole a while back. Seems to have taken a shine to her and because of his fledgling vested interest, he is now willing to join the cause, but on a strictly information gathering status only. He says he really is not interested in becoming a guard. The more the merrier I say. He is an extremely worthy catch. He has top-level security passes because of his technical skills and intelligence score. He has promised to observe and be our ears on his shifts.

  Will be in touch soon, Craig
.

  Ten

  The days in this week have travelled so very fast. We have been intensively fed by the information machine that is Mrs Alder. Not that I’m saying her robotic manner is ineffective. Many of the girls have suddenly improved their scores and some have overnight it seems, developed their Evo-gene skills. We now have two Doctors of mathematics, three engineers, three Doctors of medicine and an army commander, who of course is Summer; this makes complete sense. She is born to lead, fiercely organised and relentless in the successful completion of her missions. The surprise package at the moment is Skye, whose Evo-skill has absolutely nothing to do with her love of physical movement. She is to be a geneticist, this job I am told explores how our human bodies are planned out from our smallest cell. I think that particular job is super interesting but Skye fears that she will be strapped to a microscope in a lab all day, which is her worst nightmare.

  So that just leaves the scrapings at the bottom of the barrel. My sister and I have got small embryonic changes in our skills, Lily more than me. She can now interpret a lost language called Latin, though what good that will be to Intentionality I do not know. She now knows all of the names for my favourite plants in the botanical gardens and has been having great discussions with one of our friends who is to become a medical chemist. Apparently medicines also have Latin names. As usual I have the comedy version of skills on offer. I can produce images in my brain, which begin to tell a story when I listen to the music and songs from different languages. Not a regularly tested ability I will admit, but I came across this earth shattering news while wandering the decks near the Mono area. A door just happened to slide open, allowing some sound to escape. It was a wonderful piece of music, echoing along the corridors, it sent a tingle along my spine and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I had never heard the language being sung and still can’t tell you what the words were, when translated back to in English, but as I stood mesmerised in the corridor, great visions appeared around me like I was being transported in to my own personal moving scene. I tried tentatively at first to feel the surroundings, believing that I had in fact been transported off The Nest. On closer inspection, I realised that I could still see past the fog of vision to the end of the corridor.