Another week passed and still nothing notable to be reported by the UAV operators. Roul had suspicious feelings about the situation. It was planned that an engineer would check out the building and make notes the past week, but they had to call him off due to the circumstances. Those hiding inside the factory surely knew they were being spectated by now. It has been a long time these men had been spying on a building that seemed empty.

——————————–

Roul knocked on Anton’s door.

“Enter!”, Anton said with a raised voice.

“Anton, the men are getting restless now, can I ask you for a favor?”

“Depends” Anton replied while turning the volume of the TV down a little.

“I want to go inside and look what’s going on myself.”

“Absolutely not! You’re an important man here, and the new owners of that building, plus the owners of the buildings around it, would be very angry if anything were to happen.”

“I can understand that you find me too important to do this, but why are you so keen on the wellness of the surrounding infrastructure? It’s not like they are in danger or anything.”

“Oh, they certainly are, Roul. Have you ever considered the fact that this building is at least twice as high as the regular buildings surrounding it? I am certain that the owner of the Coffee Shack would shit cannon shells if his neighbor would come on a visit, with building and everything.”

“You’re still assuming that there’s going to be lots of damage when someone would enter that factory. Why?”

“Well, I wasn’t supposed to tell this, but-”, Anton stood up and closed the door behind Roul, “I had a call from the secret service, an important one that is, they insisted I answered them over the encrypted line.”

Anton angled his head a little.

“It would seem that we are dealing with a terrorist cell.”

“Sir?”

“To make a long story short; some remarkable decisions have been made by our higher ups. To be more specific, a mercenary corp has been hired to create disaster here, aiming to create a civil war, and eventually leave our planet less populated.”

“That’s sick, sir, but I know you too well to doubt you, how did you learn about this?”

“That story is even worse, really. I have been part of the secret service in former Britain, and I investigated the matter there. The thing is, however, that my staff officer ordered me to stop researching it. That’s why I’m here now, I couldn’t stand the idea of being corrupt like that.”

“I don’t get it, this doesn’t add up. Why would the secret service call you on a matter they know of themselves? And why did they let you go?”

“Not everyone knows of it. Some of PPA’s islands are more… local. They share ideas different from ours. As for me, I made a great escape with some help of the locals that didn’t like the authorities.”

“Quite a story. Now, what should we do now?”

“We should scan the building for heavy metals such as uranium.”

“It’s that drastic? Who is this terrorist group anyways?”

“I have no idea”, Anton pointed at the TV and started turning up the volume, “but I bet he’s going to tell us right now.”

A man appeared on television as part of a Planetary News Channel report, the reporter talked about him.

“That’s my former staff officer” Anton said, and they both continued listening to the report.

“…and delivered the tape to our studio as a message to our government.” PNC played the tape.

“Greetings, cattle of the PPA. I’m Jack Carver, member, spokesperson and co-leader of Population Control. I hereby announce that our group will either be your friend or your enemy. Unfortunately we won’t leave you any room for deciding that yourself, as we will do it for you. We have selected several sections on this planet that will be wiped out so that the planet’s biggest problem will be solved in a matter of minutes. We cannot announce which areas we have selected, but just in case, call your family and tell them you love them, and that you will possibly be part of the great solution to this growing problem.”

“Is he serious?”, staff officer Du Val responded on the report.

“Shhh”, Anton responded.

“I will hereby end this message and, please, don’t forget we’re doing this for a good cause on longer terms.” the videotape ended and PNC continued talking about the tape and the background of this person.

“It’s all or nothing now”, Anton said, “we can try and disarm the nuke near our base and see if we can pass on the intel about those things in time.”

“Yes, about that… the current emergency response team is quite unusual so I suggest putting together a team of-”

“Anything will do, Roul”, Anton interrupted,“as long as it’s in time”.

——————————–

“Matthew!”, Roul shouted through the hallway which ended in a large doorway that lead to the waiting room for the emergency response team, “you’re up!”.

A slightly large man appeared in the doorway. The left side of his face featured a scar, a small unmaintained beard and a thick set of eyebrows.

“Roul!”, the man responded with his heavy voice, “what the fuck?!”.

“You don’t speak to a superior like that, Sergeant Copper! Now get on the patrol jeep, we’ll fill you in on the details during the drive.”

“Anything you say, sir!”

Sergeant Copper kicked the door open and climbed on the jeep. The more rugged jeep, also known as command center vehicle which was Anton’s ride, drove towards the gate and waited for Copper to group up. Within an hour from that point, Sergeant Copper was about to become a large scale hero, even though he didn’t know himself. It might be noted this would not be his first majestic appearance on the field.

Meanwhile, Anton returned to his base of operations and started gaining information about the squads he currently held responsibility for. He would then use the information to effectively divide all crews to their new equipment, which now also consisted of attack helicopters with high impulse weapon systems, armored personnel carriers with stun dispensers, GPS artillery, and tanks with high velocity rail guns. Anton was the first Texas based operations officer to use his funds for quality high tech material. Texas wasn’t subject to any attacks, terrorism or riots, so the previous operations officers did not see any need for such extensive material, hence the unrealistic paychecks given to military personnel working in this area. This was changed rather quickly with Anton’s arrival. It would seem Anton is preparing for something, but this would be a false interpretation because there wasn’t any structure or useful material when he started off on this location, so this was absolutely necessary in his perspective. The civilization near the Sandbox and the military base responded quite shocked to the reorganization, as it did not fit their comfortable lives and the idea of being safe due to the lack of threats rather than good protection. The regular citizens soon figured that their fear was unnecessary and that the recent changes probably were for the better, however, there was a certain other party that did not feel the same way. The false interpretation mentioned earlier is exactly what triggered the upcoming events.

——————————–

“Anton”, Roul said, “there’s something you need to see.”

Anton stood up and followed Roul through the hallway into the elevator. Roul pressed the lowest button in the elevator, which was represented by the icon of a key, instead of a negative number. The elevator traveled all the way down and when it came to a sudden stop, both Roul and Anton took off their berets and grabbed their RFID cards. The elevator doors opened and the floor they were now on seemed like an endless dark space. It seemed empty, except for the card reader and retinal scanner attached on the wall. A bright spotlight shed light on this part of the wall that would otherwise not even be visible due to the lack of other light sources. Anton and Roul walked over to the lit part, Roul first authorized himself. He held his card in front of the card reader and waited a moment. The card reader bleeped and Roul then showed his right eye to the retinal scanner, which then also beeped. A cage came down upon Roul and the floor beneath him started lowering. The floor came back without Roul and the cage lifted up as well. Anton did the same and was lowered through the floor as well, until the floor stopped and a doorstep was visible. He walked through the doorstep and met up with Roul in the hallway. They were now in a secret part of the base, these sections have been constructed in all military bases, and provided several functions. Primarily, it provided cover for whenever a disaster may occur, but it also homes all the required servers for the base and maintenance crew. Next to that, this bunker contained a secret headquarters, all necessary supplies to survive for a year, and a secret encrypted link to all other bases that could be patched with the internet, the power lines, and a secret cable, offering two options if one of them would fail.

“So, what did you bring me here for?” Anton said while following Roul through the hallway into the headquarters.

“Hold on”, Roul said as they sat down on a chair near the communications panel.

“Operator! Show the operations officer the images.”

One of the communications specialists started typing on the panel, and the large screen on the wall lit up. A satellite image of the nearby town showed up and the operator started explaining.

“We picked up a police report about suspicious activity in one of the factory halls, now shown down left on the screen. It’s closest to our “

The operator started zooming in on the factory hall.

“The thing is, less than 24 hours after our shipments of new equipment came in, which is practically the first sign of our reorganization to the outside world, strange signals have been jamming our patrol car’s radio signals around that area.”

The operator started typing again, and a dark blue satellite image of the factory appeared.

“Now this is what’s notable, when looking at the factory with electromagnetic force imaging, you can clearly see lots of electrical activity, which is strange for a factory like this for two reasons.”

“Which are?” Anton asked.

“This is a brewery, if anything, there shouldn’t be this much current going through that building.”

“And the other?”

“Well, this factory has been shut down a month ago, sir, there shouldn’t be any activity to begin with. The building is going to be demolished within two months from now. The PPA figured it would be best if the brewery would be moved to an industrial area and this ground would do well for a new living space.”

“Interesting… Can you decipher the signals jamming our radio? I personally don’t think that whoever this is, they don’t deliberately want to jam our radios, it doesn’t make sense and there’s nothing to gain from it.”

Anton scratched his head, “Also, I’d like to have that building observed from now on.”

“I’m on it, sir!”

Anton and Roul stood up and left the bunker. Anton tried to figure out this mysterious matter, but didn’t have enough facts to puzzle with.

——————————–

“Done!” Mathias said to himself, and he started the simulation.

“What exactly are you doing?” Lenka asked with a stuffed mouth, she was eating a sandwich and was interested in Mathias’s work.

“It’s a work of my own, I had a certain theory and right now I’m trying it out. The server park is simulating my theory right now.”

“What theory?”

“Oh boy, this’ll be tough to explain. Let’s say I have dreamed about this once, and it’s a stupid theory but I somehow feel like simulating it just so that I don’t have to think about it anymore. It’s silly, really.”

Lenka raised her eyebrows and waited with Mathias for the simulator task to finish.

“SIMULATION FINISHED, RENDERING RESULTS”, a female computer voice said.

“No matter what the case is, I always get excited hearing that voice”, Lenka said, “it’s all science, anyways, it’s a fetish I guess.”

“RENDERING COMPLETE, YOUR MODIFICATIONS HAVE BEEN APPLIED AND ARE NOW INTERACTIVE”

Mathias and Lenka both stared at the screen for a while.

“Why is nothing happening?” Lenka said surprised.

“Oh dear”, Mathias said, “this is unexpected.”

“What is?”

“I think I might have disproved the fact that our universe is a vacuum.”

“Excuse me?”, Lenka looked sceptic.

“This theory I thought of is quite strange, but I’ll try to explain it in a nutshell.”

Lenka sat down next to Mathias and started listening.

“Currently, it is thought that space is a vacuum. What I did was fill the vacuum with a certain gas that was present during the big bang, and voila, nothing happened.”

“Nothing happened. So?”

“It means that this is plausible, it’s a possibility that we’re living in a gigantic fume of gas.”

“That’s terrifying, actually. But besides that, imagine the possibilities!”

“Which possibilities are you seeing, Lenka?”

“Imagine there would be fumes with oxygen or other gasses we can breathe, it would be quite marvelous if this happens to be reality.”

“I guess you have a point there.”

“I’m off to report this to the director of the PPA science project, maybe we can get research funds for this!”

Lenka went to her desk, grabbed her security card, and went off.

“Everyone continue working, I’ll be back in an hour or two.”

Mathias looked as she left the room. The rest of the team was staring at Mathias, wondering what he talked into their team leader. It didn’t take more than half an hour before Mathias his phone rang. He was urged to come over to the office of the PPA science project director with his simulation results.

“I’m thirsty, hungry, and tired”. He stood up and walked towards the refrigerator to see it’s contents.

“Anyone else in for a bottle of cold water?” He asked, but the only responses he got from his teammates was the idea they lost hope in him, it was likely it had to do with the fact he never really goes out to get groceries himself.

Mathias sat down with his bottle of water and gazed at the large OLED whiteboard screen that was full of calculations. It was his work, he was performing a research on some facts and tried to see if he could notice something unusual or that could prove helpful for finding a solution to the overpopulation. He and his team consisting of five people, three male and two female scientists, decided the solution would most likely be something along the lines of relocating civilization or populating a new area and balancing the population between those two areas. A large issue persisted however; they had no idea where they could transport people to. All planets within range of Earth don’t have the right conditions for human life, and beyond those it’s not even known what the planets and stars look like. They simply lacked required knowledge. This thought troubled Mathias, it was as if he was given a special assignment and he wasn’t even granted the tools required to do it.

“We should feel lucky to be living a life like this, you know. All we do is think of this ‘solution’, and it’s not even necessary to rule out the extreme, we can let our fantasies form the results” Lenka replied upon seeing Mathias frowning upon that whiteboard.

“If the path we’re following leads to a dead-end, we could always design some sort of housing that can survive the conditions on Mars or the moon”, she continued, “if anything, it’s certain we can live this convenient life for quite a while”.

Lenka turned her seat and started working on her log book on the project. The other team members took this as a signal to continue their work also, and the harmony returned in the lab. Mathias looked around and drank what was left of the water. A long moment of silence followed. Mathias opened his email program and looked if he received anything interesting while he was sleeping during the monthly briefing from the PPA science project manager. The distinguished ‘you got mail’ sound announced several new items in his inbox. Mathias usually didn’t receive anything except the monthly newsletter from the PPA science project, and the daily PNC newsletter. PNC stands for Planetary News Channel, and does pretty much nothing else but report the daily death toll due to criminal activities and terrorism, which grew in an exponential line since the overpopulation on planet Earth. However, this time, Mathias received something unexpected.

“A.Drevin@PDF.com”, Mathias read to himself, “Now who was that again…”.

PDF stands for Planetary Defense Force, and Mathias had a hard time recalling whoever he would know from the military. As he opened the email, he immediately remembered he knew the sender upon seeing his picture. It was someone he acquainted with while on an excursion in former Russia. He was guided through the science labs of the former Russian forces and in the canteen he met him. He was a somewhat short but tough guy with arms that looked like they could move a wall. He had short black hair, and was in military uniform. As militaristic as he looked, he seemed quite knowledgeable on subjects such as physics. Mathias started to read the email;

Dear Mathias

Am I lucky to find you! Ever since the PPA was constructed and the plans for finding a solution to the overpopulation were created, I got transfered to a base in Texas, former USA. At first it wasn’t quite known what the deal was, but eventually I found out we’re a backup whenever something might happen in that laboratory they call the Sandbox. Today, on my promotion, I received the list of valuable people, and you were on it, so I thought I’d drop you an email now that I know it. Since we live close to each other now anyways, how about a drink? I hope to hear from you soon again.

Best regards,

Anton Drevin

Mathias raised his eyebrows and looked at Lenka.

“I’m sure someone in this room will get pissed at me for being absent again” he thought to himself. He sighed and raised his shoulders, opened a draft, and started typing;

Hey Anton,

It sure is a long time ago ever since we met. It’d be a great idea to meet up again, but you probably know what it’s like here, busy busy busy. I’ll do my best to get myself a day off upcoming weekend. I hope you will be able to get a day off on the same date.

See you soon,

Mathias Granger

Mathias sent the email and leaned back in his chair. He looked quite enjoyed after receiving word from someone interesting and more sane than these colleagues he had to work with. This could become an interesting weekend.

——————————–

A tall, charming, good looking officer walked through the hallways of the all-round Marines administration office, located in the military base in Texas, former US.

“Anton!”, he yelled, “where are you?”.

Anton rolled himself into the hallway in his office chair with a sandwich in his mouth. He nodded towards officer Du Val, as he couldn’t speak with his mouth full.

“Here’s some paperwork you need to fill out”, Roul threw a document on his lap, “you’ve been pressing this forward on your schedule for about a month now, it’s about time you start making it”.

“Shit”, Anton said after he swallowed the piece of sandwich he still had in his mouth. “What was all this about again?”

“It’s all about the materials you would like to use. You suggest the vehicles and weaponry, the military will look if it’s affordable”, Roul replied.

“So in other words”, Anton said, “if the operations officer has no idea about equipment, the military can suggest cheap stuff and shove off the responsibilities on the officer?”. Anton sighed, “Just marvelous, this organization”.

Anton looked for a pen and decided that the pen clipped on Roul’s vest would do.

“You go back to your duties, I’ll handle this right now, I promise this time”, Anton stated, and he rolled back into his office in his chair. Anton looked outside and saw how everything was getting dark. It was getting late. He looked at the paperwork and thought to himself that it didn’t need to be rushed that much. Anton locked his office and went off to his room for a long night sleep.

——————————–

Mathias looked out the window while sipping some of his coffee. He was waiting for Anton’s arrival at a small restaurant called the ‘Coffee Shack’. It used to be a mediocre restaurant with all sorts of food on the menu, but ever since the Sandbox was built, a lot of employees and project workers have been coming and going for a cup of coffee, tea, and a small bite for breakfast. The owner decided his welfare would improve if he would overhaul his business, and so he did. Now it’s practically a large living room with a bar and a small shop for all sorts of small foods that would do just well for breakfast or supper. A gigantic army-green jeep pulled over and parked in front of the coffee shack. Mathias had no idea what kind of monstrous vehicle it was, as he has never seen anything like it before. It looked twice as wide, twice as long, and about halfway higher than those pre-2000 jeeps, the shape was nearly the same though. The thick shaded bulletproof glass and the antennas on the roof made it look like a driving outpost. Then again, who knows what could be in that thing, it just might be able to serve as an outpost. The door opened and two people got out. Mathias recognized Anton being one of them. Anton and Roul made their way to the entrance while being watched by everyone sitting near the window, they must have been as surprised as Mathias upon seeing that jeep. Mathias set down his cup, stood up, and waved at Anton and his companion.

“Long time no see, dear friend!”, Mathias said while shaking his hand.

“Indeed, it has been too long. Here, meet Roul Du Val, my assistant and friend.”

“Greetings, Roul, I’m Mathias Granger, an old friend of Anton, but I’m sure he told you that already”

“Indeed, he did, nice to make your acquaintance, Mathias”

They sat down and answered the waitress that took their orders. Anton and Roul apparently didn’t have high standards, they ordered regular coffee with a slice of bread and a boiled egg, Mathias ate just before they came and also was shallow with placing his order, he merely wanted some orange juice. As the waitress went back to the kitchen, they started talking.

“So, Mat, what brings you here?”

“To be honest, the university I used to work at fired me, so I didn’t have a place to go to. I went to a job agency and asked for work, but the women behind the counter said there wasn’t much for me to do. But after she said that, the conversation took a strange twist.” Anton raised his eyebrows.

“She took me to her private office and there she introduced herself and offered me an income, a place to live, and said that I should keep it in front of myself. Of course I thought she was about to offer me some criminal work or something, but instead, she said that my coming was convenient for her plans. At this point, the story sounded even stranger, but then she started telling me about this PPA science project and the Sandbox and all that. She wanted to quit her job and start doing the things she had studied for. She gathered some friends with a higher education, but came one short, and now I’m here” he shrugged.

“That’s quite a story, you should consider yourself lucky!” Anton replied, Roul nodded.

“I do, I do. Although those people are a pain to work with, it is quite convenient. How about you?” Mathias asked.

“Well, it’s not that much of a story, but I got recruited for a simple VIP protection job, and after the higher ups saw how I was good in preparation, they decided to promote me. Of course, it sounded all too easy, and apparently I drew the right conclusion because now I’m here telling others how to babysit the Sandbox”. He sighed and continued, “not that I mind doing so, but still, the guys back at the base must enjoy the thought of seeing me in my office all day long”.

“That’s practically the same thing I’m doing all day” Mathias replied, “but I’m getting one hell of a paycheck every month. I wonder where they get the money from”.

Anton laughed. “I know exactly what you’re implying! Did you see my new patrol car? We have about thirty of those now. I specifically asked for a single armored Mountaineer MKII, and they shipped thirty of  ’em.”

Mathias thought about it for a moment. It was quite easy to figure out the reason behind all that money spending from the global government. Everything that was related to the Sandbox had an exaggerated budget, so it was obvious that the PPA really wanted to find a solution to their problem.

“Sorry to interrupt”, Roul said, “but I think I have seen you before, Mathias. The university you were professor at, does it happen to be located in Washington?”

“Yes, yes it was”

“Weren’t you rumored to be somewhat… nuts?”

Mathias sighed. He didn’t exactly want to be remembered of it, but it would be unfair to hide it from his colleagues and friends.

“Yes, Roul. I happened to have had a theory, and I predicted something I shouldn’t have.”

——————————–

“This is preposterous!”, the school principle said, “how could you state something like that in a lecture that students pay hundreds of dollars for?!”

“I’m sorry, sir Dijkstra, but this is what I think of the subject, and I feel I’m more than qualified to express such conclusions”

“You, qualified?”, the principle grabbed the notes made during the lecture and started reading out loud, “…and therefore, it’s not unlikely that the universe may not be as big as we think. In fact, it’s unlikely that this vacuum that is spoken of, does not exist, and is merely a gas bubble contained in a confined space we may someday have to modify so it will resemble the conditions on Earth”, Dijkstra slammed the papers down on his desk, “You know as well as me that this is pure nonsense. Everybody knows that, that’s why we’re getting these complaints!”

“But how would they learn if they aren’t allowed to think outside the box? They should develop and conclude their own theories or substitute existing ones when they agree with them. I don’t see how-”

“I’ve had enough of this. As I said, you have proven that you’re not qualified to do this type of work, and I am therefore dismissing you from your position. Go lecture your fantasies somewhere else.”

——————————–

“Oh no, not again…” Lenka’s voice pronounced somewhere distant.

“Mathias!”, she shouted, “wake up!”

Mathias nearly jumped out of his seat. He fell asleep again, and he was dreaming about the situation one of his old students addressed yesterday.

“I’m sorry Lenka, I was dreaming about work, really!”

The guys in the office laughed out loud and one of them, Adam Murphy, said “I’ll remember that one! I haven’t heard that excuse yet!”

Mathias stared at his screen at the calculations he made. “What if…” he thought to himself. He opened a simulation program and started working out his theory, just to see if he could actually be right about his theory.

]]> http://finalsymphony.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/chapter-1-outside-the-box/feed/ 0 chavezd http://finalsymphony.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/prologue/ http://finalsymphony.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/prologue/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:53:31 +0000 chavezd http://finalsymphony.wordpress.com/?p=13 ]]> Prologue

The universe is said to be gigantic, enormous, and is sometimes even addressed as something beyond our comprehension. It makes the situation very ironic, because regardless of those keywords and definitions, civilization is overpopulated. The main reason for this is that mankind has yet to put any effort into populating any other planet than the one it originates from, but this statement is subject to change. The year is 2239, and the planetary population administration, PPA for short, has started selecting projects that should help to nullify the current situation. This on itself is, again, ironic, as the PPA was an initiative to prevent overpopulation, but it was soon clear that even combining all countries under a single administration with balanced resources would be a temporary solution. The news that scientists and organizations could receive funds for thinking of a solution reached all over the world, and the targeted audience was enthusiastic of the idea that the most effective solution would be realized and fully funded by the PPA. It could mean great break through, and the great minds behind the idea are sure to be recorded in the history of science.

All professors that were willing and able were collected and given an area to work in, the location of this building called ‘the sandbox’ is Texas, a state of the country that used to be known as the United states of America, and now is PPA, just like any other country on the planet. The Sandbox is where the project teams lived and worked, and this is where the story starts. A certain scientist named Mathias Granger arrived at the Sandbox with his team…