Sparks (eBook)

July 25th, 3:30 A.M.
Verdun, France.

Rich settled his hotel fee and booked a ride to the Luxembourg airport since all French airspace was still shut down. It was a long ride but he was in good spirits...mostly. He’d believed his companions would choose to rebuild the Messengers; it seemed that wasn’t the case, but to be fair, the offer Judgment gave was quite sudden. Text appeared in his vision that followed where his eyes looked.

“Incoming call from Judgment. Telepathy only.”

He blinked a few times to try and clear the hallucination from his vision but it didn’t go away. ‘Okay. That’s—’

‘Richard, I see you’re already on your way out,’ Judgment’s voice came to him.

Rich spoke in his mind, keeping his driver from becoming concerned. ‘Long-distance telepathy? Cool…and yes, it’s a lengthy journey out of the country. I’m looking forward to being able to use your portals for travel.’

‘Don’t get too hung up on the convenience of what this power offers that you can’t handle being human when it’s unavailable.’

‘I don’t intend to but thank you for the reminder. Why did you call?’

‘No one else from the caves has agreed to join us. That puts us far behind on the number of members I’d wanted to start at.’

‘Ten million people flocking into the country, and we don’t have enough?’

‘Eighty-three million tourists predicted for this year, but all those numbers are down after awakenings started getting bad. That’s seven million a month; two hundred forty thousand a day. You’re surprised the country panicked at ten million in three days?’

‘Then let’s expand the search. I doubt everyone Pahk would endorse made it into the forest. Let the other fans meet and give them the same offer.’

‘You don’t want to try and get the ones you traveled with?’

‘Everyone has their reasons to be interested or resistant. I’m certainly not asking a man with a pregnant wife to leave her; that would be too harsh, although I wonder what brought him here in the first place.’

‘That one was a local. He took the weekend off, and is already back with his loved one.’

‘Good for him. How many do you think we’ll need to start anyway? I never thought about this part.’

‘Thirty at the smallest; that makes a tight-knit community with enough shared responsibilities that no one feels overburdened. More is better, allowing rotation to keep each person from feeling the strain of any task for too long. Fifty was functional; seventy was optimistic.’

‘And we can’t find thirty in ten million?’

‘No, we can’t find thirty out of the two thousand fans who made it to the Verdun area.’

‘I did mention that your test might not be as effective as you hoped.’

‘Gloating? Really?’

‘Not gloating: reminding. You might’ve been better off contacting me directly and requesting to put a message out to every account on the fan website. Pull directly from the millions of active and inactive members.’

‘You’re forgetting about the screening process that Pahkakino provides.’

‘...Do a meetup in each city. State the requirements beforehand and everyone who shows up already knows what to expect and potentially commit to.’

There was a pause. ‘You’re thinking of using this method in the future for recruitment?’

‘It would have to be easier than this. No chance of a shutdown hindering the search, no threatening lives. And moving Pahk around without him getting shot at would probably be easier. That reminds me, how is it that these mythical creatures haven’t been found?’

‘Low populations and strict territories. Most learned how to alter memories to keep what little space they have safe. It was either memory blackouts or usually something more believably human and mundane when encounters happened.’

‘Are they on the ropes?’

‘Worse, they’re hanging on by a thread. Many are extinct, some are functionally extinct.’

‘That has to change, I don’t want that on my hands. We’ll have to make that part of our duties someday.’

‘Most of these creatures will run or attack you on sight. It won’t do you any good.’

‘And has anyone ever tried to offer them compassion?’

‘No.’

‘I don’t expect it to be an immediate change, but if we can save lives, and get them on our side, it might go a long way to making friends with other species beyond Earth.’

‘If you and your future companions make it that far. You’ll need to best all those who would interfere, like the ones who just invaded Douaumont.’

Rich paused as he processed that. ‘I don’t suppose you prevented those empowered fighters from getting our identities, did you?’

‘Of course I did. The moment your group entered the cave I ensured your safety, physically or otherwise.’

‘So none of us can be targeted for being there. Good. That’s a trick I’ll need to learn quickly.’

‘It’s possible, but let’s focus on the current task first.’

‘Yeah. We’re rebuilding the greatest source of inspiration in the world. The first thing to do is gather like-minded individuals who can be trusted. The next thing would be...to setup a workplace.’

‘Not just a workplace, but a training space, sleeping area, and farm. You’ll require self-sufficiency to truly break free of the chains of all other civilizations.’

‘And if we get big enough, and critical enough of other countries, the spot we’re in will become targeted by the population, government, or laws. How do we get around that?’

‘By beating them at their own rules. Space is unclaimable territory, and by space, I mean the past the orbit around the planet. The more realistic on-planet choice is international waters.’

Rich smirked. ‘Clever. Two hundred nautical miles out from any coastal area, that territory falls under international law and any problems must be disputed directly with the involved sovereignties or governments.’

‘The Common Heritage of Mankind.’

‘Right. All those resources and any developments are meant to be shared amongst all of humanity, which is precisely our goal in the long term. The only problem is constructing something that can resist rough seas and stormy weather down here, or is usable in orbit; I never considered a space structure.’

‘I’ll take care of those requirements as I’ve already been working on them.’

‘Of course you have. Next would be moving into that place.’

‘On the thirtieth for everyone else.’

‘And then it’ll be time to get started. Which just leaves: What actions to start with will help to change the world?’

‘Humans want peace, freedom, opportunity, equality, and justice. Give them that.’

The human snorted, gaining a glance from his driver. ‘I can’t be a bank for the whole world; I don’t have nearly that kind of capital.’

“Money isn’t what people need; provide their necessities and watch them change. Food, water, shelter, clothing. Sound familiar?’

‘You want me to take my homeless center and expand on it?’

‘Shelter and food alone would shake up the world, making a great impact on systems of subjugation. So, build low-rent housing, offer free water, and construct a sustainable, condensed farming system.’

‘Those will be good, physical projects. We also need to step out into the world and interact with people to see and experience their struggles. Get involved with them, hear about their problems, offer advice, or help to fix them. Although, healthcare would assist in crippling this oppression far quicker than most others.’

‘You want to build a hospital?’

‘No. I want you to teach me how to use my power to heal injuries, and thereby save people from the expenses incurred from that.’

‘Creative jab at the industry, unfortunately, only the power level of an awakened could actually achieve that effect, and not as drastically as you might be hoping for. In the meantime, you’d be better off creating a not-for-profit healthcare system of your own with available medical supplies, equipment, and personnel.’

‘Disappointing but understandable. Alright then.’

‘But tell me: Once all of this is on its way, how will you test when people are ready to join your efforts?’

“Ideally, I’d request that you or Pahkakino check on everyone. In place of that, I have a list I wrote years ago when the Messengers were touring that contained a sort of guide to becoming kind. It may not be perfect but when I...