“Welcome to the maker’s world, a world you may choose to share with my people, who are willing to welcome you under certain important conditions. It is my understanding that you trust me to take all of you to a safe place where you can begin new lives together, free of persecution from your enemies. Are all of you to come with me?” The woman looked from one to the other and no one spoke. “Who is your chief? Who speaks for you?”
Blanchfleur stepped forward, along with Ueland. She spoke first. “I believe that Nora should be in charge for the time being. You can work something else out later once you become better acquainted with one another.”
Nora moved up beside them, holding Mabon’s hand. “Why me?” she said. “Shouldn’t it be one of you?”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” Blanchfleur said. Ueland stood close to the former mayor. He was nodding.
“Why not?” asked Nora.
“Because we have things we have to do before we return and follow you any farther to the east,” said Blanchfleur.
Nora and Mabon clung to one another while Alice and Tish and Adam joined them to stand beside each of their parents. The others hung back, watching and listening. Finally Nora moved forward and addressed the young woman who was the chief among those good people who were offering their help and were generously willing to share their place of safety. “Do we have a few minutes to talk before we separate?”
The chief took a moment to answer. Then she said, “You will be their leader. There is little time to waste but I can see you need a short while to talk. Take some minutes but not long. We have only a few hours to cross the Island and paddle to the opposite shore, once known as America. We must arrive there before the coming of the first light. Come inside and have your meeting where the sky eyes cannot see us. We cannot be too careful.”
They followed her down a stairway into a dark, stone-lined cellar with a hard stone floor. Down here only a trickle of moonlight crept in, barely enough to find the person ahead and to follow. Nora heard the rattle of a door handle and the creak of rusty hinges, then the young woman’s clear, slow voice saying, “Wait, come in. After you shut the door, I’ll light a candle.”
The room was cramped and damp and the flickering candle danced like Nora’s jittery nerves. Blanchfleur and Ueland moved away from the wall beside the door and approached her.
“You wanted to talk,” said Blanchfleur. Ueland had his arm draped across her shoulders.
“Why aren’t you coming with us?” asked Nora. “We need you. We will need all the help we can get as we adjust to life outside.”
“These people will give you plenty of help. The sisters speak of them with great affection. These folks have often come to the sisters in their times of need and been happy to return the favour,” said Blanchfleur. “You will be fine for a while without us around.”
Everyone in the room was silent but nervous and listened attentively.
“We must leave. There are important things we have to do before we can return.”
“What sort of things?” Nora asked. She was feeling panicky. There was so much they had depended on Ueland and Blanchfleur to look after. Now all of that would fall on her and Mabon and the younger ones.
“And why have you chosen to leave together?” Adam asked. “I don’t get it. You two are supposed to be enemies, aren’t you?”
Blanchfleur laughed. “What makes you think that we’re enemies?”
“You were on opposite sides, weren’t you?” asked Mabon.
Ueland laughed as well and moved closer to Blanchfleur. “We were as close as anyone like us could get in the world we were born into,” he said. “We did what we could to save the people we love.”
The young chief rose and blew out the candle. “We have to go,” she said, her voice firm.
“Wait.” Tish’s young voice broke through the darkness. “I still don’t get it. How can you be standing together and leaving us all behind? Grandma, what does Ueland mean to you?”
“Ueland means everything to me, as do you and your mother,” answered Blanchfleur.
“But we’re family,” said Alice, her tears barely visible there in the almost total darkness, her sadness clear in her breaking voice.
There was a long moment of silence before Blanchfleur spoke. “I never meant to tell you this, my darlings, but I suppose you have a right to know. Doctor Ueland is my father.” There followed several intakes of breath and then a few moments of silence before Blanchfleur continued.
“My mother was a technician in the Palace of the Temple Donors, the source of the fluids used for the temple ceremony that led to our pregnancies. She was young when she met a young donor who she was assigned to educate and train as an administrator to run the Manuhome for the mayor and her city. He was handsome and lovely and she fell in love with him. I was their child. No one ever knew the source of her pregnancy.
“She later was elected Mayor of Aahimsa and helped advance Ueland in the Manuhome and arranged his medical and scientific training. My mother trained me in politics to run for election and take over the mayoralty and I was stunned when she told me Ueland was my father. She demanded that I take care of him and work with him to preserve as many of the old ways as was possible while saving as many lives as we could. Ueland helped me build up the Manuhome from its small beginnings into the greatest industrial enterprise in the world.”
“When will we see you again?” asked Tish hurriedly as people began to move to follow the young chief.
“If we can carry off our plan and survive, we’ll find you again with the help of the sisters and the chief.”
“What are you trying to do?” asked Mabon, leaning against Nora.
“We have to get to a reliable power source where there’s a working satellite dish far enough from our friends to keep them safe from counterattack or else travel to one of the other walled cities. Obviously we’d rather find one of the systems working at one of the nearby service buildings for the rail system we came here on. They all had working satellite Internet connections before the recent attacks. I hope to find one; one is all we need.
“I have a mobile control system I removed from the Manuhome as we escaped. If all goes as I plan and no one has discovered and figured out the failsafe viruses I planted in their systems, and if we get safely through to the satellites, I can neutralize most of the military and police satellites after hacking into the systems. It’s more than possible I can disable all the controls for the military aircraft, the drones, and the kill bots, those nasty little machines that made our human Rangers obsolete…that made all of us redundant. Doing that can give all of you — all of us — a fighting chance for safety and success where you’re going. Where we are all hoping to go.”
“Where did you get this control system?” asked Alice.
Blanchfleur and Ueland glanced at one another. He nodded; she spoke. “The Manuhome was originally given the contract by the Central Council to destroy all the old-world scientific research that could be gathered regarding past and future weapons of war. This was a move to foster a permanent global peace.
“The Council asked all of our insider cities to gather all data and materials they could uncover from their regions. In the beginning, every city was like Aahimsa in that there were walls and substantial outsider populations working and subsisting outside their walls. Outsider police and military were trained and used by controllers to keep the peace and serve the insider populations. The outsider police, mostly all trained as Rangers, gathered and shipped what they found to the Manuhome, where all was recorded and most of it destroyed. Occasionally the council decided to keep up certain lines of research.
“Industrial and military robotics was one. Once again the Manuhome was a major player in this research, development, and manufacturing. This was mostly because of Ueland’s excellent use and constant education of his skilled workers. It meant years
of valuable contracts for the Manuhome. Ueland was also quick to understand that these robotics, the development of industrial robots and military robotic humanoids without conscience or will, which could be completely controlled to protect the cities without ever threatening the insider population, would eventually lead to the end of all human outsiders.
“Ueland and I discussed this threat and agreed that we should keep a complete digital record of all developments and bury within all systems a fatal failsafe virus that could lie dormant in all the weapons systems, robotic and otherwise, and all weapons delivery systems, should the technology threaten us all in the future.”
“Were they developed?” asked Nora.
“Yes,” said Ueland. “Yes, it was my secret project. And as I was chief systems administrator and the one who designed the communication linkage systems and the command controls, I had free access to all programming details. We manufactured all those key components at the Manuhome and shipped them around the globe.”
Adam had moved up next to Nora and Mabon. The big man put an arm around his shoulder. The boy spoke: “The black metal briefcase in your luggage,” he said, looking Ueland in the eye. “I saw you take it from the closet on the day the Manuhome and the city were destroyed.”
Ueland nodded.
“But why haven’t you used the device before this? Why didn’t you stop the attack?” asked Tish.
“There wasn’t time,” said Blanchfleur. “They took us completely by surprise and jammed all our communication systems. It would have meant an even earlier end of everything if we dared to act from Aahimsa. We and all of our equipment would have been found out and destroyed. It was better this way. Now we have a window to work in before they know we exist and where we are.”
“I had to try and save as many of you as I could,” said Ueland.
“But couldn’t you have done something after the attack?” asked Mabon.
“There is no terminal here where I can log on to the system or recharge the device. It can only hold a charge for a limited time. All was destroyed with Aahimsa. The failsafe virus is designed to be undetectable. It doesn’t exist until I activate it. It is buried in the code at thousands of points throughout all systems. Once activated it does its job and then installs elsewhere along a designated path. It is unstoppable. But I need an existing source of electric power so that I can connect with a satellite and access its data systems and get through to the central servers.
“This is where the danger lies. Once the system detects my intrusion, it will send out everything it has to destroy me and everything around me. Some of the satellites can drop armed drones from space. They have other drones that can travel very rapidly from bunkers here and there and hit with absolute accuracy any point of illicit transmission on the planet. I’m hoping to get to one of the service buildings before they’re all destroyed. That is why we have to go soon. Those bots that attacked Gloria and the others with her are almost indestructible. Almost. If we can get inside the system, everything right down the line, including those bots, can be turned into a pile of worthless scrap in minutes, just like all the major storage servers and backups all across the planet.”
“But what will that do to the insiders?” asked Alice.
Blanchfleur spoke: “We didn’t do this before now because we wanted Adam and all of us far enough away from this device to be safe from attack. And be assured that as little harm as possible will come to the insiders. They will be free to live in peace. They just won’t be able to attack one another, or us, unless they go out and do it by themselves. And they can’t hurt us unless they come after us by themselves. No more attacks from space or from the sky for a long time. No helicopters, no robots — all disabled.”
“What about satellite communications?” asked Mabon.
“Gone,” said Ueland. “They’ll have basic radio communications.”
“But we’ll be safe?” said Tish.
“Safe from attack by them,” said Blanchfleur, “if we succeed.”
“And that’s far from certain,” said Ueland. “But there is a real chance of success.”
The chief stood and the whispering in various parts of the room gradually faded to expectant silence.
“You will be our guests in this, our land. You may see yourselves as running away from your civilization into what you see as a ruined land.” She waited a moment for a reaction. Nora and Mabon and the others exchanged glances but said nothing.
“Go on, please,” said Nora.
“For us, for our people, it is, in spite of the constant danger of destruction, a return of true civilization. The land has been returned to us. In many ways it has been wounded and crippled by your people and your ways, but the land has begun to heal and we are learning to live as our ancestors lived, in harmony with our world.
“So you can see that, though we are happy to share some of our land with you, we have expectations as to how you live on our land. We respect your differences and know that your people and ours will not do all things in the same manner. We can help one another and we promise to do so.
“Your presence may put us in more danger than before. We can accept that. But we cannot accept a return to the destructive and wasteful ways of the past. The plants and animals have begun to make a comeback in the forests and the streams, the birds in the skies and forests and on the land. You must learn to respect them and their homes, as we will respect yours. We can speak much more of this in the future.”
Adam stood and Tish rose up from close by. Tish spoke first. “Where will we live and what will we do for food?” she asked.
“Like us, you will learn to live well. We have recently built a new village and moved from an old one. When we heard you might come, we cleaned up the old and made a few repairs. It is a fine village, close to fresh water and rich with game. Like our new village, it lies inside thick forest and is not visible from above. We will teach you how to survive without giving signs to the eyes above you.”
“Can we hunt and fish?” asked Adam.
“You can take what you need of all things, but nothing more. There will be plenty for all of us. There are still few of us living here and abundance is everywhere. You will see. If we are sensible and learn to live in peace together, we will all survive. We will take you to your village soon. There is much to say, but it can wait until you are all safely at home in your village.” She paused and all waited in silence. After a few nervous minutes, she continued. “Do you still want to come with us?”
“We do,” said Adam.
“Yes,” said Tish.
Nora nodded and there was a rush of chatter around the room and a sense of relief among the travellers.
“There is no more time!” said the chief. “It’s now or never. For the next while, no talking. We will move in groups of five or six, each group staying apart from those ahead and behind. Stop every now and then and lie close together in silence. It will be the same in the canoes, where we will be as moose swimming. Until we get under the trees near the camps we are wild animals, dogs and deer and wolves. Let’s go.”
The young chief spoke loudly this time, with more authority. “I’m leaving now. If you want to come, follow me.” She led them outside into the dark night. All followed along in silence except Ueland and Blanchfleur, who headed back toward Queenstown.
Chapter 29:
Backtracking
Blanchfleur and Ueland managed to reach the outskirts of Queenstown as the darkness was being driven away by the approach of morning. The area was still shrouded in early morning fog and a light mist that was hardly perceptible as rain but nonetheless had drenched the two travellers from head to foot.
“Do you think it wise to return to the monastery this soon after leaving?” asked Blanchfleur.
“We won’t be returning to the monastery,” said Ueland as he stepped along in surprisingly long strides considering hi
s short legs.
“But they have electricity,” said the Blanchfleur, struggling to keep up.
“We can’t expose them to any more danger,” said Ueland, slowing his pace a bit and allowing her to walk next to him. Blanchfleur did what she could to keep pace with her energetic father. “The second I connect, they will have the monastery pinpointed as the point of transmission and the forces with their weapons will be on their way. I can’t do that to the sisters.”
“Of course, how stupid of me. Then where exactly are we going?”
“You don’t have to come anywhere with me. You can wait for me here in the subway tram below, or go quietly up to the monastery if you prefer. Either option would be the preferable and much safer for you. There’s no need for both of us to be at risk.”
“And where will you be going, if you indeed go there on your own?” she asked.
“I plan to follow the tracks back toward Aahimsa until I find a station that hasn’t been destroyed. Once I find it, I’ll make sure it has the equipment I need and then try once again to fire up a generator. All the stations originally were equipped with satellite dishes that connected to the world networks. If they haven’t been bombed or blasted, and my viruses have not been detected and destroyed, I will shut down all the attack capabilities of the military systems for a long time to come.”
Blanchfleur was walking beside him, a bit out of breath. Ueland had been once again picking up the pace. “And if all the service buildings have been destroyed?”
“Then I will have to travel farther south to the nearest city and try to find a way to connect when I get there, a much more difficult scenario.”
And All the Stars Shall Fall Page 14
