Year One

Chapter 1

JAREK

"It's beautiful isn't it."

"What."

"You know what, the sun!"

"Oh, yeah, all flamey, red and life threatening, wouldn't you love to take it out on a date."

"Yeah, yeah, but if you look closer... It's really quite incredible."

This is how our conversations went every lunch break. Me and Talin, my best friend, at the Retro Café, our favourite restaurant. We both worked for the 'Planetary Protection Unit', the PPU. An organisation fighting to protect the planet, building new technology and monitoring outer-space communication. Our current task was finding technology to over come being obliterated by the sun, which had in the last few thousand years become an ever enlarging red giant. Most people had already given up hope centuries ago. Burning holy books and jumping off the few remaining cliffs. We never gave up hope. If we could stop global warming and the great flood of London, why not this?

"You shouldn't stare at it for too long. It damages your eyes," I said between bites of my year 2000 retro cheese sandwich.

"Pah, says who."

"Well what about that woman from Asia?"

"She was old... like 150, she probably missed an evolution."

"Her eyes burnt out of her sockets!"

Talin stared a me blankly for a moment. "She had eye disposition syndrome- they're meant to do that."

Our argument was broken by a loud clatter from the table behind us. Two men in black suits stood above a fallen table. The butch, rather obese man of the two was shouting viciously at the other in a language I'd never heard of before. The thinner of the two men slouched over the table, trying frantically to pick up the scattered holodrives ,sweat dripping down his skinny face. I walked over to them, despite wary looks from Talin. I started picking up the different holodrives, seeming to go unnoticed by the two men as they argued violently in their language. A variety of labels caught my eye. 'GRAVITY FIELD', 'SPACE DISTORTION RAYS', 'LIGHT-SPEED JETS'. My mouth dropped to my stomach. These were things the PPU had been trying to develop for years without success. Technology that could save the planet!

"Hey!" One of the men had spotted me with the holodrives."Estho cuhot dton!"

"I'm sorry I was just-." WACK! I was sent flying back into the far wall, a dull pain in my cheek and ringing in my ears. I was left winded as Talin ran over to me, still clutching his drink, spilling it all over the place as he jumped over tables to reach me. "Jarek!" Talin started fussing over me, panicking as he usually does in these situations, but I hardly noticed him. Even over the dizziness and fiery pain in my cheek, all I could see was the two men rushing across the street, suitcases in hand. Suitcases with the key to the planet's survival. I had to have it.

Stumbling like a drunk, I pushed past Talin running through the restaurant and across the plaza, staggering over everything in my wake. The fat man of the two seemed to notice me as I crossed the road, ignoring the traffic barrier and praying for no super-speeders. The pair turned a corner and I followed right behind. Only one thing ran through my mind - who are these men, and why are they hiding the worlds salvation?

*

TALIN

I watched Jarek as he dashed across the street. For a guy who just got smashed in the face he sure could run. He seemed to be in pursuit of two guys. They were rather strange. The way they spoke was like an alien language in a sci-fi movie from 1990. I supposed Jarek could handle it. He'd been through a lot.

Deciding to leave the restaurant, avoiding eye contact from agitated costumers, I payed with a wave of my Zeno card. Yep, even in Year One the safest form of payment is in a credit card. I paused for a moment in the plaza, breathing in the newly filtered oxygen. It always cleared my head (in more ways than one). A hovercraft whooshed past, stopping at a junction over the reconstructed River Thames. Hardly a river, really. A load of chemicals with some holographic boats and bridges. A whisper of the past.

The plaza continued with more reconstructions. Old London pubs, flats, markets, even shopping malls. It's as if the city couldn't let go of the past - they wished everything was the way it was; when people got out of their bed's worrying about their finance or exam grades. Not in Year One; where everyone lives a shallow life, simply living with the knowledge that with every day they countdown to their last.

I tried to retain a positive mood. I strode a few yards down the plaza where a jet black skyscraper stood, breaking through the fruit market and maintaining modern London. The PPU headquarters. It stood alone against the many other buildings in London, most of which are invisible to the naked eye. On first glance the PPU almost seems open, defenceless maybe. Until you walk in. A complicated security system lines the walls, so much that a guard is not used for fear of their safety. Upon approach, the building immediately scans you with about 50 different sensors. Body heat, possessions, sickness, you name it. As I walked in my scans were completed in a blink of an eye, allowing me to enter the PPU, recognised as Talin Nyle, Technology Specialist.

Still in mid stride the computer beamed me up to floor 67. The floor consisted of a long corridor, open rooms to the sides. My office glowed gold as I approached. As there are no room numbers a sensor in our eyes is used to recognise our rooms (yet another security measure). My office was as I left it. A desk and comfy chair sitting by a window, looming over London, and a two metre holographic computer monitor - my workspace - cluttered with files, to do lists and uncompleted blueprints. Standing out from the clutter, though, a red flashing icon lit up the screen. I tapped the icon and read the message:

HIGHLY IMPORTANT BOARD MEETING

MAIN CONFERENCE HALL

5 MINUTES 29 SECONDS

We hadn't had one of those for a while. They were usually about solar storms or meteor strikes, although lately even those had become of little importance. I exited my office, leaving my communicator on for any messages from Jarek. Other PPU members were flooding out into the corridor, supposedly heading for the same meeting. Something seemed strange, though.. everyone looked anxious, nervous even. Not that anyone in Year One was particularly joyful, but not a whisper left any ones mouths, as if they were too afraid to speak. Not understanding, I asked an older colleague, "whats going on?" He didn't reply. He simply looked at me with a sorrowful expression, sweat dripping down his face. I saw him gulp, before he hurried ahead. This couldn't be good.

I reached the end of the corridor, waiting for the computer to sense my intended destination and beam me there. I could've easily taken the stairs, but why walk when you can teleport? I arrived at the outside of the conference hall, floor 20. As I reached for the door my thoughts raced as I wondered what could possibly be so bad that no one would even talk about it. Slowly opening the door, I was met by a sea of distressed faces and the rare sight of the PPU CEO, standing above us all with an almost deadly stern expression.