The E Utopia Project (32 page)

“Yes, Mr. President.”

Cruz and his entourage
returned to the motorcade, which took eighteen E Utopian minutes to transport
them to the assembly plant they called Shipgen. As its name suggested, Shipgen
made the space force’s ships.

Vice Admiral Kazuhiko Okamura,
the twenty-seven-year-old Japanese who headed Shipgen, took Cruz on a tour of
the assembly plant and showed him the latest prototypes of fighter ships. Cruz
ordered Okamura to show him the five Transgalactics that were under
construction and the Japanese complied.

Cruz left Shipgen for
Ammogen, the assembly plant that manufactured the space force’s ordnance.
Again, the President found no reason to complain. From there he went to the
nearest mine, the silver mine. The iron, the nickel and the aluminum mines were
hundreds of kilometers away. He would inspect them another day. The E Utopian
pioneers had not yet discovered copper deposits on the planet but there were
lots of silver deposits and some gold deposits. They used a silver-aluminum
alloy for most of their electrical wiring.

When Cruz finished inspecting
the silver mine, the E Utopian sun was close to setting. “I think I’ve done
enough inspections for today,” he said, remembering that a beautiful woman awaited
him at Planet House.

“Okay, Mr. President,”
Hitchcook said before he conveyed Cruz’s message to the other members of the
entourage.

“You and the two admirals are
doing a great job,” Cruz told Hitchcook as they sat in the limousine. “Tomorrow
I’ll return to Earth with peace of mind, knowing that I left E Utopia in good
hands.”

It was dark when they arrived
at Planet House.

“Secretary Hitchcook, Fleet
Admiral Eawo and Admiral Geza, can you please come inside,” Cruz said. “I want
to have a quick word with the three of you.”

Cruz led the three men into
Planet House’s situation room. Every important facility on E Utopia could be
observed on the big displays that covered the walls of the situation room.
Jennifer ran to the bedroom when Cruz and his entourage arrived. She didn’t
want to see the two admirals because it would be awkward to salute them and
equally awkward not to salute them.

“Please seat down, gentlemen.”

Cruz sat at the head of the
table. The two admirals sat on Cruz’s left in order of seniority. Hitchcook sat
on the President’s right.

“Admirals, I’ve just been
telling Hitchcook that I’m pleased with the work you’re doing here. As you
know, I’m leaving tomorrow. I wanted to see our missile system in action, but
I’ve to rush to Earth and expedite the evacuation of the chosen ones. Admiral Geza,
yesterday you told me that you’re satisfied with our missile system.”

“Yes, Mr. President,” the
admiral replied. “I’m fully satisfied. We carried out many war games in the
Long Sea.”

“And you believe the missiles
will work well on Earth?”

“Yes, sir,” Geza replied. “I
believe they will work well on Earth. On Earth, the missiles will encounter a
slightly lighter gravitational pull than they do here, and they will also
encounter different air resistance than they encounter here. But since they are
guided missiles, I don’t think that the changes in gravity and air resistance
will significantly affect accuracy. It might affect range however.”

“When you carried out war
games in the Long Sea, did you retrieve all the test missiles that landed in
the sea?”

“Yes, sir,” Geza said.

Cruz leaned his head forward
in an inquisitive manner. “Are you sure, admiral?”

“Positive,” Geza said.

“It’s true, Mr. President,”
Hitchcook assured. “I personally made sure that all test missiles were retrieved.”

“Good. Are all our offensive
missiles capable of carrying nuclear payloads?”

“Yes, sir,” Admiral Geza
said.

“In the next ten days, I need
you to put missile launching systems in Earth orbit disguised as
telecommunication satellites,” Cruz ordered. “Hitchcook, you must quickly
supervise the making of the disguise. I want those missiles systems in Earth orbit
as soon as possible. They should be armed with long-range space-to-surface nuclear
missiles with maximum explosive yield.”

“Do you want to nuke Earth,
sir?” Fleet Admiral Eawo said, thinking about his family in Nigeria.

“It’s just a backup plan.
Nuking the Earth will cause irreversible environmental degradation but we need
to have back up plans. If war breaks out between our space force and the Earth,
we’ll be heavily outnumbered and outgunned. If Earth’s superpowers unite
against us, they’ll be able to quickly build a space force. That’s why we must
have back up plans. We must be prepared for all eventualities.”

“How many missile launchers do
you want to orbit the Earth?” Hitchcook asked.

“You must put at least fifteen
evenly spaced and in different orbital planes. All of the missile launchers
must be in high Earth orbit. If need arises, we will use the satellites to
strike the capital cities of the world’s superpowers. We’ll only use nuclear
weapons as a last resort because they’ll have long-lasting effects on the
environment. We want to eliminate the polluters with as little damage to Earth’s
environment as possible.”

“That will be done, sir,”
Hitchcook said. “The admirals and I will make sure the  missile systems are put
in high Earth orbit.

“Why not put the missile
launchers in geostationary orbit above the capital cities of the Earth’s superpowers?”
Eawo asked.

“Because the anti-satellite systems
of the superpowers mainly target geostationary and sun-synchronous satellites.
They’ll easily discover the missile systems if we put them in geostationary or
sun-synchronous orbit.”

“Wise decision,” Eawo said,
nodding his head.

“One more thing,” Cruz said.
“Ensign Jennifer Ladley has been discharged from the space force.”

“Who’s Ensign Jennifer
Ladley?” Eawo asked.

“She’s the Ensign we assigned
to Planet House to cook for the President,” Hitchcook said.

“Did she misbehave, Mr.
President?” Eawo said. “If she misbehaved, we’ll straighten her out.”

“No, admiral, she didn’t
misbehave. She’s been promoted to my wife.”

Eawo burst into laughter and
Hitchcook joined him. Even Admiral Geza smiled in amusement.

“Are you going with her to
Earth tomorrow?” Hitchcook asked.

“No,” Cruz said firmly. “You
know how women are. She might brag about E Utopia to her friends. Besides, the
press will be all over her and she might let slip something about E Utopia.”

“I see what you mean, Mr.
President.”

“Keep an eye on her, will
you, Hitchcook?

“I’ll keep an eye on her, sir.”

“You’re dismissed,
gentlemen.”

Eawo and Geza rose from their
seats and saluted. The three men bade the President farewell and walked out of
Planet House.

Cruz walked to the wall and
looked at a display that was showing images from satellites observing E Utopia.
Two of the satellites were on E Utopia’s daylight side and sent beautiful
images of the planet. Pride swelled in him as he feasted his eyes on the livestreams
of E Utopia. This beautiful planet was one half of the green empire that he
wanted to create. He would never rest until he conquered the other half of his
empire.

When he was tired of watching
the displays on the walls of the situation room’s walls, he went out of the
room in search of Jennifer. He found her in the kitchen.

“Good evening,” she said.

“Hi.”

“Dinner is ready.”

“Dinner can wait.”

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“I’m hungry for this,” he
said, putting his hands on her posterior.

Chapter Ten

Sara’s heart sank as she
watched livestreams of news on her computer. Hundreds of refugees were moving
out of the Sahara and Somali deserts after many of their relatives had
succumbed to high temperatures. Some of the refugees were well-received where
they went but refugees from Sudan were not so well-received in South Sudan. For
decades North Sudan oppressed South Sudan, leading to a bloody civil war that
led to the independence of the latter. The same applied to Somali refugees who
were not so well received in Kenya. Kenyans had suffered attacks from Somalia’s
Al Shabaab terrorists and they feared that the terrorists could enter Kenya
disguised as refugees.

She placed a hand on her
tummy. If temperatures continued to rise, the whole world would be
uninhabitable. Was abortion such a bad thing under the present circumstances?
She had asked herself the question many times. She was morally opposed to
abortion but wasn’t it cruel to bring a child into a world like this? She knew
George would never forgive her if she aborted his child. But would the child
forgive her for bringing him into such a world?

She felt a tightness in her
chest when her cell phone rang. The call was from an unknown number. “Hello,”
she gasped.

“Hello. Is that you, Sara?”

She almost fainted when she
heard the voice of the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Yes, Tim,” she said.

“The President has decided to
launch an inquiry into
findings. He tasked me to work with the Pentagon
on this matter. They’re sending submarines to the two spots and when the clouds
appear, the submarines will rise to the surface and take pictures of the sky to
determine whether there are clouds in those two areas.”

“And if they don’t find
clouds?”

“They will train
reconnaissance telescopic satellites on those two spots.”

“But NASA has been
compromised,” Sara said. “They mustn’t include NASA in this.”

“Don’t worry. They won’t
include NASA in this op. They’ll use the Military National Reconnaissance Office’s
intelligence satellites.”

“There is also the
possibility that the culprits pasted clouds on top of real clouds,” Sara said.
“If the Navy servicemen see clouds in that area, it doesn’t necessarily mean
that nothing is amiss.”

“I have already pointed that
to them.”

“Thank you, Tim.”

“No, thank you for bringing
this matter to light. By the way, this is classified info.”

“I won’t tell anyone, Tim.
Did you hear the news from the Sahara and Somali deserts?”

“Yes,” Tim said somberly.
“It’s terrible. People are being cooked to death.”

“Those scenes will fill the
whole world if El Monstruo continues unchecked. I hope the Pentagon will act
quickly.”

* * *

“Mom, can you please give me fifty
bucks?”

Akeela Frankson looked at her
daughter, Primrose. The girl looked so much like her dad that Akeela couldn’t
look at her without thinking about him.

“What do you want the money
for?”

“Stuff.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“There’s this skirt I saw
when I was window-shopping. It’s so cool.”

“What’s the point in having a
new skirt? When you’re walking outside with the cool skirt, nobody will
recognize you. You’ll just be another girl with a face covered by a breathing
machine.”

“I’ll use an oxygen tank and
nasal cannulas. I want everyone to see how my makeup will match the skirt.”

Akeela wasn’t short of money.
Her husband’s employers sent her a fat check every month. She had saved most of
the money. When he came back, they would buy a new house far away from Houston’s
Manchester neighborhood. Although the smokestacks had stopped pouring smoke
into Manchester, she wanted to buy a house far away from the neighborhood. She
knew that the oil companies had only stopped because of El Monstruo. When El
Monstruo ended, the government would remove restrictions on the oil companies
and they would resume pouring pollutants into the neighborhood.

Akeela missed her husband but
she was coping. At least he was not deployed in a war zone. When he was in Afghanistan,
she was petrified each time she heard news about US casualties. Each time someone
knocked her door, she feared the knocker could be a messenger from the Army
bringing news of injury or death of her husband. She missed him but at least
she knew he was safe.

“Mom, my request is still
pending,” Primrose insisted.

“Okay. Go to my bedroom and
bring my handbag.”

Primrose skipped to the
bedroom, seeing dollar signs in her eyes.

The doorbell rang and Akeela
walked to the door. She opened the door and saw two strangers in dark suits.
One of the strangers was white and the other was black.

“Good afternoon, ma’am,”
Black Stranger said.

“Good afternoon.”

“Can we come in?” White
Stranger said.

“What is this about?”

“It’s about your husband,”
Black Stranger said.

Akeela’s knees buckled. She had
to hold onto the door to avoid falling. She pulled the door wide open and hobbled
to a sofa. The strangers followed her and sat opposite her.

“Mom is everything alright?”
Primrose asked, her eyes vacillating from her mother to the strangers.

“I don’t know, honey. They said
they’ve come to tell us something about your dad.”

“Can we speak in the absence
of your kid?” White Stranger said.

“Oh my God!” Primrose moaned.
“Mom, did something happen to my dad?”

“I don’t know, Primrose,”
Akeela shrieked.

“We can’t speak in the
presence of your daughter,” Black Stranger said.

“I’m not a baby,” Primrose
protested.

“She’s sixteen. Let her hear
whatever you’ve to say.”

“But what we want to say is
confidential.”

“If it concerns her dad,
she’s got every right to hear it,” Akeela said with finality.

“But she must not tell it to
her friends or to anyone.”

“I won’t tell,” Primrose promised.

“Your husband is fine, Mrs.
Frankson,” White Stranger said.

Akeela and Primrose heaved
sighs of relief.

“Where is he?” Akeela asked.

“I’m coming to that,” White
Stranger said. “The world is about to end. Temperatures are rising and
atmospheric oxygen levels are continuing to fall. Soon the world will be totally
uninhabitable. Your husband’s employers have created an environment somewhere in
space where a limited number of people can stay indefinitely. Mrs. Frankson,
your husband has been given the privilege to choose one hundred and fifty
people to go and live with him in space.”

“You mean he’s in a space
station,” Akeela said. “I saw a movie like that once.”

“We can’t just take your word
for it,” Primrose said. “You could be criminals for all we know.”

“Here’s the proof,” Black
stranger said, holding a flash disk by the tips of his fingers.

White Stranger took out a
laptop from a bag and switched it on. Black Stranger plugged the flash disk and
White Stranger’s hands moved on the mouse pad. Andrew Frankson’s voice came out
of the laptop’s speakers.

Mother and daughter scrambled
to the laptop’s screen and held each other’s hands when they saw Andrew
Frankson’s face.

“I have made this video for
my beloved family and friends, whose names I shall say after I explain the
purpose of the video. I pledge you to secrecy. This must not get into the ears
of outsiders. Conditions on Earth are deteriorating. I’m speaking from a
location outside the planet Earth. We have found a habitat capable of
sustaining a limited population. Each member of our group has been given the
privilege to invite people to come and stay here. I wish I could invite the
whole world but I am allowed to choose. Unfortunately, we can only take a
limited number of people. You must keep this secret to avoid panic. We don’t
want a stampede of people screaming and begging to be included on your trip to
this new habitat. I know you have a lot of questions but I can’t answer them
now. I worked hard to earn us this safe refuge and I will be disappointed if
you don’t come and join me. By coming to join me here, you’re also doing those
who remain behind a favor because you will reduce the number of people
competing for Earth’s meager resources. Here, you shall breathe freely without
the need for breathing machines. The weather here is fine. In short, I’m
inviting you to come and live with me in paradise. Here are the people on my
list. My beloved wife, Akeela, my daughter, Primrose, my sister...”

Crossing her fingers, Akeela
listened intently, praying her sister and brother were on the list. She wept
with joy when her siblings, their spouses and their children were included on
the list. “I love you, Andrew Frankson. Thank you for including my sister and
my brother.”

“How do we know that you
didn’t kidnap my dad and forced him to make that video?” Primrose asked.

“The video is all the proof
we have. Your dad sacrificed a lot to earn you the right to go and stay in a
new hospitable environment away from doomed Earth. He’ll be very disappointed
if you refuse to come.”

“So when do you want us to
leave?” Akeela asked.

“Tomorrow,” Black Stranger
said. “We’ll start with the first fifty people on the list. If anyone among the
first thirty people on the list can’t go for any reason, we’ll pick the next in
line and those who have missed the first flight can go on the next flight.”

“We will travel in a
spaceship?” Primrose asked.

“Yes,” replied White
Stranger.

“Like Star Trek?”

“Like Star Trek,” Black
Stranger echoed.

“Mom, I’ve got to go and get
that skirt,” Primrose said. “I want to be the best dressed girl in space. I
can’t wait to see dad.” Despair replaced excitement on her face. “I wish dad
included Nicole. I don’t know what I’ll do without Nicole. Why can’t we just
invite Nicole?”

“Who is Nicole?” Black
Stranger asked.

“She’s her best friend,”
Akeela replied.

“It’s complicated, Primrose,”
White Stranger said. “If we invite Nicole, she would invite her parents and her
brothers and sisters and they’ll invite their friends, and before we know it,
we’ll have a crowd of people begging to go with you to safety. The story would
get in newspapers and the whole world would beg to go with you. Some people
might even try to take your places on the spaceship by force.”

“One more thing,” Black
Stranger said. “You’ll only be allowed two kilograms of baggage.”

“Two kilos!” Primrose
exclaimed. “That means I’ll carry only my lingerie.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll have
everything you need up there.”