Chapter Thirteen “A Whole New World” Over the many cycles that had passed since their discovery of the Sixth Directive, Zetchka and Drodek had met many times to theorize and further investigate the information of the ship systems. They knew there was information hidden inside the system, and their continued inability to locate and identify the data remained a frustration for them both. Zetchka had promoted Drodek to an elevated position. This was frowned upon by a few Members of Council, but they made no effort to rescind the order. It was rather odd for a Lectin to have a Personal Operations Technician; however, considering the proven quality of his prior theorizing and decision making, the Council deferred to his chosen appointment. At first their investigation occupied the great majority of their time and attention. Obviously, Zetchka had a high number of responsibilities he was obligated to attend to. The added burden of their covert work had drained him extensively, and it didn’t take long before it was physically evident. Eventually, Drodek convinced Zetchka to relieve himself of the added work. It was not an easy task, but after much discussion, Zetchka delegated the responsibility of solving the mystery solely to Drodek. There were several instances where the pathway to the information was glimpsed, but in each case the sighted pathway diminished from his efforts and once again became hidden in the system. If Drodek didn’t know better, he would have theorized that the ship system itself was consciously blocking his efforts. For nearly a complete cycle they would meet and discuss the search efforts nearly every minucycle. Eventually their meetings became more infrequent and after the fifth cycle had passed, they stopped having scheduled discussions. Drodek had done everything he could theorize of doing, to no avail. Zetchka could not offer any theorization to aid in the quest, and together they mutually agreed the mystery of The Sixth Directive may never be solved. From then forward, Drodek would spend most of his efforts in acting as a liaison between ship operations crew and the Lectin. He would once again be working with his maintenance crews and still be in direct contact with Zetchka. Although Zetchka had relieved him of his assignment to find the answers they were searching for; both men realized Drodek would never truly stop searching. This liaison position placed Drodek in the presence of the Lectin on a somewhat frequent basis. If he did someday discover the hidden information, it would draw no added attention for his need to speak to the Lectin. Unfortunately, although the two men met numerous times over the next fifteen cycles, this subject would not again be part of their discussions. As Peter pulled up to the front of the house, his Father waved to him from his favorite rocking chair on the porch. The chair was old and creaked a bit while it was rocking, but Kevin preferred it to the other chairs available to him. It had been his Father’s chair, and it was one of the few items he had been able to retrieve from his childhood home. Peter had offered many times to try to fix the creaky sound it made, but Kevin told him he liked the sound. “As long as I hear that creaking, I know I’m still kickin” he would always say. To this they would all laugh, at least until recently. Kevin’s health had been failing for a few months now. He played it off as nothing to worry about, but the Doctor informed them his time was approaching. It wasn’t a certainty, but Peter was convinced his Father’s diminishing health was a result of all the trips he had taken into the contaminated zones years earlier. From what his Uncle had told him, for every trip into the zones a local man took, his Father had taken three. All his efforts to find survivors and bring them to safety had taken their toll on the inner workings of his body. His Father was primarily responsible for the survival of most of the people in Chilton, along with untold numbers of people elsewhere. It had been his Father who organized the first cooperative, and he also coordinated efforts with the Pony Express Pilots. If not for his efforts, Peter could only imagine what the world would be like today. “How’s it going Pop?” “Oh…can’t complain…” came his standard reply. “Heard an interesting story on the broadcast today” Peter had heard it too, but allowed his Father to continue. “There’s reports coming out that a bunch of folks survived down in Australia, and bunch of animals too!” “Yeah, I heard that too…it would really be something if it turns out to be true.” “Yeah it would.” Kevin became silent for a few moments and then continued. “Ya know, I was thinking…if it’s all true, and they start bringing animals up here for us to breed like they say they want to…it would really make things like they used to be. I really hope it’s true, And I hope they got lots of birds to bring up here…it would be nice to have some birds to eat some of these damned bugs! I hate having to use so much bug killer on the crops….birds would be real nice...” “Yeah, it would be something to see a real bird.” Peter added. “You have missed so much Peter. I’m so sorry about that….since your Mother passed, I spend a lot of time just sitting here thinking about how things were, and how things changed. And I look at how things are today, and all -in-all I have to say things are getting pretty good…I think about how corrupt the world was, and then Mother Nature gave us all one big ol’ slap in the face…but we made it through…and we pulled together and we rebuilt….it’s kind of funny, when I was young, the only thing we all cared about was getting ahead, getting the newest car, the newest gadgets and fancy doo-dads….and now, here we are….we went from running the world, to back to the stone age, and now it’s like we are back in the 1950’s ….and we should be thankful for it”. Peter pondered his Father’s words as Kevin took a sip of his tea before continuing in his observations. “I keep seeing reports they are really pushing for everybody to start using computers again. I don’t think it’s very smart to do that. All were asking for is problems, didn’t we learn our lesson from the flare?...We can’t allow ourselves to become dependent on those damned things again. Why can’t people just be happy with the way things are?” “Don’t know Pop. Some people just think it’s the way we should go.” This was not the first time this subject was discussed by the pair. Kevin took another sip of his tea and closed his eyes. “I hope the reports are true. It would be nice for there to be birds again….I hope someday you can sit here and enjoy the beauty of seeing a hawk float on an updraft of air. You won’t believe it when you see it Peter. They just spread their wings and make it look effortless….they make it look like gravity doesn’t even exist.” After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and pointed towards the hill behind the house. “And your Mother and I will have a perfect view of them too….it will be nice…it will be a whole new world.” Neither of the men could know how accurate this statement would soon become.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 05:45:17 +0000
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