With These Eyes

by Horst Steiner

  Isabelle watched the Troopers throw a rescue pack into the water. In seconds, a Kodiak raft inflated out of the camouflage-colored fiberglass container. The fighters loaded their rocket weapons into the rubber boat and motored ashore. Isabelle could do little but watch as the Troopers opened their deadly cargo and took aim at Tasha and her robotic squadron overhead.

  A staff of fire ejected from the back of the shoulder-mount weapon, signaling the attack on the renegade rainmaker.

  51 A COMMON GOAL

  Precisely coordinated, Tasha brought her squadron around for the third application. She was watching the twelve colored bands on the radar fade as the condensation she had caused dissipated. A new image appeared on the screen. With it came a weapons-lock warning and the yelping of a siren. The first rocket had made the jet to Tasha's right its target. Within a few seconds, the powerful weapon impacted the drone in a violent explosion. The destructive device tore apart the plane's left wing, spreading the contents of the virtually full tanks in a fiery explosion across the sky. The resulting pressure wave rocked Tasha's plane as if slapped by Gene's giant hand. A second explosion ripped through the other wing, utterly destroying the large jet-aircraft beside her.

  The shrill cry of a peacock echoed through the lively jungle beneath the celestial chaos. The majestic bird spread his feathers in a colorful display of virility for a prospective mate. A glimmering reflection filled the female's eyes that were quickly torn away from the plumage of entertainment. Panic-stricken, she flew off, beak-over-talons when the burning nose-cone from the destroyed airliner barreled into the jungle floor next to them.

  "Sir, we shot one down."

  Further below, Gene's Trooper was happy he finally had a report of success for his nefarious employer. Embarrassment overcame him with Gene's reply.

  "What - do you want a cookie? Keep firing!" Gene had no interest in hearing another reminder of obstacles, all he cared about was the launch of his weapon.

  Tasha knew Gene's Troopers would continue their assault on her squadron. Fortunately for her, they didn't know which plane she occupied. A hit of her lead jet and Tasha would die. With the death of the fearless warrior would also come the fall of her mechanical army who followed her blindly. Tasha had little faith in Isabelle's mission to stop Gene. This meant to Tasha that with her would stand or fall freedom for all mankind. Without an awareness that the cause for which she was willing to sacrifice everything had become the same as Isabelle's, Tasha pushed the four throttle levers to full. She needed all the lift she could get and the increased speed brought the squadron into ascent. A pull on the yoke between her knees lead Tasha's flock of thunderbirds into a steep climb. She passed 20,000 feet and approached the service range of shoulder-mount weapons when a second hit took out an airliner far off her left side. A fiery explosion tore apart the fuselage of the large aircraft. Within the fraction of a second, a bright-green ball of fire lit up the night sky and the jungle far below. The concussion rocked the entire squadron as it climbed past 22,000 feet when a third rocket burned out just short of Tasha and fell back towards the jungle.

  Although strong winds had dissipated much of Tasha's applications, the cloud stripes spread across the sky in a thin haze. She brought her dwindling army of flying drones around for another pass. Tasha had reached safety from the ground fire, but also left the effective altitude for cloud formation. Like a squadron of dive-bombers, she raced towards the jungle with her fleet. A flick of the trigger and her ten remaining jets sprayed more of their cargo into the atmosphere. A slightly triumphant smile trying to make its way across Tasha's face was stopped short when a missile reduced her squadron to nine aircraft. She climbed back to safety for the next drop. This continued until Tasha was flying with only one remaining drone. A cloud cover was forming over the jungle, but not enough to cause a lightning storm. Tiny beads of sweat on Tasha's forehead mirrored the condensation in the sky outside. Her odds of being struck by the next missile had become one in two.

  "Sir, mountain charged to capacity."

  The Trooper's first announcements of true progress in quite some time returned Gene to a sense of impending victory. Strange how Gene’s anger had used his strong sense of love and turned it around in a devilish game. Gene’s love for the world was so strong that it drove him to stop at nothing to shield his dying child from pain. He was getting ready to pull the plug.

  Fear and anger made Gene miss Fuji’s profound fact that only light can extinguish darkness. What little of that that thought had found its way to his consciousness turned into his idea of a photon-bomb. His anger over the pain that surrounded him caused Gene to turn on the very world he loved so much. His only thought was that humanity was devolving into a grotesque mutation of a once brilliant civilization. Gene had made a point to visit digs at all ancient monuments. Most were constructed around the time when Neanderthal people were overcoming their fear to leave the cave. The sheer enormity of a construction project like the great pyramids had been achieved for a sole reason: Even a caveman could recognize that it would take great knowledge and skill to construct such monuments. Engineering and trigonometry, language and writing skills to record and teach such skills were still aspirations of Gene’s cutting-edge R&D facilities.

  Michael’s audience has found history to be much less entertaining than watching a group of musicians or dancers join a contest destined to embarrass the artists. Gene knew that when the people slander art and those who try to add beauty, art and beauty retreat. Left was a world of suffering.

  Gene leaned back in his chair and with a dramatic voice, he proclaimed, "Begin the cooling process!"

  The Trooper at the launch controls touched a field on his screen marked 4H Coolant. Inside the launch bay, superfluid helium-4 was now streaming from a battery of storage tanks into the fuselage of the test projectile. The missile bay's air moisture quickly formed a layer of ice over the thick, black supply-lines. An eerie fog reminiscent of horror-movie graveyards wafted across the launch area. Bright blue beams from turret lights were racing along the walls to warn of a potential suffocation hazard. Within a few moments' time, the temperature of the weapon's ceramic body was approaching absolute zero. Launch was fastly approaching.

  In the control room, Gene was pleased to hear the Trooper's announcement. "Hull temperature now 1.4 Kelvin. Weapon has reached superconductivity. Magnetizing track." The Trooper touched a couple of panels on his screen and the wheeled carriage retracted into the launch track. Accompanied by a low hum, the missile now hovered over a magnetic field. This was to be the proof that Gene's weapon had been calibrated properly to reach its target area. Anxious to find out, he gave the order.

  "Fire!"

  The Trooper depressed the red launch button in his panel. Lights throughout the lair dimmed momentarily from the track's enormous power drain as the huge projectile rumbled forward into the launch tube.

  Isabelle was still in the water at its opening. The heavy metal door at the tube's end flung open. Isabelle knew she'd only have seconds to make her move. She reached for the release buckle and dropped her air bottle and breathing apparatus to the shallow lake bottom. As soon as the metal dive-gear hit the rocky ground, the track's magnets slammed it against the tube's exterior wall. The force of the magnets would have killed Isabelle, had she still worn the diving gear. Too fast to see, the dummy missile shot out of the pipe's open mouth and towards the outer atmosphere. A trail of condensation and fog was all that bore witness to its brief presence. This was the moment the young journalist gone super-hero had been anticipating so patiently. Isabelle's hands reached up to the edge of the cylinder of concrete and metal that was still emitting fog. She felt the sting of the cold as some of her fingers touched the sub-zero trails left by the projectile. She felt like she had hung onto a red-hot piece of metal. The cells in her fingers were dying from the extreme cold. There was no time to adjust the grip. Isabelle pulled herself up and over the edge as fast as she could. A few of Isabelle’s thoughts shifted. This
might give her the chance to avenge the loss of her parents and stop the attack on the world. There was nothing inside at all to grab for support. The launch door above her flung shut. Like a manifestation of Gene's iron fist, the heavy slab of metal swatted Isabelle on her behind and launched her into the darkness below. Slightly dazed, she regained her bearings just before the track bent towards its horizontal portion. In an attempt to land upright, her right foot caught the last part of the curved section and snapped sideways. Isabelle's other foot set down on the pipe but wasn't strong enough to catch all her velocity from the accelerated fall. Her head crashed into the opposing side of her self-imposed trap.

  Isabelle was left unconscious and with a dislocated foot in the barrel of the world's worst gun.

  52 MORABI DISMISSES GENE'S MISSILE

  Even in a nation that is peaceful like Madagascar, the launch of a missile from its soil would not go unnoticed. At the main island's defense headquarters, General Morabi was sitting at his desk, in front of a pile of surveillance equipment and high-tech weapons. The island-nation's military leader was wearing a set of headphones attached to a listening device. He was carefully pointing its tiny laser at the airman on duty who was observing several radar screens. He heard little but the beating of the soldier's heart until his deafening announcement brought a painful expression to Morabi's face.

  "Sir, radar detected an unidentified blip lifting off from one of the smaller islands!" He pulled the headphones off and with his ears ringing, the General probed for more information on this unusual announcement. The airman specified, "Radar signature and speed match nothing in our files. It..." he hesitated for a moment as he could feel Morabi's eyes pierce the back of his head, then he continued. "It doesn't even look like it was made out of metal. I could only think of one thing that travels this fast."

  Morabi had chosen the military because in a peaceful nation such as his, there would be little excitement in his career. The day had been anything but the relaxing calm to which he had grown accustomed. The enjoyment of his new toys was severely hindered by the airman's statements.

  "Are you reporting a flying saucer? Because if you are, you might find yourself cleaning the latrines for the rest of your enlistment."

  "No, sir."

  Both men went back to what they had been doing without giving Gene's speeding missile another thought.

  53 GENE LOOKS FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

  The misguided industrialist was wringing his hands in anticipation. Gene was tracking his projectile on the big screen. A map of the world showed its path towards airspace above the target area, Tasha's home country. Gene saw the entire continent as a lost cause – the rabid dog that had to be put down. The people of Africa had reached such an extreme state of fear that they had lost their divine abilities to manifest a bright future for themselves. The sole product of their suffering was a complete lack of joy or physical sustainability beyond what humans deserve to endure. Their continent stood as a prominent symbol of the power of the human mind. A society that is not permitted to recover from suffering will eventually pull itself into a vortex of dark energy and become a menace to its neighbors. Gene soon realized that this sunniest of earth’s lands was called the dark continent for its cycling of negative energy.

  Gene was convinced: The people of Africa had endured such disproportionate suffering across more than seven generations that it had become their only acceptable reality. There was a magic number. Gene knew that those who chanted Nam Myoho Renge Kyo or followed other religions that were purely based on love and courage had the power to affect their fate. According to the cosmic law, this divine light could reach seven generations in any direction.

  Time is an invention of man to make him understand his limited state of anger in the past, present and future. A society bathed in light is not bound by the limitations of a linear time scale. A society doused in darkness and suffering will expend its present on thoughts about pain of the past and on efforts for a future that brings relief. To alleviate the memory of suffering and counterbalance the emotion of pain with the anticipation of something better ahead, the fearful mind constructs the concept of time. An enlightened mind, operating without the primitive cerebellum, transcends time because of its ability to connect with the consciousness that resides within all things.

  The only way Africa and the Middle East could ever reach an enlightened state, would be if everyone else on earth would be in the light. Sending materials and aid to the poor people of Africa had failed categorically. The dark energy that had blanketed the land, prevented any advancement of its victims. Food-drops and supply-convoys would rarely reach their destinations. As a rule, the cargo of compassion would be intercepted at some point by a person who was guided by their inner darkness. More times than not, these individuals would find their ways into the ranks of noble rescue organizations and begin their sinister work. The spoils of corruption would have an easy target in a person prone to enlist their lower emotions of desire, fear and envy. The effects of a shipment sent into the hands of a crime cabal would echo throughout the thick layer of Africa’s darkness. More suffering would spread among the needy. The bandits would be able to reinforce their stronghold because they were well-fed and supplied.

  When news of this spread to the western world, the help efforts took a blow to the temple. The public, guided by their own fear, would cry out in opposition of those for whom their aid was intended. Blame towards rescue organizations and the runaway political systems on much of that continent soon stemmed the flow of compassion. The bottom line for Gene had become that Africa was destined to doom and with it would fall the rest of the world. Gene was convinced he had to save the planet. His fear of a world collapsing into darkness had gotten the better of him. Without compassion for the people of the continent that once was the cradle of life, Gene only saw one way to shed light onto Africa’s darkness: a photon bomb.

  The suffering of individuals who had no chance of ever accepting lives of happiness would soon end. The spirits of those who suffer would be released to move on to better lifetimes. The most humane way Gene could envision was a flash of light. The memories of fear and its monuments would simply be erased. To Gene it was a worthy end to millennia of darkness that once originated from a misguided soul who was the leader of its most enlightened state. It was this single act of darkness almost 3,500 years earlier that had perpetuated fear and anger across a planet full of beauty. In one place, darkness remained strongest. Africa had given it the home advantage. Gene saw no other solution to save the planet. He was ready to foreclose on darkness’ home.

  The yellow indicator for the missile's position moved along the dots that plotted its path. Flung out of Earth's atmosphere, the weapon's ballistic path brought it into a steep reentry. The bottom position of the screen showed the missile's rising hull temperature. In a glowing ball of plasma, it thundered towards an area high above north-eastern Africa. The Trooper's update of success played like sweet music in Gene's ears. "Test projectile has reached the target. Hull temperature 600 Kelvin. Simulating photon explosion."

  Concentric rings of various colors formed in an instant surrounding the projectile's position on the map. Each of the circle's respective color signified a different level of destruction. Computer animations of animals and humans across landscapes and cities showed the weapon's effects in great detail on the adjacent screens. A bright white flash appeared across the video wall. What followed were images of utter destruction, the proportions of which dwarfed the forces that Isabelle saw destroy the ancient settlements in her vision at the underground farm. For hundreds of kilometers every living being, plant or structure was evaporated. The ground turned to a foot of molten lava, which ran off hills and mountains to reshape the entire topography of what had been most of eastern Africa. A simulated pressure wave ensued, caused by the sudden expansion of all matter that absorbed the weapon's heat. A tsunami of planetary proportions formed off the African coast and raced towards the middle east. Much of the t
urbulent mass of rushing water began to boil and quickly turned to steam from the effects of the high-energy photons released at the ignition of the bomb.

  Algae in the ocean became bleach-white as their complex chlorophyll molecules broke from the influx of light particles. The projection called for a complete annihilation of the current life in the world's oceans over the following two years from the effects. After that, the animation lapsed to a period where cadaver-eating lobsters filled the seven seas and began living off all that was dead for years and eventually consumed their own dead until nothing remained. The video froze on an image of a new continent entirely comprised of lobster skeletons.

  Computer simulations of the two rings surrounding Tasha's home country dwarfed the blunt violence of the nuclear detonations unleashed on the people of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in the 1940s. A pressure wave of the vaporized topography of Tasha's homeland shot across the next 2000 kilometers. In the inner ring, the 1,000km zone surrounding the vaporized part of north east Africa, every structure, plant and anything flammable was instantly incinerated. The image switched to a family in a basement apartment below a burning city. Everyone dropped to the ground suffocated, since the fires had consumed the oxygen that had remained. Back outside, what didn't burn was left covered in a layer of vitrified rock after the pressure wave had cleared.