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CHAPTER 1

New Earth, 2999

It was rare to see a clear sky and sunlight that lasted for more than an hour in the morning. Normally, when Emma reached the edge of the central area, the real sunrays dimmed and were replaced by artificial light coming from a dome above. The artificial light had all the good properties of real sunlight, minus those that caused skin cancer in humans. But Emma still preferred to soak in a little more of the real sunshine.

Today, as she passed the Old Australia Quarter, with Sydney on the left and Melbourne on the right, the real sunlight was still out. She pedaled her vintage bike along the road flanked by luxurious high-end fashion stores, turning into London Quarter and heading toward New York. The sun was still out, bright and cheerful.

She stopped her bicycle on the side of the street. The stores here weren’t open at this hour in the morning, so security wouldn’t have a problem with her standing in front of them.

She tilted her face up, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the warmth of the sunlight on her skin. For a moment, she managed to block out the traffic noise in the overcrowded central area. She inhaled the pure, top-quality air, artificially pumped into the shopping mall and along the streets where the exclusive shops were located. That air was one good thing the central area offered.

She wondered how the natural air supply had been managed in ancient times when there was no dome covering the areas humans inhabited. She'd studied human history, but she hadn’t gone past the last couple hundred years. Even then, the air wasn’t free.

People had to pay for what they consumed.

She could never afford the clean air, so she traveled through the city to her floral shop every day just to breathe it in for free. It took her twenty minutes longer, but for this unadulterated air, it was worth it.

“Watch out!”

Startled, she opened her eyes and saw a man struggling to hold back a heavy trash bin as it rolled down a sloped sidewalk. A few pedestrians jumped aside, cursing as they watched the bin tip over and fall on its side. The lid popped open, and a human body fell out.

Today was a waste collection day.

Emma panicked. She usually remembered pushing the bins out, but she was distracted last night, and she couldn't recall if she'd done it or not. They were full of organic material like dead flowers. If she missed the collection, the air around her shop would be unbearable for an entire week.

A man in business attire rushed toward the toppled bin.

“Organic waste bins are collected in the back, you idiot! Why are you wheeling this to the street?”

”I’m sorry. I didn’t know, sir. I’ll take care of it.” The man attempted to push the dead body back into the bin.

“How?" said the man. "You've already polluted the air in front of my shop with this human waste. Do you have any idea how expensive this air is? Are you from another dome? Don’t you know how things work here? You’ve got to pay for this!”

“But it’s my first day on the job. I don’t have any credits, sir.”

Emma leaned her bike against the light pole and walked over. “The longer you keep this man here, the more polluted your air will get.” She pulled some credit tokens from her pocket. “Here, take this and pay for the extra air cleaning. Let this man go.”

Emma signaled the man. He thanked her and rushed the bin toward the back.

“All organic waste is collected in the back! Don't make this mistake again!” the shop owner shouted, though the man had already turned the corner and wouldn’t be able to hear him.

He then looked at the credits Emma had given him. It wouldn’t be enough for a proper cleaning job.

“Look, I own the Happy Blooms florist down the road. Why don’t I give you a week's worth of free flowers to freshen the air in your shop?”

She handed him a small card imprinted with her shop ID.

He took the card. “All right. I’m going to hold you to this. I’ll come and collect flowers every day for a week.”

“Deal!”

The shop owner walked away.

Emma shook her head. She didn’t think dead human bodies and organic waste should be treated as if they were the same thing. But it was how this society functioned. Who was she to say anything?

The dead person had looked old. Maybe over a hundred years of age. His death could have been natural. But even if it wasn’t, the cause of death was nobody’s business.

In this society, the strong survived, and the weak perished. And everyone minded only their own chances of survival.

Emma glanced toward the far end of the street. The waste-collecting trucks were three blocks away. It would be a while before they got to where she was, and much longer until they reached her shop.

She had enough time to get her bins out to the street.

Emma hopped back on her bicycle and pedaled hard, heading toward Happy Blooms.

She got off her bike and smiled at Elvin, the enormous self-appointed security guard who sat in front of her shop.

She pulled a small box from her bicycle basket and gave it to him. His nose and lips were concealed by the gigantic broom-like beard he had grown in the last half of the year, but she knew he was smiling and sniffing at the box.

“My favorite cheese balls. You shouldn’t have, Emma!”

“Well, you don't have to work as my security, Elvin.”

“If you don’t want me to hang around and scare your customers, then you should hire some professional security. Any security group will do, but I’m biased toward Amaraq.”

“No, I like you hanging around. My customers are comfortable with you, and it’s much better that they see you than a robot.”

“Amaraq security isn’t robotic. Wait, are you comparing me to a robot?”

Emma smiled at him. “You have way too much personality to be a robot. Anyway, I can’t afford Amaraq security.”

“I can have a word with them for you.”

“I know you have friends there. But this is a safe area, so there's no need for you to call in favors. Having you around is good company, and I'd like to keep it that way.”

He shrugged. “I'm just sticking around for the free cheese balls. I couldn't even afford this kind of homemade food when I was working.”

She leaned the bike against the wall to the left of the front door. It would now serve as a decorative item for the front of her shop.

Before she stepped inside, Elvin said, “I sold the cabin in the woods.”

She turned and looked at the old man. “Why would you do that? That’s your dream place for when you decide to stop being my low-paid security guard and retire for good.”

“You know why, Emma. I always wanted to see the Southeastern dome before I die. I could get two tickets, you know. You can visit, see if you like it.”

“I've heard many good things about that dome. I’m sure it’s nice. But I have Happy Blooms to run. Plus, my life is here.”

Elvin shook his head. “I know you saved up for a chance to go to Eudaiz. But that universe is just a myth.”

“It might be only a dream. But it’s the dream I’m working toward.”

“Don’t blow your hard-earned credits on New Haven’s services. They’re scammers.”

She smiled at him. “I know. You tell me that twenty times a week.”

He nodded, said nothing further, and bit into a cheese ball. He would bring this conversation back up again in a couple of weeks. She was sure of that. Elvin always respected her wishes. It didn’t matter if he agreed or not.

The door scanner came to life as she walked in. It was supposed to greet her, but she needed to upgrade the system to keep that function operable. She saw no need to do so. She would rather spend her financial resources on new projects, not on a door scanner. The system switched the light on and turned on her screen behind the counter. Text floated across the screen.

Emma O’Neill. Human. Citizen of Central Dome, New Earth.

She rolled her eyes. She was really getting what she paid for. The primitive system didn't even recognize that she was its owner and understand it didn’t have to report her entry every day.

Emma rushed to the back of the shop to push the bins out. When she came back in, a message on the screen reported a missed call from a customer.

She activated the call-back function.

“Susan, sorry I missed your call. Your orders are on track. You’ll have your flowers in two weeks. Did you want to make any changes?”

“I didn’t call, Emma.”

“Oh, I'm sorry. My system must be acting up. Sorry to bother you. See you in two weeks.”

A tall man walked into the shop, casting a shadow across the top of the counter. As he moved past the scanner, text floated across her screen.

When she saw what it said, Emma was speechless.

CHAPTER 2

Bertram squinted. The light inside Happy Blooms was much brighter than the light outside. It took a second or so for his eyes to adjust.

Happy Blooms seemed to be like any other floral shop. The florist was behind the counter. Experience told Bertram that she wasn’t just a florist, but she owned this business, and she loved what she did. Beautiful. Young. Late twenties, early thirties at most. Porcelain skin, long wavy sandy hair, light green eyes. A brilliantly warm smile spread across her face. Based on her looks alone, he would trust whatever recommendations she made for any products in the shop.

The strange thing was, she didn’t offer him any help. She looked at him as if he had grown two heads.

“Good morning.” He smiled at her.

“You speak English!”

“I’m embarrassed to admit that it's the only language I’m fluent in.”

She lifted her arms in the air. “I'm sorry—I shouldn’t have gawked at you. It’s just that I’ve never seen an angel in the flesh before, let alone an artificial angel.”

He took a step back. A normal human could never make him.

Seeing his reaction, she frowned. “My computer system has been playing tricks on me all morning. If it scanned your profile incorrectly, I apologize.”

“Scanned?”

She pointed gingerly toward the door. “The door scanner. Sorry, it’s a cheap system. It should have greeted you and announced that you’re being scanned for security purposes.”

“I didn’t consent to a scan. And this is a flower shop, not an international airport.”

“I don’t know what an inter-nation-al airport is. But door scanning is standard practice here.”

She broke the word international into three parts and pronounced it in an odd way. Bertram wondered if she didn’t know what it meant.

“You've never flown to another country?”

Her computer emitted a loud noise from an incoming call. She gestured for silence. “Sorry, if I don’t take this call, it will continue being a noisemaker, and you and I won't be able to have a proper conversation. That’s what cheap technology does for you.”

As soon as Bertram nodded a go-ahead, she engaged the call.

“Emma, I saw your advert. It’s wonderful!”

“Hi, Liz. Thank you. I’m with a customer right now, but what can I do for you?”

“Is there a chance I can change my order to what you advertised in this week’s promo?”

“I’m not sure… let me check. As long as the flowers haven't been created, it should be okay to change.”

“I hope so. Creating a flower that reflects my feelings is exactly what I’m looking for.”

Bertram's ears couldn’t help but perk up. That was the advertisement he had seen, and it was what he'd ordered.

“It’s my latest project, Liz, and I’m very proud of it. You're the first one to inquire about it. But what you ordered was very nice. The flowers have been created.”

Bertram peeked at the screen where a large bouquet of flowers appeared.

“Those are nice tulips.”

As soon as the words left his lips, the computer camera swung toward him as if automatically recognizing a third person engaging in the conversation.

“Oh, that’s what they're called?”

Bertram stepped closer to the counter to view the woman on the screen. “Yes, it's the only name I know to describe those flowers.”

Then he saw his credentials on the screen.

Bertram Hayes. Artificial angel. Citizen of Australia. Old Earth.

“Oh wow, you’re an angel. I’ve never seen one before.”

When he engaged in the conversation, it seemed his credentials had been shown to Liz. She grinned at the screen as if she wanted to burst out of it and grab him. Bertram took a couple of steps back.

Emma turned the computer’s camera away from him.

“Liz, your order has already been made. Normally I wouldn't change it, but I’ll do it for you today. If you could fill in the order form with the specs and quote the advert promo code, I’ll get the new order to you next week.”

The woman said something else, but Bertram had stopped paying attention. His mind was spinning with thousands of questions.

He was in his home office in Gisborne, a small town on the outskirts of the Melbourne Central Business District. He had spent a considerable amount of time searching for the perfect gift for their first wedding anniversary. He wanted to give his wife, Jasmine, flowers. But Jasmine knew flowers and herbs, and ordinary flowers wouldn’t surprise her.

Then he saw Happy Blooms’ advert on the internet:

“Flowers uniquely created from your heart and mind. New technology, designing your own flowers from the information supplied by your brainwaves. Turn your thoughts into flowers. Available only at Happy Blooms.”

He had filled in a short survey for the order and submitted it, thinking it was like the psychological tests he had to complete for the police when he worked as a detective. Shortly after his submission, he got a notice saying the flowers were ready to be collected. The address was in Melbourne city, so he got into his car and drove into town.

And here he was. But he didn’t think he was in his own time anymore.

He sat down on a bench next to a display of what appeared to be flowers.

Emma stepped out from behind the counter and looked at him with concern.

“Are you okay?”

He shook his head. “Did the government install this computer in your shop? Will they have access to the data it captured?”

“We don’t have a government, authority, or anyone considered to have higher power, if that’s what you're talking about. I don’t know who created that databank. But as individuals, we subscribe to it so that our scanner can draw information from it and tell us who we're interacting with. It's just for our own safety. Your information is safe with me. I won’t sell it for any reason.”

He nodded.

“That’s not what you're most concerned about, is it? You’re from the Old Earth. What year?”

He looked into her light green eyes. “I'm from 2022, and I’m guessing I'm now sometime in the future. But as long as I'm still on Earth and didn’t stumble upon a portal and end up in another world, I guess that’s okay.”

She looked at him, her face showing concern.

“What, Emma? Tell me the truth. I can take it.”

“The good news is that you’re still on Earth. But I think you're a bit further into the future than you realize. It’s 2999 now. That means you’re an angel and have lived for a very long time. I guess that's good news as well.” She smiled at him, but her smile faded when she saw his expression.

“If I walk out that door and go back the way I came, can I get back home in the same year I left?”

She stood up. “I don’t know. These days, we often hear about visits from creatures from outer space, other worlds, and distant universes. Some of them look just like humans, so it didn’t surprise me that you came here from another time. I’m sure you can go back the same way you came. But why did you come here in the first place? Doesn't your time have flower shops?”

“I saw the Happy Blooms ad, and I placed an order.”

“Oh… so Liz isn't the first customer of my latest project. You are. I had no idea the system promoted my business all the way back to 2022. I wonder how many potential customers are angels who can travel to the future without even breaking a sweat?”

“I don’t have an answer to that. It could be a technological glitch. Or maybe a loophole in time.”

“Well, I hope so, because it would cost me a lot of credits to advertise for such a long time! Let’s see what you ordered.”

She opened a window on her computer screen.

Bertram approached to see his order. On the screen was a cheerful bunch of sunflowers.

“I’ve never seen these before. They’re beautiful.”

“They’re quite common in my time. Is that what came out of my thoughts?”

“Well, I didn’t actually scan your thoughts. You filled in the survey, and my technology translated the information into images. It combined those images with your current psychological and biological profile and then produced the flowers that reflect your emotions.”

“And you haven’t seen sunflowers before?”

“No, I don’t think they exist in my time." She printed his order and read it as she spoke. "They’re beautiful, truly beautiful…”

Bertram paced the floor. The information he provided on the order form and the sunflowers were definitely from his time. But the technology and Happy Blooms were from far in the future. He didn't think time-traveling technology could stretch between the two distant periods of time. Emma certainly hadn't advertised her flower shop to customers in 2022.

Someone or something is connecting these time periods, he thought. But why? Are they targeting me? Because I just accepted a position with the angels?

Bertram turned and looked at Emma. Tears rolled down her face.

“What happened, Emma?”

She waved the piece of paper she held in her hand. “You love your wife so much. That’s so beautiful. Is that what angels do, loving someone that much, or is it just you?”

“Hey, that information is private.”

“You ordered the flowers from my shop. I get to see and keep the order.” She shoved the paper into her pocket so he couldn’t take it away.

Chasing the paper was pointless, so he shoved his hands in his pant pockets. “Jasmine isn’t an angel,” he said and looked into Emma’s light green eyes. “She’s not an immortal. I had the choice to be a fully natural angel or stay artificial, the way I was created. I chose the latter, hoping to have some control over my lifespan. But based on what's happened today, I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen. So I'll have to find a solution for Jasmine.”

“I wish someone would love me that much.”

He smiled at her. “I’m new to the angel business, and I have a lot to learn. But there is one thing they told me that I like—everyone has a soulmate. You will find that person, and you will be loved the way you deserve.”

She smiled brightly.

White lies sometimes helped, Bertram thought.

He picked up the flowers. “I guess I should leave now. Thank you for the flowers.” He pulled out his wallet to pay and rolled his eyes. “I'm guessing you can’t accept my credit card.”

She glanced at his card and chuckled. “Not that kind of card. Tell you what—your first purchase is on the house.” She placed a card with the name of her shop on it inside the bouquet. “I hope you'll come back for more flowers in the future.”

She watched him as he walked out the door.

Bertram walked along the street toward his car. He disliked getting the flowers for free. He’d find a way to pay Emma for her work. But for now, he needed to make sure he could get home safely to Jasmine. That was all that mattered. He traced his steps carefully and hoped he could leave exactly how he had come in.

He shook his head, trying to recall how he got to this New Earth in the first place. There was nothing unusual about the order form he'd filled out on the internet. It was short and basic. The only unusual part was when he described his feelings for Jasmine. But that was the whole idea behind the flower creation process. There wasn't much he could deduce from any of that.

After that was finished, he confirmed the purchase, checked out online, verified that he'd make payment upon receipt, and then received the pick-up address.

Pick-up address!

He recalled seeing New Earth written in the address. He must have thought it was the name of the building complex. He was sure it was on the order form too.

That meant that on Earth, in 2022, he saw a real advertisement from Happy Blooms, the one Emma had paid for to promote her shop. He showed up at the store and picked up the right order. But Emma didn’t realize she had advertised to customers in 2022. It wasn’t a computer glitch, a loophole in time, or anything magical.

He wasn’t the target.

Emma was.

Something she specified to her advertiser about her target customers allowed the system to bypass time and reach him. He must match her description. The ability to profile someone and enable such a powerful transaction across time made Emma a dream target for anyone working with time-traveling technology.

She needed to know this. She needed to remove her ad from the system.

He pulled out the card Emma had put in the flower bouquet. But the card was blank. He returned to the floral shop on foot.

It had only been a few minutes since he walked away, but Happy Blooms felt different.

Something seriously wrong had happened.

He stepped inside the shop.

The light was dim. Broken furniture, dead flowers, and debris were scattered all over the floor. Emma was not in the room. 

There was a large flower basket on the counter that wasn't there before.

Inside the basket, a man's head rested on a bed of sunflowers.

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