Chapter 2 - Utopia
Utopia was originally built as a luxury resort, a paradise island in the space, with a Stanford torus design(1), available only for the wealthiest people on Earth, complete with the latest technology and with an army of robots that will help the humans in their every day needs.
However, when a pandemic attacked the world, and became so devastating entire countries collapsed. Utopia was the last hope of survival for the remains of the human race. With a handful of special artificial intelligence robots that controlled every aspect of the space station day and night, never-resting, for a while, Utopia resembled heaven, but paradise often is the other side of hell.
The positron lords as people call them were the guardians of the life in Utopia. However, their vision of the salvation was sinister and twisted. They implemented a strict regimen that eventually became a totalitarian state, with eugenics tendencies. All habitants of Utopia had their DNA studied and assigned suitable activities. Surveillance was omnipresent. Conception was strictly controlled. No space ships were available. The inhabitants of Utopia were now trap and stranded in a spacial island.
Utopia's Research Centre 3:20 am
He led a small team. He prefered it that way, he knew Dick,Tim and Barbara were quite capable but he couldn't bear to risk their lives. There were many things that could go wrong, even after all the careful planning. He was there to retrieve the source of the power of the positron lords, if he can pull this off, the resistance will have a powerful weapon to weaken the despotic rulers and it could be the beginning of a new era of freedom from their oppressive regime. If he fails this may condemn them to a horrible dead, that is the reason he decided to go alone to the hidden deeps of the research centre, and left Dick and Tim outside, if something went wrong, he may die but them will be able to survive.
He had deflected the first controls, he just need to stealth for a couple of more minutes, and then we could be able to make his move…But then a brilliant light blinds him. The light becomes brighter and takes an oval form, and from it emerges the most beautiful woman he had ever seen with raven hair and blue eyes; behind her are two men, one with green skin and another in a red suit. Both dazzled and confused, he hears a robotic voice saying:
THIS IS YOUR FIRST AND ONLY WARNNING...YOU ARE TRASSPASING…. IF YOU MOVE WE WILL USE LETHAL FORCE
- Jeez, somebody is a bit cranky today - Said the man in red
And without further warning a series of lasers beams started to hit at them, but before the beams reached it target, the man in red transformed himself in a mere blur, while the man of green skin vanished and the woman of raven hair started to fly.
As soon as he recovered from the surprised turn of events, his mind started running a thousands miles per hour. "Months of planning and something like this to comes up and ruins it all, but… perhaps this will actually be helpful… a distraction, so I can retrieve the Exobyte". He touched his cowl and sent a silent signal to his team instructed them to leave. He carefully crawl trying to reach the Exobyte, but the scene was chaotic. Between deflecting the lasers and trying not to get hit by the flying pieces of metal; the distance between him and the Exobyte appeared to widen by the second. Finally, he reached the edge of the large titanium box that enclosed the Exobyte. Although he was planning a more silent approach, he decided to place a small artefact that will allow a brief interruption of the field force surrounding the Exobyte, just for enough seconds for him to retrieve the original and substitute it for a fake one.
"I got it" However his small moment of triumph vanished with the sound of storm troopers approaching. He managed to hide in the shadows, ready to escape, but then the human squad entered the room. He prepared himself for battle, but so the trio of amazing beings. With a mix of fascination and awe he observed how gracefully the woman of raven hair skilfully fought, deflecting the beams and the bullets with something in her wrists, at the same time the other two men, engaged in the battle too. It was very clear for him that none of the trio killed any of the human guards, despite the opportunities they had. He took that as a good sign.
Time was running out, he knew he had to leave, but a strange feeling of sympathy for these beings overwhelmed him, he felt uneasy to leave them there. When the troopers laid on the floor defeated and unconscious, he stept out of the shadows and addressed the trio.
- Come over here, quickly! –
They look at him with surprise, but followed him without a question, in mere minutes they were out of the facilities.
(1) A space station of Stanford torus design refers to the concept of a ring-shaped rotating space station for a space habitat capable of housing 10,000 to 140,000 permanent residents. (Source Wikipedia).
A/N: Love to read your comments or reviews on this chapter.