{"id":4860,"date":"2013-02-22T06:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T11:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=4860"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:41","slug":"new-eden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/new-eden\/","title":{"rendered":"New Eden"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Eden\"
Image via Potters Hand Apostolic Mission<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I burst through the door, waving a pair of transport tickets, \u201cI got them Jilli, I got them!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jillian sat at the table reading, a cup of tea at her elbow. She looked at me quizzically, then her shoulders drooped. It was not the reaction I expected. \u201cOh, Nickoli, you didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, yes I did!\u00a0 It took every credit I had \u2013 and some pleading \u2013 but we have tickets to New Eden.\u00a0 The transport leaves Thursday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNikki, I really didn\u2019t think you were serious about that.\u00a0 Just another of your crazy dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

That hurt.\u00a0 She saw it too.\u00a0 She got up out of her chair and came around the table to put a hand on each shoulder. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Nikki, that didn\u2019t come out right. It\u2019s just that you have so many dreams, and so many of them are just\u2026impractical.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exuberance I\u2019d felt just moments before drained away leaving me feeling like an empty sink. \u201cJust because I want\u2026something better than this?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Nikki, we are already so much better off than most! Why can\u2019t you see that?\u201d<\/p>\n

I looked around our apartment: a 10 foot by 20 foot common room with a kitchenette at one end, a table and 4 chairs, a sofa facing a wall-mounted vid-screen mounted to the opposite wall.\u00a0 One long wall had a single entry door joining the common room to the hallway.\u00a0 Each end wall had a door leading to 10 x 10 bedrooms, two more bedrooms off the other long wall.\u00a0 In the far corner an angled door giving access to the common storage room and in the near corner was the bathroom: a compact, efficient living space, 20 feet by 40 feet that housed four unrelated adults.\u00a0 One of several hundred just like it in our building.<\/p>\n

\u201cNikki, we each have our own bedroom, the lower classes have as many as four to each room, remember?\u00a0 We started out there!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember.\u201d I whispered, \u201cI remember working very hard to excel so I would qualify for something better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd here you are.\u201d She gazed gently into my eyes, \u201cAnd if you keep working hard, you\u2019ll be promoted again.\u00a0 Maybe one day, if we both work very hard we\u2019ll be able to have an apartment for just us. Who knows; maybe even a window.\u201d She smiled.<\/p>\n

\u201cA window? To look out at what? Jillian the city is filthy and ugly. The sky is brown. I\u2019m glad I can\u2019t see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the world used to be so much nicer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe, a very long time ago.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the way it is any more.\u00a0 And it never will be again, you need to accept that.\u00a0 Put away those picture books: they\u2019ll get you in trouble, and learn to live in the here and now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Eden has plenty of open space.\u201d<\/p>\n

She rolled her eyes, \u201cOh, yes, I\u2019m sure.\u00a0 They\u2019ve just discovered it.\u00a0 There can\u2019t be more than a few thousand colonists on the whole planet.\u00a0 But life is so HARD there!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the most Earth-like planet they\u2019ve discovered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEarth-like?!\u201d Her face flushed, \u201cThe only part of this planet that that planet resembles is Antarctica!\u00a0 New Eden is a ball of ice!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a breathable atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, just barely, but it\u2019s so cold if you walk outside the colony dome without an envirosuit you\u2019ll freeze solid in minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now;\u201d I admitted, \u201cthey\u2019re working on that. It\u2019s got air and water.\u201d She opened her mouth, I held up my hand, \u201cFrozen water, but it is water.\u00a0 And it has open spaces, Jillian!\u00a0 Clear, clean skies, fresh air.\u00a0 Can you imagine looking up at night and being able to see the stars?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Nikki, I love you.\u00a0 The dreamer in you has been part of what I love, but this\u2026Nikki, you\u2019re throwing away everything you\u2019ve worked so hard to get, and for what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor freedom, Jill, for a chance at being really free.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFreedom? Nikki, the same government that runs this planet runs that one. Everyone lives inside a communal dome.\u00a0 Do you think life is so very much different there than it is here? It is not!\u00a0 Except you can see the stars \u2013 IF \u2013 there are any windows.\u201d<\/p>\n

We stood, staring at one another for several moments.\u00a0 Her eyes were wide and moist, pleading with me to give up my quest.\u00a0 My eyes were wet too, I loved Jillian, but I hated living like a rat in a box.\u00a0 It\u2019s true I had never known any other way, and my life was better than it had been when I first joined the workforce at age 14; a mere laborer.\u00a0 But I knew it could be better.\u00a0 I knew how it had been once, my books told me about a life long ago.\u00a0 Before unification.\u00a0 Before social reform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going, Jillian.” I whispered, “Will you come with me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Her eyes overflowed, tears streamed down her cheeks, \u201cI can\u2019t.\u00a0 I\u2019m scared Nikki, I just can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

I beat the tickets I still clutched against my leg a few times, clamped my lips together as I nodded slowly then walked into my room and closed the door.\u00a0 I needed to pack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I burst through the door, waving a pair of transport tickets, “I got them Jilli, I got them!” Jillian sat at the table reading, a cup of tea at her elbow. She looked at me quizzically, then her shoulders drooped. It was not the reaction I expected. “Oh, Nickoli, you didn’t.” “Yes, yes I did!  … Continue reading “New Eden”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[84,13],"class_list":["post-4860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative","tag-samples","tag-scifi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21563,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4860\/revisions\/21563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}