Pagu, Tina, Luxemburg, João Cândido, Orwell, and Guira were pushed into one of the buses for visitors, accompanied by several men in black. More of them got on the other bus. The mustache cable reached the dashboard, turned on the electric motor, and chose the destination with a few touches on the screen.
“Can’t you go faster, Corporal?” asked Marinetti.
“No, mein Führer, the machine will follow the normal programming.”
“Could they not? Can the Union stop the damn engine?” he asked furiously.
“Rosenberg and Salazar were able to cut off the communication, the cameras, and the locks, but they didn’t figure out how to take direct control without damaging everything.”
“Maledetto robot!” he mumbled. “In the new order, vehicles will have steering wheels, brakes, and accelerating pedals. A machine is a woman, and it’s not fitting for it to refuse a man’s command!”
“Ah!” the First Commissioner burst. “Stupid, crazy executioners! Haven’t you noticed that your order stands on sand?”
“Shut up, sfacciata! Your languid dreams of perpetual peace are the sickness, we are the cure! War is beautiful because, thanks to gas masks, scary megaphones, flamethrowers, and tanks, it establishes man’s supremacy over the subjugated machine! War is beautiful because it enriches a flowery meadow with the fire orchids of machine guns. War is beautiful, because it combines in a symphony the firing of rifle, the cannon, the pauses between two battles, the perfumes and the odors of decomposition. The war has come, you have lost!”
“The direction failed,” she admitted. “But this is not so important. The masses…”
Marinetti interrupted her with a slap.
“Hypocritical babble! The masses are clay and we will shape it! The destruction of the reactor will show how vulnerable this civilization is.” Marinetti nodded. “The lithium cells are almost obsolete. When we show how fragile this machine is, the industrial complexes of Uyuni and Atacama will collapse, we will avenge the industrial centers of European coal in the last century and we will begin the crisis that will lead to World War II. The reactor is meant to convince the world that it needs to follow suit, united and kind to enjoy in peace the lithium of the Tauantinsuio, the food of Brazil, blah blah blah. Enough of this! Our only real need is to fight, it’s health, life, and evolution! The strong will follow us!”
“Crazy,” Tina whispered behind Pagu. “Completely pazzo!”
It didn’t make much sense to Pagu as well. What was the use of kidnapping the First Commissioner? She was only a symbol, one of the members of the Council of Commissioners, one from each of the seven confederations, each of which rotated the presidency for a year. If they destroyed the reactor, so what? They would build another, with enhanced security. It would only be a brutal and empty gesture of performance art, even if it ended with the death of terrorists and hostages. But what if the Union was more fragile than it thought?
Mussolini called Marinetti to the back of the bus to talk, forgetting the hostages. Hitler was still ahead, but watchful outside.
Then a message appeared on Pagu’s visor.
Guira @Pagu Hands behind your back. I’ll cut the handcuffs. Without sound, pretend it’s nothing.
Surprised, she obeyed. Her wrists felt hot and the link was cut off.
Pagu @Guira How?
Guira @Pagu Gambiarra with the holoprojetor, reprogrammed like an açaratã-mirim by the viewfinder. I’ve released Tina, I’m going to release Orwell. Take care of the front?
Pagu @Guira Rosa and Cândido? How can I warn them? They have no visors.
RLux @Pagu We have a visor, yes, in our contact lenses.
Guira @Pagu The projector password is e ^ (i * pi) + 1 = 0, connect it to your visor.
Pagu received the projector, which looked like a flashlight. He cut the bonds of Rosa and Cândido’s handcuffs as if they were paper. The kidnappers kept arguing back.
RLux @Pagu @Guira I need to talk to the UN, but there is a blocker here. Only the wireless works.
Guira @RLux The @Pagu visor can access special bands to activate remote equipment at outdoor work. If I can code it, you’ll be able to talk to them.
RLux @Pagu @Guira Try please. Connection ComCon.un / Uno password Spartakus o / Bund.
Pagu @Guira The display password is Oswald <3Pagu <3Tarsila.
Guira made some adjustment on Pagu’s display and said to try. She followed the instructions.
UN001 @Pagu @RLux @Guira Good they could call. Conditions?
RLux @UN001 We 3 plus @JCndd, @ TMdtt, @GOrwll hostages and 10 elements. On the other bus, just terrorists. About 20 of them, total.
UN001 @RLux Ready to act. Any suggestions?
RLux @UN001 Marinetti said he only wanted us 6. Can you check if there are no hostages on the other bus?
UN001 @RLux Recognition by cyberdragonfly, check. Total 19 enemy elements. Bus 2 carries guns and nitrate bombs, no hostage.
RLux @UN001 Plane: detonates bus 2. Shock makes bus 1 stop, stuns elements, opens doors. We run, you cover. Approved?
UN001 @RLux Risk of some of you being machine-gunned.
RLux @UN001 I take responsibility. Best maneuver: unexpected & audacious turn.
Pagu followed the exchange of messages and understood what was going to happen. Tina sighed. They quickly exchanged messages about how to get away.
UN001 @RLux Cover almost ready, operation authorized. Countdown of 10 decanicts, on 1 you cover your ears and get down.
They were already arriving at the gates of the Intirana. Mussolini and Marinetti, with rocket launchers, decided to go back to the front in 5…4…3…
At the same time, the six hostages bent down and covered their ears. Perplexed, Mussolini noticed that they were free of the handcuffs. He shouted and reached for his holster, but at that moment a tremendous explosion shook the bus, shattered the back windows, and threw down those who were standing. The bus stopped and opened all doors and windows automatically. Adolf, bleeding from from the unexpected shock on the windshield, took too long to react. Pagu saw Rosa and Raul dribble over the fallen leaders and jump out. He then jumped, along with Tina, in the opposite direction until he found a corner behind the main building to hide. A plume of smoke rose from the rubble of the second bus at the end of the bridge over the semicircular pond. The Pagu display registered one more coded message:
RLux @UN001 I and @JCndd are safe, the others?
UN001 @RLux Sighted @Pagu and @GOrwll outside the firing line, others not confirmed. Aerotroops in the air.
He heard the sharp sound of turbines. Soldiers from the UN rose from behind the Intirana, flying with dorsal jets, açarat&atild;s ready to fire. Marinetti and Mussolini grabbed Guira and Tina, using them as shields as they walked to the open entrance of the plant.
RLux @UN001 Do not shoot. Try to negotiate their surrender.
Marinetti and Mussolini walked with the hostages toward the reactor, looking up. Some of his men followed them with guns cocked, looking downtrodden, some visibly wounded. A megaphone told them to lay down their weapons, but the group went to the plant.
“We have to do something!” Orwell whispered. “I don’t know how I can live without this woman!”
Pagu was astonished to realize that he was talking about Tina. How had she not realized they were lovers? It did not matter, she had her own reasons for grieving. Guira was a good friend and, if he were in her place, he would try to save her again. But how would he do it?
The leaders were already inside the plant when she remembered the projector. He told Orwell what she intended to do and he approved. Then she yelled, and the last latecomer, who was jabbering in his hand, looked in his direction. The visor widened and focused on the frightened face and directed the shot accurately into the blue eyes of the mustachioed German.
“Ach! Ich bin blind!” he shouted, dropping his weapon. They ran up to him.
“You’ve always been blind!” Orwell snarled, knocking him down and taking the submachine gun
.
When the German fell, Pagu tried to take the pistol, but he jerked it away. Before he reacted, he took the pistol from his hands, thrust it into his own mouth, and fired. Fragments of bone and gray matter spilled onto Pagu, who turned, trembling.
“Chin up, darling,” Orwell cheered her up. “We can’t waste time!”
The others didn’t come back to see what had happened, they headed for the heart of the reactor. Orwell and Pagu found a ladder for a tall walkway and ran. Bullets bounced off metal structures, but they were lucky. Then the Marines appeared, and the terrorists forgot about the pair to concentrate on preventing their entry with a barrage of shrapnel.
Pagu and Orwell reached the central area. Marinetti and Mussolini armed the rocket launcher against the vacuum chamber of the reactor. The hostages had their backs against a wall, hands at the back of their necks, watched by one of the gunmen in hand, the rest shooting at the military.
“Now what?” Pagu asked.
“You have more precision, point to the nape of the gun man’s neck. I’ll shoot the leaders. On three.” He went back several steps to get a better angle and waved his hand: three, two…
Orwell fired, Pagu too. The guy watching the hostages gave a sharp shriek as he was burned by the açaratã. It was the Pound guy. Tina and Guira took advantage and ran away through a nearby corridor. Swept away by the Englishman’s blast, Marinetti and Mussolini fell on their backs and the rocket launcher fired. But instead of hitting the steel wall of the reactor chamber ahead, it shot to the ceiling and struck a shielded tube. A fused lithium shower, radioactive and corrosive, rained on the terrorists like red lava cherries exploding in purple flames. The fiery breath of the pyrotechnic spectacle reached Pagu and everything went dark.
* * *
I’m still alive, she thought as she discovered herself on a hospital bed. She vaguely remembered the feeling of suffocation before they put on an oxygen mask. Then they boarded a military convertiplane. She regained her consciousness among atrocious pains as she landed on the heliport of a hospital and was soon sedated. She felt less ill now, but then she remembered the horrors of Paramonga. Would it be better to have died?
A robot whistled by her side and a doctor appeared in moments. Dr. Deré Lubidi, Radiotoxicology, said the badge.
“How do you feel?” she asked Pagu.
“Very sick, hard to breathe, headache, throat burning…” she spoke hoarsely.
“It’s to be expected, don’t worry. You are out of danger, everything is under control.” She put a hand over her face. “You were very brave.”
“And the others? Is Guira all right?”
“The Apapocuva? Yes, and Tina too. Orwell fell ill with the toxic vapors when he rescued her, but there is no risk either, he is here, look.” With some invisible command, she made the room divider move to show him, and he waved uncomfortably from the other bed. “The terrorists, on the other hand, almost all of them are dead, and I don’t know if we’ll be able to save the two survivors. Unbelievable: one of them is a North Colombian poet and the other a German philosopher.”
“What about the radiation?”
“It wasn’t so bad. It’s different from a fission plant, the radiation outside the reaction itself is smaller. You all absorbed some radioactive tritium from the lithium leak, not fatal, and received nanotherapy and gene therapy to minimize damage. The discomfort will last for another day or two and for four or five weeks you will feel sunburn and maybe the hair will fall off for some time, but we expect a full recovery. There is an increased risk of cancer and children with congenital abnormalities, but if you follow the annual screening program and the treatments you are entitled to under the health care system, your life expectancy and your children will not be harmed.”
“Okay, I guess…when can I go home?”
“Whenever you want, we don’t need to keep you here. The treatment can continue at home and this bracelet will monitor your health from a distance. But before you leave, I’d like you to speak to someone who waited to see you as soon as you could receive visitors.” She spoke through the visor. “You can let him in, Galvão is able.”
“Good evening!” the First Commissioner greeted her. “I’m here to thank you, for me, for the Union of Nations, and for humanity, and to give you President Cândido’s thanks. He’s at an emergency meeting, but he’ll see you personally at the earliest opportunity.” She shook Pagu’s hand.
“Thank you for your kindness.” Pagu couldn’t think of anything better to talk about.
“To be honest,” Orwell answered in turn, “I thought of Tina and Pagu, not of humanity.”
“It doesn’t matter. It was the part of humanity that was yours to protect. And I want to welcome this opportunity to invite you both to the re-inauguration of the Intirana. It must be two or three months from now, when the damage is repaired and you are in top form.”
“Sorry,” Orwell cut off, “but I’ve had enough nuclear reactors for a lifetime.”
“Listen, this has gained a much greater significance, it is about reaffirming peace and solidarity among peoples, not only launching a new energy source. And the axis of the ceremony will no longer be the reactor, but you. I want to have the honor of giving you the Golden Stars of Union of Nations heroes. Guira and Tina have already accepted. And you?”
“I accept!” Pagu answered with youthful enthusiasm.
Orwell was slow to reply.
“I accept, on one condition: I want the opportunity to speak on behalf of anarchism and explain that our criticisms of the Union have nothing to do with Marinetti’s cretins.”
“You’ll have as much time to speak as you want, Orwell. Freedom is always, fundamentally, the freedom of those who disagree with us. Will that be all right?”
“All right…my dear Ms. Luxemburg.” He smiled. “Perhaps our points of view are not so irreconcilable. Count me among the ranks of loyal opposition to socialism.”
“The state will one day be expendable, but at this moment the choice is socialism or barbarism, as the incident of today showed us. But I respect your position. And you, Pagu, what do you think?”
“I agree with each of you a little, but I’m not in the mood to debate politics.”
“You’re quite right, my daughter, I’m sorry. Can I help you get dressed?”
The First Commissioner and the doctor assisted Pagu and Orwell. When Pagu started using the visor again, she had more than three billion messages in her mailbox accumulated in the last hundred chronos, and they kept coming. And the viewfinder pointed out several dear people in the hospital lobby.
She tried to stand on her own, but she felt sick and had to cling to the bed to keep from falling. The doctor ordered a robocycle, a combination of a wheelchair, a tricycle, and a robot.
“It works like a robotaxi,” she explained. “It just doesn’t charge for its use. Choose the destination on the screen and it will take you there. When you no longer need it, just return it to any health center.”
His friend refused a similar device, managing to get along with a cane. But as she prepared to leave, the First Commissioner made a proposition to him:
“Orwell, Tina wants to go with you to take care of you and told me you hate long plane trips, so I thought… I need to go to Eurasia to discuss the inquiry about the Futurist Party with Secretary Gramsci and I can stop in London. Would you like to take a ride on Aero Uno? It reduces travel time to less than a third.”
“Hmm… I can do that, it should be an interesting ride.”
After saying their good-byes to Pagu, Orwell, Tina, and Rosa went by official car to the airport. Guira hugged and kissed Pagu, thanked her effusively for everything and promised that they would make the best show of all time. And she was so pleased to see her parents reconciled with her partners that she forgot the discomfort and promised an exclusive interview to Anaíde. They’d been fighting since she was eighteen, and had left her paternal home to live with the couple, but now they were hugging them and asking
them to take good care of her daughter. Curious people and journalists broke through and Pagu left on the robocycle, escorted by Oswald and Tarsila, eager to sleep at Pousada Dandara before embarking for Piratininga.
“What is that on your wrist, my love?” Tarsila asked when they arrived at the inn.
“Oh, it’s Orwell’s watch. I was so curious that he gave me a memento.”
“Interesting!” Oswald looked closer. “It’s half past eight. And look, the date in the old calendar, October 24th, 1929. What a day! If you hadn’t been there, our world wouldn’t exist anymore!”
* * *
UNION OF NATIONS’ UNITS OF MEASUREMENT
chrono = 3.6 minutes or 216 seconds. It’s divided in 1,000 nicts of 0.216 of a second. A day has 400 chronos.
credit: the virtual currency of the Union of Nations. It’s divided in 1,000 milicredits or milis. The per capita wage is 900 credits and the minimum monthly wage is 30 credits.
quadra = 100 meters. It’s divided in 1,000 modules (1 module = 10 centimeters)
quarta = 1 square quadra = 10 thousand square meters or 1 hectare
borba = 0.99229 watt (unit of potential)
juma = 0.21433 joule (unit of energy). 1 gigajuma = 59.5 kilowatts-hour
veiga = 0.67779 volt (unit of electric tension)
termograde = 1 kelvin (unit of temperature)
liter and ton: same as in our reality
* * *
Antonio Luiz M. C. Costa has always enjoyed literature, fantasy and science fiction in particular, but he graduated in production engineering and philosophy, did postgraduate studies in economics, and worked as an investment analyst and economic and financial advisor before rediscovering his vocation in writing, journalism, and fiction. Today he writes about reality in CartaCapital magazine and about the imagination elsewhere. He published a collection, Eclipse ao pôr do sol e outros contos fantásticos (2010), and the novel Crônicas de Atlântida — O tabuleiro dos deuses (2011) in addition to collaborating with the means at his disposal for the development of speculative fiction in Brazil.
Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World Page 11