Violet Storm

Prologue

June 24th, 2132
I rub my eyes after my vision starts to blur, as I try to look through my research again. I've got to get through this.... I have to find what I'm missing. Then my rational self reminds me that I've only had about four hours of sleep, and I can't remember how long it has been since I've eaten anything. Which basically makes my brain useless mush.
Which I know are mostly excuses.

“Fine, I'll take a small break.” I say to no one. As I stand up I stretch my hands over my head, and hear popping down my spine. My muscles sigh with relief for not being hunched over for hours anymore. As I exhale deeply I glance down at my tablet again. I know it’s stupid but I was hoping to see something different, something I've missed in the few seconds I looked away. “Nope, nothing has changed,” as my rational side onces again reminds me.

My heart sinks just a little more, because it knows that my rational side is right. It knows I'm not going to find what I'm looking for because it's not there. It's time to tell them. I know I can't put this off forever, and trust me I was trying my hardest to find another way. But they need to know the truth, maybe they will actually do something about it, something none of us can do now.

I look over to the other side of the lab and see my recording station. I have spent a lot of time in that chair in front of that camera logging my research. I start to walk over to it to record what progress I've made for the day. Which is nothing by the way, I've been stuck on this for a good six years now, and no progress in sight. I sigh again as I slump in my chair and get the camera ready to record.

Usually I try to be positive, that's just who I am, that's what has kept me motivated for the last six years. But not today. I hit the button to start recording and look into the lens to tell them the truth, they need to know.

I take a breath then…. silence. I'm not sure how to tell them. I look down at my lap and tears come to my eyes blurring my vision. I'm overwhelmed with feelings of with failure and disappointment with myself. I've hit a wall and I can't climb over it. It's out of my control, and it has been for awhile. I look back into the lens, take another big breath and try it again.

All I can say is, “I'm sorry.” I look away again as the tears threaten to spill over now. But I take another shuddering breath, and look back up to the camera and say, “Well I'm sure by now you realized that we have failed you. Humanity as whole, I mean. I'm not sure exactly what it's like for you but from what my research tells me it's not good.” I pause a second and sniffle.

“When I was growing up there was lots of people who had all sorts of theories, books, and movies about how the world was gonna end and how humanity survives. They were these great stories of adventure, danger, mystery and obviously romance.” I look passed the camera as a small smile grows on my face with reminiscing of my childhood. How naive I was then, all of us were. I start again.

“They filled our heads with so many ideas of how it will all work out in the end, how humanity will save itself, and rebuild. We thought we could actually do it…. fix our mistakes.” That small smile is gone, now and I look back to the lens.

“So I'm sure you have been lied to, or left in the dark, but I'm going to tell you the truth. So let's start with our world conditions.” I pause. “Around the year 2083 the world was so riddled with natural disasters..... earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and so forth, that we decided it was enough. We are going to find a way to minimize these disasters or even possibly control them.”

A scornful laugh escapes me,
“We actually thought we could do it, control the uncontrollable.” It sounds so ignorant looking back at it. “So we made a task force with all the best in the world to find a solution. It took decades of research, planning, and billions of dollars.” As I push my glasses up I continue explaining, “We were the Element Control Humanitarian Organization, or E.C.H.O."

I continue. "We had good intentions, at first." Things have definitely changed since then. "We looked at so many ways to control natural disasters, like nuclear energy but as history has proven it was to destructive. But we had anb idea. Instead of neutral fusion or the splitting of the atoms nucleus, we control the energy around it." I look past the camera as I get caught up in the thrill of the discovery all over again.

"Electrons are the energy we needed, they are the protective wall around the atom. This is the energy source we could harvest, or control, with less repercussions." I realized that I was waving my arms all over with animation as I'm talking, or reminiscing really. As I look around the lab I remind myself, this is not something to be proud of anymore. We failed and we had many repercussions from our failure.

I look back to the lens. "We created a device that could control electrons, so we could have authority over natural disasters. We called it Zeus." Pretty cliche right?

"We sent Zeus to the stars like the God he was supposed to be to control the skies." I say with bitterness in my tone. That was the advertismet for Zeus, they tried to make it sound more intriguing than putting a satellite into space.

"But we quickly realized that like splitting atoms, controlling electrons had disastrous consequences." I clench my hands together and look down at my lap. This is the part I wish I didn't have to tell, or take responsibility for. I wish I could take it all back, but someone has to tell the truth, they need to know. I look back up, and take a breath.

"We created something far worse.... now we live in a world with storms and disasters that happen everyday, with more chaos. Most people don't survive the storms, and they are progressively getting worse as time goes on." Those tears came back again at the thought of all the suffering we have caused for billions of people.

I try to blink them away as I continue,   "And that's just the beginning."