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A Time Not Yet Forgotten a Time before Hope
By Billy J. Morris Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2013 Billy J. Morris
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-8147-8
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The New World of Earth
In all his eighteen years, Michael had never seen so much activity from the people of Mars.
All that Michael was told was that the Elders would be here soon arrive and that he needed to provide assistance if needed. Michael did as he was told, but he was still not sure why he had been asked to attend or even what the agenda was for this mysterious meeting. By far this was not the first formal meeting that Michael had attended in the Great Stone Chamber after all he was an assistant to the regional constable, but it was the first event that someone had asked that he attend.
Michael knew remarkably little about the history of the Great Stone Chamber, but what mattered was the creatures that had plagued his people for so long could not get in to it. Michael did not know who constructed stone chamber or even how long the structure had protected his people. Michael did know it was dank, musky and fairly dim, but it was safe and that was better than most places.
Michael by far was the youngest member of the regional constable's team and had never seen more than four or five Elders in one place.
No one including the constable had anything to say about the meeting, or at least no one had anything to say to Michael.
Over last few years, Michael had met at least seven or eight Elders, but the only Elder that Michael knew personally was his grandfather. Michael's grandfather had asked him to attend this meeting. At this point, Michael just wished that he understood the importance of this meeting.
In the last two hours, dozens of Elders had shown up but from what Michael understood it could be hours before all the Elders arrived. Every time more people showed up, the villagers would bring more food or water, and Michael would help distribute to the ever growing number of people. Although this helped to pass the time, there was not a lot for Michael to do.
* * *
It was now fourteen hours since Michael had opened the Great Stone Chamber, and there were now at least a hundred and fifty people in the main setting area. Even though, it could seat several times that many people, it had been many years since the Great Stone Chamber had seen so many people.
The part that confused Michael the most was that no one was asking any questions especially about the purpose of this meeting. Michael clearly did not understand what was going, but he was far too embarrassing to ask.
Suddenly everyone in the Great Chamber started shifting around to take their place around the old wooden table and wooden benches near the center of the chamber. Moments later a group of five guards began escorting an extremely old man into the Great Chamber.
As a child, Michael had heard the stories about the legendary soothsayer Abraham Yates the oldest of the Elders and the spiritual leader of the people of Mars.
Michael did not share the psychic or second site abilities of most of his people, but suddenly he was overwhelmed by a feeling of fear and significance that he did not yet understand. Although Michael was never sure that the great soothsayer was even a real person; there, he sat at the head of the table getting ready to address the other Elders.
Michael was surprised to see how alert the old man acted despite his age of at least three hundred years.
Everyone in the great chamber seemed to be mesmerized by the old man who had not even spoken yet.
Abraham Yates began by saying "Everyone in this room knew this day would come and now we must decide what is to be done".
Michael could see the anxiety and fear on the faces of everyone in the Great Stone Chamber. Michael did not fully comprehend what was going on, but somehow he knew that the old man was telling the truth.
After a long, awkward pause, the matriarch at the other end of the table asked what about the others are we to abandon them and leave them to the same fate that we have suffered.
Abraham Yates took a deep breath and then replied that the fate of the others was not up to him or this council. Abraham Yates then added "As far as I can see their fate is quite doubtful at best, but is not yet written in stone".
The old woman mumbled to herself for a few moments before she asked "Have we lost all our humanity".
Everyone stared in silence at the old couple who did not take their eyes off of each other.
Several minutes pass before the old woman added "We are obligated to warn our brothers and sisters, and to see if we can help them".
Abraham replied "I do not see how we can help, but I agree we are obligated to at least see where they were". The old man stood up and look around the great chamber as though he was looking for someone he knew. After a few moments the old man asked "Would anyone be willing to make this trip to Earth to see if anything could be done for our brothers and sisters".
The Great Stone Chamber was extremely silent as everyone tried to find the courage to say anything but could not.
The old woman stood up and looked around the room, but yet no one had the courage to volunteer or the resolve to say anything to the old man who stood waiting for someone to answer.
Michael did not know why he suddenly stood up and asked if he could be the one to go.
The chamber remained painfully silent as everyone started staring at Michael while they waited for Abraham to respond.
Abraham looked across the great hall until he found the single voice that had the courage to speak. Abraham then asked Michael "What if anything do you know of the people we call the others", and after a few moments the old man asked "what do you think you can do for them".
Michael responded "Until this moment, I was not even sure that the others really existed". After a few moments, Michael added that his great-grandfather use to tell him stories about these people and how they gave up everything to warn us of what was to come, but clearly there was nothing one person could do to help them.
As Michael waited for the old man to anything, he thought "I am younger than anyone I know" therefore, I am the most expendable". Michael also wanted to see the others for himself o again he replied "I would like to go if that is OK".
Abraham looked at Michael for almost a minute and then immediately expressed "No one was expendable, and I need a moment to think about this". Abraham had foreseen this day for a long time, but did not expect Michael to be so young.
The old man looked toward the old woman who once again, but if she made any effort to influence Abraham one way or the other Michael could not tell.
The chamber remained silent as Abraham stared across the table for several minutes, and then announced "The decision had been made". Abraham told Michael "The council agreed, this was his destiny".
* * *
Once everyone had left the great chamber, the old man explained "There will be many things that you will not understand, but that would change in time".
Abraham told Michael "You will need to learn everything about these people so that you can teach others". Abraham paused for a moment, and then added "We need to know such things as where they are with their technology and how these people are politically divided".
Abraham came closer to Michael and put his hands on Michael's shoulder. In unassuming voice, Abraham told Michael "I wished there was more I knew about the others, but I honestly could not even surmised what you might expect to find there".
* * *
Although Michael had prepared for this trip for months, he was not accustom to being on his own and found so many people distracting.
It had been many years since anyone from Mars had been to Earth and few people had any advice for Michael.
Michael was given a long list of items that the Elders wanted information about, but as of yet he was still not sure where to start. Although Michael did not understand the word technology when he agreed to go on this trip, he quickly learned that almost everything in this strange culture was based on circuit boards and signals.
Michael found himself in the center of a relatively developed country where he learned that the people of Earth believed that the year was 2025.
Michael found that most countries at this time were facing bankruptcy or other political problems because of their dependency on a naturally occurring substance called crude oil.
The United States and Russia had started sharing their technology to develop a reliable alternative energy source to use instead of this crude oil. The modest goal for this partnership was only to find a way to reduce their fossil fuel consumption by as little as five percent over the next ten years.
Associations such as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries controlled most of the world's supply of crude oil, and they had no problem manipulating the production of this substance to their advantage.
Over the last decade, both the United States and Russia had doubled their consumption of this fossil fuel, which had tripled in price because of its short supply.
Although Russia was a leading oil producer two years before the partnership, most of the world's financial experts had calculated that Russia only had about five years left before they defaulted on their loans.
Russia's failing economy forced the United States in to a partnership that they might not otherwise entered into, but they did not understand what would become of their nuclear weapons and massive military surplus. This anxiety and fear partially helped establish the partnership between the two nations.
Although the United States faced a politically divided country at home and enormous financial problems abroad, they still managed to salvage some political and economic power in which to lead this new partnership.
Michael believed this partnership was probably more out of basic need to survive or desperation rather than peace or goodwill.
If thoughts of going bankrupt were not enough to drive both countries to some alternate source of fuel, it seemed like every six months or so an oil rig would blow up, or a tanker ship would sink to the bottom of the ocean causing considerable damage to the environment. The toxic oil spills would create an economy downfall for everyone involved which in turn would drive the price of oil up to an all-time high.
The oil rich extremist countries of the world soon discovered that the emerging markets of the world were far more profitable than supplying oil to the United States and Europe. Because their profit was relatively unaffected by this partnership, the oil rich countries did not care what minor improvement the United States and Russia made in alternative power sources.
* * *
A few years before Michael arrived this partnership to develop an alternative energy sources was nothing more than a better way to make batteries. The partnership quickly developed a process that could produce energy generating power cells.
Within just a few short months, these power cells were starting to demonstrate the potential to become a truly affordable renewable source of energy for both the United States and Russia. Within a few short years, every government office building and factory in the United States and Russia had dozens of these power cells running everything from small appliances to computer servers.
These power cells were not cheap to produce, but they would last for years, which meant in the long run they were far cheaper than oil and there were extremely little environmental side effects.
The United States and Russia were able to reduce their consumption of foreign oil by twenty five percent in just under three years. China, India and a few other poor countries continued to consume oil at a record pace.
* * *
Michael had been on Earth for three years, and by this time the United States and Russia were once again recovering economically. Together with their allies this partnership was starting to see real benefits from this project and other joint ventures like this. It was unprecedented how the United States and Russia were able to use this new technology to reduce their consumption of foreign oil.
The oil rich extremist countries of the world used this reduction in oil consumption as an excuse to decrease the production of crude oil, which in turn drove up the price of oil.
It seemed to Michael the more this partnership worked together, the harder the extremist made it for them to benefit from their reduced consumption of oil.
To help with this problem, the United States and Russia developed additional cost sharing techniques. These cost sharing techniques finally helped them benefit from their joint efforts and gave them a distinct advantage over China and the rest of the world.
This partnership and other efforts between the United States and Russia helped to lead both countries to a recovery that no one could have predicted.
Michael had done a lot of research on these power cells and understood the potential of this technology.
This project to engineer power cells initially started with just a few physicist and researcher working together from the United States and Russia with the governments of Canada, Japan and Australia providing small bits of assistance.
The project, as trivial as it originally was quickly sparked widespread interest in alternative power production.
* * *
The preliminary cost of these power cells was relatively high, but the result was a component about the size of a desktop computer that could produce enough power to run a standard piece of equipment for years.
The basic concept for theses power cells was a chemical reaction between a heavy metal and a strong acid that would charge millions of capacitors. The capacitors would then be used to create micro vibrations that could be turned into an electrical charge.
Although it would take time for a company to recuperate the cost from this technology, most people were freed up with crude oil, and they could not buy into this technology fast enough.
The United States and Russia continued to invest in to this technology which led to better benefits and a stronger relationship.
Within a few short years, the United States, Russia, Canada and Japan were using commercially produced power cells with all kinds of innovations for everything from household appliances to factory assembly lines.
In less than four years, the partnership had developed several prototype power cells that could power a mid-size automobile as well as any commercial combustion engine.
This was more than the extremist countries could handle and they did everything in their ability to stop the commercial production of these power cells.
The extremist countries first tried to use each country's legal system to prevent the production, but when that failed they tried to get the United Nations to prevent the United States and Russia from going forward with the production. After this also failed the extremist threaten to halt all shipment of crude oil to the United States and Russia if sales drop another fifteen percent claiming that it was not worth their efforts. At the same time, these actions drove the price of oil far beyond any previous level ever seen.
For well over a year threats like this slowed down or stop the production of the new prototype power cells but the United States and Russia soon got tired of being intimidated.
Both countries sent military forces to the Middle East and South America as a deterrent to the extremist so that they would not be able to go through with their threats.
The extremist countries quickly realized that they were not prepared to take on either the United States or Russia, and they certainly were not willing to take on forces from both countries at the same time.
To buy time, the oil rich extremist launched a massive public relation campaign to convince countries that they would lose millions of jobs if they did not stop the production these power cells. These extremists spent billions on this campaign to no avail because people were simply tired of the environmental and monetary cost associated crude oil. The unscrupulous public campaign also failed to stop the production of the power cells, although it did delay the process for a while. After about two years, the extremist realized that their efforts were in vain and gave up on the public relation campaign.
As a last ditch effort, the extremist quickly changed to their dirtiest tactics yet. Instead of only producing enough oil to keep the price up they increase the production of oil until they could not give it away, and it was not economical sound for anyone else to produce oil. The unusually high production of oil drove the price of gasoline down below fifty year lows and drove hundreds of businesses in both the United States and Russia into bankruptcy.
Once the full production of the new power cells came about no one wanted anything to do with the oil except for the Chinese who continued to buy all they could get. With crude oil so cheap, the Chinese certainly did not have a reason to invest in to power cell technology and were clearly not concern with the rest of the world's problems.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Time Not Yet Forgotten a Time before Hope by Billy J. Morris. Copyright © 2013 by Billy J. Morris. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing.
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