Over the first couple days after I'd woken up I hadn't really done much of anything besides, you know, curse the misfortune thrust onto the planet by otherworldly creatures. Oh yeah, not forgetting the fact my daughter died twenty years ago, during which I was in some form of stasis, while my wife and son suffered the unimaginable just to stay alive. I cursed all that too.
I have a habit of misguided humour in place of properly processing sadness and grief. I think the kids used to call it a toxic trait.
Having been the subject of a number of tests and considerable glee at the hands of Dr. Simons, I was given my very own quarters the day after I woke up. It was good to have my own space, I could sit and ponder in relative peace. Which was fun at first, it helped me process. Also, the good news was that it was nice and secure... from the outside. There were about three locks on the outside of the door and none inside. It was well furnished too, I had a bunk all to myself, a cabinet and my toilet were only a few short steps away from my bed. No windows for any nosey neighbours to peep through either. I also had two of my very own security guards posted outside my room, for that extra peace of mind. At first glance, it may look like a prison cell masquerading as 'quarters, but I think anyone would agree... if you needed to pee in the night, that bed to toilet distance makes it all worth it.
All jokes aside, I sort of understand. An unknown, unquantifiable energy was being produced, or at the very least, emitted by me. Precautions were necessary, if not incredibly vilifying. In reality, I hadn't done anything wrong. All the years I'd been here under observation, the object of empirical study, there had been no instances of my fracture causing harm. But I guess now I was conscious, their worry wasn't necessarily the XQ energy, but what I might do with it, accidentally or otherwise.
I'd been told to wait for Jana, the young German lass to stop by and give me a tour of the base. She was due at 9 am, so I was delightfully served breakfast in my room, up and ready to go for 8:30 am, just in case. That was 2 hours ago. I wouldn't mind if I had anything to do. I wasn't even given a book, a phone, a tablet, or any music for that matter. Seriously, I would kill if it meant I could play some sort of shitty mobile puzzle game.
Abi also briefly informed me that the two guards - I'd nicknamed them pinky and perky since I couldn't remember their names - were to stay with me at all times, for my protection. She knew I didn't believe it for a second, but she needed to keep up the whole 'you're not being held against your will' routine.
Pinky and Perky weren't exactly chatty. I tried a bit of small talk but rather than using their words, they'd more often than not grunt, sigh, or simply ignore me. Under all the unnecessary protective gear, I could barely see their reactions either. Unless they were ordered to wear the extra body armour. Overkill if you ask me. So, I thought why not force a response, hopefully, it might shed light on why they were so reluctant to acknowledge me. The door itself wasn't locked because they were standing on guard, so I tried to go for stroll. Pinky and Perky didn't like that and quickly pointed the way back to my room with their guns. Their response implied fear. They were scared of me for some reason.
A full 3 hours went by before Jana decided to show up. Apparently, she'd forgotten she was supposed to be giving me a tour and when Abi asked how it went, received quite the scalding.
So that's where I am now, stood awkwardly in an elevator with two men who have guns strapped to their waists and an unspecified issue with me, and a woman who forgot I existed. Considering Jana was my escort for the day, I figured I may as well ask her about what all the fuss was about, why some people seemed to scorn me.
"Hey, Jana, why are Pinky and Perky so eager to shoot me? And not just them, it feels like every other person is ready to pull their gun every time I sneeze." I said, taking a leaf out of Pinky and Perky's book and bluntly ignoring them.
Standing at ease, her hands clasped behind her lower back, a brow raised, she answered "yah, so, there are some people that believe you were the first fractured because you have XQ energy in you." It was unapologetically honest, a nice change of pace in comparison to the vague sidestepping I'd received from everyone else.
Pausing for a moment, contemplating whether or not I should push further, I took the risk and asked another. "And why would being the first fractured make people jumpy around me?" I retorted.
"Because some people think that maybe you were the source of the XQ shockwave on the day of the descent and that maybe you could make something bad happen again." her reply was short and to the point, much like herself.
"And what do you think?" I asked.
"It doesn't matter what I think. I do what the commander orders me. She thinks you have a purpose. My job is to make sure she can use you when the time is right." Again, honest, but slightly ominous now.
"So, what's this 'grand purpose' the commander has for me?" I said, sarcastically toning my voice.
"Well, you-" Before Jana could answer, Perky interrupted and, fulfilling his nickname, perked up, "Sergent!"
Both Jana and I turned around, her blank face glaring at the staunch man shaking his head. Before the interaction could prove any more interesting, the elevator staggered to a halt, the mechanical clonks suggesting we'd arrived at our destination. With a pleasant ding, the doors glided open, Jana stepping out, followed by me, with Pinky and Perky in formation behind me.
Shifting my attention from the small space of the elevator toward the huge hangar before me, I wasn't sure where to look. I stopped and stood for a moment, trying to take it all in. From floor to ceiling it was easily five stories high. To the left, monstrous steel beams exposed along the roof overlooked grids of catwalks, stairways and platforms interlinked, twisting and turning in every direction. Underneath on the hangar floor, barely visible in the distance, past a medley of workshops, supply crates and busy workers, a huge hydraulic door was open halfway, the daylight bursting through illuminating the cavernous dwelling. A brisk breeze flowed through the gaping door, intermittent pockets of heat from machinery riding it along the way. Sparks dropped from above as the sounds of metal clanging echoed and bounced about. Adjacent to us, opposite the platforms, was small garage-like structures, each level staggered slightly further forward than the other, with walkways and escalators running up each floor to the last level nestled neatly in between the roof and the rooms below. Curiously, however, the structure looked almost oval, the walls looked as though they were built into something rather than out of the ground. It was like something out of a sci-fi novel.
Eagerly stepping forward, my disbelief was giving way to curiosity and my need to explore was piqued. But before we could proceed any further Jana turned to face me, in step, like she was performing a marching drill. "Now, the introduction."
As much as I wanted to learn about this place, my enthusiasm was making me jittery. I was much more of an interactive learner anyway. Receiving a lecture on something you could quite literally look at with your own eyes was boring anyway. An attitude that explained why I didn't like my old job very much.
Jana's introduction was conducted much as you'd expect from a tour guide of a factory, an employee or a shareholder detailing the inner workings to a potential investor.
"This is the main hangar of the base. From here a collection of tasks pertinent to our continued survival are conducted by a variety of units divided by speciality. Each unit takes charge of a particular trade, task or purpose as part of a cohesive task force under the management of a unit commander. I'll tell you more about the hierarchy around a bit later on" She turned once again, her loose ponytail swinging to rest on her shoulder and continued to walk along the elevated outer edge of the hangar.
"We speak mainly English here since the majority who came to the base could already speak at least a little, it made things easier to communicate. However, there are a plethora of languages used between groups, including Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Czech, German, Estonian, Latvian, Polish, all of the Scandinavian languages and some Russian. We are encouraged to both speak and write at least two languages, pragmatically, it can be handy for operations, but morally, it's also to preserve our history and cultural identities. Everyone on base has a job, those who were born after the descent apprentice in a unit of their choosing, unless their talents are best suited elsewhere." She stopped, turned toward the expanse before us and raised her hand in front of herself. "This is home, we call this place Munama Base, and as far as we know, is the biggest human stronghold in Northern Europe."
Taking it all in, the eloquent introduction included, was challenging. In twenty years, civilisation had crumbled and from the ashes, humanity still banded together and flourished. Jana used the word survival, but from my point of view, they were doing more than just that. The platforms from each level that faced the hangar door had, what looked like, aeroplanes laced with weaponry ready to bolt at a moments notice. Cranes that ran along the beams above hauled ammunition and up to their stations. Some of the workshops on the hanger floor had people cleaning rifles and tinkering with explosives. This wasn't just a survival colony. It was an army.
I noticed below there were faces looking up at me, some of the workers had stopped and been gossiping and pointing. Before I could piece any thoughts together about the fact, I was shoved from the railing I was leant on making me stumble off along the walkway. It was Pinky, stale faced and pointing at Jana who had walked ahead of us. This 'protection' facade was a joke, Abi might've been playing politics but these guys were deliberately trying to agitate me. Begrudgingly doing as told, I followed in Jana's steps.
I shouted ahead "Hey, Jana, wait up!" She'd returned to military-grade posture by this point, practically marching away as if in some parade. "Keep up Englishman!" she shouted back. I jogged ahead at a pace to get me a little out of breath to catch up. Panting slightly, I huffed out a question "Why Munama Base?"
It was a valid question, probably not the one everyone would ask, but I was observant and most other questions that popped into my head I answered myself.
"The base is built into Suur Munamagi mountain in southern Estonia. It's the highest peak in the baltic states, in 2023 when the UN still existed, they built it here because it was remote and camouflaged. The only indication above-ground there's anything here is the observation tower above and a few roads. We still use the observation tower, about fifteen years ago we built an entrance directly into the base from the ground level there and retrofitted it with antenna and satellites. It also has a pleasant view." She stated as a matter of fact.
'Pleasant view of all things' I thought.
"There was an old medical facility that we turned into a functioning base after we arrived. When we got here, there were less than one-hundred people, but now, we number in the thousands," she said, stepping onto some steps taking us down to the hangar floor. "Over time, Munamagi Base was shortened to Munama, much to the amusement of our baltic language speakers."
Puzzled about why the name of the very structure keeping you alive would be amusing in a particular group of languages, I asked "Why would calling it Munama be amusing?"
Reaching the bottom of the steps, opening and door and holding it for me to walk through, she looked me straight in the eyes as I passed, her face giving no indication of her finding it amusing and said "because it translates to 'Egg Base.'"
I could understand the amusement to be fair. Imagine, in such a serious circumstance as this, one of the last remaining human settlements, the most important, in fact, in Northern Europe and in the language of the land it was based, was known as 'egg base'. It drew a chuckle from within me.
Moving from the main hanger into a concourse, Jana showed me the mess hall, the gym, a couple of recreational rooms full of now 20-year-old video games, tattered couches and board games, a library and a sports hall. Using a map on the wall to explain the layout, she pointed out the base had several basement levels, predominantly used for hydroponic farming, recreation and storehouses. Networks of tunnels linked other smaller hills with this main hangar, each of them containing relevant units and residences. Above ground level, within the carved out mountain, smaller hangars were strategically placed to allow vehicles to exit in different directions from within, other areas including command centres, infirmaries and even small markets existed here. It really was, as Jana described it a 'home', a self-sufficient and fortified community.
Finishing up, Jana guided me toward our last stop, the main command centre. Her typically leaky string of information supply had toughened its guard and she refused to divulge anything about the subject of the meeting I was about to attend. Pinky and Perky evidently monitoring her from behind might be influencing that, but I could see the mental effort she was making not to speak was affecting her physically, straining her. She was tight-lipped. Literally. She still flounced about robotically, like some sort of military cyborg, her expression still blank and relaxed, but there were signs she was struggling. It wasn't immediately obvious, but if you looked closely, you could see. Her jaw was clenched, a shadow gathered underneath her pursed lips as she was restraining herself.
I tried to get her to weaken a couple of times but eventually, Perky got fed up and interjected, telling me to shut up, carry on walking and pushed me in the back with the butt of his rifle. Seeing as how he was probably begging for a reason to put a bullet in me I decided to irritate him and play nice, that would show him.
I knew deep down it wouldn't but the petty, childish part of me was still joking around protecting me from the reality of all of this.
Arriving at the command centre, the room was exactly how you'd imagine it. There was a small glass-paned office on one side, opposite a meeting room with a large wooden rectangular table in the other, filled with chairs and monitors. through the middle of the two, a balcony overlooked a theatre-like room, with desks and computers on each level facing the back wall at a cinema size screen.
The larger screen wasn't turned on and there were only a few people scattered about at their computers when I passed by, but I tried to get a peek at what was on their monitors. Some showed satellite images of decimated towns, others ariel views of what I assumed was Munama Base, but there was one that piqued my interest.
It looked like a crashed lurker ship, partially disassembled, a large spire glowing and glistening a dark shade of blue built atop it. I'd stopped to get a closer look but quickly ushered in the meeting room by Pink and Perky.
We waited there for about 5 minutes before Abi and two others marched through the door, sat down and fiddled around with some tablet-like devices. One of them was Dr. Simons, who unlike Abi and the other bloke, put his tablet down pretty quickly and just stared at me, pleasantly smiling. He was becoming even more of a creepy bastard by the minute.
I still didn't fully know how to act around Abi. Her presence was often fleeting at best, but when she was around, the distance she put between us was alien to me. Back in London, back before the world turned into an apoca-shitstorm, she would open up to me, talk. Now, she barely gave any indication she knew me at all, let alone married to me. In fact, the only time she showed any emotion toward me was that little outburst of rage in Dr. Simons office.
One of the thoughts that I couldn't escape when I was ditched into my 'quarters' was whether or not we were still technically married, I suppose the legalities were all trivial now since no government existed. We married in a church, so religiously, I guess we still were. Although, I was raised agnostic and while Abi was raised in a catholic family, we always defined ourselves as atheists. So maybe the religious parameters to our marriage are essentially annulled, invalid, irrelevant. But the vows we made weren't and I meant every word. Alone in that room, with only my thoughts for company gave me perspective. I accepted that things have changed, that Abi may not feel the same way, that she may have moved on. But we were still connected, in some really f*cked up time-wimey existential-crisis civilisation-ending, kind of way. We were soul-mates once upon a time and even though I couldn't even fathom what resuming our marriage would entail, I still wanted to have some semblance of friendship with her.
Catching my reflection in the glass, made me realise something, from her perspective anyway. Based on our date of birth, we might be close in age, but biologically, now we were twenty years apart. Hell, with this fracture of mine, can I even age? For a moment the former comic book lover in me was sidetracked by how cool it would be to be immortal, but I snapped myself out of it pretty quick when I noticed just how different in age Abi and I looked.
Don't get me wrong, for someone in their mid-fifties, she looked great. If I didn't know her and guessed her age, I'd probably guess at least ten years younger. But it was obvious she was older than I remembered.
I looked at myself, still in my mid-thirties and it was obvious. Not a single grey in sight, my hair was a fair colour, that had darkened subtly as I aged. Slightly creased skin around my grey eyes, normal for a man of my age. My nose, narrow, my nostrils thin, much like my face. My hairline was thankfully completely intact too. I looked exactly how the old women from my home town used to speak of the celt people of Cornwall, where I was from.
I looked back to Abi, preparing herself. Beautifully auburn, shoulder-length hair, flecked with grey. The slightest wrinkling from the corner of her green eyes. Her cheekbones had become more prominent with her age, the creases below her cheeks meeting the others on either side of her plump lips. To me, she was as enthralling as the day I met her.
My melancholic admiration was halted swiftly when Abi began to speak, snapping me out of my daze and forcing me back to reality.
"Peran!" She got my attention and directed me to her left with a slight gesture across the table. "You already know Dr. Simons, of course. But here, I'd like you to meet Chief Commander of the base, Arri Rebane." He gave a slight nod, his gelled blonde hair, brushed backwards bouncing slightly.
After Arri's acknowledgement, she continued, "now I know you've been given a tour, even if it was a few hours late," she glared at Jana, raising an eyebrow. "But we need to talk to you about your present situation and what's going to happen moving forward."
'Wow, she got straight to business.' I thought to myself, slightly annoyed, reminding myself Abi was different now.
I leant forward against the desk, "Firstly, hello, it's nice to see you again Abi, I hope you're well, and yes, please, I'd love to talk about moving forward. The tour was lovely thanks, Jana has been a truly gracious host, Pinky and Perky over there." I pointed my thumb over my shoulder at the two nitwits stood guard. "My 'security' less so. In fact, something tells me that rather than keep me safe, they're actually here to keep me under lock and key. I'm not sure if it was the threat to shoot me or the rather forceful way they've been telling me where to go, but I'm fairly certain I don't have any freedoms." I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms, my facial expressions demonstrating my sarcasm and disapproval.
"Yes, well, certain precautions needed to be made. Both for your sake and ours. But, I apologise if they've been rough, they were ordered specifically not to be." She said glaring at them both, a slight venom in her voice. I turned around to see their reactions for myself. Pinky looked genuinely terrified and Perky was disguising his disgust pretty well, but it was there.
Resuming her chat, she looked back to her tablet "anyway, as I was saying, moving forward we hope that you can assimilate into the workforce. Specifically, we'd like to have you in a new clandestine combat unit we're forming. I'll let the doctor go over the details as to why in a moment, but essentially, we believe your fracture could be of the utmost importance."
It dawned on me suddenly why they had me so closely watched, why Jana had earlier said words like 'purpose' and 'use'. It was for whatever they were about to tell me, this new super special combat thing. But I had no combat experience, the closest I ever got to combat was video games and even then, I wasn't very good. "You can't seriously be expecting me to join a combat team without any experience, surely?" I protested.
Abi was quick in her reply, "there's no need for you to worry about that, we have great facilities for you to learn here and we'll provide full training to you. Quite frankly we need you to, and quick." At first, it seemed like she was trying to sell it to me, but the desperation in her words sounded real.
She tapped at her tablet briefly, spun it into the centre of the table, pressed a button on the side and from the centre of the tablet pulled her hand up from the surface. As her hand rose, a projection from the tablet lifted with it, forming a monochrome holographic map hovering just above the screen. It was awesome, I always knew human technology was going to accelerate quickly at some point, but this was unreal. Curiously brushing my hand between the hologram and the tablet screen interfered with the map slightly, but it stayed intact. In a classic time-travel technology trope, I asked in amazement, "What is this thing? It's awesome."
"This is a holo-tab, don't get ahead of yourself with some profound quote about human technology accelerating, the tech was appropriated for human use from lurker wreckages," Abi replied, a subtle smile on her face at my kid-like fascination. "What you see here is a crashed lurker ship, one of the smaller ones. It crash-landed during the descent near the coastline on the Croatian coastline. As you can see over the last 20 years they've been busy. They've disassembled most of their ship and turned what they could into a settlement. That spire you see there, that's emitting a flux of XQ energy that we believe is doing two things; firstly, we believe it is the source of their power, charging their weapons and vehicles. Secondly, and most disturbingly, we believe it's slowly seeping into the earth around it to terraform the planet into an environment most suitable for them to live outside and exposed." With a flick of her wrist, she swivelled the hologram, then she pinched her index finger and her thumb together and slowly opened them, making the map smaller in the same way we used to do with our phones. "This area that has been affected is 4000 square kilometres, expanding outward from the spire. It's been causing the flora and fauna in the area to mutate, similar to what happened to people who gained fractures, except we believe, it's more potent. It activates intermittently, in a pattern, each time slowly expanding the area it mutates. There have been similar reports of this from the other human colonies we've had contact with in the US, as well as China."
Abi removed her arms from the table, sitting upright. Yet again, she casually dropped some utterly ridiculous information on me. Terraforming? That must be what they came for. It made sense, right? They must have been out in space observing the planet, planning what they were going to do. But damn, no wonder they have an army, they must be preparing to take the fight to them.
Before I could speculate further, Dr. Simons spoke up, his calm exterior out of sync with the excitement in his voice, "this is where you come in Peran. I believe that the same source of power the lurkers use to provide this power is the same that you must have come into contact with on the day of the descent. If I'm correct, I have theorised that when you learn to control your fracture you will be able to manipulate and create or neutralise, XQ energy. Given the right training and experimentation with your fracture, I'm certain we can figure out the extent of your incredible fracture."
Before I had a chance to express my thoughts, let alone create some, the previously silent and passive Cheif Commander Rebane came to life.
"Peran, we sincerely hope that you get on board here. Based on Dr. Simons research, we put together the new combat unit centred around getting you into lurker controlled area's and deactivating their source of power, thereby allowing us to coordinate our attacks and take back our planet, one ship at a time."