necklace. It was a Yin Yang in silver and gold, with two diamonds as the dots, each encircled in the metal of the opposite side. Her hand started to shake. She opened it. It was a locket, and inside was a tiny picture of her and a little boy. He must have been around eight or nine. "It was the hardest thing I'd ever done. The hardest thing I'll ever do. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him, or a night when he isn't present in my dreams."
It was her son. I didn't have to ask. "What's his name?"
"Connor. I call him Con Con. He'll never understand why I never came home."
We sat in silence for the rest of the ride. I wasn’t the only one who’d made a big sacrifice.
The flighter traveled deeper and deeper into lush greenery, away from civilization. It was quite possibly the most scenic trip I'd taken in my entire life. I saw virtually no signs of human life other than train tracks and a dozen or more freight trucks as we flighted down 81 South. The Smart Road was populated with automated vehicles. That was where the majority of the traffic was, if you'd even call it traffic, which you wouldn't. Besides the highway, the Smart Road and a flighter here and there, we were just like a brush sweeping across nature's paint palette, collecting all its richness in our bristles. My lungs opened up to the thick, moist air, my eyes as wide as an owl's in the dark of night. Except it was twilight, and the sky was still a deep sea blue, only just beginning its slow fade to black.
We reached a mountainous area of Southern Virginia and the flighter landed in a secluded nook, next to a lake. The water was still and inviting. As the seasons changed, the robust green that filled the branches here was speckled ever so lightly with maroon and orange.
"This is Claytor Lake."
"It's beautiful."
"Isn't it? All this is the result of a dam built on the oldest river in North America. It's an ancient gift that, fortunately, man has not yet destroyed. The dam once provided this region with much of its hydroelectric power. Southern Gate Electric, a utilities company owned by Congressman Wallingsford's brother, Billy, bought the dam five years ago and Seneca had it converted to power a large portion of the Northwestern Seneca hemisphere. This small area provides us with a substantial source of power that allows us to do the things we do. It's also used to cool our super computers. Right now, we’re standing directly above the greatest computing center in the world as well as one of Seneca's premier medical hubs."
I looked around, trying to pinpoint any sign of this. Nothing. In fact, everything I saw was natural and gorgeous— the antithesis of the artificial world of computers. "You would never know."
"And for the most part, no one does."
The mysterious men in blue shadowed us. About a hundred yards down, near the forest's edge, I saw a circle of grass with a gold ring. The entrance.
"Come on, let me show you."
Our little posse met two more men in blue at the entrance, trading places with our original escorts who turned back to the flighter. We stepped onto the encircled grass patch. The gold dome appeared and then, quickly, we descended. I was kind of surprised that taking this advanced elevator down inside the earth was beginning to feel normal.
"Doro, this is where you’ll be spending a lot of time once you go through your pre-requisite session work at S.E.R.C."
When the gold dissolved, the forest's sweet serenity was replaced by walls of computer monitors, all pumping out droves of data. This place was like my bedroom on insane mega steroids. An open workspace. People everywhere, young and old, of every ethnicity, working together or apart on intricate spreadsheets of equations and data. The buzz of machinery and voices blended symphonically. The smell of technology, what an aphrodisiac! Everyone looked enthusiastic about the work they were focussed on. This was an absolute wonderland to a tech junkie like me.
I started
It was her son. I didn't have to ask. "What's his name?"
"Connor. I call him Con Con. He'll never understand why I never came home."
We sat in silence for the rest of the ride. I wasn’t the only one who’d made a big sacrifice.
The flighter traveled deeper and deeper into lush greenery, away from civilization. It was quite possibly the most scenic trip I'd taken in my entire life. I saw virtually no signs of human life other than train tracks and a dozen or more freight trucks as we flighted down 81 South. The Smart Road was populated with automated vehicles. That was where the majority of the traffic was, if you'd even call it traffic, which you wouldn't. Besides the highway, the Smart Road and a flighter here and there, we were just like a brush sweeping across nature's paint palette, collecting all its richness in our bristles. My lungs opened up to the thick, moist air, my eyes as wide as an owl's in the dark of night. Except it was twilight, and the sky was still a deep sea blue, only just beginning its slow fade to black.
We reached a mountainous area of Southern Virginia and the flighter landed in a secluded nook, next to a lake. The water was still and inviting. As the seasons changed, the robust green that filled the branches here was speckled ever so lightly with maroon and orange.
"This is Claytor Lake."
"It's beautiful."
"Isn't it? All this is the result of a dam built on the oldest river in North America. It's an ancient gift that, fortunately, man has not yet destroyed. The dam once provided this region with much of its hydroelectric power. Southern Gate Electric, a utilities company owned by Congressman Wallingsford's brother, Billy, bought the dam five years ago and Seneca had it converted to power a large portion of the Northwestern Seneca hemisphere. This small area provides us with a substantial source of power that allows us to do the things we do. It's also used to cool our super computers. Right now, we’re standing directly above the greatest computing center in the world as well as one of Seneca's premier medical hubs."
I looked around, trying to pinpoint any sign of this. Nothing. In fact, everything I saw was natural and gorgeous— the antithesis of the artificial world of computers. "You would never know."
"And for the most part, no one does."
The mysterious men in blue shadowed us. About a hundred yards down, near the forest's edge, I saw a circle of grass with a gold ring. The entrance.
"Come on, let me show you."
Our little posse met two more men in blue at the entrance, trading places with our original escorts who turned back to the flighter. We stepped onto the encircled grass patch. The gold dome appeared and then, quickly, we descended. I was kind of surprised that taking this advanced elevator down inside the earth was beginning to feel normal.
"Doro, this is where you’ll be spending a lot of time once you go through your pre-requisite session work at S.E.R.C."
When the gold dissolved, the forest's sweet serenity was replaced by walls of computer monitors, all pumping out droves of data. This place was like my bedroom on insane mega steroids. An open workspace. People everywhere, young and old, of every ethnicity, working together or apart on intricate spreadsheets of equations and data. The buzz of machinery and voices blended symphonically. The smell of technology, what an aphrodisiac! Everyone looked enthusiastic about the work they were focussed on. This was an absolute wonderland to a tech junkie like me.
I started
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