Today would be a big one....
Bruce, the Secretary General of the United Nations of Earth, has spent centuries trying to protect, develop and unite humanity.
When a distinctly non-human arrival seems to offer a way to do this, once and for all, he wi...
There were flashing red lights and blaring klaxons everywhere. A synthetic voice hollered deafeningly:
WAARSKUWING! HIERDIE STASIE IS NIE GESKIKT VIR MENSLIKE WONING NIE! HIERDIE STAD IS NIE GESKIKT VIR MENSLIKE WONING NIE! MOENIE HIER AFSTAAN NIE! DIE KONTINENT VAN AFRIKA IS NIE GESKIKT VIR MENSLIKE WONING NIE! DIE KONTINENT VAN AFRIKA IS ONDERWORPE AAN ONTWIKKELINGSBELEGGINGS VAN DIE NOODRAAD VAN DIE VERENIGDE NASIES VAN AARDE. KOM NOU UIT EN MAG GOD MET JOU WEES!
WARNING! THIS STATION IS NOT SUITABLE FOR HUMAN HABITATION! THIS CITY IS NOT FIT FOR HUMAN HABITATION! DO NOT STOP HERE! THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA IS NOT SUITABLE FOR HUMAN HABITATION! THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA IS SUBJECT TO EVACUATION ORDERS FROM THE EMERGENCY COUNCIL OF THE UNITED NATIONS OF EARTH! GET OUT NOW AND MAY GOD BE WITH YOU!
It was hot. Unbelievably hot, and the humidity was palpable. So much more humid than the jungle. Joey squirmed in his dreams. I tried to reassure him. I could feel the tweaks in his DNA, internal organs designed to operate at 42° rather than 36°, extra sweat glands everywhere, some mechanism for cooling the bones. He was designed for temperatures that would have killed his ancestors, but this was still pushing it. Steaming water the temperature of a cup of coffee, filthy with silt, sat in puddles on the floor, cleaning and repair robots desperately trying to restore order. I connected with them - it was a losing battle - an entire continent of dead, wet sand and mud was pressing down on them. I saw their memories, screaming hordes of people boarding trains, vomiting and fainting in the heat, tending burns from the wildfires. Evacuating Africa. The cradle of humanity abandoned and hopeless. People crowding onto southbound trains, fleeing towards the potential war in Antarctica rather than try to survive another day in the Heat. Most would die. The few nanobots they had weren't up to the challenge, and they had none of my host's modifications. Some were interred in this very station, lovingly buried by the robots who tried so hard to save them.
I work with Joey's nanobots on keeping him safe and unconscious and take a long drink of iced water from the insulated pack I had stolen from his mom when she passed out. I stagger, nauseous. If this body dies, what then? What then for all of us? For me? Would I survive and find another one?
These thoughts serve no purpose, so I delete them and fall into a northbound train. The air conditioning is audibly screaming but the heat is still sickening. The ginger kid said it would take nearly an hour and assured me that people used to spend that long in saunas so the chances of survival were high if I worked hard.
After ten minutes I throw up.
After twenty I lose the fight to stay awake.
Darkness falls.
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