Ernest Aaron White Ernest Bourgeois enjoyed the cool breeze at he relaxed on the dock, in the company of his best friend, Andrew Fireguard. The sent of the ocean pleased him. He liked how universal the ocean was, how it was the same ocean beneath his feet as it was thousands of miles away off the coast of China. Andrew didn’t like the ocean, but he didn’t dislike it either. He didn’t care either way, because to him there wasn’t much point in attaching emotions to bodies of water, large or otherwise.

The two of them didn’t bother much with needless conversation. At the age of ten, the two boy geniuses felt they had already said ninety-nine percent of all that was necessary for them to say. With them, no words were wasted. Ideas were precious, so they made sure that when they spoke, it counted for something.

Ernest had already discovered a hairstyle that astronomically increased his brain power. It had to do with the alignment of electrons in hair follicles and is far to complicated for you to understand. Needless to say, he won his fourth grade science fair that year, the only other child who even came close watched mold grow on different pieces of bread.

This was of course, before the debilitating fire that rendered Ernest legally blind, and before he met one Lucitania Aldeia.

Andrew also was a wonder of a boy, but in a way much different from Ernest. Andrew was the result of a government program charged with creating the perfect spy. His heart and been surgically removed, and replaced with blood pumping nano-bots in strategic locations in his body. These pseudo hearts were powered by a distant power plant by a network of satellites. It was supposed to make it difficult for him to be interrogated. It made it so he had no heart beat. Andrew turned to Ernest. “Did you know,” he said, “that I am ten years old, and I have never swam in the ocean?” Ernest shrugged. “We’re ten years, old, and we haven’t done a lot of things.”

Andrew smiled. “That’s the point, I guess. They never gave us much of a childhood, did they? I mean – I’m ten years old, tonight. I’ve spied on kings and queens and military dictators. I’ve been in space, and I would’ve made it too the moon if not that shuttle malfunction. I’ve done all that, but I’ve never swam in the ocean.”

Ernest looked at him disapprovingly. “Pity doesn’t become people like us.”

Andrew didn’t point out that he said, people, not kids.

They fell silent again, and as if to punctuate the silence, a meteorite fell as a bright red and yellow streak across the sky.

“Here they come,” said Andrew.

More began to fall, and after a few minutes, the sky was filled with them, a brilliant mosaic of colors and lights. Ernest turned toward his old friend Andrew again.

“Why did you have us meet here?”

Andrew gestured to the display in the sky as an answer.

“We haven’t seen each other since... China, right?” Andrew didn’t answer, he just looked up at the meteor shower, with an expression of childlike wonder on his face. “Look... I’ve been hearing things about your project. Are they true? I know there must be some truth to it, or else they wouldn’t let you be reading books. That’s what got you in this mood right? You’ve been reading.”

Andrew looked at him, and for a moment, the light from a shooting star reflected in his eye. It seemed to Ernest that, for a moment, his eyes had lit up. But that wasn’t true. Eyes couldn’t light up.

“Yes, they have started to let me read books. I just finished Treasure Island. It’s about a boy who goes out to sea.”

“If they’ve opened up things like that, you know what it means, right?”

“I’m not stupid, Ernest.”

“I wasn’t saying tha-“

Ernest was interrupted by a small explosion. A tiny meteor hit the dock, leaving a small smoking hole. For one of the few times in his life, Ernest looked worried.

“These are coming close to us? Are we in the path of the shower?”

“Don’t worry,” said Andrew his eyes lit once again by the meteorites. “I’ve planned this all down to the last moment.” Already on his feet, Ernest shouted that they had to go, that they had to run. More meteors were striking all around them. Andrew didn’t budge. He just sat on the edge of the dock, his legs dangling playfully above the ocean beneath them. He had to yell now, because the roar of the asteroids hitting the ground was so great.

“Ernest, I may not have a heart, but I’ve learned that there’s more to life than the scientific. We need things that feed our souls, Ernest. Like swimming in the ocean, or running barefoot through the grass." Ernest stared at him, immobilized.

“They’re closing the project Ernest. I’m not a boy, just an experiment that’s reached it’s end. I hope you learn what I did before it’s too late for you too!” And at that moment, thousands of miles away, a switch was turned into the off position, and a low, throbbing hum died down. Slowly, one by one, an extensive network of satellites stopped transmitting the life sustaining power that had been passing through them. Maybe he pushed himself off, or maybe it was the force of the meteor striking next to him, but Andrew was flung into the cold water beneath him.

Ernest couldn’t tell. He didn’t know if he should run or not, but he knew that it was too late to do anything to save his friend. His fate had been decided by men in a distant land.

He stayed, and watched as the meteor shower slowly came to an end. What had seemed distant and beautiful in the sky was hellish and disturbing up close. Ernest stayed a while longer, and watched the ocean. He enjoyed the return of the cool breeze.

He watched the ocean and appreciated its unity, how it was the same here as it was thousands of miles away.