by Jason Zandri
“Yes,” the speaker interjected, “you have indicated prior concerns, but certainly Miss Rebecca was there and could have continued the efforts for the measurements and in consideration of a larger scale response.”
“She and I discussed things the moment my powers deactivated,” Nathan responded, looking quickly over to Rebecca and then back to the panel. “The fact that my powers deactivated was enough for both of us to pause and to take some time to consider things. It might be that we are not meant to intervene in this.”
“I know we on this panel do not have to educate either of you on the criticality of the escalation of the ice melt to the permanent ice packs. Between the inflows to the oceans, raising the sea levels…”
Nathan raised his hand and interrupted. “We can’t answer all the questions. What if this is the opposite side of the pendulum swing in the natural order of things?”
“The greenhouse gasses that man has been emitting into the atmosphere…”
“Are no different than the large volumes in the past emitted by chain eruptions from volcanoes in the ring of fire around the Pacific,” Nathan exclaimed, standing from his chair. “I don’t know if this isn’t the normal cycle, over all the millenniums, from the prior ice age. We might very well be on the far ‘warm’ end of that. What if we take an action now, refreezing the sheets and that brings the next ice age cycle back centuries before it is to occur naturally?”
“The rising oceans now are more of a concern.”
“I don’t disagree; they are slowly rising and we, all of us, can make subtle changes to address that. For emergency response, Rebecca and I will engage. Neither of us is comfortable taking critical actions like turning nature. We don’t know what the full ramifications are.” Nathan said leaning forward on the table.
“So the two of you are willing to allow all the negative impacts of these critical changes? You are not willing to take a proactive response?”
Nathan looked over at Rebecca. She nodded to him.
“The saying is ‘with great power, comes great responsibility.’ We are trying to be responsible. If we make these changes, we don’t know what will happen in the future long after we are gone. What if it does, in fact, return an Ice Age to Earth far earlier than what should occur naturally. Perhaps given the proper millennia, man evolves on their own where they can fully remedy that kind of natural impact. Perhaps they move to the stars and other planets at that time, finding ones that can sustain life. Or, maybe they find ways to retreat unground as a civilization until the natural melt process occurs once again. What if our changes forces that early arrival and it meets the humans at a time when they cannot fully survive it? What if our tinkering today causes a global Ice Age, rather than the partial ones that have occurred prior? What if the short term goals of today cause the future extinction of all life on Earth?”
Nathan paused while a murmur of conversations quietly rumbled through the room. He continued once it settled.
“Rebecca and I have the powers of the gods; those beings that tap the energy from this universal plane. It really should be comforting to all that we are so responsible and cautious with them. That we never were the type of people, from before, that were casual and reckless, and carried that attitude and behavior forward with them today. There would be much bigger problems to face than slowly melting ice sheets would that have been the case.”
“We are not being selfish in declining to help here,” Nathan said standing upright and lightly floating off the ground in Captain Delta style. “I think we are being perfectly selfless.”
Nathan moved away as the chairman gaveled. “This hearing is still in session!”
“Not for us,” Rebecca exclaimed floating in the air alongside Nathan. “We will take our leave of you.”
There was an uproar in the crowd as the chairman continued to try to gavel everyone down.
Nathan lowered himself some so that the public address system could pick up his voice. “I don’t understand the issues here. You act as if we were compelled to be here, as if we were brought here under summons. We were invited; we accepted and were willing to speak. Honestly, we’re being treated as if we are on trial. If someone is an engineer and could construct something to reflect sunlight at the poles, they are not compelled to do so. You could offer them billions and they could still refuse on the very same grounds we did. Somehow, for the two of us, every time we decline something, the accusation is that we are un-American, disingenuous, or just unwilling due to some ulterior motive.”
Nathan looked over at Rebecca and then glanced around the room quickly. He then floated back to the ground and addressed the chair.
“If we decided to take some covert action, on our own and without approval or authority, we would then be charged with being totalitarian. We can’t win. At the end of the day, we might be super powered, but we bleed just the same.” Nathan lowered his voice. “As much as I try to not take it personally, things like this do hurt my pride especially because I am always trying to do the right thing.”
Nathan said nothing more, turned, and simply walked out of the room with all the cameras trained on him.
Rebecca maintained her position hovering slightly higher than where she was prior when Nathan lowered himself to the ground.
The ruckus in the room continued to increase and the chairman was unable to gavel it down.
Rebecca compressed the cool air at the top of the meeting chamber, superheated it, and allowed it to rapidly expand. The ensuing thunderclap silenced the room and brought Nathan back inside.
“Now that there is silence, I will speak,” Rebecca said sternly.
“The chair doesn’t recognize you,” the chairman called out.
“And yet the chair had no problem addressing me prior in the third person. I will have a right to re-address this chamber.”
Nathan flinched.
“You are not recognized; you are out of order!” the chairman said as he banged down his gavel.
Blackness filled Rebecca’s eyes.
Nathan crouched.
“So be it,” she said calmly. Rebecca lowered herself to the ground and her eyes returned to normal. She turned and walked towards Nathan who finally relaxed.
The pair exited the building and went skyward. They flew silently until they reached the lower cloud layer.
“I could sense you, you know,” Rebecca said lightly, looking over to Nathan. “You came back into the room totally prepared to defend everyone in there from me despite a portion of them that do not like or trust you.”
“It’s not my place to judge anyone; people are entitled to feel what they want, up to and including not liking me or the both of us. And yes, you were willing to go overboard… I can sense you too; remember?”
“Yes,” Rebecca said somewhat withdrawn. “The full connection to these powers, with my being the talisman, is an ongoing issue.”
“What else have you been able to research regarding the re-anchoring of your powers?” Nathan asked as the pair continued to climb.
“It appears there is nothing on the subject.” Rebecca said plainly drifting further away from him and then closing the gap casually. “There are no incantations to try. Apparently that is the entire reason the gods began to use talismans when they forged heroes from the mortal coil. When a talisman is imbued as the connection source, and then mystically tied to a human, if there are issues with the control of the powers by the wielder, the gods needed only to destroy the talisman.”
“And given that,” Nathan said leveling off and accelerating, “I presume that prior to that or in instances like this one, where someone leveraged the mystic arts, the only way to address any issues is to…”
“Destroy the wielder,” Rebecca said plainly.
They flew a short distance in silence before Nathan spoke up. “We’ll find another way. There must be something we are missing or something that is unknown to us.”
Rebecca sighed. “There is also the fatigue… In your case,
with the bracer as the anchor, the metal ‘fatigues’ from the strain of being a talisman and it can be magically rejuvenated. A human being cannot beyond a certain extent.”
“I thought you said the meditation and the spirit prayers were helping,” Nathan asked.
“They are,” Rebecca responded, “but they have limitations as well. I am going to need to address that problem as well if I cannot break the present binding of the enchantment.”
“Promise you’ll keep me posted on how you feel and on any progress you make?” Nathan asked slowing and rising.
Rebecca rose up in front of him and grasped him. “Of course,” she said, moving in and kissing him deeply.
CHAPTER TWO
Lisa Cooper stood near the large conference table while U.S. Senator Mackenzie Kelly made his way into the room with two other people. She quickly moved her strawberry blond hair out of her eyes and stepped away from the table to meet them partway. “Senator,” she said uncomfortably but calmly while extending her hand.
“Miss Cooper,” the Senator responded, shaking her hand, “thank you for making the time to meet with us.”
“I didn’t mind making the time Senator, especially where Nathan is concerned, but to be honest, it didn’t exactly sound like it was an optional request.” Lisa said plainly, looking over to the two others in the Senator’s party.
“I am sorry about that,” he said calmly, “there are some things we need to address and we do need your help I’m afraid.” He turned slightly and gestured. “This is Jane Parker; she is a special attaché for this research.”
Jane extended her hand to Lisa who cautiously shook it. The Senator then moved toward the other person in the party. “This is Mr. Black; he works security operations.”
Lisa looked over the tall man in the suit who hand moved a muscle since walking in the room. “Wonderful; a SEC OPS guy named Mr. Black, dressed in a black suit and wearing sunglasses inside a dimly lit conference room. Yep, I’m not worried at all here.” Lisa replied harshly taking a step back and away. She glanced around the otherwise empty and windowless room and then looked back to the Senator. “With all due respect Senator, let’s cut to the chase. What do you need?”
Jane moved away to a seat and the Senator stepped over to the closest one. “Please sit,” he motioned to her while Mr. Black made his way over to the door and stood next to it.
“I thought all this cloak and dagger stuff went out with the arrest and conviction of Congressman Patrick Johnson this past spring.” Lisa said, still standing on the opposite side of the table. She was somewhat nervous to dress them down but she wanted to remain as confident with them as she could.
“Congressman Patrick Johnson was arrested for his part in the illegal activities he undertook in his personal investigations. Unfortunately, while he was on to discovering some things worthy of deeper investigation, his tactics and procedures were almost all illegal,” the Senator answered plainly.
“So what are you saying?” Lisa said leaning forward and dropping her palms onto the table. “That Nathan is doing something illegal?”
“We’re not sure,” Jane interjected coolly.
“Weren’t you a party to all of this?” Lisa asked curtly. “Now I remember why you looked somewhat familiar to me. I remember someone from your own technology staff outing you. It was all over the news.”
“My offices were involved as part the Congressman’s efforts,” she responded simply, “under my direct supervision and per my execution orders.”
“’Just following orders’… where have I heard that before?” Lisa said sarcastically as she stood upright.
Senator Kelly raised his hands lightly, “Look, we’re not even accusing Nathan of anything…”
“Yet…” Lisa retorted.
The Senator continued from the interruption. “There are concerns within the NSA, especially given some of Rebecca’s inconsistent behavior, that some of what has been uncovered from the Congressman’s prior investigation looks suspicious and warrants further review. All of it points to activity that Nathan has been engaged in.”
“He saved your life,” Lisa said boldly. “He completely outed himself bringing that falling space station you were on to the ground. This is how you repay him? He’s given you and the President the only means of directly contacting him. Adia and I don’t even have that kind of access to him…”
“Lisa,” the Senator continued, “you and Adia are his only peer friends; Officer Jack O’Malley is the only other person that knows him at all on a personal level. We’re going to be talking to the two of them as soon as we can get them in here. We need to get an understanding of what’s going on with him.”
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Lisa said as she became upset with the line of questioning.
“We are eventually going to get to that. Our concerns are that if we bring him in here cold, to talk with him, that he might further hide whatever it is he’s doing,” Jane responded.
“Is any of it illegal?” Lisa asked. “Whatever happened to taking someone at their word? Presumed innocent? Nathan has done so much for so many…”
“We are still trying to determine if anything is illegal. Much of what he has been loosely associated with doing has been within private locations,” Jane said, “so it’s been difficult to ascertain everything.”
“Then all you should need is a warrant to investigate formally but I guess you can’t get one because there isn’t enough evidence. And if you can’t go in via the NSA using the remnant powers under the Patriot Act, then I am going to make the assumption that what you have is razor thin at best.” Lisa stated backing away from the table. “I’ll be bluntly honest with you; I have nothing for you because I haven’t seen much of Nathan recently, but even if I had and I knew anything, I wouldn’t divulge it.”
“Even if it was a matter of national security?” Jane asked standing up and moving around the table toward her.
“He wouldn’t jeopardize our nation’s security or any nation’s security for that matter.” Lisa turned to look at Senator Kelly. “You should know that just based on the number of times he’s turned down Presidential requests to undergo efforts on behalf of the government when he thought things were not in the best interests of the people, no matter which people they were.”
“We’re not questioning his integrity…” the Senator began.
“Then what are you questioning?”
Senator Kelly sighed and stood up. He slowly walked over and continued. “We don’t know the full capabilities of his Computer Central and what we believe is the artificial intelligence he’s created and the network he’s built. On top of that, there are concerns regarding Rebecca’s stability and how much she directly influences and affects Nathan.”
“Adia has had more exposure and interaction with the system than I have… I don’t believe it is an artificial intelligence. It responds to input only as much as I can recall.” Lisa said.
“We’ve seen it attempt to compute out a solution on its own with respect to the Hanford Nuclear Power Plant incident. When Nathan lost consciousness and began falling to Earth, Computer Central attempted to independently take action.” Senator Kelly replied taking a small digital recorder out of his pocket. “The studio feed didn’t deliver all of this on broadcast television but the equipment inside the studio captured all of it.”
The Senator pressed ‘play’ and Lisa leaned in to listen.
The first voice on the recorder was the female voice of Computer Central. “Trajectory confirmed; metro Phoenix area. Two-point-one miles north of city center. City population, census estimate, 1,537,058. City shielding capabilities not fully online. Cascading shielding will be ineffective. Attempting cascade remapping. Available power insufficient. Grid re-alignment at sixty-four percent.”
“What the hell is going on?” Congressman Johnson’s voice echoed in from the background on the recording.
“That goddamned computer is re-routing electrical power from the grid
,” General Westmartin’s voice boomed and spiked the speaker
“For what purpose?” Senator Kelly looked up upon hearing his own voice come over the device.
“I don’t know, but I remember enough of these readings from my days as a plant operator; if that mess of automated circuit boards continues with the re-route, it’s going to take the cycles per second beyond what the grid can handle. It’ll auto trip the relays in the substations and bring down the whole Western Interconnection at the worst time, in the middle of all of this mess,” Congressman Johnson responded.
“It’s trying to draw power.” Senator Kelly said.
“To what end? Look, it’s calculating maximum draw from the Texas Interconnection…” General Westmartin’s voice began but some of the sound was cut off from the recording.
Congressman Johnson’s voice was heard next. “It’s tapping the relays… locking out the overrides. It’ll burn the grid right out.”
Two more voices were heard but were effectively intelligible on the recording when Nathan’s weak voice came over the recorded communications channel. “Computer Central?”
“Enabled.” Computer Central responded.
“Status?” Nathan said.
Senator Kelly stopped the playback. He pulled a small pad of paper from his inside suit pocket and read aloud from what was written. “City shielding capabilities not fully online. Cascading shielding will be ineffective. Attempting cascade remapping. Available power insufficient. Grid re-alignment at sixty-four percent.” He looked up from the pad. “Computer Central took independent action, without direction, and as much as we can tell, without consideration of what the actions might have done to the entire electrical grid.”
“I don’t know much about electrical grids and cascading failures but I think restarting power plants and putting power back on the grid is an easier aftermath to deal with than the Hanford Nuclear Power Plant hitting the ground in the metro Phoenix area and likely killing a sizeable portion of one point five million people,” Lisa said defensively.
