Novum: Genesis: (Book 1) by Rhea Joseph

Author:Rhea, Joseph [Rhea, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2013-07-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 09

When Jake reached the cargo bay, Norman Raines glanced up from his work. “My granddaughter sent you down to get me, didn’t she?”

“I was coming down anyway.”

Raines looked around the bay. “It’s a good-sized room, isn’t it?” Jake tried to give him a “what are you talking about?” look, but apparently the older man saw through it. “You’re not the first city dweller I’ve met,” he said.

“Well, that’s a nicer term than ‘wog,’ I guess. That’s what Coal’s crew called me when I first came on board.”

“You know, wog is actually short for pollywog, which is just one stage of a frog’s life cycle. In other words, you can adapt to living inside a ship. All it takes is time. A lifelong shellback like me has it a bit rougher.”

“How so?” Jake asked as he sat down on a nearby cargo container. He was beginning to like Vee’s grandfather quite a bit. He reminded him of his own father.

“The open-air domes of all the big cities scare the bilge out of me,” Raines said. “All of that empty space—it’s just not natural.” He touched the wall of the cargo bay. “Now this, this is where I belong. It’s where I feel safe. Give me four solid walls, a metal floor, and a low ceiling any day!”

“I guess you wouldn’t have done very well back in the Pre-Fall world, would you? All of that open space?”

“If even half of the legends are true, then I dare say that none of us would have felt comfortable there.”

“I’ve heard that the sunlight was so bright that it could burn your skin, the nights could get so cold that your breath would freeze, and they had windstorms so powerful they could knock down entire buildings.”

Raines frowned. “I understand why some ‘less-enlightened’ people would choose to believe that we came from a world that was far worse than our own; it helps them accept the burdens of life in this colony.”

“So, you don’t think any of that is true?” He hated the “less-enlightened” remark, and one of his favorite pastimes as a kid was running through the old abandoned city gardens, pretending he was an “Old Earth Explorer” searching for lost treasure on that desolate planet.

Raines sighed. “I think Earth was something beyond what most people can comprehend, given that most of its inhabitants lived above water. But whether it was a desert world or garden paradise, we may never know for sure.”

“Then why study Pre-Fall at all? Who cares about the past?”

“Because our leaders fear that past, and I would like to understand why,” Raines said with a strange glint in his eyes. “They also fear any form of change, and they have taught our citizens to fear it, as well. Fear has forced us to live in decaying cities and allowed us to accept a form of government that exploits those fears. However, I believe that facing your fears can be a source of true enlightenment, and that’s how I choose to live my life.

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