Chapter 3: Eldon

I. Eldon: “Commencement”

Eldon looked out over the rows of eager faces staring back up at him. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Although he enjoyed the prestige that came with being the youth trainer for new recruits, these speeches were not his favorite part of the gig. But, he reminded himself, for them this is a momentous day, the start of their careers with Gaiaflow. The beginning of the rest of their lives. Eldon closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He suddenly remembered his own third-level commencement ceremony just a few years before, the cool warmth of the sun, the ice-cream party with his friends, the feeling of hope and expectation. It had only been three years and already it felt like another world. He exhaled and stepped up to the podium.

“Hello! And welcome to Gaiaflow.”

After the presentation was over, dozens of young men and women crowded around him, eager to ask their questions about environmental mitigation, soil science, and the latest insider news about developments in nanotech. He dutifully spoke to each person in turn, offering his best guesses, words of encouragement, and thanks. As the crowd thinned out, he noticed one young man who hung back from the rest, his eyes wandering around the outdoor amphitheater and out to the mountains in the distance. He appeared awkwardly out of place, like a goose among a flock of ducks.

When Eldon had finished with everyone else, he made his way over to the end of the curved bench where the young man sat. He summoned up a warm smile, hoping to put the obviously uncomfortable youth at ease.

“Hi!” he said in his friendliest voice. The young man glanced up at him, then back out at the mountains in the distance.

“Beautiful aren’t they?” Eldon ventured. “And old. Millions of years old. Older than our oldest human ancestors.”

The young man glanced over at him with a blank look on his face. “Hm? What’s old?”

“The mountains,” Eldon replied, a bit annoyed but still smiling. These were new recruits, he reminded himself, fresh out of school. Can’t expect them all to be brilliant conversationalists. He decided to change the subject. “What’s your name?”

“Erik.”

“Erik Eaton?” The young man nodded and glanced up at him warily. “Your next assignment is with me. Nice to meet you! I’m Eldon Montreat.”

“I know. You introduced yourself during your speech.”

“Of course!” Eldon took a deep breath and regarded the sullen youth before him. He was determined to be positive, to not let Erik’s negative attitude bring him down. Besides, the kid must be a talented programmer or he wouldn’t have gotten this assignment. And Eldon knew that programmers could be a bit socially awkward, with the amount of time they spent swimming through lines of code or hooked into the sims. “We have so much to talk about. Have you seen the ship?”

“Isn’t she a beauty?” Eldon asked as they approached the docks. They’d paused at the edge of the dock while gray and green-clad Gaiaflow technicians loaded equipment onto the ship. Long wooden planks curved along the boat's 20-meter hull. Masts towered above them, a forest of shimmering sails against an azure sky, solar panels sewn into the canvas glittering like the waves as they flapped in the breeze. The vessel creaked quietly as it rocked back and forth in the gentle waves. It resembled nothing so much as the old-fashioned sailing galleys Eldon had seen in films and books. It was beautiful.

Eldon headed up the ramp, and turned at the top to see Erik looking up at the sails with an eyebrow raised. “Have you ever been on a sailboat before?”

“Actually no,” Erik replied. He eyed the vessel warily as if he was afraid it might capsize right then and there.

“Well, there’s a first time for everything. C’mon up, we’ll get your gear stowed and show you around. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get ready for tomorrow.”

Erik sighed and headed up the ramp.

“That’s the spirit!” said Eldon cheerfully. Something about being with someone so gloomy pushed him in the opposite direction – to be chipper and upbeat enough for the both of them. He decided he would lean into it. If the kid wanted to sulk, Eldon would be the bright ray of sunshine breaking through the darkness.

They stowed their gear in their staterooms, side-by-side towards the prow of the vessel. Each room had a bed, a small desk, and a sink, all made in the usual minimalist Gaiaflow style from the finest recycled materials and sustainably-farmed wood.

During the tour of the ship, Erik perked up. He had lots of questions – about how the solar sails routed power to the battery, how many rooms there were aboard, where the lifeboats were, and especially about the computer interface.  Eldon answered them as best he could, making a mental note to recommend that Erik be tasked with debugging the nav computer, which had been acting up lately. The intensity and focus of Erik’s questioning surprised Eldon. He certainly hadn’t been acting that way about anything else. Eldon chalked it up to the young man being an engineer – awkward socially, but like a fish in water when it came to technical specifics.

The rest of the afternoon was a bustle of activity, as everyone unpacked, unloaded gear, set up experiments, and mingled around the ship checking and helping out where they could. There were too many people for everyone to eat in the mess hall at once, so they worked it out in three shifts. Eldon had just finished up prepping the water sampling drones when his 0600 dinner shift was up, so he stowed the gear and made his way to the mess hall.

The hall was a long rectangle with a domed roof and soft lighting. The panels in the walls and ceiling looked like oak, but Eldon was pretty sure they were nanocarbon composite. Soft music pulsed over hidden speakers and the low hum of conversation. Eldon admired the intricate patterns etched in the ceiling, then looked down to see Erik waving at him from the far side of the hall. He gestured to the seat across the table, and Eldon gave him the thumbs up. Erik was sitting at a four person table across from a woman Eldon had seen around the ship loading aquaponics equipment and submersibles earlier that day. She was pretty, with short brown hair, bright eyes, and dark tan skin. Quite pretty, actually, Eldon thought, then felt himself blush. He waved awkwardly, then headed over to the cafeteria line to grab a plate and serve himself from the communal kitchen.

Eldon arrived at the table a few minutes later. Two half-full bowls of pasta and veggies with marinara sauce and vegan cheese sat on the table between Eldon and the girl, who was talking and gesturing emphatically.

“–exactly why we have to stay the course! It’s not enough to say, ‘Oh look at how far we’ve come, surely we don’t have to be so strict anymore.’ That’s a recipe for disaster.” She leaned back with the air of having scored a point in an ongoing debate.

“But what about the temperature?” Erik countered, raising a finger in question. “Three straight years of cooling? That’s got to count for something.”

“According to what data? After how many straight years of temperature rise? Eighty? One hundred? No, even if that’s accurate – which I seriously doubt – it’s not enough.” She shook her head. “As long as we still have the superstorms, we still need to keep doing carbon capture. Simple as that.”

Erik turned to Eldon for the first time since he’d arrived. “Look, all I’m trying to say is that maybe we can lighten up a little bit.” In his peripheral vision Eldon saw the girl cross her arms and regard Erik reproachfully. “Maybe we don’t need to outlaw all forms of fossil fuel anymore, right? Maybe there could be an exception for, say…dirt bikes?”

“Dirt bikes?” the girl asked incredulously.

“Or ATV’s, whatever.”

“I see you really haven’t changed at all.”

“Uh, do you two know each other?” Eldon interjected through a mouthful of pasta and veggies.

“We were in level 2 classes together,” Erik replied. “What the twentieth cents used to call ‘middle school’.” He smiled. “I remember Cate was jealous of my programming skills.”

“What he means is, he used to spend all day playing computer games in the back row while I diligently listened and took notes, yet somehow he managed to get a near-perfect score on all his exams.” She frowned at Erik suspiciously, and he raised his eyebrows and shrugged, smiling innocently.

“I’m an independent learner, what can I say?”

Eldon swallowed another bite of pasta, set down his fork, and wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin. He looked down at his empty bowl and contemplated whether he should get seconds. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was. Then Cate turned her bright green eyes on him, and he fought the urge to blush again. After all, he reminded himself, we’re here for research. Something was disabling nano-filtration systems in the mid Atlantic, and wildlife was dying. It was important. He cleared his throat.

“I saw you loading up some submersibles earlier today. Are you part of the marine research team?”

Cate smiled. “I’m in charge of it. The marine biology component anyway. We’ve got a whole gaggle of paleobotanists and marine geologists riding along too. I’m Cate.” She nodded her head in greeting.

“Eldon ,” he replied, smiling. Erik had pulled out his handheld and was scrolling through some images. “I’m here to do some work on the mid-Atlantic nano-filtration systems.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Is something wrong with them?”

“Just routine maintenance and some environmental sampling.” He smiled. This was stretching the truth a little bit. Maybe there really wasn’t anything wrong with the nanotech, he told himself, maybe it was just a normal malfunction. That happened at regular intervals. In the same three locations.

“Well, that’s good to hear. I was just explaining to Erik here how important environmental remediation is.” Erik glanced up when he heard his name, then went back to his handheld. “We’re hoping to collect some data to explain the weird climatic events we’ve been seeing in the east Atlantic.”

“Climatic events? Do you mean storms?”

“Mostly just really strange water temperatures, and in layers that don’t make sense. It’s messing with the fish populations. That’s really why I’m here. We’d finally got the Atlantic shellfish population in full recovery to pre-industrial levels, and now they’re crashing again.”

“Maybe it’s just a natural correction.” Eldon frowned. He never liked hearing about setbacks to their progress. “How bad is it?”

“Over 20% of the population. Even more for certain species.”

Eldon whistled softly. “That’s…Why? What happened?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Cate gestured to Eldon with her glass raised, then drained it and placed it on her tray. “I have to get back to checking the sensory arrays on the subs. It was a pleasure meeting you.”

“It was nice to meet you too. Good luck with your project. It sounds interesting. I mean, I’d love to hear more. About how it goes. When you have some data of course,” Eldon trailed off. He managed what must have been an awkward smile.

“Sure thing,” she said with a smile. “And you,” she said, standing and turning to Erik, who looked up from his handheld and smiled placidly. “Be good. Help this one.” She nodded over at Eldon, then turned and walked towards the kitchen with her dishes.

Eldon and Erik finished the rest of their meal in relative silence, exchanged a few words about the project they’d begin the next day, then retired to their respective quarters. Eldon spent the rest of the evening playing some VR games and snacking and reading and wondering if he would see Cate tomorrow, before finally turning out the light in his cabin and letting the sound of waves lapping against the ship lull him to sleep.

II. Eldon: “A Voyage by Sea”

The next few days were spent in a bustle of activity, punctuated by periods of relaxing downtime and delicious meals from the Gaiaflow mess hall. There were messages to send back to Gaiaflow headquarters, survey submersibles to be programmed and prepped for the water, and loads of environmental and biological data to sift through. Eldon’s kitchen shift came up at lunchtime on the second day. He and his partner made huge platters of turkey sandwiches and french fries and he ate a sandwich as tall as his hand. Every day at sunset he swam in the ocean then washed off in the ship’s showers before dinner in the mess hall.

Eldon let Erik take the lead with the programming and computer tech work – that’s what he was here for, after all. The kid was clearly a talented programmer and tech, but for some reason Eldon still felt uneasy letting him run the computer interface without any oversight. Every afternoon while he downloaded the day’s data, Eldon found himself checking in on Erik’s progress, looking over his shoulder. There was just something suspicious about the kid, Eldon thought, as if he was always looking over his shoulder. But so far the youth’s work had been flawless, and Erik began to relax and ease into the daily rhythm of life on the research ship.

The journey had the peaceful feel of an ocean cruise mixed with intense periods of scientific research. Eldon loved these – it was why he came out here. The work they were doing was vital to rejuvenating the Earth’s oceans, and Eldon’s heart glowed every time he saw a dolphin leaping out of the water or a pelican swooping down to catch a fish. Earth’s animals had come so agonizingly close to extinction, and so many hadn’t made it. Many of the animals he saw –though he never knew which – were recreations, genetic clones fertilized and nurtured patiently by Gaiflow biologists before being released into the wild.

During the first three days of their seven-day journey they’d collected a massive amount of data. They did this by harnessing the processing power and sensory data of endless fields of nanobots working diligently beneath the waves to filter and break down the toxic chemicals that men had spent generations heedlessly dumping into Gaia’s oceans. These nanobots were one link in a huge chain that slowly dragged the Earth’s biosphere back from the edge of the abyss. Huge automated nets plowed their wide furrows through the seas collecting trash and debris. Fields of especially-bred oysters and shellfish cleaned the waters and soaked up the filth. Every year the hatcheries emptied more and more creatures into the ocean, as their habitat became cleaner and more hospitable. This vast network was slowly healing the earth’s oceans. It was a balm to Gaia’s spirit, and Eldon was happy to play his part.

They found the anomaly mid-morning on the third day of sailing. It was just like the others but larger, a perfectly circular area where the toxicity levels weren’t coming down, as if the nanofiltration network wasn’t working at all. When they talked to the AI nano-network, it reported that everything was working fine, and gave them complex technical readouts that didn’t match what they were seeing at all. But the network’s own data told otherwise, which also didn’t make sense. Gaiaflow AI networks could be error prone – and weren’t to be trusted with important decisions – but this was different. There was no obvious glitch no matter how hard they looked. As Erik put it, it was almost like the program was working properly, just looking at a totally different set of data than they were.

Unlike the others, this anomaly was much farther out from the shore, just on the edge of the North Caribbean autonomous zone. It was almost outside of Gaiaflow Collective territory – and thus legally out of their jurisdiction – but not quite. They debated among themselves and then with the ship’s council, but their scientific mandate was clear: they had to investigate. And that meant sailing out to the edge of autonomous territory.

It would add two days to their journey, which, Eldon thought, would at least give him more time to spend with Cate. He’d discovered that she played cards, and they’d spent the afternoons on the aft deck parlor playing old 20th cent trick-taking games while they watched flocks of seagulls trail the ship’s wake. Sometimes Erik or one of the other techs would join them, and they’d play four person games like spades and hearts, but Eldon found himself enjoying the one-on-one games with cate the most. She was a good card player, and he liked a challenge.

On the fifth day, under full sail with winds whipping in from the west, they arrived at the edge of the anomaly and gradually sailed towards the center. Now that they were this close, Eldon could collect data from each individual nano-drone, a level detail that simply wasn’t possible via satellite or remote access. If there was something going on with the network or the drones themselves, they’d find it. 

On the evening of the seventh day they sat in the mess hall and debated what to do next. The superstorm would arrive in just over 12 hours. They’d been tracking it for days, but had assumed it would continue traveling east and pass a hundred miles to the south. Instead it had decided to turn north, and it was headed directly for their little ship.

It was big. Not as big as the Nor'easter that had leveled upper Manhattan and a good sized chunk of the northeastern seaboard in ‘57, or even as big as the storms that regularly slammed the Caribbean and Southeast Asian coastlines each fall. But it was still huge. Its outline filled the upper half of the wallscreen. As the radar array updated every ten seconds, Eldon watched the storm inch its way closer to the blinking green dot that represented their ship, like a clock ticking down to zero.

“Don’t you think?” asked Erik.

“Hm?” Eldon looked down from the wallscreen. “Sorry, don’t I think what?”

“Don’t you think we should leave now, instead of waiting until the absolute last possible moment?” He seemed worried, almost frantic. That makes sense, Eldon thought, we are in the middle of the ocean with a superstorm approaching. He looked around the table.

“I think that we need to prioritize everyone’s safety.”

“Exactly!” Erik gestured emphatically. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“–and that means leaving within the next six hours, just as Captain Sheila and the Gaiaflow AI suggested. We’ve invested too much time and energy to leave before data collection is complete.”

“No–” interrupted Erik, shaking his head. He pursed his lips, as if deciding whether to speak.

“We just need a couple more hours to upload the info from the local networks and program the subs. Then we’ll head out, ok?” She smiled at Erik and gave him the thumbs up.

“I just…we need to leave sooner than that.” Erik looked out the starboard porthole at the sea. The weather was still sunny, the waves calm. Inch by inch the storm ticked closer on their wallscreen.

“It’ll be ok,” Eldon reassured the youth. “Our boat is actually made to withstand a superstorm, believe it or not. That’s why the sail retracts and the hatches all seal. And we can just ride it out in submersible mode if it gets too rough out there.”

“I know about submersible mode!” Erik said emphatically. He pursed his lips. Eldon thought he was about to speak, then he shook his head, looked down, and sighed.

Cate smiled warmly and put her hand on Erik’s arm. “Erik, are you worried about the storm? It’s ok. I am too.”

Eldon watched as emotion flashed across Erik’s face, something like sadness, followed immediately by anger, then something Eldon couldn’t identify, then back into a neutral expression. All within a second or two.

“Yeah. Maybe I am worried.” Erik looked down at his lap. He looked up at Cate and smiled, though his eyes looked sad. “Can you finish any sooner? Like in less than an hour?”

“Sure,” Cate smiled back. “I’ll do my best, ok?”

Erik nodded, then got up and left the table. Eldon and Cate watched him go.

“I’m worried about him,” said Cate.

“Let’s get to work. The sooner we get out of here the better.”

***

When Eldon and Cate had finally finished debugging the nanodrones and upgrading the AI in the subs, he headed up to the observation deck for one last look around before they closed the hatch. When he arrived, he was surprised to find Erik leaning against the railing next to one of the ship’s masts. The sails had been furled, and the ship was running on battery power. A gentle mist fell from hazy white clouds above them, and he could see sheets of rain drifting down from dark gray clouds in the distance. The front of thunderheads stretched as far as Eldon could see in either direction and rolled slowly towards them.

“Enjoying the view?”

Erik turned quickly to look at Eldon and quickly put his hand terminal back in his pocket. He eyed Eldon with the same suspicious expression he had viewed the ship with upon arrival.

“Uh yeah. I mean. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Erik sounded as though he was asking because he legitimately didn’t know. Eldon wondered if he was one of those kids who had grown up in the sims, never experiencing the beauty of the natural world the way Eldon had.

“Yes. At least, I think so.” The blue expanse of the ocean spanned the horizon, a steady breeze making whitecaps at the crest of small waves that lapped against the side of their boat. “Are you ok? I mean, I could go if…I mean, I hope I’m not interrupting.”

Erik scowled at the ocean. “I was just…getting some air.”

“Okay.” Eldon turned and looked out at the sea. The sun was low in the western sky, and dark gray clouds were moving in swiftly from the east. He took his handheld out of its cargo pocket and pulled up radar and a weather forecast: rain for the next four to six hours. The storm had originated from one of the many Gaiaflow cloud accumulators that dotted the coastline to the east, and it was currently moving towards them at 15 knots.

“The storm should hit us pretty soon,” said Erik, shifting his weight back and forth and looking out at the approaching cloudbank. “I just wanted to come up and have some fresh air before it got here, you know? Have a look around.”

“Of course.” The kid seemed uncomfortable, like he had something on his mind. He kept staring out at the ocean. Eldon decided to talk about something comfortable, like engineering. He might relax a little bit. “How is the post-mission debug coming along? Those nano-replicators can be pretty tricky to work with, I know from experience.”

Erik glanced over at Eldon. “It’s going great actually. They’re a lot like the nanotech I worked with in school, actually, just more streamlined. It’s funny, but when you import new code into old devices, with the right tweaks–”

There was a loud boom of thunder in the distance and a huge flash of lightning that streaked across the sky. The afterimage burned in Eldon’s retina and slowly faded as deep peals of thunder rolled across the sky. Waves had begun to lash the side of the boat, which rocked gently in the increasingly large waves.

“The gyroscope can’t keep the boat stable in these waves forever if they keep getting bigger,” Eldon said as he looked cautiously out at the ocean. “We should get below. C’mon.”

“Just give me a few minutes up here.” A wave crashed hard against the ship’s hull, sending ocean spray up above their heads and noticeably rocking the boat despite their gyroscope. They each grabbed a railing top steady themselves.

“Why? So you can get washed overboard? C’mon!” Eldon put his hand on Erik’s arm and guided him down the steps toward the hatch. The youth was strangely resistant at first, then finally allowed himself to be led down into the safety of the ship.

Within five minutes, Captain Sheila’s voice announced their departure over the ship’s intercom, and they settled in for their return voyage. It had been a productive trip. They’d collected a massive amount of data from the anomaly that they wouldn’t have had otherwise, and they’d even managed to finish before the superstorm caught up with them. Eldon felt relaxed, laughing and joking with Cate over their card game. Only Erik still seemed distressed, and kept eyeing the wallscreen where the green dot of their ship slowly inched away from the giant red blob of the superstorm.

Eldon noticed it first. An increase in the rocking of the ship. Subtle at first, but getting more noticeable by the second. He listened for the faint whirring of the gyroscope and heard…nothing. Only the sound of the wind and the waves outside. He looked over at Cate, who smiled back up at him, then frowned and cocked her head questioningly upon seeing his expression. Then her eyes went wide, and she reached out her hands to steady herself against the rocking of the ship. Eldon looked over at Erik, whose eyes were wide with fear as he gazed up at the wall screen.

Sheila’s voice cut in over the intercom. “I’ve lost battery power. And the ship’s computer won’t talk to the engine. Can you guys come up here and check it out? If it’s the computer I’ll need your help.”

Okay, thought Eldon, just some technical difficulties, nothing we can’t handle. And besides, they could always get Gaiaflow AI on the line to help with any problems they were having.

When they got to the deck, they realized it was worse than they thought. The ship had lost connection with Gaiaflow AI, as had all of their handhelds. Erik jacked into the mainframe and typed furiously, but couldn’t connect with any of the ship’s local systems, including the battery. They couldn’t raise the sails in winds over 100 kilometers per hour and the windspeed at the stormfront was…Edlon checked his handheld…295 kilometers per hour. So that was a no go.

They were stuck, in the middle of the ocean, as a superstorm swirled its way inexorably toward them.