The World of NightsEnd

\

Though the popular perception is that the United Federation controls the entire civilized world such is not actually the case. In fact the UF only controls enough of the world to make it a moot point who controls the remainder.

GPP Guardian August 2179

San Diego by the Sea was as much a contradiction as it was beautiful. Situated on what was once called the Baja, the city of half a million sparkled like a jewel beside the turquoise Sea of Cortez. A city that should have ceased to exist flourished in the semi-desert accompanied by a riot of lights and activity.

“How can it have power and GRAV-LEV if it’s banned?” Esther sat gazing at the city as she spoke.

Elijah shrugged, “More proof that neither the United Federation nor the GPP are the omnipotent powers they want everyone to believe they are. Somehow, they managed to protect their GRAV-LEV tubes and technology before the GPP could seize it. Through a series of political maneuverings the GPP agreed to allow the city to fly under the radar, so to speak. That arrangement has made for some strange bed fellows here. The GPP looks the other way and the city provides a haven for, shall we say, less than savory elements.”

Esther frowned. “Are there any other cities like this?”

“A few, let’s see. There’s Tyler, Indianapolis, and Toronto for sure. Probably others in other parts of the world.”

“What do you mean less that savory?”

Elijah grinned and swung down of his tired mount. The ride had been long and hot. Both he and the horse had had about all of each other they could stand. “Well, there are people the GPP needs but doesn’t really want in any of its protected cities. So, they let them set up shop here.”

“Who are these people?”

Elijah reached over and messed up Esther’s long brown hair. Her happy response caused him to pause. Genetic engineering played havoc with people’s sense of age and for a moment he had allowed himself to forget how far part they really were. Looking back at the city, he shrugged and replied, “Enough questions. We are not here to meet those people now are we? We are here to meet this man named Judson.”

Esther nodded and led her horse to a fresh spring she had just spied. After watering their horses the man and woman sat on a rock and looked across the flat land toward San Diego by the Sea.

“It’s an awfully big city,” observed Esther, “how are we going to find him?”

Elijah nodded. No amount of bluster could hide the fact he shared the same thought. “I don’t have a clue Missy. Guess that’s one of those things we leave in bigger hands than our own.” He stood and dusted himself, visibly satisfied he had convinced himself and his charge. “Well, it’s getting dark and now is as good a time as any to head into the city.”

“What about our print?” Esther looked at her hand as she considered how they could get through the Genetic Imprint Stations that always stood at the entrance to any powered city.

Elijah laughed. “Miss, there is no genetic anything here. No one is going to ask you anything and no one will care. ”

As they made their way toward the lights of San Diego by the Sea Esther marveled at Enoch’s plan. He had sent her to a place where she could walk around in freedom and no one would challenge her. She congratulated herself on her insight until a single thought wrecked her theory. This was where the Dreamer was coming. Did he also know this was an open city? Had Judson chosen this place because it was relatively safe? She guessed she would find out soon enough.

Once they made it into the city Elijah and Esther made a bee line for the nearest GRAV-LEV station. Great moving sidewalks carried them deep into the bowels of the city along with thousands of other people. Soon they found themselves at the southern GRAV-LEV tunnel of San Diego by the Sea. It had been a very long time since either one of them had ridden a tube car and the sight of the tunnels still invoked awe.

One tunnel was lit up out into infinity. Since gravity fields are invisible the amazing thing about GRAV-LEV was that there really wasn’t much to see. Except, of course, the tube cars themselves. Not twenty yards from where they stood, a tube car floated with no visible means of support; it’s burnished chrome sides shining from the static discharges that developed as it shot under the earth enveloped by a magnetic storm.

People thronged off of the car and then a whole other set crowded on. Ramps pulled away and the car hung there as warning sounds blared. A minute later a low hum escalated to a beating throb. And then the car was gone accelerating so quickly that it seemed to have vanished.

Elijah and Esther stood gawking at empty air where the car had once been as though they had expected their visitor to appear from the void. Esther was the first to admit their foolishness. “I’m not sure what I was expecting.”

Her older companion grinned; “Yeah, maybe I thought there would be some guy standing there with a sign in his hand. Hey it’s me, Judson.” Both shared a laugh and settled on what to do next. It was decided they would procure rooms in separate hotels so they could observe a larger area of the GRAV-LEV complex. Of one thing they were quite sure; Judson had to come this way eventually.

Elijah went through a check list of safety procedures and left Esther to find his own resting place. Once alone Esther took the longest and hottest bath she had indulged herself with in years. As she sat on the sofa, drying her hair, she looked out the bay window of her room. Below her the non-stop activity of a major GRAV-LEV intersection looked like an ant farm behind glass. Years of isolation at Devil’s Canyon with the other Watchers had made Esther forget what a really big place the world was.

People scurried from here to there, most glad participants in the grand experiment of the GPP and the United Federation. Though it called itself and open city San Diego by the Sea was no different from anywhere else. It wasn’t what Esther saw that confirmed that but rather what she didn’t see. Everyone had the same generic look of general well being and health.

There were no disabled or obviously ill here. No gray haired old women. No tottering old men. No wheelchairs or crutches. No one walked through the city that could possibly remind anyone of the finiteness of life.

She shook her head and closed her eyes knowing none of these people could understand why this was a bad thing. Generation after generation feeding at the trough of the UF had left the population with collective amnesia. None were even slightly aware of the price they had all paid for the long lives and healthy bodies they enjoyed.

But Esther knew. The Watchers made sure someone remembered. Enoch had taught her and the learners about something called The Holocaust during the mid-twentieth century. An American General commanded all of his officers to tour the death camps where the Nazis slaughtered six million Jews. When asked why he ordered this his answer was simple, “So that we never forget.”

The world had forgotten but not the Watchers. Through oral history they passed on the origins and evolution of the Gene Pool Project. They ensured that each successive generation of Watchers knew the true story. The days of convincing anyone on the outside of such things were long past but at least they remembered.

Esther trembled as a cold shudder ran up her spine as she turned away from the window. Thinking of the millions of aborted children, murdered elderly and genetically altered was too much to contemplate at times. Esther couldn’t think any more. She was just too tired. And so she slept. And … she dreamed.

… “Enoch is that you?”

“No child, you are dreaming. There is something you need to see.”

She found herself standing on Heaven’s Gate looking toward the rising sun. It was magnificent. Rays of light flooded over her enveloping here in their warmth. Lost in its wonder Esther forgot herself completely. She laid her head backwards over the precipice of the mountain as though she could backstroke across the sun rays.

Just as she was about to lose herself in the moment a voice boomed. “Night Fall is ended. Light will soon dawn.”

“I know,” she cried, “that is why I am here. Judson will bring the Old Scriptures and all will be right again. The GPP and the UF will fall and the true faith will again be free.”

Again the voice boomed. It was not scolding but it was commanding. “No! Freedom is not escape from captivity. Freedom is in a person not a cause. Never forget that. Judson will be tempted but he will overcome. That is why when he comes you must be willing to let him go.”

Esther shook her head. She didn’t want to let Judson go anywhere. She needed him. They all did. No, she wanted to float on the sunlight and forget the darkness forever.

… A crash and a sharp pain in the back of her head drug Esther unwillingly away from her dream. She had rolled off the sofa and struck her head on a low table. She sat where she had fallen, rubbing the sore spot as she wept. Now she knew some of the burden that Enoch had carried all those years. She had not been sent to travel with Judson but rather to help him take his own journey. It is not what she wanted but what was required.

“Judson will be tempted but he will overcome. That is why when he comes you must be willing to let him go.” The words rang in her throbbing head.

She didn’t know what those words meant but Esther would hear them every night in her dreams until their meaning became clear.

_____________________

NightFall: Second Revision July 2008

All Rights reserved @ 2007