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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Science Fiction
- Subject: Serial / Series
- Published: 02/15/2016
The Time Stone: Let God's Will be Done
Born 1978, M, from Brooklyn, NY, United StatesThe Time Stone: Let God’s Will Be Done
By: Jeffrey Estrella
Time Period Date: October 26, 2315 AD
Place: Chronix Bay, Confederated States of the Oligarchy (CSO) Formerly Known As (FKA)
United States of America (USA)
The sun rises brightly over the pristine skies laid out over the city of Chronix Bay on the east coast of the North American continent. As the pinkish hue mixes in beautifully with the darkened blue, the two colors kiss in the air above like lovers at the dawn. The light peaks behind two structures, their domed apex exceeded only by a small thin citadel above them.
They resemble the ancient temples once revered in the Eastern cultures and Middle Eastern
sands. They are new to the city as monuments of a new order symbolic of virtue, wisdom,
piety, and control. They are the homes of “The Oligarchy!”
“Sometimes we think we are so busy in life we lose sight of what is most important and fail
to see what we were seeking and truly wanted in life was right there in front of us the
entire time. Time sometimes stands still for those willing to hear its cry” thinks Robin
Matthews, a struggling news reporter searching the streets for a good story. She has the soul of
an Elizabethan poet and the wisdom of the oracle at Delphi matched with the beauty of Helen
of Troy. Despite all her gifts as she was told all her life by her mother, she fails to see her true
potential and has moved around from job to job, apartment to apartment, failed relationship
to next failed relationship, never content with herself or her life, trying to find herself as if on
the never ending pursuit for something that is always beyond her grasp. She walks along the
sidewalk on this hot autumn day blaming the world of her past for the global warming that has
virtually devastated parts of the world into desert wastelands or jungle forests with immense
heat completely subduing the cornerstones of civilization. She feels like a failure. She is poor
but never wants to acquire vast wealth, only to help people and to make a difference in the
world.
The mighty city of Chronix Bay is still alive based on the new invention, holographic aquifers
towers that shines like beacons on the far corners of town and are stretched to the heavens
each glowing of its own force field brightly penetrating the community creating an artificial bubble made of pure energy around the town. The sun beams through it extra brightly but the
field glistened as it absorbs the excessive ultra violet rays and spread it about to power
everything with solar energy from basic home appliances to the various power distribution
plants spread about the city and coalescing at the center of the town near a megalithic
structure of stone bearing the double arch serpent logo of the once Temporo, Inc., a mighty
organization, subdued by the wrath of the Oligarchy who has taken control of everything. The
company remains the source of the Oligarchy and connected to its mysterious origin. Water
flows from each holographic aquifer created by harnessing the hydrogen and oxygen particles
in the air above them concentrating in the stratosphere and ionosphere and mixing them in a
carefully mechanical formula that causes a bright starry light to appear at each apex of the
sun-powered structures sending down cool water as if appearing out of nowhere, down into
the reservoirs below the town to exist as a never stopping supply for the town’s inhabitants, all
seven hundred thousand in the vast growing town spanning almost half of the continent.
Robin walks into her home away from home, having spent most of her time here, the Daily
Chronometer News Building. She enters the front portal, a glowing yellow light and instantly
is teleported, her body evaporated to the molecular level and she is reintegrated in her office,
sitting at her desk covered in paperwork and a picture of her Labrador Ronan. She smiles and
then frowns, feeling the loneliness she chooses to ignore and drown herself in her work ethic.
Suddenly a holographic screen window appears on her wall. A man’s image appears, his
graying hair and thick mustache bring thoughts of fear and dread to Robin’s heart. He wears a
white top with metal wires surrounding it like orbiting atoms and a raised collar with a string
of five neckties each with a different letter spelling out the name “Baise”, typical attire for a
professional male for the era yet with advanced egomania in mind.
“Hello Mr. Baise” says Robin profoundly with a heavy sigh.
“Good morning… this is the day that the Oligarchy has made for us… we should rejoice and
be glad in it” Baise speaks hoarsely and philosophically.
“Indeed” she rolls her eyes in response, “what else is new?”
“You tell me, ace newshound reporter…. Well, actually, I have an assignment for you….”
Robin’s eyes perk up with sudden enthusiasm “an assignment for me? What about the
others?”
“The others are busy… I need you” he retorts. “I need you to infiltrate the local resistance
uprising, ‘Against the Wind’. They have been responsible for significant terrorist attacks of
downtown monuments and political events. They are a threat and a thorn in the Oligarchy’s
side and must be stopped. I have been in contact with chief constable of the CSO’s
Bureaucratic Investigation Council and he assures me everything is being done to stop this
horrific effort, including shutting off the Comm. Net to stifle their communications somewhat.
They will rue the day they messed with the Confederated States of the Oligarchy” he shouts
with his fist pumping the air proudly.
“Sounds like you are pretty angry” she says resting her face on her hands. “What is the big
deal? These guys aren’t violent… they have attacked but never where anyone was and no one
was hurt.”
“Oh no… you’re forgetting the attack on the Holy Shrine where two members were killed?
These people are a menace and I better not hear any more of that negative talk from you
missy” he points angrily with a stern warning. “This organization has no room for
sympathizers.”
“Yes Sir” she rose up shocked and forced a smile across her face.
“Good… The CSO’s BIC will provide you with all the training you need. They will have your
back and protect you from any danger. Trust their professionalism. Leroy Stocky will be your
contact and assistant as well as liaison to this office and the BIC. He will prepare you for your
undercover assignment. Good luck and may the Oligarchy’s speed be with you.”
“Great” she says as the screen flickers off. “What craziness?”
Downstairs in a room filled with empty chairs and double-sided desks and tall tables with
various items resting on them, clothes, weapons, items of bizarre and fantastic technological
innovation, Robin appears in the room via the whirl of teleportation technology she has grown
accustomed to. She has put on a suit similar to Baise’s suit through the office computers’
screening unit that uses the teleportation device to screen incoming personnel to make sure their identities have not been compromised or they had items in violation of their
employment and that would otherwise result in a breach of the building’s security and can
also reintegrate the subject with any new items of clothing, equipment, or weaponry as
programmed. Robin approaches the tables and benches with items resting on top of them; a
man suddenly appears via the teleportation device and walks over to her. He has a boy-like
face and personality with red hair and freckles, along with dark-rimmed glasses. He has a scar
across his face, long and scabbed, hideously stretching from his left ear to the corner of his
mouth. “Hello” he welcomes her, his suit similar to hers but longer like a scientists’ white lab
coat over his clothes.
“Hey, I’m Robin…” says Robin smirking and thinking of her desire to help people above all.
“I know who you are … Mr. Baise said to expect you. I am Leroy Stocky, CSO BIC, please call
me Leroy Stocky” he utters with a sincere and stern facial expression. “We have a great deal of
equipment and items for you for your assignment. Am I to believe this is your first on the field
work?”
“Yes, it’s kind of nerve-wracking.”
“Don’t worry. You’re in good hands. I’ll be monitoring you as your eyes and ears in here so if
any danger strikes you, you just have to give the word and I will extract you. It’s cool. The
magic phrase is ‘patience is a virtue’ and should only be uttered in the event of a life or death
emergency.”
“OK…” she utters partly at ease but partly fearful.
“I will give you four items of equipment for your first assignment… please sign here” he moves
his hand across the table and a clear screen appears in holographic mode that she rubs her
finger against signing her name before it fizzles out to a hard top table again. “Thanks. Now,
item number one.” He holds out a small black bud with small speakers, the size of his thumb.
“It is a subdural microscopic implant listening and tracking device module and it will help us
track you and hear everything that you hear and see via holographic modules emitted here. It
will also have the effect of galvanizing your own hearing by a factor of one thousand.”
“Wow” she replies as he places the device in a tube and holds it to her.
“Please push up your sleeve” he utters and she does so holding out her right arm letting him
place the tube on it and slowly removing it without leaving a mark. “Module implanted. Next,
item number two, a cloak that you must never remove, it has the ability to render you invisible
to the naked eye by bending both light and heat waves to form a clear stealth barrier around
you. It will also protect you from teleport scanners and heat seeking mechanisms.” He hands
her the blue and black cloak with sparkles like glitter on and she slips it on. “Be care and only
use it for an emergency by pressing this” Leroy Stocky holds a part of the cloth with a button
underneath.
“It is comfortable… won’t people get suspicious of me?”
“I am sure you’re going to come up with something.” He smiles. “Next, item number three:
this is a weapon” he holds a long metallic sleeve with grasping parts and tightening fasteners
leading to a small hole attached. “It will slip on your right arm and camouflage to match your
unique particular skin tone. It will be permanently grafted on and cannot be removed. Like
your tattoo on your derrière, you are stuck with it for life. It will save your life in a crunch by
emitting hot plasma energy particle blasts to stun or even kill an opponent depending on how
you set the severity levels. No one can detect it and know you’re packing this not even with the
most sensitive computer scanners in current existence. This is called the Armon.”
“Wow” she takes it, pushes up her sleeves as high as possible, slips the device on her right arm,
and pulls it to the top of her elbow then the grafter fasters cling tightly to her flesh and tighten.
She screams as the fasteners penetrate her skin and tighten to her internal musculature and
then changes color to match her skin, the end point with the small hole extends inward
revealed in the palm of her hand and closed until needed. “That hurt.”
“That is your new best friend… for life. Next and finally is item number four” he pulls out a hat
resembling an old baseball hat.
“Is that the old New York Mets logo?” Robin asks.
“Yes… from the olden days of baseball fanaticism when there were people lining up to watch
grown men swing sticks for a living. This is no ordinary cap but a built in self-sustaining solar
powered portable teleportation device unit, the only one of its kind… wear it and it plugs into your cerebral cortex and your thoughts of a place really concentrating on it will instantly
teleport you there.”
“Unreal… I feel like a super hero, are you sure this is cleared?”
“Oh it’s cleared” he nodded.
Robin takes the cap and puts it on but before she could think of any particular place for
destination, Leroy Stocky snatches the cap off Robin’s head. “You’re not going anywhere yet.”
“Sorry.”
“Well, that is everything except… there is this” he walks over to the other side of the room
where she follows him and sees him uncover an even larger item bigger than him by removing
a large blanket covering it. He reveals a small vehicle that looks like a golf cart and has a set of
foreign-looking controls that Robin admires as she approaches but fails to recognize it. She
sees metal plating with long protruding objects and mechanisms and a set of small ones
sticking up out of the platting in large number near one another. The seat is made for one and
from a strange shiny substance like the exterior, soft and squishy.
“What is it? It looks like a transport but oddly built.”
“It is a transport built in the style used over three hundred years ago with buttons, keyboards,
and joysticks instead of the holographic view screens of today.”
“What will this do for me?”
“I’d rather not say as its full potential is not completely known to us… they don’t tell us
everything, you know. But just know it works in tandem with the teleportation cap should you
need it. It is powered by this…” he removes a small door cap on the rear that reveals a glass
casing with something inside fizzling with hot white miniature electric lightning bolts
permeating it, a small green five-sided emerald with five spots at its center.
Robin stares in awe and wonder as she tries to approach and grab it. “What is it?” she asks.
“This is a rare gem of an item... found by our scientists and archeologists in a remote corner of
central China, near the mountains of Tibet. They have identified it as a source of great power
fueled by the sun. We don’t know anything else.” He shuts the small door.
“Wow, so that’s it?”
“That’s it. The company transport will be on the roof in thirty minutes ready to take you and
your equipment to your new assignment. You will be placed in the center of the ‘Rough Road’
part of the city and you will be left alone but not be alone because we are with you watching
and listening. You will need to rely on your wits and training to survive and befriend people,
especially one Alkoy Bernarzo who is one of the prime sub lieutenants to the gang leader of
‘Against the Wind’, Ezekiel Thomas. We want as much information on their activities as
possible, remember that. Find out what you can, what they are planning to do, and where so
you can report the news and notify BIC and the proper authorities in the agencies. You will be
our investigative journalist secret agent, Robin Matthews. Good luck.”
“OK… I’ll do my best” she nods.
From the roof of the Daily Chronometer building’s shining presence, a silver aerial
acceleration transport unit speeds across the sky hovering and zooming by the pale blue air as
it rapidly approaches its destination. The vehicle is an elliptical-shaped vehicle with
protrusions around it and indentations on either end long and underneath. Robin is inside
and talks to the senior and aging pilot in the craft with her. He is an elderly gentleman with a
long grey beard. “I still don’t know what they expect of me” says Robin as she lowers her head
in sorrow as she faces the elderly man who carefully eyes his holographic view window.
“I hear you’re going to change the world” he replies. “Don’t worry, just be yourself and
remember no one can stop you from achieving and being what God has meant for you and set
in store for you.
“Right” she sheds a tear as she wipes her face thinking how big those words are and how they
create visions in her head, those words rung clear as day in a surreal light as the car stops and
hovers lowering her down to her drop off spot.
Time Period Date: October 26, 2315 AD
Place: Rough Road Alley, Confederated States of the Oligarchy (CSO) Formerly Known As
(FKA) United States of America (USA)
Robin watches as the transport that dropped her off flew away, the old pilot waving to her as
long as she was in distance and then flew off at blinding speeds. Robin looks around finding
herself in a community of bad neighbors, common criminals, hooligans, and miscreants as it
was known and reputed to be, the place she was always warned about and dreaded
passionately, the notorious ‘Rough Road’ alley. She tightens her cap and cloak and got into
the go cart vehicle that the transport left beside her. She feels silly at first maneuvering
awkwardly in what had been described to her as an antique vehicle but she decides to confide
in her handlers and in her assignment. She drives forward down the pedestrian walkway; no
one was present but a homeless woman yelling into the empty air in the distance. Robin
shakes her head wishing that she could somehow help but feels powerless and she was on a
mission and had to stay focused.
Robin rides her small vehicle getting used to the strange controls after a few moments and as
she approaches a burning trash can, flames spewing high with black smoke into the air, a large
muscular man jumps out and surprises her, he has a mask with large eyes and a sharp grin of
painted teeth, fangs, and curved lips on the mask and wears a skin tight black suit. He moves
his hands up and down, legs spread, and makes repeated loud yells as he approaches her.
Robin jumps out of her vehicle and raises her arms “who are you?” The man continues yelling
and four others jump out from behind a set of dumpsters in the alley in the distance. The
other men are similarly dressed. They jump up and down. Robin tries to get back into her
vehicle with worry on her heart but one of the men grabs her and pulls her to him. She resists
his grasp but his muscular physique overpowers her. Soon another man grabs her other arm
and pulls her to them. She screams as they drag her into the alleyway behind the dumpsters.
The night feels deafly quiet as the snow slightly drifts slowly to the ground on unpredictable
summer weather affected by global warming. Some parts of the city are super hot and some
are super cold with snow fall due to the combination of the new aquifers mixed with centuries
of environmental abuse. An elderly couple smile together as they walk past a well-decorated
and unlit but dust-covered Christmas tree, as if having been there unrevoked for ages, in the
field outside of Star House in the far corner of ‘Rough Road’ alley. This mansion-sized home was a brilliantly-decorated but unlit display of colorful bulbs and formerly motioned and now
still animatronics snowmen and Santa’s elves long ago singing the holiday praises of
Christmas time melodies akin across countless generations. Inside a lonely aged man sits in a
velvet-lined recliner set in the center of the living room near an open fire place burning with
ember brightness, the old man’s eyes glisten with fearless joy as he sips his brandy, his robe of
satin bears the initial monogram “ISE”. He stares at the fire and the mantel above the fireplace
where a single snow globe rests, the snow falling inside it from fresh movement and a small
house with a little boy resting inside in an open field before a house similar to Star House. The
boy appears almost life like and holds something within his gloved hands, a green five-sided
crystalline form in his hands, a jewel shining ever so brightly in the snow.
In the alleyway near a pair of dumpsters, Robin is pulled by the large masked men into the
back area from where they came. She tries to move her arm up to fire her Armon weapon but
her arms remain pinned down at her sides by the goons as they pick her up and carry her away
kicking and screaming. She silently prays for a quick relief or salvation but none came and she
feels herself pulled into the alley and lifted off the ground as the five masked men surround
her and pull her in. Then two come back out and pull the vehicle into the alley with her. Robin
feels the strong grip of the men on her, resistance by her being useless. She feels her mouth
scream endlessly until her mouth is covered by a big gloved hand and then her eyes shut and
darkness as a prick of a needle penetrates her arm.
Robin’s eyes blink open suddenly awakening in the darkness “Huh uh” she breathes deeply
questioning her surroundings… darkness. She is lying on a bed and rises looking around. She
avers her eyes and trying to see past the darkness. She feels as if she was blind for a moment
then a bright white light appears in the distance before her, and a voice echoes from the light
radiating in the distance. “Choices… we are defined by our choices… not by what we leave
behind….” A soft woman’s voice echoes from the distant light. “Hello… who is this?” Robin
yells. “What is going on? Why have I been taken and brought here? What do you plan to do
with me?” Robin yells and the voice responds softly, calmly, and mercilessly full of a joy as
feeling endearing in the endless void. The light vibrates in waves like ripples in a pond.
“Time… voyages beyond new horizons await if ready to accept it… more than once, a history
conceived from destiny… to fix what must be, restore… trust… hope….” The voice faded and the light dies down. Robin rushes out of bed and falls on her face before she gets far. She looks
up as a door opens with a slight light outside of the room down a narrow dimly-lit hallway and
a man with a graying hair style enters with his face partially obscure and a concerned look on
his face as he looked at Robin on the floor. She notices he wears a satin robe with the
monogram “IHS”. “We should talk” he utters softly, “get dressed, please.” Robin turns to the
bed as the door slams and the man is gone. She sees in the light from the hallway before it
closed a pair of clothing lying on her bed.
Robin walks into a room with a large wooden conference table in the center. She wears a black
skintight suit with metal wires protruding around the sleeves up and down in a helix pattern
and continuing down her legs and around her waist and torso each wire colored red, purple,
and other rainbow colors. Her hair was let down in to a big dark mane behind her and she had
black gloves and boots. She was called over by a voice on the other end of the table, an elderly
man with a satin and velvet robe, the same man she saw in the doorway, and he calls to her
waving his hand.
“OK” she thinks and sits at the far end of the table with her hands clasped before her.
“OK stay there… I thought we could chat face to face not halfway across the room” the man
utters standing and slowly clutching a silver cane with a skull top and diamond eyes he rises
and walks slowly clutching and leaning on his cane until he stands before Robin and takes a
seat before her. “There, that’s better.”
“Why am I here?” she asks sternly.
“I am First Major General Maxwell Maximilian-Cornwall Rosenberg, self-made entrepreneur,
philanthropist, genius scientist, activist…and secondary leader here.” says the man.
“I’m Robin” Robin says.
“Where are you from?” asks Maxwell.
“Chronix Bay” she utters.
“What do you do there?” asks Maxwell.
“I’m kind of unemployed right now” she uttered. “Who are you and what do you do?”
“I own and operate an organization that I founded quite by accident to change the world.”
“Really?” asks Robin rhetorically.
“We are the challenges to the status quo…. We seek to bring about changes to bring about a
better future free from tyranny and oppression.”
“So why have I been brought here?” asks Robin.
“You may be our last hope” says Maxwell.
“Huh? What do you mean? So why have I been brought here, really? And why have I been
manhandled, mistreated, kidnapped off the street by these muscle-bound goons, drugged,
subdued, kept in darkness, fooled with white lights and philosophical voices…” she speaks
viciously and frightened in a loud abrasive manner.
Maxwell’s eyes veer back as if he was not sure what she was talking about. “Listen, you have
the right to be concerned and angry” he replies.
“I know I do and I don’t… know…” she stumbles frustrated and cries.
Maxwell looks at Robin with an angelic and caring grandfatherly set of eyes and utters calmly,
“Have you ever heard of the legendary story of the biblical tale of Exodus?”
Robin furrows her brow with a perplexing manner and asks rhetorically, “the story of Moses
leading the Jewish slaves to freedom from the Egyptian pharaoh?”
“It was a story of revolution against the status quo that wrought religious superiority and
governmental disorder under one corrupt official, just as the CSO conducts their affairs over
us today.”
“But that is not the same…” Robin begins.
“It is a complete and utter battle against never-ending tyranny” interrupts Maxwell with a
loud chagrin and stammer of his feet and cane on the carpeted floor.
“I don’t think you understand its meaning” she says in response.
“I understand everything … and I know in my heart it is true to the core… we shall be the
modern day deliverers, the justice servers, the harbingers of an awful era against a true
totalitarian giant and evil scourge of our time.”
“You don’t say” she humors him with a grimacing glare.
“Yes, indeed my dear” he smirks shockingly.
“That’s great but you are focusing on using means that are beyond crazy, this ends justifies
the means mentality is going to lead to more bloodshed and violence.”
“We must do what is necessary, by any means necessary” he utters. “A great leader of the old
past fought for the rights of men who were disadvantaged by society merely by the color of
their skin… Malcolm X was his pseudonym. We fight for our right to not be disadvantaged by
society simply because we choose to believe our own way and not give into the majority
religion of the Oligarchy.”
“That is deep… I apologize… I think your actions are indeed commendable” Robin nodded
trying to choose her words carefully to sound supportive.
“There is a reason in everything and in that is why I requested to see you in person. I don’t do
that for all of our new recruits.”
“Recruit….?”
“Yes, you passed the test. Sorry we had to be so rough but we have to make sure you were
tough both physically and mentally and you didn’t see how to get to our secret lair here. Star
House is well known but the base is secretly hidden. Rough Road Alley was not always so
rough but now we must be careful.”
“Well, are you satisfied?”
“I wouldn’t be offering you this if I wasn’t” he handed her a small leather black box and she
took it with a smile and opened it revealing a gold badge with a logo of lines symbolizing a current and weathered rough storm conditions. The name of the organization was written on
it and she let her jaw drop as she looked at him. “You mean… wait you guys are…?”
“Yes, we are them, the legendary… we are ‘Against the Wind’…” he utters slowly.
Robin’s eyes widen and she turns looking about back at him. “I can’t believe this” she feigns a
smile and knows she was accepted into their ranks so quickly, from the boss’s primary
underling himself. She is fulfilling her mission here to break into this organization and she was
gaining their trust already to be the mole to manufacture their inevitable demise. She feels bad
almost for a moment thinking they seem too nice to take down but then she remembers their
actions and how her own upbringing rivaled everything they stand for and are trying to
accomplish, even if she was partially convinced by Maxwell’s words. She looks at the badge
and smiles thinking she may be wise to be suspicious for being given this much trust and faith
too soon by so-called “terrorists” but she forgets that, smiles and keeps herself composed and
looks back up at Maxwell and nods, “thank you.”
“Come… there is much to show you” Maxwell begins to rise. Robin rises and helps him up to
stand on his cane and they walk together towards the door.
“I would love to meet the boss sometime…” Robin utters.
“In time, my dear… all will happen in time.”
Moments later, Maxwell and Robin stand in a garage overlooking a window with a large
hangar base below filled with various vehicles, transports, and other items of technological
sophistication both large and small. Robin recognizes her little golf cart in the corner but
doesn’t say anything. Maxwell points out a larger transport painted metallic blue and with an
open top, seating for five, and a pair of rocket boosters strapped to the back of the vehicle as it
hovers off of the ground wobbling, a group of white-coat scientists wander around hopping
from computer console to computer console trying to conduct tests and experiments on the
various items of equipment below.
“This is our research and development team… that is a very special item, many do not know
about it because it hasn’t been released to the public…”
“Is that a deluxe aerial speedster 3000?” asks Robin.
“Of course…” Maxwell smiles looking at her with shock, “how did you know that?”
“I have been around here and there” she shakes it off with a nod.
“Well, I am impressed by your knowledge and expertise… we call it the DAS three. This is our
pride and joy” says Maxwell smiling.”
“You guys don’t do anything cheap.”
“We are very blessed to get what we have but we have to fight for what we need like a free
society… free from the CSO….”
“Let’s take her up” she looks at him with a friendly childlike smile.
“Alright… when the time is right, come we have a lot of work to do.” He says leading her out of
the garage as the lights shut off automatically.
Moments later, they arrive at a window overlooking a larger hangar with a gigantic metal
Boeing plane. Maxwell takes her to this other room next door and they look out the other
window to the other large hangar where the larger craft rests, a giant airplane, silvery metal in
color, with enormous pontoons and thrusters behind it. “This is not an ordinary plane but a
state of the art wing deployment transport. It will carry up to a hundred men. But we won’t
need that many where you are going?”
“Where I am going?” Robin inquires.
“We need you now that you are officially joined to our team to do a mission for us… to prove
your loyalty.”
“Oh, I am used to that” Robin replies.
“This will be your ride out. We will send you with a group of our highly-trained rebels to
infiltrate a breach we discovered in the Hyper Comm. Net and aquifer system.”
“I didn’t know the system could be penetrated” Robin says.
“We have our ways… our system is delicate and detects these microscopic breaches… they
open for a fraction at a time to let water vapor leave so it doesn’t contaminate the town… this
is our window of opportunity where we can use the teleportation unit we have on site in
conjunction with a special amplification anti-detector grid we devised to avoid being seen.
This allows anything; even as big as the plane you just saw to slip through unnoticed. Then
once we are on the outside of the security wall, we can go anywhere.”
“And where is it exactly that we are going?”
“You must go to the far end of the wasteland, beyond the deserts of the lost Americas… the
jungle-forests on the west coast where a great civilization once blossomed. You must be quick
as you and your group will be charged with the task of finding the legendary artifact of an
ancient civilization rumored to hold great power. I cannot say more. Follow Major Roscoe
Compound, who will be your team leader. Once you arrive over the jungle-forests, the only
way to get to the site where the artifact is believed to exist is to jump as the plane cannot land
in such terrain.”
“Where’s my equipment… my cloak and hat… my vehicle.”
“Don’t worry my dear, all is safe.” Maxwell walks away with a nod.
“I can’t believe it was that easy” Robin says smiling, “Destiny!” Robin thinks to herself how this
was going to turn out to be easier than she thought. She regrets losing three of her items but
she will get them back she reminds herself and she will succeed in her overall mission, no
matter how long it takes. She wonders why Leroy Stocky didn’t send the Calvary when she was
taken but then she remembers the code word and how only when true danger strikes should it
be uttered.
Time Period Date: October 26, 2315 AD
Place: Over Jungle-Forests, West Coast, Confederated States of the Oligarchy (CSO) Formerly
Known As (FKA) United States of America (USA)
Hours later on the plane, Robin sits in a cramped room in the rear compartment of the large
airplane with twenty-five other silent individuals staring at the closed hangar door waiting for anything. They each wear black tight-fitting clothes with ski masks and each carry a large
black backpack and a black metal automatic destabilizing rifle, having received short-term
training in handling it and aware that even the slightest exposure to the electromagnetic and
positron impulse waves emitted by the rifle would be enough to vaporize every molecule in
your body. The others seem to feel secure and confident as they were told “expect the
unexpected”, “believe the truth”, and “dream the impossible” during their orientation training
but Robin sits there thinking she was not sure she was ready to embody those slogans as much
as her peers were. She gulps thinking to herself, “what did I get myself into?” She looks
around with her eyes momentarily spotting the two dozen-odd rebels with her, a combination
of male and female, all nationalities and creeds, young and old, all with the bitter and utter
hatred for the Oligarchy that has been engrained and indoctrinated into them. She feels she
was amongst a nutty brainwashed cult than a revolutionary coup d'état. Then she remembers
her true mission, “get the truth no matter what the cost” and “report the facts accordingly.”
She squints hard trying not to let tears fall down her masked face as the plane rear
compartment begins to open, the door slowly turning outward slowly with unending suspense
to her. As the door finally clicks ajar on either end, Robin sees the night sky, clear and full of
starlight beyond the horizons. She stares and thinks of the possibility of the endless universe
for a brief moment and then the others begin to jump out one by one shouting swearwords
and cheers of joy into the calm blue air, others behind her pile forward jumping one by one
until one remains ahead of Robin and she realizes she has to go, it is now or never or she will
be busted as a fraud. Robin swallows her pride and fear, uttering a silent prayer, as the rebel
jumps out before Robin. Robin then takes a last heavy sigh and runs after the last rebel
jumping and yelling loudly with an obscenity that could be heard by those falling with them to
the depths of the Earth below.
While falling at amazing speeds, Robin feels her heart pounding rapidly and her mind
racing with the curiosity of a whirlwind as she tried to put aside the fear and count as she was
told during orientation. “5 Mississippi… 4 Mississippi… 3…” she continued and without
thinking she lost count but seeing the tops of parachutes below her as other of her comrades
continues to plummet towards the ground without parachutes opening, she pulls the ripcord
on her backpack and unleashes her parachute pulling her up into the winds above. She feels
herself hurled around like a tornado and swinging back and forth quickly rocking. She grabs two handles swinging by her head with amazing speeds almost knocking her senseless and
she pulls them and evens herself out to glide across the sky with a sensible virtue amongst her.
She smiles looking at the treetops rapidly approaching and the lakes and rivers around the
landscape below. “Wow, this is really a wonderful world” she thinks to herself remembering
the words of one of her favorite jazz musicians from the classics age. She closes her eyes as she
steers her parachute gracefully with her controls and she pictures the beauty around her
change to a transcendent escape of sandy beaches and blue skies overhead, a heavilyintoxicating
margarita in one hand and her still-unknown true love’s hand in the other, she
thinks to herself as she has fantasized many times before as her proverbial happy place,
“paradise”. She then feels the tree tops tickle the legs of her skintight outfit and she opens her
eyes and shocked as she approaches a group of tall sequoias. She steers herself away from
them and towards an open field where other of her purported comrades had gathered and
were beginning to land one by one and slowly. She remembers her instructions to rendezvous
together under the circled X mark. She sees a giant X with a circle around it on a sign hovering
above a tree trunk near the landing spot where the group was making camp and she sets her
eye towards that location. Slowly, her parachute begins to drop her down and she approaches
the ground, thanking God when she lands and her feet touch the grassy ground and running
along for a moment before stopping, the massive weight of her parachute dragging behind her
like a giant rag toy doll. Robin stops running and drops to her knees as she approaches the
camp where the others began to wrap up their parachutes and remove their masks, removing
their equipment, and making a small encampment. Robin kisses the grassy ground yelling
“lands… thank God its land” as the other stare at her oddly. Robin gets up noticing this and
removes her mask also and approaches them with a sincere grin.
As the night becomes suddenly darker, the stars are covered by treetops, and the moon
only shines half as much, Robin sits in the middle of a makeshift bench from a hollow log
surrounded by the other rebels scattered around a campfire burning brightly into the night.
She holds a stick with meat on the other end slowly overcooking as she looks at it with disgust.
“This is not exactly my cup of tea” she utters.
“You have to eat… to keep up your strength” says a rebel, seated beside her, speaking in a
Russian accent.
“Right, you’re name is Gretchen… right?”
“Yes… I am originally from far… I was banished from my land when the Oligarchy invaded.
Like many of the people here, we are people without nations and seek our own independent
sovereign state free of the Oligarchy’s reign.”
“Right” Robin replies with a sarcastic inflexion.
“Some of us are just trying to do right” says a tall muscular man with a mustache and goatee,
his buzz cut hairstyle makes him seem like a military drill sergeant. “I’m from the former
American states but the whole thing went to hell with the Oligarchy. I fight for individual
freedom. Ain’t nobody got no right to tell others how to live or worship.”
“Hey, Robin” screams another female rebel in a thick African accent, her dark complexion and
long wavy hair glisten before the roaring fire. “I am from the parts known as Africa… the dark
continent where humanity first came from… My countries were the first to be assimilated by
the Oligarchy. They came and showed no mercy to my people. Six hundred thousand of us
were killed in a number of days because we refused to abandon our beliefs. Don’t let anyone
tell you there are no God, one true God who is above all and rules all with an iron fist. He will
send his emissary to bring light, peace, and justice to the world on the Day of Judgment. He
will avenge us once and for all.” She lifts her fist towards Robin with a solemn grin.
Robin raises her fist in a solidarity response. “I believe in God. I always have.” Robin nods. “I
just look to science to further an explanation for the universe and all the wonders in it. I think
maybe God and science go hand in hand and his will is to create the scientific venues for us to
learn and understand his creations.”
“That’s what they want us to think. God doesn’t need explanation or scientific venues, missy”
says the militaristic rebel. “Faith should be enough. But the Oligarchy wants us to worship
them… thinking they are the path to true salvation. They are wrong and we can’t let them
punish us and kill us for not going their way. That’s wrong!”
The others consisting of Latin American, Arabic, Asian, and African backgrounds applauded in
response and some shouted out swearwords and other words of encouragement.
“Yeah Roscoe… You tell it like it is” screams one rebel with an Australian accent.
“True” Robin nods looking down at her burnt meat and thanking God she didn’t have
to eat it. She turned and dismounted the log she was on and excused herself to the group
before retreating into one of the tents set up in the grounds nearby.
The following morning, Robin’s eyes open to the sight of six other female rebels
packed into the same tent she was in and she struggles to move about without waking anyone.
She slowly steps out barely tipping anyone over as their loud snores penetrate the air about
them. Robin exits the tent and exits to the network of five tents pitched before the
extinguished fire that roared brightly last night. Robin feels the pain of hunger in her stomach
but remembers the charred meat on a stick and suddenly loses her appetite again. She
approaches the woods near the tents and reaches for what she thinks is her backpack and
rummages through it for her morning kit. She pulls out a small container, sits against a tree,
and opens the container on her lap revealing a small platform with a mirror on the propped
up portion and a series of buttons. She presses the buttons and up pops an arm that extends
to her open mouth and brushes her teeth, extinguishing toothpaste onto her teeth and gums
and mouthwash into her mouth. She gargles and spits it out onto the natural floor. She then
presses another button and another arm comes out and extends towards her face suddenly
opening up like an umbrella and spreading around her face, covering it, washing it, exfoliating
her dead skin, and cleansing every fiber of her face and spreading down throughout her body,
absorbing with the skintight suit that glistening for a moment then stops as the device comes
off her face and recedes back into the box. She seals it smiling and puts it away. She grabs
another bag, seeing she had the wrong one and looks inside her own seeing her cloak, cap,
and the keys to her vehicle that she had procured back from Max. She grabs her rifle and sits
waiting for the others who slowly begin to rise and within moments, they eat breakfast from a
small device near the camp fire that glows and emits plates of food, bacon, eggs, sausage, and
fresh milk and juice. With a full stomach the troop of twenty-five marches on leaving their fire
behind and each carrying their backpack full of supplies and holding their rifles at the behest
of their troop leader, Roscoe Compound, with his muscular build and military background
feels like a natural commanding their attention.
Hours in during the dense patrol through the jungles, Robin begins to feel the intense
heat of the baking sun above and the natural cooling of her skintight uniform was not enough
to prevent her from sweating profusely. She saw the others begin to suffer exhaustion from the
enormous heat bearing down on them.
“What the hell is this?” says Gretchen. “It wasn’t supposed to be this hot.”
“Things have changed since time immemorial… the ecological system and atmosphere
is not what it used to be” says Roscoe “march on troops. We are almost there.”
“Where is there supposed to be?” asked Robin. “We were never given clear
instructions.”
“You were given instructions to follow me. I know where we are going and that is all
you need to know, understood?” Roscoe barks inquisitively.
“Yes Sir” Robin replies sheepishly.
Gretchen looks at Robin with a hint of concern “I don’t think we are going to make it.”
Robin looks back nervously but doesn’t say a word as she walks with her troop during
the former coastal cities and location of the redwoods forest, the giant sequoia trees the last
evidence of life. They all see the remains of buildings in the distance, torn with destruction,
ripped and worn with age, and covered with natural growth as mother nature slowly begins
redeeming the artificial monuments and roads of man as man’s days on this Earth grew lower
and lower.
“I heard this used to be a city… lots of cities actually, an entire coastal population of
over fifty-million people” says the African lady who identifies herself as Zenaida.
“It was a big population of a metropolis… California … part of the old United States…
now a wasteland waiting for redevelopment and infiltration of resources by the Oligarchy’s
technological departments” says Oscar, an Australian native with a heavy cockney accent.
“It has to do with why there are only so many people left. Humans once reached over
ten billion on this planet in the middle twenty-first century and with dreams of colonizing other worlds in our solar system and beyond and now there are less than one million; the
Oligarchy’s plan of population control” another rebel, an Asian gentleman with a soft-spoken
tone calling himself Ikedo utters softly.
“This is the wilderness” says a Latin-American woman named Rotcha “outside of the hyper
comm. net bubble, there are few people and few societies that can survive independently.”
“Yes” continues Zenaida “the Oligarchy has enslaved us to that damn system.”
“Why are we here?” asks Robin to herself. “What could ‘Against the Wind’ want?” She holds
her rifle tightly as the troop moves on, Roscoe leading the way with a rifle in one hand and
machete in the other cutting the leaves and bushes in their way. She eyes shifted as she
wondered “how this was all going to end. What is God’s ultimate plan for us and whether
regardless of who was right in this struggle, would it be worth it in the end?” “It seems that
we might just be cannon fodder for a greater cause” she utters.
“If that is our fate, so be it. We stand for the truth. We are the champions against evil”
Oscar proclaims proudly.
“Yes, we bring our destinies together to fight for what is right” says Zenaida.
“Justice brings us together” says Gretchen.
The remainder follows them and nod as they whisper amongst one another so their
fearless leader doesn’t hear from his vantage point far ahead of them.
They come to a clearing and Roscoe cuts way of a large hanging vine that reveals a
large stone structure in the middle of the woods. Robin looks up with awe as she sees a series
of metal workings in the stone and high-relief images of faces and animals carved into the
stone. The structure looks like a step pyramid with metal finishes and what appears to be
glowing lights, electronic display mechanisms, permeating the structure from the bottom to
the top.
“Was this here for entertainment purposes or some ritual worship or something far more
ominous?” Zenaida asks.
“This is why we are here” says Roscoe as the group surrounds him in awe at the
spectacle reaching high into the skies above to the clouds like smoke puffing out of the
chimney of a large fossil burning plant.
“What is it?” Robin asks.
“Our mission… we have to go up there and get something… something that will
change the world” he smiles. “Let’s take a break and move out at dusk. We could use the cloak
of darkness inside this thing.” He sits down and breaks out water and food rations for
everyone. The group enjoys their respite and snacks on water and freeze dried items as their
food materializing apparatus would take too much time to set up. Hours pass and Robin feels
a sense of camaraderie that she hasn’t felt in a long time as she talks to the others and bonds
with them, especially Gretchen, as they share stories of their childhoods and life so far, what
drew them to this organization and what they expect from their lives in the future. Robin
sticks to her cover story that she was an orphan-turned-convict from the high religious
provinces of Canada and escaped the clutches of the Oligarchy’s prison complexes up north
making her way down to freedom and desiring to make a difference against them. Gretchen
confides in Robin that her former life as a spy for her country’s government ended badly when
her organization became subverted once the Oligarchy took power and swept like a cancer
across the globe. “The former KGB was secretly in place for decades after the cold war ended
and continued to engage in espionage around the world. We knew something was coming that
would turn civilization as we knew it on its head but we didn’t expect the outcome to be so
drastic. When little factions began populating Europe, we didn’t focus too heavily on it
thinking these miniature ‘cults’ were harmless creations and small time bandits with
miniscule effect on the grander scheme of things but what we failed to realize was the
immense growth of a previously-unknown super power forming in the Caribbean. This
growth soon became unstoppable and with an army of lethal followers trained since birth to
fight in the name of the Oligarchy, these cults soon dominated the western world and we were
powerless to stop them when they came to our borders. There were rumors that the super
power was a Machination that began many centuries ago and each generation grew wiser and
more powerful with more arms and capabilities intent on someday commanding the world’s
stage. The more obscene and farfetched rumors involved magic and extraterrestrials… stuff that the Nazis tried to find during the second Great War. Some even believed that there was
one leader who tried to evade death and live forever. But that is not possible things.”
“Wow” Robin looked at her with awe. “That seems crazy but I guess the strangest
things in life are with mystery and there is always the possibility could be true.” Robin nodded
as she knew the history of the Oligarchy and how they came to power well, it was engrained in
her since childhood going to the schools that taught it as their primary curriculum, “praise the
Oligarchy for the chosen three are supreme and guided to rule forever.” That was the mantra
she was taught as all were, though she often put it aside as Sunday school dogma and never
truly embraced it as much as her contemporaries. Now she was amongst those who are so
heavily opposed to it that they are willing to remain persecuted and lay down their lives and
liberties if necessary to fight against them. She couldn’t help but feel admiring towards that
revolutionary poise like those of her forefathers who fought for a free country from tyranny
and oppression of the British crown. She felt some pull towards their kindness but knew they
were against her upbringing and she was here for a reason, to expose them and provide
reported information and facts that could eventually bring them down and send these people,
who were so kind and nurturing to her, to their inevitable demise. She knew the price for
betraying the Oligarchy was death and she feared becoming too attached to them for they may
eventually have to perish at the hands of those they choose to fight against. She rises to her
feet under the rising moon at night as do they all as Roscoe gave the word for them to begin
heading into the structure. Robin swallows her fear again as she grips her rifle and walks with
her troop in formation towards the structure’s mysterious form.
The structure rises up like a step pyramid and formed an apex that appears to hold an
artificial precipice used for a high purpose long ago. The structure bears an entrance at the
base of the pyramid and pure darkness permeates inside. Roscoe leads the group with
flashlight beacons on their wrists, each lighting up the interior as they walk into it slowly.
Robin follows behind the group of twenty five with her beacon shining ahead of her, having
the additional advantage of everyone else’s beacon shining ahead of her. She sees stone
formations inside painted with hieroglyphics and drawings, high-relief markings. She looks
about curiously as they proceed into the chambers, heading up a spiral stairwell made of
metal.
“This has got to be recent or at least from the old world, not as ancient as it was made
to appear” Robin whispers to Gretchen.
“It is new but I cannot place it. It is obvious inside and outside” Gretchen responds
quietly.
Their boots clang as they walk up the stairs single file and Robin tailing behind. The
stairs ascend into a quiet and small reliquary where the twenty five rebels are cramped in.
Robin looks up seeing more drawings and statuettes mount the wall and ceilings and an alter
rest on the far end of the room. The troop members moved around swearing and pushing to
have room to see it. Robin looks at it and smiles as she has never seen anything so amazing, it
looks like it is made of stone, pink marble-like material placed on top of it, and it has buttons
and dials made of the same material. The designs on the altar seem to match the drawings on
the walls and ceilings. Robin wonders if this is tied to the legendary artifact she was told by
about by Maxwell.
“This is it” says Roscoe. “Our mission is complete… now we wait” he smiles.
“What are we waiting for exactly?” asks Robin.
“That’s not your concern” replies Roscoe harshly. “Our orders are to secure this
device.”
“What is this?” Gretchen asks.
“Come on” says Oscar “we got a right to know what we risked our necks for.”
“Yeah” says Rotcha.
“What is this about?” asks Zenaida.
The others began to shout out as well in questioned anger.
“Enough” yells Roscoe “everyone become quiet … we are going to wait until our
backup arrives” he presses a button on his wrist device.
“Why do we need backup? Why didn’t we just come with them?” Robin yells.
“Shut up” says Roscoe.
“What is really going on?” Robin yells dropping her weapon as she throws her hands up
in the air in the cramped compartment. “Don’t you see guys… something fishy are going on…
we have to do something or we don’t do something, we are done for well” she finishes.
“She’s right” yells Gretchen.
“OK, that’s it… come here lady” Roscoe proclaims as he drops his rifle, pushes his way
through the troop, and grabs Robin by the scuff of her neck. She squirms and twitches in his
large muscular hand.
“Let me go… I thought you were for personal freedom” she utters.
“I don’t like those who don’t follow order” he utters and slaps her hard across her face
with his other hand. “Anybody else want some?” The troop stood in shock with their mouths
open. Gretchen swallows her fear and holds out her rifle.
“Let her go” says Gretchen holding her rifle aiming it at Roscoe.
“This is how it is… we turn on each other in a tight spot huh?” Roscoe utters tightening
his grip on Robin’s neck. She screams and continues to squirm in his grasp.
“You may be in charge but what you are doing is wrong. This is the type of tyrannical
punishment we are fighting against. I won’t stand for it in my presence” Gretchen speaks
reverently.
“She’s right” says Oscar holding his rifle with one hand from his large frame and
muscular grip “drop her now.”
“Do it” says Zenaida holding hers. Rotcha and Ikedo follow and soon the entire troop
are pointing their rifles at Roscoe.
“You are alone, bastard” Robin utters in Roscoe’s grip.
Roscoe looks about confused and frightful. “Come on guys, we are on the same side
here. We can’t stand for disorder or we’ll all perish” he releases Robin and she picks up her
rifle and runs over to Gretchen.
“We follow orders from command” says Gretchen lowering her rifle as the others did.
“Wait” says Robin listening with her hearing implant and she hears suddenly a loud
noise in the distance from above like the sound of massive vehicles roaming through the air at
rapid speeds approaching them. The sound gets louder and louder.
“What is it?” asks Gretchen.
“I can hear someone coming” says Robin.
“Whom?” asks Gretchen.
“How?” asks Ikedo.
“They’re hear” screams Robin as soon the others hear it too, loud vehicles hovering over their
location as they approach, mechanical engines roaring in the skies above, rotary mechanics
spinning, electronic components fizzing, and blades spinning on all sides of the vehicles.
“I hear it” says Gretchen.
“Me too” says Rotcha.
“That’s our backup” screams Roscoe. “They will lift us out of here with that thing for further
analysis” he points to the altar.
“Great” says Robin then suddenly the room shakes followed by a loud boom and they feel an
electrical tingle throughout their bodies. The room shakes again followed by another loud
boom. “What’s going on?”
“They are shooting at us” says Gretchen.
“This can’t be” says Roscoe.
The others looked about nervously.
“Looks like we have been suckered” says Robin. “Let’s get out of here” she turns to the group
and waves to them to head down the stairs from where they entered as the room shakes again
followed by another loud boom and rocks begin to crumble as the ceiling falls apart and
begins to cave in slightly. The troop leaves the room single file down the spiral staircase.
Gretchen and Robin are the last remaining in the structure as Roscoe yells to them to leave
first.
“Come on, ladies first… let’s go before this collapses.”
“Go” Robin yells back as she turns to the altar feeling a compulsion she has never felt before.
The Time Stone: Let God's Will be Done(Jeffrey Estrella)
The Time Stone: Let God’s Will Be Done
By: Jeffrey Estrella
Time Period Date: October 26, 2315 AD
Place: Chronix Bay, Confederated States of the Oligarchy (CSO) Formerly Known As (FKA)
United States of America (USA)
The sun rises brightly over the pristine skies laid out over the city of Chronix Bay on the east coast of the North American continent. As the pinkish hue mixes in beautifully with the darkened blue, the two colors kiss in the air above like lovers at the dawn. The light peaks behind two structures, their domed apex exceeded only by a small thin citadel above them.
They resemble the ancient temples once revered in the Eastern cultures and Middle Eastern
sands. They are new to the city as monuments of a new order symbolic of virtue, wisdom,
piety, and control. They are the homes of “The Oligarchy!”
“Sometimes we think we are so busy in life we lose sight of what is most important and fail
to see what we were seeking and truly wanted in life was right there in front of us the
entire time. Time sometimes stands still for those willing to hear its cry” thinks Robin
Matthews, a struggling news reporter searching the streets for a good story. She has the soul of
an Elizabethan poet and the wisdom of the oracle at Delphi matched with the beauty of Helen
of Troy. Despite all her gifts as she was told all her life by her mother, she fails to see her true
potential and has moved around from job to job, apartment to apartment, failed relationship
to next failed relationship, never content with herself or her life, trying to find herself as if on
the never ending pursuit for something that is always beyond her grasp. She walks along the
sidewalk on this hot autumn day blaming the world of her past for the global warming that has
virtually devastated parts of the world into desert wastelands or jungle forests with immense
heat completely subduing the cornerstones of civilization. She feels like a failure. She is poor
but never wants to acquire vast wealth, only to help people and to make a difference in the
world.
The mighty city of Chronix Bay is still alive based on the new invention, holographic aquifers
towers that shines like beacons on the far corners of town and are stretched to the heavens
each glowing of its own force field brightly penetrating the community creating an artificial bubble made of pure energy around the town. The sun beams through it extra brightly but the
field glistened as it absorbs the excessive ultra violet rays and spread it about to power
everything with solar energy from basic home appliances to the various power distribution
plants spread about the city and coalescing at the center of the town near a megalithic
structure of stone bearing the double arch serpent logo of the once Temporo, Inc., a mighty
organization, subdued by the wrath of the Oligarchy who has taken control of everything. The
company remains the source of the Oligarchy and connected to its mysterious origin. Water
flows from each holographic aquifer created by harnessing the hydrogen and oxygen particles
in the air above them concentrating in the stratosphere and ionosphere and mixing them in a
carefully mechanical formula that causes a bright starry light to appear at each apex of the
sun-powered structures sending down cool water as if appearing out of nowhere, down into
the reservoirs below the town to exist as a never stopping supply for the town’s inhabitants, all
seven hundred thousand in the vast growing town spanning almost half of the continent.
Robin walks into her home away from home, having spent most of her time here, the Daily
Chronometer News Building. She enters the front portal, a glowing yellow light and instantly
is teleported, her body evaporated to the molecular level and she is reintegrated in her office,
sitting at her desk covered in paperwork and a picture of her Labrador Ronan. She smiles and
then frowns, feeling the loneliness she chooses to ignore and drown herself in her work ethic.
Suddenly a holographic screen window appears on her wall. A man’s image appears, his
graying hair and thick mustache bring thoughts of fear and dread to Robin’s heart. He wears a
white top with metal wires surrounding it like orbiting atoms and a raised collar with a string
of five neckties each with a different letter spelling out the name “Baise”, typical attire for a
professional male for the era yet with advanced egomania in mind.
“Hello Mr. Baise” says Robin profoundly with a heavy sigh.
“Good morning… this is the day that the Oligarchy has made for us… we should rejoice and
be glad in it” Baise speaks hoarsely and philosophically.
“Indeed” she rolls her eyes in response, “what else is new?”
“You tell me, ace newshound reporter…. Well, actually, I have an assignment for you….”
Robin’s eyes perk up with sudden enthusiasm “an assignment for me? What about the
others?”
“The others are busy… I need you” he retorts. “I need you to infiltrate the local resistance
uprising, ‘Against the Wind’. They have been responsible for significant terrorist attacks of
downtown monuments and political events. They are a threat and a thorn in the Oligarchy’s
side and must be stopped. I have been in contact with chief constable of the CSO’s
Bureaucratic Investigation Council and he assures me everything is being done to stop this
horrific effort, including shutting off the Comm. Net to stifle their communications somewhat.
They will rue the day they messed with the Confederated States of the Oligarchy” he shouts
with his fist pumping the air proudly.
“Sounds like you are pretty angry” she says resting her face on her hands. “What is the big
deal? These guys aren’t violent… they have attacked but never where anyone was and no one
was hurt.”
“Oh no… you’re forgetting the attack on the Holy Shrine where two members were killed?
These people are a menace and I better not hear any more of that negative talk from you
missy” he points angrily with a stern warning. “This organization has no room for
sympathizers.”
“Yes Sir” she rose up shocked and forced a smile across her face.
“Good… The CSO’s BIC will provide you with all the training you need. They will have your
back and protect you from any danger. Trust their professionalism. Leroy Stocky will be your
contact and assistant as well as liaison to this office and the BIC. He will prepare you for your
undercover assignment. Good luck and may the Oligarchy’s speed be with you.”
“Great” she says as the screen flickers off. “What craziness?”
Downstairs in a room filled with empty chairs and double-sided desks and tall tables with
various items resting on them, clothes, weapons, items of bizarre and fantastic technological
innovation, Robin appears in the room via the whirl of teleportation technology she has grown
accustomed to. She has put on a suit similar to Baise’s suit through the office computers’
screening unit that uses the teleportation device to screen incoming personnel to make sure their identities have not been compromised or they had items in violation of their
employment and that would otherwise result in a breach of the building’s security and can
also reintegrate the subject with any new items of clothing, equipment, or weaponry as
programmed. Robin approaches the tables and benches with items resting on top of them; a
man suddenly appears via the teleportation device and walks over to her. He has a boy-like
face and personality with red hair and freckles, along with dark-rimmed glasses. He has a scar
across his face, long and scabbed, hideously stretching from his left ear to the corner of his
mouth. “Hello” he welcomes her, his suit similar to hers but longer like a scientists’ white lab
coat over his clothes.
“Hey, I’m Robin…” says Robin smirking and thinking of her desire to help people above all.
“I know who you are … Mr. Baise said to expect you. I am Leroy Stocky, CSO BIC, please call
me Leroy Stocky” he utters with a sincere and stern facial expression. “We have a great deal of
equipment and items for you for your assignment. Am I to believe this is your first on the field
work?”
“Yes, it’s kind of nerve-wracking.”
“Don’t worry. You’re in good hands. I’ll be monitoring you as your eyes and ears in here so if
any danger strikes you, you just have to give the word and I will extract you. It’s cool. The
magic phrase is ‘patience is a virtue’ and should only be uttered in the event of a life or death
emergency.”
“OK…” she utters partly at ease but partly fearful.
“I will give you four items of equipment for your first assignment… please sign here” he moves
his hand across the table and a clear screen appears in holographic mode that she rubs her
finger against signing her name before it fizzles out to a hard top table again. “Thanks. Now,
item number one.” He holds out a small black bud with small speakers, the size of his thumb.
“It is a subdural microscopic implant listening and tracking device module and it will help us
track you and hear everything that you hear and see via holographic modules emitted here. It
will also have the effect of galvanizing your own hearing by a factor of one thousand.”
“Wow” she replies as he places the device in a tube and holds it to her.
“Please push up your sleeve” he utters and she does so holding out her right arm letting him
place the tube on it and slowly removing it without leaving a mark. “Module implanted. Next,
item number two, a cloak that you must never remove, it has the ability to render you invisible
to the naked eye by bending both light and heat waves to form a clear stealth barrier around
you. It will also protect you from teleport scanners and heat seeking mechanisms.” He hands
her the blue and black cloak with sparkles like glitter on and she slips it on. “Be care and only
use it for an emergency by pressing this” Leroy Stocky holds a part of the cloth with a button
underneath.
“It is comfortable… won’t people get suspicious of me?”
“I am sure you’re going to come up with something.” He smiles. “Next, item number three:
this is a weapon” he holds a long metallic sleeve with grasping parts and tightening fasteners
leading to a small hole attached. “It will slip on your right arm and camouflage to match your
unique particular skin tone. It will be permanently grafted on and cannot be removed. Like
your tattoo on your derrière, you are stuck with it for life. It will save your life in a crunch by
emitting hot plasma energy particle blasts to stun or even kill an opponent depending on how
you set the severity levels. No one can detect it and know you’re packing this not even with the
most sensitive computer scanners in current existence. This is called the Armon.”
“Wow” she takes it, pushes up her sleeves as high as possible, slips the device on her right arm,
and pulls it to the top of her elbow then the grafter fasters cling tightly to her flesh and tighten.
She screams as the fasteners penetrate her skin and tighten to her internal musculature and
then changes color to match her skin, the end point with the small hole extends inward
revealed in the palm of her hand and closed until needed. “That hurt.”
“That is your new best friend… for life. Next and finally is item number four” he pulls out a hat
resembling an old baseball hat.
“Is that the old New York Mets logo?” Robin asks.
“Yes… from the olden days of baseball fanaticism when there were people lining up to watch
grown men swing sticks for a living. This is no ordinary cap but a built in self-sustaining solar
powered portable teleportation device unit, the only one of its kind… wear it and it plugs into your cerebral cortex and your thoughts of a place really concentrating on it will instantly
teleport you there.”
“Unreal… I feel like a super hero, are you sure this is cleared?”
“Oh it’s cleared” he nodded.
Robin takes the cap and puts it on but before she could think of any particular place for
destination, Leroy Stocky snatches the cap off Robin’s head. “You’re not going anywhere yet.”
“Sorry.”
“Well, that is everything except… there is this” he walks over to the other side of the room
where she follows him and sees him uncover an even larger item bigger than him by removing
a large blanket covering it. He reveals a small vehicle that looks like a golf cart and has a set of
foreign-looking controls that Robin admires as she approaches but fails to recognize it. She
sees metal plating with long protruding objects and mechanisms and a set of small ones
sticking up out of the platting in large number near one another. The seat is made for one and
from a strange shiny substance like the exterior, soft and squishy.
“What is it? It looks like a transport but oddly built.”
“It is a transport built in the style used over three hundred years ago with buttons, keyboards,
and joysticks instead of the holographic view screens of today.”
“What will this do for me?”
“I’d rather not say as its full potential is not completely known to us… they don’t tell us
everything, you know. But just know it works in tandem with the teleportation cap should you
need it. It is powered by this…” he removes a small door cap on the rear that reveals a glass
casing with something inside fizzling with hot white miniature electric lightning bolts
permeating it, a small green five-sided emerald with five spots at its center.
Robin stares in awe and wonder as she tries to approach and grab it. “What is it?” she asks.
“This is a rare gem of an item... found by our scientists and archeologists in a remote corner of
central China, near the mountains of Tibet. They have identified it as a source of great power
fueled by the sun. We don’t know anything else.” He shuts the small door.
“Wow, so that’s it?”
“That’s it. The company transport will be on the roof in thirty minutes ready to take you and
your equipment to your new assignment. You will be placed in the center of the ‘Rough Road’
part of the city and you will be left alone but not be alone because we are with you watching
and listening. You will need to rely on your wits and training to survive and befriend people,
especially one Alkoy Bernarzo who is one of the prime sub lieutenants to the gang leader of
‘Against the Wind’, Ezekiel Thomas. We want as much information on their activities as
possible, remember that. Find out what you can, what they are planning to do, and where so
you can report the news and notify BIC and the proper authorities in the agencies. You will be
our investigative journalist secret agent, Robin Matthews. Good luck.”
“OK… I’ll do my best” she nods.
From the roof of the Daily Chronometer building’s shining presence, a silver aerial
acceleration transport unit speeds across the sky hovering and zooming by the pale blue air as
it rapidly approaches its destination. The vehicle is an elliptical-shaped vehicle with
protrusions around it and indentations on either end long and underneath. Robin is inside
and talks to the senior and aging pilot in the craft with her. He is an elderly gentleman with a
long grey beard. “I still don’t know what they expect of me” says Robin as she lowers her head
in sorrow as she faces the elderly man who carefully eyes his holographic view window.
“I hear you’re going to change the world” he replies. “Don’t worry, just be yourself and
remember no one can stop you from achieving and being what God has meant for you and set
in store for you.
“Right” she sheds a tear as she wipes her face thinking how big those words are and how they
create visions in her head, those words rung clear as day in a surreal light as the car stops and
hovers lowering her down to her drop off spot.
Time Period Date: October 26, 2315 AD
Place: Rough Road Alley, Confederated States of the Oligarchy (CSO) Formerly Known As
(FKA) United States of America (USA)
Robin watches as the transport that dropped her off flew away, the old pilot waving to her as
long as she was in distance and then flew off at blinding speeds. Robin looks around finding
herself in a community of bad neighbors, common criminals, hooligans, and miscreants as it
was known and reputed to be, the place she was always warned about and dreaded
passionately, the notorious ‘Rough Road’ alley. She tightens her cap and cloak and got into
the go cart vehicle that the transport left beside her. She feels silly at first maneuvering
awkwardly in what had been described to her as an antique vehicle but she decides to confide
in her handlers and in her assignment. She drives forward down the pedestrian walkway; no
one was present but a homeless woman yelling into the empty air in the distance. Robin
shakes her head wishing that she could somehow help but feels powerless and she was on a
mission and had to stay focused.
Robin rides her small vehicle getting used to the strange controls after a few moments and as
she approaches a burning trash can, flames spewing high with black smoke into the air, a large
muscular man jumps out and surprises her, he has a mask with large eyes and a sharp grin of
painted teeth, fangs, and curved lips on the mask and wears a skin tight black suit. He moves
his hands up and down, legs spread, and makes repeated loud yells as he approaches her.
Robin jumps out of her vehicle and raises her arms “who are you?” The man continues yelling
and four others jump out from behind a set of dumpsters in the alley in the distance. The
other men are similarly dressed. They jump up and down. Robin tries to get back into her
vehicle with worry on her heart but one of the men grabs her and pulls her to him. She resists
his grasp but his muscular physique overpowers her. Soon another man grabs her other arm
and pulls her to them. She screams as they drag her into the alleyway behind the dumpsters.
The night feels deafly quiet as the snow slightly drifts slowly to the ground on unpredictable
summer weather affected by global warming. Some parts of the city are super hot and some
are super cold with snow fall due to the combination of the new aquifers mixed with centuries
of environmental abuse. An elderly couple smile together as they walk past a well-decorated
and unlit but dust-covered Christmas tree, as if having been there unrevoked for ages, in the
field outside of Star House in the far corner of ‘Rough Road’ alley. This mansion-sized home was a brilliantly-decorated but unlit display of colorful bulbs and formerly motioned and now
still animatronics snowmen and Santa’s elves long ago singing the holiday praises of
Christmas time melodies akin across countless generations. Inside a lonely aged man sits in a
velvet-lined recliner set in the center of the living room near an open fire place burning with
ember brightness, the old man’s eyes glisten with fearless joy as he sips his brandy, his robe of
satin bears the initial monogram “ISE”. He stares at the fire and the mantel above the fireplace
where a single snow globe rests, the snow falling inside it from fresh movement and a small
house with a little boy resting inside in an open field before a house similar to Star House. The
boy appears almost life like and holds something within his gloved hands, a green five-sided
crystalline form in his hands, a jewel shining ever so brightly in the snow.
In the alleyway near a pair of dumpsters, Robin is pulled by the large masked men into the
back area from where they came. She tries to move her arm up to fire her Armon weapon but
her arms remain pinned down at her sides by the goons as they pick her up and carry her away
kicking and screaming. She silently prays for a quick relief or salvation but none came and she
feels herself pulled into the alley and lifted off the ground as the five masked men surround
her and pull her in. Then two come back out and pull the vehicle into the alley with her. Robin
feels the strong grip of the men on her, resistance by her being useless. She feels her mouth
scream endlessly until her mouth is covered by a big gloved hand and then her eyes shut and
darkness as a prick of a needle penetrates her arm.
Robin’s eyes blink open suddenly awakening in the darkness “Huh uh” she breathes deeply
questioning her surroundings… darkness. She is lying on a bed and rises looking around. She
avers her eyes and trying to see past the darkness. She feels as if she was blind for a moment
then a bright white light appears in the distance before her, and a voice echoes from the light
radiating in the distance. “Choices… we are defined by our choices… not by what we leave
behind….” A soft woman’s voice echoes from the distant light. “Hello… who is this?” Robin
yells. “What is going on? Why have I been taken and brought here? What do you plan to do
with me?” Robin yells and the voice responds softly, calmly, and mercilessly full of a joy as
feeling endearing in the endless void. The light vibrates in waves like ripples in a pond.
“Time… voyages beyond new horizons await if ready to accept it… more than once, a history
conceived from destiny… to fix what must be, restore… trust… hope….” The voice faded and the light dies down. Robin rushes out of bed and falls on her face before she gets far. She looks
up as a door opens with a slight light outside of the room down a narrow dimly-lit hallway and
a man with a graying hair style enters with his face partially obscure and a concerned look on
his face as he looked at Robin on the floor. She notices he wears a satin robe with the
monogram “IHS”. “We should talk” he utters softly, “get dressed, please.” Robin turns to the
bed as the door slams and the man is gone. She sees in the light from the hallway before it
closed a pair of clothing lying on her bed.
Robin walks into a room with a large wooden conference table in the center. She wears a black
skintight suit with metal wires protruding around the sleeves up and down in a helix pattern
and continuing down her legs and around her waist and torso each wire colored red, purple,
and other rainbow colors. Her hair was let down in to a big dark mane behind her and she had
black gloves and boots. She was called over by a voice on the other end of the table, an elderly
man with a satin and velvet robe, the same man she saw in the doorway, and he calls to her
waving his hand.
“OK” she thinks and sits at the far end of the table with her hands clasped before her.
“OK stay there… I thought we could chat face to face not halfway across the room” the man
utters standing and slowly clutching a silver cane with a skull top and diamond eyes he rises
and walks slowly clutching and leaning on his cane until he stands before Robin and takes a
seat before her. “There, that’s better.”
“Why am I here?” she asks sternly.
“I am First Major General Maxwell Maximilian-Cornwall Rosenberg, self-made entrepreneur,
philanthropist, genius scientist, activist…and secondary leader here.” says the man.
“I’m Robin” Robin says.
“Where are you from?” asks Maxwell.
“Chronix Bay” she utters.
“What do you do there?” asks Maxwell.
“I’m kind of unemployed right now” she uttered. “Who are you and what do you do?”
“I own and operate an organization that I founded quite by accident to change the world.”
“Really?” asks Robin rhetorically.
“We are the challenges to the status quo…. We seek to bring about changes to bring about a
better future free from tyranny and oppression.”
“So why have I been brought here?” asks Robin.
“You may be our last hope” says Maxwell.
“Huh? What do you mean? So why have I been brought here, really? And why have I been
manhandled, mistreated, kidnapped off the street by these muscle-bound goons, drugged,
subdued, kept in darkness, fooled with white lights and philosophical voices…” she speaks
viciously and frightened in a loud abrasive manner.
Maxwell’s eyes veer back as if he was not sure what she was talking about. “Listen, you have
the right to be concerned and angry” he replies.
“I know I do and I don’t… know…” she stumbles frustrated and cries.
Maxwell looks at Robin with an angelic and caring grandfatherly set of eyes and utters calmly,
“Have you ever heard of the legendary story of the biblical tale of Exodus?”
Robin furrows her brow with a perplexing manner and asks rhetorically, “the story of Moses
leading the Jewish slaves to freedom from the Egyptian pharaoh?”
“It was a story of revolution against the status quo that wrought religious superiority and
governmental disorder under one corrupt official, just as the CSO conducts their affairs over
us today.”
“But that is not the same…” Robin begins.
“It is a complete and utter battle against never-ending tyranny” interrupts Maxwell with a
loud chagrin and stammer of his feet and cane on the carpeted floor.
“I don’t think you understand its meaning” she says in response.
“I understand everything … and I know in my heart it is true to the core… we shall be the
modern day deliverers, the justice servers, the harbingers of an awful era against a true
totalitarian giant and evil scourge of our time.”
“You don’t say” she humors him with a grimacing glare.
“Yes, indeed my dear” he smirks shockingly.
“That’s great but you are focusing on using means that are beyond crazy, this ends justifies
the means mentality is going to lead to more bloodshed and violence.”
“We must do what is necessary, by any means necessary” he utters. “A great leader of the old
past fought for the rights of men who were disadvantaged by society merely by the color of
their skin… Malcolm X was his pseudonym. We fight for our right to not be disadvantaged by
society simply because we choose to believe our own way and not give into the majority
religion of the Oligarchy.”
“That is deep… I apologize… I think your actions are indeed commendable” Robin nodded
trying to choose her words carefully to sound supportive.
“There is a reason in everything and in that is why I requested to see you in person. I don’t do
that for all of our new recruits.”
“Recruit….?”
“Yes, you passed the test. Sorry we had to be so rough but we have to make sure you were
tough both physically and mentally and you didn’t see how to get to our secret lair here. Star
House is well known but the base is secretly hidden. Rough Road Alley was not always so
rough but now we must be careful.”
“Well, are you satisfied?”
“I wouldn’t be offering you this if I wasn’t” he handed her a small leather black box and she
took it with a smile and opened it revealing a gold badge with a logo of lines symbolizing a current and weathered rough storm conditions. The name of the organization was written on
it and she let her jaw drop as she looked at him. “You mean… wait you guys are…?”
“Yes, we are them, the legendary… we are ‘Against the Wind’…” he utters slowly.
Robin’s eyes widen and she turns looking about back at him. “I can’t believe this” she feigns a
smile and knows she was accepted into their ranks so quickly, from the boss’s primary
underling himself. She is fulfilling her mission here to break into this organization and she was
gaining their trust already to be the mole to manufacture their inevitable demise. She feels bad
almost for a moment thinking they seem too nice to take down but then she remembers their
actions and how her own upbringing rivaled everything they stand for and are trying to
accomplish, even if she was partially convinced by Maxwell’s words. She looks at the badge
and smiles thinking she may be wise to be suspicious for being given this much trust and faith
too soon by so-called “terrorists” but she forgets that, smiles and keeps herself composed and
looks back up at Maxwell and nods, “thank you.”
“Come… there is much to show you” Maxwell begins to rise. Robin rises and helps him up to
stand on his cane and they walk together towards the door.
“I would love to meet the boss sometime…” Robin utters.
“In time, my dear… all will happen in time.”
Moments later, Maxwell and Robin stand in a garage overlooking a window with a large
hangar base below filled with various vehicles, transports, and other items of technological
sophistication both large and small. Robin recognizes her little golf cart in the corner but
doesn’t say anything. Maxwell points out a larger transport painted metallic blue and with an
open top, seating for five, and a pair of rocket boosters strapped to the back of the vehicle as it
hovers off of the ground wobbling, a group of white-coat scientists wander around hopping
from computer console to computer console trying to conduct tests and experiments on the
various items of equipment below.
“This is our research and development team… that is a very special item, many do not know
about it because it hasn’t been released to the public…”
“Is that a deluxe aerial speedster 3000?” asks Robin.
“Of course…” Maxwell smiles looking at her with shock, “how did you know that?”
“I have been around here and there” she shakes it off with a nod.
“Well, I am impressed by your knowledge and expertise… we call it the DAS three. This is our
pride and joy” says Maxwell smiling.”
“You guys don’t do anything cheap.”
“We are very blessed to get what we have but we have to fight for what we need like a free
society… free from the CSO….”
“Let’s take her up” she looks at him with a friendly childlike smile.
“Alright… when the time is right, come we have a lot of work to do.” He says leading her out of
the garage as the lights shut off automatically.
Moments later, they arrive at a window overlooking a larger hangar with a gigantic metal
Boeing plane. Maxwell takes her to this other room next door and they look out the other
window to the other large hangar where the larger craft rests, a giant airplane, silvery metal in
color, with enormous pontoons and thrusters behind it. “This is not an ordinary plane but a
state of the art wing deployment transport. It will carry up to a hundred men. But we won’t
need that many where you are going?”
“Where I am going?” Robin inquires.
“We need you now that you are officially joined to our team to do a mission for us… to prove
your loyalty.”
“Oh, I am used to that” Robin replies.
“This will be your ride out. We will send you with a group of our highly-trained rebels to
infiltrate a breach we discovered in the Hyper Comm. Net and aquifer system.”
“I didn’t know the system could be penetrated” Robin says.
“We have our ways… our system is delicate and detects these microscopic breaches… they
open for a fraction at a time to let water vapor leave so it doesn’t contaminate the town… this
is our window of opportunity where we can use the teleportation unit we have on site in
conjunction with a special amplification anti-detector grid we devised to avoid being seen.
This allows anything; even as big as the plane you just saw to slip through unnoticed. Then
once we are on the outside of the security wall, we can go anywhere.”
“And where is it exactly that we are going?”
“You must go to the far end of the wasteland, beyond the deserts of the lost Americas… the
jungle-forests on the west coast where a great civilization once blossomed. You must be quick
as you and your group will be charged with the task of finding the legendary artifact of an
ancient civilization rumored to hold great power. I cannot say more. Follow Major Roscoe
Compound, who will be your team leader. Once you arrive over the jungle-forests, the only
way to get to the site where the artifact is believed to exist is to jump as the plane cannot land
in such terrain.”
“Where’s my equipment… my cloak and hat… my vehicle.”
“Don’t worry my dear, all is safe.” Maxwell walks away with a nod.
“I can’t believe it was that easy” Robin says smiling, “Destiny!” Robin thinks to herself how this
was going to turn out to be easier than she thought. She regrets losing three of her items but
she will get them back she reminds herself and she will succeed in her overall mission, no
matter how long it takes. She wonders why Leroy Stocky didn’t send the Calvary when she was
taken but then she remembers the code word and how only when true danger strikes should it
be uttered.
Time Period Date: October 26, 2315 AD
Place: Over Jungle-Forests, West Coast, Confederated States of the Oligarchy (CSO) Formerly
Known As (FKA) United States of America (USA)
Hours later on the plane, Robin sits in a cramped room in the rear compartment of the large
airplane with twenty-five other silent individuals staring at the closed hangar door waiting for anything. They each wear black tight-fitting clothes with ski masks and each carry a large
black backpack and a black metal automatic destabilizing rifle, having received short-term
training in handling it and aware that even the slightest exposure to the electromagnetic and
positron impulse waves emitted by the rifle would be enough to vaporize every molecule in
your body. The others seem to feel secure and confident as they were told “expect the
unexpected”, “believe the truth”, and “dream the impossible” during their orientation training
but Robin sits there thinking she was not sure she was ready to embody those slogans as much
as her peers were. She gulps thinking to herself, “what did I get myself into?” She looks
around with her eyes momentarily spotting the two dozen-odd rebels with her, a combination
of male and female, all nationalities and creeds, young and old, all with the bitter and utter
hatred for the Oligarchy that has been engrained and indoctrinated into them. She feels she
was amongst a nutty brainwashed cult than a revolutionary coup d'état. Then she remembers
her true mission, “get the truth no matter what the cost” and “report the facts accordingly.”
She squints hard trying not to let tears fall down her masked face as the plane rear
compartment begins to open, the door slowly turning outward slowly with unending suspense
to her. As the door finally clicks ajar on either end, Robin sees the night sky, clear and full of
starlight beyond the horizons. She stares and thinks of the possibility of the endless universe
for a brief moment and then the others begin to jump out one by one shouting swearwords
and cheers of joy into the calm blue air, others behind her pile forward jumping one by one
until one remains ahead of Robin and she realizes she has to go, it is now or never or she will
be busted as a fraud. Robin swallows her pride and fear, uttering a silent prayer, as the rebel
jumps out before Robin. Robin then takes a last heavy sigh and runs after the last rebel
jumping and yelling loudly with an obscenity that could be heard by those falling with them to
the depths of the Earth below.
While falling at amazing speeds, Robin feels her heart pounding rapidly and her mind
racing with the curiosity of a whirlwind as she tried to put aside the fear and count as she was
told during orientation. “5 Mississippi… 4 Mississippi… 3…” she continued and without
thinking she lost count but seeing the tops of parachutes below her as other of her comrades
continues to plummet towards the ground without parachutes opening, she pulls the ripcord
on her backpack and unleashes her parachute pulling her up into the winds above. She feels
herself hurled around like a tornado and swinging back and forth quickly rocking. She grabs two handles swinging by her head with amazing speeds almost knocking her senseless and
she pulls them and evens herself out to glide across the sky with a sensible virtue amongst her.
She smiles looking at the treetops rapidly approaching and the lakes and rivers around the
landscape below. “Wow, this is really a wonderful world” she thinks to herself remembering
the words of one of her favorite jazz musicians from the classics age. She closes her eyes as she
steers her parachute gracefully with her controls and she pictures the beauty around her
change to a transcendent escape of sandy beaches and blue skies overhead, a heavilyintoxicating
margarita in one hand and her still-unknown true love’s hand in the other, she
thinks to herself as she has fantasized many times before as her proverbial happy place,
“paradise”. She then feels the tree tops tickle the legs of her skintight outfit and she opens her
eyes and shocked as she approaches a group of tall sequoias. She steers herself away from
them and towards an open field where other of her purported comrades had gathered and
were beginning to land one by one and slowly. She remembers her instructions to rendezvous
together under the circled X mark. She sees a giant X with a circle around it on a sign hovering
above a tree trunk near the landing spot where the group was making camp and she sets her
eye towards that location. Slowly, her parachute begins to drop her down and she approaches
the ground, thanking God when she lands and her feet touch the grassy ground and running
along for a moment before stopping, the massive weight of her parachute dragging behind her
like a giant rag toy doll. Robin stops running and drops to her knees as she approaches the
camp where the others began to wrap up their parachutes and remove their masks, removing
their equipment, and making a small encampment. Robin kisses the grassy ground yelling
“lands… thank God its land” as the other stare at her oddly. Robin gets up noticing this and
removes her mask also and approaches them with a sincere grin.
As the night becomes suddenly darker, the stars are covered by treetops, and the moon
only shines half as much, Robin sits in the middle of a makeshift bench from a hollow log
surrounded by the other rebels scattered around a campfire burning brightly into the night.
She holds a stick with meat on the other end slowly overcooking as she looks at it with disgust.
“This is not exactly my cup of tea” she utters.
“You have to eat… to keep up your strength” says a rebel, seated beside her, speaking in a
Russian accent.
“Right, you’re name is Gretchen… right?”
“Yes… I am originally from far… I was banished from my land when the Oligarchy invaded.
Like many of the people here, we are people without nations and seek our own independent
sovereign state free of the Oligarchy’s reign.”
“Right” Robin replies with a sarcastic inflexion.
“Some of us are just trying to do right” says a tall muscular man with a mustache and goatee,
his buzz cut hairstyle makes him seem like a military drill sergeant. “I’m from the former
American states but the whole thing went to hell with the Oligarchy. I fight for individual
freedom. Ain’t nobody got no right to tell others how to live or worship.”
“Hey, Robin” screams another female rebel in a thick African accent, her dark complexion and
long wavy hair glisten before the roaring fire. “I am from the parts known as Africa… the dark
continent where humanity first came from… My countries were the first to be assimilated by
the Oligarchy. They came and showed no mercy to my people. Six hundred thousand of us
were killed in a number of days because we refused to abandon our beliefs. Don’t let anyone
tell you there are no God, one true God who is above all and rules all with an iron fist. He will
send his emissary to bring light, peace, and justice to the world on the Day of Judgment. He
will avenge us once and for all.” She lifts her fist towards Robin with a solemn grin.
Robin raises her fist in a solidarity response. “I believe in God. I always have.” Robin nods. “I
just look to science to further an explanation for the universe and all the wonders in it. I think
maybe God and science go hand in hand and his will is to create the scientific venues for us to
learn and understand his creations.”
“That’s what they want us to think. God doesn’t need explanation or scientific venues, missy”
says the militaristic rebel. “Faith should be enough. But the Oligarchy wants us to worship
them… thinking they are the path to true salvation. They are wrong and we can’t let them
punish us and kill us for not going their way. That’s wrong!”
The others consisting of Latin American, Arabic, Asian, and African backgrounds applauded in
response and some shouted out swearwords and other words of encouragement.
“Yeah Roscoe… You tell it like it is” screams one rebel with an Australian accent.
“True” Robin nods looking down at her burnt meat and thanking God she didn’t have
to eat it. She turned and dismounted the log she was on and excused herself to the group
before retreating into one of the tents set up in the grounds nearby.
The following morning, Robin’s eyes open to the sight of six other female rebels
packed into the same tent she was in and she struggles to move about without waking anyone.
She slowly steps out barely tipping anyone over as their loud snores penetrate the air about
them. Robin exits the tent and exits to the network of five tents pitched before the
extinguished fire that roared brightly last night. Robin feels the pain of hunger in her stomach
but remembers the charred meat on a stick and suddenly loses her appetite again. She
approaches the woods near the tents and reaches for what she thinks is her backpack and
rummages through it for her morning kit. She pulls out a small container, sits against a tree,
and opens the container on her lap revealing a small platform with a mirror on the propped
up portion and a series of buttons. She presses the buttons and up pops an arm that extends
to her open mouth and brushes her teeth, extinguishing toothpaste onto her teeth and gums
and mouthwash into her mouth. She gargles and spits it out onto the natural floor. She then
presses another button and another arm comes out and extends towards her face suddenly
opening up like an umbrella and spreading around her face, covering it, washing it, exfoliating
her dead skin, and cleansing every fiber of her face and spreading down throughout her body,
absorbing with the skintight suit that glistening for a moment then stops as the device comes
off her face and recedes back into the box. She seals it smiling and puts it away. She grabs
another bag, seeing she had the wrong one and looks inside her own seeing her cloak, cap,
and the keys to her vehicle that she had procured back from Max. She grabs her rifle and sits
waiting for the others who slowly begin to rise and within moments, they eat breakfast from a
small device near the camp fire that glows and emits plates of food, bacon, eggs, sausage, and
fresh milk and juice. With a full stomach the troop of twenty-five marches on leaving their fire
behind and each carrying their backpack full of supplies and holding their rifles at the behest
of their troop leader, Roscoe Compound, with his muscular build and military background
feels like a natural commanding their attention.
Hours in during the dense patrol through the jungles, Robin begins to feel the intense
heat of the baking sun above and the natural cooling of her skintight uniform was not enough
to prevent her from sweating profusely. She saw the others begin to suffer exhaustion from the
enormous heat bearing down on them.
“What the hell is this?” says Gretchen. “It wasn’t supposed to be this hot.”
“Things have changed since time immemorial… the ecological system and atmosphere
is not what it used to be” says Roscoe “march on troops. We are almost there.”
“Where is there supposed to be?” asked Robin. “We were never given clear
instructions.”
“You were given instructions to follow me. I know where we are going and that is all
you need to know, understood?” Roscoe barks inquisitively.
“Yes Sir” Robin replies sheepishly.
Gretchen looks at Robin with a hint of concern “I don’t think we are going to make it.”
Robin looks back nervously but doesn’t say a word as she walks with her troop during
the former coastal cities and location of the redwoods forest, the giant sequoia trees the last
evidence of life. They all see the remains of buildings in the distance, torn with destruction,
ripped and worn with age, and covered with natural growth as mother nature slowly begins
redeeming the artificial monuments and roads of man as man’s days on this Earth grew lower
and lower.
“I heard this used to be a city… lots of cities actually, an entire coastal population of
over fifty-million people” says the African lady who identifies herself as Zenaida.
“It was a big population of a metropolis… California … part of the old United States…
now a wasteland waiting for redevelopment and infiltration of resources by the Oligarchy’s
technological departments” says Oscar, an Australian native with a heavy cockney accent.
“It has to do with why there are only so many people left. Humans once reached over
ten billion on this planet in the middle twenty-first century and with dreams of colonizing other worlds in our solar system and beyond and now there are less than one million; the
Oligarchy’s plan of population control” another rebel, an Asian gentleman with a soft-spoken
tone calling himself Ikedo utters softly.
“This is the wilderness” says a Latin-American woman named Rotcha “outside of the hyper
comm. net bubble, there are few people and few societies that can survive independently.”
“Yes” continues Zenaida “the Oligarchy has enslaved us to that damn system.”
“Why are we here?” asks Robin to herself. “What could ‘Against the Wind’ want?” She holds
her rifle tightly as the troop moves on, Roscoe leading the way with a rifle in one hand and
machete in the other cutting the leaves and bushes in their way. She eyes shifted as she
wondered “how this was all going to end. What is God’s ultimate plan for us and whether
regardless of who was right in this struggle, would it be worth it in the end?” “It seems that
we might just be cannon fodder for a greater cause” she utters.
“If that is our fate, so be it. We stand for the truth. We are the champions against evil”
Oscar proclaims proudly.
“Yes, we bring our destinies together to fight for what is right” says Zenaida.
“Justice brings us together” says Gretchen.
The remainder follows them and nod as they whisper amongst one another so their
fearless leader doesn’t hear from his vantage point far ahead of them.
They come to a clearing and Roscoe cuts way of a large hanging vine that reveals a
large stone structure in the middle of the woods. Robin looks up with awe as she sees a series
of metal workings in the stone and high-relief images of faces and animals carved into the
stone. The structure looks like a step pyramid with metal finishes and what appears to be
glowing lights, electronic display mechanisms, permeating the structure from the bottom to
the top.
“Was this here for entertainment purposes or some ritual worship or something far more
ominous?” Zenaida asks.
“This is why we are here” says Roscoe as the group surrounds him in awe at the
spectacle reaching high into the skies above to the clouds like smoke puffing out of the
chimney of a large fossil burning plant.
“What is it?” Robin asks.
“Our mission… we have to go up there and get something… something that will
change the world” he smiles. “Let’s take a break and move out at dusk. We could use the cloak
of darkness inside this thing.” He sits down and breaks out water and food rations for
everyone. The group enjoys their respite and snacks on water and freeze dried items as their
food materializing apparatus would take too much time to set up. Hours pass and Robin feels
a sense of camaraderie that she hasn’t felt in a long time as she talks to the others and bonds
with them, especially Gretchen, as they share stories of their childhoods and life so far, what
drew them to this organization and what they expect from their lives in the future. Robin
sticks to her cover story that she was an orphan-turned-convict from the high religious
provinces of Canada and escaped the clutches of the Oligarchy’s prison complexes up north
making her way down to freedom and desiring to make a difference against them. Gretchen
confides in Robin that her former life as a spy for her country’s government ended badly when
her organization became subverted once the Oligarchy took power and swept like a cancer
across the globe. “The former KGB was secretly in place for decades after the cold war ended
and continued to engage in espionage around the world. We knew something was coming that
would turn civilization as we knew it on its head but we didn’t expect the outcome to be so
drastic. When little factions began populating Europe, we didn’t focus too heavily on it
thinking these miniature ‘cults’ were harmless creations and small time bandits with
miniscule effect on the grander scheme of things but what we failed to realize was the
immense growth of a previously-unknown super power forming in the Caribbean. This
growth soon became unstoppable and with an army of lethal followers trained since birth to
fight in the name of the Oligarchy, these cults soon dominated the western world and we were
powerless to stop them when they came to our borders. There were rumors that the super
power was a Machination that began many centuries ago and each generation grew wiser and
more powerful with more arms and capabilities intent on someday commanding the world’s
stage. The more obscene and farfetched rumors involved magic and extraterrestrials… stuff that the Nazis tried to find during the second Great War. Some even believed that there was
one leader who tried to evade death and live forever. But that is not possible things.”
“Wow” Robin looked at her with awe. “That seems crazy but I guess the strangest
things in life are with mystery and there is always the possibility could be true.” Robin nodded
as she knew the history of the Oligarchy and how they came to power well, it was engrained in
her since childhood going to the schools that taught it as their primary curriculum, “praise the
Oligarchy for the chosen three are supreme and guided to rule forever.” That was the mantra
she was taught as all were, though she often put it aside as Sunday school dogma and never
truly embraced it as much as her contemporaries. Now she was amongst those who are so
heavily opposed to it that they are willing to remain persecuted and lay down their lives and
liberties if necessary to fight against them. She couldn’t help but feel admiring towards that
revolutionary poise like those of her forefathers who fought for a free country from tyranny
and oppression of the British crown. She felt some pull towards their kindness but knew they
were against her upbringing and she was here for a reason, to expose them and provide
reported information and facts that could eventually bring them down and send these people,
who were so kind and nurturing to her, to their inevitable demise. She knew the price for
betraying the Oligarchy was death and she feared becoming too attached to them for they may
eventually have to perish at the hands of those they choose to fight against. She rises to her
feet under the rising moon at night as do they all as Roscoe gave the word for them to begin
heading into the structure. Robin swallows her fear again as she grips her rifle and walks with
her troop in formation towards the structure’s mysterious form.
The structure rises up like a step pyramid and formed an apex that appears to hold an
artificial precipice used for a high purpose long ago. The structure bears an entrance at the
base of the pyramid and pure darkness permeates inside. Roscoe leads the group with
flashlight beacons on their wrists, each lighting up the interior as they walk into it slowly.
Robin follows behind the group of twenty five with her beacon shining ahead of her, having
the additional advantage of everyone else’s beacon shining ahead of her. She sees stone
formations inside painted with hieroglyphics and drawings, high-relief markings. She looks
about curiously as they proceed into the chambers, heading up a spiral stairwell made of
metal.
“This has got to be recent or at least from the old world, not as ancient as it was made
to appear” Robin whispers to Gretchen.
“It is new but I cannot place it. It is obvious inside and outside” Gretchen responds
quietly.
Their boots clang as they walk up the stairs single file and Robin tailing behind. The
stairs ascend into a quiet and small reliquary where the twenty five rebels are cramped in.
Robin looks up seeing more drawings and statuettes mount the wall and ceilings and an alter
rest on the far end of the room. The troop members moved around swearing and pushing to
have room to see it. Robin looks at it and smiles as she has never seen anything so amazing, it
looks like it is made of stone, pink marble-like material placed on top of it, and it has buttons
and dials made of the same material. The designs on the altar seem to match the drawings on
the walls and ceilings. Robin wonders if this is tied to the legendary artifact she was told by
about by Maxwell.
“This is it” says Roscoe. “Our mission is complete… now we wait” he smiles.
“What are we waiting for exactly?” asks Robin.
“That’s not your concern” replies Roscoe harshly. “Our orders are to secure this
device.”
“What is this?” Gretchen asks.
“Come on” says Oscar “we got a right to know what we risked our necks for.”
“Yeah” says Rotcha.
“What is this about?” asks Zenaida.
The others began to shout out as well in questioned anger.
“Enough” yells Roscoe “everyone become quiet … we are going to wait until our
backup arrives” he presses a button on his wrist device.
“Why do we need backup? Why didn’t we just come with them?” Robin yells.
“Shut up” says Roscoe.
“What is really going on?” Robin yells dropping her weapon as she throws her hands up
in the air in the cramped compartment. “Don’t you see guys… something fishy are going on…
we have to do something or we don’t do something, we are done for well” she finishes.
“She’s right” yells Gretchen.
“OK, that’s it… come here lady” Roscoe proclaims as he drops his rifle, pushes his way
through the troop, and grabs Robin by the scuff of her neck. She squirms and twitches in his
large muscular hand.
“Let me go… I thought you were for personal freedom” she utters.
“I don’t like those who don’t follow order” he utters and slaps her hard across her face
with his other hand. “Anybody else want some?” The troop stood in shock with their mouths
open. Gretchen swallows her fear and holds out her rifle.
“Let her go” says Gretchen holding her rifle aiming it at Roscoe.
“This is how it is… we turn on each other in a tight spot huh?” Roscoe utters tightening
his grip on Robin’s neck. She screams and continues to squirm in his grasp.
“You may be in charge but what you are doing is wrong. This is the type of tyrannical
punishment we are fighting against. I won’t stand for it in my presence” Gretchen speaks
reverently.
“She’s right” says Oscar holding his rifle with one hand from his large frame and
muscular grip “drop her now.”
“Do it” says Zenaida holding hers. Rotcha and Ikedo follow and soon the entire troop
are pointing their rifles at Roscoe.
“You are alone, bastard” Robin utters in Roscoe’s grip.
Roscoe looks about confused and frightful. “Come on guys, we are on the same side
here. We can’t stand for disorder or we’ll all perish” he releases Robin and she picks up her
rifle and runs over to Gretchen.
“We follow orders from command” says Gretchen lowering her rifle as the others did.
“Wait” says Robin listening with her hearing implant and she hears suddenly a loud
noise in the distance from above like the sound of massive vehicles roaming through the air at
rapid speeds approaching them. The sound gets louder and louder.
“What is it?” asks Gretchen.
“I can hear someone coming” says Robin.
“Whom?” asks Gretchen.
“How?” asks Ikedo.
“They’re hear” screams Robin as soon the others hear it too, loud vehicles hovering over their
location as they approach, mechanical engines roaring in the skies above, rotary mechanics
spinning, electronic components fizzing, and blades spinning on all sides of the vehicles.
“I hear it” says Gretchen.
“Me too” says Rotcha.
“That’s our backup” screams Roscoe. “They will lift us out of here with that thing for further
analysis” he points to the altar.
“Great” says Robin then suddenly the room shakes followed by a loud boom and they feel an
electrical tingle throughout their bodies. The room shakes again followed by another loud
boom. “What’s going on?”
“They are shooting at us” says Gretchen.
“This can’t be” says Roscoe.
The others looked about nervously.
“Looks like we have been suckered” says Robin. “Let’s get out of here” she turns to the group
and waves to them to head down the stairs from where they entered as the room shakes again
followed by another loud boom and rocks begin to crumble as the ceiling falls apart and
begins to cave in slightly. The troop leaves the room single file down the spiral staircase.
Gretchen and Robin are the last remaining in the structure as Roscoe yells to them to leave
first.
“Come on, ladies first… let’s go before this collapses.”
“Go” Robin yells back as she turns to the altar feeling a compulsion she has never felt before.
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