by Lea Tassie
"Jane, what's the situation on Beta? Are the seedlings taking root in the soils of North America?" Lucy asked after she finished her rant.
After the war that devastated Earth and after Danny had been elected to the presidency of the world, the planet had been divided into five districts. North and South America, Eurasia, Africa, and Outlands, which was basically any area not connected with the four big continents. Each district was run by a prime minister who reported to the president. All these places relied on the three domes for crop seeds to be planted in areas being recovered after the invasion, a most arduous task.
"We have had incredible success in reseeding the northern continent, but less success in the south," Jane replied. She was a short woman, but her personality gave the impression that she was as tall as Lucy, over six feet. "The armies in the north ensured a better survival of the soil, but the south was overrun so quickly that the soils there may take several years to recover."
When Jane finished, Lucy turned to her scribe and said, "Take a note. We have to redouble efforts on the Maven program if we hope to succeed in the South. I'm guessing the remaining districts are still on track?" Several people nodded their agreement, and soon the meeting adjourned.
The Maven program had been started by elite scientists working in various locations around the world, manipulating the DNA of bright students with the purpose of creating highly intelligent experts in particular fields, who would find new ways to reclaim the planet. The future for the Mavens looked promising.
But what Lucy and her colleagues thought was an inspirational step toward the betterment of all the people of this broken and devastated world would eventually falter and fail, for Danny, as president, had promised the world a revenge program. This program would use the vast intellect of the Mavens to modify and back engineer the technology the invaders had used against Earth. With this new knowledge, humanity could strike back at the aliens.
Elvin, Eve, and Nigel were three of the brightest new Mavens; though socially awkward, they were gifted at understanding any puzzle placed before them. Lucy would often go out of her way when touring the Beta site, where the three worked, to stop and chat, and the three kids found a friend in her. Lucy would create new ways of capturing the imaginations of Elvin and Eve, and these two lovers were fascinated by the knowledge of plant life Lucy would present in the form of forgotten books.
One day, on a site visit, Lucy was shocked at what Elvin showed her. He had managed to recreate an extinct orchid out of the material he recovered from the dome's plant life. "I think this is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen," Lucy said as she held the small flower up to the light that came through the lab windows.
"I'm glad you like it, because I made it especially for you," Elvin replied as Eve looked on with longing. She had hoped that she, too, could get such a compliment, but understood that this was not meant to be.
"May I keep it?" Lucy asked politely, to which Elvin replied, "Of course."
Nigel, not to be outdone by his teammate, had also recreated something thought to be long extinct. It was an unusual gift. "I have recreated a carnivorous plant. It took some effort, but I think it could be beneficial in controlling the insect populations now out of control in the south," Nigel said as he displayed his creation.
This caught the attention of some of the military personnel who, for purposes of observation, often accompanied Lucy on her rounds. The military presence was usually small and quiet. However, this day General Harris happened to be along for the tour.
"Isn't this the most remarkable thing you have ever seen?" Lucy asked him.
General Harris's eyes were fixed on Nigel. The general was indeed impressed, for the idea of recreating exotic life from little more than plant fibers had piqued his curiosity. He decided, right there and then, that some of these gifted kids would be drafted for the Revenge Program. It took some doing, but the general always got his way. Later, it was the work of Nigel and Eve that led to the Krill Shang program, a short-lived effort sabotaged by Elvin when the group realized what the general had planned.
The three Maven kids were joined by several other Mavens, sequestered away in a secret military compound and set to work on an absolute abomination. The general had managed to smuggle several exotic animals out of the dome's enclosure, the most notable being a saber-tooth cat. Having succeeded at creating Hyborgs and Lycans, the general wanted an even more aggressive soldier for combat. The Krill Shang was meant to be a cross between the genetics of the heavy, muscular saber-tooth cat and a gorilla, then that success was to be grafted into humans. This atrocity of science was what drove the Mavens to vanish off the face of Earth. They wanted nothing to do with the general's plan, and their escape ensured this idea would never come to fruition.
Meanwhile, Lucy struggled with her own battles. She had had little success at stopping the tribal kids bent on killing themselves by attacking the dome's walls. "The only idea I can come up with, is that we take this fight straight to the top. I can no longer stand by and watch as innocent kids are sent to their deaths by some insane warlord!"
Lucy was once again facing the weekly boardroom meeting. On the wall behind her was a map representing the tribal colonies and their locations. Outlined in red were the locations of the warlords. "President Opinhimmer himself has authorized the use of deadly force to contain this problem and, as I understand it, he has dispatched several Hyborgs, who are due to arrive in the next few days. It will be up to us to devise a plan for negotiating with those affected after the attacks are launched. I suggest that everyone here go back to their departments and get organized." As Lucy spoke, the team leaders set to work, even while in the meeting, outlining and planning for a way to rescue the abused children.
Dhuusamareeb, Somalia, had been separate from the rest of the world for longer than recorded history. Civil unrest was commonplace in many parts of the world, but nowhere was it more vicious and sadistic than that fomented in the name of a god in Somalia.
But the warlords didn't know what hell was, until the elite team of Hyborgs, led by Charger and his Lycans, Mac and Jill, attacked them. The warlords honestly thought they stood a chance to win against the battle-hardened soldiers. The fear these ideological lunatics had felt when the aliens attacked was nothing in comparison to their terror of Charger's army. The Hyborgs never slowed, never rested, and never showed remorse or sympathy toward anyone foolish enough to resist them. Nor were they precision-guided weaponry. The Hyborgs slaughtered women and children as quickly as the men if they offered any resistance.
Rallying cries and praising their god met with no success. The attack caused many warlords to beg for mercy on hands and knees, then offer to surrender to the authorities, but there was no one for these guerrilla leaders to surrender to. The Hyborg offensive to track and slaughter every warlord took less than a week. The shock these supporters of faith-based terrorism expressed at being systematically exterminated like cockroaches went out on live television for the entire week. Then there was silence. What remained of most of the warlords were merely bloody smears on the ground and, for those not found, only the worst was suspected.
What Lucy and her team faced after the attacks was chaos. People who had survived the invasion were now seeing the Hyborgs as monsters, a menace to civil society. They were described in the media as being no better than a pack of rabid dogs let loose on humans, the most shameful and disrespectful event ever perpetrated on war veterans.
Only one person had the audacity to try and defend the actions of these manmade creations. Pam was chief executive officer of the world news division and could express her opinions openly. She had decided that with so few reporters surviving after the invasion, she would host a weekly talk show to try and address the feelings survivors shared.
"So can you explain to the viewers what your concerns were with this military strike on the Somali warlords?" Pam asked Lucy as they sat across from one another during the televised interview.
"We had hoped, when we asked General Harris for some assistance in dealing with the warlords, that he would contain the problem without such violence," Lucy responded as she squirmed in the high-back leather chair in front of the cameras. She realized that her complaints about the attacks had triggered much debate and concern among the people of New Denver and the other surviving capital cities.
"So you're saying that the response to the warlords was heavy-handed, even though you often complained bitterly about the exploitation of young children as weapons of war?" Pam asked as she leaned forward.
Lucy was never shy of expressing her point of view. "Yes, that is true. However, it does no good to slaughter innocent people when hunting for a few problem leaders."
"But wait," Pam interjected. "Your point here is that these so-called innocent people, who were deliberately hiding murderous warlords, were somehow not guilty of collusion? What were our soldiers supposed to do? Just ask those non-combatants politely to give up the warlords' positions?"
Lucy was calm; she had expected worse from Pam, a woman reputed to be brutal in debates. "It is true that I asked the military for help in dealing with the deaths of so many innocent children persuaded to detonate explosives at our walls in some political expression of contempt. It is equally true that the military responded to my request with such violence that relationships with the local people are even more difficult than before."
Lucy deflected Pam's attempt to interject and went on. "These people have been poisoned for so long by fanatics devoted to religious intolerance, that their so-called 'truth' has no relationship to the facts. It's nearly impossible to find any common ground from which to start a beneficial dialog." Lucy took a breath. "But we will never win the hearts and minds of an oppressed people with brutality and more oppression."
Pam had heard enough. "So you would rather negotiate a peace than fight? How do you think that would have worked out for us, had we not taken the fight to the alien invaders? What exactly is the difference between life forms coming to our world in an attempt to exterminate the human race, and these lunatic warlords bent on dominating and oppressing people because of some religious ideology? With a world of starving and scared survivors afraid that something else is out there waiting to strike at us, you would rather we offer warlords the opportunity to make our lives worse?"
Lucy was determined to make her point clear, and tried to refocus the debate on the actions of the military. "Look, I am not suggesting that what we did to ensure our survival against a force from some distant world was wrong. It was a matter of survival. But these are fellow humans we're talking about. The fact that innocent children were being coerced into actions by warlords practicing a traditional way of life among a people which has existed for thousands of years is not for us to judge. I can only speak to the way in which the military went about suppressing these people."
Pam calmly asked, "What would you have done differently? I mean, if you were in charge and had to deal with this problem, what would you have done?"
"Well, ah…" Lucy stuttered as she tried desperately to find a good answer. "I don't think I would have sent in these monsters. Have you heard about the few warlord bodies we have since recovered? Three of them were found in a ditch, soaked in urine. It is obvious these monsters urinated on the dead."
Pam had no mercy, "So you would have sent more humans into this situation, quite possibly to get killed. That's your idea of doing a better job? The 'monsters,' as you call them, were used by humans to kill humans who obviously deserved to die!"
Lucy's nerves were frazzled. She had hoped to show the world the horror of General Harris's military intervention, but she could not deny that the military actually had things well under control. To prevent further loss of human life, the military had sent in those forces necessary to win this battle, and that meant using its most potent soldier, Charger.
The debate ended without anyone acknowledging the fact that Charger and the others like him were also human, or at least had been, in the past. The survivors of Earth were now clearly defining a difference between the soldiers who had fought to save their lives and themselves. In other words, if you didn't look human, you couldn't be human.
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Dart speaks to Reader:
Why did Charger attack the scientists working on the dig site in Egypt? The answer will make more sense later in the story, after I explain what led to his action. Let me just say that the Charger who attacked the Egyptian site was not the Charger I've been telling you about, but from far in the future.
Yes, he had learned how to travel through time.
Will you be able to do that? Oh yes, in time. Ha ha. Sorry, Reader, couldn't resist. When I explain what happened to Charger in that distant future, I'll tell you about other instances of his time travel, instances that have already happened in this story.
No, I won't forget. Promise!
What happened to the Mavens? They stole a cargo ship the invaders had used and traveled out into space. They wanted nothing to do with General Harris's plan.
Yes, I'm glad they escaped, too. I'll tell you their story later on, too.
Did Lucy save the forests? Yes, she continued as head of the dome project and, after several years of working under Andy's direction, she married him and had three children, a girl and two boys.
No, she and Andy stopped fighting once they had time to share their views and discovered they were on the same side.
Their older boy, Dave, and his younger brother, Bill, were always close as kids and later in life started a plumbing company. Their sister, Elizabeth, was a heartache, for at age nine, when she was with her mother in the gardens of the Alpha dome, she wandered off into the forest. Elizabeth was never found and, though the search went on for several years, her disappearance remained a mystery.
Chapter 23 Highjacking
The Revenge Program flared briefly, then fizzled out. When humanity got spaceships functioning and traveled to the home world of the so-called alien invaders to seek their revenge, they found no aliens.
Not a single one.
Instead, the hollow, black planet seemed to be a world of plants and animals, intact buildings and communication networks, and amazing technology. The invaders had apparently felt it necessary to use every single inhabitant they had for the destruction of Earth, as only non-human life forms remained. Of course, it would have been close to impossible to resupply the forces from their home planet across such great expanses of space.
Still, it had come as a shock to find the aliens' home world empty of life except for animals. No one knew what the aliens had called their home, but the beauty of the place had everyone soon agreeing to call it Neo Terra.
Seven billion people winnowed down to just a few million, along with the destruction of so much of Earth's surface, made living on Earth for some people seem like a punishment. As a result, many survivors made the long trip to the aliens' planet to start over. Even though it meant living underground, the shining cities of that world had a brightness and beauty that old Earth could not hope to compete with for hundreds of years yet.
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An excited voice on the other end of the line said she should return to the office at once, as a news story was breaking. Annoyed that her time off was once more being breached, Pam made her way to the office building belonging to the world news media.
"Good, good, you're back!" her assistant, Sheila, said. "There is little time. Get to the prep room and I'll brief you; we air in ten minutes."
In the prep room, Sheila began explaining what had happened. "A lot of people witnessed the takeoff this afternoon. The ship seemed to hover for some time just above the city before it disappeared into the clouds."
Sheila and her helper applied make-up and combed Pam's hair. "The military says the ship was stolen by a group of young terrorists and that several military personnel were killed in the raid."
"This can't be good," Pam said as she fidgeted in her makeup chair. "Do we have any names?
"
"Just one that I recognized. Your old friend, General Harris, has made a few comments," Sheila replied.
"God, that man makes my skin crawl!" Pam said flatly. "Which ship was it? I heard that we were several years away from a full launch of the new fleet, and that back engineering the alien crafts might push that date even further into the future."
"That's just it; the ship wasn't one of ours," Sheila replied. "It was that strange supply ship that the military captured a long time ago. You remember, the one that they said was programmed to always fly to the same planet and back," Sheila replied.
"The supply ship?" Pam said, with a puzzled look on her half-powdered face. "What good is that old thing to terrorists? Sounds more like an escape plan to nowhere, unless the terrorists want a holiday on some dead world. What's the name of the terrorist group?"
"The military won't say; just calls them terrorists," was Sheila's response.
"I don't think I like where this is going," Pam said. She did her best to report on the event that evening on the world news and several guest speakers appeared to offer their input, all of which amounted to very little.
Back in the prep room, she said to Sheila, "I hate those talking heads. They never contribute anything of any real importance. Tell somebody to get my car. I'm going to take a drive over to the base where the craft was stolen. Maybe I can kick the dirt around and find a few clues."
Pam spent some time at the military base being stonewalled before she felt frustrated enough to let her hunger get the better of her. Outside the gates of the base was a small diner, and she decided that was close enough for a bite to eat. While sitting with the locals and enjoying some clam chowder, Pam heard several people talking about what had happened.
"Excuse me, I don't mean to pry, but did I hear you say that you knew who had stolen the alien cargo ship?" Pam asked a clean-cut young man. He looked to be in his early thirties and was sitting with some male friends. He was well-spoken, and his friends seemed very intelligent.