Page 7 of A Million Stars and Shadows

I ran to where I last thought I heard Mom’s voice. But no one was there. I ran to another side of the room. Still no mother.

“Mom!” I yelled. “Why can I hear your voice, but you’re not here!” I was getting anxious. “Mom! I came all this way looking for you. I know you said I should stay put in the shelter, but I was really worried about you when you didn’t come back to the shelter. I’m sorry about that, Mom, but I thought you’d need my help. Mom…”

I thought I saw a shadow around the corner of my eyes.

“Evie,” a voice whispered close to my ear.

“Evie,” another voice whispered.

“Mom?” I called out. “Is that you?”

I turned around and lost my balance, falling onto a table or a desk. I couldn’t tell which one, but as my hand fell against the desk, touching it palm down, the room immediately changed.

Gone were the tiny stars and space scenery.

In front of me was a room lined with bookcases filled with logbooks, maps, and real books. My eyes widened with amazement at the bounty of books in front of me, but one book stood out from the shelf, pushed out further than the others.

I reached out for the book, which was covered in rich red leather. On the cover was a tiny golden lock, engraved with a letter “J”.

“What is this?” I asked.

“Open it,” Mom’s voice said.

“Mom?” I looked around. “Where are you? Why can’t I see you?”

“Your handprint will open it.”

“Of course,” I said. “My DNA is the same as Mom’s. It will open anything Mom can.” I placed my hand on the book, and it flew open, startling me.

“It’s Mom’s diary!” I shouted. “Mom, I found your diary. But where are you?”

“Evie!” Sally’s voice warned from my hat. “There is a movement in this space.”

“I couldn’t see anyone in this room, Sally. Where is the movement?”

“There to the left,” Sally said.

I looked and saw a bit of a shadow but nothing else.

“Was that mom’s voice all this time, Sally? Can you analyze it?”

“No, that was not your mother,” Sally said. “It was her likeness, recorded into the system, programmed to turn on when prompted by the right prompt.”

My heart dropped thinking that all this time, I’ve been talking to a computer when I thought I was talking to my mother. “Somehow, I did think it was a computerized voice. That it was a possibility.” I bit back tears.

“I’m overriding the system to tap into that voice,” Sally said. “It is a bit glitchy, not acting as it should be. An image was supposed to accompany the voice, but it is not working.”

“Evie,” Mom’s voice said. “You’ve made it.”

A shadow appeared near the bookcase where I had found the red journal. Mom’s image. A holographic image, but there was so much depth to it, there were shadows cast as if the image had substance, like a real human being.

“That’s what the shadows and movement were,” I said.

As if to affirm my assumption, Mom’s hologram moved across the room from the bookcase to the desk.

“Movement detected,” Sally said. “Connected to the Voice of Jana Gee, Chief Engineer of the Red Genesis.”

“Mom,” I said.

---