First Light: Book one of the Torus Saga

by Berg, Michael

  **********

  Raynie stood outside the cabin sipping a cup of coffee as she watched dark clouds gather over the distant high peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. She knew a storm was coming by the way they were building and joining up so quickly. A sudden gust of chill wind made her shiver and she drew her free arm across her chest, the other holding her cup.

  “Here,” Jake said appearing beside her offering a small blanket which he draped over her shoulders. “Stormy weather ahead.”

  “Hmm, yes, thanks. How are you this morning?”

  “Good, but a little concerned,” he was thinking of the announcement made by the authorities the night before.

  “Yeah me too.” They were the first of the group at the cabin to rise. “I have an uncomfortable feeling.”

  “Yeah, I think we all feel a bit that way after last night.” The conversation went no further as the pair of them stood in silence until they had finished their coffee. “What do you think we should do? Any ideas?”

  “None really. I feel blank. For the first time in weeks I actually feel a little lost. Even our trip across China and the rest…”

  “Was not like this?”

  “Yes. Despite the ambiguity of Chan’s directions, it did not feel like this.”

  “I know. I feel similar.”

  Ryan had been quietly walking up to them almost without sound. “Good morning,” he said as he reached their position surprising them.

  “Good morning,” Jake said first, then Raynie.

  “We are in for a summer snow storm by the looks of it.”

  “Snow in summer?”

  “Yeah, you get them perhaps once or twice during the peak of summer, but this one looks bad. See how the clouds gather so quickly?”

  “I felt a chill wind just before,” Raynie added. The three of them fell silent for a time returning to look at the gathering weather until sounds from within the cabin brought them around.

  “It looks like the others are awake. Let’s have some breakfast and talk about what is going on. We need to make some decisions.” Ryan returned inside leaving the other two to come in when they felt ready.

  Jake put his arm around Raynie as another gust of wind made her shiver, “Let’s go in, perhaps a hot breakfast will help.”

  The others were busily preparing a substantial cooked breakfast as they returned to the cabin - its smell distracting them from their thoughts outside.

  “Mmm, smells great,” Raynie said realizing her hunger. “Need any help?”

  “No thanks, all under control here,” Tobias replied. “Just about done anyway.”

  “It feels a bit strange without Lyle and Jenna here,” Raynie said as the seven adults sat around the large wooden table eating breakfast. “I know we haven’t seen them for a week, but I feel we are about to come up against something or find out something, and recently at such times they have been there with us.”

  A much stronger gust of wind suddenly battered the window behind them and they all turned to look outside. “Gee that was fast, it is already snowing,” Ryan said getting up from the table, “I had better fetch some wood for the fire.” Jake, Tobias, and John also followed him outside.

  “Let’s go and finish breakfast,” John said after they had gathered wood. “We have a lot to talk about.”

  “Quick, eat before it goes cold,” Lorraine said as the men sat down. As they finished the meal, they talked about the announcement of the identification chips made the night before. John’s face gradually looked more and more concerned, with a look a doubt emerging.

  “Worried?” Asper asked him.

  “Hmm…a bit. Judging by the advice of people being holographic messaged for ID chip insert, I am thinking about our own personal communications black out going on here. People are going to be contacted and if the systems tell those bloody idiots in office that certain holographic connections are not available, they are going to start wondering why.”

  “Yeah, I agree. My friend on the inside told me they are going to demand all holographic communications devices are to remain switched on. He reckons the public will be told it is for security, but also they are going to monitor each and every one of us.”

  “That is a big job monitoring all the personal communications…”

  “Not for them. Apparently they have been testing some new technology not directly made for such a purpose, but its capacity could easily be adapted to carry out such widespread surveillance.”

  “Oh crap…um, sorry ladies. I mean…”

  Tobias broke in on John, “We have a whole new round of issues to deal with.”

  “Yeah that is where I was going.”

  “What about Jenna and Lyle?” Raynie asked.

  “Hmmm…not sure. They have a standard personal communications black out with their Moon mission. I think they are going to need the gear Ryan and I built even though their mission is relatively short. This ID thing will come in fast…”

  “Like this storm,” Lorraine interjected indicating towards the window. This prompted them all again to look and see the snow was now much heavier.

  “What about our own devices?” Tobias asked returning to the conversation.

  “I can cover that to an extent,” Ryan replied. “It should not be a problem to set up a location masking algorithm, but as far as counteracting our own call up for the ID chip injection, I am at a bit of a loss.”

  “How about your inside contact? Can we get him to help us?” John proposed. “The central systems are going to record data as each person is chipped. We are going to need some fake data so they see us as having been done.”

  “Sounds like we are livestock,” Asper said.

  “Yeah. You can bet the authorities are progressively seeing a lot of people that way. Think about it. You can rely on the authorities to provide all you need to feel safe and comfortable, and this mandatory urgent chip status. It sounds like they are herding people around.”

  “And injecting them for the prevention of…” Ryan paused mid sentence. “What is it? Why do they want to do this?”

  “I expect it is about controlling the minds and lives of people. They are gearing up for something beyond just the ID chip though. The chip is probably just the first part.” They all fell silent each having their own thoughts about what the authorities were up to.

  Lorraine spoke a minute or so later, “What is it that Chan said? Trust your intuitions or gut feelings?”

  “One and the same,” Jake replied.

  “We are going to need them,” Raynie added.

  “My experiences with meditation are similar.” Ryan looked a little relieved as he recalled the state of mind. “Perhaps a little step back from all the questions could be in order. The questions can cloud our mind - let us not be reflecting the conditions outside, um…aside from the purity of the white snow. In contrast to the wind and dark clouds, see the snow as the odd thing out even though it is a product of both wind and cloud.”

  “Raynie, Jake, we all know how much you love snow skiing, well me too. Consider how a storm brings violence through wind and temperature, but often when it has passed, the landscape is brilliant with powder snow under clear and crisp blue skies.” Raynie and Jake laughed a little thinking of the joy when riding fresh untracked powder snow.

  “Right. Now think of how there is happiness to be experienced as a result of the storm, a sense of vibrancy. This in turn, stirs your emotions, excites you and then you respond to your feelings through the actions of skiing, creating further momentum, more excitement. During these moments you are your unhindered self, purely in the moment expressing yourself. Then quite often at the end of the day, you will spend time talking about your daring, your excitement, and your mishaps as it often is with snow skiers.”

  “So you are saying that if we let go of consternation in our minds, then our intuitions will lead us to answers?” Raynie said.

  “Precisely. It is what Chan was saying to you on your travels.”

  �
�But answers still seem remote,’ John said still looking a bit puzzled. He was also thinking of the technology he would have to build for overcoming the holographic communications issues.

  “Indeed at this point they do seem remote, but…that is not to say they will not eventuate. My meditations have shown me that a clear mind free from the assessment and judgment often created through ego can bring about enlightenment on any particular subject, or indeed just as a general way or feeling in life without any specific goal. We need to trust ourselves for the answers to come. This is outside conventional lineal thinking where a starting point and ending point are set up and our experiences are about going from one to the other.”

  “But ego is not all bad,” Asper added.

  “Indeed, on occasion ego is in fact something to assist us, but in many instances it is a reflection of learned ways that keep us away from sudden intuitions or realizations. The ego looks for judgment in order to construct scope and define experience within certain terms or conditions. When we spend too much time in such places, we can miss other opportunities as we are in effect, blinkered or restricted into seeing mostly what the ego defines as the way things should be.”

  “OK, but getting back to the original issue,” John understood the conversation but he was still a little distracted with the logistical side of things. “We were asking about what it is the authorities are up to.”

  “Well John, what do you think?” Ryan asked.

  “I think those bastards are going to try and steal away people’s free will, to smother their lives in order for them to conform to the control they are instituting. They want to dominate the world, as they always have through history and this is just the latest iteration. So we should get back to work Ryan.”

  By nightfall, the storm had dumped eighteen inches of snow, and the warm glow from inside the cabin was the only light for miles around, except for one other. Agent Eight was driving slowly along the road on a heading towards Monitor Pass, his vehicle unhindered by the conditions. He did not want to miss any road or track he considered worth investigating. His hatred had only slightly eased as he concentrated on his objective, as it was never far from the front of his mind. The data Superior Office One had given him was not specific aside from one thing. His assailant in San Francisco had traveled into the mountains, and the location of his holographic device had given the Agent a lead. ‘Your mistake will be your undoing,’ he thought as he struggled to see beyond the falling snow. ‘You should have turned it off, but you didn’t did you.’ He didn’t care that his information was over a week old. Time was irrelevant now - his main focus was on the task ahead. With the plans now under way, he felt an assurance of success, so time did not matter.

  A deer suddenly appeared in the headlights, so he ran it over without any hint of remorse. The snow did not bother him, as his vehicle was more than capable of taking him where he wanted to go - all six wheels carving through its depths effortlessly. It was just he was a little uncertain of where precisely it was he was going. Uncertainty was the opposite of certainty and this was his only disdain. Machines were never uncertain, their mechanics prescribing the way in which they behave, and the way they should operate. He wanted this more than anything - for the Earth to become the machine he had always dreamed of. Only one thing rivaled this particular want, and that was to find his assailant. Revenge had twisted him, made him even more bitter than what he naturally felt. He had tried to forget his own incompetence with the situation leading to him being knocked out, but Superior Officer One had reminded him through her smarmy condescendence. ‘I’ll show her,’ he thought as he drove on, again thinking of his goal to surpass her in status.

  Location readouts on the dashboard hologram showed him he was very close to the road leading to a cabin. He slowed down to make sure he would not miss the turnoff as the data only provided a general area in which to look. Another deer suddenly appeared, but he was traveling too slowly for it to be knocked down. It stared at him for a moment stunned by the headlights, and then it disappeared to his left through a gap in the trees. He turned to look as it disappeared from view and he saw a snow-laden track, barely discernable from the surrounding forest. “There,” he said aloud to himself, “That’s it.” He turned to the left and followed marks left behind by the deer as it had used the track as a fast means to escape.

  **********

  Ryan had calmly told the others to pack the gear they would need for the trip ahead. He had been alerted to the Agent’s presence via a monitor device installed in a tree three miles before the turn off to the track leading up to the cabin. Now they were all ready and waiting as he warmed up the three snowmobiles in the machinery shed. “Follow me as we go, don’t do anything else. I have an escape route out of this area in case of a security situation. John, stash the tech gear on my machine. You are going to be cramped, but these mobiles will take three each despite being designed only for two. I will ride alone with the gear.”

  “Where will we go? There is a lot of wilderness about these parts.” John asked.

  “Don’t worry, I can get us out. That vehicle will not be able to follow us through the trees so we have an advantage.”

  “Are you sure it won’t?”

  “Fairly sure. We are going to wind through some pretty rugged terrain.”

  “What about when the snow runs out? This summer storm is probably not dumping at lower elevations.”

  “If we can get safely out of here, I have a vehicle we can use. Just follow.” He boarded his own machine and the others crowded onto the remaining two.

  “What about our tracks?” John said above the hum of the electric snowmobile engines.

  “A risk we are going to have to take. Nothing I can do about that other than to hope the snowfall continues and covers them, but don’t count on it. Anyway, that vehicle could be equipped with tracking hardware locking onto the remnant signal from the power source these mobiles have. At best we can really only buy a little time whilst whoever it is looks around here before finding nothing and deciding to use it. Let’s go!”

  They all powered up and sped out of the machinery shed. Tree trunks dashed by barely visible as they kept the headlights at low radiance. The others followed Ryan on a hair raising high-speed trip through the forest with snow spraying behind them, kicked up by the snowmobile tracks. After a ten-minute ride, Ryan stopped and the others drew up alongside. “They are at the cabin now,’ he said pointing to a readout on the dashboard of his machine. “I set up a detector as we left. OK, let’s keep going, time is of the essence.” They all powered up and were off again as before at high speed. Suddenly an explosion could be heard, accompanied by a brief flash from the direction of the cabin. They all stopped again.

  “A fusion detonator I put in the workshop. Anything we left behind will be melted into one big lump. I could not risk anything back there. It will take them days to analyse it and then their results will be insufficient to get an accurate view of what we were working on. Let’s hope whoever it was that came visiting was also inside.” Ryan had taken no chances during the past week. He had advised everyone he knew and who knew of the cabin, to stay far away, so this sudden visitor was obviously not friendly. But unfortunately for them, the visitor was not inside the workshop during the explosion. The visitor, Agent Eight was a lot nearer than they thought.

  “What the hell! Did you see that Ryan?” Jake shouted as the snowmobile he was driving came along side Ryan’s.

  “Yeah. I don’t have a clue what it was, but you can be sure it was not good.”

  “I’m close now,” Agent Eight said as his vehicle cut a swath through the forest. Twin laser beams were instantly vaporizing any trees or rocks standing in his way. He was actually enjoying the chase and felt his own brand of warmth at the efficiency of the machine he drove unfalteringly towards his target. He could see three snowmobiles were five hundred yards ahead of him and he was closing. Again, his distorted smile tried to express his feelings adding to his malice.r />
  “Computer, lock onto those targets and prepare to fire,” he said when he was within three hundred yards. He wanted to make sure he could take them out accurately. Not vaporize them, but simply stop them so he could apprehend them. “Targets acquired,” came the response, “standing by.”

  A few seconds later he barked the command, “fire!” Three laser pulse missiles erupted from the vehicle, one for each snowmobile. In an instant they found their targets disrupting the mechanics of each bringing them to a standstill. Without any outward demonstration of celebrating success, he continued on until he had reached the motionless snowmobiles. Each one was emitting a slight crackling sound as electrical currents in circumfluence held them stationary despite their engines continuing to rev.

  It was then his anger erupted yet again. There was no one to be seen. The snowmobiles had been driving on automatics, their riders gone from sight. “Shit!” he yelled it as loud as he possibly could. ‘Shit, sh…” a light not far away caught his eye. “Oh I see you.” He turned his own vehicle in the direction of what was the garaged vehicle Ryan had, now being used to further the group’s escape. He engaged maximum power vaporizing and speeding through the forest until he reached the same road the vehicle ahead was traveling upon. He knew he was faster. He knew what he would do when he captured them. The restraining devices he had been issued with would make them whimper, and he would enjoy that. When he had them, he would always have them. ‘Escape from deep underground where the authorities held dissidents was impossible,’ he thought. ‘I will have my time with you, and you will suffer.’

  Ryan engaged the automatics feeling confident they would do a better job during this chase than his own driving.

  “We can’t outrun it!” John shouted as they all saw the vehicle drawing closer, now about seven hundred yards behind.

  “I have a trick,” Ryan replied.

  ‘Well you had better get onto it. There is something powering up on the front of the vehicle.”