Babel Project

# Dellmarsh, Province of Lightmaple, 08:07:43 PST

"Hi Mr. Joseph! Bye Mr. Joseph!"

Henry rushes with his bike through the farmer's market. On the side of the road, an old man leans on a shovel, wiping the sweat from his brow as he takes a rest from his labor.

"Ahh, young people these days are always on a hurry."

It's a busy Thursday and Henry tries his best to not stumble with his neighbors.

"Watch it!"

An old lady calls out Henry as tomatoes slip from her grasp, falling through the floral patterns of her dress and scattering across the street. Henry stops pedaling, biting his lower lip as he looks down at the tomatoes rolling towards him. He leans to his side, placing his foot on the floor to make a U-turn. After leaving the bicycle on a nearby tree, he starts collection the tomatoes using his T-shirt as an improvised basket.

"There you have it, Mrs. Violet."

"Aww, you are such a gentleman. Now shush! Or you'll be late."

A soft smile is drawn on the young man's lips. He lets the tomatoes roll back inside one of Mrs. Violet's bags and rushes back to his bicycle to continue his trip down the street.

# Dellmarsh, Maple Avenue, 08:18:21 PST

It's a clear day with partly cloudy skies —not too bright, not too gloomy. Henry watches the horizon meet the coastline as he pedals along the right side of the street. It's a long way to college. He takes a deep breath as the sun touches his forehead, squinting to focus on the road. A bump in the road puts him out of his daydreaming, prompting him to press the breaks and step away from the bicycle to avoid crashing.

"C'mon! Not now."

The front tire sits lower, making the bicycle heavier to move. Henry quickly rolls up his sleeves to check on it. The situation looks dire as he does not carry a spare with him nor the appropriated tools to patch it up. A loud honk snaps him out of his gloom.

"Looking for a ride?" a girl addresses him, her elbow popping out from the driver's window in a pompous manner.

"Eva!"

His always-on-time partner is turning on and off the high lights of her pickup truck to call his attention. Without further ado, he places his bike in the back and sits down on the copilot's seat.

"Woah woah. Slow it down, kiddo. We are still in time, y'know?"

Eva does a little fist bump with Henry's arm, then waits for him to faster his seatbelt before accelerating again.

"Thanks. I think I got a flat tire."

"No worries, kiddo. Nobody's late today. Not on my watch."

Eva's little brother is also called Henry, so by extend she treats him as such. Henry pulls down the window and enjoys the fresh coastal breeze against his face. The quietness of the scenery is only disturbed by the diesel engine as the pickup truck shifts into second gear. For her part, Eva turn on the radio and Heavy Metal to start blasting through the speakers.

"Heavy Metal at this time of the day? Really?"

"You know what today's first class is about. I get sooo sleepy when someone pushes my brain like that so early in the morning."

Henry giggles.

"It's just 3D Modeling, don't take that course too seriously. At the end of the day we just approximate everything to spheres and cylinders," he states.

"At least you like it." Eva leans back on the seat, forgetting for a split second that she is the driver. "You know what's fun? Rocks!" She pushes forward the handle as if she was the one driving Henry's bicycle. "Living one lick away from death, using every single sensorial hair into discovering what lays deep below the earth."

"There are instruments, you know?" interjects Henry. He doesn't like it when Eva ridicules such an important field as geology.

"I mean, I can't compare my shock when recognizing the rock by mere licking with your shock when finding out the cable was electrified!" She burst out laughing like there's no tomorrow. He just crosses his arms in a sign of protest.

"There is no way I'm letting any uncovered part of my body touch an electrified cable," Henry adds.

All of a sudden, he raises his eyebrows in awe as the truck rounds the curve, getting covered in sunbeams almost completely. Eva tries to block the glare by shielding her eyes behind her left hand.

"Eva"—his tone changes—"when we first stepped into college, did you ever imagine us doing the things we are doing now?"

"Hmm. Back then I didn't have a car and the bus only turns on the next exit so... da-ah, of course not silly boy." She snorts out a laugh, only to rectify herself after seeing Henry's green, glassy eyes reflecting the incoming sunlight. She coughs a little before continuing. "I mean, yeah. Why not? One semester at a time, right?"

Henry stays quiet for a minute, then lets out a small giggle. "I'm sorry. I'm just... It has been a wild ride all these years. Things started so differently and—" A strong shake to the side makes him grab tight to the handle on the roof.

"Watch where you are going dickheads!" Eva scrams to the other driver with her head completely outside of the window. "Fuck! I hate those guys."

A caravan of cars follow the reckless driver. Between all of them goes escorted a massive pitch black freight truck. Eva drives with half of her truck outside the road line, the tires scrapping the dry vegetation.

"Oh, I kinda lost track there, haha." She shrugs, pressing her soft smile in embarrassment for the unappropriated of the interruption. The caravan passes and Eva puts the car back on the track. "What were you saying?"

"Well yeah, that." He looks outside his window.

"Yeah, that." Eva looks to Henry out of the corner of her eye. "Hmm, are the chicken nuggets still up for lunch? I'm already starving!"

"Frozen and ready to go!" Henry pulls out a glass jar. She laughs at the mere sight of it.

"I don't get why you like that thing. It's not even squared!" she grabs the jar with one hand and gazes at it quickly before returning her attention to the road. "Do you really like to pretend everything is a sushi-roll?"

"Well, at lest I can roll-them-out when I'm hungry." They both laugh as the vehicle approaches the campus.

# Somewhere in the Province of Northbridge, 0244Z

A sturdy, bald man walks through the hallway. The dark winter coat collar up to his chin, the breath condensing on the coldness of the ambiance. The man carries a shiny aluminum briefcase, its sharp borders contrasting with the rough steel bars supporting the concrete walls. His steps leave a dry echo that gets lost behind him. Bare fluorescent tubes turn on in the ceiling as he crosses the narrow corridor under their sensors, flickering constantly due to his fast paced walk. There are no windows nor air vents, only a mildly oxidized copper pipe running across the hallway, dripping what appears to be a viscous transparent liquid.

"Alpha One, this is Charle Four. Do you copy?" A static noise breaks the silence. A barely recognizable voice speaks through the radio hanging from the bald man's belt. "Shutting down jamming device. Turning on open communications." He moves his big hand out of the coat's pocket and subtly turns the radio's knob with his thumb and pointing finger. With the unpleasant noise shut off, he reaches the inside of his coat and pulls out a smartphone from one of its leather pockets.

And iron door marks the end of the hallway. When the bald man puts both of his feet in front of it a small gap in the ceiling opens. An eyes scanner comes down from it, stopping in front of his eyesight. He closes one eye, action immediately followed by the loud movement of the door's latches. White gas an dust emanates from its borders, as if it was sealed for a long time.

"Welcome, Mr. White," a robotic voices receives him. Despite the greeting the man does not look away from his smartphone.

He looks up after entering the room. It's dimensions are relatively small compared to the man's size. A translucent wall on his left hand shows a multitude of magnetic tapes rotating around a metal disk. In front of him a white-coated scientist is standing with her hands crossed behind her back. Her attention on the crystal panel in front of her, one that covers the wall completely.

The man gives a few taps to his smartphone before putting it back to its respective pocket. Gears start turning very loudly until the door is completely closed.

The scientist turns her left foot to the side, inviting Mr. White to join her on the view.

A three-hundred-feet-deep room appears in front of them. At the bottom, a small groups of scientists gather around a few improvised tables. Some of them chain their arms together and dance in circles, while others give each other successive toasts on fancy glasses. One of them looks to the cabin and, after filling his mouth with wine straight from the bottle, trots to a nearby pod.

"Clearance request," says the scientist on the speaker. A robotic voices gives feedback to his command.

"Name: Winston Lionheart. Position: Subordinated COO of Babel. Clearance: Epsilon."

Winston's pod gets lifted by ultrasonic waves, pushing it upwards from the platform's base. The pod makes an elliptic turn before smoothly aligning its base with the room's floor. A portion of the pod's window starts opening, giving him enough space to comfortably step out of it.

"Mr. White!" Winston gives a military salute for a few seconds, pressing his lips in an attempt to hide his joy. His cheeks are notoriously red from all the wine he has been drinking. "We did it! All the tests passed and"—he coughs a little after noticing Mr. White's displeased expression—"it's ready, sir. All the sweat and blood this project has cost us came to a glorifying end."

He joins the view that both the scientist and Mr. White have not removed their eyes from, not even to receive him. They stare at an empty space in the middle of the facility. Red lights spin on its walls as the rotating beacons get triggered, situation which makes all the scientist scatter in great frenzy in the seek for shelter. The empty space starts distorting, slowly giving shape to a shiny platinum-looking structure. A two-and-a-half feet tall monolith takes form in front of them. The edges are perfectly formed by endless reflections of different mirrors, making a totally shadeless figure.

"We can contact God."

Winston clears the tears from his eyes after pronouncing those words. The monolith slowly blurs into the landscape until completely disappearing from the facility. He quickly goes towards Mr. White, who is now standing at the center of the room. His eyes wide open in awe.

"We are shutting it down due to its extremely high energy consumption. We do not want to waste any drop of electricity," Winston comments. "J-Just imagine the possibilities!" he breaks character, "The mysteries of the universe, the true origins of our DNA. We could help millions if we ask the right questions—"

"How much does it weight?" Mr. White interrupts on a critical tone, his eyes hardened in an almost vicious gaze.

"How much does it... I mean, technically it doesn't but... yes, well, a few gigatonnes." Winston tries not to contradict himself while talking.

Mr. White clenches hard his hand and lifts both his middle and index fingers together.

"Hold," says the scientist besides him without moving an inch of her body. All the magnetic tapes stop at once. "This will be off-record."

"What do you mean by off-record, Helen?" Winston deliberately asks.

"Fifteen? Seventeen?" Mr. White spits on a soft and yet deep tone.

"Yes, Mr. White. I've been in charge of this—"

"Billions of dollars," the bald man continues without any empathy on his words. "Seventy thousand, first-hand employees. Thirty five percent of our global share revenue right in front of my eyes."

"We have had our loses, we have passed our griefs. But we finally made it. We must be proud of what we have accomplished together," says Winston almost recited. "Otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth," he adds on a poetic tone.

"Clearance," shouts Mr. White. A robotic voices gives feedback to his command.

"Name: Helen Langley. Position: COO of Babel. Clearance: Theta." A click is heard throughout the room. Helen brings her arms to her front and slowly turns towards Winston.

# Lightmaple University, 08:52:07 PST

Eva parks her vehicle on the one-liner parking lot outside the campus. The car attendant, an old man resting on a worn-out plastic chair, stands up from his chair to greet them.

"It surely is a lovely day, isn't it?" the old man addresses them with a British accent. Eva and Henry just grin uncomfortably whilst accelerating their pace. If they were to greet every single campus' personal they saw they'd be out of breath before lunch.

After turning on the block's corner, a group of young students is picking up some cardboard boxes scattered along the parking lot's entrance. On of them raises her chin and sees Henry and Eva approaching.

"Hi!" Jenny waves at them effusively.

"What on earth are y'all doing?" Eva leans against the entrance gate, arms folder across her chest.

"Some asshole almost crashed his car into the recycle bin and now we've got a mess we gotta clear" Jenny is genuinely pissed off.

"But just park somewhere else, there is plenty of space here." Eva points to where she came from with Henry. "I usually park there and it works just fine." She presses her lips together as if that fact were the most common thing in the world.

"I know all parking lots here are shared but professors always take this one." Jenny says, pulling a cardboard trapped under the gate and tossing it back into the bin. The rest of the group comes back with their arms loaded with more cardboard.

"Hello there!" they all shout at once.

"Hi!" both Henry and Eva reply. A man joins from the back of the group.

"Yo," Chuck greets awkwardly.

"Yo," Eva replies awkwardly.

"So... why don't you guys get ahead of us while we finish here?" Jenny breaks the tension in the air, grabbing Chuck by the sleeve. "Our courses start later anyway."

Jenny and Chuck stay there, picking up cardboard and torn boxes while the rest of the group joins Evan and Henry on their way inside the campus. Once they get far enough from the entrance, Jeremy can't help but to comment.

“Why do we keep hanging out with Chuck anyway? You guys broke up months ago and he ain't even funny,” he asks Eva. There's no response from her.

A cobblestone walkway leads to an inner park filled with oak trees, whose canopy reaches ten feet toward the sky. Open hoses spray little arcs of water over the grass, with sunlight refracting through them.

As they walk through, different tracks pompously painted yellow lead to the different department's gateways. Chemistry, Engineering, Logistics, one by one the group members go to their courses on the respective buildings. There's only Eva and Henry left before reaching the Computer Science's entrance. Before stepping in, Eva stop walking and grabs him by the shoulder.

"Sorry to break it to ya, but could you do me a favor?" Eva asks, a hint of worry on her voice.

"Sure. Just tell me," Henry replies quickly, trying to put her friend at ease.

Eva adjusts the strap from her bag to keep her hands busy, "I have swimming classes after but the pool is a tiny bit too far away from here." She squints, pressing her index against her thumb in front of Henry's eyes. "I have to run to change clothes. Would you mind taking care of my purse?" She looks to the sides before continuing. "I forgot I had to leave the truck at home today. I really need you to take care of the keys."

"Piece of cake," Henry shrugs, smiling back at her. "No worries, just do your thing and I'll keep them safe." He does a thumbs up and they both enter the classroom.

# Somewhere in the Province of Northbirdge, 0314Z

Mr. White cleans his hands with a silk handkerchief, only to drop it above Winston's dead body. Grabbing the handle of the briefcase he follows Helen to the right side of the room. The woman finishes cleaning the silencer's muzzle and saves the gun inside her coat. She raises her chin and watches closely the blank wall. A red set of beams come out from it, scanning Helen's face.

“Name: Helen Langley. Position: COO of Babel. Clearance: Unauthorized.” the robotic voice reacts.

"Engage Omega Protocol," Mr. White adds to Helen's command.

An iron curtain violently drops over the window and door, sparks coming out from their borders as they get soldered in-place. The magnetic tapes start to burn, filling with dark smoke the cabin that holds them.

Helen stays still, waiting for Mr. White's new instructions. When the wall opens a secret path, he is the first to cross it. Helen doesn't get a chance to follow him as an iron curtain suddenly drops in front of her.

"Override," Helen commands, touching the curtain in the search of the retinal scanner. "Override!" she yells in despair.

"Denied," the robotic voice replies. Helen grabs her gun and starts shooting at the speaker, then at the wall. The speakers gets turned into a pile of springs and metal shards, meanwhile the iron curtain barely gets a scratch from the bullet impact.

"Override!" She throws the gun at the curtain and proceeds to hit it with her fists. "You fucking bastard!" she yells at the wall, the bottom of the room filling quickly with dark smoke. "You'll never get anywhere without me! I swear it before God himself!" she screams with the last of hear breaths before the smoke gets into her lungs.

In the other side of the room, a single table sits in the middle with six empty chairs pointing at Mr. White's. The man takes a seat and puts the briefcase on the table. The digits on the lock rotate one by one below his fingers, emitting a click for each match of the numeric key. The lid unlocks after the last match, slightly detaching itself from both the borders and its own hinge. Mr. White pulls from it, putting the lid perpendicular to its base until forming a screen with it. Red beams come out from it, scanning his facial features.

Once the process is over, holographic figures of men fill the formerly empty chairs. Four of them wear camouflage suits with military hats and the remaining two dark suits with white collar. Subtle glitches on the corner of their holograms reveal they are all using similar briefcases to join the meeting.

"Gentleman," Mr. White puts his elbows on the table, placing his chin on top of his crossed fingers. "We built ourselves a company and an ambition with its top in the heavens." The holographic men start accommodating on their sits. "Let us make a name for out brand."

The wall on their left starts moving until nothing separated them from the facility. The chairs automatically rotate so Mr. White and the holographic men can gaze at the inside of the facility, the shadeless figure perfectly reflecting the meeting. A glimpse of a smile can be seen on Mr. White's face.

# Lightmaple University, 09:05:34 PST

"Up! Down! The power of the shadows!" the professor yells unexpectedly in front of the class, alarming half sleep students.

"F—" exclaims Eva. "I mean, jeez! I hate when he does that."

Henry tries his best to laugh discretely and to not grab the professor's attention.

"It's not just dumb shapes, it's art!" The professor ignores the duo and proceeds to draw 3D figures on the chalkboard.

"Just like I said, spheres and cylinders," Henry shows off to Eva once more.

"But you can't shape rocks with just that, can you?" she justifies herself under a challenging smile.

Then they heard it, a single beat, everywhere and nowhere to be seen. It cracked in two, the chalk against the floor. The professor stopped talking, stopped smiling, stopped existing, like a breeze behind the ears. And so did Eva. It was just wind, flowing freely throughout the classroom. No lighting, no thunder, no warning. And somehow Henry knew, that wind would never let him step back from that point ever again.