“Hey,” he says, voice gentle. “I know this is a lot, but we should probably do what we came here to do, right?”
Remi deflates a bit, but nods. “You’re right. Professor?”
Professor Silva sighs and gestures to the table nearest the deck screen. We all take up spots around it, leaning on the cold black tabletop, watching the professor expectantly. He seems to wilt before us.
“Okay, yes. What do you need?”
Remi looks to Jaesin, who shifts uncomfortably and shrugs.
“We found out about maz-15. MMC wants us dead. We’d rather not give up our lives to be on the run forever—no offense—and now that we know what caused the spellplague, we’re hoping there’s a way to . . . I dunno, stop it?”
The professor’s gaze alights on Remi, who, now that we’re sitting down, looks near collapse from the exertion of the fight to get here. They let their bag fall to the table, then rummage through it for a moment, coming up with their nebulizer and mask.
“Do you mind?” they ask.
“Not at all,” the professor says gently. “Let me know if you need more vitaz.”
My chest squeezes tight with a suddenly desperate feeling as Remi fits the mask over their nose and mouth, settling in for their nightly treatment, a cocktail of medicines aerosolized with vitaz. We’ll have to take it as easy as possible for the next day or so, let them build some strength back up, unless they want to catch the next cold or flu or whatever other infection happens to wander by. Last time, it meant a month in bed and at the doctor. What would it be this time? And would we be able to find a place to hide out long enough for them to recover?
The words spill out of me before I can control the ragged tone of my voice.
“How do we fix this? How do we keep them from coming after us?”
The professor gives me a pitying look. “My dear, the only way to stop them is to stop the spellplague at its source.”
Ania slumps back against a work table and covers her eyes. When she speaks, her words come out watery and low. “We can’t go back in time and stop the big quake. No maz in the world is strong enough for that.”
At that, Professor Silva looks up sharply. “You have your cause and effect a bit backward there, child. Maybe you know less than you think about these matters.”
“What?” Ania wipes her eyes and scrunches up her forehead in confusion. “That big earthquake ten years ago. It cracked something open underground, released the contaminant. We knew that as soon as it happened.”
“No, no, no, no,” the professor says, picking up a deck interface from the end of the table. “You have it all wrong.”
He settles on a stool and brings up a document on the wall screen. It’s on MMC letterhead.
MEMORANDUM
TO: MMC Executive Board
FROM: MMC Research and Development Division, Lab Nine
CC: R. Wolfram, MMC Chief Operating Officer; M. Hart, MMC Chief Financial Officer
SUBJECT: Summary of Effects of Maz-15 and Recommendations
The research team in R&D Lab Nine, led by Professor Aric Silva, has completed a full analysis of the newly identified fifteenth strain of maz, proposed name kyraz. Complete findings are contained in the attached report. Our primary recommendations are as follows:
• Immediately cease drilling operations at all stations worldwide until new safety guidelines can be established
• Take corrective measures to seal the core breach at Kyrkarta junction station twenty-nine
• Divert additional R&D funding to the development of a cure for the spellplague
We request the opportunity to present our findings to you in person at an emergency meeting of the executive board. We look forward to your swift response.
Regards,
Aric Silva
Kamil Morad
Vi Huang
Darrin Washington
Tamar Kohl
MMC Research & Development Senior Staff
Page 1 of 50
Ania, the fastest reader of us, blows out a hard breath when she finishes.
“Those names . . . they’re all the scientists who were suddenly laid off two years after the plague, who disappeared just like you. They were the ones listed in the back of that dissertation you found, right?” She glances to Remi for confirmation, and they nod.
“You discovered the truth, and they fired you for it,” Remi says, muffled behind the mask. “Didn’t they?”
The professor’s mouth firms into a hard line. “Yes. They didn’t just fire us, though. They tried to have us killed. They did it quietly, once we’d all been forced out of the city. They succeeded with the others. I’m the only one left. Because this is how the spellplague really happened.”
Ania’s hands fly to her mouth. Jaesin turns and walks away, pacing the length of the room with pent-up frustration. Remi just looks sad. Unsurprised. They’ve always hated MMC, so I guess it isn’t much of a stretch for them to believe the worst. That the company would literally commit murder to cover up something that devastated not just our city, but the world. That killed our parents. They tried to have us killed too, after all. What else are they capable of? My whole body goes hot, then cold, shivering.
The professor scrolls through the document until he comes across a cutaway diagram of the planet, the same six-layered image we’ve all seen at school.
“Crust, outer mantle, inner mantle, outer core, inner core, and here.” He traces a finger along the narrowest section, a thin, bright green layer between the outer and inner mantle. “The Maz Sea, where the planet converts heat and pressure energy into the fourteen previously known strains of maz. Twenty years ago or so, before you all were born, a little company called Maz Management Corporation began drilling deeper than anyone ever had, all the way down to the Maz Sea, to create greater flow and access to high levels of the freshest, most potent maz. Their idea was that if the drilling worked, we would be able to build new cities around drilled maz wells, rather than being restricted to constructing settlements around natural maz points like geysers, canyons, the caves here, and so on. It was a decent idea, though some of us were opposed. We were concerned that too many of these human-made wells might result in more maz being used than the planet could produce. It turns out that was the least of our problems.”
My fingernails dig into my thigh as I force myself to breathe, breathe. I can already see where this is going.
“MMC managed to drill deeper and deeper, advancing drilling technology in the process and making good money off of it. When they finally reached the Maz Sea, it was . . . amazing. We knew of its existence through subsurface imaging, but had never interacted with it. It was the most important discovery of the century. I felt honored to be alive for it.”
I glance over at Remi, who has their eyes closed, breathing steadily as the vitaz mist swirls around inside their mask. They said almost the same thing about maz-15. It was a marvel, a fabulous opportunity, a gift to be able to study it. How bitter real life is in comparison—and the professor isn’t even done.
“The maz they harvested was incredibly potent, half again as effective as the stuff that made its way to the surface naturally. After a few months of observation, when it appeared that the planet naturally reestablished an equilibrium by adapting its maz production, the MMC engineers got curious. They wanted to drill even deeper. See what else they could find.”