Hacking the Sun [Old Version]

Chapter 7.3 Epistemology

Better memories seemed impossible to live. Jessica had fallen hard into the most common misconception, that the past was the true home of bliss. Anything else, everything else, was like falling. But, she discovered that life's pitfalls were pauses—not stops—on the road to paradise. Carpe Diem. 

Falling, falling, falling from the sky, the trick was in the landing.

Electricity pulsed across her body and opened her eyes. She was spiraling into New Sumer. The weightless rider with relentless imagination, embraced by the wind, grabbed hold of the board. She watched the city suburbs grow along with her blood pressure.

"Get ready!"

"Freefall nearing 340 feet!" cried Babel. "Ready to die now, Jess?"

The afternoon train now slid through New Sumer's eastern district. She shifted her weight appropriately, meticulously, to align with the rail. It had been a matter of calculating the interception to a tee. At approximately 100 meters from the ground, Jessica powered through the stress of the descent, and the gravity board fell underneath her feet.

"McFly!" 

The deck magnetized, rail line directly underneath when the locomotive arrived. Her legs shook, hips swayed, and her arms flailed outward, but she quickly compensated for the slam of gravity. In the end, the deck aligned. 

The landing was successful.

After powering past the whiplash, Jessica sped forward and hovered across the cars. As intended, the monorail expedited the trip and provided an unpaid fare to Pine Rim. The HUD's countdown constantly harassed her focus. Nothing, however, absorbed the heat of her adrenaline. With four minutes left, she believed she could make it. She had to. Her heart still pounded in her chest, the race against time tolling every bell of doubt. As the train swerved north, she launched off the rail and onto the streets, moving east.

Emergency vehicle sirens very quickly intercepted Jessica's glide around the street corners. As best as able, she avoided everything and everyone, grinding the handicap rails and circumventing sidewalks. Airborne routes were counter-productive, now that emergency responders honed in on the complex. Fortunately, this meant Goliath made use of her data.

Red highways, azure villages, then black and green hover cars. Of the entire fleet of vehicles, she was the literal first responder. She would rescue Beth. At the very least, they had to be evacuating Pine Rime Hovels by now. To be sure, she tried calling. Her watch established a line but received no response.

 "Come on, Babel!"

Three minutes left. 

Jessica broke around the corner, where the park came into view, then landed on the north-west building beside her destination. Down below lay the entrance to Pine Rim Hovels. An emergency vehicle had already arrived. White and nylon outfits raced out of a hovering truck, letters BDU on their uniforms. New Sumer's Bomb Disposal Unit. They raced into the building as if their protective gear weighed nothing, while several civilians ran past them. And from the truck, one official cried through the speaker. "Residents, please exit in a calm and orderly fashion!" Other law enforcement barely hit the brakes, with none to harbor curious spectators at a safe distance.

In a panic, Jessica quickly scanned the mob of people gathered at the edge of the park. Beth was nowhere to be found. 

Two minutes left. 

Either she was inside or out. The burden of the former punched Jessica's heart into hyperventilation.

"Jess!" The voice. The cool and elderly voice. 

Jessica turned until the white smile suddenly did away with her despair. Beth stood on the roof of Pine Rim, waiting with a cane in hand. Of Course. She was predictive that way. "Beth! Stay on the roof, homegirl, I'm coming!" 

The roof made sense. It made her easy to find in the event of an emergency. A spot where a vehicle could easily land—or a friend with a gravity board—and the old lady knew it.

With all the confidence in her eyes, Beth had to be the calmest person on the scene. The wrinkly bend of her warm smile carried on, like faith. Jessica hover toward the ledge when she was interrupted by fire.

A blaze followed rubble in all directions. Chaos violently enveloped everything. Blindness and discord riled Jessica's fall, an explosion and muffled cries rattling her senses into blackness. The last thing she remembered, unholy destruction as a hellfire maw devoured Pine Rim Hovels and Beth along with it.