Queen Zaria Trilogy

by Danny Dunn

  Zaria "Every citizen is at least 100 feet above sea level, so we were in excellent shape.

  Zaria Publishes a council update “A 40-foot tsunami is projected to arrive in 10 hours.

  Zari looks at Zaria with a smile of relief. Zari "Zaria, could you run more models forecasting the darkness numbers, please.

  Zaria "Of course. I just ran new ones." The models appear up on the video screen, in the form of a horizontal line chart left to right; Vegetation food; Fish; Water; Power; Air

  Zaria "All categories run even across until year ten, where fish and vegetation production start dipping. But we are way ahead with our storage. We are comfortable up to 12 years out, Zari."

  "Given the added year of the cloud and the fact that much of the world’s population is now gone from the virus and the asteroid impact, we will increase fishing to maximum capacity immediately. We will store additional fish and vegetation to cover us through 15 years.

  "I do have an idea for a way to gather the fish and to keep them here. We can position our lights underwater inside the net facing out to sea and lower the net. The fish will gravitate to the light, and we raise the net once they are in. Secondly, we maintain lights to help keep and microbes alive.

  "For the vegetation, we are near completion on the 200 new community domes. We will begin growing in the new domes next month. Running all of them for the next 3 years will produce enough vegetation for the next 20 years.

  "We are near completion of the new tidal mills and windmills and core thermal heat converters to support the electricity for the additional light needed for the additional domes.

  "The added electrical storage capacity went online last week."

  Zari "We are in good shape as I see it."

  Zaria "Yes sir, we are."

  Zari "Is the transmitter functional?

  Zaria, "Zari, our transmitter, is ready. But I am still working on the unknown computer emulation module. There are a lot of variables involved, and I want to make sure I have everything covered. If that doesn’t work, then our efforts would be a waste of time."

  Zari tells Zaria, "You should have everything with you in terms of our history and what you have learned from other planets that have responded before each message."

  Zaria smiles, "Understood, I think I can have it ready in a few weeks."

  Zari "No hurry. We have our hands full, including a 50-foot tsunami heading our way.

  Six hundred miles to the east is an island ten times the size of Zari directly between the tsunami and Zari Island. Zaria sent several planes there to monitor and record the tsunami hitting the island. Two airplanes circle the island, dropping drones every twenty miles positioned above the mountain slope of the island to view the shores as the tsunami reaches it. Zari asks Zaria if the islanders took our warnings to heart. Zaria replies that it appears that some did, but most did not, she says. Weeks earlier, they had dropped leaflets warning of the possibility of a tsunami after the asteroid impact. The tsunami is sixty feet tall now and traveling fast.

  The wave quickly engulfs the shores and rushes into the island, climbing the mountain slopes. The wave stops at about half a mile inland in the center of the island and rushes around the island in seconds. It covers the ends of the island and continues around the tips of the island. You can see boats, vehicles, houses, animals, and bio beings being swept out to sea. The shores are now 50 feet underwater all around the island and in most areas, are underwater a half a mile inland. The island had warnings, but the people underestimated the magnitude of the wave, and tens of thousands are being drowned.

  The islands in the tsunami's path, combined with the deep waters, reduce the height of the wave by another 10 feet, and the tsunami is now 43 feet high, and Zaria Island is next. An hour after hitting the last island, the tsunami hits the Western face of Zari island and encircles the island just as it did the islands before them.

  The wave works its way into every channel, every gully and engulfs every inch of the island under 40 feet high. Over 500 homes are destroyed, utility buildings are flooded, and a few are destroyed. Tsunamis were among the events that the island needed to survive, so the community buildings that needed to be in positions at 400 feet above sea level and lower were built to survive tsunamis much larger than this one. Homes were a different story. Most homes were built above 100 feet above sea level, but there was a small percentage that was built under the 100-foot sea level line. They were warned this could happen, but to the homeowners, living close to the ocean was important to them, so they took the risk.

  Five hundred plus homes are consumed all around the island. The transportation system survives unscathed due to its sealed doors.

  When the tsunami hits, Zaria has every plane in flight, and all the boats are all out into the sea. Anything movable was relocated 100 feet up and into the transportation tunnels. The tsunami destroyed some equipment and buildings, but all in all, the damage was minimal, and there was no loss of intelligent life.

  End Chapter 6

  Chapter 7 - W.W. IV, A Weaponized-Virus, And An Asteroid Walk Into A Bar

  Zari Addressing the citizens “The tsunami has receded into the sea. It has destroyed 510 homes, but no life has been lost. The list of homes flooded or destroyed is on our website and available now. Anyone who has had their home destroyed, please contact Zaria's team, and they will help guide you through this and know that they will do everything possible to minimize your losses. We have plenty of housing for you and will take care of all the logistics for you. Anyone who wants to stay where you are, just let us know, and we will rebuild your home by the end of the week.

  "We do have some bad news to report. The asteroid was even more giant than what our scientists estimated, and the angle of the strike was 25 degrees and not 20 degrees, so we are projecting that the cloud will have our planet dark for an additional year.

  "What this means to us is that the cloud is going to be much thicker than our models projected and that we will be in darkness closer to four years and not three years. I know that is some pretty rough news, but maybe, for now, we should reflect on how lucky we are to have survived. We can worry about the cloud later. By the way, we have plenty of food, water, and other resources to survive up to 15 years, so the extra year will not cause us to run short on anything. We will provide weekly updates to everyone and hope for the best in terms of the cloud.

  Zaria "We have a video of the tsunami hitting the island before us. We sent drones into the direction from which the tsunami came at us. The landmasses that helped reduce the size coming at us were utterly wiped out by the tsunami.

  The largest island was about four times the size of our island with similar terrain. Zaria had her planes drop leaflets all around the island, but it appears that most did not heed our warnings.

  Zari "Zaria, please run an analysis of the island and run numbers on making it our first expansion. Zaria "Never a dull moment with you," Zari, "Zari returns a slight smile.

  At the age of 66, Zari passes away in his sleep. Zari, like both his parents, died of cancer. The planet is still dark, and Zaria holds a small but dignified funeral for him and declares that she will celebrate him as part of his new civilization seeing sunlight again.

  For several months after the strike, the planet is dark and hot. There is no daytime. The cloud is so thick that for months after the strike, the planet exists in constant and total darkness. All plant life dependent on natural sunlight dies within weeks. Zari island domes are all functioning and for 10 hours per day are bright lights that can be seen for miles.

  The temperature over the first 90 days is 15 degrees hotter than the already hot equator weather. The island experiences 105-degree weather for months straight. The CO2 levels are off the charts, and the bios are forced to breath conditioned air that filters out the CO2. The bios are limited to their homes, domes, transport system which is conditioned, and community buildings.

  As usual, the President and his team that tried to annihilate Zari’s isl
and wiggled out of his attempted atrocities by claiming he did it under the war and special circumstances act and resigning. The live video of the attack on the little island was just too incriminating for him to keep his job. But, the resignation of the President and his culprits meant they did not get presidential post-asteroid treatment and had to experience what most of the citizens endure.

  Zaria gets into her vehicle and begins her drive to her monthly council meeting. The planet is dark. It rains now and then, but the rain is dirty from the soot in the atmosphere. The CO2 levels are very high, making it necessary to breath conditioned air most of the time.

  Zaria arrives at the council building and walks into the chambers. The others join one by one. Zaria heads the meeting.

  Zaria "good morning. I hope you are all well." Most are doing fine, but the mood is down.

  Member 1 "I don't know about the rest of you, but how are we to maintain our spirits in this darkness? We are all happy to be alive, but wow, it is difficult to imagine three years of this."

  Zaria "I think I understand. I know that sunshine is a powerful medicine for bio beings. Unfortunately, we cannot fix the lack of sun, so what can we do to help reduce the effect of the lack of sunshine. I have been working on something I was going to announce soon anyway.

  Before we opened, Zari and I decided to build some resorts at some of the well-positioned sites on the island to make available for credits. There are 50 complete and 50 more under construction and are spread across the island so that everyone would have easy access to one nearby. I would propose that we open them up soon and make them more as public pools and recreation areas so that all have access to them. They are near beaches, have lighted indoor pools, and recreation areas. The tunnels are now complete, so access should be easy.

  The plan was to make them public pools and recreation areas for now and make them vacation homes for everyone for credits after the cloud has lifted.

  Member 5 "Zaria, you are amazing. I think that would be a very uplifting thing. It would also be great for the kids to play and have some fun with each other. When can this happen? The rest of the group asks.”

  Member 3, "Yay Zaria.”

  Zaria "This was Zari's dream. We are so happy you appreciate it. They will all be ready in the next week. Let's say ten days from now. We can make some special seafood available. Tuna, crabs, clams, mussels. I will leave it to you to get the word out, and I will make sure they are all ready and stocked for a special feast."

  Zaria "On another note, I am going to send out a team of robots on a plane to tour parts of the planet in one of the aircraft. We will modify one of the aircraft to replace Bio accommodations and baggage holds with fuel. We should have an excellent range thanks to the reduced weight and additional fuel. They can send back videos of what they discover. If they find aircraft fuel, they can travel to distant parts of the planet. Otherwise, they will have to fly back and forth to refuel. One question I have is, what if we find life. What is your position on that?

  Member 2 "Zaria, you have a great heart, but to me, that is a real can of worms. We are here because we passed your extensive filtering process. What about these people? Is it your plan to let them into the island? Secondly, we paid to be here. It would seem unlikely that anyone is going to have an entrance fee. I may be the only one to think this way, so I will let the others chime in."

  Member 5 "Well there is still the virus issue, what is to say that the virus cannot regenerate after time. I am against introducing anyone from outside without an extensive qualification process to ensure that we are not affected. And, their money is worthless now.

  Zaria OK understood. For now, it will be just a fact-finding mission.

  Member 6 "Zaria, why are you having them go at all?

  Zaria "Several reasons. I want to see the conditions, how many have survived, if any, and to see if there is anything I can think of to help them where they are. Maybe provide them with robotic help for fixing water supplies etc. None of what I do detracts from Zari Island. It comes out of my pocket. I just thought I should mention it to you. Does anyone object to me putting some food on board in case we run into anyone needing food?

  The board voted unanimously to approve providing food.

  Member 6 "That sounds good to me. Zaria, how could I ever argue with your motive or intentions. You and Zari have saved our lives several times already and gave my family the deal of the millennium. You have never done anything but under promise and over perform.

  Member 7 "When do you leave?

  Zaria "I will send a plane tomorrow. We have gutted it and increase fuel capacity, so we have a substantial range in case we cannot obtain fuel. I am sending 6 AIR (artificial intelligent robots), and we will have a satellite link setup from a satellite we hacked.

  “I will be in the control room when they near their destination. There is no other air traffic, so I will have cameras with infrared running when they are over land. We will mainly be looking for signs of life. I can alert you if we find anything. We equipped it with powerful floodlights that pan in any downward direction so it can show us what it looks like down there so it can land.”

  Member 3 "If you could Zaria, send me the link, and if you see anything, I will join you here.

  All agree.

  Zaria stands watching under the hanger lights as the plane begins to taxi and fades into the dark. Zaria walks back to the control room. The first stop is a metropolis 10 hours away. As the plane approaches to land at 500 feet altitude, there are no lights. As with their island, all vegetation is dead. There is dark soot covering everything. The runways have a bit less soot due to them being cleared a few times just after the impact. They use the GPS to get to the airport and see the runway just as they are upon it. They aim the lights, so they are showing what is just ahead of them at ground level to do a flyby to make sure the runway is clear.

  The runway looks good for landing, and they circle around to land. The plane lands and taxis to one of the larger terminal areas, and four of the six AIRs get out, close up the plane, and the plane taxis back out to the runway to distance itself from any possible trouble.

  The four AIRs spread out and walk toward the terminal. As the bots get closer, they can see live beings are looking out the windows of the planes parked at the tarmacs. There appear to be five to ten people inside each aircraft. When the AIRs look in the direction of the aircraft, the bios duck their heads. Each AIR enters a different area of the airport. Their lights are the only lights around them. They each enter an area of the terminal.

  There are no dead bodies in the airport, but the place is a wreck, there is trash everywhere. And much of the fixtures and furniture have been forcefully removed. The doors to the tarmacs have been pried open, and air 1 walks down the tarmac. Air 1 reaches the door of the plane, which shows signs of being pried but is locked shut. AIR 1 knocks on the door and hears some rustling and footsteps. A male voice from inside the plane speaks.

  From inside plane 1, "What do you want? What is your home country? I have a gun!"

  AIR 1 "We are from Zari Island. We are looking for survivors, and we mean you no harm.

  Inside plane 1, "We need food! Do you have food?

  Zaria decides to speak remotely through the AIR. "No, but we can bring some back on our next flight."

  Inside plane 1, "Why did you move the plane back to the runway.

  Zaria "It is there so that, if anything happens to harm myself or the other three, the plane takes off and never returns."

  Survivor 1, "How do I know you are from Zari Island?

  Zaria "Oh, I guess you just need to trust me on that."

  The door opens, and a male comes out, he is a very thin and very pale white-bio in his late 30s.

  Zaria, "how long have you been here?"

  Survivor 1, "This was our flight to get out. The impact made it so dark where we were landing that they closed the airport. They canceled the flight. Everyone bolted out, so we stayed. I took the gun from a dead guard out
side."

  Zaria "How many are there at the airport?"

  Survivor 1 "There was about a thousand of us three months ago. But we ran out of food so now there might be fifty or so scattered around in the airport. Mostly we are in the planes for many reasons. For the first months, the airport kept us updated and fed us, but the diesel ran out as did the food, so everyone left but a few of us. I have thought this over. You have to be worth something. Tell your people to take me with you or I take you."

  Zaria "that isn't going to work."

  Survivor 1 "Yeah, why not?"

  Zaria looks behind the man with the gun and pretends to be telling someone behind him not to do something. The man turns his head and his attention behind him for a fraction of a second, and in the blink of an eye, AIR 1 grabs the gun away from him and aims it at him.

  Zaria speaking remotely, "OK, look, I understand you are desperate, but I don't have time to be taken, hostage. Now that I have the gun, I will negotiate a good deal for you. You tell me what to look out for in the city, and I will leave you some food on the runway when we depart.

  Survivor 1 "Sorry about the gun. My family is hungry."

  Zaria "I understand and don't blame you. But now, if you try anything else while we are in the city, our deal is off, and you will get option B and trust me you don't want option B.

  Survivor 1 "But you will leave us food."

  Zaria, "yes, I will keep my word if when I get back, you haven't tried anything." The other three AIR report similar situations, and they all head back to the plane to get the vehicle. They open the modified/enlarged cargo door, and a vehicle drives down a makeshift ramp. The door shuts, and they drive into the city. The black soot is everywhere. Worse than the runways since the runways were the last to be cleaned. They encounter a small group of people who wave them down.

  The AIRs stop about 30 feet from them and stay in the topless vehicle.