Hannah knew that Syra would not agree to an international incident. They would have to get the Russians that were involved in such a way that no one would know where they went, nor who was involved in their disappearance!
When conditions had deteriorated and had gotten so much worse, many of the Russians who had invested in businesses and land in America had abandoned their investments and went back to their homeland.
Even Russia underestimated the anger and desperation that had been boiling up for years in some Americans. If they truly knew, then they knew the Americans better than they knew themselves.
For many years, a group of Americans who had always felt they were left behind and abandoned by society, would get a chance to rise again and find their own leader. One that thought the same way they did.
This group of hidden voters had been silent, overlooked, and did not even fall into any financial group. Therefore, they were missed.
Since they never answered polls or participated in anything political other than marches or violence from time to time, they were simply ignored. After all, there couldn’t possibly be that many of them.
No one knew what was boiling up and would soon fester into something so bad, it would never heal again.
It had been nearly 60 years since the last man ran for president that would have been their president, their leader. For the first time, they would have been represented in the Oval Office.
But he was abruptly taken out of the race and they waited a long time for another man like him. When Trevil came along, this gave them and their cause hope and they knew they would rise again.
There was Trevil who spoke their language. Understood their ways and his words spread like wildfire, and that became his base.
There would be no stopping them now, and Hannah had read her history well. It was before she was born, but her parents often talked about those old days of hatred that filled the streets.
Hannah saw the resemblance of thinking, plotting and planning, and how that man from so long ago had set into motion a wave of hatred and rebellion against everything her forefathers wanted and tried to prevent through the constitution.
The Constitution was just a piece of paper to Trevil, and he had had all those precious documents stolen over 20 years ago to have them burned or disproven as genuine.
Hannah knew good and well where those documents were hidden, and they were in a safe place on Earth II. No other man would get a chance to try to destroy them ever again.
As she reflected back in history, she could remember in her time, the day the elaborate plan to steal all historical documents and then blame it on the aliens went down.
Luckily, the aliens had proof of Trevil and his people in the act of stealing them.
They even had proof of how they planned to replace them with forgeries. Then, all they had to do was prove the documents were never real in the first place, they could have rewritten the constitution the way they wanted it to be.
Therefore, breaking down democracy would be easier, or so they thought. However, it was a plan that had nearly worked.
Yes, Hannah thought to herself, Trevil should spend the rest of his days locked up in Alcatraz! It was he who had awakened those followers of hate, and the desire to tear down our democracy.
They wanted their own leader, and they wanted him to have a lifetime appointment.
Then, there was Anderson! He had followed in Trevil’s footsteps, but he had a bankroll to back him up, unlike any old man Trevil ever had.
For over 60 some years, these people resisted anything and everything that reminded them of a country that wanted to be free and to allow illegal aliens into America.
These people wanted no one that was not pure to be allowed to step foot on American soil. No one from another country of mixed blood, much less anyone from another planet!
This meant the Zhianites had no place on Earth they could live except countries that would have only taken them in just for their technology.
But it also meant no one from any other foreign soil was welcomed here either. It was and had been an us and them, from the time Hannah was born.
Leaving Hines on the island prison didn’t feel right to Hannah, she felt he was just so misguided. Yet, he was fully aware of what was going on around him and did nothing.
But Clifford Trevil, he was something to deal with. He was poison for anyone who could hear the sound of his voice and needed to be isolated from the rest of the prisoners no doubt.
Then Hannah got her first report in, several hundred more prisoners were apprehended by the FBI and were on their way to the prison.
Since the old buildings that had collapsed a long time ago were now almost rebuilt, there should be no problem housing many new prisoners.
Much of the old plumbing had been replaced and the island prison was just about ready to have its open house welcoming many new prisoners.
It was the American way to give a man a fair trial. But if it were not for the very men and their actions now headed to the island prison, they would be getting a fair trial, Lawson and Hannah both agreed.
Those men were responsible for the collapse of the justice system; therefore, it was ironic that they would not get a fair trial to defend themselves.
From the looks of things, Hannah’s best guess was America would not be able to rebuild for years to come. At least not during these men’s lifetimes nor hers.
Who would have thought that by the twenty-first century, she would see a collapse so dramatic, that men like Lawson now worked without a paycheck!
Many officials were working around the clock to try to bring back law and order and were well taken care of by means of Zhian technology. No one really needed a paycheck, they just needed the ability to survive day by day and that much they received through the ranch and its efforts in trying to rebuild society.
It was difficult, to say the least, for Hannah. She was one with a passion running deep in her heart for her people, and they were suffering greatly.
Lawson had many loyal FBI agents that worked without pay, but they knew what they were doing was vital to help clean up the streets and hopefully bring back some sort of law and order.
Back at the Oval Office, Rebecca Holmes, also working without pay herself, worked around the clock to try to bring order to the government again.
As far as when an election could take place, that was anybody’s guess. She was born and raised into politics but never dreamed of being an acting president.
If it were not for her full understanding and being born into a family that had played a major role in the running of the government for the last 125 Years, she would have panicked.
While the island prison or prison rock as some preferred to call it was filling up, Hannah decided it was time to check on the settlements of freedom to see how they were progressing.
The streets were still very unsafe for anyone to travel without being with an armed convoy. Hundreds of thousands of people across the country were still trapped in small groups fighting for survival.
Hannah called Charles into the command center at the ranch to discuss an outing to see firsthand how settlement one, two and three were doing. This would take several weeks, but the first one they would go to was Yellowstone Settlement One, and so they started preparing for the trip.
Meanwhile, back on Earth II, Syra was anxious to see how the progress of the protected settlements was going. She had been watching closely from her command center back on Earth II from the beginning.
Syra was growing concerned more each day as she observed the fighting on the streets. The lack of law and order, the rioting that had been going on now for several years and not even the military could tone it down.
Captain Zee told Syra it was really bad back on Earth, and she may want to reconsider visiting it any time soon. It was his observation that it would not be wise to visit Earth and to try to help them. She would need to continue to help from a distance; if not she could make matters worse.<
br />
The captain had seen firsthand, twice now, how bad it was. It was much worse the second visit he took when he picked up the second load of refugees. The visuals from Earth were not really showing how bad it had gotten according to Hannah’s reports. But he knew first hand.
To Syra, it was beginning to look like the only civil life in the United States, if not the world, was right there on those three settlements of freedom!
Syra ran a projection through the Zhian Sphere’s database to see what came up in its predictions. It was based on the rate of destruction of the society, democracy, the collapse of the government as a functioning body, law, and order, the monetary systems and so on.
The results were not looking good, and the Zhian Sphere had predicted a total collapse within five years, at most.
The recommendation was to continue focusing on the three settlements of freedom to save as many as they could. To go ahead and assist those who still had hope outside the settlements, but to arrange for their safety should they need to bail out of the fight.
But total success was not predicted, only partial, and it would take a lifetime or more to rebuild if they were not taken over by a foreign nation.
If they were ever to be successful, they knew they may not be able to go back to what they were or what they remembered they were. There was now a zero chance of it ever being exactly the same.
The Zhian Sphere had calculated the planet Zhian’s own demise, and the Zhianites knew exactly how much time they had before they would be at the point of no return!
They knew almost up to the day when all pods carrying their people would leave in their own great exodus!
Most of Syra’s people relocated to smaller planets their ancestors had scouted out long before any of them were even born.
But since Zerk and his council of 12 had other plans, Earth was their target! Only a handful of Zhianites were chosen and all of Zhians technology was loaded aboard the Zhian Sphere.
Syra remembered learning of the council’s plans to take over the Earth and rule it from within their own computer networks as soon as possible.
Zerk and council were once like Syra, or at least she was told they were living breathing beings. But no one had ever seen them alive. They had always just existed within the Holocom Core systems.
The day she ordered their Holocom sphere to be shot into the Earths sun by one of Ohtrons dying bitrons, was in her mind, the only way to save Earth.
Yet, Syra now faced another grave choice. Earth was once again in peril, but this time the enemy was its own people and not hers.
She knew she may never really know if she did the right thing. But at least council went quietly into the sun not knowing they were ever removed from their base in the Zhian Sphere’s core. It was, after all, maintenance protocol to place them in a holding box for safety during such maintenance. They never knew.
James Caldiron said, “Syra if you really want to go back to Earth, don’t go unless it is to the rescue the three settlements of freedom!”
“I believe you are correct my darling! Words of hope won’t change what’s happening on Earth. I would only make it worse!” and Syra walked away feeling almost defeated.
What had shocked Syra the most was there were literally hundreds of thousands of people who still wanted President Anderson in charge, despite the fact that he was directly responsible for the lack of food, fresh water, and any order in the government or on the streets.
But from what Syra had learned of Earth’s history, there had been other countries who followed a leader responsible for the deaths of millions. This was nothing new.
History had repeated itself once again, but this time, the society itself was collapsing. The scenarios were not exactly the same, but Syra was losing hope for those in America and feared it would be taken over by a foreign nation in the very near future.
“Perhaps the time to return to Earth is when you need to oversee Earth’s great exodus, Syra!” James said.
Syra replied, “That is one of my greatest fears my darling!”
Meanwhile back on Earth, Hannah had Ellead all ready to go, and she was excited. She had been monitoring the three settlements of freedom since the beginning but had not had time to visit them.
It took Ellead some time to have his interior cleaned and sanitized. He had been mostly a workhorse, transporting criminals to the island prison, not to mention the many days and nights running his shroud in the most difficult situations!
Sitting idly by, just waiting while criminals were being caught in the act of burning down high-rise buildings in big cities to using some strip malls as target practice in smaller cities.
The leaders of those groups were sent straight to the island prison, while the others were now being collected and deposited on several remote islands with no way to leave and no communications to the outside world.
They would be out of contact with society and those that worked with them to destroy whatever they could.
Ellead was once again the fine explorer ship he was intended to be, and would escort Hannah, Charles and most of her crew to Settlement One today. He would do a flyover and then a landing to meet with its residents.
Once boarded, they left the ranch in a flash! In just a few moments they hovered high above the Yellowstone Settlement One located mostly in Wyoming.
The settlement was made from fabricated panels from the replicator that looked much like logs which formed a log fortress. This kept the residents safe from the wildlife and preserved the wildlife’s habitat as well.
Even as the settlement expanded, it preserved the naturally surroundings and for once, Hannah thought to herself, mankind was doing the right thing with the beauty of the national park. Using it to help save those that lived there all the while preserving that Yellowstone truly had to offer.
Inside the fortress, it was obvious much of it was Zhian technology put to work as it should be, and that was to protect the natural land while saving the inhabitants of the United States in the process.
Much like it is done on Earth II, the residents wasted nothing and recycled everything possible. Nothing was taken from the land; they simple coexisted with it.
One cordoned-off area was the most beautiful community garden Hannah had ever seen! Never in her life had she seen vegetables as large as these or as plentiful. The gardeners told Hannah they used the special seeds given to them by one of the botanist bots.
One building was for storage of vegetables and other items needed by the residents of Yellowstone Settlement One. Their system was modeled much like Earth II’s cities from the floor plan that had been given, and everyone loved it. It was like a commissary and all you had to do was go pick up what you needed and sign it out.
Labor was done by everyone in the settlement and areas and hours logged carefully. Everyone shared equal labor and equal rewards.
One large building handled manufacturing of items needed either by the replicators or by special craft. Either way, nothing was used from outside the walls of the settlement.
They were given several travel pods much like a city bus, but it flew above the ground and never touched the grass below.
Hannah was proud that these settlers had done so much in such a short time and done it well.
Everyone at the Yellowstone Settlement One knew what was outside the settlement and knew their only hope of survival was right where they were!
They elected their own leader, needed no monetary system, and had yet to have a single incident of crime. Basically, there was no reason to steal or anything else. But, just in case, they had adjusted for that as well.
The residents of the settlement had the flexibility to run things as they saw fit. If they had learned anything from the past, it was how some things could get completely out of control.
Hannah shook as many hands as she could and congratulated everyone as she exited the area back to Ellead. All residents were well aware of what was going on outside of their private settlement.
/>
They had a lot of land and resources and knew they could survive where they were; even if the sun was blocked out completely, they would still be able to live and function as a society.
All of them looked toward the sky daily, wondering if that was going to be the day the lights would go out, and they would be the last remaining humans on Earth.
Without the Zhian technology, they knew not even they had a chance of survival.
They all watched as Ellead lifted up and the shroud opened briefly as he flew up and out of sight.
All of those in the settlement felt they now had a fighting chance, it was all because Hannah had worked so hard to save them.
But they always knew in the backs of their minds, that far up in the sky, somewhere out there in space, Syra was also watching over them from planet Earth II.
book two
chapter seven
The Caldiron Ranch continued to watch the progress of the three settlements of freedom, but the streets of every city across the U.S. were in turmoil.
The acting president, Rebecca Holmes and Lawson of the FBI contacted Hannah about a problem she was told could get out of hand and asked if she had any information to share.
The Rev. Jeremiah Collinsworth’s Mega Church named The Church of the Rapture was taking over every news channel. All billboards were now listing his mega church.
The concern was the church had bought thousands upon thousands of acres of land in the last few years purchased through deceitful means no doubt. No one was sure just how much land the church now owned, but it was all along a very large section of the Appalachian Trail.
The church’s followers were mostly the rich and famous. But they had in recent times, attracted what was once the middle class who were now members.
The red flag, of course, was that they were also luring in thousands of poor families through bartering with them since they could not pay tithes through money.
Much of the donations they were now taking were in goods and services; they had pretty much bought all the land available through legal means and were now fortifying it. But to collect food and clothing was odd, to say the least.
The Chronicles of Syra Omnibus Page 33
