“You saw what has happened to the Evergreen Conservation haven’t you?” Kino asked Williams.
“I have not. Other things have grabbed my attention,” Williams replied back. He found beauty in the desert, whether Kino saw it or not.
“The winds have decreased over there,” Kino said. He looked over at to the horizon and saw a distant dust storm that was approaching the Arcologies. It was one of the reasons why the rail systems were mostly underground so it could escape the large dust storms and high winds of the surface. “The soil is no longer being torn up by the winds. They say the trees are acting like wind blockers. It’s like the great Dust Bowl that was a bit over five hundred and fifty years ago, or at least that’s what my Biocomp is telling me about the event.”
“Yes, well let’s fix the oceans first before we fix the land.”
“That same old line? We can do both at the same time now. There is nothing stopping us.”
“Besides budgets.”
“Ah,” Kino said and turned towards Williams. “I thought this was why you called me over to you. It couldn’t have been to let me enjoy myself here at the party. Then again unlike you I was always the more social one.”
Williams turned himself to face Kino, just like how Kino just did before as well. “Why did you do that at the Senate meeting?”
“Do what? Object against you?”
“Yes.”
“Are you saying that I am not allowed to have my own opinion?”
“No, I am asking why you did it.”
“Because I realized something before the recent events that were brought to your attention.”
“What events?” Williams asked, generally intrigued if it was something he was not made aware of at the special meeting he was just in a little while ago.
“Fargo and the Pacific Rail System were not the only places hit by the terrorists.”
“Your offshore tidal hydroelectric power plants were hit. But they were not destroyed.”
“It has to be the Islamic Theocracy, who else can it be?”
“Are you forgetting about the Feral Arcologies that are still in anarchy?” Williams asked Kino.
“No, but it cannot be them. You’ve seen the optics we got from the Ring. You know the buildup they are doing, even in their constant civil war.”
“Kino, my friend…”
“Don’t my friend me. You were my sponsor a hundred years ago. You are not it now.”
Williams swayed back a little from Kino’s outburst and tone. It was unlike the old Kino he knew, the one who was still outgoing but always had a smile on his face. This one seemed to grimace at every thought of the Islamic Theocracy. Williams tried to think of a way to turn his friend from the racism he was extruding out of his person. “They do build ups periodically every twenty years. They are held in check.”
“By what? The THEL Shield? The Angel’s Firing System?”
“That and more. Their civil war holds them in check mostly. The THEL Shield is enough to hold them for centuries more of technological development.”
“Not against a direct nuclear strike.”
“There are antimissile batteries surrounding them just like the laser batteries.”
“It’s a thousand miles around them.”
“Yes and it is our only military presence on this world besides the training bases and what is around the Feral Arcologies. The amount of Energens we spend on this is well known among all of us. And we accept that.”
“They have struck more than once in the past and they will do it again,” Kino said with a grimace.
“They strike every now and then. We meet with them too every now and then. Has been a while since we last talked. We have asked them countless times to join the Commonwealth. But their clergy refuse. Their Quran doesn’t allow it, at least according to this generation's interpretation. We need to learn to accept that.”
“Accept them for that? They refuse to accept us,” Kino nearly yelled. Some people in the party hall overheard a little and were almost staring at the two Senators who seemed to be squaring off. Williams could just read the headlines now that would soon be streaming across to millions on their Exovision. Sometimes, he hated technology and the way information spread. Then he reminded himself that that was how he first made his money.
“We still give them aid. Food, medicine,” Williams said.
“But we get nothing in return,” Kino replied with venom in his voice.
“And what says we should get a return on that aid? It goes to feed their people. They cannot grow their own food effectively and they still live in above ground buildings. They don’t have the cash flow like we do. They cannot build Arcologies.”
“It is their own fault that they cannot do that. Besides, they feed their armies first rather than their populace.”
“No it’s not their fault. Not entirely. We isolated them. You know what isolation does to an economy. Nothing leaves that area unless we allow it.”
“Then explain to me how they did those bombings?”
“It cannot be them. That’s what I have been saying. They don’t even have the technology for antimatter production. Let alone the technology for containment fields that small.”
“We have been wrong before,” Kino said flatly.
“We are not wrong this time,” Williams said in turn.
“Our Fleet Intelligence arm is too dependent on their space cameras,” Kino said turning back to the view of the seemingly endless desert.
Williams did the same. They stood in silence for what seemed like a few minutes before Williams decided to speak up. “How many others feel as you do?”
“There are many,” Kino said. Williams noticed how he avoided saying who and how many.
“You should not let your emotions cloud your judgment.”
“You are becoming an old man Williams. We are the next generation.”
“There are some things you can bet on Kino. But some things need to be left alone. Don't let your personal interpretation of the events solely drive you. Always take an outside point of view before you make a decision, just like how I taught you. Don’t let this become personal.”
“It became personal.”
“Stop going down the path you are on right now. It just leads to more death and destruction.”
“Destruction for them. Not for us,” Kino said with a slight smile.
“Don’t make this like what happened during the Global Collapse.”
“Ancient history,” Kino said, dismissing what Williams was trying to tell him.
“Ancient history? It was a world war for our sake,” Williams said, almost gasping at how Kino was throwing away the past so easily. It was as if it almost never happened to Kino.
“A world war over oil. Over water. Over food. We got energy now. We got our food. We have our recyclers for water. We have our distillers in the seas. It is not like back then.”
“You should never throw out the history of our race Senator Kino,” Williams said. Kino turned towards Williams again, noting that Williams formally addressed him in his last statement. Williams turned his head to look at Kino. “They do not have what we have. It is our fault for that. It is also why they hate us. We are the haves, they are the have nots. Only we can change that.”
“Senator Williams, I have urgent business I need to take care of. I feel we will have to continue this conversation another time,” Kino said as he left the terrace room, leaving Williams alone to stare out at the lifeless desert as the party still raged on behind him.
“Yes, we got everything they don’t,” Williams said as he took in the sight. We all accepted each other in the past at one point, Williams thought to himself. There is always a chance of it happening again.
Chapter 8
Right after the Global Collapse, a World War began over various resources that suddenly became scarce all at once. Water became a scarcity after several major watersheds became too contaminated for drinking. Food became a scarcity after oil
prices rose so high that the majority of the population could barely afford bread and milk, let alone meats. Several countries had already switched to using natural gas instead of oil for fuel, but many did not. When the oil crisis struck, supply chains across the world were wrecked and stalled. Economies of those countries who didn’t switch over to an energy plan more based on renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, and geothermal, or natural gas suffered and also brought down those few countries who already did switch. The World War that occurred along with the Great Famine of the Global Collapse brought humanity down from billions to only a few hundred million worldwide. After the detonation of several nuclear weapons, the global climate changed. Most of the change was brought on by the rising temperatures, lack of flow in the oceanic currents such as the Thermohaline Current, and the melting of the Arctic Circle ice cap that diluted the salt water of the oceans past a critical threshold. The nuclear fallout from the few atomic detonations accelerated the process, causing large swaths of high winds to tear up the vegetation and soil. After the war ceased, the two of the three remaining governments of humanity left banded together to form a singular government. The goal of that government was to protect humanity and to restore the Earth’s environment to what it used to be. The construction of the Stalks and the spread of humanity into the solar system then followed. This allowed for the human race to never be able to go extinct if the Earth ever succumbed to a Second Global Collapse.
-The History of the Earth Commonwealth
“What do you think of that speech saying the Silver Hearts were responsible?” Exsid asked Darvin. They had finished searching the ruins of the second police station and were not walking back to the temporary headquarters to figure out their next move.
“Propaganda,” Darvin replied back, his tone a little too flat for Exsid’s liking. Darvin was an excellent detective, but sometimes emotionally unstable. It was up to Exsid to make sure his partner stayed on the right track.
“Why do you say that?” Exsid asked, hoping the conversation would help Darvin find out what he truly thinks about it. Or if he already knew Exsid hope he would open up about it. After all, Exsid thought, we do have about four more miles to walk.
“Even at the end, my father was never about using violence.”
“He held you at gunpoint. As a hostage.”
“And I always tell you there was more to the story then we know.”
“Have you been able to find anything about it?”
“Some. Not much. But some.”
“What did you find?”
“Something disturbing,” Darvin said with a tone that indicted finality. But Exsid wondered if he should push it further. Darvin was always constantly trying to study that faithful night. Hell, Exsid thought, Darvin’s favorite observation room on this Jupiter Ring had an entrance right near the monument to his father for that day. Even with how events ended, Darvin’s father was still respected for the work he did to help people through their pain and misery. Darvin always held doubts over how and why his father had snapped at the end.
“Alright, well I think it’s time for a conference call with the Chief. You got your link open?”
“Yeah, make the call.”
“Let’s hope he answers,” Exsid said. He used his Mindcursor in his Exovision to place a call to Chief Burns. As he did that he added Darvin’s Infolink number to the call to join him in. Darvin received the update on his Exovision as an incoming conference call and accepted it. On the other end, Chief Burns accepted the request. Soon, Exsid had the avatar faces of Darvin and Chief Burns in a window in his Exovision. Likewise, Darvin and Chief Burns had each other and Exsid in theirs.
“Speak to me and make it quick,” Chief Burns said. The avatar faces mimicked the voices of the actual participants, making it seem as if it really was the person they were seeing and not a computer simulation. The avatar also sampled the facial muscles of the participant and mimicked their facial features and expressions. Chief Burn’s avatar looked to Darvin like it wanted to kill something.
“We surveyed the station. Found some blood samples. Scanner indicted DNA samples of both the Chief and the General,” Exsid said.
“So that means they are still alive?” Chief Burns asked.
“We can’t say that for sure,” Exsid stated. “We can only say they are still missing, or at least their bodies were taken. We did find signs of a shootout with a dead Marine bodyguard. We think it was with the rebels, but we haven’t found any sign of them there. Not even pieces of their armor.”
“We did find some nanomachines though, kind of looked like some gray dust,” Darvin said. Exsid took a sideways glance at his partner. Sometimes he wished Darvin just wouldn’t talk, even with how smart Darvin was he sometimes had the foot in mouth syndrome.
“Nanomachines?” Chief Burns asked.
“Yes, sir,” Exsid said. “Scanner couldn’t detect what its programming was. We got a vial of it as a sample.”
“Good, send Darvin over here with it,” Chief Burns said. Darvin’s avatar face rolled its eyes. Exsid wished Darvin would set his avatar to Neutral instead of to Realtime. Darvin sometimes did not have the correct sense in how to socially interact with people correctly and with superiors respectfully. But Exsid did get along with Darvin, probably because Darvin knew Exsid was good friends with his father. Exsid understood Darvin to a large extent, but that didn’t stop Exsid from wanting to slap Darvin across the back of his head. Unfortunately for Exsid, Chief Burns did notice what face Darvin did make. “You got a problem with that Darvin?”
“No sir,” Darvin replied, trying to keep his voice neutral for once so he could stay out of trouble.
“Good, I expect to see you within an hour. Exsid, what are your immediate plans?”
“I’m going to head over to the hospital again. See if I can get some information from whoever is now leading the Marines. Maybe they got some news that will lead me somewhere.”
“Alright. Keep me updated,” Chief Burns said. His avatar blinked out of the conference call, leaving Darvin and Exsid with each other. Exsid cancelled the call on his end before Darvin could; relishing in the fact that he was quicker with the Mindcursor this time. Usually Darvin was the quicker one.
“Alright, take this vial and head on over there. I’m going to take a walk planetward to the hospital,” Exsid said, making a reference to the fact that the hospital was built into the side of the Ring closer to the planet Jupiter. Starward was for the other side that pointed to the stars and away from the planet.
“Why not take a jog and get rid of some of that adipose tissue of yours.”
“Just call it fat already. And stop making fun of my buddy. I tell you he keeps me warm at night.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Darvin said in a dismissive tone. “I wonder when people will leave their homes. I mean this is the main avenue that runs almost the whole length of the Ring. And its dead here. It’s just too weird.”
“They will come out when the Emergency Signal is lifted,” Exsid said, in reference to the pulsing red icon in the lower right corner of his Exovision. It was an icon that told people to stay indoors and that there was an emergency. As if anyone needed to be told that, Exsid thought to himself. But no one would travel outside or even to their work places, or to the launch sites to their work places if it was off-Ring, until the signal was lifted. People were too scared to chance walking outside at the moment anyways.
“Alright,” Darvin said as they hit an intersection. “This is your stop.”
“Yeah, I’ll see you in a few hours. Try not to get in trouble with the Chief.”
“I’ll try not to get fired, again.”
“Saved you once, can’t do it again.”
“See you in a bit Exsid,” Darvin said as he walked off down the main avenue towards the temporary police headquarters.
Exsid started walking towards the hospital and tried to think about the past events as he headed towards the hospital. He thought about Betty and figu
red he would stop by to see how she was doing, or if she was even conscious. After all, she did watch as her mother died in front of her. Exsid could only imagine the psychological harm that would do to a child so young. It made Exsid think of his wife who divorced him and moved to Jupiter Ring Two. She never approved of him being partners with Darvin. Exsid raising Darvin was part of the reason when they divorced several years after Darvin’s father died and Exsid obtained guardianship over Darvin. Both Events still hurt Exsid to this day. But Exsid made a promise to Darvin’s father that he would watch over Darvin and protect him if he needed it.
The thoughts of his wife and his deceased best friend made him feel some depression. He opened up some functions in his Biocomp to infuse some serotonin and dopamine into specific parts of his brain to combat the loss of monoamines, the mood related chemicals that cause depression when they were not in balance. Relief flooded through Exsid’s body. He added in a small dose of vitamins B6 and B12 along with thiamine and niacin, an energy cocktail, directly into his blood stream to give him a small energy boost. Exsid activated the genetically enhanced blood cells in his blood stream, giving him the ability to feed his muscles aerobically and drain his muscles of lactic acid build up. Invigorated, Exsid started to jog to get to the hospital faster.
As he was jogging, Exsid noticed that the specialized trash droids were still cleaning up the bodies in the streets and hauling them below ground through the various access points that allowed people to travel through the corridors underneath the main surface of the Ring. Those corridors lead to the various nanofactories and conversion factories that processed the metals and other resources that were sent to the Rings. They also housed the hydroponics facilities that fed the population, recycling systems, and other manufactories.
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