Mother lost father three years after my birth, an unfortunate event for which I believed she blamed me. His death fueled her desire to outsmart death and eradicate it from the surface of the earth.
She named me Tuma, meaning everlasting or forever. A name probably fabricated to remind her of her loss and her quest to kill death itself. She devoted her life to this cause, expending every resource at her disposal to fund her research. Most of the funds came from the wealth that father left.
With the aid of old friends, she embarked on an expedition around the five continents of the Federation, in search of an element she termed the RZA. It was a supposed element found within DNA samples. She discovered fractions of it within the human DNA but an abundance within the DNA of Redwoods, Oaks and Elephants.
Although her expenditure led to the discovery of lost civilizations, she did not find what she was looking for. Eternal life seemed unattainable. But mother was resilient and stubborn.
"Lost things will remain lost until they are found," a mantra she would chant to the crew whenever they meet a dead end.
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In the ember months of 2150, on a Friday, Mother found something. Something I believed was an unnatural phenomenon. It had been eight years since the expedition had begun. We were close to the end of the eighth year, which meant graduation from homeschool. Mother had declared that once done with homeschooling, I was to be sent to the best private university money could buy. But my thirst for adventure had me making contrary plans.
The ship was at a halt. Southeast, four hundred and fifty kilometers away from the Isles of Zealand, it stood before a barrier. We had faced many roadblocks before but this one took the crown. The natives called it the Anger of Tawhiri, a strange phenomenon that appeared out of the blue two years earlier. It was like a wall of black clouds and lighting, a murus cloud, relentlessly causing havoc in the space between the sky and the sea. Within its confines were miniature mesocyclones. They were terrifying. This though, was not the unnatural phenomenon.
"It's a sign," Captain Hansel said. A man who looked like a cross between a Greek god and a round ball in his appearance, a six foot burly figure with a red beard. Cassandra told me he and father were like brothers when he was alive.
His mouth released fumes like an active volcano after pulling out his cigar. "We need to turn back," he said.
Mother stared at the murus clouds disappointedly. "I suppose you're right, even our toughest drones were destroyed by that thing. I don't think the ship would hold."
He frowned. "Rizzoli can withstand anything, she's a darn strong ship. It's your crew I'm worried about."
"My crew is tougher than this tincan you call a ship Hansel!"
He gasped. "Watch it Isoken, this is a state of the art Motherboard ship, the first of her kind. You don't get a ship better than this out there and I'm this close to throwing you off board."
They argued. While I usually enjoyed their bickering, I had other interests at the moment. We needed to go beyond the murus cloud and my brain had hatched an idea I believed was brilliant. I found my way down into the ship's lowest deck, where the sea vehicles were kept. My focus lay on the Sub-cruiser.
It was a submarine designed for entertainment and tourism. The cruiser's structure resembled that of a blue whale. Short flippers and a long fluke created with flexible propellers, custom tinted display glasses on its sides made with an automated photochromic system. It was four storeys high. It was made mainly of titanium and steel. It was the perfect vehicle for my plan.