Paragon Alliance Memorial Park, Crosswook, November 5th, 2033 6:30 PM EST
She walked down the short ramp and turned towards the broadcast area. Whether it counted as irony or luck, maybe both, the abundant crowds swarmed the park during the warmth of the day, previous pattern analytics provided confident projections that the memorial had become just another tourist attraction, and most of said tourists left to eat, drink, and be merry after taking photos, posting and tagging themselves to show their support for the heroes who had died on this day ten years ago and the wars both before and after this tragic date. Once the president left, the crowd sizes had plummeted, not knowing she agreed to return later. Analytics indicated the evening crouws would be composed of those who had truly lost someone in the wars of the last fifteen years, although they certainly trended to those who had died on the perceived side of the Alliance, the side people believed the whole of the Alliance would have chosen.
Casey might end up being pissed, but she buried any lingering tendrils of guilt. Voltaic would have the symbol where it was needed at the time it needed to be there. Given that many of the mourners tended to show up in various cosplay costumes, another costumed “hero” pushing a poor disabled veteran into the area would cause no concern. They had pre-installed the nano-screens and visual aids a couple days ago. Even in this day and age, the Secret Service still didn’t look for certain tech. Why should they? The President was protected by an elite squad of Alphus. Even if they didn’t know it, Titan was her damn husband and Nano her son. Somehow Voltaic’s sister had survived the wars, and led the President’s enhanced security team as she had for almost fifteen years, although they never publicly associated with each other any longer, which would be helpful for the political optics after tonight. She hated that she even knew and understood such considerations. Worse, she despised that she cared. She had enough guilt of her own to bare, and didn’t want or need to suffer from somone else’s.
It wasn’t a long walk, but long enough to spend it on idle fancy. She’d watched her father struggle with various what might have been dreams and scenarios. Oh, there was cause given the damage done to his mind, his fear related to the traumas of the unknowns, and he’d almost always been present for her when she was around, but she’d watched him often enough when he thought her to be safely elsewhere. He’d taught her how to stalk her prey after all.
As a result, she knew quite well that “what if” was a dark path, and even what might be proved a trap for the unwary. She’d made her decision almost immediately after the new president was elected a year ago, trusting that Nano would have the additional access a few months later, even if he hadn’t technically been granted such authorization. Nobody could stop them now, not even herself. The decision had been made, and now she would have to learn to live with it. Hopefully.
She paused at the outskirts of the cameras, and watched the crew as Casey Becker finished the second to last segment, interviewing the three core members of Innocent of Riddles, and she paused to hear the response to the last question, “Obviously, none of us knew at the time how popular or poignant It’s Never A Sacrifice Loving You would turn out to be, before, well before the battle.” Javic, the lead singer, paused, “I don’t know who the pilot of that rescue craft was, or why they played our song, or even if they are still alive, but our daughter turned fourteen a few months ago, and recently manifested the first proof of her Alphus abilities, and has been accepted into the newly rebuilt and re-opened Paragon Academy. Without the Alliance’s sacrifice, without the constant struggle of the original Rangers, or more recently the actions of the New Rangers’ Alliance, we know it would not be possible for Jala to be as open about who she is, and her abilities. Its really just impossible for me, for us, to describe the feelings we have when we watch that incredible scene, the sacrifice of that crew for the safety of kids under attack, and we were so thrilled by the invitation from President Foster-Graham to play live during today’s memorial.”
“Thank you Javic, Skye, and Rala for stopping by to talk to us tonight.” Casey turned to the camera, “We’ll be back in a moment with a short interview with President Foster-Graham, and then, our mystery guest. Lest anyone think we are disparaging the President, she’s fully aware that we have another story to tell after the interview, and has stated she’s as thrilled as the rest of us to hear another first person story of Alliance Day.”
Paragon Alliance Memorial Park, Crosswook, November 5th, 2033 6:45 PM EST
When she looked up, Casey appeared ready to ask the question anybody but an idiot already knew, “So, Madam President, for our viewers, can you sum up the Alliance Memorial Amnesty Bill?”
“Of course, Casey. Our friends in Congress felt it would be appropriate, and I completely agree, for the bill to take effect on this memorial day, which is why the language is so specific that the amnesty for all actions taken in regards to the Second American Civil War, and the related conflicts and crimes prior to the actual outbreak of the war, are…..if not forgiven exactly, at least no longer criminalized. Americans need to begin healing, and while holidays and memorials such as the now official national Alliance Day help, the constant fear and in some cases, continued conflict, need to stop. This bill is an opportunity to put the past behind us, to start to learn from the conflict, and to come together as Americans, period. That’s why everyone involved felt it important for it to take affect at 11:57 PM Eastern Standard Time, which is as you know, is 8:57 PM Pacific Standard Time. This of course symbolizes the 85,719 people who perished during the attacks ten years ago by a secret cabal of government officials and wealthy private citizens, most of which died right here in my home town of San Diego, even more specifically in this urban area of Crosswook. As we all know, the identified leaders of that cabal are specifically exempted, given their specific treasons, and will continue to serve their lifetime prison sentences, although the death penalties for the so called Hated Hundred have been commuted.”
“Thank you, Madam President. Are you worried that there will continue to be significant conflict after tonight’s deadline? Also, perhaps if you could comment on the nature of the deadline, as well.”
“Well, the amnesty requires that those who have committed crimes, minor or major, during the last decade, and frankly before that, in relation to HomoSapienAlphus activities, for or against, to have made those admissions by the deadline tonight. The initial process is quiet easy, while obviously we would prefer the paperwork to have been completed, documented verbal admissions have also been sufficient to qualify. We need to know, understand, and help all the people that have suffered, and many of those who might be “guilty” of crimes, were also victims of trauma themselves. Of course, anybody who continues to hide what they have done will essentially be guilty of a continued conspiracy, which allows them to be charged for their previous activities when they come to light post amnesty deadline. There are a few exceptions for personnel who are long term mental or disability patients, people in situations from which they may recover. For everyone else, the bill is a one-time amnesty offer to attempt to bring calm and healing to the nation.”
The President paused, before continuing, “This doesn’t mean that those of our Alphus allies and heroes are required to reveal their identity to local law enforcement, especially given tensions in certain areas of the country. There is a federal commission composed of several well known and trusted heroic leaders, headed by one of the original Alliance members, Titan.” Taking a breath, “Of course, Casey, its not a perfect bill, nothing ever is, but there is massive bi-partisan support for it, with nearly eighty percent of all Congress members voting in support of the final compromise, and nearly ninety percent of all Americans polled are at least generally in favor of an amnesty of some sort. After all, ending the conflict and achieving peace within our country was the primary reason I was elected by an overwhelming landslide of just over seventy percent of the popular vote.” The tone of the former hard nosed cop reflected satisfaction in a job well done.
“As to continued conflict, we can only hope that everyone will choose to lay down their arms, metaphorical or real, along with their hatreds and resentments, and help with the rebuilding and healing of this country. If not, then of course those people who choose to continue to hide their crimes will be charged and prosecuted for those crimes, whatever they may have been, no matter which “side” they may have commited those crimes for or against. An important note is that if the crime committed after the deadline is related to one under the amnesty, continued criminal activity will allow the previous amnestied activity to be prosecuted as well as part of an ongoing conspiracy. As a I said, its not a perfect bill, but nothing ever is, and we feel this provides every citizen and resident a strong incentive to abide by this historic legislation.”
“And we all thank you for your leadership during this extremely difficult period. I also know, not really a question here, but that you’d like to make a short statement other than the political, so to speak.”
“Thank you Casey. I wanted to take a moment, and while I can’t entirely shed the mantle of the presidency, or really any of my previous positions, I wanted to say thank you to the surviving Alliance and Ranger team members. That sounds like I am leaving out all of the sacrifices all Americans have made, but that’s not true. My home town is the community of Crosswook, here within San Diego, where we are today at this memorial. As police commissioner, and then again as Senator, I served with the original Alliance, and as has been re-played on video a hundred times, the Rangers saved my life the night of my first election to the Senate. I, like many Americans, have lost people who were close friends, some of whom even became like family to me. I, and my family, have mourned them every day since those deaths, and while there is no way I can truly repay them, and as much as I wish they were here with us today, I hope that they, and their families,” and if there was an emphasis on the word families, or was it just personal emotion, who knew, “will take this as a continued sign of hope, the hope and energy that they so often inspired in everyone.”
Red Widow smiled sadly at the sight of two of her parents’ still living friends, who of course felt obligated to check on her occassionally. They’d even had her to dinner in the Hamptons less than six months ago, where security could ignore a strange woman’s arrival. TThe three of them had gone mainly so Lukas could see his sister, and of course her mother’s best friend and matron of honor had asked if there was anyone special in her life. She’d just shrugged, and glanced away from the rest of their leadership triad. Stacey hadn’t pressed, but the rest of dinner had still felt incredibly awkward even if Robbie could still make her laugh in his weirdly super advanced and socially awkward teen way. After dessert, they told her of the details of the plan that was to be announced the next day. She later regretted her reaction. They, personally, had deserved better. What’s worse is that she did know that they understood her anger and behavior. That made it worse, but she still didn’t regret the actions she had taken since that attempt at last familial social gathering.
She missed most of Casey’s closing statements, and only caught, “after this break, stay with us for the next hour, as we reveal our mysterious guest, on today, November 5th, 2033, the first ‘official’ annual Alliance Day celebration, ten years later.”
As the red lights on the camera died, she walked forward towards the guest seating area. Forward into a destiny she had chosen, but not one, that in the end, she had wanted.
They’d taken a ten minute break from the live broadcast to allow the President and her husband to leave without being rushed, because who rushes the President of the United States, even a broken United States, and re-arranged the set into a more personal seating arrangement. Of course, Casey and his team didn’t know the full plan, so for most of the hour she’d play the game. She was no publicity fiend like her uncle Bryce, and Affinity handled most of the speaking requirements of the New Rangers after they merged the remnants of the Paragon Rangers and the New Ranger Support Corps, up until her death a month after the dinner with Stacey, William and Robbie this past summer. Rage pummeled her for a shortened step before she shoved it down. Vengeance would be had soon enough.
She hovered in the darkness, she’d let Casey talk her into doing things his way, and honestly she didn’t really care about the introduction. He’d breifed her about the scheduling of a break every ten minutes for commercials, so at the second break she’d tell him of the change in plans.
“Thank you to the alt pop-punk-rock group Innocent of Riddles for performing again during the break, a stellar acoutsitc reprise of their haunting performance from earlier today of It’s Never A Sacrifice Loving You as well as the new song Alliance Day, where they were joined by the rising pop star Hawk.” He paused, “Now, onto the recently scheduled second hour of our broadcast. When we initially began planning our memorial broadcast of Alliance Day after the passage of the HAPP Act a few months ago, we assumed, incorrectly as it turns out, that we would be on the air with the memorial and the guest interviews we had in the previous hour. However, a few days ago, our next…guest….contacted my office, and requested to be part of the memorial. Now, as famous or infamous as she is, we, or more specifically I, hesitated as we did not want to distract from the solemnity of Alliance Day. As it turns out, and I don’t have all the details, just her promise, that she was there and survived the attack on the Paragon Center ten years ago, and that she wanted to pay tribute to those who lost their lives.”
She began to walk towards the set, and the overly large seat they had placed out there for this session……..
Casey continued, “Well, without further ado, although she needs no introduction, we are joined tonight with one of the leaders of the New Rangers, the indomitable, Red Widow.”
Foster Industries Tower, Crosswook November 5th, 2033 7:07 PM EST
“Christ on a fucking walking stick! William get your ass over here.”
He walked in from the bedroom, “I’m watching.”
“Yes, but watch over here. What’s she going to say?”
“Well, probabilities indicate…..”
“That’s not what I meant…..Robbie, get in here.”
“I am busy!” the formal pronunciation meant he was trying hard not to sound childish.
“Robbie….” The tone shifted.
“Fine.” Advanced Alphus or not, he was still a very young teenager in so many ways, regardless of his advanced knowledge, education and skills.
She waited impatiently, for the three seconds it took him to appear, “What’s she going to say Robbie?”
“I do not know, Mother.”
“Why have you shut down our personal communications links, Robbie?” asked William.
“So you do know!” Stacey replied. The phrase was not a question. Turning to her husband, she suggested, “William, you’d better let them know.”
“They do not wish to be disturbed on this day.”
“They’re your friends, our extended family. They need to know.”
“I can be there in less than thirty seconds after I contact them.”
“Whitley can get there on her own if she wants, but you may need to go get Henri. If she wants of course.” She paused, “Besides, Olivia deserves her own chance at closure. And she hasn’t admitted her actions so……maybe this is her way of abiding by the conditions of the HAPP Act.” Silence, a long silence. “You disagree?”
“She is smart, talented, well-trained, and carries all the rage of her family. Whatever she does, it will not be…..just an admission.”
“Your acting as if she’s not family, that she’s a threat.”
He didn’t sigh, he just said, “It is a possibility. Calculations and analysis of the last two years indicate that it is likely not only a possibility but a significantly high probability.”
“Robbie?”
Her son stood silently, before sighing deeply in teenaged angst, “Sometimes justice is painful. She is my friend. She deserves her….” He just stopped.
“I’m sorry, Robbie, to put you in the middle of this. You should not have to inform on your cousin, but you need to tell me if its a threat to the country or our family.” He stood there mutely, as immobile and silent and stubborn as her husband and his father often could be, and in a different mood she would have mentioned apples and trees. Instead she also sighed, she had hoped. . . . “Agent Whitaker,” she said loudly. A moment later, the door to the suite opened and a woman with long brown hair pulled back in a neat ponytail entered. “Yes, Madam President.”
“Have an Alphus Response Team prepared,” she ran her hand through her hair, it was annoying that it would have to be fixed again if she needed to get on camera later tonight. She hated not being able to perform that habitual action when stressed, “Just in case. Red Widow has decided to go public with…….something.”
The agent bowed her head for a moment, before shutting the door. “I understand, Ma’am.”
“Is there something else Lindsay?”
“It’s……well, I haven’t chatted with Lukas since the Hamptons six months ago, Ma’am and……we usually communicate every Sunday, or we used to.” A breath, a decision. “It may not be anything, but……he called this morning, just to talk, well, you know, to catch up he said.” She paused, hesitated, then continued, “I know this sounds weird, but since he was a little kid, after our Mom died, we never said……” her face contorted for just a moment, “We never said good-bye because that meant something different after she passed on. Today, he said good-bye.” Her eyes glistened, something Stacey had never seen in all the years that Lindsay had been her personal protector.
“Fu…..I’m sorry Lindsay. Please prepare the team.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” and then Agent Lindsay Whitaker, codenamed Artemis, left the room.
“William, you better go get Henri and tell Whitley she needs to come whether or not she wants to be here. Tell her that her godson has been up to mischief.” She’d long moved past the weird connection her husband and son shared with the witch leader. Mostly.
An excited Robbie broke in, “Mother, she’s already trending on Tingle, WrapIT, Gold, the Spanish app Libertad, the Chinese platform Yǎnjiǎng, even the old platforms of Instagram, TikTok and Facebook, and even Twitter and the resurrected online museums of MySpace and LiveJournal.”
She looked at her son, and once again watched the distance that came over him when he was surfing the networks, “Over three hundred and thirty-two million more have already switched to watch ABC Live in the Western Hemisphere, maybe half a billion in Asia and the European networks are starting to see a surge in moring views.” She watched her husband, with a similar look as he reached out to his old teammates. These moments were rare, but nobody could doubt Robbie was William’s son when looking at them. Robbie had helped restore William’s humanity and erased most of the doubt he’d been afflicted with since his accidents, especially from the first Anubis War. She took the moment to smile. Regardless of all they had lost, and all the compromises to get here, she was…..happy. Now she needed to see if she could stop her adopted niece from wrecking the still fragile peace they’d been trying to build.
She turned back to watch the train wreck unfold. Only preparations could be made. Everyone deserved their chance to mourn and hopefully, move forward. She hoped that was it, but Olivia Anderson had always been erratic, at best. With her past, family history, and trauma on top of trauma, who wouldn’t be?
Paragon Alliance Memorial Park, Crosswook, November 5th, 2033 7:10 PM EST
“Thank you for having me, Casey,” the pleasantries rubbed her throat, so she took a drink of the water bottle sitting on the table before continuing.
“Of course, we are ecstatic that you chose this moment, chose us, to share your personal experiences of the battle,” he continued…..
“Massacre.”
“I, excuse me?”
“You said battle, the memorial says a battle, but the incident was a massacre. Over fifty-three thousand people died in the space of four hours ten years ago, innocent victimes of this city, with only an estimate ten percent of that number being the assaulting forces of the UDP and their corrupt allies, and of only the slightly less than four hundred thousand who survived from within a three mile radius of this site, they survived due to the,” she paused, jaw working to contain strong emotion, “sacrifice of the heart of the Alliance.”
“Well, admittedly, the UDP’s use of weapons of mass destruction against the Paragon Center…”
She interrupted again, and even masked and on video, the fire in her voice roarded through the streams to the audience, “I’m sorry Casey, but while I am here to tell my story, my personal stake in that attack ten years ago, I’m also here to announce that I have all the evidence. Every single government official, along with some private citizens at the behest of government agencies, who knowingly and willfully participated in attacks on Alphus citizens, and their American citizen allies before the attack on the Paragon Center, the attack on this day against the Paragon Center ten years ago, and in the decade since. For that matter I have evidence of the attack on the Alliance, their families, and their former base immediately prior to the attack on the Center, an attack that is never, ever mentioned anywhere. My team will fully upload it one hour after the deadline has passed, and we will see if this government will do its duty and arrest every single one of them. Between you and me, Casey, there are at least five thousand names and innumberable incidents referred to within these files. Oh, and these are all people who have not submitted public notifications to the remediation team led by Titan yet, with a few minor exceptions.”
Foster Industries Tower, Crosswook November 5th, 2033 7:18 PM EST
“Robbie, what have you given her?”
William shifted slightly to look at his son when he did not answer his mother’s question immediately, and asked a slightly different, but related inquiry. “Where did you get all of that data?”
“The government databases weren’t hard once access to the network from the White House became available, so that part was easy. The CIA, NSA, DoD, and Department of Alphus Affairs all were involved, some at the highest levels, in burying the programs, the research, the terminations, the coverups. But there were a surprising number of lesser agencies with little segments of information, like the Census data from 2030.”
“The rest, the personal, the Alliance records, you have always said that any family member should have access. Livy is family, even if the rest of her family……she’s my family,” he finished firmly. “You have always called her your niece, Mother, which makes her my cousin.” Considering slightly, “In some ways, she was a much older sister,” and in a soft voice, “I always desired a sibling. Plus,”more emphatically but with a hint of sadness in Robbie’s voice, “you never disabled your sharing protocols, Father. The only moments you isolated were those between you and Mom,” and the diminutive title did not go unnoticed by his often pedantic father. “So she knows all of her family’s past. Everything you knew anyway. Everything we could piece together after that.”
After this many years together, Stacey could see the pain in the stiffness of her husband’s inorganic eyes and it mirrored the pain ripping through her chest, and she started to speak, but William beat her to it.
“I never considered it a high probability that I needed to hide the data from your analysis.”
His son spoke, “Why should that analysis have changed? Were the original parameters at fault? Is Olivia Anderson not to be considered family? Did she not deserve access to her own history?”
Silence reigned for a long few seconds before finally his mother spoke, “You know what she’s going to do, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Can it be stopped? Do I want to stop it? More importantly, perhaps, is should I try to stop it?”
“No. I do not know. The President should, but it won’t help. It’s already done. Now it is just her telling the story, to provide context and to provide herself closure. The things you would oppose are all done, save one. And the one is absolutely necessary and will be the least of the actions, and the most, simultaneously. In so many ways, her actions leading up to this moment, and the action she will take tonight reflect the perfect expression of mathematical duality, and since the universe itself is defined by math, tonight is the perfect equational delineation of so many things that have happened involving her family over the last century. She needs to do this Mother. Father.” In an emotional plea so divergent from his logical explanation, a single word, “Please.”
“Robbie…..”
“Mother, I would like to ask……” he swallowed as if…..nervous? Sometimes she forgot that, regardless of how impressive his talents, he was only thirteen, fourteen in less than a couple of weeks. He stood up straight, looking her in the eye, and spoke calmly, “If it is you speaking to me, Robbie is acceptable. More than acceptable, always….desired. But if it’s the President, I’d prefer to be called Nano.”
She stifled the initial irritated response, before looking him directly in the eyes. “I understand,” she paused “but there will be consequences to this change. William, you need to go get Henri and Hannah, bring Hannah to me. Take Henri with you. Please ask Whitley to return. This could get very ugly.”
In the blink of an eye, William, one of the last remaining legacies of the original Alliance, known to the world as Titan, was out the balcony of the suite and gone.
“Robbie, please stay and help me with Hanna please. We can watch it play out on the vidscreens together.”
“Artemis,” she said quietly. The door opened again, and the brunette woman re-entered, this time dressed in stylized combat gear. “Take Beta team to the memorial. In the shadows. I think its a toss up as to whether you will need to take her out, or to protect her. Be prepared for both.”
“Yes, Madam President.”
Stacy stood and walked over to her bodyguard, her friend for almost fifteen years, “Lindsay…..would you prefer that Captain Sumera lead this mission?”
She smiled sadly, “My brother has grown into a good, decent man. Even the wounds from ten years ago didn’t change that. The death of the majority of the original Rangers during the Second Anubis War……haunts him. He thinks he can heal all things, all people with enough time and effort and thus blames himself for their deaths. I think the rumors of Affinity’s death in the last year must be true. Or he’s decided that whatever they are planning will provide healing to someone he cares about, most likely Olivia. Or perhaps both. He won’t stop.”
“Then would you prefer to stay here and command from afar with Alpha?”
“No Ma’am. We both know our duty. If it needs to be done, it needs to be me. It’s why he called this morning.” She turned to Robbie, “I know you think this needs to be done, and for Olivia, maybe it does. But whatever this is, you need to consider what the results and impact are to everyone else.” She turned away, but then turned and walked over to him, “May I?”
Confused, Robbie nodded in the affirmative. With his assent, Lindsay hugged him, “All of that said, Robbie, thank you for the device you created that allows what Lukas types and signs to be spoken in his old voice. I am very thankful that I got to actually talk to him on video chat today.” With that she turned back to walk out the door.
“Artemis,” Stacy said and when she turned, the President held her hand out, and after a moment the agent took it. “I’m very sorry, Lindsay.”
“Thank you, Ma’am….Stacey.” Then she saluted, and left the room.
TO BE CONTINUED…..
Last Dreams 