The goal of this facility was to survive a global nuclear war and to be able to orchestrate and run a counter-offensive.
Just like today, but under different circumstances, this base was already considered as ground zero of retaliation against a greater threat.
“History has a tendency to repeat itself,” Henry says.
“Correct,” Don replies. “I’m sure you have collected bits and pieces of information from your conversations last night. I’m going to connect the dots for you now,” he pursues.
Don gives his full name and rank to the team. He was assigned here a little less than four years ago. He was selected for his experience and his ability to lead people and troops, but also for his capacity to run covered operations that required the utmost level of secrecy.
One of his usual tasks here was to prepare the next assignment period. His duties included, but were not limited to, the oversight of all the base’s logistics. It meant food, supplies, weapons, vehicles, but also running specific missions as requested by his headquarters.
But this time, Don’s assignment was slightly different. He had to plan for a much larger quantity of food and supplies as the war outside was starting to take epic proportions.
Given the magnitude of the threat, a plan was set in motion to relocate those individuals and their families that the country considered as strategic assets.
Don was in charge of executing this plan. When all the supplies were eventually delivered to the base, his mission was to start relocating the personalities.
Unfortunately, the speed and intensity of the war took everyone by surprise.
By the time Don and his team were ready, a large part of the world population had already been decimated. They stopped receiving orders from their hierarchy and as they did not know who the personalities were, they took it upon themselves to change their mission. Instead of dignitaries, they decided to go for their families.
Don and several men left the base and went after their loved ones. Some stayed inside as they didn’t have anyone to go to and the base needed to be guarded and maintained.
“Out of the eighty men who left, less than ten eventually returned. These ten, along with their wives and children, and the twenty who stayed behind make up the entire community you met last night,” Don explains.
Don pauses a few seconds. It is clear to his audience that he is hesitating. The adults know that his next sentence will be very personal and that he won’t be disclosing much detail. They are right.
When he arrived at his house looking for his wife and son, he unfortunately only found rubbles.
Up to this day, he doesn’t know what happened to them. He doesn’t know whether they have been killed during the war or if they have been relocated by the robots. He searched for them in vain and then decided he didn’t have any other choice but to come back to the base.
No one responds or dares to ask questions.
“Ok, that’s it for the story of the base and how we all got here,” he concludes.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Pam says.
“Thank you, but don’t say that. I have not given up on them, yet. I don’t have any proof that they are lost. This is not a loss;” Don replies, apparently upset by Pam’s comment.
“I apologize if I hurt you,” Pam says.
“No harm done. I’m sorry I overreacted. Let’s get to work now. The kids can stay here. They will soon be joined by the others and the teacher for class,” Don says.
“Class?” Pam asks.
“Yes. One of the women is, or I should say was, a high school teacher. We believe it is important for the kids to keep learning. They are the future of society, therefore we want them to be smart. Anyone who wants to help and teach during their spare time is more than welcome to do so,” Don says.
“I have a philosophy background. I’d be happy to spend time with the kids,” Henry volunteers.
“I know. But for the time being, I need you to tell us everything you know about GAIA and its infrastructure,” Don interjects.
The group, led by Don, leaves the cafeteria and goes to the command center they saw the day before. People are already actively working. Don explains that they try to localize potential targets for an attack against GAIA.
The strategy is simple; inflict as much physical damage as possible to GAIA to eventually take it down.
They also monitor the progress in the construction of the Metropolises.
“How can they do that?” Henry asks.
Don explains that the base is not the only tool they have at their disposal. The organization also has six satellites in space. Just like the base, no one knows about their existence. Two of the satellites are geo-stationary and are used for communications. They each cover one-half of the Earth. The other four orbit around the Earth and can provide detailed photographs of specific areas.
“Thanks, Don. This is impressive. You mentioned communications, are you communicating with other people?” Henry asks.
“Not really. Our base is not the only one. We have three other bases. They are much smaller, though. You can’t compare them to this one. One is in Europe, one in Siberia, and one in Africa. They were built more recently. Their original purpose was to gather intelligence from specific areas in the world,” Don explains.
Don tells the group that only a handful of people are based in the other locations. They are mainly data analysts, with basic combat training. The communications between the bases are highly secured and require complex codes to be deciphered. Unfortunately, no one has the codes. They never were delivered to the base on time.
In other words, they cannot send or receive messages as the encrypting and decrypting capabilities are not available. As a consequence, no one is communicating because in the event unsecured communications were intercepted, it would lead GAIA straight to the bases.
As of now, Don confesses that they don’t know whether the other bases are active or not. And they have no way to find out.
According to Henry, encrypted communications or not is more or less the same for GAIA. With its processing capabilities, it wouldn’t take it very long to break it anyway.
“Yeah … it’s always the same with GAIA. It seems like everywhere you look, GAIA is already looking. The advantage always seems to be on its side … always a few steps ahead,” Jack says, feeling a bit discouraged and frustrated.
“I agree,” says Don. “This is why brute force remains our best option. I don’t believe we will ever be able to infiltrate GAIA and shut it down or destroy it from the inside. But I think we can definitely destroy its physical representation such as its data centers. The question is to know where they are. And this is where Henry becomes useful.”
Don believes that Henry’s knowledge of GAIA will help them locate the most appropriate targets. They don’t have that many destructive capabilities so they need to make sure that whatever they hit strikes a severe blow to GAIA.
Henry is happy to help, but he explains that GAIA has been fully autonomous for many years now. GAIA has been running CES and no one really knows what it has done. It is highly possible that it has built facilities no one is aware of. But he will do everything he can to help.
Once again, the perspectives are not really encouraging. GAIA holds all the cards.
“So what does that mean?” John asks. “We can’t infiltrate the system and we don’t know where to strike either. Can someone tell me what we can do? I’m here because I think we can have a shot at GAIA. But if we don’t, we may as well surrender.”
“I understand you, John,” Don says. “But we are not the heroes of a book or a movie here. We ain’t gonna save the world out of our good will. This is real life. Things don’t just happen. They require a lot of work and thinking up front. If we don’t plan precisely, we fail. And if we fail, people die. We all have our qualities. We all have something to bring to the table. And together we will find a solution. We just need to put our heads together and think. Look, you mention sur
render, I propose we think about it. There might be something there. Maybe there is a better chance to take GAIA down from inside the Metropolises than from here. Henry here also says that GAIA can probably intercept our communications. Maybe this is something we can use against GAIA. Maybe we can build a strategy around deception. Make GAIA believe what we want it to believe. Do you understand what I mean? We are fortunate enough to have supplies. Time is therefore not a pressing issue. So let’s just use that to our advantage to plan the best possible strategy.”
“I like this idea,” Pam says. “Everyone here agrees with Don?”
Everyone does.
Don then tells the group, while staring at John, that before they continue they all need to understand that the behavior that has just been displayed will not be tolerated here. Today was the first warning. There will not be a second one. People can voice their opinion freely, but no one has the right to quit, give up or convey negative thoughts to the rest of the community.
After leaving Henry to the command center, Don takes the rest of the group to another room. He calls it the ‘reverse engineering’ room.
A couple of engineers are pulling robots apart. Their job is to understand how they are built, how they communicate, if they can be reprogrammed, and if they have any kind of weakness.
This will be the area where Jack will be working. Don understands Jack has an engineering degree and believes his skills will be appropriately used here.
Jack agrees. He is impatient to start and make a positive contribution to the community.
This role will also take his mind away from the carnage with the mercenaries. It is not that he constantly thinks about it or that he is disturbed by it. He just wants to be able to shake these thoughts off of his head and replace them with something else.
As for John, he will join the other soldiers and will be patrolling with them as soon as his wound is healed.
John looks like he’s got the physical condition to handle this kind of assignments. Don also saw how John was pointing his weapon at his men the day before in the forest. He clearly knows how to shoot and seems quite confident carrying a gun. That’s also why he believes John’s skills can be better used on the field.
And after John’s earlier comment, Don wants to keep him nearby. Not that he represents a threat to the community, but he may need a little more supervision and motivation than the others.
And then comes Pam’s turn. Don decides to be perfectly honest with her as he doesn’t have any clue where she would fit best. He is reluctant to give her a weapon even though, from what he’s heard, she has been able to handle a fight against the robots.
He decides to let her choose between a few alternatives.
The first one is to help teach the kids. But as they already have someone, Don doesn’t believe it would be an efficient allocation of resources.
The second proposal, Don’s favorite, is to give her a ‘management’ role. She could potentially monitor the supplies and the day-to-day activities at the base. She seems to have a strong personality and the three men she came here with seem to listen to her when she says something. A leading role could therefore easily be filled by her.
Finally, she can just be free to do what she wants. However, Don tells her that it is preferable for anyone here to have a clear role in the community, with a schedule, tasks, and responsibilities. Otherwise, it becomes too easy to lose one’s mind in such a closed environment.
Pam appreciates Don’s feedback about her personality and that he took the time thinking about the best role for her. And the fact that he is proposing her a leading role in the community boosts her confidence and ego. A feeling that she has not been able to have often lately. She feels like she’s just gone through an interview process, nailed it, and got the job. Deep inside, and trying to mask it as much as she can, she is performing her victory dance. Jack is smiling, because he knows what is currently going on in her head. He is proud of her, and she is proud of herself.
She decides to go with Don’s second proposal and tells him she will work with him to clearly define her responsibilities so that they don’t overlap with his.
Don is happy to see so much motivation and dedication in Pam’s eyes. She reminds him of his wife. And as he looks at Pam, and the inner strength that transpires naturally from her, he gets more and more convinced that his wife found a way to escape the threats and that she and their son are safe.
Tasks are assigned. Everyone knows what they need to do. And with someone like Pam who will surely get up to speed very quickly and be able to run the ‘house’, Don feels like his presence will soon become less necessary.
It can be the opportunity he’s been waiting for to really go out there to find his family once and for all.
CHAPTER 17
After a couple of weeks, the base has absorbed the group and is running smoothly. The newcomers are fully integrated with the rest of the community. Henry works with the programmers, Jack is dedicated to finding a way to take control over the robots, and John has now fully recovered from his injury, which seems to have a positive effect on his morale as well.
As for Pam, Don has delegated most of his responsibilities to her. He is now only focusing on the strategy and on training people for battle.
Fighting and shooting practice is a key element of everyone’s daily schedule. The soldiers are for the most part very well versed in the art of war already. The ones Don originally recruited for the assignment at the base all have military combat background.
For them, the practice is merely required to maintain their fighting skills sharp.
For everyone else, it is about learning how to defend themselves and either get in better shape or maintain an already good physical condition.
Kids are not exempt from these activities. The five teenagers learn how to shoot and fight, while the two younger kids only learn the basics of self-defense and how to hide from danger in a playful way.
Pam is the one who had the idea to turn the youngsters’ practice into a game. She believes that while they need to know how to defend themselves, they are first and foremost kids and should be protected as much as possible from the outside world’s violence. Her goal is to teach them valuable skills but to always maintain the illusion of a big game.
When she suggested her idea to Don, he didn’t even spend a second thinking it over and instantly agreed that it was the right thing to do. Don has already learned he can trust Pam and rely on her almost blindly. No matter what she decides, she will always do what’s best for everyone and according to each person’s own sensitivity.
It now seems obvious to Don that the community can do without him.
And to be perfectly honest with himself, Don feels less and less comfortable around Pam. Her personality reminds him too much of his wife. He knows he is a man. Just a man. And despite his physical strength, he knows men can be weak inside. He doesn’t want to fall in the trap he senses his emotions are in the process of setting for him.
He can already foresee the day when, in a moment of weakness, when he is in need of his wife’s soft skin, he will confuse Pam with her. His love for his wife and the desire of her body will make him blind and he will commit the irreparable.
Don knows that he may fall for it in just one second of inattention, during one of their daily meetings. It will happen when they are alone, just the two of them. When their cheeks sometimes touch while Don shows something to Pam and she leans over to him.
Don can feel the accident is more and more bound to happen. Not that he or Pam want it to happen. Pam is deeply in love with Jack and Don with his wife. But things happen sometimes. And a small incident like this one could have dramatic, if not destructive, consequences on everyone. This is not something the group can afford.
Not to mention the pain that each of these situations cause to Don. Even though nothing ever happens, he always feels like he is cheating on his wife, and on his family as a whole.
These uncomfortable situa
tions always bring him back to that day when he came home to bring his wife and son here and only found ruins. Like a curse, like a call for help from his family.
And each step he takes on the edge of a fatal mistake sends his thoughts wandering to melancholic places. He starts wondering where his family is, thinking they need him desperately while he is here comfortably contemplating the idea that his weakness might make him fall for someone else.
It makes him feel bad inside. Guilty. Ugly. Disgusted. This is not something he can live with anymore. He needs to go and find them now.
He has made up his mind and reached the decision he should have made long ago.
During the following days, Don prepares a list of tasks to perform while he is away. It should help make his absence less noticeable and should also give clear directions and, most importantly, a purpose to everyone.
Up until now, he has been the one setting the pace of the group. He has been the one giving directives. But now, he knows Pam is able to take on this new responsibility. And with his list of ideas of things to work on, he knows the rest of the team will be busy for a few weeks.
He will announce his decision tonight during dinner to the entire group.
He already knows it will create confusion and people will try to talk him out of it. But he’s made his decision. He’s not backing down from it.
He has abandoned his family out there for too long. And nothing or no one will stop him from finding them.
As decided, Don exposes his plan to the entire base at the cafeteria. And as he expected, it triggers many reactions.
“Are you nuts? You can’t go out there on your own!” one of the men says.
“What about us? Are you leaving us? What are we going to do without you?” a woman asks.
Don doesn’t answer.
He knows the pill will be hard for them to swallow and people usually need time to adjust to change. In such situations, people go through seven stages.
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