by L E Boyd
She stood and opened the backpack to the map. As she opened it a box of matches rolled out and landed at her feet.
She knew what she had to do. No more could she be the timid and obedient woman she had become over the years. She had to stand strong and fight for herself.
Priscilla painfully bent down and picked up the box of matches. She struck one against the box and threw it into the car before scurrying away. The flames of the match quickly reached the kerosene based jet fuel and exploded behind her, rumbling the ground and causing Priscilla to fall and the map to spread open in front of her.
On her knees, she saw the valley where they landed next to a sign announcing arrival in the state of California that she had landed next to. And she saw the words Boudica quite a few miles away but she saw her end goal.
“Boudica. Here I come.”
***
Sitting at her desk on her private jet, Riva spun her small hunting knife on her finger as she headed back to Washington, DC.
A sudden knock came from the door to her office and she threw the knife directly at the top of her door.
It creaked open to reveal her small, timid secretary.
“Oh, Mildred. It’s you,” Riva said through gritted teeth.
“Yes, ma’am,” Mildred replied. “Ma’am, the President is on the line for you,” the brown-haired woman with glasses said as she closed the door.
Riva opened her laptop, clicking into a chat where the President was waiting to speak with her.
“Madame President. How may I help you?”
“What happened in Germany?” Catherine inquired. “I’ve been trying to get in contact with the German Chancellor all day. Did you get an answer on her willingness to join us?”
“Yes, I did speak with Chancellor Wolff,” Riva began. “We had a bit of a disagreement when it came to our discussion regarding the stature of different genders in the society that we intend to create, but we came to a good resolution.” She continued as she clicked a button on her phone. “You should be hearing from her shortly, I’m sure”
“Really?” Catherine said with a bit of questioning in her tone.
“Yes, absolutely.”
Within a few moments, the President's phone was heard ringing. She picked it up and it showed that it came from the phone of Chancellor Wolff of Germany.
“Hello.”
“Hello, Chancellor Wolff. I was worried something happened to you.”
As they continued the conversation, Riva continued to listen. Although the conversation was between Catherine and Chancellor Wolff, Chancellor Wolff was dead.
Earlier that same day, she had stabbed the German leader through the throat in Hitler’s eagle nest, allowing her to bleed out and die on the thick wooden floors. Once that was done, Riva pumped her full of her revitalization serum and a chip that awakened all of her memories but also combined them with her views towards men as needing to be forever submissive to women or only used as breeding stock.
Some saw her views as extreme, but considering her past with her father, her brother, and men in general, she had her reasons.
“Alright. Speak with you soon,” Catherine said as she hung up her phone.
“Is everything as expected?” Riva asked.
“Yes, it was. She seems very supportive of our views. A bit more extreme than I expected, but hey, we can always modify things. Alright, Riva. We’ll see you when you land.”
“See you then, ma’am,” Riva said, smiling as she ended the call. She let out a huge sigh and reached for another knife in her jacket. Again she began playing with it, spinning it, reminding herself of her past, and how hard she fought to be free of it and how soon she would end those who tried to end her.
She violently threw the knife into the door and it stuck firmly, shaking the first one loose.
“Boudica shall reign.”
Chapter 17: The Empire
“How bad is it?” Secretary Humphrey asked Nancy and Sienna via phone as she opened a orange file labeled, “Potential Crisis.”
“It’s bad, Martha. I wouldn’t call you in the middle of the night with a courier if it wasn’t serious.”
It was pouring rain out at 0231 when Secretary Humphrey was awakened by a knock at her door. She read the document in her mansion parlor as another secret service agent brought them to her.
“We need you…,” Sienna began.
“I’ll be right there,” Secretary Humphrey replied. She immediately put on her coat, put the documents in a black leather portfolio she had in the parlor and raced to the black suburban waiting for her.
After racing down the streets, she ended up in the Situation Room underneath the White House. Secretary Humphrey raced in as she was, hair wrapped in a green silk scarf, a blue short sleeve PJ set, black slippers, and a pink robe.
Nancy and Warden Sienna were both dressed in their own respective uniforms per their jobs and they looked at their colleague hard as she came in the room.
“What?” Secretary Kearney cried. “You said come in now and that it was a potential crisis.” She took off her robe and put it on a chair at the large long conference table.
“Look, you’re dragging me out of bed at one in the morning. This is what you’re getting appearance wise if you want my brain, now if you’ll excuse me,” she said as she stepped between the two women. She grabbed a dry erase marker from the rollway desk and immediately began drawing.
“You said the leak started along the rivers?” Secretary Humphrey asked.
“Yes,” Sienna said. “One of the prisoners escaped with our trucks.We theorize that he made it into California,got lost along the way and was exposed. We found the truck he stole in the Mohave Desert and his body just over the border in Quartzsite, Arizona.”
“Hmm…” Secretary Kearny said as she looked at the board. For a moment, she stood there, puzzled. She had drawn an outline of the state of California, marking ground zero where the nuclear bomb had hit in Southern California with an X.
In a second, she had a splendid idea, but she needed to confirm. She raced over to the file she was given, looked at it, and raced back over to the white board and began to draw circles and words. When she finished she stood back and looked melancholic: both relieved and sad.
“I’ve got it. But you guys aren’t going to like it,” she said.
“What is it?” Nancy asked.
“We’re going to build a valley in the desert, fill it with water, and entrap the nuclear waste. We’re going to have to entrap it and between the heat of the environment and the ice cold water behind it, it should cool it enough to where it turns to glass.”
Secretary Humphrey turned and looked at them.
“You’re not going to like what we have to do to get this done, though. It’s basically a suicide mission. The radiation will give them a greater likelihood of developing cancer, and the heat is likely to lead to severe dehydration. Can you accept that?”
The two leaders stood there silently looking at each other and pondering the heavy decision they had to make. Would they sacrifice the lives of their own for the greater good or let everyone live long enough for a hopeful space operation?
“I’ll ask for volunteers,” Nancy said, hopping on her phone and pressing a few buttons.
“Likewise,” Warden Sienna agreed, hopping on her phone as well.
“Good,” Secretary Humphrey said.“Does the President know?”
“She knows, but today is the day the space mission launches,” Nancy explained.
“Let’s hope that we can stay on this planet before we have to go invade another one,” Secretary Humphrey remarked, looking at her designs. Although externally she looked calm, she knew of the possible cost and consequences of not taking care of this leak as soon as possible.
“Get me that list of volunteers, every firetruck in that region, planes to drop water, dynamite, and C-4. We’re going to handle this.”
Chapter 18: The Mission
Kelly found himself looking up at bright surgica
l lights. He was afraid and unsure of how he had been taken out of his warm home with Martha and taken into a cold surgical auditorium.
“Martha! Martha!” He called out. His cries echoed out across the empty auditorium and there was still silence.
Then from the side operating doors, a person walked over to him in green scrubs, a surgical mask, and cap. Kelly was terrified and looked at the mysterious figure. They pulled down the mask to reveal Martha’s smiling face.
“Hi,” She said kissing him.
“Hi,” He replied.
“Why are you..why am I here?”
“You’re going to become a woman,” She whispered to him.
In that instant, a surgical team came in and took their places around the operating table.
“What?” Kelly said. He squeezed her hand tightly and tears began to well up in his eyes.
“I love you. I’ll see you soon,” She said kissing him on his forehead.
“Thank you.Thank you,”
***
It was a nice, bright day. No ice, no wind, no clouds. Perfectly clear skies.
A perfect day for a space mission.
“Everything looks good and ready,” Captain Zorrs said to Zora. The neophyte astronaut walked with the veteran astronaut as they went around the ship and it’s various compartments of supplies and cargo.
“Yes, I believe so,” Zora replied.
They stopped in the compartment that contained all the men who were considered to be experts in their field and would be used to help establish a new planet for human life.
“These guys should stay frozen for the whole trip unless the tubes come undone, so don’t let that happen,” Zora said.
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on letting that happen,” Bria replied.
They continued their inspection, looking into every hatch, every door, going over every button, and lever on the souped up rocket named Artemis.
The pair stopped for a moment to sit and reflect after going through flight operations for the rocket.
“I think Artemis will do us just fine, doctor,” Bria said, gazing into the clear sky.
“I’m sure it will, but still, space is dangerous, and we don’t know what is on the other side in that parallel universe. If anything, this is more of a treasure hunt than a mission with a target,” Zora said with concern in her voice.
“I figured that,” Bria replied. She still looked up at the sky, wondering what was beyond the atmosphere.
“What’s it like?”
“Huh?”
“What’s it like up there in space?”
Zora paused and thought back to her own first flight in space. “It...it’s beautiful,” she began. “Peaceful, tranquil. When you’re up there, you’re escaping everything, and you feel free, true freedom. No laws, no rules, no gravity. You’re just a simple being in a grand universe,” Zora said as she slipped back into memories of her past space adventures.
“That sounds wonderful,” Bria replied.
“Come on,” Zora said, slipping out of her memory. “Let’s go. We have to get you and the rest of the team in the suits and strapped in.”
Chapter 19: The Error
“All systems are go,” Bria said to ground control. She looked at her copilot and the rest of the crew of three other women who were also going into space and would hopefully find a new place to live in the galaxy.
A few hours later, Bria and her team were strapped into their rocket seats with their white helmets and orange seats.
“Remember what I told you,” Zora said to Bria. “Don’t unlock them until you land.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Bria said in response. Bria thought back in her mind to a few hours ago. She came onto the station at 0500 as she was ordered to. Even though she was still a bit tipsy from drinking on her last night on Earth for the foreseeable future. She stood in the briefing room in her olive flight suit and brown jacket, sipping on a Black Eye when Zora and Catherine arrived.
“Good morning, ladies,” she said, standing quickly and at attention.
“Good morning, Captain Zorrs,” Zora replied. “Catherine has decided to join us today to explain the more intricate details of the mission.”
“Very well, ma’am,” she responded.
“Alright, let’s get down to business,” Catherine began her briefing. She inserted a small drive into a slot in the wall. From there, a screen crawled out of the wall and the lights dimmed as a PPT began to play.
“Our country was born to be a country of democracy. Ideally, the Founding Fathers wanted to extend this to everyone in the country. Well, not white Anglo-Saxon Protestants and not women, minorities, or immigrants. Gradually, this changed over time with movements such as the Women’s Rights Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Native American Occupation of Alcatraz Movement, and more. But still, nothing was purely even,” Catherine said. “And then the election of 2016 occured and things started to slip backwards for women. First with abortion access, then with jobs, policies, travel, ownership, and gradually everything else. Then the ultimate insult to injury, the mandated marriages. It was as if we were only meant to get married and have babies. They were called the Coupling Ceremonies.”
“They were pushed by Adam Blackstone. He was a member of the extremist Crown Party: The Neo Conservatives,” Zora said as a photo of Adam Blackstone appeared behind them. “He made things awful for us. Every day, we had to wear dresses, focus on pleasing our husbands if we were married, try to find one independently before being made to marry someone randomly. There were always secret groups of political out casts and vagrants using the technology and the dark web to unify ourselves, share ideas, and hope for better days. But it was in 2040, that we formed and created Camp Boudica and created the second underground railroad to get women there. We were training warriors to lead an attack on the Capitol in DC and in other large political cities: Seattle, Detroit, Dallas, Atlanta, Boston, New York City, and Miami.
“We launched teams of twelve agents to each of the seven sites to blow up and destroy the government headquarters in the site. This worked for all of the sites but on my way to the eighth site, word was sent to the President and his cabinet known as the Oracle. They decided to launch the nuclear weapons from those eight sites at Camp Boudica. We managed to get everyone out using the underground railroad, but our home was destroyed as was most of Northern California. That is why the wall is there.”
“We were overall successful with our coup and we thought that safe from the radiation. But we were wrong.”
The screen then changed to images of black and silver liquid crawling super slowly across the desert.
“What is it? I thought all of the sand would have turned to glass.”
“There were eight bombs all built during the 1940’s. They put anything and everything into them. And there’s no record of what they can do, except destroy with massive explosions. We have rebuilt a wall in the desert to fortify it but we know that at most we have two years. Otherwise, we are doomed as Americans and potentially, the world.”
Bria’s face went gray and dull. She was not just the commander of a space mission but also the commander of the mission to save Earth.
“Holy shit,” she said quietly.
“Indeed, but we are giving you some help,” Zora said as she showed faces and images on the screen. “You have your core team but we are also giving you a team for establishment. Dr. Taylor Humphrey, mechanical engineer and geologist Kevin Richard, as well as agriculture and wildlife expert George Revere—MARSOC Sniper. They have all been on ice and will continue to be until you crack open their crates in the storage room.”
“And for the record, you will be the only one to know,” Catherine said, her voice echoing in Bria’s head as she was strapped into her seat. “You’ll have Dr. Taylor Humphrey, mechanical engineer, Dr. Langston Adams, agricultural specialist, and Dr. Allister Blackwood, explosives expert.” Catherine said. “They are in cold freeze, sleeping in these hard plastic coffins. They’re in
a separate compartment from the cabin of the rocket. You’ll be fine as long as you keep the door shut and they do have chips in their heads so they will seek to obey you using their knowledge when they wake up,” Zora added.
“Do you have you any questions?”
She gulped and thought of the immense weight that had now been put on her. Not only would she need to find a place for humanity to potentially live, but she was also holding three men who were in a deep slumber on a rocket destined for deep space.
“No ladies,” Bria said. “I understand my mission and I will complete it.” She thought of her commitment to these words as she looked at the red numbers on the clock. They read 0:01:43. She pressed a few buttons on the panel to warm up the engines. She took a deep breath and began to count back from ninety.
***
Catherine sat quietly in the back of her black SUV, pondering over paperwork and thoughts of the actions of her administration. While she had done great things by reforming education, rebuilding schools, mandating women’s self defense, opening the borders again, cutting down poverty, and other such things, she still questioned some of her decisions. Mandatory military service, not telling the public about how bad things were in regards to agriculture, reintroducing men into society with chips in their heads and only in limited portions, and now she was sending a rocket to space in hopes of finding a new planet the last Americans could live on. She hadn’t even told other countries of the impending apocalypse.
Was she doing the right thing? They had ignored them when they were being tortured nearly a decade earlier, but extinction?
Catherine picked up her cell phone and called the one person she knew she could trust. “Riva,” she said into the phone.
“Yes, ma’am?” the secretary replied through gasping breaths.
“What are you doing?” Catherine asked.
“Working out, ma’am,” she said as she rode her chipped male assigned to her while she was in her black lingerie.“How… how can I help you?” she continued.
“Well, I think maybe I was wrong about this whole thing.”