Chapter 3: The Hurricane that Awakened the World

“At the start of the 22nd century in the year 2100, humanity was devastated by a massive storm. Emerging from the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Astraeus, a massive hurricane on a scale that was never seen before, began to develop and force its way along the eastern coast of Mexico up towards the southeastern parts of the United States. The storm didn’t stop there however, and continued its path of destruction to devastate the entire eastern coastline of the United States before moving into the Atlantic Ocean.

At first, many meteorologists thought that Hurricane Astraeus would die out as it traveled across the ocean because typically, the weather conditions there were not favorable for hurricanes to develop. What they did not anticipate was that the effects of global warming had gotten to a point that allowed the hurricane to cross through the entire ocean completely undeterred. Astraeus would go on to march through the Mediterranean Sea, destroying the southern parts of Europe and the northern parts of Africa, before moving into the Arabian Sea. It would then continue cruising through parts of India, northern Malaysia, and Thailand, moving up along the eastern coast of China, before finally crossing South Korea and Japan and dissipating in the Sea of Okhotsk.

The storm was a cataclysmic disaster for humanity, and to this day, both its exact death toll and number of dollars in damages remains uncertain. The extent of destruction was so overwhelming that the World Meteorological Organization at the time officially changed its name from Kirk to Astraeus, after the Greek titan who is often associated with dusk, to represent how close humanity was to meeting its end with a single storm.

Hurricane Astraeus would go on to serve as a wake up call for humanity to finally tackle the problem of global warming at the time. Within a year, the organization now known as New Genesis, was formed from the best scientists and researchers from across the globe to develop a plan to prevent another catastrophe from occurring.”

There was a few moments of silence before the sounds of zippers, laptops, and drones moving around filled the room as the professor asked, “what time is it? Can someone check the time?”

“16:40 sir,” a female student says.

“Great! Looks like we finished the lecture right on time! I’ll let you guys leave 5 minutes early and we’ll discuss the founding of New Genesis in detail on Wednesday. Oh! And remember you guys have a quiz next Monday! See you there!” the professor shouts as the students begin to file out of the lecture hall.

Celia let out a huge sigh of relief, glad that the most boring class of the semester was finished. On the other hand, she had a big project to work on now, and a quiz taking place next week, as she worried which parts are going to be tested over.

What if it asks us what the original name of the hurricane was going to be? That part definitely needs to be memorized! She thought to herself as she began walking back to the School of Engineering, and what about the sea that hurricane died in? Ohtosk? Ohkots? Where does that name even come from!?

Seeing her worried expression Tabby calms her down. “There’s no point in trying to memorize things for a test in a week. Let’s try to focus on the things in front of us first shall we?”

She gave him an annoyed expression as if saying “well gee, it’s not like the thing in front of me is a stupid project that’s also due next week,” but nevertheless she knew he was right. She wasn’t good at retaining knowledge of the things she didn’t care much about anyway. She knew history was important, but to her, she had much bigger things in life to worry about.

After entering the School of Engineering, Celia takes the elevator up to the 31st floor and makes her way to the assigned workshop for her class. Each engineering student at the school was assigned a specific workshop and a three hour time slot to use for their projects. If they needed more time to work, they had to either request an extra time slot online or finish it up at home.

Each workshop came equipped with different machines and tools that varied depending on the specific engineering major it was built for. Being a General Robotics Engineer, which was part of the Robotics Engineering category, Celia’s workshop was equipped with 3D scanners, 3D printers, CAD modeling programs, metal synthesizers that smelted and produced recycled metal, an assortment of charging stations for the various ways that robots could charge, a large tool rack at each workbench, and a medium sized mini arena at the center of the room for testing designs.

As she entered the room, there were already students there working away on their own projects. The room was as loud as usual, filled with the sounds of screws being drilled in, wrenches being turned, gears being adjusted, metals being smacked, and different types of robots moving around. Some rolled around on wheels while others either flew through the air or slowly walked around in a janky manner. Celia quickly adjusts her Neurolink on her to dampen out the sounds of the room so as to not go deaf from the noise.

She peered over at the center of the room to see what robots were currently being tested. A small, white, ball-like robot zipped around the tiny walls of the arena, as the dark skinned boy who was controlling it tested its braking capabilities. On the other side, a blonde haired girl was flying some kind of butterfly-like drone, trying to get the hang of controlling four separate wings at a time.

She continued walking around the workshop to the table she typically sat at, as Tabby floated over to a nearby window and sat down to recharge in the sunlight. Just as she was beginning setting up her workstation, she noticed a boy working on a prosthetic arm next to her.

Wow she thinks to herself as she sees the model, that guy’s really got the hang of it huh?

The boy’s model almost looked complete. The metal plates were already placed along the shoulders and arms with a few mechanical wires and gears poking out from here and there. He was currently working on the hand, adjusting a few pieces of metal around to hide the wiring and mechanics of the arm, as well as giving it a nice smooth surface to grip with.

It was here however, that when the boy gave the hand a gentle squeeze to test the flexibility of the fingers, that the metal plating of the forearm splintered apart and caused some of the wiring to snap. The boy froze for a few good seconds before pressing his against his head.

Celia’s expression winced up as if she had just taken a bite out of a lemon, her face contorting with silent empathy as she understood his pain.

Let’s hope my project doesn’t go like that, she silently prays as she turns away, pretending to not have seen the incident behind her, first up, I need to plan out what the arm should look like.

She walks over to the computers that had the CAD programs installed on them and turns it on, letting the 3D holographic interface appear before her. On one side of the screen was a bar that contained all of the common materials that the students used such as metals and plastics, and on the other was a bar that contained all of the common parts they used such as gears and wires. Both objects could be dragged onto the 3D platform and then shaped and resized using a finger. The 3D environment didn’t follow the laws of physics, so the designs made there were mainly theoretical. Actually implementing what you designed in real life was the hard part.

Celia began constructing her design, swiftly moving pieces onto the platform using her fingers and molding them into the right shapes. She began connecting gears and small metal poles together to create an elbow, and strung together tiny electroactive tube-like wires that contracted and bent easily to mimic the movement of muscle fibers. After connecting everything together, she finally covers everything up with a few pieces of metal plates. When she finished, she took a step back and proudly looked at her design.

Wait a minute… Now that I think about it… this looks very similar to other guy’s design, she murmurs to herself, peering over at the boy who was now sitting there in defeat, swinging around his stringy, broken, creation like a toy.

“Nice design,” the boy comments, noticing her eyeing him, “I had a similar idea too, but as you can see —” He slings the arm up and down in front of her, “it’s not working out so well for me.” He lets a small chuckle before he sighs and tosses his creation inside his backpack. “Welp, I have to go to my next class, good luck on that design of yours. Hopefully it lasts better than mine,” he says before leaving the workshop.

Celia stands there for a second, slightly dumbfounded that she’s making the exact same mistakes as the person before her.

Oh god, the premonition is coming true isn’t it? she dreads to herself, her mind racing with countless thoughts, this thing is going to fail and break apart just like that guy’s isn’t it? And then I’m going to spend hours trying to work a solution to the problem, but I’m not going to be able to figure it out in time, because I ended up procrastinating on this project until the last two weeks, and then I’m gonna fail because this project is worth 20% of the overall grade, and the best thing I can show for it is a pile of wires and metal, which then leads to me failing the class, and I have to retake it all over again next semester and then I’m going to graduate late and then —”

“Celia? Celia! Calm down!” Tabby shouts at her, breaking her line of thought, “I have detected abnormal heart rate readings from you. Are you alright?”

Celia immediately snaps back to reality, her mind clearing up as she calms down. Tabby had gotten up from the window and was now floating around her with a worried expression on his digital screen.