by A. Bernette
Most people living on Earth had no idea of the progress made by all the research and investigations done in space and time studies. They’d had more success than they could publicly take credit for. He was forbidden to speak of some of what he knew, even with Zura and his children. He’d sworn an oath of confidentiality before taking the position and breaking it would be handled as treason.
As he sat back down in his captain-style chair in his private office away from the science center, he continued to look out onto the ocean. There were more fish and other sea creatures swimming in the Southern Ocean than before. He knew they’d come in escape, seeking refuge from what they could instinctively sense as danger.
The waters in Antarctica were warmer than even just twenty years before when they’d begun collecting the data. He watched them move through the waters and hoped that eventually people would understand it just as well.
Johan stood and thought about how this place, this project, had changed his life. He’d seen and heard things that he could never explain or share with anyone outside those privileged to know. There were things others would not understand and now he was faced with all of it actually mattering and becoming real.
Years of theory, planning, and preparation might finally have to be implemented. He was thankful for the residences they’d been granted as part of their agreements to work on the project, but leery of what might now be expected.
Johan tried to return his focus to the report, scrolling through the details of tremor reports leading up to the earthquake in Northern Allegiance that few outside of the region knew about. What he read from a personal source described the forced silencing of the news because they didn’t want to panic the citizens.
There were no evacuation efforts at all, and while it didn’t result in any direct casualties, it made Johan wonder whether others were asking what the long-term plan actually was. Was anyone asking the questions that would yield answers that could make a difference?
He shook his head in disgust. There had been signs and warnings well before the earthquake and the injuries that did occur could have been avoided, but he felt as if that was just a test. How would people react? If UniCorps and the World Consensus were willing to let that occur, what else were they willing to do?
Johan needed to make additional preparations to ensure the safety of his family and ensure that the others would be ready.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Steady
University of Southern Allegiance in Santoria, Southern Allegiance
Dr. Lima strode across the beautiful historic campus. It was a warm Spring day with trees that burst with color. The endless blue skies were interrupted with little puffs of cumulus clouds. The reddish brown brick buildings held countless stories from more than three hundred years ago and had been one of the locations the Council had used since Yin joined it.
The dorms filled once again with the regular university students ready to finish the final weeks before July, when the one month Summer break began. Claudia Lima needed a break too. With managing the camps she barely had time to catch her breath even when the regular students weren’t on campus.
There were so many balls in the air and simply trying to do her regular job at the University, help coordinate the ceremony and track down the eighth were keeping her hands full. She’d decided to postpone the follow-up meeting with the Council. There was no use meeting them when she had nothing useful to report.
That postponement ended today. She had to go back to check in after learning from Mave that Zura was reporting what they’d found to the funders. Dr. Lima already knew that both the World Consensus and UniCorps would balk at what they received.
She needed to ensure safe passage of information out of the ARC and into the right hands so that people would know the truth. For that she required the Council’s help. They would also have to help her coordinate everything that needed to happen as they approached the Awakening Ceremony.
Dr. Lima continued her brisk walk across the campus as students headed back to dorms before the evening’s special social activity. She’d arranged for a guest musician, a violinist, to come and perform that evening. His accompaniment was setting up now and soon she’d be able to move about more freely.
The entertainment was in the student social budget and it would keep most people out of the building she needed to use and out of the immediate area for the evening. She couldn’t risk another incident like the one with Alexis, Stella, and the other campers.
She lingered in the courtyard watching the students disperse. Once only a few stragglers remained she began to walk again. There was a short window between the students returning to their dorms and then coming back out for the performance.
As she neared the glass doors to the building, she stopped to look around her. She wasn’t very subtle but she needed to make sure she had no followers. She quickly pulled the door open and went through shutting it just as abruptly. She pulled a small grey bar down to latch the door from the inside, something she had neglected to do over camp but would not forget again.
Dr. Lima walked across the dimly lit empty staff dining hall, her arm hairs rising as she moved towards the double doors. She could already feel them waiting. Their Chi was so strong she could feel it pulling on her own, bringing her towards them. She walked through the doors on the other side of the hall and drew them tightly shut.
Dr. Lima fixed her uniform and checked her hair in the reflection of the glass in the door’s window panes. She knew she was being silly as they wouldn’t notice or care. They didn’t see her that way.
She walked past three doors on the left before stopping in front of one where the faint glow of lights which activated when the building was closed, escaped under each of the closed doors. That was how those kids had found them, she guessed. They’d kept going by the lights until they’d heard them. As she approached the regular room they used, she could see the figures in the room through the frosted glass.
She checked the time before walking in. She would need to make it out and back to the campus concert hall during the performance but knew she would have plenty of time.
Dr. Lima scanned her finger to the panel on the side of the door and heard it click, releasing the lock. She walked into the room, softly closing this door too, behind her.
She walked into the room and sat with Yin, San, and Cho for her briefing. Three hours later, she pulled the door handle open to leave. She nearly stumbled out of the office. She stopped, remembering to return the lighting to the setting it was on when she’d arrived. She felt lightheaded as she fumbled her way through the doors leading to the faculty dining area. As dizziness set in, she sat down at one of the round tables, the meeting playing back in her head.
Things were in motion and if it all went well she could step back from all of this soon. She just had to get them to the next phase and then those responsible for that part of the mission cold take over.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Evacuation
Rift Valley, Northeast Part of Southern Liberty
The Rift Valley had been showing significant signs of activity and tremors for the past few weeks. Delia had gone out several times over the past month measuring the cracks in the hole, sometimes with Lyn, sometimes without. She considered it her duty. She didn’t know why she had to know and track this tiny change in one single hole in one city in one Region, but she did.
The reports from the news only motivated her further. She just had to know for herself if there was some connection, even if didn’t mean anything to anyone else. There still had not been any official position taken. Those in charge continued to say that tremors were normal, blamed it on seasonality, and weather systems. Things that made no sense even to Delia, who wasn’t very scientific, at least not in the traditional sense.
She and her parents thought it odd that no one seemed to be talking about what happened in Southern Allegiance. Her dad often speculated how there was no data or information anywhere about the
patterns in Southern Allegiance leading up to the major earthquake. There had to be information but whoever had it was keeping it close.
“Dad, I’ve got six months of data from that old pump hole now. Is that enough for you to look at and tell me what you think?” Delia asked her dad Orbil as he packed a bag.
“I will take a look at it as soon as I can. Delia, with all that’s going on, I can’t make any promises and I don’t want you out there asking too many questions.”
In light of the changes that had happened over the past few weeks, she had to know if it meant something. She sent him a copy of what she’d recorded so far.
“I understand. Anything you see that might look strange, just let me know. I’m curious,” Delia said trying not to pressure her father too much. They were still preparing as if they were going to go out on their regular mission trip to donate items to people in need.
“Are you all going to be back in time for the evacuation?” Delia asked looking at the bag Orbil was packing and the one already sitting near the front door belonging to Marie.
“I expect so. You just follow the orders. Everything will be alright,” Orbil answered. It wasn’t the answer Delia had hoped for. Sometimes their trips ran long and there wasn’t much time until the round four evacuees would be called.
The RePM Division had told all evacuees that the evacuation was temporary. According to the RePM Division, it was a precaution only and the scientists and geologists were studying the issue. At the time, there was no cause for real concern.
There were more than thirteen million people living within fifty miles of the Rift Valley and all had to be relocated to safer areas. Each person was allowed to take one suitcase and a handbag only. Anything that couldn’t fit into this small allowance was forced to be left behind.
The lines for passage were long, stretching the full length of the streets, spilling onto the sidewalks and the side streets that led to the main processing area. SEP Agents were charged with checking the paperwork of every man, woman, and child to be ported out of the area. This was all planned to occur in the span of just one week.
They were already a few days in and more than five million people were out of the area between the official evacuation and those who had taken the evacuation into their own hands. They’d left town in personal or chartered vehicles at the first notice.
Many in powerful positions had been evacuated if they had been able to leave work behind and get their families. Delia knew they would be the ones to get first dibs in the transports once in the main evacuation.
In the evacuation zone, just as soon as a hovehicle or bus was full they sent it off so it could make the return trip. The RePM Division had planned to be able to evacuate between 300,000 and 350,000 people per day with some taking private hovehicles and most in the extended capacity hovehicles and airtrains.
Delia only knew this detail because of Lyn, whose father held a respected position at one of the global corporations belonging to UniCorps. The math didn’t work out and Delia and Lyn had both concluded that the evacuation would never really happen in the time they were giving. Hopefully, any danger was weeks away and not days.
When the agents had first come by to announce the evacuation and to begin preparing people, she remembered hearing neighbors ask the obvious questions. Were there enough places to stay? Were there enough hovehicles and airtrains to get them out?
And the SEP Agents had been ordered to give a specific response to the question that was on everyone’s mind - What happens if we don’t all get out in a week? The required response was “We are doing everything possible to ensure all citizens are relocated in the target timeframe.” If pressed, they simply repeated the response, just firmer.
The SEP Agents lined the streets, spaced every ten to fifteen yards to ensure a smooth and thorough evacuation. The orders they’d been given was to ensure every person left the city within the one week allotted and this included dissenters and those who resisted leaving.
The hovehicles floated along the center of the streets filled with people and with luggage secured to the top. Behind the hovehicles were older buses that rode along the road.
Both the buses and the hovehicles were being sent to different destinations. People who had family in other places would be temporarily resettled there and were assured by leaders that they’d be able to return once the danger passed. Those who didn’t have family would be sent to further less populated areas where they wouldn’t be a burden on the already strained resources.
Every household received an assigned number during the initial phase with a code based on the day they were to evacuate. Delia’s family, like most of her neighbors, had the code four. Lyn’s family received the code two. Delia had been surprised when Ms. C said she’d wait to leave with the other neighbors. It was especially surprising since every day was another day closer to a possible earthquake.
The number arriving for evacuation each day seemed to border near 400,000 and once they’d already secured their homes they could not return. It was more than could be processed in a day, which meant each day there was an excess of as many as 100,000 people who were stranded at or en route to the evacuation hub. They slept in makeshift camp grounds, nearby churches, schools, and wherever else they could find shelter.
In addition to having the prioritized evacuation, the SEP Agents went back each day for that day’s evacuees, despite the hundreds of thousands still waiting from previous days. The numbers of people awaiting evacuation wasn’t on the news. That part of the evacuation wasn’t being reported anywhere that Delia could find, but she saw it. They were being evacuated systematically, street by street and block by block, ensuring no person remained and that each only brought what was legally allowed.
Delia waited at home for her turn to leave. She hoped that what the SEP Agents and news said was true. That other regions and cities were sending down all available hovehicles and even their old buses to help get people out.
Delia was constantly reminded of the math. At the start of the official evacuation there were eight million people in the area. There was no way everyone could get out, unless they got more help. She hoped that the rest of the world would care enough.
The area that was now Southern Allegiance had always played support to everyone else. She’d learned in history how the land had been racked by others coming in to mine natural resources and how the people had at one time been used as laborers without pay. She didn’t want her part of the world to be considered expendable. Not right now. Not when millions of lives needed the support of the world they had always supported.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Homeland
Rift Valley in Southern Liberty
The shrill cry of an inconsolable little girl pierced the air of the evacuation site, causing everyone to look around. On one of the hovehicles headed to Antes in the Northern part of Northern Liberty, a young girl with bright green ribbons strewn through her hair was having a screaming fit. They were forced to leave their family dog behind and her already frantic mom tried uselessly to calm her. Her crying set off a chain reaction of crying and whining kids who were scared.
“Get control of her!” an agent barked at the mother.
“I can’t do anything. She’s scared! What do you expect!” the upset mother yelled back.
“Get them outta here now. I don’t want to cause a scene,” The callous agent yelled at the driver sneering at the burdened mother and her daughter. The hovehicle took off in the midst of the cries and the angry mother’s attempt to protest back was drowned out by the cries of the other children.
Most SEP Agents tried to be cordial and polite but always seemed intimidating in the shiny grey uniforms with exterior armor and helmets. Their faces were partially masked by a chin guard while the large agent issued reflective shaded glasses they wore hid much of the rest of their face. The glasses were specially equipped with the ability to read the tags of registered and unregistered citizens. All of the special gea
r made them appear a shade less than human, floating between a flimsy grey space of real and mechanic.
The uniforms were also equipped with a bioshield that once triggered would encase their entire body and suit plus ten inches. The shield was designed to activate when any biochemical or smoke above a safe level were detected by the suit’s sensors. Ten inches allowed them to form a protective wall when lined up shoulder to shoulder.
This defense system was touted as a safety mechanism for agents and other law enforcement officers, as well as citizens. The designers promoted the notion that citizens could stand behind them and escape to safety if there was an attack. The idea of the citizens benefiting had always been met with a little suspicion but the technology had been approved and the uniforms were already put in the budget without public input.
The shield technology was designed and invented by the UniCorps International Security Division after nearly a hundred thousand citizens and agents had died during the attacks by the homeless more than twenty years before.
The technology was heralded as one of the best inventions of the decade and every peace keeping agency regionally and on the international level bought the upgrade. It sent UniCorps’s stocks and profits through the roof and with the enemy still out there, the demand for new technology and defense skyrocketed. The public was now at the center of the argument for keeping security developments funded.
Before the homeless attacks the world had become complacent and vigilance against evil had waned. There was little threat seen from those who would inflict harm on good people. The one world government had come with a stronger sense of peace and unity.
The accused attackers were originally sold on the idea of a united world and had thrown all of their support and effort into making it a reality. It was supposed to be a world that worked for everyone. They helped to push the idea through politically and were essential to garnering public support for one government in the prior decades. It was the men and women who were now outcasts that had been critical in the election of the first Supreme Leader by all those able to vote.
