Dreams of Tomorrow

Part 21

"Elizabeth is correct, Jay." Hsui Tai says softly and after a moment's hesitation Andrew nods too.

"I guess she is. Sorry, Jay, but if people need rescuing...."

"Then it's better if Liz is there." You recognise the sense in the decision and agree to visit the third village. You watch as the others jaunt and then you reach out mentally and put yourself in the village to the south.

As you did in the first village you make your way as quickly as you can to the nearest house. The air is clearer here and you can actually see the shadowy structures of several building besides the one at which you are knocking. You unwind the thin gauze that was protecting your eyes.

"What is it?" The voice cracks open no more than an inch and a wary eye studies your smoke blackened form. Where the first house you visited contained an entire family, what you can see of this one through the door is barren and empty. The door opens a little wider and an elderly but still large man stands in front of you. You suddenly feel very small and dirty and find yourself stumbling over the words you have to say.

"You have to evacuate." You force confidence into your voice, remind yourself that you are a Tomorrow Person and come with important news. "There is going to be a volcanic eruption!"

The man grunts.

"Look around you, boy." He says gruffly. "There's already been one." He begins to swing the door shut in your face but you react more quickly and the door bounces off your foot.

"No. You don't understand me. This is just a warning. The true eruption will be more powerful still. You and your neighbours must leave. The higher villages are already starting to move."

The man squints at you, the dust in the air beginning to irritate the sensitive membranes of his eyes.

"Well," He concedes, "Perhaps it is sensible for them to leave the mountain side but we are a long way from the volcano here, boy. Leave now, you are letting soot into my house." And he shoves you roughly backwards, slamming the door as you stumble away from it.

You stare at the house for a few moments in disbelief and then look desperately around you, not sure of what more you can do.

"Child?" A voice speaks behind you and to your astonishment its owner is a young man wearing the thick goggles that are sold for motorcycling or flying. "I heard the noise and came to investigate. Most of the village knows better than to disturb old Iosif."

"I'm not from the village." You tell him cautiously.

"So I see." He says thoughtfully. "An outsider, like myself. You'll get little respect or attention here. Come. Let's get out of this foul air."

You follow the man to a small hut at one end of the village, slightly smaller than the prefabricated boxes in which these nomadic peoples had been settled. The room you enter at first appears to be wallpapered red but then you distinguish the faces of workers, the slogans and motifs. The room is lined with communist posters. Propaganda, you think with distaste. An upbringing of total mistrust for the soviet state leaves you feeling sickened by the sight but then your newer, Tomorrow Person, impulses remind you that most forms of politics are as bad as one another. That you are beyond such petty squabbles now and can do little more than repair the damage they cause. However misguided this man's beliefs you need his help.

You turn to face him and he watches you curiously.

"Are you in authority here?" You ask in a firm voice.

"I represent the people of this region to the people's republic and guide their thoughts to the right paths."

You think of the family in the first village with their talk of old times and old ways. There are some cultures in which no indoctrination is going to work. Still, you are cautious.

"Why was Iosif so hostile?" You ask.

"His sons were disruptive, they refused to accept the guidance of our beloved leaders. They are no longer in the village." The man hesitates. "Iosif can be tolerated. He causes no harm to those around him." He sits down at the room's paper laden desk. "And you, child, with your strange manners and clothes of the decadent west, what are you doing here?"

You look around again and are still bothered by the knowledge that here is one of the socialist thought police but you have no choice but to ask for help.

"The volcano is going to explode." You say for what seems like the hundredth time. "You have to evacuate your villagers and those from the villages north of here."

"The volcano is extinct." The man says wearily, as if he too is repeating something he has told hundreds of the nomadic people to persuade them to settle down. "It presents no danger."

You stare at him in disbelief.

"Look outside you! The sky is thick with ash and you can still say that?"

He frowns as if you're voicing concerns he's felt but not wanted to admit even to himself.

"Minor activity...." He begins but you interrupt angrily.

"Is enough to tell you that the volcano is not extinct! If there was one eruption there can be more. The last was a warning, sir! The real eruption is still to come?"

The man shakes his head, not in denial but as if trying to shake free and awkwardly lodge thought.

"How can I trust you?" He asks simply. "You could be a western spy here to disrupt soviet productivity."

"And you think this ash fall, or the deaths of your precious workers, won't?" You shout. "Why would the west drop a teenage boy in the middle of nowhere to disrupt a farming community that is barely growing what it needs to eat to survive?"

He stares at you and for a moment you think he's going to make some protest but then he gives a short nod.

"How sure are you that the volcano will erupt again?" He asks sharply, picking up a telephone.

"Certain."

He dials a number and listens, then frowns and dials a second.

"I can't contact the northern villages."

"The wires have collapsed under the ash." You tell him. "I have friends who are warning them." He nods again and dials a new number.

"This is provincial office 74. We have a natural emergency and require evacuation vehicles immediately." He listens for several moments and then explains further before hanging up and turning to you.

"I'll get the people moving out of the village in what vehicles we have." He promises, "Most will obey me. Vehicles are being sent but they may take several hours."

You shake your head.

"You don't have that kind of time."

"Then we will move out on foot." He says, reaching again for his goggles and heading to the door.

Slowly, talking to family after family, struggling from house to house, you get enough people moving to start the avalanche of evacuation. As families see their neighbours starts moving, carrying small bags, trying to start vehicles with engines clogged with dust or ride choking animals, they begin to pack up and leave too. John joins the four of you dressed in an artificial environment suit and you manage to find a few minutes to get back to the lab for your own. Despite that you feel sticky and grimy from the ash that permeates everywhere and everything. There are occasional rescues needed here and in the other villages, of people too confused by the end of their world to realise that they've been matter transported or that their house has been supported telekinetically until the last survivor crawls from the ruins.

Old Iosif is the last to leave his house and for some time you think you'll never get him moving.

"Iosif!" The local communist officer shouts through his door. "I order you to leave!" You know at once that that is the wrong approach to take.

"As you ordered my boys to leave, yes?" Iosif shouts back. "And if I go how will they find their way home to me again?"

A glance at the officer's face gives you the answer to that question and it chills you. Iosif's boys will never be coming back to find him. You shake your head in frustration. Iosif is like a bear in his cave. While inside he thinks of himself as protected and invulnerable. If you could just get him out he would be more vulnerable.

In the end that's what you do with a little help from TIM. You edge out of sight before jaunting into Iosif's house and securing a matter transporter around the startled man's waste. In an instant you are both outside the back door of Iosif's house and you're reassuring him as if you had left the house by normal means. He is startled and disorientated but as far as you can tell he doesn't fully realise what has happened. You lead him around to the front of the house and hand him over onto the care of others as the old man begins to crumble aware that everything he owns and all his hopes for the future are all but gone.

An hour passes and you're mentally and physically exhausted when John calls the five of you together in the relative shelter of a deserted house in the village where you first arrived.

"They're moving too slowly." Andrew says almost as soon as you and he jaunt in. His throat, like yours is dry and gritty. Even the short sentance sets him coughing and Liz hands you both glasses of cold clear water. You sip it and feel the pain in your throat momentarily increase and then begin to fade as the water numbs and soothes it.

"I know." John's eyes are red-rimmed and stand out in his smoke blackened face. "But I can't see anything else we can do here. Most, at least I hope it's most, will get out of the blast zone in time. TIM's managed to get in touch with the Russian authorities at last but the nearest large town is several hours from here. They're sending trucks and buses but...."

"They'll take too long." You finish for him. You run a hand through hair stiff with ash set almost into a cement by perspiration. "Is there nothing else we can do?"

"That's why I called you all here." John tells you. "TIM's got some suggestions." [TIM?]

[Thank you, John.] You all listen intently as TIM's reassuring tones fill your minds. [I have indeed identified both a possible solution and a potentially more serious problem.]

[Another problem?] You repeat weakly.

[Indeed.] TIM notes regretfully. [I am sorry, Jay, but I have identified a fifth complex of buildings on the satellite photographs in addition to the four villages you have evacuated. This complex does not appear on any maps of the region. The details are obscured by dust but I can make out tanks and vats of some kind. I fear it may be some kind of military chemical laboratory. If that is the case then there may be many people there and its destruction by fire might release lethal fumes that can kill more people even than the volcanic eruption.]

[But you're not sure, TIM?] You ask intently. [It might just be an unmanned water works or something?]

[Alas there is no way of telling, Jay, but the fact that the site is omitted from the official maps of the area suggest that its purpose is unlikely to be so innocent.]

John sighs and buries his head in his hands for a few seconds.

[And we're already so tired. Alright, TIM. What's the good news?]

[There may be a way to reduce the explosive force of the volcanic eruption.]

[What?] Liz exclaims. [How? It would give all those people a more time to escape.]

[I have been studying the geological make-up of this volcano and the system of which it is a part. The initial ash eruption was caused by the release of pressure from a weak lesser vent while the pressure build up remains in the main magma chamber and vent. If it is released more gently then the explosion is unlikely to be so severe.]

[How do we do that, TIM?] Andrew asks eagerly. He looks tired and his eyes are still streaming, trying to clear the grit.

[With great difficulty and danger, Andrew.] TIM answers apologetically. [With close proximity to the volcano you may be able to widen several of the smaller vents with your powers of telekinesis and either release the pressure more gently through this cone or release magma into other, more remote, elements of this volcanic region.]

[But if we get it wrong or aren't strong enough....] John's voice trails off.

[Then you will be standing on a natural bomb as it explodes.] TIM finishes solemnly.

Do you:
a) investigate this secret base?
b) Try to vent the volcano?


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