Moon 514 || Blaze and the White Griffon

9 || Greydon

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Last revision: 2/15/2013

 Greydon

This was not how things were supposed to happen.  Greydon nervously paced his personal quarters by the door leading to the hallway.  A few weeks ago, the plan was to take the newest recruits on an exploratory tour – a tour to find the magic woman’s home planet and to learn from her people – a tour to find another place where human life could be supported and perhaps to find more people to associate with, learn from, and interact with – a scientific tour.  The team would take samples from the planet, perhaps leave a few volunteers to secure a base on the new planet – or planets – and wait for Dr. Boyd’s team to pick them up on the next tour.  It was simple.

But this … this was not simple.

Without explanation, Dr. Boyd urgently requested that Greydon bring Jazz to the waiting unit next to the runway – where the ship had been moved ahead of schedule.  He was to give the boy a tour of the base, explain Dr. Boyd’s plans for the next tour, and ask if the boy would be interested in joining the crew.  What young boy wouldn’t jump for that opportunity?  Expecting Jazz to say yes, Greydon was to leave the boy in his personal quarters on the ship for a few days, gather the newly chosen secret teams from each Order – again, ahead of schedule – and make sure that they were each shown their new living quarters.  While they were adjusting, Greydon and his team were supposed to locate Blaze, brief him about the nature of the trip, convince him to at least come look at the ship and the provisions they had provided for the trip, and await further instructions.

But that was all before the explosion.

By chance, Greydon happened to be with Dr. Boyd the moment it happened.  While meeting with the newest recruits for the purpose of giving them instructions about their new security clearances, new understandings about the true size and extent of the Orders, and answering their seemingly endless questions, Greydon had felt more excitement than at any other time of his life: the database was completed, the Orders were finally to be united as one grand unit, space tours were to increase in frequency and duration, and Greydon was going to be second in command over everyone who survived the Third Holocaust – well, that is, everyone except the crazy natives and the small but extremely influential group of scientists that controlled the natives. 

Where did they come from anyway? and how did they secure the technology they had?  Greydon had pondered these questions many times.  He supposed that there could have been another group of people who survived in bunkers, who retained a history of technological advances, and who continued to educate themselves – just like Dr. Boyd’s Orders.

But he had seen the pictures.

A few years back, Dr. Boyd had been able to secure access to two independent satellites that had been taking pictures of the planet for decades.  When pieced together, it had been quite evident that there were next to zero survivors on this planet – apart from those societies on or around Malaysia.  And the database contained no record of nearby bunkers.  Greydon suspected that a few scientists from one of the Orders may have abandoned their post – deserted their Order for some reason – but there was no record of any such event in any of the Orders’ histories.

But none of that really mattered now.

While Greydon was immensely enjoying his post teaching the newest recruits and preparing them for the next mission – the mission that was probably the most exciting of any he had been involved in – he heard the first explosions. 

The conference room had been designed by Dr. Boyd to oversee each of the nine Orders.  A semi-circular wall of windows allowed an expansive view of Dr. Boyd’s lifetime of labors – and the labors of men who had gone before him.  The wall of windows allowed those in the conference room to enjoy beautiful vistas while they learned at the feet of the world’s most brilliant scientist.  The wall of windows allowed them to watch the destruction of all of their family members and friends, the destruction of their homes, the destruction of their many lifetimes’ of hope.