by Bruce Burk
John switched off the holo-screen in frustration. “I cannot watch this anymore. I have to get home,” he said. Gavin shouted at the screen. “I saw that terrorist. That was no Muslim! It wasn’t human either. It was all staged! False flag! I saw that thing’s eyes. We need to tell someone about this,” he said. Then, John quickly ran out the door. Gavin followed after him, and Clark stayed behind.
Gavin and John ran into the crowded and chaotic streets. Mass military regiments were marching everywhere. The national guard and military officers were frisking people and arresting many of the large Muslim-American population that had migrated to the US. There were protesters in the streets advocating for posse comitatus who were also being arrested. It was as if the air itself stood in order under the command of the military.
Despite the bombing, the Red Party election holo-images were still displaying in the streets, while Blue Party officials were disabling them. Female protesters were being pepper sprayed in the streets for interlocking hands in an attempt to stop the tanks and military parade from moving forward. The election images were replaced by a new slogan, “FREEDOM IS SECURITY.”
John and Gavin stared at the images in despair. They feared their city, their Republic was slowly fading away. “Why is it that states always feel the need to roll over the rights of the many to protect us from the actions of a few?” John said. They felt paralyzed like there was nothing they could do. They could go to press, but from the stories that were running on the news lately, it was clear that the Blue Party had control of all the media companies. And with everyone being imprisoned in the streets, it was clear that the Blue Party was trying to consolidate power. John felt as though his grandfather was right. He began recalling the message from God that he had received and began getting nervous about the scripture books that he had stored in his room. Both John and Gavin could see military officers going from one house to the other performing random searches. In his nervousness, he ran home with Gavin following closely behind.
John bolted into his room and frantically checked under his bed to make sure the books were still there. He let out a deep sigh when he felt the texture of the Bible his grandfather had given him. Knock, knock, knock, he heard at the front door. “Open up! Police! We need to inspect your home for terrorist activity,” the police said.
He checked his camera to find they were military men outside his door. “Gavin! What are we going to do? They can’t search this room. I have illegal books here,” John said, showing the books to Gavin. “Open up, or we will break down the door,” the police exclaimed. “I’ll handle this,” Gavin replied. Gavin opened the door. “Good day officers,” Gavin said, showing the officers his military wrist identifier. “Everything’s ok in here. I’ve taken control of this living square to search the rest of the building for terrorists. I’ve heard many people say they’ve seen suspicious activity in the building next to us. You might want to do some terror hunting there,” Gavin said. The officers looked at Gavin skeptically but saluted him and left the building. John’s heart was still beating in his stomach. “Thank God for you, Gavin. Thank God for you,” John said.
“Gavin, I need your help. I was going to tell you about this, but I never got a chance. He brought out the books. My grandfather has given me these books, and he asked me to hide them away. He thinks that Eidolon is a grave danger to the world and wants the words in these books to be protected. You have to help me preserve them. I know you don’t believe in God, but you have to believe in me. Please don’t let anything happen to these books, no matter what the cost.”
After Clark had healed, he started walking through the chaotic military streets of the town. He saw a strange e-car pull up near the capitol building. There were men dressed as priests with crosses around their neck. Clark called John on his headset, “John we got more problems here! More of those creatures are planning to attack the capital! You need to get down here now!” The priests climbed the capital and began placing charges at the top of the building. “Where is the military?” he asked himself. Clark ran up to some military officers, “They are attacking the capital! Quick! Go arrest them! Shoot them! Do something!” The officer grabbed his communication module and quickly ordered Clark to be put in one of the glass temporary prisons that many of the protestors had been put into. Then, reporters came running into the area. The Christian extremists hoisted large crosses into the air. The whole country watched as the emergency broadcast system showed footage of the Capital being invaded by Christian extremists.”
Suddenly, the Capital exploded, filling the sky with smoke, fire, and debris. The symbol of the people’s government pancaked and engulfed in flames. The American flags on top of the Capital burned into ashes. The whole country had watched as Christians were blamed for the most intense terror attack in history. Hundreds of people were killed. Clark screamed from the glass container that it was staged.
The explosion caused John to feel intense pain in his chest like he had a connection to the people who had died. He knew his way of life was slowly fading away. Why would God have let this happen? John started remembering images he had seen while he was imprisoned on Eidolon’s ship, but he couldn’t make out what he had seen. The military quickly surrounded the area and tried to remove people from the scene. Citizens watched as their capital burned to the ground. Atheists and anti-religious groups out in protest became angry and screamed that this was bound to happen. John and Gavin knew that the military control of the country would now become absolute.
John and Gavin paced back and forth in John’s room. Gavin considered calling his commanding officer, but when attempted to do so, John knocked his tablet out of his hand. John quickly took his matter sword out and slashed all electronic equipment in the room. “We have to stop using anything connected to the database. They could by spying on us,” John yelled. He immediately turned on the cloaking device on his necklace. “Hey, that thing is sweet! Where’d you get that?” Suddenly, Gavin’s tablet received from the national alert system. All eyes in America turned to their screens for the government's reaction to the horrific bombing.
Eidolon stood amongst all the Blue Party leaders and the military ready to speak, “Citizens of the United States. Today, Christian religious extremists destroyed your beautiful capital. There is a reason that this country was established without religion because of the evil that it creates. These radicals sought to overthrow the US government and establish a theocracy in its place. We cannot and will not allow that to happen. Today, as your new leader, I am declaring that all religions are hereby outlawed. Anyone found worshiping God or engaging in any religious practices will be arrested and put into camps to be processed. We have allowed religion to pervert our society for far too long. This country has allowed religion to be used as a method to control you. And yet, it is all lies. For thousands of years, religion has been used to control the minds of men. In this country, it has caused the deaths of hundreds of Americans from religious Muslims committing Jihad. The Crusades gave mankind nothing but division and war all in the name of religion. There has been more bloodshed in the name of these false ideologies than anything else in history. Religion is a way of making people not care about society or their country and only act to build up their afterlife. This cannot go on any longer. I am hereby ordering that the records of these extremist texts, including the Bible, the Quran, the Sutras, and all other religious texts be deleted from the Universal Database. It will no longer be possible for you to find them and radicalize yourself or anyone else. We will have a truly secular society devoid of the evils created by the illusion of these false teachings. Please comply with the military officers that will be coming to search your homes and businesses for any religious materials that must be discarded. There is only America. There is only the country. There is only peace.”
And so it was. All the religious texts in history were deleted from the Universal Database. The Bible, the Quran, the Sutras, the Torah, and others were obliterated from existence. All records
of God or the messiahs of all religions were wiped from existence. All messages, electronic documents, music, movies containing religious material of any kind were omitted from the rest of their medium. If religious materials were too essential to the story or artistic work, the work was deleted entirely. It was as if God never existed . . . ever.
Hundreds of thousands of people attending church services saw religious texts on the screen as the priests spoke. Suddenly, the words faded away. Those who were using lyrics for worship saw those words vanish. In its place they saw a message from Eidolon: “Freedom is Security.” These words have been removed for your protection. Professor Snow was teaching a class and saw his historical references on his holo-screen wiped out. All broadcasts of religious programs were withdrawn from the Universal Database. If there was somewhere you wanted to find God, you were out of luck. The words of the Declaration of Independence that referenced the creator were also deleted.
CHAPTER 6 - X-42
John and Gavin stared out the window into the streets of chaos, unsure of what to do. They could hear the screams from the citizens below being arrested, harassed, and even killed. Gavin and Clark stared at the pile of religious books that lay across John’s bed. “… Are you … going to turn those in?” Clark asked. “Never!” John said. “We need to get to my Grandfather. He’ll know what to do. I have to give him these books back, they are much safer with him than with me," he added. Gavin replied, but aren't people just going to reenter information into the Universal Database? I mean, people don't just forget things overnight. Surely there are some copies of the Bible online right now as we speak.”
“Gavin, don’t you get it? The database is rigged! Anything you look for or put in is going to be monitored. Watch this,” Clark answered. Clark pulled up his holo-computer, created a proxy chain, and hacked into the Universal Database using advanced techniques. “Don’t you know I would have been prepared for such an occasion? I’ve been talking about government takeovers for years now,” Clark said. Then, he attempted to log in from someone’s computer on the West Coast. He typed in a search for, “Jesus Christ.” A message came up quickly, “FREEDOM IS SECURITY,” this information has been removed for your protection.
Clark then attempted to open an electronic document on the computer and type in John 3:16. He typed, “For God so loved the … ” The document was instantly shut down. A message displayed: “FREEDOM IS SECURITY. This information has been removed for your protection.
“See, I told you. The Feds have this system on lockdown,” Clark said. John and Gavin paced nervously throughout the room. “Wait a second. Spiders! The system then began to track the location of the computer he had remotely accessed. "The Feds are tracking people that do searches! There are spider crawlers in this person’s computer now.” He quickly shut the computer down and broke the link so he wouldn’t be traceable. “This is all the more reason why I need your help, Clark. You too Gavin. I can’t do this without you. Come with me to my grandfather’s house, and let’s figure out what to do,” John pleaded. Reluctantly, they agreed. Thoughts of Sophia entered John’s mind. He wished to see her and make sure she was safe. But at this point, he wasn’t sure if anyone was.
Gavin received a message on his tablet. “1st Lt. Gavin Fresco: report for duty at Mitchel Air Force Base tomorrow at 08:00 hours. You will be debriefed for flight plans and tasks involving the T-28 upon arrival,” the message said. Gavin threw down his tablet in anger. “I can’t fight for this country anymore. This government, this nation is not the same anymore. I swore an oath to defend my country, and that stops when it's being run like this. I will not be a tool of tyranny. If they think I’m going to show up, they have another thing coming,” Gavin said.
John put the set of Holy Books into his messenger bag. He would not leave them in his room anymore. At this time, the only safe place for them was on his shoulder. If anyone wanted to take them, they would have to kill him. The strap pressed firmly down on him as if the heaviest of burden had been put on him. Clark, Gavin, and John all took a good hard look at each other.
Just days ago, it seemed as if they lived in an entirely different reality. And now, as they left, the felt like they were walking into a whole new world. Outside, there was nothing but screams and horror. Little did they know, there were already armed guards patrolling outside the building. Eidolon had compiled a list of the people in the world with religious ties. John walked up to the door. He placed his hand right on the scanner to open the door. Clark quickly slapped John’s hand out of the way.
“Wait! You can’t go outside! They have you in the database. They’ll take you out. We’ve got to figure out a way to get rid of your records.” Clark said. “Clark’s right,” Gavin said. Secrecy must be our highest priority right now. We have to be careful until we can take back our country back.”
Clark had them go back into John’s home. John’s heart came down one notch from jet speed as he entered the last place he felt safe. Clark, as always, began his computerized magic. “You know … with all this crazy government takeover of the database, you guys might need to start learning the art of hacking. In an information economy controlled by the government, the hacker becomes the patriot.” Clark projected his computer system onto the walls with light. Columns of numbers and data covered John’s room. Clark hid behind multiple proxies and entered the system. This time, he had a better plan. Clark would create an artificial IP address then give it a location in the middle of the ocean. He needed to find where the CIA was keeping records of religious ties to all citizens. He searched using John’s National ID number and found his profile. There were millions of records. They had the religious affiliations of every citizen marked. John Shepard. Religious affiliation: Christian. Parents …”
“Clark. Let’s not look at that, please. I’d rather not re-live those memories right now. Just do what you need to do and let’s go,” John said.
“The only way we are going to be able to move freely in this world is if the database thinks that we are loyal to Eidolon; that we have no religious ties whatsoever,” Gavin said. “Even I was raised Catholic which I am pretty sure was disclosed somewhere on my military application. Those records are probably deep within the Pentagon's section of the database,” he added.
Flashes of John watching his screen when he observed the government attempting to edit this history of Native-Americans came into his mind. “Wait,” John said, just before Clark could push the button to erase his history from the database. “If we do this, what separates us from them? If you can justify the permanent editing of history for this issue, where does it end?” John contemplated.
“John … the database … it’s so far gone now. I would agree that the editing of history is wrong, but it has been happening for thousands of years. The victor writes history,” Gavin said.
“Yes, but that may have been true before the corrupt Post-Modern and the Information Socialization movements. It is way out of hand now. I swear you could ask the database what 2 + 2 is and you might just find out it was 5 if you checked at the right time,” John added.
“Don't think of it as revising history, John. Think of it like wearing a mask. We have the right to hide from someone who is spying on us. It’s like … our right to privacy or something,” Gavin said. “Well, when you put it like that,” John said. “Alright then!” Clarke said as a pressed a button that deleted all of John’s religious ties from the database. “Wait a second,” Clark said. “Did you see this? They have atheists on here too? And Agnostics? “That doesn’t make any sense,” Clark added. After working on Gavin and his own identities in the database, Clark entered his friends as Eidolon supporters as well, deleting all traces of religious ties they had. John didn’t like the idea, but he knew it was better to remain in secrecy for a greater purpose.
“Why does this make me feel guilty?” he asked himself. Then, Clark saw a note in the database that said, “All non-Eidolon supporters subject to Order X-42.” “What is that?” Gavin asked
. “I can’t tell it’s really heavily encrypted. The best I can do is download it to a local drive and decrypt it after it’s had some time to run some scans of it. It could take a while,” Clark replied. Then, Clark downloaded the file.
They all stared at the language, “All non-Eidolon supporters subject to Order X-42.” The words seemed like a threat; a message they knew could only mean that people would die. Out John’s window, the could hear blasters being used on civilians in the name of security. “Here, take this,” John said as he handed John a blaster. “You might need it,” Gavin added. Suddenly, the overheard a conversation in the next room, “You should really check out the guy next door to me, he is a real religious nut,” John’s neighbor said. “Time to go,” John said as the three of them escaped through the roof before the officers barged through the door.
The made it down to the ground and got caught in a swarm of citizens marching in support of their new leader. Troops were marching alongside their newly created loyalists who marched out of fear, ignorance, or a combination of the two.
