The Suns of Liberty (Book 2): Revolution

by Michael Ivan Lowell

  CHAPTER 40

  A miniature sun burned in front of Dr. Leslie Gibbons. A large, pulsating orb of bioluminescent energy where, just seconds before, there had been only a void of air. It floated just on the other side of the tall glass wall of the Fire Fly chamber. The energy pulsed and rotated inside the orb in a yellow-green radiance of power. The hum it emitted filled the room. Leslie punched coordinates into the computer as she measured its output.

  Behind her Revolution watched in awe. “It’s working!” he breathed. His eyes were large behind his helmet. Even for him this was something to behold. Leslie had run these tests many times before, but she'd never gotten a fully formed orb to sustain itself for longer than a few seconds.

  “You're looking at a self-sustaining engine,” she said, meaning that the molecules replaced themselves at the exact rate they were consumed.

  Revolution knew exactly what it was. Renewable organic energy. He couldn't take his eyes off of it. He'd dreamed of this moment for ten years. Ever since James Scott had proposed the idea to him. But Scott had never come close to this. Leslie Gibbons might have just changed the course of the world.

  “The next step is to find a way to scale it.” She was as guarded as ever. Always the scientist in the lab. She could give the most rousing political speech, but once she entered the lab, the consummate professional, dispassionate scientist took over. That she could wear both hats made her invaluable to him. Scaling it, he reminded himself, meant to be able to produce it on a scale that could be used to power whole buildings, cities, nations.

  “This is a truly historic achievement, Leslie. It's what we've waited for. This could change the course of the war. Scott would have been envious.” He would have. Scott was an ambitious man. Robotics, super soldiers, T-O4, bioluminescence. But his highest priority, for as long as Revolution had known him anyway, had always been this engine. He thought it was the one thing that could turn the tide of this struggle their way, no matter what else occurred.

  Leslie beamed. “It feels good. We don’t have time to waste, though,” she said, and he knew she was thinking of the misery going on outside.

  “Numbers just came in. We’ve got five thousand volunteers in Boston alone for the Minutemen. It seems the curfew has had the opposite effect Sage wanted,” Revolution said.

  “For now,” Leslie warned. “We need to test this engine. The sooner we can take it public the better.”

  “You’re right, we can't hold out forever.”

  The field was cold and hard. The yard lines were old and faded into the grass. A long time had passed since any football had been played here. Instead, a group of about fifty young men and women in old sweats exercised as a unit. Lined up in formation, they looked like a military unit. In a sense, they were.

  Parker Hudson had picked this field because it was where he learned to play the game. He had skills that could have led him to become one of the top college athletes in the country. But that was ten years ago. And that was after the scholarships dried up. So he'd spent a whole semester on the team. One stinking season! Then he quit to work two jobs and pay his way through college. Too bad. He had been the nation's top high school prospect his senior year. A natural leader. Rocket for an arm. Pinpoint accuracy. A quarterback that had NFL written all over him. That’s what all the papers had said.

  It was a dream that still haunted him.

  In those years he had found his way to his second love: the law. He'd worked his way through law school and now was a practicing attorney. He was the pride of Southie. But all of that was an illusion. Stories told by family, in the old neighborhood, down at the shop. There was little money in the kind of law he practiced. Trial lawyers, personal injury specialists, once one of the most lucrative of fields, was now made all but extinct by the Council. The only employers or sellers who could be successfully sued for negligence were those too small to pay out. And in those cases, he faced pitting one local business against another. One neighbor against another. That wasn't why he had gone to law school. He wanted to protect his city against the big boys, like the Council.

  So that's what he was doing. He barked orders at the group like a drill sergeant. Jumping jacks, sit-ups, plyometrics, whatever it took until his team was exhausted. Parker Hudson was a Minuteman. In fact, he was the leader of the Minutemen. He'd been a leader before. But this time he would take his time, do it right. Not let his fear get in the way of doing what had to be done. Voices of his past kept haunting his mind...

  Announcer: “Hudson drops back to pass. Here comes the blitz. He's got a man wide open, way downfield. He heaves it...and overthrows the open receiver. Well, that kid's got a heck of an arm, but he's just got to learn to be more patient. Sometimes you have to just stand in there and take the hit.”

  Hudson stopped his team, let them rest. They stayed in formation, breathing hard from the vigorous workout. Hudson peered out at them, just average Bostonians wanting to make a difference. Itching to have a hand in the struggle. He thought about the voices from his past. “We have to be patient," Hudson said. "As Minutemen, we also have to be ready on a moment's notice. We won't know when our opportunity will come until it happens,” he said. Hudson breathed deep. He peered out at the horizon. Thought of all the hungry families he had visited as he had recruited for the Minuteman program. Thought about the luminescent engine Dr. Gibbons had shown him. “But help is on its way.”

  He hoped like hell his words were true. Gibbons has said it wasn’t ready for prime time yet. People were starting to starve in South Boston now. The Heights were the worst, of course. All his life he’d thought of being the local hero. The one who’d done good and come back to make a difference. The guy who would not forget where he came from. All that seemed egotistical now. He wasn’t the savior of Southie. He would just as likely oversee its destruction. It was at that very moment he received a ping on his PDA.

  Dr. Gibbons. It was the call for a meeting. The answer to his prayers, he hoped.

  The lack of power meant lack of heat. Lack of heat in a New England winter meant people died. The first real mission for the Minutemen was one designed to strengthen their resolve. Leslie and her team identified a list of Minutemen households without power. She would go down the list testing the bioluminescent engine. Not only would this advance the science, but it could save the lives of some of their most important supporters. Today, they would test it on just one household. The first test, as it were. Leslie had a hard time not holding her breath the entire time.

  Media Corp continued to cover The Crisis in South Boston as one that had been caused by the Suns, but that argument had collapsed inside Southie itself. The repairs, the curfew, the quarantine, they all had gone on far too long. Residents openly talked about the fact that they were being punished. The story seemed to be aimed at the rest of country now, not South Boston.

  Leslie and Lantern worked the control panel together. Lantern had helped construct a digital-light pathway that would beam the energy source across the area. This one single orb had enough juice to power a quarter of South Boston homes and businesses—if they could get the power to those homes and businesses. They had been working on that problem for the past two months.

  The focus of all that work, the bioluminescent engine, pulsated in the chamber. It was floating in midair, encased in a glass cube that sat on a tall shelf inside the Fire Fly chamber. Lantern was wearing his helmet and Leslie had dark sunglasses on just in case. After the miniature sun that was created during the Fiona incident, she was taking no chances. She'd had ghosts and floaters in her eyes for days afterwards.

  “All right. Let's try it,” Leslie said.

  Lantern spoke into his RDSD. “Hollis, you ready?”

  In a small house seven blocks away, Ramsey Hollis stood with the Caper family. Donald was the young husband and a Minuteman. His oldest daughter, Cynthia, was also in training. Hollis couldn't help thinking about how warm he would have been if he'd had his diving suit on. He really had no idea why int
elligent people would choose to live in a place that was so goddamn cold!

  “I'm fixin' to freeze my butt off,” Hollis replied. “That count?”

  Hollis eyed the Capers. The family shivered on the couch behind him. Their breath was visible in the harsh winter air. A shiver ran down Hunley’s spine. He would never complain about the weather in Norfolk again.

  Back at the chamber, Leslie pressed the button on the control panel. “Here we go.”

  Hollis nodded to the family. “Here we go.” The Capers held hands.

  Beams of light scanned out from the orb and passed right through the lab wall. The beam shot down the city streets, seeking out the designated target. In a matter of seconds it found it. Inside the house it beamed across the room. The beam sought out the home's electrical box and disappeared inside of it. The box glowed with the energy for a moment and then faded back to normal. Inside, a small engine of bioluminescence had been created. It could power any electrical need that the house could generate and then some. As long as the mini-orb worked, the family would pay nothing to Imperial Petroleum for their power. The whole procedure lasted about fifteen seconds.

  The lights flickered on. The sound of the heater belched to life. The family cheered, realizing what it meant for them. More than one tear was shed.

  Hollis just looked on, grinning. “It’s workin',” he drawled to Lantern. “We're warmer already.”

  Fiona Fletcher opened her eyes. Around her were white walls. She noticed the EEG monitor and the rest of the medical equipment. That's when the pain returned. No longer lost in the black void of nothingness. Now her skin and eyes burned. Not as bad as before, when Leslie had touched her. But bad enough. She'd traded one hell for another. Using all her strength, she rose from the bed. Her patient's gown clung to her even thinner frame. She looked at her emaciated hands. Veiny and pale. Her nails had all been clipped. Nail polish long since chipped away. How long had she been gone? Days, weeks, months? She stared at her hands. They began to cool, to soothe. Ice water shot through the veins. And suddenly they glowed with bioluminescent energy.

  The experiment had worked!

  For a second she felt exhilaration. She had spent so many years working near them. She knew what success meant to them. I am the Fire Fly.

  And then it all came flooding back. The anger, the betrayal. The memory was like riding a wave. The energy coursed through her like supercharged steroids. She thought about the Revolution. He had probably never considered what this power would do to her emotions. Or to her mind. She felt aggression. Like never before.

  And for one person in particular.

  The door to the room was closed. They had left her here alone like a true orphan. Like an animal. She aimed her hands at the door. Concentrated. Not sure what would happen.

  A beam of chartreuse energy seared out of them. Fiona gasped in surprise. The door burned to oblivion. There was very little sound. It simply flamed into ash like a sheet of paper. As she watched it burn her aggression grew. She imagined the door had been the Revolution. And smiled. She rose from the mattress and stalked out into the empty hall. She would seek out the man who had tried to kill her and burn him alive.

  CHAPTER 41

  The Revolution sighed. This gathering was supposed to be a celebration. The first team meeting in weeks. The official announcement of the bioluminescent orbs. A formal introduction of Parker Hudson, leader of the Minutemen. A good day.

  Instead it had broken down into bickering.

  “It’s simple,” Leslie said. “The Minutemen distribute them and we provide the security.”

  “Just one problem,” Bailey said. “How many do we give out and to who?” Bailey bent his head sideways, and his eyes went wide. “Then there’s that little problem of making your atomic algae public. We let this genie out of the bottle, we won’t get her back in.” His eyes dropped. Revolution thought he saw regret flash across Bailey’s face. The man had so many secrets, so many things to regret. It had to be hard to be John Bailey.

  Revolution peered across from Leslie at the large, round table. First meeting in weeks and here they were arguing. It was frustrating. Ward was to his right, Bailey to his left. Next to Ward was Rachel, then Lantern next to Leslie. On the other side of the table, next to Bailey, sat Sophia, and then Hollis on the other side of Leslie. Parker Hudson sat in a row of chairs for visitors off to the side. They were all out of their uniforms. Except for Revolution, of course. They looked good, dressed business-casual.

  “Yeah, and have y’all considered what the Council would do with that power if they had it?” Hollis drawled. “You might think they’d never use weapons of mass destruction.” He leaned forward and looked right at Ward. “But, son, you’d be wrong.”

  Revolution scanned the room. Studied the faces. None of them wanted to think about that. They had a technology that could save the world, and here they were afraid they couldn’t use it.

  “We need wide distribution of the orbs to test their effectiveness over a long geographic range. It’s that simple. COR’s already on board. We have authority to do what we want here. We need those tests,” said Leslie.

  “And at the very least they can provide some heat to the city. It sucks out there. More than normal. Why the hell else are we here if not to protect people?” Ward said, trying to contain his frustration.

  “I’m with the professor,” Rachel said, winking at Ward. Revolution’s 360-degree lenses allowed him to see her rub her leg against his. Ward’s cheeks flushed, and he scooted his leg away from her. Rachel smirked an impish grin they all could see. Revolution knew he was going to have to watch those two. Ward’s relationship with Alison Mitchell was an asset they could not afford to jeopardize.

  “Brilliant,” Sophia sneered at Rachel. “Nevertheless”—she turned to the whole group—“what right do we have not to do this? To keep this out of the hands of people whose lives it could save? I mean, this isn’t some gadget to spy on your neighbors in the shower.”

  Now Rachel’s cheeks crimsoned, but with anger. The two of them had been at each other for weeks. Fortunately, they were on two opposite sides of the table. Revolution figured he should probably talk to Leslie about moving one of them out of their shared room. But they were the only two females on the team, and splitting them might actually make things worse. Not give them a chance to work it out, if that was possible.

  But then Sophia seemed to soften and included herself in her assessment. “And it isn’t half-finished like fusion reaction, either,” she admitted, meaning her unfinished Helium-3 project. “This is important. This is done. This works.”

  “I disagree,” Hollis said. “There’re just too many unanswered questions with this thing. Too many possible unintended consequences.”

  “We can’t allow the Council to get access to these orbs,” Bailey added with authority.

  “And use them as a way to build weapons that we’d have no defense against,” Revolution said. No one had wanted the orbs to be a reality more than he. It could change the balance of power against the Council, just like he’d told Ward. When Leslie showed him that first one not so long ago, they had been mesmerized. But at some point, cold hard reality set in. In a very real sense, bioluminescence was their only significant advantage against the Council. Take that away, and they were in trouble. Ironically, using the orbs meant losing their advantage. A catch-22. They had to find a way to use them without handing their power source over to the Council.

  Revolution peered over at Lantern. He’d stayed quiet as usual, but Revolution figured he was against the orbs’ distribution. He was cautious and secretive by nature.

  Hudson, for his part, seemed a bit intimidated by his surroundings. He hadn’t made a peep during this squabble. But his blood pressure, as measured in Revolution’s HUD, had risen any time they’d spoken against distribution. Understandable really. He was on the front lines, seeing people suffer every day. In a way, it was his job to lobby for such things. Revolution imagined he would not
stay silent at too many more meetings. Hudson was a natural leader. But this group was nothing if not intimidating. Hard to jump right in on your first day.

  Altogether that made five in favor, four against distribution.

  They argued for an hour.

  In the end, Leslie thought of the solution and brokered a deal: the orbs would be distributed to only the most trusted Minuteman houses at first, using the Capers as an example. Then, once the Orbs had run for a while and the kinks were straightened out, the Suns would work on securing areas of the city block by block with help from the Minutemen. As soon as they were secure, they’d power them up. Expanding and testing the orbs’ range as they spread. This would mean the Council could not get to the orbs without a massive firefight. Not something they’d want to risk.

  It was a good solution. A slow retaking of South Boston.

  The Suns had just finished their meeting. They were exiting the conference room in a group. They had strolled out just in front of the Fire Fly chamber, and the Revolution turned to face the group. He spoke to everyone, but his words were directed toward Hudson. He needed him to know, to believe, despite the earlier bickering, so Hudson would share that belief with those who struggled on the outside.

  “The quarantine's designed to diminish our support. To divide us. We just proved it's not going to work,” Revolution said. He stepped out in front of the group and motioned for their attention. “Life outside these walls is hard,” he said to them. “But thanks to Dr. Gibbons”—he motioned toward one of the orbs burning in the chamber—“we'll make the Council's quarantine irrelevant.” The group's eyes drifted past him...