Terra Firma - London

September 2, 2550 C.E

As she walked into the sunlight of an empty London afternoon it hit her again; the apocalypse had come to London. London had become disheveled. London was dead. London had fallen apart. The government of Terra Firma, the planet formerly called Earth, had decided that London was worth abandoning. The Liberal sect of humanity fled the planet as conservative governments were taking over. London was abandoned at that point. The city was neglected shortly after. The only thing the government did any more was to police and destroy black market sites. Murders, rapes, violence, and theft had become very common. Ylena was strong enough to defend herself.

She considered the things she stole. ‘These are the memories of two people, right? What memories could be worth this much money?’ She knew London well. She had about an hour and a fifteen-minute walk from Caledonian Road tube station to Trinity Square. Not only was there no mass transit anymore to carry her around, but there were very few people out to bother her. She shivered, despite the heat, considering the idea of people’s memories removed from the mind and stored on a disk. Considering that the biggest payday of her life may come on extracted memories bothered her immensely. She put the thoughts of the memories aside.

She took out the little metal ball and noted that it had twenty-six tiny circular buttons. The buttons had no labeling. As she walked she clicked some of the buttons and noticed in some cases multiple buttons were clicking when she pressed one. She noticed the tenth button was also clicking the seventh. The seventeenth button was activating both the eleventh and the twenty-first. And the twenty-sixth was engaging the nineteenth.

She was about halfway to her destination and she realized; It is the alphabet! The alphabet she knows only has twenty-three letters. She knew J, Q, & Z were no longer in the alphabet. Language evolved in the 2100s and replaced them with other letters; which were the duplicated ones clicking at the same time. ‘The password into this thing is a word. She thought, ‘Logically, what’s the point of having those buttons be functional like that if they weren’t used?’ She started trying all the words she could think of with those letters. In about thirty minutes her mind was out of ideas and she put it back into her pocket.

Her mind kept racing through her vocabulary for words. Before she knew it, she was standing in front of a door with the label “42” and nothing more. She knocked once. She knocked twice. Before she could knock a third time someone said from behind the door “What occurs when people put selfishness aside?”

Her jaw dropped she had no idea what he meant. What kind of greeting is that? ‘I know this is black-market trading, but still.’ She paused slightly and said “I am a friend. My name is Ylena.”

A panel in the door slid aside to show a pair of eyes. Those eyes had to adjust themselves higher to meet hers. The eyes responded with recognition, “Oh, I heard you were coming,” and there was a click at the door as it opened, “come in.”

As she walked in, it was a cluttered space. On the walls were bookshelves of mechanical toys. There were all kinds of tables of documents, records, and tools. She took the sphere out of her pocket and inquired, “did you make this?”

He motioned to all the equipment on the walls and tables and said, “it is a bit of a hobby.” Xavix was tall, although shorter than her, and had an athletic build. His shining, childlike blue eyes contrasted his brown hair. He then asked her, “how did you come by this?”

“The black market gave it to me they said they couldn’t figure it out. So far, I have worked out that these buttons stand for letters of the English alphabet as of the 21st century. Also, it is highly likely that the word has the letters J, Q, or Z. However, I have yet to figure out what word the password is.”

“Then I propose again to you this question: What occurs when people put selfishness aside?” He stood up abruptly and walked to the kitchen. “I’m going to make some tea. Keep at it, it should be all you need.”

She thought for a moment and then eyes lit up and she moved to action. She clicked in letters one by one. E-Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y. The device clicked open and she pulled it apart from a crack in the middle. It opened to reveal a pin, but not an ordinary pin. Across the top of the pin was a steel ribbon which had inscribed the words “BE PREPARED” coming down from that was a cotton ribbon dyed in red white and blue. Hanging below that was a metal eagle with the letters “BSA.” Ylena knew of this item it was the emblem of a group of people called Eagle Scouts. In 2324 the Boy Scouts of America disbanded. In the same year, the last class of Eagle Scouts received that rank to that status. She heard the tea kettle and that returned her to reality. She did not know how to even bring up something of this size.

“I think this belongs to you.” She said while she held it up as he reentered the room. It was the best she could do.

“No, it belonged to my great, great, great, great grandmother.” He took the medal back from her mournfully. “I haven’t seen the medal since I put it into this container fifteen years ago.”

“Nobody has opened the box in fifteen years?”

“That is correct; it means you are exceptional. The last person I offered this to may have had a future in special operations but did not have the problem-solving ability. He decided to go into the black market instead; he is the one that gave you that box and put you in the chair where you sit. He placed you in front of me and now you have a decision to make.”

She squirmed slightly. Her frame was still quite intimidating despite her actions. “What do you mean?”

He took a sip of his tea. He sat back in the comfortable chair calmly. “My name is Jaedon Mustang. You bring to me more than the information I was looking for, you bring to me the objects I wanted to acquire by bringing in a special operations team of twenty-five people.” He had another sip of tea and paused.

Jaedon even began to offer her a biscuit before she got a little impatient. “So, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I want to change your life overnight. If you have what I think you have, you may have just started the ending of the war between Terra Firma, the home you know, and Venus the planet from which I come. Have some tea, let me get some things.”

As she looked around she found him even odder. She knew people from Venus were evil heretics. They are crazy people who want to take away rights and freedom. They believe in governmental control of all sides of money, trade, and economic choice. Yet, this man, albeit connected with the black market appears to believe in equality and setting aside selfish desires to better the world? She finally decided to take a sip of tea. As she did he walked back in with a small briefcase like device and two file folders.

He placed the file folders on the table between them. “I have two options for you: The first is that we pay you seventy-five billion credits,” her eyes nearly jumped out of her skull, Jaedon paused. He smirked. Jaedon continued, “for each disk. In addition to that, we will compensate for the black market for a total of fifteen billion credits for their cooperation. You provide me both disks and we part ways you return to your life as a wonderful thief.” he pointed to the left folder. “The details are in there.”

“Optionally we pay you nothing for the disks and you join us as a special operations agent for our government. We will create a new identity for you and change your physical appearance as you wish if you wish. We will also give you a home and comfort for the rest of your life. You would probably become the most talented agent in our history. We would provide the black market the same compensation as with the other plan.” He pointed to the right folder, “As you can guess that folder contains those details. However, I will need to know your past, which you have kept very well hidden. We can’t even find your real name.”

She was desperate to leave this lifestyle, one choice presented her complete freedom from the lifestyle just by retiring. The other choice presented a whole new life and body, but also a lifetime of servitude. It even presented a new body. She felt like she could not lose, but it was a tough choice. Picking up the folders she started reading through all the documents. He calmly ate biscuits and drank tea. He was slouching and breathing normally, but she was sitting fully upright and breathing frantically.

“Okay, I’m in.” She handed him the folder that gave her a new life and set the money aside.

“First thing’s first. I need you to steal someone, and his research, from New York. Then we are leaving this planet.”