Before the story continues, I have to express my sincere thanks to all of you who are still with me this far.
I enjoy writing Becca and others' stories tremendously, and I hope you have your fun reading them as well. "The 100" is a great TV show, which inspired tens of thousands of fan fictions. My work is just one little drop in the ocean. So I am very glad that the few of you could find the Book Two like a needle in a haystack, and keep on reading it. You are very special to me!
So far I had written 16 chapters for book two. I am satisfied with the chapters I have so far. The scale is bigger. The situation was dire. Human race went through a great test again. And I was genuinely surprised by ALIE. She was not what I pegged her for before. Some other surprises were planned in the following chapters, but they might be too obvious. I am no good at writing surprising turns, leaving clues all over.
So please enjoy this chapter, and please keep in mind that Book Two still have a long way to go. If everything works as planned, Book Two should be the end of Becca's story, but I am still deciding if I should extend the story and write a book three.
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The whole Ark was in mourning. 250 bodies were wrapped in bags and confirmed identities. Another 70 were missing and presumed dead. They lost over 5 million cubic meters of oxygen, billions of dollars worth of material, and things money couldn't buy, like the hope of supporting 6000 people's food and oxygen in space.
When 250 bodies floated into the atmosphere, they turned into red burning meteor shower that could be seen thousands of miles away. It was a beautiful firework that no one was cheering.
After the mass funeral, the council held a video broadcasting ring-wide. Once again, all 6000 citizens had tuned in.
"Everyone, this is Theodore Kane. Five days ago we experienced the biggest terrorist attack since the Ark was formed. Someone got aboard of our ship Prometheus and took control of it. He programmed the ship to fly at high speed directly toward our biggest hydro farm. 225 people died instantly by the direct impact, and many more later. We had suffered a great loss, and we have to face a food and oxygen shortage crisis like never before.
But first, let me tell you who's responsible for this atrocity. It was the Mars colony. It was their people who hijacked our ship, and turned it into a WMD. They are the ones who opened the first shot, not us. We didn't start the war, but we will finish it. We already declared war against them officially.
Therefore, my friends. In the coming days, we will fight Mars colony until it was totally and utterly destroyed. We are all in this together. If you are not with us, then you are our enemy.
All spaceships now belong to the Ark Defense Department. Some of them will be converted to fighter ships.
All space miners, you need to report to ADD immediately. We have important tasks for you. Don't ask what the Ark can do for you, ask what you can do for the Ark. It is your time to serve."
The broadcast ended with strong patriotic music.
"Bravo, Bravo…" Michael Jaha stood up and applauded, "Congratulations! Now we have no more peaceful ways left with Mars."
Kane stepped down the podium and said, "You know damn well that there won't be any peace with them, not after what they did to us."
Jaha looked around, seeing no one was on his side, then said, "You really want to play the game of war? You think Mars people will just sit there waiting for us to eradicate them?"
"Of course not, but we have the overwhelming force. They have like 20 or 30 spaceships? And we have over a thousand."
"A thousand means nothing, if we engaged in a Mutually Assured Destruction. How much more damage the Ark can take?" He pointed at the broken Hydrofarm 3 outside. "One more hit like that, and our game is over."
Kane waved his fist, "Then we just need to make sure our victory is swiftly and completely."
"Famous words of every general before their endless wars." Jaha said, "If you all don't heed my advice, then there is no reason I should stay here anymore." He threw down his Chancellor's pin, and walked out of the meeting room.
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Somewhere along the east coast, two people were walking on sand dunes. On the right side was the Atlantic Ocean that blowing warm breeze gently through their hair; on the left side was another town in ruins.
"Hey, Becca." Whitman requested, "Could you stop for a second?"
Becca walked back and handed him a canteen with water, "Tired already?"
"No, I am not." Whitman whispered, "Did you see that drone high up in the sky?"
"Oh, that." Becca smiled, "I saw it too. Why? You worried about it open fire on you? Relax, that drone is harmless."
They were in their 15th days of journey. Becca declined everyone's request to follow her, only allowed Whitman to come. "He is an expert in survival in the wilderness. He'll keep me safe." Becca simply said. "This is a very personal trip, so I don't want anyone else to come. No, not even you, Helen."
So during those 15 days, they crossed the desert and the minefield, then walked along the shore in search for a boat. That's when Whitman spotted the drone.
"I am more worried about someone shooting a missile at us from a distance." He knew what Mount Weather could do.
"No…" Becca shook her head, "She wouldn't do that."
"Who is she?" Whitman wondered.
"You will see." Becca said, "She wants us to notice her, that's why the drone is so low. I have been following it for hours."
This woman is full of mysteries. Whitman thought. We gotta get those intel from her.
Becca suddenly pointed at a beach, "Is that a boat?"
Whitman's eyes followed her finger. Yup, It was a boat tied to a mooring. Even better, it had a motor.
"We are lucky!" Whitman exclaimed. "Probably this is the last motor boat of the whole east coast."
Becca laughed a bit, "Ha! Lucky? You really think so?"
"What else?"
"OK, let's get on it anyway." Becca walked fast toward the beach.
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Up in the space, the Ark was preparing for a war. Spaceships were being modified to hold tungsten guns and short-range missiles.
Shaw reported to ADD, "Hi, my name is Evan Shaw. 1st class Space Miner."
The lady behind the desk bent her head and took a good look at him, "Oh, Mr. Shaw. We are expecting you. However, we also noted that you are 20 minutes late."
Shaw showed his trademark charming grin, "What can I say? I still have jet lags from my last run."
"Mr. Shaw." A young man wearing a uniform came out, "How nice to see you!"
"Nice to..." Shaw noticed that he was just a boy, so couldn't help chuckling, "Haha... Really, how old are you? 13?"
The young man was irritated, "My age has nothing to do with your assignment. Isn't it?"
"Oh!" Shaw's smiled faded. "Wait a minute. You are the one who give me orders? Seriously?"
"Yes, I am." the boy said, "So from now on you better call me Sir, or Mr. Murphy."
"OK, OK." Shaw backed down, "Mr. Murphy. What is my assignment?"
"The task is simple. You fly to the asteroid belt, choose the biggest piece of rock you can find, then tug it toward Mars. Once you reach the orbit, you dropped it at the Valles Marineris. It's a huge canyon on Mars. You cannot miss it."
"Wait, wait, wait." Shaw couldn't believe what he just heard. "Are you sure about it?"
"Yes, of course."
"Do you even realize what kind of mayhem it will cause on the surface of Mars?" Shaw was serious. "It will be much worse than the nuclear war we just had."
"That's exactly why we are doing it." Officer Murphy confirmed. "Those Mars terrorists are like roaches, very hard to kill. We will give them a infernal hell that even bacterial will not survive."
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New Metro. Becca's camp.
Nicole happily gently rubbed on her 3 months stomach. She could almost feel the baby kicking.
Bryan was running around with big smiles. It was not easy for him to be charge of the whole camp, but so far he was handling it just fine.
Each day, more and more people showed up with radiation sickness. Bryan will bring them to a hospital nearby, where they could perform a "Nanobot" transfusion. Their blood went in the machine, then came out with the bots charged and activated. Those tiny guys would repair the harmful effect of radiation in the body, however, because those bots were not changing any genes, the healing effect was not permanent. People had to do the transfusion every month. Still, it beat wearing the suit for miles.
Becca left a nanobot making machine running at full capacity. It was a temporary solution, but at least it saved many people's lives at the time being.
Bryan believed that, when Becca came back from her "personal trip", she would find a much more permanent solution, like the vials she once carried.
He kept telling everyone, "No, Becca is not abandoning us. She's not capable of doing such a bad thing. We have to believe in her. She will come back and save us all!"
Everyday, people would go inside "Becca's Temple" to worship her. It's irony how superstition would never die. Becca cured them with science, yet people would knee down to her naked image and prayed for her triumphant return. Bryan was too busy to stopped them. He got a thousand things to take care of, plus a pregnant wife.
The shy boy, Ethan, still read books day and night, he was not reading fan fiction books like you and me, but books like biology, math and chemistry. He had an unquenchable thirst for new knowledge. Every time Nicole lost him, she ended up finding him among piles of books, thinking about things no one would understand.
Soon, Bryan found him to be great help in the hospital. He learned to operate machines quickly, almost intuitively. Before long Bryan didn't have to do the transfusion himself. Ethan took over all the operations, from blood test to X-Ray, from giving out pills to blood transfusion. He could do it all. Later the whole hospital was left to him, and no one had complained thus far.
The other kid, Helen, didn't read books at all. She looked for people to fight all day long. In the beginning people were holding back, afraid of hurting her, but soon they found out she was not a fragile flower like she appeared to be. Instead, she got surprisingly strong grip and lightning fast reaction. Before long no one could win her in hand-to-hand combat, then she would give people some weapons to fight. By the end of the month everyone avoided her like plague, because most of the time she was not the one got injured. A young man called Tango once described his encounter with her:
"I was just walking along, minding my own business. This gal jumped in front of me, and gave me an aluminum bat. You know what she said? 'Try hard to hit me, if you can'. Of course I was angry. That little brat really needed a lesson. So I took the bat and made a good swing at her. You know what? I still didn't know exactly what happened. The bat went to her hand, and I was on the ground. Yeah, NO IDEA. All I know now, is to avoid that gal at all costs. She ain't human…"
Another man called Cash had a different experience:
"Yeah, that's the crazy girl I met. That day she went up to me, and asked me to hit her. Of course I said, 'I'm not stupid. Everyone knows you can dodge it.' Then she said, 'OK, I will not move, just hit me as hard as you can.' I asked, 'Really? You will stay still?' She said, 'Do I look like a liar to you?' Surely she ain't. So I hit her face, hard. She fell down to the mud, then got up and asked me to do it again. I said, 'That's too much, girl. You will get yourself killed.' She still insisted and wouldn't let me go. So I said, 'OK, one more time, that's it.' This time I hit her in the stomach. She went back a few steps, coughing. You know what happened next? She laughed. Yeah, she really laughed, like she's having a party or something. I was scared, so I just ran away. That girl clearly lost her mind or something…"
If there were a weirdo competition in the post apocalypse, Ethan and Helen had to be the first two. Other than that, Becca's camp was peaceful for some time. The biggest issue was that more and more people showed up everyday asking for help. The camp gradually became overcrowded. The resources stretched thinner and thinner.
People started to refer the city as "Polis", for the letters left on Becca's escape pod, which they would kneel and pray to everyday. In their mind, she came from the sky riding this magical pod. So calling the city "Polis" was the right way to express their admiration for Becca, the Commander. "New Metro" belonged to the old days.
If Becca were there, she would have stopped them from all the superstition and idolization, but she was not. People started to wonder everyday, where did she go?