Chapter 30: Memory hike

[March/April 2374 AD – POV Timotheus Mellark]

In early February a team of rangers, police and miners had explored the hidden and illegal mine on the Evergreen farm, and we had been able to rescue a group of about a dozen people, who had been locked in a large set of rooms deep down in the mine; we had been able to get them out in the nick of time, just before they had been running out of fresh air and water. Some other people, who had been locked down in different areas underground, had not been so lucky and had perished from lack of air and/or water long before we had been able to locate them. A smaller team of mining experts and police was still down there, and they were trying to find out what the purpose of the illegal mining operation had been. After all, the people behind the operation had not shied away from killing people, threatening the farm and the inhabitants, trying to set some buildings on fire, and they had even been shooting at police officers. All of that combined assured that the case got high level attention and all of the resources it needed. A criminal case of that scope and magnitude was very rare in our district, and even the Lord Mayor of Appacolia had issued some statement and promised his full support. Fortunately, police had been able to capture quite a number of the people who had been involved in the illegal operation, and questioning them was in progress. When I visited the farm again on a weekend in early March, I could give them an intermediate update:

"So, miners are still investigating and searching down there, but they had found some valuable hints already. One of the people who had been caught, the former farm hand, admitted that he had been spying on the farm and making sure that nobody else got too close to the hill where the mine entrance is. However, at this time, information about the leaders of the illegal activities is still mostly missing."

"So, what did they try to find there?"

"Some of the hills on your farm seem to be rich in some interesting minerals, Mr. Jones, including what they call pegmatites."

"What is that?" Mrs. Jones asked.

"Pegmatites are rocks formed by crystallization at high temperature and pressure at depth, and they frequently contain traces of elements like Beryllium, Aluminium, Lithium, and others."

"Wow, Rue, how do you know?"

"I read up on that, as I was curious, and your sister Primrose helped me to find some articles on that. Based on what I read, pegmatites and olivine seemed to be the likely valuables which could be hidden on our ground, considering the geological environment around here."

"Yes, indeed, and while the investigations are not yet concluded, some areas seem to have pegmatites with a high lithium content, which is highly demanded for…"

"...batteries, in particular."

"Rue, you sure have done your homework. Yes, batteries use lithium a lot, indeed. So, it appears that a syndicate of criminals found out about the resources and decided to open up the old mine without your knowledge, and they probably used forced labor. In addition, there are some indications that they may have found other valuable minerals and even gemstones, but this is not yet clear and needs more thorough examination."

"So, what's going to happen with the mine now?"

"This is not yet decided, Mr. Jones. For now it's still closed off, but sooner or later somebody will have to decide if it can be opened again, and maybe some legal mining can be done in future. If that's going to be profitable or not remains to be seen, but it seems likely at least. In former times, before the Great War, a lot of lithium had been imported from South America, where it had been extracted from salt lakes and such, in a way which is not good for the environment. Here on our continent, profitable lithium sources are rare, I have been told. Naturally, as this is your ground, you will eventually have to decide what to do about it."

We talked about that a little more, and then we sat together for lunch. While we were all worried about the situation and the criminal activities, Rue radiated cheerfulness, and she was soon able to distract us and have more pleasant thoughts. When this pretty young girl started to smile, if was practically impossible to think about something bad; that was the effect she had on her grandparents and me at least.

After the meal and a break Rue's grandfather wanted to know:

"Now, Rue, shall we get an update on the preparations for your upcoming 'confirmation'?"

This was a nice topic to talk about; Mr. Jones was most likely well informed about what the status was, but it was good to mention that. At home, when Rue had been with her father and sister in District Eleven, religion had not been a primary part of Rue's life, but her grandparents had a very different view on that. Like my own family and my cousin in Erlangen, we were all Lutheran Christians, and Mr. Jones had already admitted earlier:

"My early ancestors were not religious, but my parents got into the spirit of the many Lutherans in Kirchheim, and they were baptized at an adult age, just before I was born. Same as Rue will do very soon, I celebrated 'Konfirmation' (confirmation) at the age of fourteen to confirm my decision to be part of a Christian community and believing in God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

About one year prior to that date the candidates were supposed to participate in special weekly religious instructions, similar to what had been called 'Sunday School' in other areas. The Lutheran denomination was based on Dr. Martin Luther, who had, many centuries before, reformed Christianity by taking it back to the words of scripture, preaching against wide spread non-biblical habits of the clerics of that time and translating the Holy Bible into the German Language for the first time, so that more people in the country could actually read it. Consequently, lots of German terms were used in the context of the 'Konfirmation', specifically after that believe had been reintroduced in Panem after the final rebellion. Most Lutherans spoke the German language as well and cherished that part of their religion, culture, and heritage. Specifically in Kirchheim, there was a German language service at church once a month on a regular basis, too, and the Jones had learned some of that language as well; for Rue, it was one of her foreign languages at school anyway, here in this area at least.

Mr. and Mrs. Jones had enrolled Rue in this group quickly after she had started to live with them, and although the girl had been very hesitant at first, she had grown to like it. The pastor and most of the other kids from the small town of Kirchheim and the adjacent farms had recognized her special needs and had always made sure to provide distance where possible, and Rue had found some kind of comfort in the Christian believe as well; the fact that it was my believe as well probably helped, and we had frequently talked about religion and faith. Rue's confirmation celebration was scheduled for the weekend after Easter, and the final preparations were in progress; Rue told us:

"Yes, I think that everything is on track. I have learned a lot in the last few months, and the others in the group have come to accept me; most of them at least. Naturally, at the beginning I got lots of odd looks because I am so tiny and due to my special features, but than we had a session all together where I could explain something about me, and Ruth had insisted to join us as well for that one afternoon; her charm made the difference, and since last fall I have been a fully accepted member of the group. I am real glad that I can be a Lutheran now, and I am looking forward to the event, which will be a very special one for me – after all, as I never got even baptized, I will receive baptism and confirmation in one service."

End of February I learned that a special workshop on power generation and storage was scheduled for the second last week of March this year in District Five of Panem. This district had focused on power generation and electricity during the dark times, and the experts there wanted to discuss the current state of technology and new ideas with colleagues all over the world. Together with a couple of professors and some post-docs I was asked to join as well, and we'd meet specialists from other districts as well as from the areas of the world. Besides experts from various districts in Panem, a few people from South America were expected, and of course there were going to be teams from the universities of Erlangen, München, and Wien, including my twin cousin.

Together with a few other people, mostly experts from the Appacolia District University, I took the maglev to the Capitol, and there I met with my twin cousin, who had just arrived from Europe. We both stayed for a night in a hotel close to the station, and we continued with another maglev line towards our destination. They had organized the workshop to be close to the main station in Five, so that we we did not have to go far from there at all. The workshop lasted for one and a half weeks, and it was a great opportunity to meet with other scientists and experts from other areas of the world. The end had been scheduled in a way to allow everybody to be back home for the Easter Holidays, and I was on my way back to Twelve on Wednesday March 27th, arriving in the evening.

On Thursday and Friday, Good Friday, I stayed at home and attended church service with my family, and on Saturday I drove out to the Evergreen Farm to spend a few days with Rue and her grandparents. The Easter holidays were, as a matter of fact, the most important religious holidays from a Christian perspective, as they reminded of the gift of Jesus, allowing himself to be crucified and killed for our sins. The crucifixion was memorized on the day called 'Good Friday', with a special church service, and from that afternoon on the church bells were entirely silent until Sunday morning when they were sounding again to encourage citizens to think about Jesus' resurrection. Almost the entire town Kirchheim was populated by Lutherans, and religious background dominated daily lives in that town a lot.

With the Jones and her granddaughter I attended church service again on the 31st of March, Easter Sunday this year. The church was almost bursting with people going to the service, and it was not possible to find a quiet corner where Rue could keep her distance to strangers. Thus, we did the next best thing and had her surrounded by good friends only. Some of my family joined us in Kirchheim as well, and so the people sitting close to her were all good friends, like Ruth, my mother, the girl's grandparents and me. Nevertheless I noticed that the long service with so many people stressed her, and when we were all at the farm later on, she asked during lunch:

"Tim, can we go somewhere for a few days, just the two of us? I need some time to recharge before the next big service."

I could understand here; just one week from today she was going to celebrate her 'Konfirmation', and this was a lot going on. I quickly checked the weather forecast and was happy to see that there was going to be some rain for the rest of today, but the next few days should be all right, in particular starting Tuesday; I asked her:

"Do you have any preference on where to go?"

She pondered that for a few moments and then replied:

"Can we go to the place where you found me last year and where we stayed for a few days together?"

"Rue, this is too far. We'd have to walk for at least two days from Hillbonia, so that we might able to get there, but we'd have to start the hike back right on the next day."

"Oh, okay."

"But wait, I got an idea."

I checked the ranger schedule on my tricorder and found something which looked promising. Once I had excused myself from the table, I walked out of hearing distance and called the ranger headquarters from the phone in the farmhouse. My friend Ben was answering, as he had guard duty today, and we talked for some time. Ten minutes later I came back to the table, and I told Rue:

"I have been able to get something organized. We can leave on Tuesday morning and be back on Saturday before noon. Ready to be surprised?"

"Really?" Rue looked at her grandparents for approval, and they both smiled and nodded.

On Tuesday morning, I woke up Rue very early, before sunrise. We had prepared her backpack in the evening before, and soon we were having breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Jones in the kitchen. They smiled at us and said that they hoped we'd have a good time, and half an our later we were in my car driving to the ranger headquarter, and Ben already waited there when we arrived.

"You were really lucked that we have a flight scheduled into the area this morning anyway, and of course they don't have a problem dropping you there."

"Dropping us where?" Rue asked.

"You will see" I replied.

A few minutes later we were on board the helicraft, together with Rex, of course, which was now taking off on a routine survey flight with a few rangers. The distance to the Appalachian mountains from Appacolia was only about one hundred kilometers, and even at the low and economical speed the helicraft had we covered that in less than half an hour. For thirty more minutes the craft flew slowly between hills and across valleys and allowed us to enjoy the scenery from above, and eventually it settled down on a sloped meadow, close to an area with rocks of multiple size. We got out, I picked up my huge backpack and Rue's smaller one, and the helicraft took off again without us, to continue their routine flight.

Rue needed a few minutes to recall the location, but finally she got it:

"Wait, that's the place where the plane crash landed, right?"

I nodded and pointed towards the larger rocks:

"Right, it is. You will still find some remnants of the plane over there, but they assured me that the corpses or what was left of them had been retrieved and buried properly; that was done while you were in the hospital, and at that time you were not considered fit enough to be involved."

Rue looked down at ground and slowly wandered over to the rocks. I followed her, and we found a section of the plane wreck still there, with some openings created by heavy tools. The poor girl was about to shed some tears again, and I grabbed her and placed her on my lap while I sat down on a smaller rock. Once she had calmed down a little I spoke a short prayer, and then I suggested:

"What about looking into something happier? Look, the small trail over there leads up to the camp!"

It did not take long for her to follow my lead, and an hour or so later we were up at the camp where we had spend a few days and nights together about one year ago. The day was still young, and I first placed my large and heavy back pack on the ground below the overhang and started to prepare the basics. The sun was now shining right on us, and Rue sighed, saying:

"Thank you for making this possible. This is such a nice place here, and being here again just with you – and Rex, of course – is really great."

It was almost like the situation one years ago. We were at the small campsite under the overhang, the weather was quite benign and mostly sunny, Rex was happily running around, and there was just Rue and me and nobody else. My backpack was a little bit lighter than last year as we were only going to be here for a few days, but there was only a single sleeping bag, too. Rue sat silently on a rock for an hour or so, and it was obvious that she was enjoying the scenery. After some time she said:

"Tim, have you ever read books on the old times, before the Great War, when people lived in huge cities very close to each other?"

"Yes, I have. They are mentioning cities like 'New York', and at some time more than 10 million people seemed to live in that area alone."

"And I have seen some old images of what they called skyscrapers, with like one hundred and more floors. How could people live like this?"

"I do not know, and it would be very hard for me. But, if you grew up in such an environment and don't know any better, maybe it's not so hard?"

"Anyway, it's so great to be out here, with so much nature around. Of course, there is a lot of nature on the farm, too, but this is even more grand. I am so glad that you took me here again!"

"It certainly is a pleasure for me, too."

We spend a couple of quiet days with relaxing, talking and observing nature. Similar to the year before, there was still some snow on the higher elevations, but spring was clearly advancing, and it was great to see the first flowers coming out. Like last year, we could observe nature waking up after winter, and there was a lot to see, like ibexes, groundhogs, large birds, and more. Rue and I sat close together for hours just watching and observing, and it was great that we both had an interest in nature like this. We did not have to talk much, and I felt peace and harmony just by sitting here, with Rue next to me and sometimes on my lap.

When we I woke up early on the second day, there was a clear dark sky filled with stars, and the milky way was clearly visible. I woke up Rue and we looked at that together, and I mentioned:

"Before the Great War, people in cities almost never had a chance to see it like this. There had been too much pollution in the air, and in some areas people could be glad to see a few stars at night at all."

The young girl looked at me and replied:

"I am glad to live now and not at that time. Even from our farm we can see a nice night sky, but up here it's even better. But, looking up there and seeing so many stars, it makes me wonder – do you think, that somewhere out there, on a planet around one of those stars we can see or even around a star we can't directly see, in another galaxy like Andromeda, there are people also looking up into the night sky and thinking like we do?"

"I hope that there might be intelligent life somewhere else, but we may never find out, I am afraid. The distances are just too great."

"Yes, they are. Even light takes a few years to get to the next star, and the Andromeda galaxy is more than two million light years from us."

"Indeed. Unless we are lucky and find remnants of another civilization with advanced alien technology and something like a long distance transmitter powered by stars in the center of our own galaxy, there won't be a chance to get there."

"Long distance transmitter in the center of the galaxy? Where did you get this idea from?"

"This is from the 'Perry Rhodan' science fiction series; my twin cousin introduced me to it."

"Wow, do those books have more concepts like this one?"

"Many, yes; it's an SF series which is very much technology oriented, and although it was written centuries ago and some concepts in there are now very old-fashioned, it's still fascinating to read. I actually happen to have the printed book series at home; you are welcome to read as many times as you want."

Rue apparently liked the idea, and we talked about science fiction topics for some more time, before she decided that she needed some more snuggling and cuddling before getting up; we had plenty of time after all. Once again I enjoyed having my little minx on top of me, and as her head rested on my upper chest, I could clearly smell her hair, and I started to play with some strands. She noticed that and asked:

"You like my hair a lot, don't you?"

"Oh yes, I do!"

"I was thinking about growing it longer; what do you think about that?"

Since I had first met her, Rue's hair had barely reached her shoulder, and this was probably practical. However, I wouldn't mind at all to see her with longer hair, and I told her so:

"I think that I would like that, Rue. I mean, it will be nice anyway, but yes, I would love to see you with long hair and occasionally a braid or two."

"All right; let's see how this works out."

On Thursday morning we packed and left early, and we took our time to hike back to civilization. While I might have been able to make this in a single day, if I had been alone, we were not in a hurry, and we could use two full days. I had already estimated that one year ago, and now, taking advantage of the relaxed schedule, we could take enough time to look around, find specific scenic spots, look at some of the early spring flowers, and watch more animals. While I was, in general, a person who like to be alone, making that trip together with Rue was certainly special. Contrary to other girls I had met, she was not a chatterbox and talked all of the time, like my sister Ruth might have done, but we sometimes spend half an hour or longer not saying a single word. Even when staying silent, though, she frequently looked at at me, and it happened from time to time that she saw something of interest and just pointed with her finger. I could feel that she was happy and that the time here helped her to relax after the Easter holidays. At the end of the first hiking day, when we had found a nice spot to spend the night, she confirmed that she was feeling great. Not for the first time I had to admit that spending time just with Rue was the perfect combination between being alone and being with company. Totally alone, or just with Rex, was fine, but with Rue also included, it was literally perfect. Sometimes I felt like she was part of me; I had no clue why I felt like this, but I cherished the situation and the feelings, specifically as I was quite certain that the pretty girl was as happy with me as I was with her.

I thought about that special instrument she had on her, the one Dr. Aurelius had given her to record her brain activity and specifically the activity in the potentially dangerous sections, and I wondered if the readings would look better for those days, when she was just with me and obviously happy and relaxed, compared to, for instance, normal school days. That would make sense, wouldn't it? Not just for the two of is being together, of course, but also due to bountiful nature all around us, which appealed to both of us.

We continued our hike on the second day, and without and hurry we got to the town with the railroad connection; we easily managed to get the second last train of the day to Hillbonia. After spending a night in a pension, we took the train to Appacolia and the tram out to the ranger headquarters on Saturday morning, where we picked up my car and drove to the farm, and we arrived in time for lunch. We were just in time to give Rue's grandmother some time to prepare the girl for the next day, when she was going to celebrate 'Konfirmation'; I very much hoped that she was reasonably rested and relaxed for that event.

[Author's Notes: The statements on geology and minerals and such in and around the mine are my own fabrication, but I used web pages on geological survey and mineral resources in North Carolina as reference and tried to stay close to reality at least.]