Chapter 11: Concerns

Skye was relieved that Jason’s fall hadn’t resulted in any serious injury. Jason was pretty happy about that himself. She had been right, of course, what if the accident had been more serious? What if he’d broken his fingers? The doctors in the Bunker could treat almost any injury perfectly, but there was always that chance that he’d never be able to draw as well again.

It had been a risk, but he’d taken it anyway, even though Ai always said “never take risks. Do what you’re told, and everything will work out perfectly!”

He hadn’t listened. And fortunately, everything had still worked out. But after the panic of the fall had settled down and he started thinking clearly, he found himself wondering why he had even taken a risk like that in the first place.

Certainly bunker ball was fun. But it was a game for children and professionals, or people like Moira who didn’t need to worry about fine motor skills as a future engineer. Not an artist.

So why had he done it? As he and Skye continued on to the oxygen farm, that question kept repeating back in his head.

The only answer he found was Moira’s smiling face.

Moira, Moira, Moira. This was the second time she’d convinced him to do something he knew he shouldn’t. It was like he turned into an idiot whenever she was around.

It hadn’t always been this way. Although he’d known Moira his entire life, they’d barely ever spoken. She was as friendly with him as she was with everyone, and had a habit of drawing attention to herself even when she shouldn’t, but Jason had barely ever thought about her before. These days, though, it seemed like everything he did involved her in some way.

He decided to ask the one of the only people he knew he could always go to for advice.

“Skye, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Jason turned to his Partner, who glanced back at him warily. She’d been somewhat irritated since they’d left the gym.

But Skye was Skye, so she nodded her head politely. “What is it?”

“So… how do I put this… you know how I’ve kind of been acting a little strange lately?”

She raised her eyebrow. “I was certainly surprised that you would join a game of bunker ball, but other than that, I haven’t noticed anything different. What do you mean?”

“Uh…” Shoot. It wasn’t like he could tell her about him and Moira’s rule violation. Thinking quickly, he said “like a few days ago, at the aeroponics farm, remember?”

“You mean when you drew a picture of Moira? You’ve drawn many pictures, is that really strange?” She asked.

“Well, I guess not? But it was like… different, somehow. Strange.” He tried to find the words to describe what drawing Moira had been like. It wasn’t at all like all the times he’d drawn Skye, or anything else he’d ever drawn.

“It is somewhat unusual for you to go out of your way like that to draw someone else,” Skya nodded, stroking her chin in contemplation. “Why do you think you’ve been feeling different recently?”

“I don’t know. But… oh, that’s right! And lunchtime, too, we never used to eat lunch with Moira and Andrew, right? But now we do.”

“Because Moira always asks to join us.”

“Yeah, I guess so… I don’t know, it just feels like I’ve been thinking about Moira a lot lately, isn’t that weird?” Jason wasn’t sure what sort of answer he wanted to hear. He didn’t know why he felt the way he did about Moira, or even what those feelings were.

Looking at Skye’s face, he could see how deeply she was thinking. Finally, she asked him, “I don’t think it’s particularly odd to think about someone often. In fact, I’ve thought about Moira a considerable amount myself.”

“Wait, really?” He couldn’t believe his ears. Skye was so detached and unsocial that the thought of her spending time thinking about Moira, or anyone, really, came as a shock.

“Indeed,” she nodded. “Ever since Primary Education I’ve taken notice of how often she disrupts the classroom with her infractions. Her continued violations of the rules have forced me to become much more vigilant when in her presence so that I can properly remind her to adjust her behavior.”

“W-Well, she is trying, it’s just difficult for her sometimes, right?” For some reason Jason felt the need to come to Moira’s defense. “That’s why she takes that medication, right?”

“Yes, there is some allowance to be made, but only so much,” Skye sharply replied. “As children, we make mistakes and grow, so that we may become diligent adults who flawlessly uphold the rules and work for the improvement of life in the Bunker, and the future of humanity.”

Then she smiled. It was small, but it was there.

“That is why I’m so proud of the growth she’s shown! Properly extending greetings, no longer running everywhere, if she could only tamp down on her outbursts and pay attention in class she’d be perfect!”

Coming from her, that was high praise. But as she complimented all the ways Moira had grown this past week, all Jason could think about was the major rules violation the two of them had committed.

Skye turned to him, her eyes shining. “Perhaps that’s why you’ve taken greater notice of her,” she suggested. “Because she’s worked so hard to improve herself and is following the rules, maybe what you’re feeling is admiration!”

Jason thought about that but quickly dismissed it. “No, it’s a little different from that. I guess the closest way to describe it is just… I want to spend time with her. I want to talk with her more, hang out with her more, see as much of her smiling face as I can.”

He felt a little guilty telling her that, and gave her a sheepish look. “Is that… weird?”

Skye stopped walking, staring at him studiously. Then, a look of realization dawned on her face. “Why… that’s friendship, isn’t it?”

Friendship? Was that what it was?

“It’s as Ai’s always saying, if you feel like you want to spend time with someone other than your Partner or your family, it means you want that person to be your friend,” she reminded him.

Jason had a few people he considered friends, though none were as close as he and Skye. And now that she put the idea in his head, yeah, when he wanted to be friends with someone, he had felt kind of like he did when he thought about Moira.

“I guess so… I don’t know, it just feels a little stronger than that, a little… more.” He couldn’t articulate it any better. Not that doing so would have helped. While Jason didn’t have very many friends, Skye didn’t have any. She didn’t seem to mind, though.

“Perhaps it’s like what we learned about in class,” she reasoned, glancing around to make sure that they were alone. “As we grow and mature and enter Adult Education, we begin making new friendships with people that we’ve never considered before. Maybe what you’re feeling is the way you’re supposed to feel when you make friends as an adult.”

Her reassuring words soothed Jason’s doubts. That was what he appreciated most about Skye, she always looked at things carefully.

“Do you think we should go back and invite Moira and Andrew to come to the oxygen farm with us?” Skye suggested, catching him by surprise.

“R-Really?”

She raised her eyebrow. “She is your friend, right? I thought you wanted to spend time with her.”

“Well, yeah, I do, but I just assumed you’d want to go with just the two of us, like always.”

With a faint giggle she shook her head. “Just because I don’t seek out friends for myself, that doesn’t mean I’ll keep you from making any. If I had a problem with spending time with the two of them, I would ask them not to eat with us.”

“Okay, yeah, thanks, Skye! That would be great!” As they doubled back towards the gym, Jason felt his heart swell with pride in his Partner. Skye might come across as cold and standoffish, but he always appreciated the fact that beneath her cold exterior was a caring and considerate woman.

…

Chairman Jefferson reviewed the meeting dossier with a sour look on his face. He’d already spent four hours listening to the reports of the other high-ranking members of the Bunker, and at the rate they were going it looked like this council meeting would go for another four as well.

As Duncan, the Chief Engineer, began to wrap up his presentation, the Chairman surveyed the other members of the council. Like him, they were all responding rather poorly to this disheartening news.

“…And you’re sure?” Jefferson asked.

“Yes, sir,” Duncan nodded, looking no more pleased to deliver the news than Jefferson was to hear it. Normally, the graying old engineer would speak of the mechanics of the Bunker with pride on his face, but now there was only sorrow.

“You said you tried… all the adjustments?”

“Every one I could think of, and a couple more besides,” he nodded. “No matter how you look at things, the main generators, the backup generators, the bloody backup-backup generators, they’re just not taking to the repurposed fuel like they used to.”

“What about the fuel repurposers?” Another member of the council asked. “If the problem is the mixture, then couldn’t we take another look, and adjust the formula? If we can improve the quality of the fuel, then wouldn’t the generators go back to working like normal?”

Duncan nodded, but Jefferson had worked on the council with him for over 20 years, and could see he was far from convinced.

“It could work,” the engineer admitted. “If we could get the mixture right. But those repurposers have gone through quite a lot over the years, it’d take a minor miracle.”

“That’s what we’re paying you for, chief, making miracles,” Jefferson grimly joked. He turned to Avarna, the head botanist. “Avarna, where are we on the aeroponics?”

“Output is still within acceptable parameters, so there’s no immediate concern. But our yield is still decreasing,” she solemnly replied. “We need more power to run things properly down there. But even then, that’s just speculation. For all we know, there could be a problem in our cultivation method, or the aerosolizers.”

“’For all we know’? Excuse me, but it sounds like we don’t know very much, now doesn’t it?” He asked bitterly. “You say there’s no immediate threat to our food yield, how ‘not immediate’ are we talking about?”

“It should be another five Generations at least before we begin to notice any effects.”

“Oh. Now that’s not immediate at all. What if… what if we repurposed some of the cultivation sections delegated to food, for biodegradable materials to use as fuel?” He looked between Duncan and Avarna. “With that, could you improve the fuel quality enough to keep the generators running?”

Duncan didn’t look convinced. “It could work, I suppose, but we’re talking a mighty large amount of fuel, Chairman. And even then it’s just a guess.”

“…Duncan, that’s not good enough.”

“I’d need to run some tests, Chairman, go over how much extra materials I’d need to run the repurposers.”

“Fine, you’ve got it. Work with Avarna and draft a proposal, and I’ll run it by Ai and see what she thinks. Now, if there are no further questions about Duncan’s brief, we’ll move to the next item on our agenda, increasing the oxygen supply.”

The chairman turned to the next brief, and its thickness made him weary. Like the faulty generators, he wondered how much longer he could go on.