"You know, when I sat on the bench in the park close to our neighbourhood, three men in back sat next to me. They didn't say anything, just looked in front of them. I immediately knew that something was going to happen, they seemed as if they felt guilty in advance for something that they didn't do. It was about three in the afternoon. After that I found myself in this cursed dome. I've been here for two months, but I don't know why. I'm a repairer of home appliances. I have no idea what their reason could have been."
In the evening whilst watching another documentary about nature, another old man who sat and constantly drew some schemes on paper started to talk.
"What are these maps that you are drawing?" asked Henrik.
The elderly man dropped the pen and started to talk again in a monotone voice.
"They are not maps. They're integrated circuits. My whole life I've been in one job and I know these circuits by heart. If it was necessary I could take apart and then bring together whatever instrument at work or at home. Completely by heart. I don't need instructions or directions. Everything is in my head. 45 years of experience does its thing to a man.
Suddenly a woman's voice could be heard from the big screen:
"The section on extinct species of our planet."
The next ten minutes were given to the documentary on extinct species. Brown bear, moose, chamois, apes of all kind… the polar bear disappeared from earth's surface because it completely transformed into a sea creature.
It lives in the sea and only rarely can be seen, for example when it hunts fishes under the surface of the ice or when it emerges from the water. A long time ago it was a specie walking on earth and today it's a fish, big and fierce that can rarely be seen. It avoids places where people hunt or to be more precise this creature knows humans and their cruelty and that's why it shies away into the darkest waters.
The biggest problem of today are rats, that have spread so much that in some parts of the cities people have had to move out. These rats are resistant to almost anything and that which should eliminate them only makes them more resilient. But here on Barent's Island there's nothing. There are no rats, no birds and no animals. They seem to not like the hostility and this place offers exactly the place for the type of structure which was built here. It's truly a country of nothing. Henrik was looking out of the window with a bored expression when he saw a flare on the shore which meant an unloading of food and supplies. Every day is the same her, it seems as if man always lived in the same, one day.
The only thing that changes are the people but even they are difficult to discern because everyone is in the same bodysuit. Maybe there is also a purpose in everything being complex so people wouldn't ask for specific names and reasons. If you happen to talk to someone, tomorrow you won't even notice them because you wouldn't recognise them in this ant hill. It's a great event that the centre allowed these walks. No one would have expected it. There are some changes happening, maybe because the very governing body of the centre was bored of this system. The only thing that matters is if the governing body is an automat or a person. No one knows that. Maybe one day "he" will introduce himself in all his magnificence.
Thea just came to the screen and she was obviously disgusted. This expression could often be seen on her face. The screen was showing a fourth documentary. This time it was about earthquakes and erosions that happened between 2090-2112. It was then that the appearance of the planet and the position of the continents changed. Some parts of the earth disappeared under water and some completely new parts appeared. There were lots of islands.
Therefore the most frequent means of travel is on water, in magnetic vehicles that are directed from point A where they were sent from. Vehicles are no longer directed by people. They are directed by their own system and those that serve the public are directed from the point where they are sent from. Since traffic isn't controlled by man, the human factor has been avoided and accidents have been prevented. The professions of drivers, pilots and captains stopped over a hundred years ago.
Now we only find out about these things from history.
Thea looked at the mass of people in the distance. She thought about something and after a while she turned to Henrik.
"Look, people from various parts of the world come here each day into this centre. They have only one thing in common, like we. They don't know how they got here. And anyway, how many of them are Norwegians? Is it really just us two? What is it then, is it the self-discipline or are we just not considered as opponents of the whole world regime?"
"You always analyse the essence that will never be shown or explained to us. I have a single wish, to return home. I don't care who plans what for a hundred years in advance, I have absolutely no interest."
Thea took a blank piece of paper and gazed at the people again.
But after a while she changed her mind and pushed the paper away.
"You're probably right, it's all a stupidity and what are we actually even doing here?! If they left us at home we would be boring and living exemplary like up till now. This whole existence in this centre is, according to me, just a waste of time and a burden of the whole system. I'm sick of it and I feel absolutely useless and I'm bored of this inactivity. Therefore I sometimes teach Eureka to these people who came from the opposite side of the globe. Otherwise I would probably go crazy. I want to go home, every day I ask the centre questions, but nobody answers. They only answer the questions that the centre has a pre-recorded answer to. It's terrible I can't stand it anymore."
In the meantime in Oslo the agents got into Henrik's house in Ekeberg. They sat at the table in the living room and threw some robotic toys onto the floor. They scrambled away like spiders in all directions and let out some electronic noises. One of the agents had a paper placed in front of him and wrote some information down on it. The others bore a numb expression on their faces and didn't do anything at all. After a while the door opened and a young woman entered. She was tall, with a slender figure, her hair combined with a silver band and she was dressed in a red bodysuit.
She quietly observed the situation in the house. The small electronic robots looked through all parts of the apartment and nothing could be heard except for the buzzing of their movement.
"So what do we have here?" she asked out of nowhere and intently gazed out of the window. The agent that finished writing the paper got up and handed it to the woman. She folded it and placed it in a small hand bag. The agents stood up without a single word and slowly excited the house. The woman in the red bodysuit had no such intention. She sat at the table and thought for a while.
The door opened and six strangers entered Henrik's house. They were three elderly men in black suits and 3 young boys in dark blue bodysuits, the same that are worn by the workers on Barent's Island.
"We currently have three options," said one of the elderly men.
"We can seal the house and transfer it to another name within a week. Everything that's here will be "cleaned" and checked by the main centre here in Oslo. We'll keep him in the centre for as long as necessary. If he starts to be a problem, which we have to suppose, then we'll go to plan B."
The woman began to get nervous and obviously didn't agree with this plan B.
"What does plan B look like?"
She nervously played with her hair and looked at the small robots, how they chased one after another in the whole house.
"Plan B is very simple, we'll erase everything in his memory that was there till now. We'll block everything in his head which lets him into these dimensions and thus we'll erase his past. No one will notice anything. We'll follow precise orders from the centre and won't try any alternatives."