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| Tsv-02-100 The Illusive R-Wing Chapter 1: Treezine Agent Chapter 2: Lisa Chapter 3: Unexpected Visitors Chapter 4: Knowledge is Power Chapter 5: A Piece of Sky Pie Chapter 6: The DGP Governor Chapter 7: Point Kapex, Lunaside Chapter 8: The Scenic Route Chapter 9: The Temspace Refraction Chapter 10: The Age of Aquarius Chapter 11: To Ride the R-Wing Chapter 12: Effects of the Tuniverseo |
Chapter 10: The Age of
Aquarius
Querzo called Madkro on
the internet and he took it to his room
computer."Meet me at the Rocky Pt. I've interesting news." He kissed the girls goodbye and drove to the Rocky Pt. safe-zone. It was a 200 km drive and a bit lengthy, but it was the only 'safe-zone' Querzo had access to in the area, and he was bound by regulations to not make unnecessary careless expositions. His position was ever more elusive than Madkro or Exo and Xik, because he was more conservative of temporal relativity laws and regulations. The 'transverser' vehicle was after all, a time and space vehicle; nothing to flaunt in the eyes of ignorant, money-hungry capitalists eager to get a bigger piece of the pie. He drove up the highway, off it onto a rocky dirt-road, up a gradual slope into a forest. He followed the rocky road up until it leveled off and reached the clearing by the waterfall, over-looking the valley. This was the Rocky Pt. safe-zone. Madkro parked the car by the right just inside the clearing, and stepped out. The bronze and silver transverser appeared out of the thin air, in the clearing to the left, and Querzo stepped outside. "I've checked the future," he said to Madkro, "ahead 100 years. Earth First managed to gain power with the Jet Union, but something similar to a war between power magnates on Mars develops, and the Jet corporations are being slaughtered by the R-wing companies. "Whatever you did, it had quite an effect, but I'm not sure it's enough. At 2100 AD, Jet Corps is suing R-Wing for billions due to a skirmish which occurred months before in which the 'governor' was removed from a dozen R-wing ships, they were armed, and used to destroy a Jet Corps project. R-Wing denies they were involved and insists it was a terrorist act. Need I continue further?" Madkro shook his head and leaned against the transversers hull with his arm, as it rested on its massive pods a meter off the ground. "I don't know what else to do," he admitted, with defeat. "Come on," he said to Madkro, "let's go up 200 and see what waits." Madkro followed Querzo up into the transverser. "You may as well take the other helm-station," he said to Madkro, as he resumed the pilot station and began to work the controls. "Just don't touch any of the controls. This will be a simple 20 minute run to the future, nothing else. I don't foresee any need to relocate in space. Accessing the sat-net should tell us what we need to know." Madkro said, "Understood." Querzo nodded and turned to the temporal-controls to his left side and adjusted the coordinates. A minute later, he turned forward and said, "Here we go." Amalek transversed through accelerated time forward, to such a speed that the scenery flickered through seasonal changes by the minute, then by the seconds. Five minutes later, as Querzo gazed at the console and Madkro studied all the controls with a technician's speculative wonder, the screen's flickering effect slowed and the transverser zeroed in on 2200. They were surprised to see a misty blue effect at the bottom of the screen materialize into a large body of water, as the transverser locked into real-time and remained steady. "Dear Guard," Querzo said, "the water level..." "It happened," Madkro said, with suspenseful fascination. "They burnt away the ozone, the ice-caps melted. What's the temperature outside?" Querzo checked the console. "90 degrees, 90 degrees in a temperate zone in April! That's a bit high, wouldn't you say?" "That and the water-level," Madkro agreed. "Can we go out?" "Well," Querzo said, "the ultraviolet is a bit high, but we've managed to escape the flood. Let me check the sat-net first for remnants of civilization." It was unbelievable, yet it was real. In 2200 AD, due to the disastrous depletion of the ozone layer by the R-wing capitalists, the increase in ultraviolet rays from the sun had raised the overall temperature of the Earth's climate, melted the polar ice-caps, and raised the sea-level up by hundreds of meters. They sat at the edge of a great inland sea, covering the Midwest of the North American continent, as far east as the Appalachian mountain range on the old eastern coast. "Funny," Madkro admitted. "This isn't the cluttered commercial R-wing future Exo and Xik feared, after all. They seemed to have over-looked the ozone factor." "I doubt Exo or Xik were concerned with ozone depletion," Querzo replied, "Just the idea of being sited for a traffic-violation by an R-wing police-force." "Yes, I suppose that's true," Madkro decided. "I've got something," Querzo said, and flipped a switch. "Radio, only." They listened. "With only 2 major R-wing ports remaining, and about a dozen air-ports, above the water-level, it would seem that the Earth First Alliance, with nature's help, has finally come out on top, but at such a cost of property and life, most wish it had come much earlier. "Nevertheless, the remaining members of the R-wing division insist that because many of the ports were prepared for such disasters, and the R-wing is an air tight space-going vehicle to begin with, they will manage to salvage much of the under-water facilities. "Port Vega, the largest facility in Hawaii, has already been contacted and is under-going adjustments, despite the fact that it is submerged below 100 meters of water. As an air-tight biosphere in itself, it was the first of its kind to be introduced during the 22nd century." Querzo changed the channel, and found something else. "This whole thing was caused by the R-wing corps," a heated voice strained, with obvious distress, "we cannot let them continue their cursed projects! The Jet-Corps must unite to put an end to the R-wingers!" Querzo turned the volume down and looked at Madkro. "Those are the only 2 stations in operation at this time," he admitted. "I haven't been able to access the sat-net video-links." "Well, hell," Madkro shrugged. "I suppose this means we'll have to go back after all?" Querzo looked out at the inland sea and nodded, "Unless you can do something else from Reno." "Can we step out and feel it all before we go back?" "Sure, why not," Querzo decided, and stepped up, "for a few minutes." They stepped down Amalek's ramp and outside, to find themselves on a large island, which once was a part of the Rocky Mountains. To the east was the new inland sea, to the west the Rocky highlands, still jutting high and majestic above the new sea. "Amazing," Madkro said. "This is what happens when uncontrolled greed is mixed with the wondrous R-wing vehicle," Querzo said, as he stepped out of the sun and into the shade of the trees. "Now I understand why it’s such a top-secret," Madkro admitted. "I suppose I won't be selling it to any capitalists in the future." "You'd be smart not to sell it to anyone," Querzo advised, "Its one of those power things that gets out of control with the human condition; much too dangerous to toy with." "But a limited R-wing space-program," Madkro insisted, "as it has been, with Lunaside and Lunar base 2, is nevertheless a safe medium, or it would be, if it weren't for Exo and Xik." "I tend to agree," Querzo said. "Exo and Xik do complicate matters. But unless I can catch them violating temspace regs, I can't touch them. They have to be caught in the act. So far, all I can site them for is kidnapping you, and I'm certain they would laugh if I judged them on that alone. "They've not meddled with temspace on this line since the Catch-98 scenario 2 years ago, or rather 2002 years, and that was undone and they were detained. I can't understand how they got out of AB4 Mars so quickly, but it's not my position to get onto them about it, unless they continue to meddle in temspace." "I understand, of course," Madkro admitted. "This time it’s all a TS-variant situation. It's my fault, not theirs. I truly am sorry. I had no idea it could amount to such drastic cataclysms." Madkro thought over what Querzo said a second time, and stopped as Querzo checked the time and stepped toward Amalek. "Hold it," he said. "I just recalled something. Exo and Xik gave me the impression that they had not yet experienced the Catch-98 scenario. I didn't understand exactly, but it did seem to be that way; like they were stepping in before Catch-98 rather than after. Is that possible?" Querzo looked at Madkro with wide eyes of disbelief. "Are you certain? Such a thing seems impossible, I don't know." He touched the sweat on his brow, shrugged, and said, "I'll have to think it over. Come, let us go." They returned to Amalek and to 2001 AD, and back to the rocky highlands overlooking the valley and the distant low-lands. The sea was gone, a mist of dreamy thought that was never there. |
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