Amidst the falling dust (The Green and Pleasant Land) by Oliver Kennedy Page A

possible too. The others hover in the background. They are out of their depth and I decline their polite offers of assistance. After much button tapping and several hundred command line instructions I manage to tap into the satellite feed algorithm. It is at this point I am confident in using Shiva to assist.
    “Shiva, display visual confirmation link for Eagle Knight One.”
    “Eagle Knight One visual reply” she echoes in the large room. We all look up expectantly at the large screen in the Core. It stays blank, just the occasional static flash. “Shiva, display visual confirmation link for Eagle Knight Two”.
    “Eagle Knight Two visual reply” says the artificial lady. More empty pixels. We cycle through. Three, four and five yield similar results. After the sixth satellite feed has failed to reveal anything Tasker can no longer bite his tongue.
    “What the pissing hell is going on Redmayne?” he asks eloquently. For a moment or two I consider how to frame the complexities of the satellite system to him in words he will understand. “The uplink was a system which required around the clock monitoring and maintenance. Tiny adjustments to the satellites trajectories and alignments were made in order to keep the uplink functioning. The system has been out of action for too long and is too far out of synch to give any kind of visual feed.”
    “Sounds like bullshit” comes the sneer.
    “Keep trying Patrick” says Trowler.
    We cycle through the next five without any success. We have flown hundreds of miles out of our way, and put ourselves in the position where we may never make it back to the sea going tomb waiting offshore for us. For nothing. It has been futile and only seeks to hammer home just what a waste our every action since the downfall has been, mankind is finished, the dead have risen and this is their time.
    “Shiva, display visual confirmation link for Eagle Knight Twelve”,
    “Visual link confirmation” says the machine in the same tone as she has the previous eleven times. A tone that belies what comes next. There is no static this time, the screen bursts into life and reveals a satellite feed of the ball of rock and gas that is Earth. Data streams down either side of the image, but none of us pay it a single iota of attention. We are transfixed, hypnotized by the cruel brilliance of what we see. This is a picture that will turn in my mind for the rest of my numbered days.
    Thirty seconds later the picture is gone. I try to re-establish. No luck, I work at it for a few minutes, then ten, fifteen, twenty. The next thing I know I have spent over an hour trying unsuccessfully to get the feed back up. In the background I am forced to listen to the mixed reactions of the others. Tasker rages, at me, at the world. Trowler just keeps saying that he doesn't understand while the others are silent, pensive, demon wrestlers. I give up. The chair creaks as I sit back.
    I look around the command centre, I dazzle myself with the lights which cut through the darkness of the dome. Then a thought hits me, it sucker punches my consciousness so hard I nearly fall off the chair. “Shiva, is it dark outside??” I ask frantically.
    “Can you clarify the query?” she asks me with not a hint of panic.
    “Has the sun gone down???”
    “Sunset was twenty two minutes ago” she states.
    “Shiva, switch off all internal and external lights above ground level”,
    “I am sorry Patrick, the manual overrides that you put in place to power the system prevent me from doing so, you will need to use the main junction box in the utility centre to turn off the lights”. I start to run with the others hot on my heels. I am given a taste of Lieutenant Taskers brutal physical strength as he grabs me by the scruff of the neck mid run and pulls me from my feet.
    “Where are you running to?” he bellows.
    “Let go of me you fool” says I which with hindsight was a mistake. The words are barely out of my mouth as the barrel of