Chronicles of Athena Lee Book 3

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

He could hear the wild dogs howling. Eddie Bakker pulled his head back into his small and shabby apartment. The packs of wild dogs were still a major problem for those on foot at night. Despite whatever the local government had to say about them. Still, he was very glad that Mrs. Southcott down at the warehouse where he worked hadn’t kept him very long today. Just last week he had been chased three blocks by a pack of dogs. Eddie sat down in his chair next to the window. His wife, Ann, should be home soon.

She had a good government job working for the local medico’s down at the nearby dispensary. Seeing a flash, Eddie looked up. The lights were flickering again signaling a brownout. He walked over to the kitchen cabinet. Reaching in, he pulled out an old—fashioned glass oil lamp. He hated to use it, because of the fuel cost, but it would be nice to see his wife’s face as they ate dinner.

With a buzzing sound, the lights flickered and then went dark. He could hear the cries of outrage coming across the alley from his neighbors. These power outages were becoming more frequent. Goddamn cyber terrorists! The national government swore up-and-down that the war of cyber terror was over. They swore that the cyber-terrorists were all dead or locked up in prison. Eddie was not so sure about that. They had lied about things before.

He had seen, on the vid, that giant robotic drones operated by ‘suspected’ terrorists were still rampaging across Europe, killing indiscriminately. Those stupid frakking military leaders thought that those remotely operated drones were such a good idea. “It’ll save human lives.” Sure, save them, so that the out-of-control robots could kill them!

At least in this country, they’d melted all those things down. Or at least they said they had, just like they locked up the terrorists that controlled them. Whatever happened to the good ole US of A? Eddie could, just barely, remember a time when the power worked, and hulking robots weren’t trying to kill you. His parents had taken him to the park or the movies without fear. He really wished that he and Ann could just leave. Leave Atlanta, leave the US, leave the freaking planet, and join the colonists!

Those rich dudes had the right idea a few years ago. He had just watched that vid last night as a matter of fact. You have to hand it to American ingenuity. It was one of our scientists that built the first Boron-fusion drive. A woman named Elizabeth Arden, using a modified Tokamak, achieved stable fusion. Like Alexander Graham Bell, she made her discovery by accident. A janitor had used water to clean a very sensitive section of the machine’s equipment. The short circuits that occurred altered the machine in such a way that her experiment worked.

She named the process after her favorite vid star, calling it the Doohan drive theory. It wasn’t too long before Doohan—enhanced explorer ships began leaving Earth’s space stations in search of planets to colonize. At least those that the damn terrorists didn’t shoot down. Terror in space made the governments pay more attention and track them down. The US claimed that they had finally stopped most of their local cybers. When the war moved into space, the damn hackers became easier to track down.

With the colony ship construction business booming, numerous people with big money took the chance to leave Earth. Several dozen big religious groups paid to have ships built and just left. The planet Mars was the first target. Large domed colonies began to rise out of the red sand. Many of the breakaway religious groups settled on Mars, opting to stay close to Earth, but not too close.

Large groups of radio and film celebrities were among those who chose to leave. Who knew they had that much money? They pooled their money, built a ship, and left Earth’s orbit with the destination of Mars. It was nice, sometimes, to think that out there on Mars, there were groups of movie stars, computer geeks, and famous talk radio guys trying to build a ‘New’ Hollywood.

It wasn’t too long until the American government got involved and started building big ships. Using expansion and progress as an excuse, they sent quite a few groups of troublemakers off the planet. It was actually cheaper to do than just locking them up and paying to house them in prisons.

Eddie was not really sorry to see those religious nuts and all the survivalists just go away. Some foreign governments were still sending ships out in search of new planets to colonize. A slight few of the colony ships sent messages back informing Earth that colonies had been founded. Many of the early ships simply vanished into the depths of space. Conspiracy theories abounded as to their fate. Some government colonies started to send back resources. The US really needed the rare minerals and gemstones that were sent. All of this expansion opened up lots of opportunities for jobs on Earth and out in the far reaches of space.

Eddie heard a shuffling outside his door. He ran to the door, grabbing his baseball bat off the table. He stood to the side of the door and cried out, “Who is it?”

“It’s me, honey. The sky is blue, now let me in.”

Hearing the all clear and safe code words, Eddie let his wife Ann inside. You really couldn’t be too careful these days. Especially when the power was off at night. That was when the real monsters came out to play. He hugged his wife to him. “Hi, honey, did you have a good day?”

Ann removed her coat, revealing a knife strapped to her waist. She took it off and laid it on the table within easy reach. Ann looked at the oil lamp casting a dull orange glow across the room. Eddie had fixed dinner and already set the table. The flickering light cast muted shadows across the table making the shadows dance on the walls.

“Ed, I have terrific news! We might have a chance to get out of here.”

Eddie looked questioningly at his wife. “Out of this apartment? Did someone at work die?”

She chuckled. Someone dying was pretty much the only way to get a new apartment these days. “No, the government has a new program. Since I already work for them, I qualify. Honey, we can be colonists! We have a chance to leave the planet.”

“Ann, are you serious? You aren’t messing with me, right? No jokes. We can get on one of those ships and leave this shithole?”

“It’s not that bad, but yes. We have to submit to a couple of tests first, but my boss swore to me that I was eligible.”

“What sort of tests?” Eddie had a real apprehensive look on his face.

“My boss said it was nothing bad. Take a few intelligence tests, a very in-depth physical, and we have to submit some genetic samples.”

“Samples? Why does the government want my DNA? Please tell me they aren’t trying to make super-soldiers again!”

Ann thought back to what she had learned in school. When the corporations got involved in the cyber wars, some of them tried making genetic freaks to do battle with the robot drones. It failed miserably. Some of the larger governments were rumored to have had successes, but it was all covered up or the results destroyed. “No honey. It is just a test to see if we can withstand the g-forces and stress of space travel. That’s all. I promise you.”

“OK, if you say so. So, when do we go in for the tests?”

“Holy crap! Honey, you’re happy to go? That is great.” She gave him a big hug and a kiss that practically curled his toes.

“We can go for the tests in the morning. Will your boss let you off for a few hours?”

“She will if I tell her it is something for you. Mrs. Southcott just loves you.”

>>

Dr. Howard Holmes watched the young woman who helped him at his clinic here in Atlanta. His bosses had put out a call for government employees to volunteer to go to the stars to help run the colonies. The call was twofold. He had heard from some of his colleagues in the research division of the government that they needed genetic samples for a secret project that was in the works. After the failed Superhero project 20 years ago, Congress outlawed genetic experimentation. All the government experiments had been kept very hush-hush. The cover story was that the tests were needed to select eligible workers for the new colony ships. Testing for resistance to space hazards was for the most part utter BS.

His best assistant’s DNA was exactly what government scientists were looking for. Both she and her husband’s. They were young, healthy, athletic, and already associated with the government. In Ann’s case, she still owed money to the government for her education. Her husband also had a degree in agronomics. Not much call for that in Georgia anymore. If the damn Cybers hadn’t crashed the systems at the CDC, the Zanto-M crop blight might not have gotten loose. Crops across three states had been decimated before the antidote had been found. Pine trees were the only crop that grew around here anymore.

The other reason was that ‘they’ wanted government representatives to push America’s agenda on the colonies. The theory was if they used actually government employees that they were more likely to stick to the plan. If he were about 20 years younger, Howard would go himself - it sounded like a real adventure.

When Eddie and Ann cautiously walked home that night, they were bursting with their good news. According to the test results, they were perfect candidates for the next colony ship. They had less than a week to say their goodbyes and report to the government training center in the old sports arena. They both had large packets of reading material that explained their new duties as government agents and colony supervisors. To them, the training didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore here on Earth. They were going on an adventure and kissing Earth and all its problems and politics, goodbye.