You're Next, Ms. Tesala (submitted 7/31/20)

There was no escape from the sterile examination room. Melonia's palms began to sweat, and her respiration elevated as she began to hyperventilate. She acknowledged it was almost senseless to try to escape. Her eyes followed the thin line around the two doors next to each other. The door on the left lead to the Moon Project and the other to an unknown secret laboratory. She encountered no handles or buttons to open the locks of the air pressure doors. The entry door that captured an image of her iris remained locked. The steel cold table under her gown did little to stop the jitters of the moment. The large black wall unit, M34, next to the examination table registered and recorded her life force. She never felt more alone than that very minute the door swished closed behind her.

To keep herself from panicking and passing out, she started talking to herself. "Melania, get yourself under control! Think about what grandpa taught you. You must visualize yourself beyond the here and now. Think of who you are, your bloodline, and your capacity as an individual. You have the God-given power to choose your attitude. You must trust your mother's instructions."

When Ms. Melania Tesala first came here, she was only eleven, one of the youngest engineers who assisted in designing this facility. Now she sat trapped in a device of her own making, so she thought.

Dome Patrol found her at my parent's home on their farmland grant operation, just a few miles into the greenline area. Earlier that day, she woke from her slumber to the humming of the hovercraft that came to pick her up.

"This is the Dome Patrol. You're Next, Ms. Tesala, on our list to retrieve. We will give you exactly five minutes to comply before we come in to get you." The craft loudspeaker boomed across the front of their home.

The thatch roof of her parent's log cabin rattled at the force of the hovercraft.

"I am on my way," she said into her radio band on her right wrist.

Her mother, father, and sister stayed in the house and waved goodbye from the front window. Her family pretended that she was there on just another regular approved visit from the High Command Center where she was employed as an engineer. Being an engineer, she built a duplicate pass generator, which she used to make her travel chip pass for the visit. If she had been caught, she would have been accused of treason. However, Madam Estrella E5, her mentor, had taught her well. There would be a limited risk of being caught, so she did not bother to agonize about being discovered.

At the age of eleven, she volunteered to go work in the Dome, but Melania's heart was not in her decision. Although she loved engineering, she longed to stay on the farm. 

Melania knew this moment was coming, she was a ward of the state, but she could do nothing to prevent it. The doctors were about to start the evaluation testing. She wanted to flee and jump out of the window. However, the gravity in the examination chamber kept her fixed to the steel cold table. She wondered if it was because of the life chips that were inserted into her spine at birth, a procedure that came into the Dome Constitution in the year 2060. It was a demand by the state that could not be refused by parents even though they were not part of the Dome chosen bioengineered population. 

Her family's heritage was linked to the original bloodline of the earth people that had survived the pandemic of 2020. Perhaps it may have been because they were part of the Agrarian society. Her mother's people were keepers of the land from a long Hispanic culture dating back to the early Californios of the 1850s. Her family came from a small group that populated the west coast that somehow resisted the COVID 19 pandemic. They were people of the earth who lived in the sunlight and who survived on a plant-based diet.

*****

The Moon Station #2080 selection process to repopulate the new colony included my family's bloodline. She heard rumors that her family was selected because it was part of the Secret Tesla experiment of 2030. Her mother's bloodline as well had been part of a selected population that was not affected by the pandemic. 

The identity of her birth mother and her whereabouts faded into oblivion over the years. The issue of her identity laid heavy on Melania's mind.

Melania had to volunteer, she was the obvious candidate, that met all the qualifications. Her sister, Tania, was too young and inexperienced. Even though she was a clone, she was still her younger sister. As the eldest, she had to protect Tania. Maralious, her brother, he was on an assignment on Mars and could not return in time for the moon launch.

Back in 2025, moon launches were only approved only every five years to protect the earth's atmosphere. 

Global warming and the pandemic of 2020 nearly destroyed the planet. 

Melania's family and a few other bloodlines were preserved to repopulate the earth. Her family's bloodline had been traced back to the discovery of bio-frozen tubes of some of the greatest geniuses of the last two centuries. Her parents were both bioengineered from the test tubes that had been discovered. Her father's bloodline came from the Tesla roots and her mother's from Ramona Cervantes, a famous writer on civil rights. The tubes had been discovered under the Smithsonian in its hidden laboratory.

Dr. Maximillion K. Arguin, the world-renowned aeronautics scientist, discovered the laboratory. He unearthed it while he was excavating the land to build the first Bio-Dome station. It was the first of many Bio-domes, which were established across the world by the International Treaty of 2030. 

It was Dr. Arguin's sister, Dr. Maxima Arguin, the first woman president who initiated the International Treaty. 

This treaty is what hastens the establishment of moon stations to protect the populations from both global warming and another deadly pandemic like the one of 2020. 

The pandemic lasted for a decade, which lead to almost fifty percent of the world population perishing. 

Many believed this loss of life was due to the inadequate leadership of many nations across the globe. The leaders ordered the records to be burned, to rid the earth of the deadly disease, as to the exact cause for the loss of life may never be known. 

*****

At fifteen, with an I.Q. of 180, Melania was the youngest Moon station participate. Her father and adoptive mother were both in their early forties and too old to be chosen. She had been expecting the selection for some years. 

As a technical engineer, she had been able to confiscate several documents from the mainframe of the Mother Dome computer. Hacking the Dome's mainframe was her favorite pastime. Her curiosity for knowledge always got the best of her.

Madam Estrella E5 was her mentor. She trained Melania in all areas of modern mathematics, biomechanics, engineering, and science. 

She was the great-grandniece of Einstein, five generations removed. At fifty years old, she had the nimble intelligence and physique of a much younger woman. 

Over five years of working together, they developed a partnership of more than a supervisor and an assistant.

Madam often treated her with indifference, yet, Melania knew she cared by the way she smile at her when she accomplished a difficult task. Madam had dedicated her life to the Society of the Dome with no family of her own.

However, earlier today, that changed. She and Melania had the most revealing conversation.

"Melania, my dear, you are a brilliant girl. You remind me of myself at your age. You are driven by a need to learn and discover, but please don't let that be your only goal in life."

" Madam, thank you. I don't deserve such praise."

 "Look at me! I have nothing else in my life except this job and you."

"I will always be your friend. The work you do is so valuable. You discovered the vaccine that saved so many lives."

" I know dear, but I have no family, but you. What I mean to say is you are from my bloodline."

"What do you mean?" Melania dropped into the chair of her desk, while her legs turned to jelly. 

 "A while back, I came across some documents by accident that had been hidden in the mainframe of the mother computer. I thought someone was reviewing my records. Instead, it was a link to hidden records on me as a young woman. I had been selected to participate in developing the new bloodlines for a master race to colonize the moon."

"You mean you are my real mother?"

"Yes. It seems your father found out about the plan when you were born. However, before he could contact me and let me know about the misconduct of these scientists the records were removed and hidden. So he kidnapped you and took you to live with his family in the Agrarian society."

"What happened to my father? Is he alive?"

"Your real father, a brilliant scientist in his own right, was captured and exiled to prison on Mars. That is why your brother went there. I told him everything before he left."

"Is he your son and my real bother or is he a clone like my sister?

"I don't know, but all the records are in this chip. I will insert it under your skin in the back of your neck. They will think it is the birth chip and not bother with it. You need to trust me. We don't have much time before they take you to the examination room."

"Mother, I love you," said Melania as she took her mother's hands and kissed them.

"I love you too, my dear," she said as she hugged Melania. "Listen carefully. Do you remember the formula 

E=mc² and the game I taught you when you first got here?"

Melania nodded her head in response. 

" I want you to play the game I showed you. It will help you find the answer to the puzzle of the door." With that, her mother put a necklace around her neck and kissed her forehead.

"You mean like grandpa? Mother, I hear someone coming. Will you come with me?"

"I will have to follow you in a few days. There are some things I need to do before I leave. I have some friends who will help me. Trust me."

The door opened Dr. Rinmae walked in and said, "Ms. Melonia, we are ready for you. Please follow me."

Melania rubbed the back of her neck with a clean paper towel to take the sting away for the inserted chip.

" Are you okay, Melania? There is nothing to worry about."

"I'm just a little nervous. I want to do well on the test."

Her mother smiled at her as Melania left the room.

*****

The steel table sat up against the wall furthest from the window. The doctor directed her to sit on the table.

"E=mc²? Sever it over Pi? Lay it on the table at a right angle?" Melania whispers to herself after the doctor leaves.

 Melania laid back in the table in a right angle and pointed to the right corner of the window with her finger, pretending to just stretch out on the table. With her eyes, she followed the line down to the right corner of the window that she had thought about jumping out of a minute ago.

She reached back with her right hand along the wall to measure a twelve-inch pie space on the wall at the end of the table. She taps out the four points of a square on the wall by her head. The window across the room opened. The alarm sounded, and the lights went out. Her chips in her spine are demagnetized.

The five doctors, who were standing just outside the door ran into the room. They looked out the window into the darkness of the night.

"She's escaped!" Dr. Rinmae yelled out the window to the guards below.

"Call for the head of security!" roared Dr. Norian.

 The other three doctors ran out of the room following Dr. Norian.

Melania's wrist band laid on the floor behind the table. Her mother warned her not to take it with her because it was a tracking device. That was how the hovercraft located her earlier that day. 

Dr. Rinmae looked around the room and then walked slowly over to the table. He dropped his pen next to Melania's band, covering both items with his hand. He retrieved them into his pocket. With his hand still in his pocket, a low crushing sound filled the room as he destroyed the band in his pocket and stepped out the door. As he walked down the hall he smiled at the Madam as he passed her office door.

The trick door behind the examination table clicked closed. Melania crawled away and made her way down the secret passage into the tunnel. Using her handmade flashlight in the necklace her mother gave her. She eventually disappeared into the catacombs of the Agrarian society. Her Agrarian family was waiting at the far end of the passage. Together, they escaped into the night beyond the Greenline, into the forbidden territory.