When it comes to having babies?
Oh my God. Had I really just said that out loud?
“Please don’t tell me you’re thinking about getting married and having babies any time soon.” Marsha groaned. “You’re way too young and way too smart for that. At least wait until you’re in your late thirties. Girls can wait, nowadays, you know. There’s been so much advancement on that front.”
“I know.” I nodded. “I’m…going to wait for as long as I can.”
“Good.” Marsha beamed over at me. “Because pregnant women can’t go anywhere near Sector C.”
“Sector C?”
“Oh, you’re going to love it!” Marsha excitedly clapped before a frown came over her expression. “Wait. Did Lonnie already have you sign an NDA?”
“Yes,” I hastily answered. “It was part of the paperwork they made me fill out before I was able to create a biometrics account.”
“Okay. Phew.” Marsha chuckled again. “Anyway, Sector C is part of our New Worlds Project.”
“New Worlds Project?”
Marsha then leaned toward me, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Aliens.”
“Fuck.” I couldn’t stop the word from slipping past my lips. “I mean, um, that sounds—”
“No, you had it right the first time.” Marsha grinned. “Fuck is always the appropriate response to hearing about aliens, I think.”
“Do you mean like, little green guys? Or…?” I was trying my best to pretend like I was excited and not horrified, visions of a violent alien uprising already sliding through my brain. “Is this…when did we start communicating with aliens?”
“Who said anything about communication?” Marsha playfully winked. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be at that stage any time soon. But we have reason to believe that we’ve located a planet that might have life on it, just a few galaxies over.”
“And is NASA in the process of manning a mission to it?”
“Darling, we haven’t even been able to have a manned mission to Mars yet.” Marsha chuckled. “I think an alien planet a few galaxies over might be a bit of a stretch for us.”
“So, what’s the purpose of the New Worlds Project, then? Just to observe?”
“Just to observe,” Marsha repeated, with a shrug. “Unless the guys in Sector C have figured out a way to travel faster than the speed of light, I think the nature of our relationship with the planet is going to be more like a child staring out a very small window. We’re fascinated, but we have no idea how to open the pane.”
“I just…” I was stunned by Marsha’s casual response to the existence of aliens, the way she spoke about it like it was just another day at the office. “Um…I don’t really know what else to say.”
“Oh, you don’t have to say anything else.” Marsha waved a hand before she picked up a beige folder that’d been sitting on the conference desk. She then handed the folder to me before she spoke. “In fact, you talking right now would only jam up the works. I am going to need you to take this over to Sector C, though. Pronto.”
“I don’t…” I took the folder into my hands, my fingers shaking along its side. “I don’t think I know how to get there—”
“Then this is going to be a lovely opportunity for you to learn how the black maps work.” Marsha grinned. “Figure out how to access the maps with your card, and you figure out how to build Rome in a day.”
Marsha then motioned for me to leave the conference room, her attention already moving onto something else as she pulled a large laptop into her grip. “I’ll see you when you get back, Rachel. And think about what you want for lunch, too. Don’t worry about the price; all of it’s going on the company card anyway.”
ERROR – CARD SWIPED INCORRECTLY – PERMISSION NOT GRANTED
ERROR – CARD SWIPED INCORRECTLY – IDENTITY UNVERIFIED
ERROR – CARD SWIPED INCORRECTLY – UNABLE TO PROCESS DIRECTORY REQUEST
“Fuck!” I quietly cursed as I stood outside of one of black boxes on the wall. I’d been trying to scan my card for what felt like the past thirty minutes, growing more and more frustrated by the second. I was way too embarrassed to call up the secretary’s desk, not wanting her to hate me even more than she already did or didn’t, and I was way too lost to turn back toward Conference Room B, having walked down what seemed like ten billion different hallways.
“Fuck me,” I cursed again as I brought my access card back up toward the wall for yet another attempt.
ACCESS GRANTED – MAP BELOW – DIRECTORY GUIDE? Y? N?
“Yes! Fuck!” I had to stop myself from doing an excited jig as I brought my finger up toward the screen. I quickly clicked on Y, then I waited for the map of the building to populate.
And almost as soon as I saw Sector C on the map, I hurriedly bounded in that direction, the beige folder still held tightly in my grip. I was overjoyed at the possibility that I wasn’t going to immediately fuck up the first day of my internship and that Marsha was going to be able to retain her high opinion of me after all.
Marsha.
A smile came to my face as I thought about the kindness of my supervisor. Even though we didn’t know each other that well, it was like I was able to sense a kinship between us, the kind of bond that was going to last for several years after I graduated at the top of my class. Maybe even one day I’d be able to work on a project for NASA, officially, side by side with Marsha.
Maybe we’d even be the ones to figure out how to open the window to another world.
As I happily daydreamed about winning a Nobel Prize, I absentmindedly swiped my card at the sensor. And, completely unlike the black box on the wall, the door cooperated within seconds, granting me access before I’d even fully realized it.
But as I stepped into the room, I noticed that it was empty, without a trace of a single soul, not even the remnants of a bagel and coffee breakfast.
“…Hello?” I asked the empty room as I looked for a place to set down the file folder. “I was just…”
My words trailed off, but before I was able to gather my thoughts, the door to the room loudly slid shut behind me. And as my eyes met with the back of the door, I felt a surge of fear course through my veins, my gaze quickly reading a sign on the wall..
SECTOR D.
I was in the wrong room. Sector C and Sector D had been so close together on the map, though, that I was sure Marsha was going to laugh off my mistake once I got back to the conference room. I took a moment to laugh at my mistake, too, knowing that I’d only gotten the sectors mixed up because I’d been so preoccupied with the future of my career, basking in the potential brightness that laid ahead of me.
Because for the first time in a long time, things felt like they weren’t going to be so fucked up.
I brought my access card back up toward the door, waiting for the scanner to recognize it, waiting for the door to slide back open and let me back out into the hall.
But there was no response from the scanner.
I tried it a few more times, growing more frantic with each attempt, something about the air in the room beginning to feel too thick and too wrong. And when the scanner continued to ignore my access card, I started to bang against the heavy, silver door, a desperation creeping into my veins that hadn’t been there before.