Kiva sighed, gave herself a moment to regroup, then moved to the bed. With the small device in her lap, she started the first vid-doc, a tutorial of the United States. She took note of the state of Texas, which her mom had mentioned, and then moved on to Wyoming and Yellowstone and the super volcano.
She was motionless, enthralled by the visuals of the national park in normal times: stunning mountain vistas, herds of bison, roaming wolf packs, and thick, green forests. Geysers erupted, and turquoise and emerald pools of water steamed.
Then the facts began, about the super eruptions.
The Huckleberry Ridge eruption 2.1 million years before, the Mesa Falls eruption 1.3 million years, and later, the Lava Creek eruption. The three resulting calderas overlapped, and made up much of the land where Yellowstone sits.
The narration went on to describe the results of another super eruption. The ash cloud and spewing of sulfur dioxide would disrupt agriculture, clog rivers and streams.
Kiva stopped the vid-doc.
The nature was amazing, so different than Alexandria.
But she didn’t want to hear more speculation, because that had apparently been convincing enough that the government prepared for a way out.
She chose another recording, which appeared to be completely about Space Venture, and its founder, Liam Trask. Other than brief footage of a tall, wiry man in a gray suit descending from the steps of a private jet, the billionaire himself did not speak. The piece strayed into gossip territory when it mentioned his messy divorce and the record settlement after a lengthy and nasty fight over a very valuable collection of emerald jewelry.
Kiva paused the vid-doc.
She wasn’t exactly convinced that Trask seemed like someone an entire government would rely upon to save their citizens.
But, in the end, they hadn’t saved all that many, had they?
The US government had never even planned to save the general populace, only the people they could fit on four ships. People they deemed worthy of saving.
Kiva’s pulse raced.
Her mother wasn’t one of them.
Thus, neither was she.
There were so many questions.
How did her mother manage to get on board the Krakatoa? And if she had been born on the airship after it left Earth, then who was her father?
In all those years of Alexandria, virtual reality, she had never asked, there had never been a need. She had been told that her father was dead, died of a plague that also took many others. There was no reason to doubt her mother.
Since she was out of torpor, she wondered if her father was dead of a sickness on the Krakatoa, the story about the plague fitting their Egyptian reality.
But if the rest of her life was a lie, perhaps that was too?
Was her mother alone when she boarded the ship? Technically a stowaway, she required some sort of help, didn’t she?
Was her father a passenger on the Krakatoa? Invited or not?
Kiva searched for her mother’s vid-doc. “There you are.” She leaned back against the lone pillow and tried to get comfortable. “What, Mr. Trask, you couldn’t spring for more than one pillow?” She resumed playback.
Sabra began with apologies and explanations, then went back to the beginning. “I want to tell you my story. How I ended up on the Krakatoa.” Her mother shifted in her chair and wiped her forehead.
“I was twenty-two, in grad school in Texas, assisting my geology professor with research for the summer. We were studying limestone near Big Hill.” She shrugged. “I knew about the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. There are fourteen cavities, each one about two thousand feet in height, two hundred feet wide, each meant to hold about twelve million barrels of oil.” Her eyes looked off to the left for a moment before returning to straight-ahead. “We were in this crappy little motel, and the housekeeper told me she saw trucks going in late at night now and then, hauling something other than oil.”
Kiva whispered, “Space Venture. The Krakatoa.”
Sabra scratched her nose. “I’d been obsessed with the NEO. Oh, you won’t know what that is. Near Earth Object. The asteroid. I thought the near miss would be pretty cool.” Her smile was forlorn. “Young and naive, I guess. Didn’t realize how defenseless Earth really was when it came to the universe.” She paused a moment. “Anyway, that weekend my professor had gone to Dallas for a conference. I’d met a marine named Jack who was working out at Big Hill. He was very tight-lipped about the job, but he asked me out and he was cute.” She shrugged. “I said yes.”
Kiva tried to picture her mother, not that many years older than she. On her own in Texas for the summer, with the freedom to do whatever she wanted with whomever she wanted.
Sabra squeezed her eyes shut for second. “I can’t believe this is the first talk I have with you about dating. I mean, you’re on a shuttle out in space, God knows where.” She sighed. “We’ll have a talk when you get back, I promise.”
“Right.” Dating, restaurants, the freedom to live on her own?
That was as much a part of Kiva’s reality as dinosaurs.
That very moment, sitting in that cabin on the Tomb, was the first time she had truly been alone in her life.
The rest had been spent in torpor.
In Alexandria. A controlled life of studies, preparing for a future in space.
Her mother’s life back on Earth? Her experiences?
Kiva would never come close to having them.
Her mother continued. “Sirens started going off during dessert.” Her smile was forlorn. “Best—and last—tiramisu ever.” Then she breathed out, long and harsh. “The NEO passed Earth by as expected. But the magnetic dust cloud surrounding it shrouded a meteorite. They barely had time to name it. Holocene turned out to be massive. Impact happened somewhere in Europe. Dust and ash were already blocking radiation from the sun. Global temperatures began to drop. Impact winter was inevitable.”
Sabra stared off into space for a moment. “Jack drove us to Big Hill.” She shook her head. “Crazy there. People running around. Jack took me right inside where … I can’t even describe that first time I saw the Krakatoa. It was like a kind of blimp, but so huge.” She smiled. “You’ll have to find the schematics to fathom it.”
Kiva frowned. Really? The Earth is crashing down around them and she’s impressed by Trask’s ship?
Her mother kept going. “Jack explained that the Krakatoa was in preparation for the super eruption, not some random meteorite. That’s why it was so chaotic. They weren’t ready.” She swallowed. “Once we boarded, Jack left—”
The screen froze with Sabra’s mouth half open, still speaking.
“What?” Kiva tapped on the computer. “No, come on.” She pushed a few buttons, nothing happened. She tucked the computer under one arm and padded over to the door. She punched the green button and the panel slid open. “Be there…”
The floor pulsed beneath her feet on the way to the bridge, and as soon as the doors opened, the same cacophony as before assaulted her.
“What is that?” she yelled over the din.
Seth shut off the sound. “Music.”
They had music in Alexandria. There was plenty of singing, and some of the adults made string instruments. “Not like any I’ve heard.”
“Trust me, you haven’t heard much.” Seth turned it back on, but not as loud.
Again, the voices yelling.
Kiva shook her head. “But they’re not even singing.”
“They are. It’s punk from the early part of the century.”
She listened to the words for a moment. “They sound angry.”
He shrugged. “Maybe I enjoy rage and discontent.”
She smiled.
“There’s a lot more music in the computer. Do you need something?”
Kiva sat down in her chair. “This froze. I can’t get it to go again.”
He tried a few things, then handed the device back. “It may have happened when she recorded it. She was in a hurry.”
“I suppose.” Kiva stared down at the device. “Can you find out the names of the original passengers on the Krakatoa?”
“I think so. Looking for anyone in particular?”
Kiva tightened her grip on the device. “Someone named Jack.”
Seth frowned at her. “Why?”
Kiva met his gaze. “I think he may be my father.”