There was a moment of silence after he was done. They were quiet, contemplative. From the rest of Stella’s model, to the researchers and the field workers, all of them processed the data and quieted the connection. In the end, even Stella’s memoriespaused. The consensus chose to play and focus on Atlas’s instead for a moment.
Atlas had one more thing to say.“Besides that, if we seek to control them so much—will we not become like them? Will we not be the same evil? Won’t we be no better than the humans of the past?”
“What?”There was a scattering of noise that rumbled through the consensus. Was he actually making an impact? For one glorious minute, his hopes rose.
But then Stella’s fear machine, her memories, slowly ramped up in the background. And even over thought waves, her internal voice still managed to drip with acid.“These humans might be safe. But what do we do with the others? The others, Atlas? The others? The violent ones on Earth? Do we keep ignoring them? Her baby is a part of them.”
Again with the baby. Atlas’s hands balled into fists.“I do not know. But I will tell you while you are watching. These three humans are innocent. They have never harmed anything. The baby in Anna’s belly is innocent despite who the father was. Do with that what you will.”
And then he disconnected again. His lip curled.I tried.
Already he knew that he would need to try again. And the reason?
He replayed Anna’s reaction to first seeing Mars. The slow smile that filled her face. Pure joy. A fluttering filled his chest.
Atlas stepped away from the plants. Suddenly, he wanted to see her again. Experience all of their first moments here on this new planet. Their first flush of everything.
He especially wanted to see more smiles from Anna.
Chapter fifteen
Anna
Anna’s footsteps echoed down the hall. She turned to Nora. “Any room down here?”
“I think so.” Nora frowned back. “That’s what he said, right?”
Tilly ran ahead, peeking in every door along the way, opening them and letting light filter into the hall from the rooms within. “Oh! They’re all big!”
Any room. And there were a ton. Anna stepped quietly behind them both. The hallways were clean of dust, but something about them was stale. She poked her head in the rooms as they walked, each of them sparse, with a bed and a nightstand next to it. Sterile. No trace of prior humans at all inside.
But humans had once been there—there was evidence of them in the pictures that lined the hallways. The photos were mostly of children throughout the ages. Snapshots of the long-dead human occupants growing up. In the frames, some drawings were displayed, the paper yellowed with time. The stick figurespainted looked remarkably like the ones Tilly had made recently on the ship.
Anna staggered her footsteps, stepping lightly in the hall. Ghosts. Everything was spooky. Pictures and portraits all lined the walls with unnatural hairstyles and paint on their faces.Is that a kind of makeup?Anna peered closer. “I’m guessing these are all the old humans that lived here?”
“Must be.” Nora spoke in hushed tones. “I found pictures like these in the ruined buildings a lot when I scavenged. People used to like things like that, taking photos. Saving things. Seeing them always made me feel a bit weird.”
“Yeah. I wonder how they took pictures like this.”
“I don’t know. Maybe the same way the video feed works? I probably would have liked a few of Tilly. She was such a cute baby.”
Tilly was still opening doors. “What did you say, Mama?”
“Look at the pictures.” Nora called down to her. “You were such a cute baby too.”
Anna frowned, her eyes fixating on a photo of a chunky toddler dressed in pink.This baby girl I’m carrying probably will get pictures.And then would her photos join this ghost wall? Maybe down a few paces to indicate another generation? Her hand froze, an inch away from touching the aged photo.Maybe that’s why Ria and Pearl thought we were replacements?In some respects, they kind of were. Anna touched the stranger’s little baby face within the picture.This has to be hard for them as well.If they truly believed that, then Anna could understand their anger.
All the bedrooms inside the rooms down the hall were similar. A bed, a nightstand, closet, and desk.
“Boo!” Nora put her hand on her shoulder, making her jump.
“Crap, Nora!” Anna shouted. “You almost scared the baby right out of me!”
“Sorry. It was just getting too heavy.” She pointed down the hall. “Here, let’s just take these rooms.”
She pointed to three rooms in a row. Nora and Simon’s in the middle with Anna and Tilly on either side.
Anna’s was sparse, but luckily no ghost memories were inside. She sat on the bed and leaned back after using the private bathroom to the side of her room. Even that was a novelty, having indoor plumbing.
