Jessica was surprised at the number of different transport carriages arriving at the docking station and the passengers disembarking. Some people were dressed in formal wear similar to hers, and others in little more than animal coverings. Everyone pleasantly greeted one another as the massive influx of travelers walked toward what Jessica figured was the city’s center. There were no concrete streets or sidewalks anywhere, only grass pathways. The city was in the shape of rings, with the outermost ring holding the shorter buildings. Each ring inward from there had progressively taller buildings. The very center of the city featured what could have been the inspiration for the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
“Don’t get too distracted,” Ori said, talking to Vau. “Make sure you take care of what needs to happen first.”
“I know, I know,” Vau said.
“All right,” Evelyn said as they got closer to the city center, “we’ll meet up with you after the builders’ finale.” Evelyn and Ori broke away from the group.
“Oh, I almost forgot,” Tony said, as he pulled two small cone-shaped items out of his pocket and handed them to Jessica. “Put these in your ears. This is the best workaround we have until you get your watch back.”
All around them there was music, dancing, and delicious-smelling food.
“This isn’t quite what I expected,” Jessica said, thinking about the description of Match Day as a mix between a science fair and a job convention.
“This,” Tony said, as he waved his hands toward the festivities like a circus ringmaster presenting his next great performers, “is the birthplace of genius. At the end of every Great Year, all the geniuses come together and present what they believe are the tools needed for the next twenty-six thousand years. We have a representation of people from almost every major version of the multiverse.”
“Those who come from places sanctioned to attend,” Jordan said.
“Are they, umm, celestial beings too?” Jessica asked.
“They are part of the team,” Jordan said, “but they’re more like you. They started as recruits and have elevated.”
“All right,” Vau said, “time to split up?
“Cool.” To Jessica, Tony said, “Hey, enjoy this.”
“See you at the finale,” Jordan said, and they both walked off.
“So the first exhibit is…” Vau looked around, “over here.”
“What’s our role here?” Jessica asked.
“We’re shopping,” Vau said. “C’mon, they’re about to start. First up, the aquatic exhibits.” A small crowd had formed around the first booth, which was crewed by two young women. One had long black braids that went past her lower back. The other had lively curly hair the color of a bright red hibiscus. As Jessica and Vau approached, the crowd made way for them, and Jessica could swear she heard at least one person whisper, “It’s the scribe.”
Jessica surveyed the booth to see several transparent balls lying on the table.
“What do we have here?” Vau asked.
The young women had been staring at Jessica. At the sound of Vau’s voice, the one with the long black braids cleared her throat. “This allows someone to breathe underwater.”
The young lady with the red hair picked up one of the rubber-looking balls and handed it to Jessica.
It felt cold and soft, like gelatin.
“How does it work?” Jessica asked.
The young women looked at each other.
Vau encouraged them. “Do you mind showing an example?”
The two women spoke simultaneously and then traded off words as if they had done this countless times. “This technology is made of chemical components that, at an atomic level, feed oxygen directly into the human being,” said the one with red hair.
“All they have to do,” the other chimed in, “is place the device over their nose and mouth.” The young woman pressed the ball against her nose and mouth, which then morphed into a transparent mask. The girl took several deep breaths and spoke. Jessica could hear her words, although her voice was a little muffled.
The one with the red hair bent down behind the booth and pulled out a transparent block that was the size of a Rubik’s cube. “Please stand back,” she said as she placed it on the ground and squeezed the sides. The cube then expanded into a glass tank that was taller than Vau.
The girl with the transparent mask stepped inside, closed the door, and pressed her hand against the inner wall. The tank then filled with water, submerging the girl, who exhibited her ability to keep breathing with no issues, thanks to the mask.
“Remarkable,” Jessica whispered.
“Where is this viable?” Vau asked.
“It ranges from five hertz up to eleven hertz,” the woman said.
“Are there limitations on duration and depth?” Vau asked.
“This allows for three circadian rhythm cycles of breath, regardless of depth.”
Vau explained, “So this will allow you to breathe underwater for at least seventy hours before you have to come up for air. Right?” Vau glanced back at the presenter.
“Correct,” she said.
“This is excellent. Thank you.” Vau gave a slight bow.
“Thank you,” Jessica said.
“It’s an honor,” the presenter said.
“Let’s see,” Vau said, taking in the surrounding booths. “Next up? Ah, soil. We have some time before the next presentation, so let’s explore.”
Jessica and Vau slowly made their way through the different exhibitions. Vau pointed toward a group of people. “This is the transportation section. You’ll find all sorts of technology tied to time and interdimensional travel.”
Jessica saw demonstrations of people teleporting fruit from one location to another. There were several versions of flying vehicles. She saw a demonstration where an elderly man stepped into a large stone or quartz box. The demonstrators sealed him in, and after a few minutes, he stepped out, looking several decades younger.
Everywhere that Jessica and Vau walked, Jessica noticed that people would stop midconversation and stare at her.
“Why do I feel like people here know me?” Jessica asked.
“Because of your role as a scribe,” Vau said. “What you see here will not exist in your world unless it is written or displayed somewhere, in some capacity, so that it plants a seed in the imagination of someone who will be brave enough to try and bring it to life. Over there,” Vau pointed across the convention area, “is the agriculture area. The next thing you need to see is about to start.”
At the next exhibit, Jessica saw an empty tank on the ground. The tank was only a few feet long, but it was as tall as Jessica. Next to the tank was a table with a row of test tubes filled with a golden liquid.
One exhibitioner, a young man, walked around to the front of the glass tank, knelt, and with one hand, lifted the tank off the grass-covered ground.
“Please note,” the young man said, “that there is no bottom to this tank.”
The other presenter dumped a jar of sand on top of the table, creating a small mound. “This is sand from the driest desert on the planet. It has not grown life in thousands of years.”
The young man by the tank now stood on a ladder and poured buckets of sand in the tank, filling it to the top.
“What we have here,” the presenter behind the table held up a vial of the amber liquid, “is a special formula. When this interacts with barren earth, it triggers the dirt on an atomic level and sends a message for help to the nearest living organisms.”
The young man on the ladder held up a beaker full of the golden liquid in an exaggerated demonstration. The crowd cheered him on. He poured the liquid, and the area of sand where the liquid touched it clumped. Nothing happened, and Jessica turned away to look at another exhibit when Vau grabbed the top of her head and turned her face back to the tank. That clump of sand sank to the bottom of the tank. Once it reached the bottom and interacted with the grass, the surrounding sand changed from a light tan to a dark brown to black. This transformation moved upward in the tank until the sand had become black dirt. Jessica hadn’t noticed that she was moving closer to the tank until she was a foot away. From there, she saw that there were tiny white threads, like white veins, weaving in and out of the now dark, fertile soil.
The presenter continued, “As long as there’s still some life somewhere down in the earth,” he held up the vial again, “this sends out a distress signal to all the living organisms. Once they consume this, they can multiply quickly to convert the soil to a healthy state.”
The presenter then held up a tiny seed for the crowd before he walked over to the tank and handed it to the young man on the ladder. The demonstrator gently buried the seed in the newly created fertile soil, and quickly got down from the ladder, moving a few feet away from the tank.
“We recommend waiting for at least one circadian cycle before planting anything, but for presentation purposes, we wanted to show the effects when you plant seeds in the soil while the bacteria are at their peak state of stimulation and reproduction.”
The seed sprouted within seconds. Jessica saw the roots reach down toward the bottom of the tank. A green shoot glided out of the soil like a snake carelessly moving through a field. The leaves quickly multiplied as the plant grew tall, stretching toward the sun. The young man climbed back up the ladder, wrapped his fingers around the plant’s stem, getting a firm grip near the roots. He effortlessly pulled the plant out of the earth and held it up high. The crowd erupted with applause.
“That’s wasabi,” Vau said.
“Why wasabi?” Jessica asked, staring at the plant with the corners of her mouth upturned in delight.
“Wasabi is incredibly difficult to grow.”
After a moment, Vau said, “There’s one more thing you should see.”