Chapter 7: Reset
Ellie just sat there, completely paralyzed by the bizarreness of that last statement. A baker's dozen competing thoughts jostled around in her head, but none of them could get their shit together long enough to formulate a coherent question.
Hannah removed the burden. "It's called The Eden Project."
"Pretty," Ellie said stupidly.
"There is a black site in the mountains of Wyoming," Hannah pressed on, taking advantage of Ellie's paralysis. "There are nearly 500 of us living there -- 93 adult recruits and 391 of our children ranging from twenty-three years old to -- well --" Hannah thought for a moment. "I think Bethany was due yesterday. Might have a surprise when I get back. There's a lot of babies these days; like three per month."
Hannah then smiled an earnest smile that caused Ellie to sink defensively into her booth. A somewhat conspiratorial grin. "I would be very happy if you came with me."
Ellie sat for a solid 45 seconds before she said anything. Hannah allowed it, sipping the last of her tepid coffee.
"I..." Ellie coughed a lump out of her throat. Her neck was hot with a distasteful cocktail of fear, grief, disbelief, anger -- too many emotions to identify individually. She could feel pit stains forming under the arms of her dress. "I'm gonna need you to explain a little bit more of this black site to me, because that sounds... weird."
Hannah nodded. "Sure. So I'll be blunt, yes. It's going to sound kind of freaky." She made eye contact with Ellie that said, are you sure you want to hear this? Ellie nodded, so she continued. "The recruits -- the folks who weren't born there, like myself -- come from many different backgrounds, and they contribute to the group according to their own strengths and weaknesses. We all do jobs ranging from construction, farming, livestock care, food prep, resource gathering... As well as things like administration, medicine, engineering, education, conflict resolution, and so on.
"The women who can bear children are asked to do so diligently. We try not to waste a cycle. Because..." Hannah said that word with an insistence designed to tamp down Ellie's expression of dismay, "We are endeavoring to build a colonist Reset Generation with as much genetic diversity as we can before time runs out."
"Reset... Generation..." Ellie repeated, wrapping her tongue around that strange phrase.
"Yeah," said Hannah. "That's the best way to describe it. Yeltsin isn't building rockets to go to Mars. That's the Buck Rogers fantasy that he fed the public. No. He's building ships to migrate this micro-generation to a neighboring star system that has a Goldilocks planet."
"That being...?" said Ellie.
"A planet that orbits in the habitable zone, like Earth." said Hannah. "Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right. Rocky, big enough to hold a thick atmosphere, and ripe for terraforming.
"These incredible kids are going to leave Earth in eleven years." Ellie could hear a prideful excitement in Hannah's voice. " They will have been educated and trained in everything they need to know to survive on an alien planet. They'll farm, they'll build, they'll invent, they'll take care of each other, they'll prioritize what's important. And ideally, they build humanity from the ground up.
"Our job is to prepare the Resets. The recruits don't get to go because a colony like that is only possible if the colonists have all been instilled with certain values and philosophies from day one."
"A mindless devotion to Fat Fyd?" Ellie quipped.
Hannah shot Ellie a look that said, Cute. "No, actually, that's one of the important points. No devotion to any kind of higher power -- real or fictional. The children aren't raised to believe in God. No omniscient holy saviors or human stand-ins for the same. To them, Yeltsin is just a person with a good idea, and he's just as susceptible to failure and weakness as anybody else."
"That's... interesting," said Ellie. She was biased by her distaste toward her own devout upbringing. "Can't say I hate that."
"I thought you might say that," said Hannah.
"Okay what else?" Ellie's curiosity was piqued for the moment.
"Firstly, a celebration of differences -- physical and mental -- and an unquestioned acceptance that someone you may have nothing in common with is still valuable to you and to society. Everybody has their place.
"Secondly, a full rejection of the concept of property." Hannah smiled at Ellie's reaction. "Yes, I guess you could say we're raising little communists. It is very important that we do not export our impulses for greed, exclusion, or possessiveness to this new world, for the sake of the colony's survival. And this, by the way, extends to possession of people."
"Oh good, you don't believe in slavery. I guess I don't have to ask," said Ellie sarcastically.
Hannah snorted. "It's not just that. It extends to traditional family roles." She leaned forward. "This answers one of the first questions you asked, way back at Luann's."
Ellie leaned forward as well, intrigued, despite her best judgment.
"Like I said, I've had children, but my children have dozens of mothers. I care for them all the time -- and so do the other men and women. I'm breastfeeding, but that's available to any child who happens to be hungry -- or..." Hannah paused, bracing for the reaction Ellie was about to have. "Generally anyone who wants it, for that matter."
Ellie's eyes went wide. Jesus. And as she processed the strangeness, she thought, Well that explains the volume.
"And the older Resets lend a hand with the childcare when they're mature enough. But none of us get married or go 'steady' or whatever. We avoid engaging in exclusive familial, sexual or romantic relationships."
"Wait," said Ellie. "So you guys just have sex with whoever whenever?"
"Yes," said Hannah, "Which segues into point three. We reject shame with regards to sex. That piece is key for building genetic diversity. Do whatever you want with whoever you want, mostly whenever you want."
"Ohhh, God..." Ellie put her face in her hands. This hit her like a freight truck, and the food in her stomach turned to concrete. "So I'm basically one of however-many-dozen people you're fucking right now. Great. Amazing."
Hannah grabbed Ellie's wrist and pulled one of her hands into a tight hold. "I'm sorry... I knew that one was going to be difficult for you."
"How many children do you have?" Ellie's voice was shaking.
"I have given birth to six so far, and they are happy and well cared for among hundreds of children who can trust any adult to nurture them."
Ellie pulled her hand away. "Please tell me the adults aren't having sex with the --"
"NO, no no no. GOD no," said Hannah. "We have the same rules as everyone else on that front. The resets and the recruits are on either side of a very strict boundary sexually. We don't do predatory relationships. Rest assured that is not happening."
Ellie remained silent, and not entirely because of disgust. She was distracted, beyond this particular concern, with a hot bubbling jealousy burning her insides.
"Though," Hannah added, "you should understand that we don't keep the older resets from playing and experimenting with each other in private. They have to keep reproducing, obviously. No recruits allowed. But they're raised without shame. Sex might as well be playing soccer, as far as they're concerned."
Ellie barely heard this. She stared at the sticky table. The betrayal was choking her.
"I'm so fucking stupid."
"Please don't speak to yourself that way," said Hannah, compassionately but firmly. "I would never let anyone speak to you like that. And you're not stupid. I kept things from you."
Ellie shot Hannah daggers. "Do you always fuck your recruits before you make them sign their lives away?"
"No," said Hannah. "I don't have sex with everybody I recruit. Chemistry doesn't always work like that. But it did this time. And need I remind you," Hannah pressed, "Look at me."
Ellie's gaze, which had drifted back to the table, returned to Hannah's intent green eyes.
"You can get up right this second, walk out of this restaurant, get in your car, and go home if you want. You're free to never see me again, and you will always have that choice. You have signed nothing away. All that's changed for you is knowing."
And why am I not taking that advice?
"Ellie, it's important to me that you understand that nobody is part of this project under duress. Even the Reset kids are allowed to leave if they want. They know what they're sacrificing if they do, but... yeah. They can leave. And the recruits can leave. And they're well supported if they do."
"It's not that," said Ellie. "Maybe it should be that. But it's not. I don't think."
"Then what's up?"
Ellie was ashamed to admit to herself that this black site, the intricate apocalypse story, the extreme strangeness of all of it -- though this made her feel selfish... Childish-- none of that stuff was nearly as upsetting as the fact that Hannah wasn't...
Hannah wasn't hers.
After everything they had shared.
"...So... " said Ellie, "Weirdness aside... I think logically I knew that this wasn't going to turn into a big romance... I didn't forget that you don't live here, that you have this crazy job that would make you nearly impossible to ... I don't know... have a relationship with, but... I guess knowing that I'm only one of a lot of people?"
Ellie sighed. She had never felt more like a naive virgin in her life.
"I guess I just thought I was as special to you as you were to me."
Hannah looked down at the fragments of her pancake and fidgeted with her knuckles. Ellie had finally said something that gave her pause.
