A New Earth 2.0

Surveillance

Scarlet’s POV

For six hours, Marcelo and I watch as the probes go across the land of Earth 2.0. So far they’ve shown beautiful plants, in all shapes and colors. Some plants, back on Earth, that might grow in tropical weather grow in circles we call ‘hot spots’ were the weather is surprisingly warmer according to the heat signatures the probes are picking up. The ‘hot spots’ are big masses of land that are tropical weather warm, while other spots, the ‘cold spots’ are what they’re called, were nothing grows and it’s so cold that no life can live there. I disagree with Marcelo on that point though, that no life can live in the cold spots.

“Back on Earth cold organisms microscopic sized could live in the bottoms of the ocean, and in certain areas were cold water was, same with extreme heat.” I answered. Marcelo shrugged.

“I know that, but these spots… They’re worse than sub zero. Worse than the desert.” Marcelo answered, just was the probe took pictures of a spot where everything was basically desert, and no organisms or signs of life lived their either. I scowled at Marcelo.

“Why don’t the probes pick up the microscopic organisms? I know there’s got to be some their!” I tell him as I stare at the screen. Marcelo laughs.

“You really want organisms to live on the land don’t you? Well I want to be able to land. This ship was only built to last about five years in outer space. The creators hated the fact that they had to send us into space without doing a complete search of the planet itself.” Marcelo answers, and he clicks a button to make the probe go closer to the sand. Out of nowhere, something grabs the probe and smashes it from the sand. Our screen goes blank. I gasp and scoot away from the screen. Marcelo scowls.

“Maybe the creatures in the water have a reason to now to on land.” Marcelo says. He goes back through the video the probe took. After a minute, he notices a slight difference in heat signature within the sand. The same goes for in the cold spots, were there’s a slight change.

“I’m going to tell all the probes to stay twenty feet above the ground, just to make sure nothing else snatches them up. We were lucky more of the probes haven’t been taken out.” Marcelo says. I nod, and watch as the camera moves way from the ground. Something… dark reaches from one of the cold spots and goes toward the probes camera, but the probe moves higher and to the twenty feet mark. The dark thing doesn’t smash it to the ground, but disappears back into the ice.

“I don’t think we should go near the desert spots or the cold spots.” I mutter.

“Indeed. Maybe these are the reasons the sea creatures don’t stay on land longer then they have to.” Marcelo says. I frown.

“Can you check those tropical spots; were the beautiful plants were and take some samples?” I ask. The tropical spots are big enough for people to live in, but I don’t want to have to cut down vegetation in order to move to a dangerous planet we might not even be able to survive on. Something reaches for the probe as it enters the tropical spot, but it’s from one of the desert areas. The probe flies higher, and the thin can’t get it.

“Those things that reach out from the desert and cold spots… They look octopus tentacles.” I remark, staring back at the replay from the probe. Marcelo nods, his face in a scowl.

“It looks like they don’t go in the tropical areas. These patches of green look like they’re safe from those… things too.” Marcelo remarks. I nod.

“Have we ever caught the whole birthing season when the sea creatures are on the beach giving birth?” I ask. Marcelo shakes his head.

“We arrived at the end of it, I believe. There should be another one in a few months though. Let’s just hope we solve this before it gets too bad here.” Marcelo answers. I nod, and copy all of the information from the videos down into a flash drive.

“I’ll go show Marie what I found.” I tell Marcelo. He nods, and I walk out of the room. All of the sudden, arms are around my waste and my mouth. I move left and right, struggling to get away before I hear someone.

“Shh, it’s me.” Dad says. I look up and scowl at him. He motions for me to shh, and then he begins to walk over to a door. I follow, being as quiet as I can.

“Yes, it is a problem… They want humans for peace, but who says once we get onto the Earth that they won’t just take them anyway?” A familiar voice says. I can’t quite put it to a name… I think it’s one of the captains of the ship.

“It’s possible we just bomb them out of the land and sea?” Another voice says.

“We could, but it would take a lot of time to build the bombs, and the only people who have access to the materials are Marie.” The other voice answers.

“True but…” They’re cut off when I slip as I lean in to hear them, and the door opens. Dad and I run away from the door, before either of them can see us. We enter into the head of the ship, and hide behind a desk. Outside we can hear footsteps, and the same two voices wondering where we went off to. The footsteps leave after a moment.

“Who were they?” I ask dad, out of breath. Dad has a scowl on his face, and he turns to me.

“Those were two of the people Marie allowed to live, you know that were on the Farms?” dad asks. I nod. “They want to try and make people go onto the Earth, but they want the them to become slaves.” Dad says, he has a worried expression. I explain to him the cold spots, the deserts, and the tropical areas.

“ Dad these things in the deserts and cold spots… they’re dangerous. We can’t go near them, and the tropical spots look like the only place safe away from them. Maybe the sea creatures are they’re enemy? Maybe they are the reason the sea creatures can’t go on land more than they do?” I suggest. Dad nods.

“We have to tell Marie. I don’t know if she’ll believe us though, considering we were just unfrozen, and the others have all been unfrozen for a long time.” Dad mutters. I scowl.

“She’ll believe us dad. We have no reason to lie.” I answer. Before dad can answer, there’s a commotion outside. Dad and I exchange glances, before we run out into the hallway. We go to the room were the frozen people are at. In row D, a man has been unfrozen and lays on the cold ground, surrounded by liquid. Marcelo is next to him, tears in his eyes. People from the farms and from the leaders bunker all watch the two of them. Marie and Reggie both run over to the scene.

“What happened?” Marie asks. Marcelo turns to Marie.

“Someone unfroze and drowned my sister!” he says loudly. People gasp all around, and Marie looks at the farms people.

“All of you, back to your homes! This will be settled.” Marie says. She walks over and leans down next to Marcelo.

“Everything’s going to be okay.” She whispers to him. I frown, and wait for everyone to leave. Dad waits behind the corner with me. When Reggie and Marcelo take the body away, dad and I stop Marie before she can leave.

“Someone’s a traitor.” Dad says. Marie frowns at him, and we go to the captains quarters were nobody else is at to talk about what dad and I’ve found. At first Marie is quiet. She grows shocked when dad suggests two of her close members, other than Reggie and Marcelo. Finally Marie motions for dad to stop talking. Dad gives me a look ‘I told you so’ as Marie begins to talk.

“I don’t think anyone aboard my ship is going to start unfreezing people just because they want to sell the frozen to slavery. Do you think I don’t trust anyone here?” Marie asks.

“Well I don’t, and I don’t care if you don’t believe me. But pretty soon your not going to have power, and I want to protect my daughter Marie. We are your friends, we just want to help.” Dad says. Marie looks hurt for a minute, before someone calls her. Marie walks away without saying anything more to us.

“Now what?” I ask dad. He frowns.

“We find out who’s trying to kill people and sell the rest of us to slavery.” Dad answers, as he leaves the room. I follow him out.

Ten minutes later, we’ve found a security camera that nobody’s using. Dad hooks it up to the room those two people were talking in earlier. They’ve left now, probably spooked off by the fact that someone might have listened to their conversation. I’m watching the door to make sure nobody enters the room. It takes dad about ten minutes to set the camera up properly, and five more minutes to hook it up to a screen in his room. When he finishes hiding the camera behind a very tall plant, we make our way back to our rooms. Since dad’s room is across from mine, we should be alright.

“Take a nap or something... Just don’t leave your room without me.” Dad says, and he looks tired. I nod, and open my room. I check around for cameras or hidden mics. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, and my search comes up empty. I check the cabinets, the drawer’s under the think, under my mattress, even under the bed. Sighing, I sit on my bed. After a minute, I lay down. I have nothing to do, and I don’t really know where anything is. I’d much rather be exploring then just sitting doing nothing. My luck turns when Marie runs into my room, her face stricken with worry.

“Where’s your dad?” she asks, she sounds like she’s out of breath.

“He’s in his room.” I answer sitting up, and I give her a worried expression. She waves at me before turning around to go to my dad’s room. I follow her.

“He’s not here!” Marie says her voice high.

“What’s wrong Marie?” I ask, frowning. She turns to me, and for the first time I see the stress on her. Her hair is half up and half down, and in fuzzy patches with streaks of white hair through it. Her shirt is muffled, and her hand is shaking.

“I need talk to...” her voice is cut off by a loud siren and a female voice over the speaker.

“Emergency...emergency... everyone to the bunkers. This ship’s on lock down! A leak has sprung, emergency landing in two minutes. Emergency, emergency. Everyone to the bunkers! This is a code red, the ships set for an emergency landing.” The intercom repeats it a few more times, and Marie grabs my hand. Together we run down the hall, past the area were the farms, to a huge room beside all of the frozen people, and I watch as people buckle themselves into the wall that has padded seats connected to it. People come running in from all doors, scrambling to get to a seat. Marie continues on to the head of the ship, were her nine leaders are at, plus my dad. He’s commanding the crew to do something, but they all have panicked expressions on their faces.

“Buckle yourselves in! Brace for landing!” Marie yells to them. She grabs me and buckles us into her seat. Dad buckles himself into an extra seat along the wall, and watches as Earth 2.0 comes closer and closer to the ship.

“This is going to be a bumpy landing!” Reggie yells to us, as he sits at the control center. Marcelo is beside him, telling Reggie to land for one of the tropical areas.

“All other areas are off limits. These one’s we have a slight chance at living in. But I advise that nobody leaves the ship until I’ve done a search through the tropical areas.” Marcelo yells to Reggie, over the sirens. Reggie nods, and stir’s the ship toward were Marcelo pointed out. Marcelo has no signs of earlier devastation. Now he looks focused and sure of himself. Damion takes control of the panel beside Reggie. Marcelo moves to watch the cameras and buckle himself in. A rather tall guy runs in the room, looks over at Marie and smiles before he buckles himself in by dad. I think that’s Dr. Marcus Antonio, Marie’s husband. A second after he’s buckled in and I hear the snap of the buckle, there’s a large crash, silence, then a bump. My head snaps forward, and everything around me turns black.