Chapter 497: Eternity (2/2)
The birds, already adapted to the strange day/night cycle, began chirping, waking up and calling out to one another.
The streetlights clicked off. Porchlights of the small houses turned off. Automatic systems turned on and breakfasts started to be prepared in the houses. Computers checked the occupants vitals, their biometrics, and ran a scan on their last bowel and bladder movements, in order to optimize breakfast for the inhabitant.
In one a young girl was sleeping in a bed. The bed wasn't a fancy null-gee or a low-grav, it wasn't hard light or any other tricks.
The frame was good old fashioned wood. The mattress springs and memory foam and honest to God feathers. The sheets were high threadcount cotton, a nice neutral cream colored. The blanket, chosen at random, showed pop idols from eons gone by that still, strangely, looked a lot like the pop idols from modern shows.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The girl's eyes fluttered as the alarm clock went off. Pink and white, with pink LED numbers.
She sat up and yawned, wearing a cotton nightgown of modest cut. She rubbed her eyes, then slowly got out of bed. She turned, made her bed, then went into the bathroom. When she emerged her hair was slightly wild, the fresher having mussed it.
She got dressed, pausing at the clothing inside the drawer, almost in wonder, running her fingertips over the soft cloth as if she couldn't believe she was looking at it.
Once she was dressed she sat down and brushed her hair. Then did her makeup, light and subdued.
Modest, her mother would have called it.
She closed her eyes at that memory, shuddered slightly, then opened her eyes, forcing a smile.
She left the bedroom and went down the short hall, coming out in the kitchen. She moved over and sat at the table, where a plate had been prepared.
Pancakes, made with real flour, syrup, the label claiming it was from Canuk Mapleland, juice claiming it was Maniacal Man Pennisula in the Hamburger Kingdom. Bacon, real meat, which was thick and chewy, the fat crisp.
When she was finished eating, she washed her dishes and put them in the drying rack before going into the front room. Outside the windows she could see a well manicured lawn, a white picket fence, then a street.
The massive Tri-Vee took up one wall. It was older, even to the girl's eyes, almost clunky.
”GOOD MORNING, DIDI SUMMERSONG WILDFLOWER” appeared on the screen.
”Good morning,” the girl said. ”I'm not in a hospital, am I?” she asked.
”OF A CERTAIN TYPE, YOU ARE” the screen showed. ”WOULD YOU PREFER A HOLOCONSTRUCT TO INTERACT WITH?”
”Yes, please,” the girl said. She looked down at her ankle length skirt and smoothed it over one knee.
The holo-emitter, the size of a hockey-puck instead of the almost microscopic modern ones, spun up with a whine and it took a half second of flickering for the figure to fully rez into being.
It was a woman, her face scuplted to be familiar and pleasant, yet having some authority. She was dressed in an archaic nurse's uniform, complete with a complex folded white hat on her head.
”Good morning, Miss Wildflower,” the woman said. ”I am an enhanced virtual intelligence, Nurse Satisfactory-Bit-D-T3B9-183713. I will be your guide through this period of time.”
The girl stared out the window for a moment.
When she looked back, the bleak resignation in her eyes made the eVI make immediate notes.
”I'm dead, aren't I?” she said. She looked back out the window. ”All that fighting, all that struggle, all that hardship to survive, to get the girls through it all. I get rescued and now I'm dead?”
The eVI looked at the girl and cleared her throat. The girl looked at her. ”No. You are not dead. You have been moved to a safe location due to an unforeseen massive casualty catastrophic event.”
”You mean all the grownups dying. Again,” the girl said.
”Yes. Humanity has suffered over a 99.998% fatality index in less than thirty Earth Standard Days,” the nurse said. ”You were moved here as part of the Massive Catastrophic Event Recovery System Protocol. I realize this must be difficult for you...”
”Difficult?” the girl looked at the eVI. ”You think this is difficult? I spent two years, two fucking years, trying to keep a group of children alive, trying to keep them from being slaughtered by Lankys, keep them from being eaten by fucking zombies, and you think this is difficult?”
The girl's voice went cold and remote. ”This is nothing. Death is merely the end, unless you get up and walk around eating people. This? This is just one more bite of the huge shit sandwich called life.”
”I understand that you might feel that way,” the eVI started.
”YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING OF WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH! NOTHING!” the girl screamed, coming to her feet.
She sat back down and shook her head.
”So everyone's dead again,” she said. She sighed, remembering the starship captain and his friends who had saved her. ”So Captain Pikark wasted his time. He should have just left us to get overrun and murdered by the Lanky.”
The eVI sat down. ”My dear, you are still alive.”
The girl shook her head, staring out the window.
”I've been dead a long time,” she said, staring out the window.
The eVI sat silently as she loaded up subroutines to deal with severe psychological trauma.
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Herod got off the autowalk, stepping smoothly onto the platform.
Mayberry Estates the sign proclaimed. Authorized Personnel Only.
The sign looked friendly, the font pleasing to the eye, holograms of flowers and grass beneath the words.
It was the sign in front of the door.
LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED - PREPARE TO SHOW ID
Herod sighed and moved up to the door. He could feel the scanning beams prickling his skin. He pressed his hand to the doorpanel scanner. It went green at the bottom of his hand and the heavy door unlocked.
When he stepped through a figure rezzed into being. ”Good Morning, Chief Maintenance Supervisor. I have in my possession a detailed list of required maintenance to ensure the health and welfare of my system's charges.”
Herod nodded. ”What is this place?”
The eVI frowned. ”Massive Causalty Catastrophic Event Protection System Vault Six One Nine One Six Two Two Bravo,” it said.
”Define triggering event,” Herod ordered, checking a datapad in his hand that just had Sam's wallpaper on it.
”A massive die-off of humans was detected throughout the Cygnus Orion Arm Stub, the Orion Arm Colonies, the Andromeda Colonies, the Cygnus Arm Colonies, the Cygnus-Orion Ripples, coordinated with a temporal attack upon Terra and the Sol System itself,” the eVI said.
Herod managed to keep his face neutral at the long list of places.
”Once the 99.91% threshold was reached, with numbers geometrically decreasing, the Massive Catastrophe Automatic Protection System activated,” the eVI seemed pleased with itself. ”Our success rate in automatic retrieval was perfect, with zero transportation incidents.”
Herod nodded.
”Subjects show typical psychological damage,” the eVI said.
”I need to see them,” Herod tried.
The eVI's eyes went narrow and filled with red light. ”That is not permitted. All protected subjects may only be interacted with by eVI until cleared for psychological injuries.”
”I need to see what type of maintenance needs to be done, so I need to see the subjects to make projections,” Herod tried. Wally beeped and backed up, the door opening behind the little boxy robot to reveal the station.
”I have an extensive list, which also prevents interaction with subjects,” the eVI said, it's eyes still red. ”Please leave. I am currently alerting security that you have attempted an unauthorized interaction with projected subjects.”
Herod nodded, backing up.
The door slammed in front of him, the edges going red.
”SECURITY LOCKDOWN” appeared over the door.
Herod stood there for a long moment.
”Sam, did you get any of that?” Herod asked.
There was just silence.
Herod looked down at Wally.
”What the hell is going on?”
Wally just beeped.
He didn't have any answers either.