Chapter 1.10

It had been quite some time since ‘Total Fun’ had begun on Earth. Of course, they had no idea what was happening on N21, but it was assumed that, while sending the original operating system to the station, it triggered something on Earth. They had found that ‘Total Fun’ ran through cycles that were approximately fifty years each, and the population had suffered through almost six of them now. Each cycle of the ‘stages of Total Fun’ ended with a three year hiatus for the person before a reset occurred, then the fear would start for each person independently. Since the beginning, or ‘fear stage’, was a different length, as it ended by people being affected by ‘death nanites’, the stages that each person was going through could be very different than someone else. It was suspected that, given time, there could be people in the middle, while others at either end.

After three hundred years, anarchy had ruled Earth. The government that had been in place since Willem was removed from power, had broke down. The fear between genders had caused enough damage in society, that people trusted no one. There was a growing unrest that manifested in the question of who were you before this particular incarnation.

In isolated areas, people died by being beheaded by their nanites, but in larger cities like New York, London, and even Honolulu, there were murders which served to further the stages.

Some people developed such a ‘love’ for their bond mates that they were automatically reconnected to them after the ‘death nanites’ took effect.

With the anarchy, something had to be done. In an attempt to preserve the human race, a bold plan had been arrived at. With three periods of normality in the cycle of Total Fun, twenty ships had been built to ferry a load of children to other planets. The first one that would arrive was at Alpha Centauri. It was common knowledge that there was an Earth like planet there, and it was hoped that nothing completely deadly to human beings would be in residence. When everyone boarded the ships, an EMP would be set off before the computers were set up and brought online. Even though this did not work with adults, it was hoped that it could work with the nanites in children. It was a long shot, but all that they had.

Part of ‘Total Fun’ was known as the Pregnancy Stage, where people spent a complete pregnancy on their back, and several kids had been born. So far, none of the children had been affected by the stages, but the adults feared that it was only time.

For each of the ships, adults would command them. There would be enough adults to keep a pair who were in a normal stage at all times, plus some several doctors to keep people cared for. There would also be several backup people, as it was known that, unfortunately, there would be deaths.

One more thing that was prepared for. There would enough fuel in each ship to allow for changing course and, if they went into orbit around a planet that did not pan out, they would have enough fuel to go to another. Five times, if need be.

The ships were built along a similar design to the N22 station, only larger. It was thought that they would need the room to be able to increase their population by several times. Just the ship going to Alpha Centauri would require four hundred years to make that journey. The ship could go faster, but in order to keep enough fuel to make more trips, they needed to restrict their speed. Of course, they were stopping at planets where, if they could find enough natural resources, they could build a mining facility to ‘top off’ their fuel reserves.

Crews for the ships had not been chosen yet, but with the anarchy, Fred and Paula were definitely going. There was no reason for them to stay on Earth. The government had been completely obliterated, and Paula had gone into hiding in order to survive.

It had been many years before the ships were fully stocked and ready to leave Earth’s orbit. So many had to be built that it had been over a hundred years from the inception of the plan to it’s fruition. It had now been four hundred years, and everything was ready to go. Fredrik and Paula were brought aboard the Alpha Centauri ship. They were in the first section of sitting, staring at each other. So their minds would not be overstimulated, they were moved aboard the ship in the middle of the night when even a jackhammer would not have been able to disturb them. They were placed in an apartment on board the ship in a room that was identical to their rooms in Venice. Jack and Sylvia would check on them every day.

The commander of the ship for it’s leaving Earth orbit was Reg, or Gina as she went by now. Rhoda was, of course, present as well. They were in their one year hiatus before they entered the stage that Paula and Fred were in, and they would turn the ship over to another commander at the end of their year. Because Gina was in charge at launch, she was the senior commander of the ship, Centaurus.

Rhoda had been trained to navigate the ship, so she was in the control room with several other people waiting for the order to leave Earth. She had plotted the course to put them on line to Alpha Centauri, and the course continued to update itself for every millimeter they moved in orbit. When Gina gave the order, she pressed the execute button, and nothing happened. Certainly the computers took over, but it would be a few more kilometers before the ship powered up it’s engines.

They waited, then they felt a gentle vibration as the engines started to power up. There was no thrust applied. Just the engines warmed the fuel. Finally, the point in space came, and the engines fired. Slowly the ship moved away from the planet below.

On the surface of the blue and green planet, the fact that twenty immense vehicles were leaving them, was completely missed. The fact that the person who was, just tentatively, the active president, was no longer a part of the population, also went unnoticed.

The people on the surface were embroiled in fear, sex, and fighting. Many people were killed each day, babies were born, and transitions accomplished.

Gina stood on the bridge, watching the screen that looked back on the planet that up until a few hours ago had been their home. She was of mixed emotions as she left. She would not miss the problems that plagued the people on the surface, but she would miss the surface itself. She loved the planet, and the freedom of being under a blue sky. She had no idea if she would ever see one again.

“Gina!” It was a good friend of Gina and Rhoda’s, a man by the name of Vlad.

“Yes?” She was surprised by the excitement in his voice.

“Sylvia just reported that people are coming out of whatever stage they’re in.” He paused for a moment. “Rhoda, your parents are out of theirs. They’re going to have a rest, however. They’re experiencing cramped muscles.”

Rhoda jumped up, and both she and Gina hurried out of the control room. There wasn’t much to do, anyway. The computers would keep things running smoothly.

The next day, they were in the briefing room beside the control room. Fred and Paula were there, but still suffering from cramps after so much time being motionless. “I don’t get it?” Paula said to Jack and Sylvia.

“As near as I can tell,” Jack told her, “Something in the vicinity of Earth was making the nanites work against us.”

“Can you be any more specific?” asked Fred.

Sylvia answered for ‘her’ husband. She had found that during her times of freedom, she enjoyed still dressing the part of the wife, even though she was physically male. “No, we really can’t. We had no idea this would happen.”

“Best guess?” Gina asked.

“Sure,” Jack responded. “I’m guessing that something in the vicinity of Earth was making the nanites work against us.”

“You’re not very helpful,” Gina complained.

“Neither was Caesar.”

There was a beeping, and Fred answered his comm unit. Everyone stared at him as he received a communique from the control room. “N21 is calling.”

He switched the communication to his comm unit, and was astounded to hear his own voice in a conversation with Perl. She was talking about her friend’s cooking skill, and how she had made absolutely gourmet meals from the hydroponically grown vegetables on the ship. “That sound’s delicious,” Fred told her.

He sat at the table, his mouth open. “I never said that. Hell, I never had a conversation like this with her at all!”

He sat, staring dumbfounded at his comm unit as it relayed a conversation that never happened to the briefing room.

A moment later, they were drawn away from the phantom conversation by another call from the control room. “We’re picking up something on a collision course with Earth.”

Gina and Paula both jumped up and sprinted down the corridor, while the others followed after a moment.

“What’s going on?” Gina asked, yelling above the excited voices in the room.

“I’m not sure what they are, but there seems to be multiple objects. I had thought it was just one until the resolution got better.” It was Vlad.

“Gina?” Paula didn’t want to step on her daughter-in-law’s toes.

“Mom, if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.”

Paula nodded. “Vlad, you said the resolution got better? So we’re getting closer to them?”

“They’re getting closer to us, Ma’am. They’re heading toward Earth from the other side, and they’re moving fast!”

“Okay. Can we slow down a bit so they come into higher resolution quicker?”

Gina thought about it, then, “Do it, Rhoda! Now!”

Normally the artificial gravity would compensate for any thrust, but Rhoda hit the retro engines hard. A few people stumbled, and the things on Vlad’s screen seemed to jump close.

“Oh, no!” said Vlad. Gina and Paula hurried over and gave the screen a look. “Check it out, now,” Gina shouted.

Paula sat down at a spare computer and called up historical records. “It’s them.” Her voice was completely devoid of emotion.