Harbinger

by Stephen Christiansen

  Doctor Atkins had flown into Los Angeles for a medical seminar. The medical group, comprised of representatives from some of the highest and most prestigious hospitals, was getting together to discuss the option of no longer taking the federally backed blanket insurance plan since it barely covered expenses. This would turn away a lot of patients, patients that badly needed medications and treatments. On the other hand, it would send a message to the federal government that said medications and treatments weren’t free, or at least so cheap that it was almost free.

  The noise outside was almost dismissed and they had almost started up the meeting again. They knew what this was and they had been warned before coming here. There had been a number of demonstrations throughout Los Angeles and they had to be careful. But there wasn’t anything to worry about, the local police had taken care of the last few demonstrations and they would do so again. The medical group was assured that everything would be taken care of, everything would be fine. Just to assure the group that they would be safe, helicopters were assigned to make emergency evacuations for those who felt that they needed them. The hotel had also increased its security by hiring some ex-military for a day or two. However, there wasn’t supposed to be any real problems. That’s when the explosions started to happen.

  Chaos had erupted as much in the meeting room as it had outside. Glass shattered throughout the area. Papers flew everywhere. The main power went down and the emergency power came on and with it the emergency red lights lit the rooms. There was several hotel staff screaming in pain and panic, running for their lives. The explosive projectile hadn’t hit anyone directly but had caused plenty of damage.

  Once Doctor Atkins was able to make sure that everyone inside the hotel was safe and their wounds were being dealt with, he grabbed his satchel and headed into the chaotic mess outside despite the warnings from his colleagues inside. They had told him that they were going to the roof to catch the emergency helicopters out of the city and if was smart then he would catch one as well.

  As Doctor Atkins ran through the debris he knew that he would never see his colleagues again. He would never go back to his practice back in upstate New York. He never wanted to see their faces again and could never look them in the eye, even if he did see them, since there would be no sense of dignity left to find there. And after looking around him, there was only one thought that crossed his mind. He would get off this planet and find the next Terraforming ship that was scheduled to disembark. He had to get away from all of the ugliness of humanity that he had now finally caught a glimpse of and only now that he had realized he had been completely ignorant of all of these years.

  He found the woman lying over a broken body. She was in near hysterics, sobbing and screaming for help. The woman was bleeding from her forehead and she was holding her arm at an odd angle. Richard couldn’t tell if she had been an innocent bystander, a member of the demonstrators or one of the radical, anti-government, anti-corporate anarchists, but at this point it didn’t matter. She was a human being and she was hurt. However, the person that was lying, motionless, seemed to be in worse shape. He would be his first priority.

  As he knelt beside the man on the ground he could tell that the situation was worse than he had initially thought. There was blood everywhere. Even if he could stabilize the man, there was too much blood loose. If he wasn’t dead already then he would be soon. A light touch on the man’s neck told Richard everything he needed to know.

  “I’m sorry...but there’s nothing…”

  “No! No!”

  The woman’s screams of anguish was hardly audible from the rest of the chaos that was starting to erupt around them. A militia group had rounded one corner and was squaring off against a group of protesters. Helicopters were starting to circle above, some were rescue helicopters to remove individuals trapped on the rooftops of the buildings, some were delivering more riot police, while others were equipped with military hardware. Bullets started to rain down from the sky.

  “Please! Please! You need to…”

  Richard could hear another incoming projectile. There was nowhere to run, nothing he could do. All he could hear was the hiss of the…

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The hiss of the air rushed into his Richard’s cryo chamber and woke him with a start. For one brief moment the nightmare had been so real that he was sure that the sounds around him were from the Los Angeles riots. Emergency lights were flashing all around and he could see a body standing over him. His body felt like hell and he was sure that he had woken up in the infirmary after taking a hit from the incoming projectile or at least from some of the shattering debris.

  However, he was too cold. Things didn’t look right. Memories started to flood back. He could remember that he had been able to get out of the way from the explosion and had been able to save the woman. However, he had been hit in the arm. He had been rushed to the mock-triage room and it had been the end of his heroism for the day.

  Yes, he had lived through the riots with the scars to prove it. However, he was ready to leave it all behind. He had motioned a request for a position aboard the first Terraforming ship leaving Earth.

  Richard sat up out of his cryo chamber. His muscles were slowly responding and he knew that this would quickly pass. A brief look around told him of his current situation.

  “I need your help getting the others out. It seems like the chambers are malfunctioning.”

  Richard didn’t know the man that was helping him out of his cryo chamber. He had only taken the time to memorize the names and faces of the doctors and scientists that would be working with him on the Terraforming project. This meant that this would have to be their security detail.

  “Warning...Breach in warp core. Detonation imminent”

  The doctor nodded toward Eric as his response to help. His evaluation of the malfunctioning chambers seemed to be accurate, however, that wasn’t the only thing that was malfunctioning. By the warnings that continued to repeat over and over, the short circuits that were abundant across various control panels, the flashing red lights, and the venting coolant in the air, it seemed that most of the ship was no longer in working order.

  Eric moved toward the next cryo chamber closest to him. The name on the name tag on the end of the chamber read “Denise Shepherd” and if Eric’s memory served him correctly from his review of the crew that he was going to be stationed with and was in charge of their security, then this was their engineer. She was going to be in charge of electrical, mechanical, and even computer programming. He had to admit that she was smart and the quick look toward her chamber told him that she was beautiful as well. He had to shake his head and refocus.

  Chapter: 03

  Denise Shepherd leaned into the bulky piece of machinery yet again. The backup power generator kept going out and it was the same problem as last week. The regulator kept going out and upper management refused to buy a new one. They said that it was cheaper to have it fixed on a regular basis than to have to purchase one.

  Budget cuts they said. She had scoffed at that. The privately funded nuclear power plant was making plenty of money and it was well known that the CEO’s and top personnel had given themselves an outrageous raise. The part that she needed would be fairly inexpensive considering the cost that it would have to pay out if the plant went down and needed to rely on this generator and it was malfunctioning again. There would not only be clean up costs, but there would be lawsuits. She was also sure that she would be the one to take the blame since she would be on the lowest end of the chain of command and she was the one who continued to work on it.

  She was told that the chance of a nuclear meltdown was slim, but she didn’t like slim chances. She wanted to be sure. She wanted to be sure that not only was the main generator working, but the backup one and the backup one after that.

  So, here she was yet again, half into the machinery. Her tool case was beside her feet wh
ile her head and main torso was fully immersed. She gave another twist on the bolt and double checked everything else. When she was satisfied, she nodded to herself.

  The problem was, the same part kept coming loose and when it did the regulator would stop and then the whole generator would cease to function. She just couldn’t figure it out. There was no reason for this part to come loose, unless someone had been deliberately…

  The smack on her backside broke her train of thought and made her jump and hit her head on the inside of the generator’s casing. Immediately she pulled her body out to see who had…

  “Tom! You sexiest son of a…”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa...don’t get all upset. You liked it, and you know it. Why else would come down here every week at this time?”

  The smirk on Tom’s face and the tone of his voice clued Denise to the answer that she was looking for. The generator had, in fact, been sabotaged and now she knew by whom and why. She was also now sure that each time she buried herself deep into the machinery she was giving him, and probably everyone else associated with him, a view that they all appreciated.

  “That was sexual harassment, and I’m reporting you to…”

  Tom advanced upon her and grabbed her by her upper arm. “You’re not going to report anything. It’s your word against mine, and who’s going to believe you? While we’re at it, I’ll show you some sexual…”

  Her knee met his groin with such a force that Tom dropped to his knees, speechless. His body shook with pain but she wasn’t done with him. Without hesitation, Denise reached to her right, grabbed the large wrench that she had placed there earlier and struck down upon his head.

  Tom felt consciousness start to fade. A quick shake of his head and he was able to clear his mind, but his skull throbbed as if something was about to explode out of it. He put his hand to the back of his head and felt the wetness that he was sure to find. Bringing it forward he was able to confirm his suspicions that he was bleeding.

  “You...you freak...I was just...you could have killed me!”

  Denise reached her left hand over toward the counter and grabbed her power drill. A flick of her thumb brought power coursing through the drill while a pull of the trigger brought it to life. The drill whirled and spun and gave a whining noise.

  “Do you want to go for round two?”

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  “Miss Shepherd, this is the second report against your aggressive behavior this week.”

  Her boss had called her into his office and had closed the door behind her so not to embarrass her in front of her co-workers. Yet, she was sure that many individuals were listening as closely as they could, and with the fact that her boss wasn’t being mindful of the tone of his voice, she was sure that many would hear the conversation anyway. There really wasn’t any reason to have the door closed. On top of this, word would get out, one way or another and it would spread like wildfire. There was nothing better than office gossip.

  He had tossed down her personnel file upon his desk for her to look at, but they both knew what was inside of it.

  “Tom started it,” Denise blurted out angrily.

  “That’s your word against his. However, the threat to utilize a power drill against him and the bleeding from the back of his skull is…”

  “…is the result of his sexual advances. I’ve complained many times against these…”

  “And I don’t have any evidence. Look, Denise, I like you, I really do. You are a great engineer, probably the best this company has ever seen. Hell, probably the best any company has ever seen. However, we can’t keep doing this. I know, I know, sexual harassment. I can’t do anything if you don’t have proof. Now, if you want to keep your position…”

  “I’m sure you know what you can do with your ‘position’!” Denise’s exclamation was fully emphasized by her slamming the door behind her as she left.

  As she stormed through the power plant, collecting her gear, Denise could hear the whispers and snickering behind her back. She did her best to ignore them. They weren’t worth the comments that she wanted to shot back at them.

  Denise stopped by the human resource department to drop off her login badge. It wasn’t just her security access card to key into work, but it allowed her access to computer programs and was as a visual ID to just get on site. She was just going to simply toss her badge on the counter and storm off when her attention was caught by the notice on the bulletin board.

  ‘Are you ready for adventure? Do you have what it takes? Join the elite Terraforming team. Apply at…’

  “What this?” Denise asked after she ripped the page off of the board, knocking two other pages down and sending several push pins flying.

  “Oh, that? That’s just there because the feds said that every corporation needs to have it up. Something about equal opportunity, blah, blah, blah...” replied the H.R. manager as he stuck his head up over the counter.

  He was about the say something about her sudden departure but the scowl upon Denise’s face told him otherwise. Instead he continued with the original conversation hoping that she would just drop off her badge and leave without any further incidents. He really didn’t feel like being on the receiving end of her proposed aggressive behavior and he doubted that security would arrive in time to save him if she were to instigate said behavior.

  “You’re not thinking about joining are you? I mean what kind of nut job…”

  He had only turned away for one moment to take her badge and put it in his drawer and when he looked up, she was gone.

  ‘Hmmm…’ he thought to himself. ‘Nut job for sure.’

  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  The ‘65 Triumph Bonneville flew through the streets. Denise had taken the back streets from the nuclear power plant, but not out of necessity. It was simply because the sterile highways with their semi-electric cars wore on her like grated sandpaper. These cars were supposed to be the wave of the future and bring less air pollution. In reality, they actually created more physical and chemical pollution when their batteries died and were eventually tossed in a landfill. There were already far too many sites on this planet filled with toxic battery waste. Yet the drivers continued in their blissful ignorance filled with the promise of a better tomorrow.

  On top of that, the highways were usually packed. Traffic was a nightmare and was often stopped for hours and that was if there wasn’t an accident or breakdown. The new cars didn’t have the same response time as the older cars and either people got lazy and didn’t bother to break or turn when they were supposed to or they had relied on the autopilot to do these things for them which had also proven to be problematic. Then there was the fact that these newer cars often broke down. They just didn’t make them the way they used to.

  The third reason why she avoided the highway was because there was a toll being charged. It started to be a financial burden to buy the pass to drive to work to pay for the pass to drive to work. The government said that the toll was to pay for pollution cleanup and for road repairs, yet she hadn’t seen a road repair crew in a long time and she doubted that the air pollution had gotten any better. Denise had to wonder whose pockets were being lined.

  The back streets were a simple two lane road, one in each direction that took her through the less desirable part of town. The houses were usually boarded up and the only occupants were usually squatters or homeless seeking shelter. Windows were usually busted, litter filled what little front yards they had, and graffiti was often spray painted over the walls.

  The graffiti was often gang related and that had to be considered when driving through this area. Usually the gangs came out at night which meant that she had to be careful when coming home. However, sometimes they would brave the day which meant that they were getting more brazen.

  But the graffiti wasn’t always gang related. Sometimes it was worse
. Sometimes it was from the “resistance.” This was a Para-militant group that thought that they could overthrow the government and bring about a better world. And although Denise was all for change especially for the better, she doubted that the group could do any better than the current government and they would probably do worse. She doubted that the “resistance” had any real ability or training in leadership, government, finances, international relations, Medicare payments, disaster relief, military spending, scientific and medical funding and research, and the many other things that the government was responsible for. All the resistance wanted to do was topple the leaders but didn’t have any real plans after that.

  This only meant that the group was no better than terrorist. All they wanted to do was shoot things. Denise wasn’t opposed to individuals having firearms; she was just opposed to individuals who had nothing better to do than shoot other people.

  Her motorcycle was the only vehicle on the road except for abandoned cars along the side. These seemed to be abandoned, older, full combustion cars that had been left to rust, fall apart, and to be vandalized. Like the houses that they sat in front of, these also had their windows smashed and were spray painted. Their tires were usually slashed or simply flat and most of their frames were dented from abuse and rusted from neglect.