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[Fiction] Future Visions


Long

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The world was burning. Novas died by the scores, Baselines died by the thousands. Long found himself on the edge of the abyss, torn between his bretheren, and the human race. He heard Shen-Kahn's voice above it all. This is the path you chose, scorned by both, loved by both, you and your house shall perish by your sins." The vision ended in a blast of nuclear fire and a Pillar of lambent blue energy, and Long rose from one of the guest beds.

He'd been sleeping alone the last week after waking up with his claws dug into the bed inches away from Endeavor's head. Silvertalon her her room, as did Origami. Ryoma and Mizuki had their room next to the master bedroom, and Misato and Benkei were in the same wing as Origami.

He went to his study, a place with no electronics save a white noise generator and a collection of text novels and a large fireplace. It was there he'd told Jager to meet him, in about five hours.

It was time to bring in his old rival and friend, if not to join in preparation, then to ask advice of.

He passed the remaining hours reading books of human history, trying to see where things had all gone wrong. Soon it was time and he smiled knowing it would not be long now.

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He walked the world slowly this night. Jager himself was uncertain of all the twists and turns life had thrown him him over the past few months. Not that everything had changed. He was still talking with young novas and helping out with some service, or some advice, ever building up a cycle of assistance and reliance between those new to the One Race.

Long's estate came up slowly, stolen in time at this moment when the moon was just receding behind the curved rooves. Jager followed the cleverly laid out path through the triggers and surprises that led to the room Long wanted to meet him in. He looked at his old compadre for only a second, not wanting to be rude, or set off his superb senses, and let time take him again. The blonde nova appeared before Long with a tired smile.

"Greetings old friend. What keeps you from your dreams?"

He meant more than just sleep. Long had several living extensions of his creative thought processes not too far from here. He had friends he could talk to. Jager's unspoken question was 'Why me?'.

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"You're the one I respect the most Jager." The statement was the answer to the unasked question. "That and that I know you aren't at all intimidated by me, you aren't affraid to tell me I am wrong."

He motions to the other chair. "It isn't that i do not dream, it is that the dreams are the same. Our world in flames, my family destroyed, a war of race and ideology."

"Nuclear fire Jager, humanity turns on us. They turn the world into a charnel house to deny it to us. Everything good we have done wiped away, we are seen only as freaks, inhuman monsters."

He laces his massive hands together. "If it were only once, I'd not be worried. But repeatedly this vision comes to me, and I fight with it. One fight found my claws imbedded into the bed inches from Sakurako's head. She didn't even stir, thankfully work and the children keep her busy enough that she sleeps soundly."

"I know the future is mutable, but this seems so real, and the vision doesn't change, it hasn't changed in two years. That's why I have taken the actions I have taken."

There are those who support my plans, but I value your counsel more. I can tell you of what I have done, though I feel showing you will be much more explanatory."

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Jager bows his head to the compliment. It was heartwarming to known he was respected as a purveyur of the truth, not matter how unpleasent it might be.

"I've seen how much mankind has improved its anti-nova arsenal in the past ten years. Enough to know that even as we approach continent-spanning powers, they can still hurt us ... and with that power will come the desperate courage to use it. Your dreams have the real sense of the truth."

"Lead on," he grins. "As clever as you've been, people suspect you of being up to something, even if they have no idea what it is."

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"This will be disconcerting for you again my friend, similar to the last time we did this."

He lays a hand on Jager's shoulder and focuses all his quantum might on peircing the veil between realities. They vanish from Prime and Reappear in AW-1313, A world Man has only recently touched.

They appear inside a sterile room, similar to various clean rooms used by different Intelligence agencies for sensitive areas. A UV beam sweeps over them, klling all Prime Bacteria. "We are in a world I like to call Paradise. This one is different from Timeslip's Eden in that the world itself is different. We have stronger magnetic fields here, and The Flora and fauna are a menagerie of our own world's history, and several thousand we've never seen before. Tectoniclly this world is only aquarter as active as our homeworld, and all indications point to even richer natural resources."

He leads Jager out and shows him the view below, a small collection of sixteen all purpose buildings built to resists everything nature can throw at them. "For the past two years I have had a team of ten scientists of varying areas of expertise, a pair of doctors, and three engineers living and evaluating this world with the most advanced analytic tech money can buy and my wife can improve. None of them have families, and each was approached, and volunteered for the advance team."

He looks to Jager. "This is my last resort Jager, the culmination of everything I've worked for, providing a real future for humans and Novas to coexist. This is my roll of the dice to save my family."

He smiles. "Do you think it foolish of me? Do you think this is a waste?"

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Jager looks around carefully. He can feel the differences here and it was more than just the air, it was what was in it. The pollen was different. He couldn't place the latitude even by studying the location. It was alien.

"Not foolish. Damning perhaps of what little power and influence any of us really hold, but not foolish."

After scanning the horizon again, he adds,

"Worry about the children. Not your children, but the generation that is too come. What are your plans for them? Admittedly, there are other timelines, but still ..."

He smiles at Long.

"Got to admit, I'm a bit surprised to not see that you have altered the terrain somewhat. You've always had a flare for, and love of, the power. Something like carving the kanji for Peace in some mountain face somewhere."

It is hard to tell how much Jager is teasing.

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"I do love the power I have, I no longer hide that much. I just wish I'd been more practical in the areas I'd spent nearly two decades pursuing."

"Kyoko Aino, Origami as she's known to most of the world, is an actual educator who is a nova and currently the teacher of my children. We are exploring how best to educate them, and with that data hope to develope a curriculum we can utilize for other nova offspring. "As it stands now I'm only recruiting those I must have for this undertaking, those who will lay the groundwork of understanding. When the time comes I will seek out open-minded educators and those others who are necessary to maintain a functional thriving society."

He smiles. "The future will be theirs to shape. I will merely do my part to provide it, and a firm solid foundation on which to build it. The rest is for them."

He chuckles. "Yes, this world hasn't suffered my wrath. I have hunted game here, and cleared out a nest of predators that once claimed this territory but no more than that. My calligraphy needs much work on that scale, and I'm not inclined to try it here."

His demeanor saddens somewhat. "IT is damning Jager. I have the power lay cities to waste with a wave of my hand, virtually nothing can harm me. Time does as I command with little effort, no place is barred from my will, yet all that is nothing. At best it is the power of one who has a hostage. The threat of me using it could get me what I want, but the second I do so, all advantage I gain evaporates, and my power becomes a dramatic liability."

"Why else do you think you are the only one who has seen just what I can do? When Vanguard arrived in Chicago you were forced to let him go, or visit massive destruction on the city. Of your Knights, only You Amped and Cade had a better than fifty precent survival rate. The damage to the city would have been in the tens of millions and the death toll a true butcher's bill."

"You understand what it is like to have the power nescessary to win, to survive, only to be forced to play for a draw that no one is happy with."

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"I'm not going to say I haven't looked at a way to temporarily, or permanently, make someone not a nova ... besides killing them. That level of quantum mastery is way beyond me, and the science is even more daunting.

So, barring that, I have to accept that one day some nova is going to get through and lay waste to an urban center. It will make Ibizia look like a beach party. Everything will start to unravel. Economies will collapse. There will be famine and pestilance all over the globe, not just limited to the Developing World. I don't see this, but I can still forecast it."

Jager grimaces.

"I keep playing for the draw, because it gets me something I want while keeping the slide toward Oblivion at bay for another day. That's how I see it."

"I keep working with younger novas hoping to make a difference in their lives. I see it as the best chance there is to any 'winning' with upcoming struggle with anything less standing."

"I there would have been a time when I would have resented your dodge to this Eden, but I am a lot less certain of any chance of success these days. Now I see your efforts as the best chance of individual survival for novas. After all, when things start breaking down, you will be a target. You have a home and are largely unaligned. I suspect they would only succeed in killing your family."

"You need to save them. I don't fault you that. In fact, I admire that. Your family won't have to be poorly forged in the heat of battle, or die."

He looked into Long's eyes,

"Grim enough for you?"

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"You forget the part where in a fit of rage, I wipe out half of Japan before being subdued, killing all of Nippontai, and almost everyone else I ever loved. Or worse, I become the monster the Harvesters want me to be and cause even further damage."

"Robbing a nova of what makes them nova is beyond most of us Jager, Some Say only Mal can manage that feat. I know your bias against running. I also know how much of a hypocrite it makes me. When Timeslip first killed Excavator she asked me to leave with her for good, and I claimed to have too many ties to this world. Now a handful of years later I'm preparing a massive exodous. Part of me is saddened by that."

At the mention of Family he nods. "What of your family Jager? Will they remain here, will you remain here when the sky burns? I know that you are sworn to preserve as much as you can, but there comes a time where even a nova's power reaches its limit."

The unspoken offer was there.

"I also seek to help what young novas I can. I want the next generation of novas, both those born as such and those who become novas, to learn from our mistakes, to keep them from making them as well."

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"Vali and I have never been close for reasons that are difficult to go into. Clark is Clark and Gray is ... well, a really gifted child," he lies.

"The world has changed on us and we need to change. That is one of the problems I have with most of the Teragen. Even as the world changes they refuse to alter their view of the world. It is almost as if they want the world to burn, even though I know a good many would deny it vehemently."

Jager waves a dismissive hand.

"Enough about them. Show me your camp and tell me of your plans. If I can see anything that could be done differently, I'll let you know."

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Long smiles. "Very well." He leads him from the entry zone out through the dwelling that serves as his home and then down to the smaller settlement. A preimiter alarm goes off, which prompts three of the scientists to emerge armed with hightech rifles.

They see that its Long and lower them. "Ryu-san it is good to see you. Did you have to set off the alarm?"

Long nods. "I like to see that you are still ready should something untoward happen Kai." He motions to Jager. "This is Jager, a fellow nova. He wishes to see what we do here."

Kai nods and gives them the full tour. The fourteen smaller domes are living quarters for the eight men and six women living here. The larger of the other two buildings is the research center. Within dozens of expiriments and scenarios are being run through the computer, all caltaloguing things on this world, and seeing the effects of living here have on normal humans. On dozens of screens he can see camera views from all around the world, of various flora and fauna.

The second building serves as the infirmary with a full Surgery and ICU suite as well as a storehouse for food and weaponry.

Each private home has a month's supply of food, a small armory, and emergency medical kit.

By the end of the tour Kai was the ony one with them. The others had all returned to their stations, or had formed a small party to go work in the field for awhile.

Kai turns to Jager. "Do you have any questions?"

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"Have you given thought to were you are going to put the Temple and what it will be about? We are creatures of Spirit and Soul and if we don't have some symbol to guide us, we will find something to take it's place."

"The science side looks solid. Since you plan to limit population," he looks to Long for confirmation, "I would suggest more of a pre-agricultural model for food gathering. Placing the homes around fruit bearing orchirds - hunting for the meat as needed. I also suggest you find a not too distant area with aluminium, copper, and iron deposits and create a foundry so that you can replace lost manufactured goods. You can replace lost plastics through distillation, of course."

"Long, I suggest you beg, borrow, and steal ideas from other societies. You won't need intensive agriculture, so agrarian models aren't that useful. You will need satellites in orbit to bounce communications channels and get weather reports. You'll need to have transport to go to remote areas to hunt game and give your local area time to replentish, but you are also going to need an automated, or semi-automated manufacturing center supplied with the proper raw materials. Of course," he grins, "you aren't going to want a consumer society either, so keep the manufacturing center isolated."

"Thankfully, you have one of the top technical minds on the planet. She can build the foundry and manufacturing center back on Prime and re-assemble it here."

"Now what am I forgetting?"

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"The population will remain limited now. But when it is ready those limits will be enough to guarantee genetic viability and survival."

"As far as a Temple goes, There is no organized religion, everyone worships as they wish, withe the proviso that it remains in their cabins when it's time to work."

"As for food, I make monthly supply runs, and kill a few native animals that have proven edible for them. There are orchards, but primarily Oranges grow best here. When the tests are done, I'll add more homes, and more people as I find willing pilgrims."

"As for a foundry site, we have several here on the islands we can use and since the mainland is untamed, I can easily set up things there as well.

"Sattelites and manufacturing are being handled now, though it will be some time before those are online."

"The hardest thing is keeping this a secret Jager. It would be easier if it could all be made here, but The Children are too young for us to leave for the time it would take to set up real manufacturing centers. It's forcing things to take alot more time to accomplish."

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"Yeah ... the secret. Seems a nova can't get as powerful as you without someone wanting to know what you are up to. Hell, even Nippontai will probably have a person or three trying to figure it out, and they are Friendlies."

Jager looks around.

"I still think you should make a run at organized religion, but that's just me."

He holds up his hands to ward off any more protest.

"It's enough for now that you have a plan and that you know that people will always find something to believe in."

"Back to the secret - you could make plan within the plan to create some Siberian base undercover. The Directive would just love having one of your Survival Camps in a member nation, but I know you could get it done. Best of all, you wouldn't need to be so stringent on your people's loyalty there. Then you cycle the 'real' people through and move them to the other camp and leave the general impression they were 'removed' for disloyalty."

"Hell, you warp people to the sun, so there is no looking for dead bodies. Have some people run some spook accounts for a few months afterwards to give the impression these people are in the world, but living under the radar somewhat. Hell, I know a few elites who specialize in impersonation and are discreet."

"Long, people remember you as being cruel and ruthless. Use it. Playing softball with the people gunning for you isn't going to make things happen. When the time comes, you are going to have to leave the ghost base hanging. Too much of a chance of somebody nasty getting someone on the inside."

Jager looks at Long.

"Cold - Harsh - Reality."

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Long nods. "I'd thought of starting an Elite agency, a cover-up for things as you've said, but I have few friends left in Siberia. The idea of running a handful of missions for the Russians for services rendered occurred to me, but I've fought hard to escape that life."

"As for knowing who is with me and who is lying, I have the best nova I know of lined up for that. You know him well enough, at least you should by now."

He smiles. "At least one member of Nippontai already knows I'm up to something big, pretercogs are hard to hide anything from. But She understands why I am doing what I'm doing."

"I have no qualms about punishing those who deserve it Jager, but in my arrogance there are few I would call a peer of mine. Fewer still that I would trust with something like this. That's why you are here."

"I'll do all I can to keep my children from having to do the things I have done, but you and I both know the training of Misato and Benkei has already begun."

"Is it wrong for me to ask them to become warriors to protect the futre Jager? Is it wrong for me to make them into novas capable of killing anyone who threatens the exodous?"

He had a good idea of the answer he'd be given, but it was something he needed to hear from Jager. Long knew it could be construed that giving the kids the choice was being soft, but it didn't seem fair to make them into warriors without explaining it. Depending on how things went in the next moments, Would determine if he trained them alone, or if they learned from two living Legends.

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"All you are really doing is giving them the tools. Minds have to be sharpened, the node has to be expanded, and the heart has to be made ready. In time, they will know the choice when and were to apply violence will be thiers. They are not automatons. You three are doing well."

"They will have to make the choice, just as eventually they will have to make the choice to stay. Nothing we build is eternal - as far as I've been able to assertain - but we can work for the long term. In time you will also have other children as well, and the cycle will continue."

Jager looks at Long.

"Peace is elusive for those like us. I don't know if that will ever change. It's good to see you trying."

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"Will you help me train them Jager?"

"I have no illusions that without becoming a dictatorial tyrant can I have a society that runs smoothely here, but I want to provide checks against such abuses of power. You and I are two very different novas. I'd like my children to know there are other ways than mine."

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Jager thinks about it for a few seconds then nods.

"I'll do what I can. Sometimes I'm off doing other stuff, so I won't be the most consistant of teachers, but I'll do my best."

There was no need to say that they would keep that arrangement secret as well. Jager had his enemies as well.

"There is something you, or more to the point, Endeavor, might be able to do for me too. Ever since I spent some time in exile, I have been thinking about a way ... a device that will bounce me back to the Prime reality. Between the two of you, do you think you could pull something like that off?"

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