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SCENE 1. It's morning, but the sun is not shining through the windows yet. The office is unpowered and unlit.
Enter Wyatt Ferguson, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt.
Wyatt. (proclaiming into the room) Escalation Fergatos Crucifer!
Lights turn on, radio turns on, computer powers on, and two TV screens light up with different computer displays. Wyatt continues on to coffee pot, and moves around office as the news goes on.
NPR. - NPR morning news, September 30th, 2004.
Wyatt. (interjects, talking to himself) Nice timing.
NPR. Vice-President Bayh says, he fully supports the existing United States policy of international commitment, and will continue it when he is elected President.
Wyatt. Yada yada.
One computer screen lights up with a U.S. electoral map. Five states including Massachusetts, New York and Wisconsin are colored blue, five more are beige, the rest are red.
NPR. The Democrats have been in power since 1996 under President Hillary Rodham, but this looks about to change. President Rodham's policy is to work closely with the United Nations and the rest of the world, but there've been some disappointments.
Wyatt. Y' think?
NPR. Last year, United Nations forces intervened in Iraq to protect one of the operatives of their peacekeeping force, the Paxis Directorate.
Wyatt. Yay, U.N.
NPR. The U.N. story on this is, the operative was being tortured with Saddam Hussein himself watching, and all Iraqi combatants in the vicinity were unfortunate casualties - including Mr. Hussein.
Wyatt. Buh-bye.
NPR. As a result of that power vacuum, Iraq is now undergoing a four-way civil war, among federal forces, Sunni militias, Shi'ite militias, and the Kurdish minority in the north.
Wyatt. Yay, Kurdistan.
NPR. The U.N. says it doesn't have a clear mandate to intervene.
Wyatt. But you already intervened, now clean it up.
NPR. Then, in January of this year, there was a U.N. intervention on United States territory, at Willow Farm, Illinois, to protect another U.N. operative.
Wyatt. Been there.
NPR. Later in the year, for the first time since 1861, parts of the United States started seceding.
Wyatt. (tiredly) Before Willow Farm. Get it right.
NPR. The Aleutian Islands of Alaska came first.
Wyatt. (sarcastically) Much good may it do them.
NPR. Now, some Southern states are threatening to do the same. In April, a Georgia secession movement was broken up by protests from people nationwide.
Wyatt. (tiredly) Been there too.
NPR. Then in June, there was an apparent superhuman assassination of Governor Arnold Wolf of South Carolina.
Wyatt. (tiredly) Been there too.
NPR. American public opinion reacted adversely.
Wyatt. Y' think?
NPR. Lieutenant Governor John Steiger came to power then. He quickly rose to national prominence, to argue against secession but in favor of national change.
Wyatt. Asshole.
NPR. Finally, there came a war between Argentina and Chile, which revealed just how weak the world's reliance was on supplies of beef.
Wyatt. Heaven forbid people don't get steaks.
NPR. Despite the increasing crises, Vice-President Evan Bayh was the obvious Democratic nominee for President. He picked Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts as running mate.
Wyatt. Masshole.
NPR. Meanwhile, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah defeated Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana to become the Republican nominee.
Wyatt. Hatchhole.
NPR. He picked as his running mate, the Republican governor who was most popular in August other than maverick Joe Corrigan of California: Governor Steiger of South Carolina.
Wyatt. (tiredly) Assholes rule.
NPR. The Hatch-Steiger ticket is likely to sweep the elections over Bayh-Kerry. Analysts say, there's a backlash by American public against United Nations domination, since the U.N. is not showing measurable progress toward world peace.
Wyatt. Well then, it's obviously my turn to do better.
Wyatt goes to the computer, moves the mouse, and presses a button. A world map with troops comes up on the screen.
The world map shows armies, navies, air forces, and missiles by nation. It is much like today, but there are Cuban forces in Greenland. A caption shows, "October 2011".
Also, a popup list shows a list of superhumans alphabetically by code name, starting with "A". There are many columns of numbers against each name.
Computer. Plague, stressed air transport, global infantry commitment, naval disengagement, weather calamity, superhumans, and ecological survivability. All in this wargame of the future. Earth 2011.
Wyatt. (proclaiming) Analysis against baseline.
Computer. Continental air transport system is under stress from shipping plague victims around the country for quarantine and specialized treatment. Cargo planes have been allocated for shipment of victims which the passenger system cannot support. Delivery of specialized goods is affected.
Computer. Navies are stationing themselves in remote areas to avoid biological weapons contamination, but some infantries are scattered around the world. Cuba now garrisons most mid-Atlantic points including Greenland.
Computer. There are storms and radiation, due to radioactive materials dumped offseas or otherwise misused. 10% of superhumans and 20% of the general public have taken casualties.
Computer. An unknown number of nuclear warheads are unaccounted. Major sources are suspected to be North Korea, Iran, Kazakhstan, and South Africa. These nations seem to be weapons-mongering, to counteract their isolation from the regular world economy.
Computer. Missile defense systems have been 90% effective in counteracting rogue missile impacts at ground level. The missile launchers have adapted, with aerial explosions. Civil defense drills among the target nations are preventing major loss of life, but industrial capacity is shut down with each explosion due to ElectroMagnetic Pulse effects.
Computer. National governmental authority remains degraded in North America and Western Europe. The United Kingdom has officially devolved into its four constituent kingdoms.
Computer. The Kingdom of England has deployed a nuclear weapon to repel a mass migration of armed European immigrants. Due to aberrant weather conditions, the battle was resolved with irradiated snowballs.
Computer. In North America, the United States remains a government in name only. True authority now rests in alliances of states, primarily the Nehemiah Covenant in the southeast, and the Domination of FERG in the northeast.
Computer. The Domination of FERG has expanded its control from southern Virginia to Charlotte, North Carolina. Incursions of protesters were repelled. Under United Nations regulations, no additional force is permitted.
Computer. Domination of FERG command post has been relocated from East Douglas, Massachusetts to Speedway, Indiana, due to prohibited substances attack against Massachusetts.
Computer. Governmental authority remains degraded in other parts of North America. The Governor of Texas has resigned his office. He now flies an ultra-light aircraft in rescue missions to save infants from gang incursions at industrial parks.
Computer. Also in Texas, camels are becoming more popular as petroleum becomes more scarce. Travellers prefer female camels which they can milk during transit, because stores are becoming less reliable for food supplies.
Computer. A freelance crew of glider pilots is patrolling the world from Fargo, North Dakota. Technology allows them to circle the Earth indefinitely, and shoot down re-entry vessels over the Atlantic Ocean while on station over the Pacific. A great-granddaughter of U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt has joined this effort.
Computer. Ecological crises are increasing. Much of Manhattan Island is underwater, though the island remains functional due to creative use of landfill.
Computer. Horror stories abound. On one battlefield, a predator ate a woman's flesh. She was offered the contents of its stomach when it was killed. She accepted.
Enter Julie Wolcott, dressed in slacks and a sweater.
Julie. (looks at screen, then tiredly) Still playing that game, Wyatt...
Julie. (double takes, then looks at screen again) Hey, those are our superhuman files!
Wyatt. Whaddaya mean, our?
Julie. Those are Foundation files!
Wyatt. (tiredly) Oh, you mean your files.
Julie. I never released those files!
Wyatt. Must've been that Ellipsis guy then.
Julie. Stephen? But some of our secrets are on that file! He'd never let that slip!
Wyatt. Oh? I thought he believed in open source, free transfer of information, all that good stuff.
Julie. Not when it's his! He must be up to something.
Wyatt. Like fixing the election?
Julie. He's already doing everything he can on that, short of using a time machine...
Wyatt. Good thing the U.N. controls the time machines now.
Julie. ...It's just not working.
Wyatt. How about another war? That Tierra del Fuego war of his seems not to have worked out...
Julie. It wasn't his war!
Wyatt. Yeah, right, he just couldn't control that Antarctic peace plan of his. Some mutant supergenius he is.
Julie. You've played that game, you know the stakes! The Earth really could go to hell in a handbasket that fast.
Wyatt. By 2011? That fast?
Julie. We've run the simulations, it really could. That's what we always wanted to prevent.
Wyatt. Well, yeah, but he's only helping get it there at this rate.
Julie. (shaking her head) I told him it wasn't worth it. I'm just sorry I had anything to do with it.
Wyatt. At least you're out of it now. My ladyfriend's just starting.
Julie. ... Oh, right, Judy. Have you heard from her?
Wyatt. Nope. I guess e-mail doesn't work in Greenland...
Julie. The hell it doesn't... Were you close?
Wyatt. As close as I ever get with anyone. We didn't quite go through hell together, but it was close enough sometimes...
Wyatt. And now she's found another way to get there.
A moment of silence.
Julie. You never cry, do you?
Wyatt looks at Julie. Then they hug.
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