The heartbeat-like sound was usually soothing. The surroundings looked very similar to what she was used to. It was an odd combination to see the two of them in this place. It looked like home, but it wasn't home. Nora was a bundle of nerves as she stared at the rack in front of her, the sacks moving every so often. Hope on the left side and Eve on the right. It wasn't like she wasn't used to speaking to such a large group, she was worried about the countless outcomes of this. People could die. She understood why he was so tense when she spoke with him. Janel and she had to talk each other down from the ledge. Now that he knew her secret and had asked, it wasn't as if Janel and Monil had tried thousands of times for a female embryo. They tried three. All three produced females. It was documented visually. It's as if the cells knew of the imbalance in their species. Out of the team's twenty-four embryos, eighteen were female.
The boys were all cured and would be needed eventually. She respected their wishes when they stored them. The thing is that they left them behind at their main office. She was pissed off at her employees, but she had to respect their choices. Nora was sitting in a perfect replica of her home studio. The last half cycle, she was busy here. She only found out that the venue had been moved here three days ago. The fight was emotional and draining. She had barely enough sleep, it turned out that she had gotten used to her five bedmates. Nora yawned, there were no extra rooms. The inner courtyards were full. She would be spending the night with them again.
'Happy twenty-sixth birthday, Ivy. In all the stories we came up with together as children, would you ever think that it would end up like this? This is like the Doctor Who stories we would come up with, but I always thought you would end up my companion. Now I am dragging my whole family into this mess, because we always have to be the heroes? Do you think it will be alright?' Nora thought to herself. She had been counting the days and keeping track of her old earth calendar. The seasons did not match up. Today was February 13th to February 17th 2029 on old earth. Here it was 301567/Primak/ 28. Her birthday was today. It had been more than eight years since she arrived.
"Hope, what a nice name for you. I am sorry, my daughter, that your birthday is going to be a date marked in history. Yours as well, Eve. Please do not hate me for this, for making you the new Itma." Nora talked to herself. She brought a glass of red wine to her lips and drew a sip.
"We will be fine, right?" Nora questioned the rack, slightly inebriated. She didn't want to take all these people down with her by association. The kidnapping attempt made by Clan Thelan on Leilanna opened her eyes. She woke up not far away from her under a pile of peacekeepers. It was guilt by association and opportunity. It would take a lot to get through to them. But that would not protect those on the outside. "We're safe here, but everyone else. All the men out there." Nora muttered as she hung her head.
Setton was built into the depth of a volcanic range of mountains. The various magma chambers and flows had been turned into a super-powered geothermal power source. It was brilliant to harness its power. It's very use prevented massive eruptions. Damaging the infrastructure of the power plant that was part of Setton's property was a weapon in itself. The pressure was decreased by the rapid cooling of the millions of gallons of seawater that shot through the pipeline that was forged out of metal found in abundance in the outer rings that withstood the heat. The building itself was a failure. If the power plant portion of it was damaged it would mean that the pressure and measures that stopped the possibility of an environmentally devastating eruption would take place.
She was pretty certain she was sitting in the very super volcano that had erupted and almost taken out humanity in its cradle. This was Toba, it just had not erupted yet. This area was devastated so much that it was now a lake. It would be an inopportune time for an eruption to take place. No one thought of the implications of a military family using this as their base in a time of hundreds of years of unification and peace. Could she condone its use as a weapon? No. Her spouses, she did not know what to think about them. They seemed to think that they did not deserve to go down with their employees back at the building. Nora jumped as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"I thought you would still be nervous. That stuff is not good for you." Janel said as he handed her a bottle of pressed juice. He looked at the alcohol. He had no idea how she handled it, it was awful for the body. It gave him a headache the day after he had it.
"I think both of us might have to look over her shoulders for the rest of our lives after this. I suppose I have been living in fear for years now. Fear of people finding out who I am, where I come from, what I am capable of and what I am lacking in. I am afraid of taking everyone else down with me." Nora vented. Janel sighed and sat down next to her, looking at the same rack. He rubbed his palm on her back in a tender-like fashion. She understood him, he understood her.
"Nora, you need to set the wine down. It is not helping you. We have to go on in two hours. Drink the juice." Janel gently instructed. He took the wine.
"Hey, I am going to be f-fine." Nora said with a stutter.
"No more. It might be a problem for some, but it has been what we have been striving to cure for hundreds of years. We were already close to violence before you appeared in Izaberne. There are groups among the lower class that would have rioted if Quill had not disabled Hudai's tools. That would have been millions of men committing suicide. I was close to giving up. Millions of men do. You do not know the staggering figures, it does not get spoken about. Because we were disposable to them." Janel said and leaned his head on her shoulder affectionately.
"Janel. It tortures me thinking about it," Nora said. Her brow line crumpled as her eyes watered. "I'm so scared," Nora said.
" I am too. But we cannot turn back. I will not sacrifice us. Until I met you, I had not been treated as a true equal. Not by my parents, friends nor lovers. I thought it was a Northern thing and that you would change once you integrated into society. When you went to the Allari, I thought it would be nurtured out of you, and you would become like Liem. That you would become cold to it, and only care about your rights." Janel said, stifling a sob. Tears ran down Nora's cheeks.
'I had no idea how bleak it was.' Nora thought to herself. She embraced Janel warmly. They both wept together.
"You did not let your environment or social pressures change you in the face of immense pressure," Janel said. "You can get through this, Nora. Do not let the pressure change you. Now I am going to be the first rack born man to get his clan name back, and see the racks eventually retired in my lifetime. You have given such a gift. Hope is such an apt name. " Janel said, a tear slid down his cheek and he laughed a little. "My Fathers died from giving up hope. They died being unable to share the legacy and dignity of having a name and not a designation. You cannot even have a grave that way. Without a grave in our old customs, you can never rest peacefully." Janel said. "We had to remember our lineage through those designations, but you never know when you are among family. You never know if you are a clone. That uncertainty is why billions of us have worked for hundreds of years," Janel continued.