I knew the coordinates of the safe house where Diedric would be in the event of CRAA, but the tough part was making my way through the ever changing NML terrain. Though this part of the world was mostly untouched by war, it was the common hiding grounds for people from both sides, which meant that it was the fertile grounds for clandestine warfare. It would inevitably be full of monitored and unmonitored traps, mines and even small scale tactical nuclear devices. I made my way carefully, all the while deactivating triggers.
After an arduous eight hours, I reached the face of a steeply rising hill. I moved a few meters along the edge and reached a small alcove well hidden by trees. I squeezed myself in, with hardly enough room for my lungs to expand. After a few feet the recess gave way to a large chamber. To my surprise the chamber was very bright and humid. A lanky, balding man wearing eye gear that had a uni-ocular opening waved his hand at me without lifting his gaze from what looked like a trey with an array of very small tubes.
He said “What took you so long?” in his usual raspy voice all the while meddling with his trey.
“How long has it really been? You see the last thing I can seem to remember is me lying on an autopsy table close to death than ever!” I replied.
For the first time he lifted his head, removed the eye gear and walked towards me and said “I am actually worried.” He did look worried; I was surprised, ‘What had really happened? Even Diedric is troubled!’
“Diedric, please help me out here. I’ve been a fugue state. It had been auto activated. What was our last communication?”
Diedric’s face went pale white. “So it’s true, we have a serious situation!” he said. “I suppose you don’t remember anything. I am sure you will remember things in time, but time is something we don’t have. We were following up a lead on a possible mole in our government. The circumstances which led to World War III and the Cold War that ensued are questionable. You were trying to dig out dirt with respect to our own leaders during WWIII. All this started over a week ago. You have been MIA for five days. You know in our language what it means.”
I knew what it meant; it meant I was soon to be considered dead! We were allowed to cut ourselves from the HQ for a maximum of a week after which we were considered to be dead and would be assassinated if found alive. Clandestine warfare of the new eon! “OK, that gives me half the picture, have you prepared any dossier?” I asked.
“Yes I have, it’s on the shelf to your left. I’ve spiced up the science details just the way you like it!”
I smiled to myself; Diedric hadn’t given up on his retirement plan oh becoming a sci-fi author. I picked up a printout which was titled ‘Fallout’ and started to go through it.
Scientists have established that we know only a small part of the universe. It is this part that is actually ‘visible’ to us. Our universe consists of several ‘Big Bangs’ occurring throughout the universe. The lifetime of the galaxies thus formed is very large; therefore we have been until now unable to witness any such event. But, with the advent of technology and the ‘Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence’, once more popularly known as SETI, we were able to pick up a signal from a very distant galaxy in the Abell 2218 cluster. The signal was picked up for a few days, only during the start of a new Eon of Aquarius (precision of the equinox, 2150 A.D.). Scientists were then able to confirm that during earlier eons the signal was mistaken for signs of God.
The result of the ‘alien message’, as it was popularly publicized, was that major political reformations were passed regarding to the allocation of resources for scientific activities. Since most countries didn’t have the required economy to support such activity, the world soon merged into two major groups known as The Central Federation and The Union Republic. As the science race intensified so did the political agenda of megalomaniacs. To prevent any possibilities of war, both sides agreed to conduct the scientific research together. This whole process in itself took two centuries. By then people began to doubt the message itself. Finally in 2355 A.D., a scientific breakthrough led to the deciphering of the ‘alien message’. Scientists believed that it gave directions to what was popularly known as ‘worm holes’ closest to our galaxy. The common belief was that at the other end lay abundant resources and possibly alien life. Though the two confederations together sent a probe in search of the worm hole (2403 A.D.), the possibility of greater power forced both the groups to start assimilating enormous nuclear destructive power. The mission was successful. The probe was able to travel through the ‘worm hole’ and returned. Scientists were able to confirm that the probe had definitely picked up information of an alien life form. But, due to some technical problems, the probe was forced to execute an emergency landing in Andromeda (2499 A.D.). The political turmoil on Earth had by then reached its climax, both the groups started to argue about the retrieval of the probe. This is when history becomes murky. Someone launched a nuclear strike. Each confederation blames the other. This resulted in the World War III. As expected the war lasted exactly 79 minutes. By the 80th minute the world progress was rewound by about half a millennium. The battle was fought through computer launch sequences. Everything both the confederations had worked for was completely obliterated.
The world then entered a phase of Cold War and has been that way until now, 2525 A.D. The confederations are trying to build their scientific base from scratch so as to launch a retriever for the probe. The mutual agreement was shattered and thus the world was again in open competition. Besides science most of the remaining resources was allocated to intelligence and counter intelligence. The Warm War has been a phase of political mayhem. The current leaders Pyxis of The Central Federation and Pashun of The Union Republic are trying to put an end to the Warm War. In an effort to save the world, a small group of clandestine operatives have come together and trying to find out all major sources of disturbance. The result of this was that we found many questionable events during WWIII and the fallout.
I felt all of it sounded familiar, a vague picture seemed to form in my mind. “So I guess I must start retracing my steps.”
“Yes. Your last debrief was from the capital itself,” he said.
Something that had been bothering me for a while surfaced, “why wasn’t I killed?” Suddenly I realized what danger I had brought onto Diedric. I cautiously said, “You don’t cook well; you should probably eat the insta-food.” This was a code to alert each other in case of danger. Diedric didn’t miss a beat; he hit a few levers and started to clear out his table.
“Right draw, 4478,” he said hurriedly.
I opened the draw and found a small document titled Gordaine. ‘Argh! That wretched code name!’
He slipped into his camouflage suit. Our suits linked up and relayed information. He smiled at me and said, “finally a code name change! This one seems quite nice.”
Diedric would have to find another safe place for himself. He was most safe on his own. Now my journey had begun, but unlike usual journeys this one started from the end and I had to retrace my path.
