Darkest before Dawn
by Warringer
Prolog Two
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Darwin Keller looked up towards the dark sky he was born and lived with. He hadn't seen it being anything else in his life. He had grown up with the snow and cold weather, the short periods that allowed to grow some plants to live from and the fact that he was of the generation that hadn't needed anti radiation meds as their bodies had gotten used to the radiation from the last War.
It was strange, he thought as he turned to look at his grand kids. They were more at peace with themselves than he had been in his life. He had grown up with the stories and movies of the old time before the War. The time when Earth had been a warm place with a blue sky. He had never seen the world like that, but still, he had the wish to see it with his own two eyes through a medic that was a good friend had told him that he would be blinded by the bright light of an old days sunny day.
Darwin shrugged. It didn't really matter anyway. He had lived a good life and he had been there when something like the old order was recreated. The Council, something that was like the United States of America of legend. A stable place for the children to grow up, without having to fear for their lives, not to have to worry about the next day and if you would find something to eat or a warm place.
And he had been there when the Concil had found the Monolith. A large object somewhere in the area that was once called Groom Lake. And he had been there when they found out what it was. One of the telekinets in the group had managed to find a switch inside the Monolith and activated it.
The Monolith had turned out to be a 'Message in a Bottle' from an extraterrestrial race that called themselves 'Senatrol', Teachers in plain common, which had been called English before the War. But it was also a 'Von Neuman' machine. Once activated it would copy itself and the replication would teleport to another place on the planet, where the whole thing would repeat. In the end more than a million monoliths were everywhere on the planet and everyone had access to one. And it allowed the Concil to form a much more complete sphere of influence, including all humans on Earth. Back than about fifty million survivors.
He had been there when they had found out that the Monolith had been buried in the Earth for several hundred million years and only recently unearthed by the nuclear bomb that had hit the old Groom Lake Base.
He had seen how mankind had grown to much of its former glory of ancient time before the War. How large hydroponics were build to feed everyone. How new technologies made it possible to survive better on Earth.
He looked back at his grand kids. How they played in the snow, not knowing how deadly it had been to Darwins parents because of the radiation and the plutonium and iridium in it.
He saw how his eldest grand son levitated a snowball and smacked it into his younger sisters face, not knowing that psionic abilities like his hadn't existed before the War.
Darwin sighed and his eyes went towards the video screen, something the Council had given to everyone three decades back.
The screen showed a transmission from Florida, where they had finished the construction of the Phoenix, a massive space ship that would go out into space and bring back the glory of the old days, when mankind had lived not merely survived. It had needed more than a hundred fifty years and mankind would live again, not only survive.
He looked over the large sphere of the massive space ship of two hundred meter diameter. It had many things that mankind had learned from the Senatrol Monoliths. Its shape was influenced by them, the massive sublight engines were build after the plans as was the surprisingly small Fold Drive that would allow to simply jump a certain distance between two points in space.
But still, Darwin knew that the Council wouldn't charge out into space like that. First the survival of mankind would have to be made sure. The War and the Asteroid had made sure of that.
One thing Darwin knew. Mankind would survive. No matter the cost. Even if a part of humanity would have to sacrifice itself like so many had done during the days after the War and the Impact.
Mankind would survive. Forever.