by Kumar Lomash
Ibu started to clap, he knew that Holum was done. Garry was smiling too.
“This man can talk.” , Gollow looked motivated by the speech. He asked, “What do you think?”
“Well, he is a politician, what did you expect?”, Kevin concluded.
“No, man. I think Holum is a great leader”, Gollow insisted.
“The Union knew about all class 4 and 5 colonies but still kept us in the dark. I have yet to start liking them my friend.”, Kevin looked serious.
“Didn’t they save your life?”, Gollow countered.
“Exactly! It doesn’t make any sense. Why would they do that?”, Kevin wondered
“All K’s are required to assemble on level 45, Kevin. Let's move”, Moji interrupted.
“Was there an announcement?”, Gollow asked.
“I have just received a memo, Gollow”, Moji clarified. “Let's go, Kevin.”
Kevin looked at Gollow. Gollow shrug his shoulders.
“Okay! Let's go”, Kevin started following Moji who was already drifting towards the nearest elevator.
Kevin started walking behind Moji. Moji took him to an elevator and asked him to press “Up”. Kevin pressed the button with curiosity. The elevator arrived soon enough. Moji entered the elevator and Kevin followed. The elevator door closed with only the two of them inside. Kevin noted that there were only buttons till 43 in the elevator.
Where is 45?
Moji said, “speak your id”
“K42-262284”, Kevin said the numbers while looking at Moji, he was even more curious now.
“Welcome Kevin”, the elevator responded in a mechanical female voice, “where do you want to go?”
“Level 45 perhaps”, Kevin was still looking at Moji..
“Sure”, the elevator responded.
The elevator started to move rapidly but smoothly. It reached level 45 and with a ding, the door opened.
“What level is this?”, Kevin asked.
This is a secure facility, Kevin. Not accessible to civilians. Let’s wait here, in the waiting area.
Kevin looked at the large window which had a view of outer space. The window was a few dozen feet away, he approached it slowly. As he came closer the view outside left him awestruck. He was looking at an object which was partially illuminated by the light of the star the spaceship was heading towards. Half of the object was still dark. As Kevin gasped at the view, he realised that the spaceship was travelling at a very high speed. Small meteors zipped past his window but the bright object which seemed to be much larger than these stones and much further was receding at a very slow pace.
“What is that?”, Kevin was still looking outside the window.
That’s Nole-minor-2, Kevin.”, Moji replied.
“Explain please”, Kevin was still awestruck by the view outside.
That’s one of the natural satellites of Nole. Nole has 3 satellites or moons. This is the largest and 2nd in its position from Nole. Nole minor 1 is 2nd largest and nearest, while Nole minor 3 is smallest and farthest. Can you see Nole yet?
Kevin quickly turned his face towards the left of the window, the direction in which the ship was travelling. He pressed his face sidewise to the glass and tried seeing as straight as he could in the direction of the spaceship’s motion but couldn’t see Nole. “I don’t see anything”, he confirmed and then turned back right to look at minor 2. Minor-2 was no longer visible. Kevin turned around smilingly, he had a sense of achievement after having seen something interesting. As soon as he turned, he saw a few people had gathered back at the entrance. All of them had a bot hovering over them. His smile slowly faded away, he had no reason to smile among strangers.
Probably he realised that at that moment all K’s were in that room. “Why would all K’s be brought into a single room?”, he thought. And why were there only 9 when the whole spaceship was carrying humanity itself off Earth. Kevin also remembered that Moji only told him about A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J gene pools. Are K’s part of some experiment which went bad in the class 4 and 5 colonies? Kevin felt a mix of emotions. On one side he was excited about his space travel, cool technology, intelligent bots and all of this knowledge around him but on the other he felt alone. He knew he could count on Gollow but why was he a K? Why was he not one of F, G, H and I? Or even a J like Joti. But Joti looks alone too, he realised. Kevin recalled that he had never seen Joti talking to anyone else. Last night she was sitting alone. God knows if she ate any dinner or not. She was having breakfast all alone this morning for sure. Is she a loner?
A soldier walked into the entrance hall and announced. “Please follow me gentlemen”. Everyone started following him. Kevin hurried to catch up, he looked less worried than a moment ago. Maybe he was more curious than cautious.
They entered a room which already had the captain and Gollard, the minister of defense. The soldier who led them there asked everyone to stand in a line. Folks from class 4 and 5 colonies couldn’t line up on themselves and this made Gollard even more irritated than he already was.
“Do you know what a line is?”, Gollard shouted at a K who stood at the extreme right. “What is your name?”
“R..r..richard, Sir.”, the man said in a nervous voice.
“And what’s your name?”, Gollard moved to the next man.
“Yoke, Sir!”
“Does anyone have their name beginning with a K?”, Gollard stepped back and looked at everyone. Kevin was wondering if he should lift his hand but before he could make up his mind, something happened.
“Which name sir”, a foolishly jubilant voice sought Gollard’s attention. “The one that my parents gave me or the nickname that my friends use?”.
Gollard looked at this kid with shock. This kid, well almost a man, was short and had average build. He had a hint of a smile like a student on a field trip. Gollard came up to him and looked him into the eyes before saying:
“The one that will go on your grave, son”, Gollard killed the smile on the kid.
The kid stopped smiling but did not lose his streak. “That one starts with a G, sir”.
Gollard turned towards the captain and said, “Captain?”
“Everyone, please follow officer Gabe into the conference room over there”, Garry pointed to a small glass room and continued, “we will need to assign new names to you all”.
Everyone started walking towards the room. Gollard left the scene after ensuring that the captain had everything under control. Kevin, who was somewhere in the middle of the line which marched towards the glass room was suddenly pulled out by someone, he looked at his hand and saw that someone’s old, wrinkled hands were holding on his arm. He looked up but couldn’t believe his eyes.
“Not you, Kevin”, Holum said. “You already have a name which begins with K, unless Kevin is just something that your friends call you”.
“No, sir”, Kevin looked Holum in the eyes and replied firmly yet respectfully. “Kevin is my real name, my parent gave that name to me”.
“Good to know that you know that, do you remember your parents?”, Holum asked in a very friendly way.
“Yes sir, they died in a mob attack when I was 6”, Kevin was still talking firmly. He was not sad.
“That must have been devastating for you”, Holum was empathetic. “Who took your care all these years?”
“I stayed in a school till I was 21”, Kevin replied firmly again.
“Oh, your colony had residential schools. Good! Very few class 4 colonies have those”, Holum seemed relieved.
“I am sorry, let me introduce myself. My name is Holum”, Holum shook Kevin’s hand.
“I know sir, I am honored to meet you”, Kevin replied.
Holum put his arms around Kevin’s shoulders and said “come, walk with me”.
Kevin and Holum walked slowly out of the room. Moji was hovering at a distance from them. They soon reached the same large window at the end of the entrance hall on level 45.
“Thats minor-1!”, Kevin almost s
houted with excitement.
“Yes, Kevin, that is Nole minor-1. Or so I am told.”, Holum giggled on Kevin’s excitement.
Kevin tried controlling himself. He wanted to jump on the window and keep minor-1 in his sight but being in Holum’s company made him choose otherwise. He stood a few feet away from the window and let minor-1 slowly pass out of his view.
“Do you know what are we doing here, Kevin?”, Holum was still looking out of the window, as if he was more interested in the dark space than the bright minor-1 which had just disappeared from their view.
“I have heard a few things, sir”, Kevin turned to Holum for a second and then again turned back towards the window.
“We have brought all of humankind and a few other species with us on this spaceship in search of a new home”, Holum was trying to point out the severity of the situation. “I signed the decision which triggered all of this. If we should fail, I would have single handedly killed the whole human race.”
“Are we sure that Earth will not survive?”, Kevin tried to point out that there are humans still on Earth who could have a chance.
“Earth won’t die. At least not yet. But humans won’t survive more than 500 years on that planet. In fact, they had 500 years when we left. Now, they only have a couple of centuries left.”, Holum was still looking outside the window.
Kevin didn’t reply. Holum waited a moment for his comments but then continued.
“The Union tried its best to prolong our survival on the planet. We tried everything, even genetically modifying ourselves to fit Earth’s deteriorating environment but everything around us changed at a much higher pace. No matter what we did, we could not stop this from happening. With every step, we caused more damage to the environment than the progress we made.”
“Why did you ignore class 4 and class 5 colonies?”, Kevin pointed out.
“Primarily, we didn’t know that they existed. We lost almost everything in the 4th world war. In 2238, 37 nuclear explosions across the planet killed 80% of humanity. But Earth had become inhospitable well before that. Global warming caused by humans and solar activity made survival in the Torrid zone almost impossible by the latter half of the 21st century. People started moving out of the Torrid zone, everyone was running away from the equator into the temperate zones. Very high population density in the rest of the habitable parts of earth soon made survival a struggle. Do you know Kevin why those 37 nuclear bombs were deployed?”, Holum turned to Kevin now.
Kevin was looking at Holum in shock. He didn’t say anything, he was too afraid to hear the answer. Holum continued nonetheless.
“To kill humans, Kevin. The human deaths were not a side effect.”, Holum wanted Kevin to understand that humans had been struggling for survival for a long time now and sacrificing each other for survival was nothing new. “Can you imagine what would have gone through the minds of the government authorities who approved killing 80% of the humans through Nuclear blasts?”.
Kevin was still in a shock. Holum however realised that he had overwhelmed Kevin with all this information and that he should lighten up the conversation a bit. But he wanted to answer Kevin’s question nonetheless.
“So, you see Kevin, the humanity which survived, mostly in antarctica and Siberia knew and hoped that the rest of the world is dead. Maybe some explorers tried looking for survivors but there was no way of travelling to those parts of the world without being subjected to high doses of radiation. Satellites and drones were useless because most of the lower atmosphere was filled with dust and fumes. Surface temperature was much higher than that of a human’s body, so infrared imagery did not work either. But the biggest problem, as it always is, was not technical but a political one. Why go there? You just tried killing them! Would the survivors not kill you at first sight?.”
“After a few decades, the better off parts of the world regained economic and social stability, they united into a single socio-economic entity governed by ‘The Union’. We made progress in science and technology but by then nobody cared what was out there in the radiation affected areas of the planet. We could have sent a few bots in the search for survivors but looking for survivors after hundreds of years of the explosions was not much of a motivation. If they survived the blast, they would not have survived the radiation and years of bad climate. It was too late when we finally explored these areas and discovered underground colonies but by that time the Union governed society had evolved tremendously. Bringing in people from class 4 and 5 colonies or even disclosing their existence to the other colonies might have…”. Holum pondered on which reason to quote of the many he had in mind. He began again. “...started slavery once again. It was decided to leave class 4 and 5 colonies to themselves unless they faced extinction.”
“So they were left there to die?”, Kevin asked. He was listening to every word patiently.
“Not everyone in the Union’s colonies lacked empathy. There were a few communities who kept pushing the Union to look after the level 4 and 5 colonies. Many volunteers from these communities showed interest in going to the war affected areas and helping the survivors. We sent a few social workers there who wanted to help. These workers lived like spies. They mixed with the locals and helped these colonies with education, medicines, food and technology. Through these volunteers, or as we call them - “angels”, we know a lot about these colonies now.
Kevin was relieved. He pulled himself together and said, “That's a relief”.
“I don’t think people are evil, Kevin. But they are selfish. And if you think for a minute, being selfish is your natural right.”, Holum commented.
“Was it your decision, sir?”, Kevin asked. “To send angels to these colonies”.
“No, Kevin”, Holum smiled. “It happened much before I was appointed the president of the Union. I believe it was around 2550 that the first angels were officially approved. However, the angel community was helping these colonies even before that. The Union’s approval only made the angels’ work less difficult and of course the code-name “angel” was officially recognised. I myself have had several angel friends - lovely people.”
“They certainly sound like real angels”, Kevin said in a grateful voice. “How would I have recognised an angel if I saw him?”. Kevin went back to his curious attitude.
“You would not. Angles are required to hide their identities. This was the practice even before the Union got involved. I believe it was done to protect the angels themselves, since they were not sure if the war survivors would trust them because they came from the countries which once tried to kill them. Later, it was decided that not disclosing the existence of other colonies was the best strategy forward. So, an angel would never let you know his true identity.”, Holum pointed out.
“I wish I knew some of them”, Kevin sounded a bit disappointed.
“Oh I am sure you knew more than a few, Kevin”, Holum was smiling confidently now. He knew something which Kevin did not. But, he did a good job hiding it. He added, “In due time, we will share the identities of every angel that you know. But first you need to complete your education.”
Kevin wanted to know more about angels but Holum started walking again. He wanted Kevin to follow and so he did. They reached the elevator-doors which opened quickly. This was a different elevator than the one which Kevin came in. Moji followed them quickly into the elevator, it had been hovering at a distance while Holum and Kevin were having this conversation.
Where are we going, Sir?
We are going to Minister Ibu. He is an excellent educator, Kevin. You will learn a lot from him. He will take care of your education.
Kevin was excited. Ever since he arrived at the Union’s colony, he was amazed by all the technology around him. He was intrigued by Holum’s offer to educate him. But then suddenly he realised - why only him?
“What about the other people from level 4 and 5 colonies, Sir?”, Kevin enquired.
“They will be there too, Kevin”, Holum replied while moving o
ut of the elevator. They had arrived at their desired level it seemed.
Kevin and Moji followed Holum who seemed in a hurry to reach Ibu.
“Here you are, minister Ibu.”, Holum saw Ibu at a distance moving in a different direction away from them.
Ibu turned and said, “Hello Mr. President - quite a speech, I must say. who is the kid?”
Ibu, meet Kevin. Kevin, this is minister of Human rights and education, minister Ibu.
Nice to meet you sir.
“Kevin!”, Ibu reacted with excitement. It seemed that he knew him already. “How are you feeling?”.
“Fine, sir.”, Kevin smiled.
“I will leave you two here. Ibu, I believe you have a class waiting?”
“Yes, Kevin why don’t you come with me”.
“Sure, Sir”, Kevin then turned to Holum and said “Have a nice day sir.”
Ibu entered a room where eight Ks were waiting, sitting on their chairs. Each one of them had a computer in front of them. There were many chairs in the room which were empty. Ibu turned to the armbots and asked them to leave the room and stand at the gates. Kevin sat on an empty chair in the second row.
Ibu started to talk: I know you must have a lot of questions but allowing all of you to ask them one after the other, in no specific order, would be an inefficient way to deal with them. Instead, we will go over this course which I have designed for you 9 people specially. This is a crash course of sorts. Union mandates 10 years of education for every kid, starting from the 5th year of birth. Your current education level puts most of you in your 9th or 10th year of age. So, effectively, to complete your education you will have to go over 5 years of education material. Unfortunately, we only have 29 days till we land on Nole and even then I cannot use all the hours in a day for your education. Hence, as I said earlier, a crash course.
