“Or even getting us to change things so you could gain power yourself. For all we know, there are no Emperors of Time in the first place. I mean, I’m not saying I think that, but…” said Julie.
“I applaud your skepticism. But I can show you what the world looks like in 2347, and you can judge for yourself whether it is worth avoiding,” said Hopkins.
“Really, you can do that?” asked Tim.
“Of course. The Domini Temporis will always allow you to return to your own time. I can return there, just as you will return to your own time soon. I am able to take you with me, just as the four of you were able to hitch a ride on one Dominus,” explained Hopkins.
“Well, when are we going?” asked Rose.
“Soon enough,” said Hopkins. “Have you seen everything you came here to see? Why did you come?”
Julie and Rose looked at Tim.
“Well, the Union troops are burning the bridge to save Lancaster county from being invaded by the Confederates… er… I kind of wanted to see the bridge burn,” said Tim. “Maybe that sounds a little bit weird, though.”
Hopkins considered this for a moment. “At this point, I would much rather deal with people who want to witness history than with those who feel they have the right to change it,” he said. “When will it happen?”
“Less than half an hour,” said Tim.
So they stayed and watched the comings and goings of the soldiers and citizens of Columbia. They listened to the bustle and the shouts of the men until finally, as the sky darkened, the bridge began to blaze.
After that, Hopkins and the four teens linked hands and prepared to travel to 2347.
Chapter 8
Jefferson Delta
The five of them materialized into a room devoid of people, but full of shiny metallic machines.
“This is one of the cleaning rooms,” said Hopkins, but he didn’t explain what that meant. “I don’t have a home of my own in this timeline. I’m supposed to be in prison, but this is a fair place to pop in and out of when I don’t want to be seen.”
“That’s convenient,” Julie pointed out.
“Indeed. But no person has a need to come in here. This room is for storage of cleaning machines when they are not on duty. They are also being charged now, each one on its own dock. But I hardly brought you here to show you a futuristic janitorial closet. In order to get out and about though, I am going to have to ask you all to change your clothes.”
“But we don’t have a change of clothes,” said Rose.
In answer, Hopkins opened his blue duffel bag. It turned out there was no zipper. Hopkins opened the bag by tracing a finger in a semi-circular path along the bag’s surface. Once it was open, he removed four sets of clothes, even though the bag hadn’t looked nearly big enough to contain them all.
“Automatic vacuum packing,” explained Hopkins, answering the question Tim had not asked. “Now, obviously we have limited space here, so I am going to ask you gentlemen to face that way, and you ladies to face the other.”
This solution worked out nicely, and within about two minutes, all four of them had changed into the outfits Hopkins had handed them.
“How’d you know what size we were?” asked Julie.
“The clothes are self-fitting,” explained Hopkins.
Rose actually gasped at this revelation. “If they had stuff like this at the mall, it would save me a lot of time and emotional energy.”
Julie laughed sympathetically, while Tim and Billy just looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Who needed self-fitting clothes as long as you had a decent belt?
Billy’s and Tim’s clothes looked like those that Hopkins was wearing. Their pants looked a lot like jeans but felt much lighter and airy. There were no stitch lines or hems, just two pockets at the front, making it look like they had been cut from one piece of fabric. Their shirts were button-down and monochrome, Tim’s red, Billy’s green. The shoes looked a lot like normal sneakers. Overall, the clothes they were wearing would have looked a little bit weird back in Tim’s time, but probably would have passed for normal in parts of Europe.
The girls’ clothes however, were unlike anything Tim had ever seen. They each wore a knee-length skirt and a short-sleeved shirt. Julie’s skirt was white and her shirt was blue, while Rose wore a black skirt and pink top. The material on each had a slight sheen, as if they were made of leather or something, although Tim guessed they were actually as light as his own. The part that was really weird though, was the sparkles that glittered across the materials’ surface. It was like light on a rippling pond, but there was no light source and the sparkles came from every color of the rainbow. Tim couldn’t see where the glittering lights could come from, but perhaps that was why nothing like this was available at the mall in Tim’s time.
“Our next step,” said Hopkins, “is to leave the room. As soon as one of us approaches the door, it will open. I will go first and confirm that the way out is clear. If it is not, I can trick one of the cleaning machines into starting, to justify the door opening.”
Hopkins moved toward the door, peered around the edge as it slid open, then beckoned for them to walk with him.
They entered a bare, functional, metallic hallway that curved very slightly, as if the hallway was tracing a giant circle, of which they could see just one small part. As far as they could see, there were doors like the one they had just come out of, but no people.
“This is the maintenance floor, and even though we look like we’re from this time, we do not look like we do maintenance, so it would be best to get off this floor before we run into anyone wanting to ask questions.” The four teens matched Hopkins’ brisk pace as he walked down the hallway. They reached a large rectangular door with a touch-screen beside it. Hopkins keyed in the number 207. “I’ll take you to one of the residential floors,” he said, “since they have the best views.”
“So, this is like… a skyscraper?” asked Rose as they stepped into the elevator a moment later.
“I suppose that is one name for it, yes,” said Hopkins. “But the locals call it Jefferson Delta.”
The display above the door shot from thirty-three quickly up through the thirties before stopping at the forty-second floor. Two men and one woman stepped into the elevator. Julie, Tim, Billy, and Rose huddled in the corner.
Hopkins, on the other hand, smiled. “These kids are here from J Q Adams. They are considering attending University here.” The two men shrugged, but the woman smiled back at them.
They relaxed a little as the elevator climbed upward, picking up a few passengers as it rose. When they got off at the 207th floor, Rose gasped at the view. They walked toward the window to the outside world, following Hopkins.
Opposite the elevator was a full-length window. Once there, they could see that their building was bordered by about a thousand yards of fields, then a beach, and then the ocean. To their right, there was another building, just as tall as the one they were in. By looking toward the ground, they realized that their building was round, made of widening concentric circles, like a huge wedding cake.
They were not the only ones looking out the windows, but most of the others were talking on sleek headsets or tapping away on computer tablets that were just about paper thin.
No one else seemed to be paying attention as Hopkins began to explain to them, in a low tone, what they were looking at. “I told you that this building is called Jefferson Delta. That is because this is the fourth building of six in the Jefferson cluster. Jefferson is named for the president Thomas Jefferson. Every metropolis in the world is named after a different American president. There are fifty metropoles, named for presidents two through fifty-one, since Washington is still the name of Washington DC, which has been kept as a historical landmark. All the other cities in existence prior to 2300 have been demolished.”
Julie, Rose, and Billy raised their eyebrows at this, but Tim’s jaw dropped. “They just bull-dozed them? Berlin, Paris, Rio De Janeiro? So much
history… the architecture, the museums… That’s horrible.”
Julie seemed to get more concerned as Tim spoke, and when Tim finished, she said, “But that’s just in this timeline, right? The ones the Emperors of Time changed? If we fix everything, this won’t happen, will it?”
“That is correct,” said Hopkins.
“But… why would they want all those cities destroyed?” asked Tim.
“I’ll explain that in a moment. First, let me tell you a little bit more about Jefferson Delta. It is 300 stories high, with 100 residential floors. Those are not our biggest floors, but, obviously, it’s where we keep our population. Each of the residential floors is about three quarters of a mile in diameter and holds, on average, 30,000 people. Of course, more live on the lower floors, where the less well-off live, less on the top floors, where they get larger living quarters. Only a few of the apartments have any kind of view of the outside world, but with huge flat-screen tvs in nearly every room, most people are content. At any rate, there are about three million people living in Jefferson Delta, and eighteen million in all of Jefferson. Of course, there’s a couple million extra people in Jefferson, since it’s the world capital.”
“But… Figure an average of fifteen million people, multiplied by fifty metropoles, right? That’s only 750 million people,” said Julie. Not for the first time ever, Tim was impressed by Julie’s mental math skills, but he was bothered by something, too.
“But you said this was a world empire, right? How can the world population be less than 750 million? There’s almost seven billion people on the planet in our time,” said Tim.
“That is correct.” said Hopkins. “Let me explain. Not everyone who lives in the world today lives in the world empire, although it is the single recognized government in the world and controls what happens on every continent but Antarctica. You remember I told you that I am supposed to be in prison?”
The four teens nodded.
“Well, I am about to show you the present time’s version of a prison. Of course, there’s more that I could show you here. Lavish shopping malls, in-building amusement parks, casinos, indoor beaches, stadiums. And that’s just within Jefferson Delta, which isn’t even a tourist attraction. The Wilson metropolis is quite spectacular. It has miles of indoor beaches, a hundred thousand poker tables, and a million slot machines, among other attractions. All this does not even begin to cover the floors of factories within each building, manufacturing for world distribution. And the transportation system is rather exciting as well. You have seen one of the elevators, but there are also several trams cutting across the diameter and tracing concentric circumferences on each floor, so you can get anywhere you need to go within a floor within several minutes. But you will not find a single prison. The undesirable population, which includes anyone who is unemployable, the severely mentally ill, and anybody who thinks a little too freely, in addition to anyone who has actually committed a crime, are sent away. Let’s get back to the elevator.”
When they caught the elevator again, this time going down, there were three other people on it. Hopkins requested the fifty-fifth floor. The four teens resumed their uncomfortable silence in the corner, and this time Hopkins did nothing to break the tension, so the five of them were quiet until the last of the other passengers got off.
Then, Hopkins said, “Link hands.” He produced his Dominus Temporis and a small stone. Then, he took Tim’s hand, and after the others linked hands, before the door even opened at floor fifty-five, the elevator was gone and they were standing on a patch of stony rubble in a field of overgrown grass and wildflowers.
Chapter 9
The Wilderness
“That’s still amazingly disconcerting,” said Billy, shaking his head and closing his eyes for a moment.
“It truly is,” agreed Rose.
Tim took a moment to look around. A few hundred yards in front of them there was a metallic wall marked “electric.” The wall was maybe two stories high and, from this distance, did nothing to obscure the view of five buildings that were almost a half-mile high, many miles away.
“So… that’s only five buildings, right? So it’s not Jefferson, because Jefferson had six… which one is it?” asked Julie.
“Jackson, but it doesn’t matter much. Suffice it to say that we are in what was formerly Argentina. As you can see, we are outside the metropolis. About a thousand yards to my right, underground, is a high-speed subway that can get you to any of the other metropoles in this hemisphere within fifteen hours, twenty-four hours to any metropolis in the world. But that is the most presence the metropolis has for hundreds of miles outside these walls. Inside the walls are hundreds of square miles of farmland to support the population. Anyone who is imprisoned… well, perhaps ex-prisoned would be a better term for it, is exiled to the land outside the walls. Some, who have angered the government in some exceptional way, get sent to Australia, where there are no metropoles at all.”
“But most are just exiled?” asked Rose.
“Yes… I suppose it does not sound quite as bad as it is. What would you imagine the world population should be in the year 2347?” asked Hopkins.
“I think I read somewhere that it should stabilize somewhere between eight and ten billion. Is that about right?” asked Rose.
“That was the common prediction in your day, yes. In my timeline, before the Emperors of Time started fussing with things, there were ten billion, so they were not too far off. But in this timeline, excluding the people who live inside the metropoles, there are only about 300 million people, about the population of the United States in your time, spread all across the world. Or, to put it in context, the world population in 1000 AD,” said Hopkins.
“That’s a total world population of only a billion. Why is it so low?” asked Julie.
“The metropoles make sure they have a monopoly on technology. Outside the walls, there is no electricity. They have no hospitals, no schools, no homes made out of anything sturdier than wood. If anything too advanced is built, the metropoles bomb it. Many people live off the land, hunting and gathering. Some people farm, but only for survival. This is why the Emperors of Time flattened the cities, all the buildings outside the metropoles. They will not allow the exiles anything that could allow them to organize and rise up. The metropoles allow individuals to store a little bit for winter, but anything centralized, they get rid of. I hear a government tried to form somewhere in North America around the turn of the century. The idea was that the people would band together for survival, store some food for the winter, so fewer people would starve. As soon as they started bringing food into the granary, the metropoles bombed it.”
“So the metropoles have them under constant surveillance?” asked Tim.
“From satellites, yes,” confirmed Hopkins.
“But how do these Emperors of Time that you keep talking about figure into all this?” asked Billy. “Do they control the metropoles?”
“All eleven of them control the government. Some as puppet masters, but Russell wanted glory. He is the president of the world government,” answered Hopkins.
“And why do they want to keep the population so low?” asked Tim.
“To ensure the population in their metropoles are docile and easy to control. Knowing they could be sent to join the exiles is a good method for keeping people in their place,” said Hopkins. “But enough talking. Let us find some exiles. I remember there being a camp nearby. I was here recently and took the stone I just used to travel back. We are currently two days before our first arrival in 2347.”
Billy shook his head, as if to clear it. “I agree with the less talking bit. This is all starting to give me a bit of a headache.”
“We want to go over this mound,” Hopkins instructed, pointing to a nearby hill.
Once they did, they could see a small group of about a dozen people, mostly women and children, gathered around a makeshift building. It was one story high, made of a few tall tree-trunks with a canvas stretc
hed over them. Limbs and branches filled in two of the sides, although there were still gaps in the walls. The other two sides, however, were completely open to the weather. A few of the children were playing in a river a hundred yards away from the hovel.
Hopkins approached one of the women, who was sitting and sewing what appeared to be two deerskins.
The woman looked up, “You are back sooner than I thought. It has only been twenty minutes since you left. These are the children you were talking about? They must have been hiding very close by if you were able to bring them so soon.”
“Not exactly,” said Hopkins. “But no matter. May we speak with you a little while?”
“The men aren’t back from hunting,” the woman said. “You may speak with me, but when they return, I can’t guarantee your safety. There’s a trading post nearby where those clothes the girls are wearing could sell for a hundred pounds of game apiece.”
Hopkins nodded. “We have our ways of making a quick escape,” he said.
Two of the kids who were running around the camp went by. One of them, who looked to be about four years old, smiled up at Rose as he passed.
“What did the kids do to deserve being exiled?” Rose asked angrily.
“Nothing, of course,” answered the woman, narrowing her eyes. “They were born in exile. As was I. I have been alive for thirty-five years, and have never entered the metropolis. I assume the same cannot be said for you, with those fancy clothes, although how you got them to let you take them with you into exile is beyond me.” The woman, who was missing several teeth and whose dry skin was peeling from a harsh sunburn, looked a good deal older than thirty-five.
“Were any of you exiled?” asked Tim curiously.
“My husband and his brother were,” said the woman. “They are the leaders of our tribe. They worked inside the metropolis, as sales representatives. As young men, they shirked responsibility just a little too much, missed too many days of work. They were fired from their jobs, and when they couldn’t find others, they were sent out here. They weren’t too broken up about it either. They say it was terribly boring in there.”
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