With These Eyes (41 page)

53 GENE LOOKS FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

The misguided industrialist was wringing his
hands in anticipation. Gene was tracking his projectile on the big
screen. A map of the world showed its path towards airspace above
the target area, Tasha's home country. Gene saw the entire
continent as a lost cause – the rabid dog that had to be put down.
The people of Africa had reached such an extreme state of fear that
they had lost their divine abilities to manifest a bright future
for themselves. The sole product of their suffering was a complete
lack of joy or physical sustainability beyond what humans deserve
to endure. Their continent stood as a prominent symbol of the power
of the human mind. A society that is not permitted to recover from
suffering will eventually pull itself into a vortex of dark energy
and become a menace to its neighbors. Gene soon realized that this
sunniest of earth’s lands was called
the dark continent
for
its cycling of negative energy.

Gene was convinced: The people of Africa had
endured such disproportionate suffering across more than seven
generations that it had become their only acceptable reality. There
was a magic number. Gene knew that those who chanted Nam Myoho
Renge Kyo or followed other religions that were purely based on
love and courage had the power to affect their fate. According to
the cosmic law, this divine light could reach seven generations in
any direction.

Time is an invention of man to make him
understand his limited state of anger in the past, present and
future. A society bathed in light is not bound by the limitations
of a linear time scale. A society doused in darkness and suffering
will expend its present on thoughts about pain of the past and on
efforts for a future that brings relief. To alleviate the memory of
suffering and counterbalance the emotion of pain with the
anticipation of something better ahead, the fearful mind constructs
the concept of time. An enlightened mind, operating without the
primitive cerebellum, transcends time because of its ability to
connect with the consciousness that resides within all things.

The only way Africa and the Middle East could
ever reach an enlightened state, would be if everyone else on earth
would be in the light. Sending materials and aid to the poor people
of Africa had failed categorically. The dark energy that had
blanketed the land, prevented any advancement of its victims.
Food-drops and supply-convoys would rarely reach their
destinations. As a rule, the cargo of compassion would be
intercepted at some point by a person who was guided by their inner
darkness. More times than not, these individuals would find their
ways into the ranks of noble rescue organizations and begin their
sinister work. The spoils of corruption would have an easy target
in a person prone to enlist their lower emotions of desire, fear
and envy. The effects of a shipment sent into the hands of a crime
cabal would echo throughout the thick layer of Africa’s darkness.
More suffering would spread among the needy. The bandits would be
able to reinforce their stronghold because they were well-fed and
supplied.

When news of this spread to the western
world, the help efforts took a blow to the temple. The public,
guided by their own fear, would cry out in opposition of those for
whom their aid was intended. Blame towards rescue organizations and
the runaway political systems on much of that continent soon
stemmed the flow of compassion. The bottom line for Gene had become
that Africa was destined to doom and with it would fall the rest of
the world. Gene was convinced he had to save the planet. His fear
of a world collapsing into darkness had gotten the better of him.
Without compassion for the people of the continent that once was
the cradle of life, Gene only saw one way to shed light onto
Africa’s darkness: a photon bomb.

The suffering of individuals who had no
chance of ever accepting lives of happiness would soon end. The
spirits of those who suffer would be released to move on to better
lifetimes. The most humane way Gene could envision was a flash of
light. The memories of fear and its monuments would simply be
erased. To Gene it was a worthy end to millennia of darkness that
once originated from a misguided soul who was the leader of its
most enlightened state. It was this single act of darkness almost
3,500 years earlier that had perpetuated fear and anger across a
planet full of beauty. In one place, darkness remained strongest.
Africa had given it the home advantage. Gene saw no other solution
to save the planet. He was ready to foreclose on darkness’
home.

The yellow indicator for the missile's
position moved along the dots that plotted its path. Flung out of
Earth's atmosphere, the weapon's ballistic path brought it into a
steep reentry. The bottom position of the screen showed the
missile's rising hull temperature. In a glowing ball of plasma, it
thundered towards an area high above north-eastern Africa. The
Trooper's update of success played like sweet music in Gene's ears.
"Test projectile has reached the target. Hull temperature 600
Kelvin. Simulating photon explosion."

Concentric rings of various colors formed in
an instant surrounding the projectile's position on the map. Each
of the circle's respective color signified a different level of
destruction. Computer animations of animals and humans across
landscapes and cities showed the weapon's effects in great detail
on the adjacent screens. A bright white flash appeared across the
video wall. What followed were images of utter destruction, the
proportions of which dwarfed the forces that Isabelle saw destroy
the ancient settlements in her vision at the underground farm. For
hundreds of kilometers every living being, plant or structure was
evaporated. The ground turned to a foot of molten lava, which ran
off hills and mountains to reshape the entire topography of what
had been most of eastern Africa. A simulated pressure wave ensued,
caused by the sudden expansion of all matter that absorbed the
weapon's heat. A tsunami of planetary proportions formed off the
African coast and raced towards the middle east. Much of the
turbulent mass of rushing water began to boil and quickly turned to
steam from the effects of the high-energy photons released at the
ignition of the bomb.

Algae in the ocean became bleach-white as
their complex chlorophyll molecules broke from the influx of light
particles. The projection called for a complete annihilation of the
current life in the world's oceans over the following two years
from the effects. After that, the animation lapsed to a period
where cadaver-eating lobsters filled the seven seas and began
living off all that was dead for years and eventually consumed
their own dead until nothing remained. The video froze on an image
of a new continent entirely comprised of lobster skeletons.

Computer simulations of the two rings
surrounding Tasha's home country dwarfed the blunt violence of the
nuclear detonations unleashed on the people of Nagasaki and
Hiroshima in the 1940s. A pressure wave of the vaporized topography
of Tasha's homeland shot across the next 2000 kilometers. In the
inner ring, the 1,000km zone surrounding the vaporized part of
north east Africa, every structure, plant and anything flammable
was instantly incinerated. The image switched to a family in a
basement apartment below a burning city. Everyone dropped to the
ground suffocated, since the fires had consumed the oxygen that had
remained. Back outside, what didn't burn was left covered in a
layer of vitrified rock after the pressure wave had cleared.

As it passed across cities and country sides,
the vaporized rock and metal from the center of the detonation had
cooled and solidified on the objects that had survived the
inferno.

On the following ring, now 1,500 km from
ground-zero, the heat was still sufficient to incinerate anything
flammable and char persons beyond recognition. The pressure wave
leveled every manmade structure. One of the larger screens on the
multi-media wall of the command center showed an oil field in a
middle eastern nation blow away from the distant photon detonation.
Moments later, the heat ignited the deposits below in a fiery
mushroom cloud of oil and flames. A birds-eye view revealed the oil
producing nations of that part of the world covered in burning rain
of oil and thick, dark smoke. Gene's act would be in the sentiment
of many ancient myths that had kept populations in fear since their
inception.

Gene was particularly satisfied reading the
Mid-East projections for zero survival of population and
infrastructure. To be completely successful with his plan, he would
have to brush aside the only other remaining corporate entity,
Tefis whose sole product was the sale of energy. He knew Tefis
would have destroyed any quantum-energy production facilities.
Although Gene was in control of the world's media, he did not
underestimate the power of the Tefis Corporation and their own
covert army.

Devastation of the bulk of their oil reserves
and the absolute death of what once was the cradle of man's
civilization, would be sufficient to execute the final and most
hostile takeover of his firm. Gene's plan was to convert the
world's power plants to Quantum Energy and continue to sell
electricity to the fearful survivors of humanity. Simulated
devastation of most of Africa and the Mediterranean played on other
displays. A list of immediate casualties projected a total of 300
Million deaths and 2.5 Billion each of the two years that followed
from disease and starvation. Gene's smile returned to his face as
he anticipated his reign of the world. He leaned back in his chair
and proclaimed, "finally, we’ll have peace."

Since the test projectile didn't carry a
warhead that would have destroyed it, the speeding clay missile
continued its descent through the atmosphere. Its temperature near
absolute zero at the time of launch had protected it from the heat
that resulted from the friction with the air. After re-entry, it
had heated up significantly. Once the projectile passed the target
area, its hull became a white-hot glowing comet. The missile's
fuselage was disintegrating as it crossed the Mediterranean Sea and
headed for the little seaside village where Isabelle's spectacular
fly-by had caught attention earlier that night. Almost everyone
from old to young had remained in the church out of fear. Without
realizing how close to the truth he was in his assumptions, their
priest had told them their sinful behavior had brought about the
same wrath that destroyed Sodom and Gomorra in biblical times.

The town's market-square laid deserted only a
few streets away from the crowded church. The brilliant glow of the
test missile's remnant lit up a scene in its colorful stained-glass
windows. The delicate artwork depicted the coming of the white
horsemen in the mythological story of the Christian apocalypse. The
entire congregation fell to their knees and began to pray. Little
more than a piece the size of a tennis ball remained of the
projectile after it had mostly burned up on its path. Still
traveling much faster than any bullet ever could, the white-hot
chunk of ceramics rammed into the village's central square. Despite
the leftover projectile's small size, its enormous velocity
provided it with enough kinetic energy to destroy the entire market
place. Carnival decorations and pieces of a bandstand shot off in
all directions. A smoldering crater the size of a family home
marked the site where earlier that night the town had been singing
and dancing. The priest lead into a sermon of how praying was the
only thing that saved the town. The congregation eagerly followed
his requests to fill the collection plates.

Back in his lair, Gene was eager to execute
his attack. The bristly hair on his neck rose to attention as the
dark leader uttered his orders.

"Prepare the Pythagoras-Missile for
launch."

His staff of henchmen snapped into action. A
few of the Troopers' taps on their consoles and the crane in the
missile bay was loading the weapon into its position on the launch
track. The robotic arms with the supply lines connected to the
bottom of the fuselage.

"Initiating orb. Launch in t
minus ten minutes."

The simulations on the video wall had given
way to images of the live weapon and its supporting components.
Radar showed what little remained of Tasha's cloud-seeding
squadron.

"There are two left. Sir, we won't be able to
hold the countdown for them. The mountain's already heated above
norm from the earlier interruption."

Gene didn't care to be reminded that Tasha
had caused him to interrupt his attack. With a dissatisfied grunt,
he settled back in his chair. "We launch on schedule."

Inside the missile bay, the orb generator had
begun its task. Ionization of gas in the reaction chamber was
setting in. A glowing sphere the size of a pinhead formed in the
center. The quantum orb would grow over the course of the ten
minute countdown to reach the size of a basketball, the intensity
needed for Gene's photon detonation.

54 TASHA GETS TOUGH

Tasha's struggle with strong winds and ground
fire had not been without effect. Despite having lost all her
drones but one, some of her seeds were coming to fruition in the
form of a cloud layer in the area over the lair. There was not
enough condensation in the air for a lightning storm and time was
running out both to stop the missile and for Tasha to avoid being
shot down. Even if she managed a few more passes without another
missile hit, the two planes’ spray nozzles simply could not provide
enough coverage. She needed a quick way to put more clouds in the
sky. To survive, Tasha was flying just above the reach of the
henchmen's shoulder-mount weapons. Her efforts of cloud-seeding at
that altitude brought little advancement for her cause. The weather
was forming far below. She was contemplating her dwindling options,
when a missile detonated in the air just under her tail. Gene's
Troopers had disabled their weapons’ safeties so that the missiles
would explode at the end of their burn, rather than fall to the
ground. The detonation pushed the plane's rear up, sending Tasha
into a vertical dive, with 25,000 feet between her and the ground
that was approaching at high speed. Tasha pulled the yoke towards
herself in an attempt to level off the plane, to no avail. The
force of the missile's nearby explosion had torn the elevator off
her tail. Without elevator control, there was no possible way to
turn the immensely large craft upright again. Tasha tried to
compensate with ailerons and flaps, which are the parts of the main
wings that control lift and roll, but the plane continued to race
towards the jungle. The last drone adjusted its course to match
Tasha's and together, what was left of her once mighty squadron,
sped towards its demise.