God is in the Rain

by Bruce Burk

  John awoke from dazed sleep in his quiet living cell. His memory of the prior night was clouded with a foggy haze. All he could remember was falling and that God had asked him to do something. He left his living square and headed for class. It was unclear to him whether it was real or just a dream. He came into the Traveling Square to see advertisements and recruiters for the upcoming election. Blue and red banisters hung above the city streets across buildings. Holo-screens displayed the benefits of each candidate and their platform. A recruiter of the Blue Party approached him with a hologram card. “Excuse me, sir, have you heard the things the Blue Party 2100 platform has to benefit you? The Blue Party cares about the youth of this country. We are here to bring the message of freedom. We will create more service-based jobs to combat the increase in mechanization. We want to stop the terror attacks of the Muslim nations and stop China from attempting to control the world economy. Will you sign up to commit your E-vote?” the campaigner said. John mumbled as if he didn’t want to hear the propaganda and accepted a data transfer into his cloud.

  John found his way to class. Professor Snow walked into the college classroom, on time as always. The room held 80 students who were all ready with their computers to intake the professor’s words. The class was “History of the Information Age.” The roll was passed around the room. As it came to each student, they would scan the veins in their hand over a tablet and then give it to the next student.

  “Class! Who can tell me what people did before they had computers?” Gavin, John’s best friend, raised his hand. “Before the Universal Database they used these tools called pens,” Gavin said. “You are correct sir. Before the modern computer systems were invented people used what is labeled in the Universal Database as ‘paper.’ They would have to write each letter using a pencil in their hand. Before the Information Socialization Act of the 2030s was passed by Congress people were allowed to just write their thoughts alone in a room on a piece of paper. These pieces of paper could be easily lost or destroyed and would take hours to create. That is why Congress acted to socialize all information in this country. Now it would be impossible for you to go into a store and buy pens or paper because they are no longer produced. In fact, it is no longer legal for you to transmit words onto a non-electronic medium. And that is, of course, for the good of us all. Now, all information is conveniently uploaded to the cloud and people’s thoughts, and ideas live forever in the Universal Database. What wisdom our leaders had to make it impossible for any idea to be lost; any thought not captured. Think of how many trees have been saved by their actions. What if all of history had done something like this? Such clear vision of the past that we would have if one could sit and read every thought uttered by Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, or George Washington. And yet, they are lost to antiquity.”

  John felt disturbed by the idea that no one could write anymore and believed that it represented a sort of ancient freedom that people used to have. His grandfather had shown him some old pens and made him swore to never tell anyone that he had seen them. Grandfather would have him write the Preamble to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights by hand, a task that he enjoyed. It made him feel that people in the old days had freedoms that we no longer possessed: like the freedom to walk outside and know that a survey drone isn’t over your head or the freedom to not have to identify yourself at every stop through town. But like most internal dialogue, he shrugged it off as a passing thought.

  Gavin chased after John when the class had ended. “Hey there. Shepard. What’s going on? Enjoy another one of Snow’s slumber-inducing lectures?” Gavin said. Gavin Fresco was dressed in US Air Force issued military uniform which included a beret. Gavin’s mother was European, and his father was African. He was in Suprimo High while simultaneously being trained as an elite pilot.

  Then, suddenly, Gavin’s attention was redirected to a scene behind John. Some protestors were stomping angrily on the American Flag. Gavin’s face became red hot with anger while he grit his teeth. “Gavin?” John said. “Excuse me, ” Gavin said as he started speed walking toward the protests in an angry posture with his fists clenched.

  “No more imperialism!” The protestors shouted. They were wearing mostly black with tattoos while giving off the stench of drugs and contrarianism. “Not my America!” they said as they stepped on the American flag.

  Gavin went right up to the protestor who was stomping on the flag and said, “Don't you step on my flag!” Then, he grabbed him by the shoulder and punched him square in the face. The protester fell to the floor, and Gavin threw the American flag over his shoulder. "Who else wants some?" he said to the rest. Several other protestors ran and tried to attack Gavin, but he fended off another whole lot of them. While they laid on the floor groaning in pain, Gavin took the flag and hoisted it back to the top of the flagpole where it came. Then, Gavin politely dusted his hands and walked calmly back to John who had watched the whole thing.

  “You were saying?” Gavin said. John rolled his eyes and said, “So how is the Uncle Sam treating you?” Gavin replied, “Not too bad. They taught me to fly the new T-28 fighter jet in training school. That thing is faster than a bat out of hell. There’s nothing like the rush of blood you get when you break the sound barrier and bank those sharp turns,” Gavin replied.

  “The King does need his pawns,” John said. “I’ll show you who’s a pawn. How about a game of Quantum Frisbee tomorrow with the boys? Maybe you won’t let me thrash you in trick points like last time.” Smiling, John said, “You’re on buddy.”

  John walked upstairs to the Suprimo Library. Professor Snow had assigned him to do a report on the history of the Native Americans’ role in the American Revolution. As he walked into the library, he saw a holo-screen with the Red Party senators giving a speech. They were proposing a bill that would alter the American Code to provide reparations to the few Native Americans still living in the United States.

  John bought a coffee at the kiosk downstairs and swiped his hand as payment. In those days, even the currency was electronic and tracked using the Universal Database. Machines would scan the veins in your hand, and it would identify your number in the database and deduct currency from it.

  The holo-screen showed a story about how the Native Americans were never given proper reparations from their crucial role in the Revolution that freed America from the British. The Red Party, who was currently in the minority, wanted to pass a bill to give Native Americans new lands in the west, as well as health care and other financial benefits.

  “It’s time the parties come together and do what’s right for the Indians,” the Red Party Senators said. John turned his head and walked upstairs to a study room. On his way, he passed the section of the library that showed a historical account of how information was exchanged before the Universal Database.

  It was a hologram of the “Internet.” It was a system where information was stored in all kinds of different places, and everyone would transmit data to each other in a decentralized and open process.

  The librarians and techies would always joke about how primitive and inefficient it truly was. However, with the Information Socialization Act, nothing you ever said or did was ever really private because it is all stored and shared online. John opened up a holo-screen. He started by doing a search of the Universal Database for the Native American involvement in the Revolution by typing in some keywords. Records of text and images filled the digital pages. He synced his tablet with the database and started using voice command to download specific data pages to his tablet.

  “Pull the names of the tribes involved,” he said. “Search specifically for tribal leaders reporting to George Washington.” Of course, everything that went to his tablet was also in the cloud of the Universal Database, so all data transfers were mostly just bookmarking certain locations of information within the database. There were servers held only God knows where that housed all the information in the country. One only bookmarked the site of the server that your inform
ation was found in.

  First, he read that many Indian tribes had sided with the British because of how the colonies had mistreated them. Then, he found a tribe called the Oneidas. The Oneidas had fought alongside George Washington’s army at the battles of Fort Stanwix, Oriskany, and Saratoga. They had helped supply food, fought, and warned the colonies of impending British Attack. However, the American settlers tore them from their land. John marked all these entries and headed home.

  CHAPTER 3 - MISSING

  John’s favorite sport was Quantum Frisbee. He had been playing it since he was eight. It was an exciting game. Players would use a hover board that could float inches above the ground, and they would kick off the ground to push forwards.

  The course looked like a football field but with ramps on the sides and in the middle. With five to a team, players carried a disk that they would pass to one another down the field that they would attempt to throw into the opponent’s goal. They could only hold possession of the disk for three seconds before they were required to pass the disk to one of their team members or lose possession. They could score points by doing a trick on their hover board while they had the disk in one of their hands. However, if they did not land it or fell off, the other team would gain possession. There was tackling, and players could block each other and intercept the disk in midair. The team with the highest score at the end of four quarters was the winner.

  John and Gavin were on a team with their other three friends Daniel, Tom, and Desmond. Sophia glanced at John from the stands amongst a crowd of people. She had on a lovely sundress and sat among her friends. John looked at her with astonishment and felt a strange sense of déjà vu when he saw her. Sophia was the daughter of Senator Clifton, the leader of the Red Party Senate. She had a prominent role in the party as a voice for women’s rights and all the politicians knew her as a force of good that balanced the bombast of the political garbage heap that was the Senate. As John and his friends were warming up on their boards, the opposing team walked up, lead by Aiden.

  Aiden was the son of Senator Powell, the leader of the Blue Party Senate and the most powerful man in the country aside from President Zola. Everyone had this strange suspicion that Aidan was adopted because he looked nothing like his father.

  Aiden was an arrogant and suave boy with an evil way about him. When he stood nose-to-nose with John they were the same height, but inside they were total opposites. Aiden also had dark brown hair but was a bit more athletic than John. He had a bit of scarring on his face with eyes that seemed to only show emptiness. He was completely self-absorbed and always gave John trouble. John’s board was on the ground next to him. Aiden and his goons approached John and Gavin.

  “Well, well, well! I see they still let Qybahs play this game in this country. I guess someone has to be the loser,” said Aiden. Gavin lunged at Aiden while John held him back. “Go back to the hole you crawled out of,” Gavin exclaimed. “It is too bad your parents couldn’t be here to see this John. I’m sure they would be proud to have a failure of a son.” John replied, “They are here, Aiden. They’re always here.” Aiden and his goons laughed and mocked John, “Always chasing your made up God and his spirits. Science has killed your God and all the spirits that follow him. Wise up buddy.” When John was distracted from Aiden’s antics, one of Aiden’s goons reached down and placed a small explosive tack on the end of John’s board. Aiden then snickered and walked away.

  As John and Aiden had been talking, Gavin’s friend Clark had been watching from the stands. Clark was wearing his modified vision enhancing e-glasses. He had seen them place the tack on John’s board. He tried to warn John, but it was too late; the match had already begun, and the crowd was so dense that Clark could not move.

  The crowd leaped to their feet as the lights flashed and the referee announced that the match had started. Clark quickly scanned John’s board from the stands using his zoom scanning feature. He saw that it was a signal induced explosive. He quickly pulled out his tablet, registered it to his e-glasses and began to work. Luckily for John, Clark was one of the best hackers around.

  Many people in society these days were wearing e-glasses on their faces over their eyes that could take video of everything they could see. Everyone carried electronic devices that stored money, information, and valuable access to control of the city’s infrastructure. For a computer hacker, it was like being a kid in a candy store.

  Clark felt an extra sense of urgency and duty to protect his friends because he lost both of his parents during a robbery. Clark had grown up most of his life an orphan but had met his real parents some years ago. After their death, he taught himself how to invade the Universal Database and manipulate information. Clark found the man who shot his parents and hacked the systems in his house to cause a gas leak which resulted in him being blown away. To this day, the police have no idea he is responsible for the man’s death. He lives with no regrets about what he did and would do it again. Clark and John share a special relationship. Clark looks up to him as a father figure, but he would never admit that.

  Clark was a bit shorter than John with a skinnier build. He had tattoos on his arms and wore black most of the time. He was into the trendiest music and was often selling stolen software or computer parts on the black market. He had an obsession with chewing gum that always seemed to end up on the bottom of desks.

  The opposing team served the disk, and the players were off. John glided up over a ramp in the middle, caught air, and landed. Gavin grabbed the disk and set off pushing to catch a boost from the ramps on the side of the course. He quickly passed the disk to Daniel who passed it to John.

  John made a break for the goal but was quickly surrounded by the other team. He attempted to pass it to Gavin, but the other team intercepted it. Then, Clark quickly brought of up a global scan of all the e-glass wearing people in the stadium. He used code to detect the signals from the glass as they were linked to the Universal Database.

  He found one girl who was sitting up front wearing a pair. He then used another program to detect the acoustic signal of any drones flying above the stadium because there was always bound to be one. He hacked into the facial recognition scanners of the drone and moved them to her face. He then identified her, hacked her glass ID number and, and took control of her camera. He used her camera to zoom into John’s board and identified the device.

  John’s team was down by two. Aiden had been aggressive with John, pushing and shoving him while the referees weren’t looking. Both teams changed possession of the disk multiple times. Gavin was able to set up a chain attack where players would fly in formation and pass the disk back and forth. As they approached the enemy team, Gavin fired the disk into the enemy goal and scored. After the second half of the game, the score was tied.

  Clark quickly realized the disk was linked to the scoreboard. The link was specially encrypted, and he realized he wouldn’t be able to break the connection in time. The code was in place to trigger the device to explode if the score on John’s team became greater than Aiden’s.

  He looked through his backpack and pulled out a wave gun. After the third quarter, both teams were still tied. They were both fighting hard. Aiden’s team was gaining points from doing tricks in the center of the course, and Gavin and Michael would answer by doing tricks when they were in possession

  Clark connected his wave gun to his computer and programmed it to counter the signal that was coming from a backpack in the stands. John was heading quickly to the goal of the other team. John swerved around Aiden and faked him out, causing him to fall. He soared over him and shot the disk towards the goal. As the disk was inches from the goal, Clark fired his wave gun between the signal and the device, disrupting the signal, and defeating its execution. The frisbee flew through the goal, and John’s team had won. The crowd roared with applause and John’s team carried him up on their shoulders in victory.

  Aiden gritted his teeth and whispered under his breath, “This isn’t over Shepard. This
isn’t over.” Clark smiled and used a small remote control dragonfly to remove the device from John’s board as they left.

  John returned to the library to finish his report. He sat down at the computer and typed in “Oneida involvement in the American Revolution.” He searched the page, but to his surprise, no records showed. John did the search again, again, and again. He searched their name in other languages, from books he knew that were written in that period. John felt a chill down his spine as he realized the records were no longer there.

  “Everything is gone,” he said to himself. He opened the report he had prepared. All of the things he had written were gone as well. He wondered how this could be possible. How records I looked at just days ago vanish into thin air? He tried other computers in the library and found nothing. As he exited the library, he saw on the holo-screen the Blue Party explaining why they did not intend to vote on the bill that supported the benefits for Native American tribes that fought in the American Revolution.

  Instead, the Blue Party told the public that new weapons had been acquired by the Muslim extremists and that military action may be imminent if they attacked. They spoke about how evil the Muslim religion was; that terror and violence would always come if their nations were allowed to stand. John was disgusted by the war and hated imperialism, but he never let Gavin know that. Then, he left the library and headed home.

  Sophia caught up with John as he went to his apartment. “Oh, hello,” he said. “Hi,” she said smiling at him. “How’s your research for Snow’s class going? I’m almost done with mine,” she said. John looked at Sophia with a confused look. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I …” John mumbled as a group of police walked by. “Here, why don’t I just show you,” John said. Neither of them had recalled their previous encounter on Eidolon’s ship. However, he had a strange feeling of déjà vu around each other. They went inside his apartment. “So what happened?” she asked. John looked out the window at the city below before he opened his mouth. “Alright. So I was doing this research project for Snow’s class, and when I came back, all of my research was gone!” he said. “What? That’s not possible! The school is linked directly to the Universal Database. Everything would be kept there indefinitely,” she replied. “Can you keep a secret,” John asked her. “Yes, of course.” “I think the Blue Party is behind this,” John said. “Do you really think the Blue Party is capable of doing such a thing? I thought the records were permanent. The Universal Database is supposed to be a record of all information known to mankind,” she said. Sophia asked John to see if there had been a backup of his report anywhere, but they found nothing.