Never Again Read online

  Dave’s fatigue overwhelmed any anxiety he’d been feeling. As he waved to the crew, he let out a yawn. He turned to grab a quick shower and go back to his warm bed, knowing that he’d have to have a long talk with his friend about heading back to Earth.

  ###

  As Dave snuck back into bed, Bella squirmed, wrapping the sheets around her and snuggling next to him for warmth. Looking down at her pale face, full lips and vivid red hair, she was the answer to any man’s dreams—but she was fragile, and some had called her mentally unstable. He knew her for what she was: a genius with intelligence that in some ways went beyond his comprehension. The irony of it all was that he’d met her in the Walter Reed Inpatient Psychiatry Ward. It had been a rough time for them both.

  With the tips of his fingers, Dave gently stroked Bella’s cheek as she slept. Even though he’d first met her just over four years ago, it seemed like only yesterday.

  ###

  Everyone believed that, as the head of the ISF, he’d managed to squander trillions of dollars, but Dave had known what he was doing. He’d kept his projects under wraps until he had no other choice but to reveal them. Dave hadn’t believed that anyone would be able to comprehend the gravity of the situation the world faced, yet their only chance would be if he acted preemptively. He couldn’t prove what he’d known, at least not then.

  When he was finally forced to tell the stuffed shirts in Washington what he was doing and why, they’d freaked out. He couldn’t be sure whether they didn’t believe him or didn’t want to believe him. Either way, they weren’t going to let him continue, regardless of the stakes. Dave had decided to stop repeating himself at some point during the day and night interrogations; it was as if they were deaf to anything he told them, so he purposefully went mute. He was done with them, and for a few weeks, he didn’t really care what happened to him or the rest of the world. When they’d pressed him harder about the details of what he’d done, and why he’d been in communication with North Korea, all they got out of him was silence. After all, none of them believed him, nor understood, even when he told them the truth about absolutely everything. It was pointless talking to any of the government imbeciles anymore, and based on some of their questions—asking if he’d somehow faked all of his prior accomplishments—it was obvious to him that some of them even harbored racist beliefs.

  What? A black kid who grew up in foster care couldn’t possibly be smarter than they were? Despite his humanist upbringing, Dave had moments when he truly wanted some of these people to suffer an agonizing fate.

  After weeks of interrogations, in which Dave had failed to utter a single word, they decided to commit him to a government-controlled psychiatric facility. That was how he ended up at Walter Reed, a place normally reserved for active-duty military or members of their families.

  There he’d first spied Bella, sitting in the corner of the activity center. It was a thirty-by-fifty-foot room, painted a sickly yellow with a variety of chairs, activity tables for playing games, and a lot of open floor space. It had a single door that was monitored by a bored-looking guard, but people were free to wander in and out during the day.

  Bella kept to herself, a beautiful woman in her early twenties, yet nobody gave her a second glance. Most of the patients in the ward were silent and kept to themselves, but some wandered into the room to play cards or talk to each other.

  But Dave wasn’t interested in socializing. He ignored everyone as he sat in the corner and tried to lose himself in his nightmarish thoughts of what was coming. However, something about the woman on the other side of the room intrigued him.

  At first, he’d occasionally glance at her, but eventually, he found himself staring, drinking in her every detail. Gone were his nagging worries of the impending apocalypse. His mind was lost in her bright-green eyes, red hair, and pale porcelain-like complexion—she was breathtaking. However, Dave noticed one strange thing: she held tightly to a dog-eared book that never seemed to leave her side.

  Day after day, she’d carry the same book. Even though he’d never seen her open it, she clutched it tightly.

  On the third day of his hospitalization, a nurse walked into the activity room to deliver some medication to one of the patients. As she handed the patient his medicine, Dave heard the clear, almost bell-like sound of the red-head’s voice.

  “Thirty-three thirty.”

  The nurse looked to her right, met the redhead’s gaze, who was motioning at her mouth, and smiled. “Yes, Jane, it’s almost time for food.”

  Dave blinked in astonishment. One patient sitting near him made a dismissive noise and chuckled under his breath. “Pfft. That crazy girl speaks in numbers? I wonder what sixty-nine means in her language.” Some of the people within earshot laughed.

  Dave stood, not wanting to be anywhere near the others but also not wanting to return to his room, which held only a hospital bed and a chair. He scanned the room, looking for a place to be alone. Finding none, he glanced at the redheaded woman, and before he even realized what he was doing, he found himself strolling toward her.

  As he approached, she frowned and glared at him. He sat next to her. She said, “Nine two-hundred-fifteen four eight.”

  Dave stared at her, uncertain what in the world that could mean. He glanced at the book she was holding, but she clutched it tighter to her chest, stood, and left the room with a huff.

  ###

  It took him a few days to solve the puzzle, but the key ended up being her book. She was carrying a dog-eared copy of The Hobbit, which he’d also managed to acquire a copy of from the hospital’s sparse library.

  Dave read it cover-to-cover and realized that the code he was trying to crack was deviously simple, yet profoundly difficult. It required memorization of every word of the book, along with each word’s position on the page.

  Luckily, Dave had an eidetic, near-perfect memory, so when he recalled what the red-haired girl had said to the nurse, “thirty-three thirty,” his mind alighted on the word “food,” the thirtieth word on page thirty-three.

  When she’d said, “Nine two-hundred-fifteen four eight” as he sat down next to her, she was clearly telling him, “Stay away.”

  A smile crossed his lips as he left his room, armed with the key to the girl’s speech. The nurse manning the nurse’s station glanced in his direction, but didn’t stop him or bother to ask him anything. After all, he was the “genius who’d lost his mind and gone mute.”

  He studied the patients’ names written on the whiteboards at the entrance to each room, and finally found “Jane Doe” scribbled on one of the rooms.

  Dave lightly knocked on the door, even though it was ajar. He wasn’t certain if she was in the room. He heard a flush, and moments later, the red-haired beauty stepped from her bathroom wearing a white, shapeless cotton sleeping gown. Her bright-green eyes flashed a warning as she growled, “Twelve one-hundred-sixty-nine!”

  Leave!

  He shook his head and tried to give her his most endearing smile. “Two one-hundred-ninety-four four one-hundred-ninety-eight eighteen one-hundred-fifty-one?”

  Can we talk?

  She blinked at him, her mouth hanging open.

  Dave continued speaking haltingly in the numbered phrases, as he searched for the appropriate words and their locations. “I think you’re special.”

  Her stunned expression melted away as the first hint of a smile crossed her lips. She motioned for Dave to sit.

  For the first time since Dave had been in middle school, warmth crept up his neck, and he fought against the shyness that had plagued him as a child. She hopped up onto her bed, sat cross-legged and happily began spewing what seemed like an endless stream of numbers.

  ###

  Now, Dave pulled his gaze away from Bella and surveyed their simple lodging. The relatively comfortable quarters were fifteen-by-ten-feet long and consisted of a bed, a small desk, and a set of drawers for their clothes. Everything else at the Moon
colony was communal. It was a simple life, but one he hoped to perpetuate for as long as he could.

  He shivered as the air vent in the ceiling clicked, sending a breath of the temperature-controlled air stirring through the room. They kept the air in Moon Base Crockett a few degrees lower than Dave would have liked, but he understood the rationale, and in fact it was on Bella’s suggestion that he’d convinced the facility’s managers to lower the temperature to sixty-five throughout the colony. The less energy it took to maintain life support, the more energy they could store in the core of the previously lifeless Moon.

  With Bella’s left leg flung across his waist, Dave settled back into the comfort of his bed and sighed contentedly. The warmth of her body against his was something he’d never imagined for himself when he was younger. He’d always imagined himself alone, with others intimidated by him. But Bella was anything but scared of him. She didn’t see him as a freak, or some unfathomable intellectual deity. In fact, Dave felt awed by Bella in almost every way. Sure, she was unusual, but he’d grown up being told how unusual he was, too, so to him, Bella was a beautiful enigma. An enigma that he simply accepted without feeling compelled to unravel.

  Bella’s entire life was cloaked in mystery. She had no memories before the hospital’s psych ward, and even her identity and language had become lost in some dark recess of her mind. Not having an identity, she’d assigned herself a new one. The only named female in the book she’d been carrying as a lifeline to her lost humanity was Belladonna Took, so that was the name she’d assigned herself. Dave smiled and kissed Bella’s forehead as she slept. “I’m glad you didn’t name yourself Gloin.”

  ###

  Dave glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand and closed his eyes. He had another two hours before he needed to get back to work.

  He’d made a network of allies within Moon Base Crockett, people he’d trusted from the ISF and a few others. There was so much to do and so little time to do it.

  Lying in bed, the dread fingers of guilt clamped around Dave’s chest, making breathing difficult. He knew there was no choice if he wanted to save the lives on the Moon base. Years ago, when he thought he’d still be able to save the planet, Dave had spent a huge fortune stashing away the supplies he knew they’d need back on Earth. However, now that saving Earth wasn’t possible anymore, Dave needed those supplies if he was going to do anything about saving the Moon.

  As Dave closed his eyes, he silently prayed for the billions who would be torn apart, and wished that things could somehow have been different.

  Chapter Eight

  Having already dressed, Bella glanced at the mirror and nodded approvingly. Always dressing for comfort, she’d worn the baggy grey-pants-and-shirt combination that attracted the least attention from others. She hated it when people stared at her; it made her feel less like a real person and more like a freak.

  She turned her attention to Dave as he dressed for work, and even though the room was dimly lit, she noticed his muscles flexing beneath his chocolate-colored skin. He’d had a medium-sized build when she first met him, but unlike most people who waste away in low gravity, Dave had grown larger from all the manual labor.

  The thought of touching people, or worse yet, being touched by others, made Bella’s skin crawl with revulsion. She knew it wasn’t normal, but try as she might, Bella had never grown comfortable in the presence of others until she met Dave.

  Having been with him for so long had awakened a comfort she couldn’t have imagined with another human being. With a smile, she walked toward him and trailed her fingertips across his naked back. Even though Bella felt like a bit of a freak, she could touch Dave and feel what it was like to be normal.

  Most of her past life was shrouded in the unknown; she couldn’t remember anything before waking up at the hospital over four years ago. When she’d met Dave, everything changed; it wasn’t just having to relearn how to speak so that others could understand her. Through him, regaining a glimmer of her lost humanity seemed possible. Yet Bella still knew that there was something inherently different about her.

  Touching Dave made something inside her feel good. It felt right. And yet making physical contact with other people was a nausea-inducing struggle for her. Bella felt guilty at times. She knew that people looked at her with concern when she backed away from them. Even the idea of brushing past people made her shiver with disgust, but touching Dave sent a tingle of emotions through her that she couldn’t properly explain. It was like how she reacted when she heard beautiful music. It excited her.

  Being with Dave helped her relate to the world around her, and she couldn’t bear to let that connection go. She’d tried to distance herself from him in the past, but she couldn’t do it. Even though Bella knew that she was very different from everyone else, it didn’t matter as long as Dave was around. She needed him, and sometimes, she could help him do things that he couldn’t figure out on his own. It was a good match.

  Dave turned to her as he buttoned his shirt and smiled. “Are you ready?”

  Bella reached toward him, ran her fingers along the backs of his arms, and felt a pang of apprehension as she asked, “Is today the day?”

  With a wink, he wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her on the cheek. “It’ll be okay, trust me.”

  As Dave escorted her from their room, she tightened her grip on his large, calloused hand. Bella had always trusted him, and over time, she’d learned the words that she knew had a magical effect on him. Those words that set him at ease and made him feel better. She leaned her head against his shoulder and whispered, “I love you.”

  ###

  The cacophony coming from the cafeteria made it hard for Bella to concentrate. She sat next to Dave on one of the empty bench seats, and across from them was Jeff Hostetler, the gray-haired chief of operations for the Moon colonies. Dave leaned forward and whispered to his former ISF employee.

  “Jeff, I know we’re behind schedule on the drilling, but it won’t do us any good unless we retrieve more spools of graphene. They’re not just for the elevators. Without more graphene for the thermal conductors, we’ll be digging for no reason whatsoever.”

  Jeff, a fifty-something-year-old former Section Chief of the ISF, had a worried expression etched on his weathered face. “I just don’t understand why you have to be the one that goes. All the government folks are excited about the minerals we’re uncovering here, and I can explain away the space elevators that you’ve installed. But some of the rest ... I’m really on a limb here. I can’t explain half of what we’re doing here with the thermal storage, and I know that I’m totally over my head. I trust you, but I have people I need to answer to. I really need you here to help me guide that part of the operations, because if something goes nuts, I won’t have a fucking clue what to do. Why can’t someone else go?”

  Bella studied the older man, who looked somewhat panicked, and wondered what it would be like to be so afraid. Watching Dave’s facial expression, she sensed his growing sympathy for Hostetler. For a long time, she’d tried to understand some of the different emotions that Dave felt, but it just seemed as if she wasn’t made to feel the same things. For her, people either excited her, like Dave did, or they felt somewhat like an anchor, almost as if they drained energy from her. She’d tried to understand others, but that wasn’t something she’d yet mastered.

  “Jeff, I have to be the one going because the place where I’ve stashed this stuff has a biometric lock keyed to me and me alone.” Dave smiled and motioned Jeff closer, so their faces were less than a foot apart. “Listen, this whole operation is really simple. We’ve got hundreds of square miles of photovoltaic film, spread across this side of the Moon, gathering energy for us. As you know, it’s hundreds of times what the base needs for operations, and the excess is being stored as thermal energy within the core of the Moon.”

  “Dave, I’m not an idiot, I understand all that. Heck, I even understand that we’ve already go
t hundreds of banks of batteries with enough energy stored for years of operations. We’ve even placed them evenly along the circumference of the Moon, like you’d asked. What I really don’t understand is what you’re planning on doing with even more of that graphene ribbon. Why do we need so much energy? From what I can figure, we’ve dumped the equivalent of nearly a thousand years’ worth of the Moon base’s energy requirements into the center of this big rock. I don’t understand why we need to continue doing that, and even if we do need it, how in the world are we going to be able to use it, and for what? Is this some plan you’ve got buried in your head for somehow terraforming the Moon? Eventually, I’ll need to give answers that make sense to the bean counters when they ask.”

  “Trust me, there’s a big plan for it all, but I can’t share it quite yet.” Dave pointed at Jeff’s mug of lukewarm coffee. He tilted his head toward the box-like thermal tuner, located at the end of their table. “Jeff, humor me and warm your coffee to 180 degrees.”

  Remembering one of Dave’s lessons from when they’d first arrived on the Moon colony, Bella smiled. She knew what Dave was about to show Jeff.

  Without any memories prior to waking up in the hospital, Bella couldn’t recall ever having gone to school, but that hadn’t stopped her from learning. Dave had taken the time to explain basic things to her, which had at first baffled her. But he only ever had to explain it once. She vividly remembered sitting at this table nearly four years earlier when Dave explained the internal workings of a magnetron, microwaves, ambient energy motors, and their purpose on the Moon.

  Bella had assumed that everyone learned things the way she did. She remembered every second since the moment she woke in the hospital. Every word she’d ever heard spoken, Bella could repeat verbatim. It had been a shock to her when she realized that most people couldn’t.

  Dave motioned once again toward the metal device sitting on the end of the table.