Green Feather Award Winner: Evelyn Mann
Nature Nexus Institute was thrilled to co-present the Green Feather Award in 2024, a component of the Omega Sci-Fi Awards science fiction writing contest open to high school students throughout Los Angeles County. The Green Feather Award is a special prize for environmentally focused sci-fi stories integrating creative solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises. We are excited to feature the 2024 winning story on our blog!
Our Green Feather Award winner is Evelyn Mann, a seventeen-year-old artist, writer, and animator who attends Hollywood High School and is enrolled in the New Media Academy Program. She began her interest in the arts and creative field when she was eleven, taking scriptwriting, animation, and creative writing courses in middle school. Entering high school, she continued to pursue the arts and creative writing with the guidance of English teacher Bodin Adler and creative writing teacher Michael Cantone. Cantone provided many creative prompts to motivate her, and Adler would teach her important literary elements and different types of literature and give helpful critiques of her writings. Evelyn’s biggest inspiration for her story “The Aquaccelerator” was learning about seawater desalination and particle accelerators from her father, who has a bachelor's in industrial hygiene. She decided she would combine the two topics to create a fictional story where the limited freshwater problem would be solved in an environmentally friendly way. Along with her passion for the arts, Evelyn is also interested in learning ways to become more environmentally aware and tries her hardest to make conscious choices to help the Earth.
*note: shout out from Evelyn Mann, "Thank you to Mr. Adler, Mr. Cantone, Mr. Cook, Ms. Nezu, my mom, and my dad for inspiring me to stay creative." *
The Aquaccelator
By Evelyn Mann
At 30-years-old, Dr. Twist is watching the world burn on his television. In his dark living room, sprawled out on his E-Z chair, the only light that shines is his TV screen. A news story airs. The newscaster narrates over images of a new project: A large factory-like building placed next to the ocean.
“A revolutionary advancement in desalination has been made, aiming to bring accessible freshwater to everyone in the world in the next five years. For now, we talk to James Draughter, the creator of DeSalTaste.”
James Draughter was an older man in a silver suit. He stood near his new facility. A
giant, gleaming metal structure reflecting the sun with giant metal pipes plunging into
the ocean on the sunny beach.
“Thank you for having me.” He spoke in a smooth deep voice.
“Now James, what makes this desalination plant so much more advanced than the
others?”
“Well, my desalination plant takes in 10 times more gallons of saltwater at a time than the average desalination plant. Using AI technology to help with the filtering process, I have reduced filtering time in half. Within 30 minutes, I have fresh water readily available for all in the region. Once I have more locations, it’s safe to say the whole world will never have to worry about going thirsty and getting waterborne illness ever again.”
“Wow, that’s some revolutionary work you’re doing, James. There are some concerns, however, about what happens to the ocean life surrounding your operation. Will your plant create any changes to ocean life?”
“I understand this concern. I can assure you my number one goal is the ocean’s security. My plant will not disturb any ecosystems, cause bleaching, or emit any materials that could harm marine life. My plant will take and give back, just as humanity should.”
“Thank you Mr. Draughter.”
Dr. Twist shuts off the TV, his disgusted face reflecting off the black screen. He pushes himself off of his couch and treads to his bedroom. He opens the door. It’s still as dark as the rest of the house, but it is completely decorated with trinkets: Seashells, dried-up sand dollars, pieces of coral, jewelry, sunglasses, and a scuba suit in the corner. His bed is covered in laundry he hasn’t put away, and his dirty clothes are on the floor. He turns on a small light that sits atop his nightstand, revealing that all of his things are coated in a layer of dust. He flops onto his bed, releasing a loud huff. He turns to his nightstand, and looks at an old photo. It is him and his dad posing for a picture in scuba gear 10 years ago. He looked much more youthful and clean.
Twist started scuba diving with his father when he was 10-years-old. Living right by the beach, they would go almost every day. He and his father would explore the ocean floor, its formations and the life within, the coral that protected the fish from prey and the prey that ate the fish. Watching the ocean’s cycles soothed Twist, de-stressing him after long days at school, and he collected seashells, dropped jewelry, sunglasses, and even purses that had sunk to the bottom with no hope of return to their owners. His room was a seaside dream, and his skin was perfectly tanned. Most important of
all, he built a strong bond with his father. His father guided him through the ocean, taught him swimming techniques, and gave him most of the treasures he found.
A decade ago, Draughter developed his first desalination operation -- right next to Twist’s father’s house on the coast. Back then, the facility was small. Twist had no idea what harm it could do. But as he and his father continued on scuba missions, the coral started to bleach. The fish dissipated from the area and algae blooms fogged the water so much that Twist and his father couldn’t swim. Within six months, everyone who lived near the plant on the coast had to move due to the water’s toxicity. Draughter’s plant off-gassed so much from the desalination process that it killed everything. Twist and his father moved inland into a small home.
Now, it only belongs to Twist, as his father has passed.
“Draughter will not save the Earth, he will destroy it,” Twist mutters to himself. He lies on his bed, looking at the ceiling. He ponders how he could stop Draughter, but given that Draughter is a famous billionaire scientist, the chances of standing up to him are slim.
Twist’s eyes grow wide. He jumps out of bed and slams open his closet door. In the corner are rolled-up blueprints of the particle accelerator in the lab where Twist works.“This… is my golden ticket.” He runs out of the room, heading to his lab as quickly as possible with his run-down car barely starting for the journey.
After a 20-minute commute, Twist shoves open the heavy glass doors of Speed Slam, a company specializing in particle acceleration and attempts at time travel. Twist had never had much passion for time travel, but the particle accelerator was his specialty as he believed in other potential uses for it.
“Hey Twist! What brings you in so urgently?” a co-worker asks as Twist sprints by. Twist turns to her, stopping in place. His shoes squeal against the glossy white floor. “I need you to help me with something,” he requests, out of breath. “Are we using the accelerator right now?”
“Um, no. Not today. Why?”
“I need it. Urgently. I need to try something. It-it’s an experiment,” he frantically explains.
“The team isn’t available right now…”
“No that doesn’t matter! I can handle it. Just please… put hydrogen and oxygen
atoms into the accelerator. Okay?”
“Hydrogen and oxygen? You mean… water?”
“No! No, I’m…just do what I ask!” he barks.
“Okay! Sorry.”
His coworker sprints off to retrieve the materials as Twist bolts to the accelerator. He opens the doors to the giant structure: a donut-shaped metal frame surrounding thick wires, beams, magnets, and other giant metal tech attachments. His co-worker stands at the top of the metal stairs and bridge, awaiting his approval to begin. On his command, she inserts the particles and starts up the machine. It whirls loudly as the particles inside speed up more and more in hopes of colliding so fast they’ll create an explosion of something new: In this case, water. She goes back to her desk, questioning Twist’s enthusiasm on this project. Twist sits back in his chair and waits, chin in hand, and his foot tapping rapidly against the polished white floor.
Hours pass. He continues to sit. His hopes for success decrease. The sun has gone down and most of his co-workers have gone home. He continues to wait, his eyes growing more tired. A rattle sounds from the machine. He immediately jumps up, running towards it.
“Could it be? Could I have done it?” he exclaims, tugging on his lab coat. The accelerator continues to rattle, becoming more agitated. The metal plates surrounding it begin to detach.
“What…even happens if this accelerator creates something?” he asks, bracing for anything. The bolts holding the plates burst off, sending them crashing to the ground. The wires attached to them break, electricity crackling throughout the room and causing the lights to flicker in the building. “Ah!” shouts Twist.
Twist runs and jumps out of the way of the three giant plates, which hit the ground so hard they break the white tiles beneath. Twist huddles on the floor covering his head as debris falls. Then the crackling and creaking begin to subside.
Twist carefully looks back at the damage. The accelerator is wrecked. There is a completely open gash in the pipe system.
“I--I broke it. I broke one of the most expensive machines in the world and I didn’t
even create anything.” He hangs his head heavily.
“I didn’t even do any good. Now I’ll be a complete reject of a scientist forever until the Earth dies from Draughter’s desalination pollution.” His voice cracks as he accepts his defeat. He sits on the floor, with a sinking, hollow feeling in his gut and heart, his eyes wide open to the consequences of his actions.
A drop of water falls onto his head. He looks around. He feels his hair and touches a wet spot.
“That’s…not supposed to happen. This room is supposed to be waterproof from rain. Ha. Maybe I broke that too.”
More drops begin to fall on him. He looks around again, holding his hands out. It is raining, but he is inside.
“What is going on?”
He looks up.
A rain cloud has formed above. It releases the cleanest, purest rain ever known to humanity, falling all around Twist. He’s becoming soaked by it.
He looks up, his jaw agape and his eyes glossy, into the only storm that would save the world.