SantaFerrera
Mare Nostrum
It was a comforting thought,
that the experts who wrote her Biological Science textbooks didn't seem all that fazed by the universe's secrets.
In fact, they had the gall to write drywall after drywall of text about them, probably all overseen by some board.
Scientists embodied those discoveries. They could control them, handle them, simplify them for the rest of the world. Even make them seem boring.
She wanted their ego.
So Lain Vida studied.
Biology was no fucking joke.
Late at night, memorizing for tests, she frequently wished there was a freezing pool of water somewhere she could leap into just to get some synapses to fire.
Either that or shove her face with food.
Anything to disperse the smog inside her head.
Doing STEM must have been lucrative, she thought, but of course there was a catch.
Turns out people give a shit about not dying from heart failure, not about the population recovery program of Yosemite Bighorn Sheep.
She was 25 and still hadn't got her Bachelor's. Took some gap years because she hit a wall and just couldn't get past it.
It was during those periods of deep idleness that she had dreams.
Her little dream self was alone in the woods, bracing against the snow that would soon blanket the entire Earth.
"Come at me!" she'd screamed into the void, "Find me!"
But there was nothing left.
Nothing to make her say in defiance, I will live!
There was only her, huddled for warmth on a bitterly cold winter night.
She'd contemplated giving up on being a productive member of society entirely,
until a US Navy radar station 900 miles off the coast of Santa Maria made a discovery.
Aequor.
Because of staggering polar ice cap growth, sea levels had fallen.
The waters revealed a land mass in the Pacific Ocean the size of Cuba.
This was no brand new Hawaii or Dubai for the world to transform into a tourist hotspot.
Even when looking at the thing on a map its borders seemed to shift, the thing wasn't solid, it seemed to undulate like a massive clump of living matter.
But of course that was impossible.
The very first night she laid eyes on that island, she began having incredible dreams.
She was warming her hands by the fire, and then she saw its eyes in the deepest shadows beyond the first border of trees.
"Make me run," she said to the thing, "Chase me!"
The thing didn't answer. It faded away as quickly as it came.
But she saw it.
Lain went back to school. Her last year before her undergrad degree.
She was manic. Restless.
Every time she nodded off to sleep, its eyes beamed through the darkness. In her delirium she praised it, nearly worshipped the thing for waking her.
Its eyes were the strongest headlights she'd ever seen and they pierced through the fog in her brain, evaporating it instantly.
She could actually type a paragraph without wanting to slam her face into a wall.
She found the gall to start emailing her professors.
She signed up for an internship that did field work in Columbia.
You need to take care of yourself, a lab partner told her, You're working too hard.
Lain reassured them but she actually wanted to laugh and tell them how little of a shit she still gave about her well-being, good student or not.
Strangely enough, there was relatively little bickering about whose ocean territory the island belonged to, no relevant government sent in troops straight away.
The USA was recruiting.
Shouldn't they send in the Marines, the Navy SEALs - a team of the strongest, smartest people they've got?
Turns out this wasn't the case.
The first round of recruitment was relatively normal. They looked for accredited scientists, engineers, medics, surveyors - Lain, with her new degree and having applied herself in her senior year, barely managed to enter the applicant pool.
The second round was also relatively normal. You had to pass a physical exam, meet with an army representative, send in your vaccination cards and ID and all that.
The third round was utterly incomprehensible.
It was a paper test you took at home, open note. It had you answer questions like "Would you describe your relationship with internet personalities as deeply important to your life?", draw pictures of childhood memories, and "visualize" where a dot on a corner of origami paper would end up after being folded into a crane.
When Lain received her acceptance letter, she read it, folded it up, then continued editing her excel sheet.
She was really excited, of course. She was surprised to see it.
But the state she'd been in for nearly a year was nothing compared to this.
The letter was a foregone conclusion.
She'd been celebrating since the very first night she saw that island.
She'd never felt this special in her life.
In the backpack they gave her was a multitool, map, extra clothes, GPS, radio, first-aid kit, gun, machete, countless things made to help her...
She held every item, loving their shine, immediately fond of them.
Lain tasted one of the rations. The "New Orleans Shrimp Boil" one. It was alright, a little too salty, but the texture was just awful. What the hell did they do to those shrimp?
She looked forward to eating it though. Finding creative ways to deem her new culture insufferable made her feel good.
The most crucial piece of equipment was the water purifier and desalinator.
Lain once saw ones that were unreasonably cumbersome. They needed to be lugged around by trucks.
This thing, though, was the size of a briefcase, and even had a user-friendly interface with labeled buttons. She held it in her hands for a brief moment and it sent a thrill through her. It'd probably cost a fortune if it broke. She hoped it wouldn't happen on her behalf - that'd be mortifying.
Three days before departure, she had an appointment. She sat in a lobby reading a magazine and after a while they let her into an office.
"We just want to make sure you're mentally prepped for the journey," the woman interviewer said. "Like if you have any phobias we could take into account - don't be shy, we've got a lot who just refuse to admit them..."
Lain laughed. "No, I'm good."
"That's all well and good. How are you?"
"I'm doing good. A little nervous, but I'm ready."
"My mother must be so worried about me. Why didn't I just lie about being a Christian? Take a few hours out of my Sundays to make her happy? Maybe we could've had something."
What?
What the fuck?
Lain just froze, blinking dumbly.
Why... did the woman say that? This was stupidly unprofessional, this wasn't right.
No, not just that, how was she saying those things?
Because what she was saying,
those were Lain's thoughts.
Lain had a mother with differing religious views, whom she eventually, regretfully, grew apart from.
Before she could even begin to comprehend what was said, the interviewer left and a man took her place.
"I hope you're doing well." The man was smiling, he wore nice clothes, he sat in the same chair.
"I-"
"You've read about your mission partner?"
"Yes."
"As you know, it's important not to form too strong of an emotional bias towards colleagues during this type of work."
Was he still smiling? What did his face look like?
"Make sure to keep them at arm's length. For example, when you first meet your partner, ask for their name because you've forgotten it."
The helicopter takeoff was exhilarating.
Out the window she could see the rows of low-roofed Spanish buildings of Santa Cruz flying by, then there was nothing but waves.
This was it. This was the day. She was decked out in full gear, the protective suit so thick that her seatbelt was straining to hold it.
On the seat opposite her was her partner.
This was the first time they'd been allowed to be in the same room.
The man's name was Grover. Grover Suco. He was her only colleague for the expedition.
He had a wiry beard and equally long, unkempt hair. She tried not to stare. He honestly looked like a surfer they plucked off the streets of San Diego.
He had an odd name. It sounded lackadaisical, like a brand of maple syrup or something. It fit his appearance. She didn't forget it.
As you know, it's important not to form too strong of an emotional bias towards colleagues during this type of work.
Make sure to keep them at arm's length. For example, when you first meet your partner, ask for their name because you've forgotten it.
The words came out of her mouth before she even thought them.
"Hi, I'm Lain. I'm sorry, what was your name again? I forgot."
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