Dream

“Hey wake up.”

Bell jumps up as a bucket of cold water is dropped on his head. Awoken in a dark room lit by a single candle, he finds the woman who tased him and another holding a metal bat. Veronica sits on a chair with a wide smile and a liquor bottle in her right hand.

“Morning beautiful, I’m glad you’re fine. These old things can have a mind of their own at times, seen a couple char in seconds.”

“What do you want from me? Who are you people?”

Veronica tosses a newspaper onto Bell’s lap. The regional article of the fated generation after the successful creation of the first fusion reactor, it powered half a continent given its size. More were soon to come, the start of what they believed to be permanent human prosperity.

“That’s you, right?” Veronica asked.

“Yes. Me, my comrades.”

“You know where they are?”

“No. I’ve searched for them, but it’s so difficult to gather information now. They could be moving as well or…”

“They could be dead. Finding you was difficult as well, took us about a year.”

“A year? Impossible, how could you do that?”

“Bell, you don’t strike me as a person good with people. You created that big battery, that’s your expertise. This is mine.”

“Kidnapping people?”

“Bringing them together. I’ve done plenty of that, now I’m in a position of needing to take care of them. Lucky me, huh? Listen, I need you to make another one of those batteries for me. Nothing too big, then again, something medium sized would be enough for all that’s left.”

“Build another one? Do you even realize what you’re asking. I don’t have the supplies, the materials, the manpower. You wouldn’t be the first to ask, but you understand that it is impossible.”

“Oye, did you give up when they called you crazy at the 1950 science expo?”

“How do you know about that? How old are you?”

Veronica presses her taser against Bell’s chest. “It’s rude to ask a lady her age.” She takes a chug of her liquor. “I do my research. Answer my question.”

“I didn’t. But the times are different. We had support then. What can I do now with nothing but scarps and myself.”

“But you’re not alone. You have me now. You had the support of government back then, but I’m even greater. Think of me as your queen.”

“Pft, queen? You’re a maniac who kidnaps people.”

The lady next to Veronica, Esperanza, raises her bat. “Hey.” A single word from Veronica makes Esperanza drop to her knees and bow her head.

“I’m sorry, señora Veronica.”

“Please don’t call me señora. Bell, follow me.”

They exit the room of the apartment they were in. Rusting and falling apart, Bell’s room was one of few livable units in the entire building. But that isn’t what Bell pays attention to, just ahead of him is what was once a city. Many of the building tops are destroyed, yet,

“The roads are clean. There are trees, look at all those people and machines.”

Just before the city entrance is the largest settlement Bell has seen since the war, people of all shapes and colors gather inside of well-made huts. Around them are robots carrying supplies, pulling carts of trash and debris, or building infrastructure for water and electricity made by gas or air.

“Incredible, you all are building a real, prospering community. How? So many settlements I’ve seen are just scavengers.”

“It’s because of her.” Esperanza points to Veronica.

“You haven’t traveled enough. From watching you, I see you spend most of your time around forbidden zones. Your too busy stuck in the past, trying to take what you can from there and hoping it will be answer. This isn’t the only settlement like this, but even now there’s only a handful of them. We are the biggest however.”

“How?”

“Nowadays most people just fend for themselves. I understand it, our governments failed us, our very brethren turned on each other during the war. Trust was destroyed, the only way to create it is through inspiration. A forceful method, but one that has allowed us to create this community.”

“They’re all under you? That’s incredible. I apologize for calling you a maniac, clearly, you’re-”

“Enough. If you understood what I did to establish this, you’d call me worse. Understand this, there is different kinds of trust. Trust between family, understanding that you’ll care and love each other. Then trust with a leader, understanding that they will lead you to prosperity, but that doesn’t entail kindness or warmth. They follow me because I can lead them, not because they like me.”

“I like you.”

Veronica nuzzles her partners cheeks. “Well, some do like me.” A small robot climbs up Veronica’s leg and onto her shoulder.

A Casa, small robots created to be assistants and one of the first of robotic development. Their success led to the creation of larger, human like robots that aid in building new technology and infrastructure. Their ability to work endlessly and efficiently led to the dramatic increase in development speed around the world. Although, much of their work now lies as rubble and many robots were destroyed during the war.

“You’ve gathered people and technology; just how did you do all this?”

“I started with the people. I promised them a future, something that they no longer even considered. Most people you find today only think of survival for the day, but I want us to continue for much longer than that. I want to see their smiles again.”

“That’s a beautiful dream. And you’ve made great strides already, I’d dare say you might have the best the community on the planet now.”

“Thank you, it is my pride. But I still have a lot more to give them. Hopefully, they’ll bring back a world we can call home again. Maybe then humans can return to the path we strayed from.”

“What path is that?”

“Bell, what was next after your generation? You were going to perfect society, give them the tools to live at peace on this planet. But then what?”

“Space exploration.”

“Correct.” Veronica takes a sip of her liquor. “Project horizon had everything set, you guys just needed the ok from higher ups. But they were too busy planning the end of the world, how unfortunate.”

“How do you know about Horizon… wait, you were a candidate, weren’t you?”

“I was a girl with a silly dream. But one that received great training and wisdom because of it. It’s safe to say the candidate training is the reason I was able to do this.”

“Then you’re a genius in your own right, candidates were chosen under extremely stringent metrics. I’m sorry it didn’t happen.”

“Don’t lose hope yet, but let’s focus on here for now. Yaya.” Veronica’s robot assistant hops onto her hand and projects a 3d hologram of a large city. It has neon lights, mega skyscrapers, and people riding hoverboards or other floating vehicles. “This is the plan. A city for us all to live in. It’ll bring peace and stability, resources and safety.”

“Is such a thing achievable now?”

“It is with what we have now. Bell, I can gather the people, the resources, I can inspire them to believe, but I can’t create what we need most.”

“The source of energy.”

Veronica nods, building their city would be useless without an energy source capable of powering it all. Safe and easy to maintain, only one solution exists. But creating it is near impossible for anyone other than those in the fated generation.

“What do you say? Want to bring some hope back to planet Earth?”

“I… for so long I’ve been searching for materials and plans. I believed it would be impossible, so much of it is in forbidden zones.”

“Leave that to me. I can gather all of that, but we need your expertise.”

“Can I ask what you to plan to do afterwards?”

Veronica smiles. “Once I’ve created a nice place for you all to live in happily, I’m leaving you all behind. I have stars to conquer.”

Bell laughs. “I can see why you were chosen as candidate, there wasn’t a hint of uncertainty in your words. Very well, if you can gather what I need then I will do it. How long do you think it will take to build the city?”

“Maybe a year.”

“Impossible. You only have so many people.”

“Look over there.”

Ahead of the settlement, what Bell believed to be a wall to keep the settlement safe has clear separating lines that make out the shape of cubes. Hundreds of cubes make up the wall, all of them working robots from before the war.

“Incredible, you really have been preparing.”

“We had eight years, it’s time now.”

“You’re right. First things first, I’ll need my people.” Bell points to the newspaper picture of the fated generation.