By David C. Daoust
It was an endless stream of data coming in from all over the Onion. Like a burst throughout, multiple locations, multiple sightings… hundreds throughout the solar system. A majority proved to have erupted on and around the desert moon, Twin Crown. Unfortunately, Noreen had been completely cut-off from said moon. All thanks to her new daughter, seizing its systems in a daring gambit.
Noreen was not sure she would ever know what caused the anomalies. She had compiled the data, studied it. Managed to adjust her systems, so that if ever such a thing occurred again, she would be ready. Ready to at last see what it was all those witnesses had reacted to. What they had described after the event. As big as it was, the phenomenon had only lasted a matter of minutes.
One such witness, the young Danny Anders, someone who had already caught the attention of the omnipresent AI known as Noreen, described what he had witnessed, in depth, to his father. In truth, she found it as cryptic as any other she had witnessed.
This was the morning after.
While the anomalies had captured Noreen’s attention, fully, the Captain of the Atlas had greater worries on his mind. After a long sleepless night of contemplation, Pete Anders had finally left his place on the sofa, stood before a faux-window that depicted a newly arriving dawn. Seemingly, the man stood examining the distant horizon, as his young son entered into the room behind him.
“You know your grandfather jumped at the chance to get off New Donaghy,” Pete spoke after only a quick glance back to see that his son had noticed him. His smile was thin and his visage nostalgic as he recalled, “He told me it was a boring, overdone, over-perfected society of windbags, building up laws on top of laws– so high, they could not remember what the original law was for,” Pete paused, just a beat before continuing his father’s spiel, “Born in a time when everything that needed to be done, was done– All there was to do, was pass around the shitty end of the stick, and gripe when it got to you,” Pete chuckled softly as he shared his father’s words with his son.
“Umbrie was a new start,” Pete defined simply, “a new start that my father desperately wanted. So, when the Royals announced colonies forming there, he saw it as a new frontier. He made sure he was useful. Of course, they told him he was ‘too old’ —but that’s a story for another time…” seemed like everyone had a whole ‘nother story to tell.
“Your grandfather looked to the future and saw a chance to start over,” Pete reiterated without the excess, “to have a say in the laws before they got twisted and unrecognizable. It didn’t happen in his lifetime; I don’t think he expected it would. And then with the war… no one expected the War. Ultimately, he did not get to see the end of it. His dream though, his picture of the future, was not for him. His dream was for us. They are trying to keep it from us. And they are not just imposing their old laws over us. They are shortchanging us, because, to them, we are just a distant spec in the sky. They want to bilk us of our taxes, our resources. Treat us like a mineshaft to pull goods from. There may be some that see that it is wrong, even some that will speak up, but most, at least those positioned to be heard, gain too much. Too much power, too much wealth…” Pete emphasized, “Too much to ever, willingly, relinquish control.”
“We can’t let them,” Danny said adamantly.
“We can’t,” Pete agreed, and then borrowed his father’s words, “There is something that needs to be done, that isn’t.”
“Without that tank, Umbrie does not have a leg to stand on,” Danny offered up.
“So, then?” Pete asked.
“We take it,” Danny stated.
“We take it,” Pete agreed.
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