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The M-318A2E5 General Purpose Heavy Machinegun.
A 20mm barrel. Frangible link belt fed. Each box of ammunition containing 200 rounds of variable munitions, from standard soft alloy ball rounds to armor piercing incendiary to self-correcting guided armor piercing discarding sabot fin stabilized warsteel jacketed density enhanced shell mass reactive antimatter core with tracer.
Maximum rate of fire 2,000 rounds a minute. Maximum effective rate of fire at 350 rounds a minute. Recommended rate of fire at 100 rounds per minute. If can be altered on the fly with an advanced firing system or manually fixed by the unit armorer or Weapon Engineer trained green mantid.
A crew served, warborg, or gunnery heavy combat frame (or parity system). Alternatively mounted in a fixed position or on a light armored combat vehicle. Often used as a light weapon on warmechs. It has also been used as a bludgeoning weapon against particularly aggressive and insistent enemy and proven to be more resilient then the body of the enemy.
Single barrel with heat shroud, magnetic rail accelleration with magnetic coil stabilization and variable munition effects, with thermal bloom heat sink option. The bare minimum moving pieces after thousands of years of being steadily shaved down. Stripped down there is not a single extraneous piece of hardware entirely on her body.
Capable of air defense, point defense, anti-armor, anti-infantry, anti-vehicle usage depending on deployment and selected munition type. If you can see it, if you can hit it, if you can maintain fire upon it, you will, inevitably, kill it. Rather, she will kill it, if you are skilled enough.
Able to be resupplied by a Class-II nano-forge with only built in heat sinks and radiator fins, it is capable of resupplying itself with nearly seven hundred rounds per minute and stay within heat tolerances for an unaltered Class-II nano-forge using only atmospheric mass intake. A Class-I nano-forge can produce four hundred rounds per minute within heat tolerances. A Class-III and higher can produce ten thousand rounds per minute with little to no heat or nanite stress and is only limited by the amount of mass it has access to.
A standard ball round without nano-forge fabrication costs the Confederate tax payer 125 credits. An advanced round like the Confederate military uses as its standard loadout would cost the Confederate tax-payer 14,200 credits per round. As the Confederate tax payer has graciously supplied you with a nano-forge, each round only costs the Confederate tax payer one credit worth the nanites and mass.
You will not waste the Confederate taxpayer's money.
Able to be attached to autonomous firing points or carried by a warborg, the M-318A2E5 does not have to rely on fancy virtual reality, virtual intelligence assistants, or even holographic targeting. At times the M-318A2E5 has been stripped down to the basic components with a hollowed out ration tin as a sight. With the weapon entirely made from Gen-Zero Warsteel without any fancy laminates, molecular circuitry, or even necessarily having to rely on electrical primers and firing systems, the M-318A2E5 is resistant to gravity, radiation, electromagnetic pulses, and can survive inside the fireball of a 10.25 megaton nuclear blast and still be servicable to kill the enemy.
Basically unchanged, with the exception of the nanoforge ammunition supply system (NASS), since prior to the Diaspora the M-318A2E5 General Purpose Heavy Machinegun System has killed more of the enemy than even planet cracker class weaponry. It has tasted the blood of dozens of species, some without even names, and sent them wailing to afterlife.
From the shores of Iron Fence to the blasted sands of Anthill to the deathlands of the Niven Rings, the "Three-Eighteen" has been the infantry's knockout punch since before Terra managed FTL travel. Like her mother, the Ma-Deuce, she proved that mass infantry charges are not militarily feasible if you wish to have any males left to rebuild your nation or species. Carried by Chromium Saint Peter on Anthill, this weapon has felt the touch of the Digital Omnimessiah and killed men during the Burger Wars of Prediaspora while mounted on armored fighting vehicles.
This weapon is one of the grand old dames of warfare, up there with the Gerber Ka-Bar Mark III and the M-9A2 Bayonet and her mother, the M2A6E2 Fifty Caliber General Purpose Heavy Machinegun, and you, recruit, will treat her, treat all of them, with respect, as she has earned it, unlike every one of you sorry sacks of shit.
Take your places next to your assigned weapon and we will begin familiarization with the bare bones stripped weapon.
I do not agree with the sentiment that you are worthy to touch her.
Time will tell.
--Advanced Individual Training, Infantry, Heavy Weapons Familiarization, Day One.
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This is the M8271E5 Heavy Weapon Specialist standard basic gunner's frame.
Twenty-eight pounds of advanced hyperalloys, a foamed battlesteel core, and a warsteel laminate jacket, the M8271E5 will enable you to carry and effectively use, while mitigating endurance and fatigue, the heavy weapons of the Terran Confederate Army.
Designed initially to allow ammunition specialists to work with heavy munitions in a timely manner, the frame was adapted for heavy gunner work prior to the Great Glassing. It has gone through repeated redesigns until the version in front of you was settled upon during the Lancaster Nebula Wars.
This frame can be supplemented with smart-frame capable offensives and defensives, including battlescreens and eVI warboi assistance, as well as have modular armor layered onto it for additional protection from vacuum, radiation, battlefield hazards, or just because you are so ugly we would prefer not to look at you.
Costing the Terran Confederacy taxpayer twenty-two thousand credits in mass to create, the Gunner's Frame is worth more than any of you mouth breathing ballsweat huffing morons in front of me.
At my command you will step forward, place your big lump clumsy feet into the pedals, and reach forward with your dick skinners and cloacae rubbers and grasp the handles. You will not mistake my command and lodge any important parts of this device into your rectums or other waste orifices. You will not fall down. You will not embarrass me or your instructors or I will personally make your existence a living hell due to the fact that you are too stupid to walk and breathe at the same time.
MOUNT THE FRAME!
--Advanced Individual Training, Infantry, Heavy Weapons Systems Familiarization, Day Five
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Your warboi is a custom grown enhanced virtual intelligence who's basic core seed was grown from one of the scans of your neural tissue base motor reflexes. This means the two of you think to some extent alike.
Currently your warboi is undergoing the final phase of personality gelling before they will hatch from their digital shell and, for their sins, be assigned to you for a training period of two years, after which they will move on to other soldiers just as you will be assigned to different units.
Warboi integration has proven to increase your combat effectiveness by handling the complexities of the modern battlefield and modern wargear. They will largely handle your electronic warfare systems, your battlescreens, heat and slush levels, graviton generator balancing, and many other systems that the modern soldier has to worry about.
Gentlebeings, integration with your warboi is a necessary section of your training. If you cannot integrate with your warboi you will have failed from this course and will be cast down into the masses of non-combat personnel. No, below them, down to where the un-wired work, counting how many tires are on the General's personal grav-lifter and vainly trying to remember if three comes after four.
A fate worse than death, gentlebeings, for honed killing machines such as yourselves.
Currently, your warboi is dreaming learning dreams. The 'cyber-egg' has been mounted on your Combat Frame so that you can move through simulations and get your warboi used to how you move. Move slow and steady, follow your training, and teach your warboi how you move.
MOUNT THE FRAME!
--Advanced Individual Training, Infantry, Warboi Familiarization, Day One
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When forced with reacting at a subconscious level or taking your warboi's advice, you must remember that your warboi is a digital semi-sentience without the millions of years of predator evolution that turned you into the top tool using land dwelling predator of your worlds. You have dedicated neural systems within your brain, that you have head since the only sound that you knew was your mother's heart or the egg tender's singing, that enabled every single one of your forebearers to not only survive long enough to pass on their genetics to the female or xirmale of your species, but that gestator sex to survive long enough to give birth to those young.
Your three to six pounds of neural wiring enabled your forebearers to overcome everything from giant lizards to crystalline hunters to avain predators until your species was the dominate one of the entire planet.
The warboi has what he was been programmed with and what he has learned.
Your instincts will, 80% of the time, trump the warboi's protests or suggestions.
In the other 20%, you will either recognize that the warboi's suggestion is superior or everything will come apart on you.
You must remember, gentlebeings, that your warboi understands your electronic warfare systems and their operations in the same way that you understand how to run across a field. Training and practice.
Before you protest that your people are a peaceful, cooperative people, and that you are an outlier, that you were conquered by the Lanaktallan or had your faces smashed in by the Terrans, you must remember one thing: You were, or are, the dominant predator on your planet.
Trust your warboi, but trust your instincts also.
The course you are about to enter is designed to cause your warboi to make the wrong suggestions or attempt to countermand your orders. It is as much a training exercise for him as it is for you.
MOUNT THE FRAME!
---Advanced Individual Training, Infantry, Warboi Familiarization, Day Twelve
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This is the pinnacle of modern infantry warfare. The M894 Powered Assault Armor. A man sized piece of equipment that will allow you to fight anywhere within this universe and most of the other known universes. It is, in effect, as self contained combat spaceship with modular systems, capable of allowing you to fight, without any support, for up to five years without needing resupply. With the onboard nano-forge even critical system replacement is possible.
The record for unsupported operation in power armor is twenty-three years, with a grand total of time in direct combat of nine years, three months, fourteen days, three hours, sixteen minutes, forty-two seconds.
That pilot survived.
That, gentlebeings, is not recommended.
--Advanced Individual Training, Infantry, Power Armor Familiarization, Day One
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The M9E7 Orbital Insertion Pod is used to insert Confederate Forces onto a hostile surface, often directly into battle, from far orbit. Capable of acting as an emergency life support pod, complete with manuevering thrusters, the M9 OIP carries a thirteen man infantry squad and all of their equipment from the troop ship or warship to the surface of the planet, asteroid, or Niven Ring. Capable of withstanding more than one orbital defense hit, the OIP is a safer environment for the infantry than the inside of those cobbled together rust buckets Space Force and the Navy wander around the universe in.
With a built in Class-V Nano-Force, the M9E7 OIP is returning to the previous Confederate Army doctrine of each squad is capable of operating from a fixed position with everything they need from the drop pod. Loaded with templates to create everything from rapid strike grav-lifters to standard side-arms, the Drop Pod is not only how you get to the ground, but how you hold it once you take it.
Unlike the Marine Corps pods, the M9E7 is designed to be disassembled and used as the core of a forward operating base that will enable you to withstand anything the enemy can throw at you, given enough time and mass.
This training unit will teach you how to use the OIP to the best effect to kill the enemy, break his possessions, and take his territory.
MOUNT THE FRAME!
--Advanced Individual Training, Infantry, Orbital Insertion Pod Familiarization, Day One
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Undrat sat on his bunk, the dataslate in his hand, going over the standard combat maneuvers for the umpteenth time. They were ingrained in his memory now, but he still felt the need to examine them again for anything he might have missed.
His people weren't the brightest out there, but they were persistent and enduring.
Once he had read it, he took the self-quiz, answering questions and moving the icons around to show his work. After that he went over proper radio procedures, despite the fact that he had been warning repeatedly that proper radio procedure often ended when the munitions were being expended or after a sufficiently long period of time in a combat zone.
A new section had been added while he was in training, and Undrat wanted to make sure he had it memorized by going over it again and again. The Terran Confederate Army had begun training its soldiers in radio wave frequency communications, based on bands most races had long abandoned.
Several times sidebars warned Undrat that the supposed un-jammable quantum and strange matter linkage communications had recently been completely jammed and rendered unusable by an enemy through unknown means in a combat theater.
The communications procedures book now contained how to even use flashing lights or waved cloth to signal others, as well as flares, smoke, and fire.
He was in his room, which he shared with three other soldiers as part of Second Platoon, Bravo Company, Ninth Battalion, Second Brigade, Fifth Regiment, Twenty-Third Infantry Division, XII Corps, 14th Army.
Undrat liked the long label. It let him know exactly who was in charge of him, which made him more comfortable. He could recite the names of every commander of each unit, as well as the Executive Officer and Master Enlisted and knew them by sight from their pictures. He had even listened to recordings of their speech over and over until he was confident he could remember them by their voice if he ever heard it.
It was good to remember things.
He sat in his adaptive camouflage uniform, the rank of Private Grade Two on his sleeves. He had been promoted once he had finished his training, arrived at his new unit, and passed the basic tests to ensure he had retained the knowledge outside of training.
Of course he had. Once he had learned it, he would not forget it.
When he heard it, he raised his head from his book, frowning.
YOU BELONG TO US
Sighing, he turned off the dataslate and got up, setting it on the desk. He grabbed his hat and headed for the door.
He doubted that the scream was friendly.
As he trudged toward the armory he heard it again.
YOU BELONG TO US
This time he heard the scream back from every Terran around him.
EAT A DICK!
Terrans were running by, heading toward the armory. Like Undrat's people, the Terrans had evolved as pursuit hunters, persistence hunters, on a high gravity world.
Undrat wasn't worried. He knew he would get to the armory in time to sign in and make formation.
He looked forward to protecting his former Overseer.
After all, the Overseer had protected Undrat and his people.
It was only fair.
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Hester Latterly's Guide to the DOT, Part 1

[EVENT] 91st Congress passes major environmental legislation

No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals; or collectively: the land.
This sounds simple: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these 'resources,' but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state.
In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.
Aldo Leopold, The Land Ethic

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969

Purpose

The purposes of this Act are: To declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation; and to establish a Council on Environmental Quality.

Title I: Declaration of National Environmental Policy

The Congress, recognizing the profound impact of man's activity on the interrelations of all components of the natural environment and recognizing further the critical importance of restoring and maintaining environmental quality to the overall welfare and development of man, declares that it is the continuing policy of the Federal Government, in cooperation with State and local governments, and other concerned public and private organizations, to use all practicable means and measures, including financial and technical assistance, in a manner calculated to foster and promote the general welfare, to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony, and fulfill the social, economic, and other requirements of present and future generations of Americans. Furthermore, The Congress recognizes that each person should enjoy a healthful environment and that each person has a responsibility to contribute to the preservation and enhancement of the environment.
In order to carry out the policy set forth in this Act, it is the continuing responsibility of the Federal Government to use all practicable means, consistent with other essential considerations of national policy, to improve and coordinate Federal plans, functions, programs, and resources to the end that the Nation may:

fulfill the responsibilities of each generation as trustee of the environment for succeeding generations;
assure for all Americans safe, healthful, productive, and esthetically and culturally pleasing surroundings;
attain the widest range of beneficial uses of the environment without degradation, risk to health or safety, or other undesirable and unintended consequences;
preserve impprtant historic, cultural, and natural aspects of our national heritage, and maintain, wherever possible, an environment which supports diversity and variety of individual choice;
achieve a balance between population and resource use which will permit high standards of living and a wide sharing of life's amenities;
enhance the quality of renewable resources and approach the maximum attainable recycling of depletable resources.

The Congress authorizes and directs that, to the fullest Administration extent possible, all agencies of the Federal Government shall:

utilize a systematic, interdisciplinary approach which will insure the integrated use of the natural and social sciences and the environmental design arts in planning and in decisionmaking which may have an impact on man's environment;
identify and develop methods and procedures, in consultation with the Council on Environmental Quality established by title II of this Act, which will insure that presently unquantified environmental amenities and values may be given appropriate consideration in decisionmaking along with economic and technical considerations;
include in every recommendation or report on proposals for legislation and other major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment, a detailed statement by the responsible official on the short-term and long-term environmental impact of the proposed action.

Title II: Council on Environmental Quality

The President shall transmit to the Congress annually beginning July 1, 1970, an Environmental Quality Report (hereinafter referred to as the "report") which shall set forth

the status and condition of the major natural, manmade, or altered environments of the Nation;
current and foreseeable trends in the quality, management and utilization of such environments and the effects of those trends on the Nation;
the adequacy of available natural resources for fulfilling human and economic requirements of the Nation;
a review of the programs and activities (including regulatory activities) of the Federal Government, the State and local governments, and nongovernmental entities or individuals, with particular reference to their effect on the environment;
a program for remedying the deficiencies of existing programs and activities, together with recommendations for legislation.

There is created in the Executive Office of the President a Council on Environmental Quality (hereinafter referred to as the "Council"). The Council shall be composed of three members who shall be appointed by the President to serve at his pleasure, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. It shall be the duty and function of the Council to:

assist and advise the President in the preparation of the Environmental Quality Report;
to gather timely and authoritative information concerning the conditions and trends in the quality of the environment both current and prospective, to analyze and interpret such information for the purpose of determining whether such conditions and trends are interfering, or are likely to interfere, with the achievement of the policy set forth in title I of this Act, and to compile and submit to the President studies relating to such conditions and trends;
to review and appraise the various programs and activities of the Federal Government in the light of the policy set forth in title I of this Act for the purpose of determining the extent to which such programs and activities are contributing to the achievement of such policy, and to make recommendations to the President with respect thereto;
to develop and recommend to the President national policies to foster and promote the improvement of environmental quality to meet the conservation, social, economic, health, and other requirements and goals of the Nation;
to make and furnish studies, reports thereon, and recommendations with respect to matters of policy and legislation as the President may request.

There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out the provisions of this Act not to exceed $300,000 for fiscal year 1970, $700,000 for fiscal year 1971, and $1,000,000 for each fiscal year thereafter.

Let's put our heads together and start a new country up / Our father's father's father tried, erased the parts he didn't like / Let's try to fill it in, bank the quarry river, swim / We knee-skinned it you and me, we knee-skinned that river red
...
Cuyahoga / Cuyahoga, gone

The Clean Water Act of 1970

Title I: Research and Related Programs

The objective of this Act is to restore and maintain the chemical, physicalj and biological integrity of the Nation's waters. In order to achieve this objective it is hereby declared that, consistent with the provisions of this Act:

it is the national goal that the discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters be eliminated by 1985;
it is the national policy that the discharge of toxic pollutants in toxic amounts be prohibited;
it is the national policy that Federal financial assistance be provided to construct publicly owned waste treatment works;
it is the national policy that waste treatment management planning processes be developed and implemented to assure adequate control of sources of pollutants;
it is the national policy that a major research and demonstration effort be made to develop technology necessary to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into waters.

The Administrator shall establish national programs for the prevention, reduction, and elimination of pollution and as part of such programs shall:

in cooperation with other Federal, State, and local agencies, conduct and promote the coordination and acceleration of, research, investigations, experiments, training, demonstrations, surveys, and studies relating to the causes, effects, extent, prevention, reduction, and elimination of pollution;
initiate and promote the coordination and acceleration of Report to conresearch designed to develop the most effective practicable tools and techniques for measuring the social and economic costs and benefits of activities which are subject to regulation under this Act; and shall transmit a report on the results of such research to the Congress not later than January 1, 1974.

In carrying out the provisions this section the Administrator is authorized to:

collect and make available information pertaining to research and other activities;
cooperate with other Federal departments and agencies, State water pollution control agencies, interstate agencies, other public and private agencies, institutions, organizations, industries involved, and individuals, in the preparation and conduct of such research and other activities.
make grants to State water pollution control agencies, interstate agencies, other public or nonprofit private agencies, institutions, organizations, and individuals, for purposes stated in this section;
contract with public or private agencies, institutions, organizations, and individuals;
establish and maintain research fellowships at public or nonprofit private educational institutions or research organizations;
develop effective and practical processes, methods, and prototype devices for the prevention, reduction, and elimination of pollution.

The Administrator shall, after consultation with appropriate local, State, and Federal agencies, public and private organizations, and interested individuals, develop and issue to the States for the purpose of carrying out this Act the latest scientific knowledge available in indicating the kind and extent of effects on health and welfare which may be expected from the presence of pesticides in the water in varying quantities. He shall revise and add to such information whenever necessary to reflect developing scientific knowledge.
The Administrator shall, in an effort to prevent degradation of the environment from the disposal of waste oil, conduct a study of the generation of used engine, machine, cooling, and similar waste oil, the long-term, chronic biological effects of the disposal of such waste oil, and the potential market for such oils, including the economic and legal factors relating to the sale of products made from such oils, the level of subsidy, if any, needed to encourage the purchase by public and private nonprofit agencies of products from such oil, and the practicability of Federal procurement, on a priority basis, of products made from such oil. In conducting such study, the Administrator shall consult with affected industries and other persons.
The Administrator shall conduct research and investigations on devices, systems, incentives, pricing policy, and other methods of reducing the total flow of sewage, including, but not limited to, unnecessary water consumption in order to reduce the requirements for, and the costs of, sewage and waste treatment services. Such research and investigations shall be directed to develop devices, systems, policies, and methods capable of achieving the maximum reduction of unnecessary water consumption.

The Administrator shall report the preliminary results of such studies and investigations to the Congress as soon as practicable but not later than January 1, 1973.

Title II: Standards and Enforcement

The discharge of any pollutant by any person shall be unlawful.

In order to carry out the objective of this Act there shall be achieved:

not later than July 1, 1977, effluent limitations for point sources which shall require the application of the best practicable control technology currently available as defined by the Administrator;
not later than July 1,1977, any more stringent limitation, including those necessary to meet water quality standards, treatment standards, or schedules of compliance;

The Administrator shall promulgate any revised or new standard under this paragraph not later than ninety days after he publishes such proposed standards, unless prior to such promulgation, such State has adopted a revised or new water quality standard which the Administrator determines to be in accordance with this Act.

Each State shall establish for the waters, and in accordance with the priority ranking, the total maximum daily load, for those pollutants defined by the Administrator as suitable for such calculation.
Each State shall estimate for the waters the total maximum daily thermal load required to assure protection and propagation of a balanced, indigenous population of shellfish, fish and wildlife.

Whenever required to carry out the objective of this Act:

the Administrator shall require the owner or operator of any point source to establish and maintain records, make reports, install, use, and maintain monitoring equipment or methods, sample effluents, and provide such other information as he may reasonably require.
the Administrator or his authorized representative, upon presentation of his credentials shall have a right of entry to, upon, or through any premises in which an effluent source is located or in which any records are located, and may at reasonable times have access to and copy any records, inspect any monitoring equipment or method, and sample any effluents which the owner or operator of such source is required to sample under such clause.

Title III: General Provisions

The Administrator is authorized to prescribe such regulations as are necessary to carry out his functions under this Act.
The Administrator, with the consent of the head of any other agency of the United States, may utilize such officers and employees of such agency as may be found necessary to assist in carrying out the purposes of this Act.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the Administrator upon receipt of evidence that a pollution source or combination of sources is presenting an imminent and substantial endangerment to the health or welfare of persons may bring suit on behalf of the United States to immediately restrain any person causing or contributing to the alleged pollution to stop the discharge of pollutants causing or contributing to such pollution or to take such other action as may be necessary.
Any citizen may commence a civil action on his own behalf against any person, including the United States and any other governmental instrumentality or agency to the extent permitted by the eleventh amendment to the Constitution, who is alleged to be in violation of an effluent standard or limitation under this Act or an order issued by the Administrator or a State with respect to such a standard or limitation, or against the Administrator where there is alleged a failure of the Administrator to perform any act or duty under this Act which is not discretionary with the Administrator.
No Federal agency may enter into any contract with any person, who has been convicted of any offense under this Act.

There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out the provisions of this Act not to exceed $650,000,000 for fiscal year 1970, $800,000,000 for fiscal year 1971, and $1,000,000,000 for each fiscal year thereafter.

There's the progress we have found (when the rain) / A way to talk around the problem (when the children reign) / Building towered foresight (keep your conscience in the dark) / Isn't anything at all (melt the statues in the park) / Buy the sky and sell the sky and bleed the sky and tell the sky
Don't fall on me (what is it up in the air for?) (it's gonna fall) / Fall on me (if it's there for long) (it's gonna fall) / Fall on me (it's over, it's over me) (it's gonna fall)

The Clean Air Amendments of 1970

Title I: Ambient Air Quality and Emissions Standards

For the purpose of establishing national primary and secondary ambient air quality standards, the Administrator shall within 30 days after the date of enactment of the Clean Air Amendments of 1970 publish, and shall from time to time thereafter revise, a list which includes each air pollutant:

which in his judgment has an adverse effect on public health or welfare;
the presence of which in the ambient air results from numerous or diverse mobile or stationary sources;
for which air quality criteria had not been issued before the date of enactment of the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, but for which he plans to issue air quality criteria under this section.

The Administrator shall issue air quality criteria for an air pollutant within 12 months after he has included such pollutant in said list. The criteria for an air pollutant, to the extent practicable, shall include information on:

those variable factors (including atmospheric conditions) which of themselves or in combination with other factors may alter the effects on public health or welfare of such air pollutant;
the types of air pollutants which, when present in the atmosphere, may interact with such pollutant to produce an adverse effect on public health or welfare;
any known or anticipated adverse effects on welfare.

The Administrator within 30 days after the date of enactment of the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, shall publish proposed regulations prescribing a national primary ambient air quality standard and a national secondary ambient air quality standard for each air pollutant for which air quality criteria have been issued prior to such date of enactment.

Title II: Hazardous Air Pollutant Standards

The Administrator shall, within 90 days after the date of enactment of the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, publish (and shall from time to time thereafter revise) a list which includes each hazardous air pollutant for which he intends to establish an emission standard under this section.
After the effective date of any emission standard under this section, no person may construct any new source or modify any existing source which, in the Administrator's judgment, will emit an air pollutant to which such standard applies unless the Administrator finds that such source if properly operated will not cause emissions in violation of such standard.

Title III: Enforcement

For the purpose of developing or assisting in the development of any implementation plan, any standard of performance, or any emission standard, or of determining whether any person is in violation of any such standard or any requirement of such a plan:

the Administrator may require the owner or operator of any emission source to establish and maintain records, make reports, install, use, and maintain monitoring equipment or methods, sample emissions, and provide such other information as he may reasonably require;
the Administrator or his authorized representative, upon presentation of his credentials shall have a right of entry to, upon, or through any premises in which an emission source is located or in which any records required to be maintained under this section are located, and may at reasonable times have access to and copy, any records, inspect any monitoring equipment or method, and sample any emissions which the owner or operator of such source is required to sample.

Title IV: Motor Vehicle Emission Standards

The Administrator shall by regulation prescribe (and from time to time revise) in accordance with the provisions of this section, standards applicable to the emission of any air pollutant from any class or classes of new motor vehicles or new motor vehicle engines, which in his judgment causes or contributes to, or is likely to cause or to contribute to, air pollution which endangers the public health or welfare. Such standards shall be applicable to such vehicles and engines for their useful life.

The regulations applicable to emissions of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from light duty vehicles and engines manufactured during or after model year 1975 shall contain standards which require a reduction of at least 90 per centum from emissions of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons allowable under the standards under this section applicable to light duty vehicles and engines manufactured in model year 1970.
The regulations applicable to emissions of oxides of nitrogen from light duty vehicles and engines manufactured during or after model year 1976 shall contain standards which require a reduction of at least 90 per centum from the average of emissions of oxides of nitrogen actually measured from light duty vehicles manufactured during model year 1971.

It is unlawful for a manufacturer of new motor vehicles or new motor engines to engage in the distribution in commerce, the sale, or the offering for sale, or the introduction, or delivery for introduction, into commerce, or (in the case of any person, except as provided by regulation of the Administrator), the importation into the United States, of any new motor vehicle or new motor vehicle engine, manufactured after the effective date of regulations, which does not comply with the standards set out by the Administrator.
It is unlawful for any manufacturer or dealer knowingly to remove or render inoperative any pollution control device or similar element of design before or after such sale and delivery to the ultimate purchaser.

Title V: Emission Standards for Aircraft

Within 90 days after the date of enactment of the Clean Air Amendments of 1970, the Administrator shall commence a study and investigation of emissions of air pollutants from aircraft in order to determine the extent to which such emissions affect air quality in air quality control regions throughout the United States, and the technological feasibility of controlling such emissions.
Within 180 days after commencing such study and investigation, the Administrator shall publish a report of such study and investigation and shall issue proposed emission standards applicable to emissions of any air pollutant from any class or classes of aircraft or aircraft engines which in his judgment cause or contribute to or are likely to cause or contribute to air pollution which endangers the public health or welfare.

Title VI: Regulation of Fuels

The Administrator may by regulation designate any fuel or fuel additive and, after such date or dates as may be prescribed by him, no manufacturer or processor of any such fuel or additive may sell, offer for sale, or introduce into commerce such fuel or additive unless the Administrator has registered such fuel or additive. For the purpose of registration of fuels and fuel additives, the Administrator shall require:

the manufacturer of any fuel to notify him as to the commercial identifying name and manufacturer of any additive contained in such fuel; the range of concentration of any additive in the fuel; and the purpose-in-use of any such additive;
the manufacturer of any additive to notify him as to the chemical composition of such additive;
the manufacturer of any fuel or fuel additive to conduct tests to determine potential public health effects of such fuel or additive (including, but not limited to, carcinogenic, teratogenic, or mutagenic effects), and to furnish the description of any analytical technique that can be used to detect and measure any additive in such fuel, the recommended range of concentration of such additive, and the recommended purpose-in-use of such additive.

The Administrator may, from time to time on the basis of information obtained under this section or other nformation available to him, by regulation, control or prohibit the manufacture, introduction into commerce, offering for sale, or sale of any fuel or fuel additive for use in a motor vehicle or motor vehicle engine if any emission products of such fuel or fuel additive will endanger the public health or welfare, or if emission products of such fuel or fuel additive will impair to a significant degree the performance of any emission control device or system which is in general use.

The regulations applicable to emissions of lead from motor fuels shall contain standards which require a complete elimination of lead from motor fuels, applicable not later than January 1st, 1971.

Title VII: Noise Pollution

The Administrator shall establish within the Environmental Protection Agency an Office of Noise Abatement and Control, and shall carry out through such Office a full and complete investigation and study of noise and its effect on the public health and welfare in order to identify and classify causes and sources of noise, and determine:

effects at various levels;
projected growth of noise levels in urban areas through the year 2000;
the psychological and physiological effect on humans;
effects of sporadic extreme noise (such as jet noise near airports) as compared with constant noise;
effect on wildlife and property (including values);
effect of sonic booms on property (including values);
such other matters as may be of interest in the public welfare.

In conducting such investigation, the Administrator shall hold public hearings, conduct research, experiments, demonstrations, and studies. The Administrator shall report the results of such investigation and study, together with his recommendations for legislation or other action, to the President and the Congress not later than one year after the date of enactment of this title.

Title VIII: General Provisions

The Administrator is authorized to prescribe such regulations as are necessary to carry out his functions under this Act.
The Administrator, with the consent of the head of any other agency of the United States, may utilize such officers and employees of such agency as may be found necessary to assist in carrying out the purposes of this Act.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the Administrator upon receipt of evidence that a pollution source or combination of sources is presenting an imminent and substantial endangerment to the health or welfare of persons may bring suit on behalf of the United States to immediately restrain any person causing or contributing to the alleged pollution to stop the discharge of pollutants causing or contributing to such pollution or to take such other action as may be necessary.
Any citizen may commence a civil action on his own behalf against any person, including the United States and any other governmental instrumentality or agency to the extent permitted by the eleventh amendment to the Constitution, who is alleged to be in violation of an effluent standard or limitation under this Act or an order issued by the Administrator or a State with respect to such a standard or limitation, or against the Administrator where there is alleged a failure of the Administrator to perform any act or duty under this Act which is not discretionary with the Administrator.
No Federal agency may enter into any contract with any person, who has been convicted of any offense under this Act.

There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out the provisions of this Act not to exceed $450,000,000 for fiscal year 1970, $550,000,000 for fiscal year 1971, and $700,000,000 for each fiscal year thereafter.
[M] Like the previous policy megapost in this format, the text is almost entirely lifted from the text of various real-life bills passed around this time. In this case, I've made even fewer changes, and so the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, and Clean Air Amendment of 1970 are basically unchanged from real life, obviously excluding the massive omissions of various overly specific provisions, implementation procedures, and legal liability clauses which have to occur in order for about 140 pages of legislation to fit within a single Reddit post. Nevertheless, I'm reasonably confident that the key provisions of each bill and their overall purpose have been communicated relatively well by my adaptation. Certain minor additions have been made; for instance, I've officially banned leaded fuel, and of course the Clean Water Act has been passed two years early. Additionally, a lot of environmental legislation from this era I'd like to do someday is missing, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Lead Paint Ban, the Federal Pesticide Act, and the Endangered Species Act, and will probably be addressed in the form of short paragraphs in yearly news updates.

I became the most powerful entity in the universe. What could go wrong? | Chapter 10

Hello everyone, Hope you're all having a wonderful day! I'd like thank you all for supporting this series, it really motivates me to write. With that said, hope you enjoy this chapter.
Start from Chapter 1 | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
Chapter 10 - Is this the best day of my life?
When you have an inseparable God virus in your body like I do, dreaming can go one of two ways. Either the virus reacts to the dream as it would react to conscious behavior, or it will be aware that its host is dreaming and attempt to interfere. I thought about it and found more than enough reasons to believe in the latter theory. But that raised another question — in what way will it interfere?
A) Because dreams are a side effect to a natural brain activity during REM sleep, the virus will remove that side effect, preventing me from dreaming.
B) The virus will try to communicate with me, or vice versa.
C) The virus will give me lucid control over the dream, and since the virus is going to be involved, the experience will be somehow more exceptional than regular lucid dreaming.
Analyzing these theories any further would be a waste of time, so I decided to put it in practice. But in the unlikely event that the virus is going to burn down the kingdom while I'm asleep, I knew I had to take measures to avoid that.
So, I stopped by the inn after reverting the color of my hair and eyes. Yes, I mean ‘stopped by’ because I wasn’t going to do something dangerous like ‘sleeping’ in my own room, that would be crazy. You see, I had another destination in mind. It’s just that some preparations were in order before I headed there.
The blanket we had on our bed was the first thing I took, securing a fairly comfortable surface to sleep on. I folded it and tucked it away in an empty leather bag. I also needed a rope, which I couldn’t find in the room. ‘I guess I’ll just buy one on the way,’ I said to myself and resumed packing. Next set of items were a blank notebook, a quill and a bottle of ink. Because, in case my dreams end up being completely ordinary, I wanted to take notes of what I could recollect after waking up; since dreams are normally easy to forget.
For the last item I needed, I began preparing some UU enchantments. If you remember, UU enchantments are based on magnetically coded instructions electronically translated and converted into magic skills. Therefore, it doesn’t require the ‘enchanter’ to have an associated enchantment skill. Basically, I was manually encoding binary instructions into magnetic disks.
Knock! Knock!
“I have brought you tea, lord Zenith,” the innkeeper’s muffled voice came through the closed door. She apparently saw me enter the inn and prioritized on preparing me tea.
“Come in,” I replied loud enough for her to hear. I remained occupied with coding, as she opened the door and walked up to the coffee table behind me. “Leave it here,” I said, referring to the study table by which I was working. Obediently, she brought it to my side and poured the tea from the kettle into the cup.
“Lord Zenith, as you requested, the rumors about non-believers and ill-intended people being smitten by the one true God is being spread around. It was just as you predicted. We all received the news about the giant apple tree in the Kullu district, and now this whole city is talking about it in relation with the rumors.”
“Very good,” I didn’t take my eyes away from the task I was doing.
She set the tea cup and coaster off the tray and comfortably within my reach on the table. “I shall take your leave then,” she said and proceeded out.
Before she got to the door, I called out to her. “Oh and could you bring me two sets of ropes? Maybe also something sharp to cut it with.”
…
I boarded a shared carriage to get to my destination. I wanted to board a private one, but they were all pre-booked. The shared carriage was not too bad though, especially because I paid the coachman for an extra seat. You see, with shared carriages, you have to wait until a certain amount of time or a certain number of passengers to occupy the seats before departure. When I boarded, the coachman needed one more person to board, so I offered, “I’ll pay for two people if we start now.” Unsurprisingly, money speaks louder than patience.
On the ride, I continued working on encoding the enchantment instructions. Okay, I’ll admit that I couldn’t finish it at the inn like I thought I would, but in my defense, coding in raw binary language is a pain. So there I was, mashing buttons on a peculiar apparatus with every other passenger staring at me and it.
The magnetic disk was inside a disk reader the size of a toaster, and it was connected to an input device with 3 main components; two for reading data and one for writing. On the left, there was a numeric keypad. This was to set the pointer on a specific memory location on the disk. Right above the keypad was an analogue screen with all the data readable in binary form. The device can read up to 8000 bits of data, the pointer starting from 0 to 7999, which is too much to fit on a still screen. So to its side, there was a rotator to scroll through the screen. Last but not least, on the right, there were two buttons representing ‘0’ and ‘1’ used to write data.
Just to be clear, this apparatus was engineered fairly recently. When we initially made the UU enchantments, data was encoded manually by hand. After the demo, I designed this apparatus and Devon engineered it, making it easy thereon.
Ignoring the curious stares of my co-passengers, I finished overwriting the old code with the new one. I ejected the disk from the disk reader, and pulled out the enchantment device out of my leather bag. Then I connected the disk to the input mechanism of it, and hoped for the best. Seventh time’s the charm. I snapped my fingers in the air and the sound was heard by everyone in the carriage. Following that, I released a little mana to be processed by the enchantment. And snapped my fingers again near the enchantment’s output.
Voila! There was no sound this time. I didn’t hear it, and neither did the other confused passengers. My soundproofing enchantment was finally working. I put the device into my bag, and pulled out another disk to code the instructions for the second enchantment I needed. Fortunately, this one was simple. Because, what I needed was electrical insulation and I’ve already developed the binary code for that in the ‘lightning resistance’ enchantment that is among our line of products. It’s the equivalent of copy-pasting from stack overflow, except I’m the one who wrote the code in the first place.
Anyway, I was done with all the preparations by the time I reached my destination, or rather close to it. I was dropped off about 3 kilometers away upon being stopped by government officials who prohibited entry past that point into the perimeter. Moreover, people who lived in that area were being evacuated on priority due to dangerous levels of electrical currents.
Amidst this orderly confusion, I paid the coachman what I promised, and set my eyes back on the scene, specifically on the monster that was impossible to miss — the tree that penetrated the clouds and was generating several gigawatts of power every second. Imagine spotting a skyscraper from 3 kilometers away and it still manages to look breathtakingly massive, that pretty much sums up what I was seeing.
Even as people were primarily focused on evacuation, there were still plenty who just stood and marveled at the tree. I overheard one of them, a lady, saying, “Did you hear? They are saying that this was an act of our one true God, smiting upon evildoers that were doing something bad in that place.”
“Really? What were they doing?” asked the curious person to whom the lady gossiped.
“I don’t know. But whatever it is, the city guards must be aware of it and are not telling us.”
Surprisingly, the rumors have managed to spread so far in less than 10 hours; I suppose I underestimated my own followers. It looks like they are going to soon find out about the red mages who held captives for slave trading. And when they do… Needless to say, matters are moving in my favor.
Anyway, on to dreaming. I moved away from the crowd, and found a secluded spot where I settled down. I made sure no city guards or civilians were in sight, and began focusing on developing a much needed skill at the moment — flight. There are plenty of ways to fly using magic. Despite that, not many were ideal for me in the current situation. For example, I can use some sort of gaseous ignition to initiate thrust, but that’s going to end up burning all the items I was carrying. As for flight methods that are not a fire hazard, I would need better mana control to perform.
Not to worry though. I spent the whole carriage ride here, thinking of a solution. And the solution is simply brute force, by which I don’t mean jumping up, exerting force on the ground. That would be disastrous. I would be using pure mana as particles to carry me through the air. For anyone else, including the immortals, this would be a terrible method of transportation because it continuously consumes ridiculous amounts of mana. It's a good thing my mana pool is a bottomless pit.
> Skillset: … 3D Space Navigation (Complexity - C)
Based on its complexity, you could probably tell that this is a stupidly simple skill. I basically just need to input the 3-dimensional points in space (latitude, longitude, and altitude) and my mana will carry me to that point. Also, this was a really slow mode of transportation, so I activated my camouflage skill before performing it.
I felt my feet lifting up along with my body, and the ground beneath me getting further away. This is the part where you would expect me to use a metaphor linking the ability to fly with freedom. Unfortunately, it was not a comfortable flight. You see, with the mana literally carrying me up, the force exerted on my body from below, including on the crotch region, felt nothing like freedom. I was waiting for the ride to be over.
15 uncomfortable minutes later, I reached the branches of the tree. I was defended against the electrical currents by the virus, as was my leather bag which I held closely to my chest. I landed, stepping on a huge branch. The width of that branch was as big as a sidewalk, and did I mention that the trunk of the tree is 15 meters wide? Looking down from where I stood, I saw thunderclouds, and past that, the humans were practically just a bunch of ants.
I didn't waste much time admiring the view. I unpacked the enchantment tools and set them down between my legs. I pulled out the blanket and the rope and started crafting a hammock. The difficult thing was to ensure none of my items got knocked off by the altitude winds or lightning. Apart from that, things went not so badly. Although a bit crooked because I couldn’t find a perfectly straight branch, the hammock was set up with both the prepared enchantment attributed to it.
Holding on to my bag which still had the book, quill, and ink bottle inside, I laid on the hammock and released my mana for the enchantments to work. Slowly, the noises of thunder faded away and electrical current was getting nowhere near me. I spent a solid 5 minutes consistently releasing my mana to make it an involuntary process as I fell asleep.
For the purpose of lucid dreaming, I maintained a strong conscious awareness that I was going to be dreaming. You can try this out yourself. As long as your conscious is aware that you're in a dream, you'll have lucid control over it. Admittedly, it's easier said than done since it's not easy to maintain conscious awareness when you're in REM sleep. The trick is to slowly adapt to it and you'll eventually be able to do it consistently.
The reason I'm telling you this is to make it clear that prior experiences with dreams significantly helps with lucid dreaming. With that being said, I had never experienced a dream before, at least as far as I was aware. I didn't have a clue about what a dream looks or feels like, I just knew the theory behind it. So unless the virus interferes, I should not be able to lucid dream.
Now, what do you think happened? Did the virus interfere? Did it help me lucid dream? Yes, and yes. But, what I experienced was far beyond anything I predicted. To say it was extraordinary would be a laughable understatement.
First thing I remember was me standing on the same tree branch, staring on to the planet’s horizon. This was my first experience with dreaming, and my conscious was not aware of it. It’s like suddenly being spawned in a place with no clues or context — you have no idea how you got there, but you don’t have the ability to question it either. Another thing about regular dreams is that it’s annoyingly difficult to recollect, and if I try to explain it, it’s going to sound weird. So, bear with me while I do.
An apple dangled before me all of a sudden. It was not a golden apple. Or maybe it was. But I remember the color red, so I’ll go with the bright red apple for the sake of this explanation. I poked it repeatedly for some reason, and it broke. And from it, a creature emerged. It was either a crow or a rat, let’s go with the crow. It immediately fled, and I ran after it. It led me to a more dark and bleak environment where I saw the first group of red mages I consciously murdered in the eastern forest. They had apple trees grown through their bodies and poking out of their faces, just like I remembered. I approached closer, and they silently crumbled down into fragments of charcoal.
That’s the extent to which I remember that dream. The thing to note here is that this dream was completely natural, like any human beings would experience. Right after that dream ended, I remember blackness surrounding me. When I say ‘remember’, I don’t mean vaguely. I vividly remember myself standing in the middle of absolute blackness where I was the only visible entity. And then this information popped up in my head.
> Level: INFINITE
> Mana Capacity: INFINITE
> Mana Control: POSITIVE
> Skillset: … Seal (Complexity - S , ???) …
> Character Trait: Logical, Malevolent, Opportunistic, Calculating
> State of Mind: Lucid Dreaming
Either I accidentally activated my analysis skill in my sleep, or as per my theory (2-C) the virus interfered to give me lucid control over the dream. If it was a case of the former, then that doesn’t explain my level, mana capacity and control. So yeah, this was the virus’ interference.
With my consciousness restored, I decided to start testing out the limits of this lucid dream. I recollected the events of the battle with Heath. And sure enough, the blackness that surrounded me transformed into the wasteland under the night sky. The scene was exactly how I remembered it to be, to the point where the details were astonishing.
“So, it was you,” I heard Heath speak the words I remembered. He was wearing his white and gold cloak that he introduced himself with. “You’re the one responsible for killing our people in the eastern forest. I’m glad you showed up as I hoped, it’s nice to meet you…” Meanwhile, the dream version of me stood behind a regular apple tree with overgrown branches, without responding. The scene was going exactly how it actually happened, and I was watching it all from a third person POV.
That’s when I noticed something odd. I walked towards the scene, getting closer and closer to the characters. The sicko was standing on the sidelines, incapable of doing anything as the battle raged on between Edith and Heath. It was around the time when Edith shoved a punch to Heath’s face and broke his nose, the sicko just ran off. Away from the warehouse and away from the battle. Nobody noticed him fleeing, which is what I found odd.
Back at the estate, when I tried to recollect whether the sicko had survived the battle or not, I couldn’t find him in my memory. But now I was seeing every step he took as he was fleeing. ‘Pause,’ I spoke through thought, and the scene froze with Edith’s fireball hanging midway between her and her target with the handlebar mustache.
I immediately realized what was going on, but it was technically only a theory. So, I decided to test it and confirm. I walked all the way up to Heath and resumed the scene. Obviously, none of the characters could see or react to me; I was practically non-existent as far as the scene was concerned.
Heath raised his hand to use his magic to counter Edith’s fireball. ‘Slow down,’ I demanded of the dream, and everything was now in slow motion. Following that, I commanded, ‘Make the mana visible to my eyes,’ and white glowing particles clouded several areas of the battlefield, especially exuding out of the Edith and Heath. I further observed to see the flow of mana as Heath performed his cause and effect skill, whose functionality I was yet to understand.
Not only did I figure out how the skill worked, I also pretty much confirmed my theory — I wasn’t in control of this dream. I mean, I was able to control the dream, but not directly. My commands were being executed by the virus instead. That’s why I was able to see things like the sicko fleeing, which I never paid attention to during the battle. Moreover, the whole scene was extremely detailed like I mentioned earlier, which could be explained by the virus recreating this scene based on my command rather than my less detailed visualization.
As for Heath’s skill, it turned out to be very close to what I assumed. He basically uses mana to scan and determine the cause and effect of any physical action, and replicate it on a target. Additionally he can control which of the causes and effects to replicate in what combination, and to what degree to amplify it based on mana input. For example, take the moment he threw an unexpected gust of wind at me and Edith. His mana determined the cause of my breathing, which is inflation and deflation of the lungs. He replicated that effect and targeted it at us after amplifying it like a million times by consuming a ton of his mana.
I took my sweet time analyzing the flow of mana to figure this all out, which made me rather annoyed to find out there was an instant way to acquire details about a skill. I just had to ask the virus for the skill’s pseudocode. Well, there’s no use pondering over it now. So, I shrugged it off and carried on dreaming.
You see, I wanted to first know the extent to which I could make use of this virus-assisted lucid dreaming. That way, I can plan for ways to farm benefits off of it, perhaps even learn to control my strength. And that’s how I quickly realized the sheer extraordinariness of this dream. The so-called extent of this lucid dreaming was non-existent — there was simply no limit to the things I could do in there.
And how did I realize this? It started with me walking away from the battlefield where Heath and the dream version of me were fighting in slow motion. I walked further into Kullu district and soon found a neighborhood. Out of curiosity, I entered and checked the houses. Sure enough, there were people inside. Some were asleep, some were reading, and some were having sex. Don’t label me as a creep just yet, I was checking the people out to see if I would recognize someone. And I did.
I recognized 3 of the people I found in this neighborhood from an hour ago when I was watching people evacuate with the assistance of the city guards. In other words, the people I was seeing in this lucid dream actually exist in the real world despite the fact that I haven’t seen most of them. Furthermore, what I saw them doing is also accurate to what they were actually doing at that time. And yes, that means a couple was really having sex while I was battling Heath less than 2 kilometers away.
Are you seeing what’s extraordinary about this lucid dream yet? If not, let me tell you one more thing I did in that neighborhood. I roamed around and found the bell that was for alerting its residents of an immediate crisis. I physically rang it, and the people within their homes came pouring out, confused by what was happening. Their expression of confusion and the panicked chattering all stopped when the thunder and lightning came. They saw the glowing tree with their jaws dropped as it grew and grew to the size I was familiar with.
This lucid dream wasn’t merely a recreation of my past experience. Rather, it was the entire universe reconstructed at this specific point in time. So, I could go to the Andromeda galaxy and see whatever happened there during the time I was fighting Heath. If that wasn’t incredible enough, I was also able to interfere with the simulation, triggering the butterfly effect. All of this was being done by the virus.
Naturally, I wasted no time to make use of this situation the best I could. And there were quite a few things I managed to pull off. If I were to start explaining each and every one of them, this chapter could go on for a while. So, I’ll just give you a brief rundown.
1) I observed Edith and learned how to fight. Although, it wasn’t simply observation that allowed me to master 27 styles of martial arts; that would have taken way too long. I actually made use of the virus, and commanded it to embed Edith's martial arts knowledge into me. It sounds like bullshit, but it worked. The instincts, muscle memory, techniques, and all else were cleanly transferred over to me.
However, it wasn’t without problems. You see, all the muscle memory and instincts made me hypersensitive to potential threats. And you know what happens when I subconsciously react to threats. So, I reversed some of the effects, I gave up the instincts, muscle memory, and other aspects that made me touchy.
2) I tracked down the 3 remaining Immortals, and studied their skills. ‘Locate humans with S level complexity skill: Immortality. Search radius: the entire planet,’ was the command I thought of, and it revealed me the coordinates of all 6 of them. Ignoring Edith, Devon, and Heath, I teleported to the other 3. Two females and one male.
Unlike the dynamic between Edith and Devon where Edith is the strongest one, it was different among the castaways. Heath and the other male immortal were significantly stronger than the females, which further strengthened my suspicion that perhaps the Omnipotent faced an issue with coding the male robot as the fighter and the female as the supporter.
3) In addition to locating the other 3 immortals, I used them to sharpen my battle skills. I simply made myself visible to them, and repeatedly provoked fights. I won’t lie, I was having a lot of fun kicking their asses while getting super creative with my seed modification skill. Especially with my new athletic capabilities that came along with the martial arts techniques, I fought those 3 with style.
You may be concerned about my dream battle affecting the real world. But rest assured, there is no real danger as long as I’m lucid dreaming with the assistance of the virus. You see, the virus was occupied with listening to my commands and controlling this dream, which confirms that the virus is aware of my lucid dreaming state. So, there’s no reason for it to react to my dream activities in the real world. However, if I’m physically threatened by something in the real world, that’s a different story.
Anyway, that’s about all the things I managed to do during this dream session. Sure, there were plenty of other things I hadn’t tried out. But for one, they weren’t too important or I failed to realize it, two, I didn’t want to spend too much time in the dream, and three, I can lucid dream any time I want so it’s all good anyway. By the way, if you’re wondering why I didn’t just use this opportunity to look into the future and solve all of my problems immediately, the reason is I couldn’t. I mean technically, I could but it’s not as convenient as you think.
You see, the future is solely based on the present point in time. And the number of futures that can be derived from the present are infinitely many, all of which are equally probable. In other words, there’s no way to look into a specific future out of the infinitely many and make my life easier. Furthermore, looking into the future itself will create a recurring loop since there will now be more futures that are derived from the present where I’ll be aware of a particular future. It’s best not to think too much about this stuff. The concept of time travel is riddled with paradoxes, because it’s simply not possible to achieve in a practical way.
‘End simulation,’ I commanded as I was finally ready to wake up. My surroundings returned back to absolute blackness, and I concentrated to allow my consciousness to leave the state of lucid dreaming. I slowly opened my eyelids, and the blackness was replaced with branches and leaves, and the rope that was tied to my hammock.
I remained laying down for a few seconds to allow my brain to get booted up. There was still no sound I could hear other than my own breath, meaning the enchantments were still in effect. I pulled my body and got down from the hammock, on to the giant branch below. “Hm, that’s weird,” I mumbled, seeing the sun setting before me.
With the sun’s orange hue reflecting off my face and irises, I thought to myself, ‘Looks like only a few hours had passed while I was asleep.’ I was so sure that I was asleep for at least 12 hours though. But if only a few hours had passed while I was lucid dreaming… I brought up my palms to my face and triggered the analysis skill.
> Level: 387
> Mana Capacity: 54000
> Mana Control: A+
> Skillset: … Seal (Complexity - S , Activated) …
> Character Trait: Logical, Malevolent, Opportunistic, Calculating
> State of Mind: Thrilled
Is this the best day of my life? With just a few hours I managed to raise my mana control from F to A+? Based on this, I would say the peaceful life I’m aiming for is just around the corner. Wouldn’t you?
I stopped my involuntary release of mana, wearing off the enchantment, and the sounds of thunder returned. After packing up everything I had brought along, I was all set to fly back down and back home. This called for a huge celebration. Moreover, I didn’t have to use the same 3D space navigation skill to get down. With my current mana control, I could develop a proper flight skill. And that’s what I did.
> Skillset: … Flight (Complexity - B+) …
This skill was also quite simple. Just imagine Ironman with a see-through suit. Admittedly, it still burns half the mana required by the 3D space navigation skill, which is a lot. But the important thing is that this skill is more comfortable to use and easy to maneuver.
Still feeling immense amounts of joy, I descended the tree, passing the thunderclouds. And then I saw something that made my smile disappear — a huge wall surrounding the area of the tree that didn’t exist when I went to sleep. There was another thicker wall surrounding the trunk of the tree, which was connected to the outer wall through a roofed pathway. Surely, this couldn't have been built in a few hours.
Maybe, Just maybe… I’ve been asleep for a little longer than that.

Chapter notes: Zenith's interference in the lucid dream does not affect the real world. The lucid dream is simply a simulation.

Alliance Chapter 12

Sorry for the late post, I haven't really felt like writing lately, but then I finally had an idea! Please let me know what you think, and y'all stay safe out there.
Previous
First

The Canirii had a name that neither humans nor Z’lask could pronounce, and that could be only loosely rendered in either of their far more concrete tongues. It was thinking of calling itself Ra—both languages should be able to cope with that.
It was illustrative of the vast gap in understanding between the allies and the Canirii. The humans and the Z’lask might think of each other as the epitome of otherness—their military propagandists had encouraged it—but they were actually quite similar, galactic cousins even. To them, the Canirii were infinitely more alien.
Case in point—Ra wouldn’t have had the faintest idea where to start on the military mission its two new friends had gone charging off on, but they hadn’t the faintest idea of the diplomatic possibilities of the situation.
They would both be very surprised to learn what could be accomplished just by talking.
Oh, the humans had spies, but spies could be frustrated, especially with the physiological barriers to infiltration in interstellar politics. Honesty, desire for peace, and good faith had won the Canirii their network, and that network had given the Canirii knowledge and tools that no one else, not even the intelligent Lappa, possessed.
Tools the Canirii were using now.
It had been a difficult task to accept the humans as their galactic broodmates, but they had done it. They had upheld their philosophy, schooled their minds, opened their hearts, seen the deservingness for tolerance weaving through the bedeviling human dichotomy, and accepted the young species.
Now, the young—so young!—race was facing an Elder. The Canirii had suspected their patronage of the Lappa, though they could barely believe it. The Elders had a number of pacts designed to keep them from meddling in the affairs of younger species, much the same way that the Council forbade interference with pre-FTL races. The Canirii knew that the best way to solve this crisis was the way the humans and the Z’lask, in their eagerness to fight, had blown straight past: diplomacy.
The only thing that could stand up to an Elder was another Elder, and the Canirii knew that, should they convince the race with whom they were currently in contact that the humans were a worthy Council member, that species would be…displeased, with the Lappa’s patron.
The only trouble was, the humans were as different from this species as a protostar was from a red supergiant. The Canirii had already compiled records of the United Nations’ humanitarian assistance, selected individual examples of devotion to duty and care for fellow living things, presented facts that showed a species of astonishingly rapid development, possessing an equally astonishing nature. What remained was to communicate the humans’ humanity.
For the Z’lask, the feat had been accomplished with music, evoking for them human emotion, proving to them that they felt the same as the toothed mammals they had feared as so inalienably different.
However, this Elder species was deaf.
They’d never needed to hear the way the humans and Z’lask and Lappa and Canirii themselves had, their evolution was so different music would be utterly meaningless to them. But, they did read, and so the Canirii had found written music for them.
Poetry.
Itself a fine example of human duality. Some humans scorned poetry as soft, frivolous, silly. Others would be moved to weep or sing or even to die by its words. Ra had made an effort neither the humans, with their intimate attachment to self-provoked suffering, nor the Z’lask, with their fixation upon honor, could understand to ensure that the Elder would understand humanity.
That was what it meant to be Canirii.
To show that reconciliation after war was possible, Ra had selected:
So, when the Summer calleth,
On forest and field of grain
With an equal murmur falleth
The cooling drip of the rain:
Under the sod and dew,
Waiting the judgement-day,
Wet with the rain, the Blue,
Wet with the rain, the Gray

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and dew,
Waiting the judgement-day….

To show the human pursuit of passion, their love for an endeavor or an entity that was not itself human, it had chosen:
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
Human love for one another had been overwhelming, there were so many expressions. Human laments had been equally overwhelming in its inverse. All that remained was to find some sort of summary, something to circumscribe the human experience. The poem Ra had found was a risky decision, it knew, since its primary imagery was auditory, focusing on the sound of different varieties of a single human instrument.
Ra had a feeling that the understanding of auditory imagery—an alien sensation—would mirror the understanding of an alien nature. It hoped that peace would prevail.
Hear the sledge with the bells—
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
The next stanza moved on to golden wedding bells, sounding their delight, telling their hope for the future. Then to bronze alarm bells—too much horrified to speak, they could only shriek. Finally to solemn iron bells, whose tolling, tolling, tolling felt a glory in the rolling on the human heart a stone. And the people, ah the people—they that dwelt up in the steeple—they were neither man nor woman, they were neither brute nor human, they were Ghouls.
And that idea of Ghoulishness symbolized the Canirii’s hope for humanity. The humans knew they caused their own suffering, but they did not believe such impulses to be an inseparable or insuperable part of their nature. One day they would overcome them, the same way that a Ghoulish King could, as in their fairy tales, be overthrown. It was a spark of faith, and it was what Ra most desired to show the Elder.
It hoped they would understand.
The humans would have to meet them halfway, and they would have to continue to “make progress,” as both they and the Canirii called it. Ra had faith in the human ability to fight, and in the belief that all living things naturally wished to be good. It knew that many humans did not share that conviction, instead believing that an individual was born a blank slate, that could choose to do good or do evil. They called that ability “free will,” the state of its exercise “freedom,” and would not shut up about either.
Ra sealed its signature to the dispatch, watched the lights on its display flash to indicate its transmission to the Elders. It didn’t know when the Elders would respond, they did things on their own timescale, though they probably realized that if they wanted to prevent their peer from behaving rashly they would needed to act quickly by the standards of the Council.
Though Ra had no way of knowing it, in the orbit of a dying star, the crew of the Courage of Z’raa was decrypting and deciphering the contents of their captured data drives, while the crew of the Yorktown fed their prisoners and eavesdropped on their unsuspecting conversation. The two ships had drifted silently through the eerie ocher light for hours, and several watches into their dusky dim vigil the Z’lask struck gold, and found evidence of collusion between an Elder species and the Lappa.
Ra could not hear the messages that flew between the two hiding ships, any more than the individuals who intercepted them could.
COURAGE OF Z’RAA: HAVE SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE FOR COUNCIL. SUGGEST WE DEPART BEFORE PATRON RETURNS AS CONFRONTATION WOULD LIKELY BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE
YORKTOWN: CONCUR. BRINGING MY DRIVES ONLINE NOW
Ra could not watch the two ships jump together into hyperspace, nor could it observe the tension of both crews, the strain of every individual as though they were physically running their race.
Ra did not hear the alarms on the Courage of Z’raa’s bridge, alerting them to the return of their shadow, and the observers could not hear them either. Ra did not hear the cursing in both ships, nor did it know of the ideas running through both captains’ minds, of the suggestions of their crews. It was unaware of the ponderous startup sequence of the Z’lask interdiction equipment, the stopwatches started by human and Z’lask to count down the four hours to their self-defense.
Ra was unaware of the human captain’s instinct that the shadow would come within range of harm before then, and though the observers could not hear her order to prepare a maneuver that horrified them, they watched her crew setting to with determination.
Ra was unaware of the Z’lask captain’s nearly desperate desire to outrun the shadow long enough to not depend on the humans, both from pride, and from a foreboding that, while those humans certainly were able to do things, there were some things they just couldn’t do, any more than they could shed their skins.
The observers saw all of this, saw the human treatment of their prisoners, the Z’lask cooperation with their new brothers. They saw a Lappa ship moving several times faster than any such vessel should be able to. They evaluated a data transmission from another young species, one they liked. They looked with the slow interest of those accustomed to having enough time, on this race between ships.
With five hours left in transit to the Council, and two hours left before the interdiction equipment would be operational, the human ship slowed to cover her companion. In the Z’lask captain’s opinion, human ships were overengineered—they tried to do too many things at once, much like the humans themselves. Now, he was grateful for their archaic insistence on plate armor, as fusion-smelted duratitanium stood up unflinchingly to shots designed to scramble energy shields.
The humans took the fire for fifteen minutes, much of the time consumed in the shots’ flight through hyperspace, in terrified incredulity that the enemy could fire what they thought of as plasmabolts—their closest frame of reference—faster than light. They gathered themselves and fired back, but their shadow had learned from their last encounter.
The observers were interested to see this: the ultimate human weapons were still quaint devices called nukes. What would happen when the humans saw those weapons were useless?
What happened was the humans tried again.
An hour, an endless hour closer to salvation, was whittled away trading ineffective fire. The human captain was beginning to take heart that though they could not damage their opponent, their opponent also could not damage them. Then came something new.
The observers could not hear the whooping damage alarms on the human ship, nor could they hear the screams of the wounded or the yells of panic. They could hear none of the frantic orders or muttered appeals to God. They saw damage control parties fighting to seal venting compartments, and corpsmen fighting to save the burned or vacuum-exposed or crushed who had been standing close to the impact.
They saw the hurried and harried struggle against hostile space, and the enemy who made its hazards worse, and watched on.
They could intercept communications between the two warships.
COURAGE OF Z’RAA: STATUS
YORKTOWN: STILL SPACEWORTHY
COURAGE OF Z’RAA: ONE HOUR NOW
YORKTOWN: SHADOW STILL GAINING
COURAGE OF Z’RAA: CAN YOU INCREASE SPEED
YORKTOWN: NEGATIVE
They could see the anguish—surprised anguish—on the Z’lask ship as her crew feared for their former enemies, could see the frantic planning and frustration as they wracked their brains for a way to protect the aliens protecting them. They saw and watched on.
YORKTOWN: HAVE A MANEUVER WE CAN TRY
COURAGE OF Z’RAA: INTERROGATIVE
YORKTOWN: THEY CAN DEFEND AGAINST OBJECTS IN HYPERSPACE. PERHAPS NOT LOOKING FOR DANGER IN REALSPACE
COURAGE OF Z’RAA: INTERROGATIVE
YORKTOWN: SHADOW LIKELY KNOWS WE HAVE INCRIMINATING MATERIAL. SHADOW WILL PURSUE SHIP EN ROUTE TO COUCIL TO EXCLUSION OF OTHER. THEREFORE WE KNOW THEIR COURSE AND SPEED. WITH SUCH ADVANTAGE WE WILL DROP TO REALSPACE, PLANT OBJECT IN THEIR PATH, AND JUMP AWAY. THEY WILL BE DESTROYED ON FIFTH-DIMENSIONAL CONTACT WITH OBJECT
COURAGE OF Z’RAA: THEIR SENSORS WILL DETECT ANY MASS ANOMALY LARGE ENOUGH TO ACHIEVE THAT
YORKTOWN: THE MASS WON’T BE WHAT DOES IT. THE WARHEAD WILL
The observers could see the human crew’s reactions. They could see bared teeth from those who were angry, furious at their tormentors and ready to do anything, so long as it was something, to fight back. They could see staring eyes and shaking hands from those who were so dreadfully afraid. They could see clenched fists or jaws from those trying to focus on the task at hand. They could see individuals performing well and individuals performing poorly. They could see someone—sometimes the same person—demonstrating every strength and weakness of the human race.
They could see, though they could not hear, extortions to move faster, to hang on, to fucking work, to come on. They could see but not hear the captain’s orders, could see, and be interested in, an old fear—the taught fear of trauma. An old fear of being left behind. An old fear of being aboard a ship that could no longer jump.
And they watched the humans go anyway.
They watched yet another set of stopwatches spring to remorseless life on both bridges, ticking down the five minutes the humans would have in realspace. The cliché that came to mind was “mad scramble”—the humans had to prepare their device for launch. Their navigator—eyes wide but sitting still and silently—had to redo a calculation because the ship, venting atmosphere, had slewed off its predetermined position. They saw the captain biting her cheek, and realized it was to repress the urge to scream. They device had to be loaded—fired! Finally, was exclaimed by nearly everyone on board, and though the watchers could not hear it they appreciated the unified feeling.
They watched the weapon fly toward its predetermined rendezvous point, as the wounded heavy cruiser that had fired it powered its drives for the jump back to FTL.
They could feel how each person felt like they were pushing their ship, pushing her to jump, pushing her not to let them down. They could see a distraught engineer, terrorized by the damage in her once-pristine engine room, begging the drives out loud not to fail, though they could not hear the words.
And they were interested that they felt relief when the ship finally charged forward in the leaping motion that for the humans constituted a literal jump to hyperspace.
They saw the Z’lask were ecstatic at their companion’s return to the dimension so many sentients would never enter, though they could not hear the claw-tapping or the barked triumph as the Z’lask saw the humans were still ahead of their shadow.
COURAGE OF Z’RAA: CUTTING IT FINE
YORKTOWN: THAT WILL TEACH THEM
The observers saw, though no one could hear and no one else see, the detonation of a surprisingly efficient fission-fusion device. Though it was not antimatter, it was still powerful enough to cause a limited amount of fifth-dimensional contact that the “shadow,” as the allies were calling it, was inadequately shielded for, believing that they had learned all the humans’ tricks.
Of course, it did not work so well as the humans hoped. The shadow staggered but remained in hyperspace, charging on. Nevertheless, there were gasps the observers could not hear, accompanying clenched fists and waving tails, as the estimated time-to-range at last exceeded the time remaining to prepare the interdiction equipment.
COURAGE OF Z’RAA: YOU MUST SPEED UP TO GET OUT OF RANGE
YORKTOWN: WILL DO MY BEST
Removing safeguards, overriding computers, recalculating coolant flows, overpressurizing feed lines, disabling alarms so that temperatures could rise above normal. Yorktown had to go faster.
And Courage of Z’raa had to go slower. The Z’lask tried to find an optimal way to let the humans pass ahead of them without coming in range of the shadow themselves too early. Exhausted and frightened people struggled to focus on calculations, to force themselves to think through the problem at hand as though nothing rode upon their success or failure.
Of course it didn’t work as well as they wanted it to.
Nothing ever did seem to, the observers thought, and were surprised to find themselves thinking in sympathy.
They watched the two fleeing allies draw level with thirty minutes left until the Z’lask could interdict. Their captains had argued, then given up, cursing the other for a stubborn son of a bitch and a mudsnake, respectively.
The shadow opened fire again.
Courage of Z’raa staggered bodily under the impact, compartments vented atmosphere and debris and what had recently been people. Yorktown, drawing ahead, had time to observe her companion’s damage, to wince and wish that they would be all right, before being hit herself. A few people, seeking encouragement in a way neither the Z’lask nor observers could hear, but that would have made both laugh, murmured: “for what we are about to receive….”
Yorktown was drawing ahead, Reactor 2 beginning to overheat under the strain. The engineers attended their engines with terror that they would fail, or worse, that they would do something to make the engines fail. On the bridge, an individual so stressed she thought her heart might burst—it happened sometimes—was torturing herself to come up with as many different ways of targeting torpedoes as she could. She wished the captain would quit shooting.
Yorktown drew out of range of interdiction with ten minutes left before the Courage of Z’raa could attack. The captain found herself thinking involuntarily of how far she could run in ten minutes, how ten minutes was really such a short time, and brought herself up sharply to give orders to cease fire and shut down weapons systems, relieving the engines of some of their power draw. The nervous individual sat down and shivered.
Courage of Z’raa took her punishment for another ten minutes—two more salvos were fired, a total of four “plasmabolts,” as the humans thought of them. One missed wide, one destroyed itself accelerating too quickly, one slashed along the dreadnought’s port side, making the shielding flare blindingly white. One smashed directly into the already-damaged stern, overwhelming the feeble shields racing engineers had recently managed to reestablish. More compartments vented to vacuum and more people were swept to a physically horrific death as they “fell” out of the hyperspace through which their ship still charged. All most of the crew could think was: thank dear Z’aa, who watches over homeworld Z’laya, the reactors are still online.
The observers could not hear, though they could now feel, the noise made by both crews when Courage of Z’raa successfully interdicted their shadow.
They could not hear, but felt, the jubilation of both as the dreadnought accelerated to catch up with her sister. It seemed they both would live to tell their tale.
And the observers made their decision.
The allies would arrive at the Council—if their damage control continued to be effective—in three hours. Their shadow would not recover from the Z’lask’s savagely-executed interdiction for six. That left the observers just enough time to make themselves presentable.
They had not been to the Council in a long time.

The poems are The Blue and The Gray, by Francis Miles Finch, An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, by William Butler Yeats, and The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe. What do y'all think of them? And what do you think of our new friends? How will the Lappa react? As always, any criticism is deeply appreciated!

Predictive Programming and COVID19 (continued).

Predictive Programming Continued.
“WHITE NOISE” - NOVEL ANALYSIS IN THE WAKE OF CORONA VIRUS. In the milieu of a beautiful mid-western college called singularly as The-College-on-the-Hill, the novel “White Noise” (1985) tracks a year in the life of Jack Gladney, a professor who has become famous in the field of Hitler studies (although he has refused to take German lessons until the present). He has been married five times to four different women and takes care of a brood of kids and stepchildren (Heinrich, Denise, Steffie, Wilder) with his present partner and wife, Babette. Jack and Babette are both extremely terrified of losing their lives; they frequently wonder and debate which of them will be the first to pass on. The first part of “White Noise”, called "Waves and Radiation", is a chronology of modern family life combined with academic sardonicism. There is little plot development in this first section, which mainly serves as a preface to the characters and story twists that develop in the remainder of the novel. For example, the strange deaths of men in "Mylex" (intended to conflate Mylar) outfits and the ashen, frightened survivors of an aeroplane that went into free fall anticipate the cataclysm of the novel's following part." Waves and Radiation" also introduces Murray Jay Siskind, Jack's friend, and fellow college professor, who talks about concepts about death, food markets, media, "psychic data," and other examples of modern US customs. In the second section, "The Airborne Toxic Event", a toxic accident from a rail car spill a black poisonous fog over Jack's home area, starting a force-march. Terrified by his exposure to the toxic poison (called Nyodene Derivative) Jack is made to face up to his mortality. An organization called SIMUVAC (short for "simulated evacuation") is also introduced in Part Two, an indication of simulations supplanting reality. part three of the book, "Dylarama", Jack finds out that Babette has been cheating on him with a person she names as "Mr Gray" to be able to get the fictional drug called Dylar, an experimental vaccine for the terror of death. The novel turns into an examination of contemporary civilization's terror of death and its obsession with pharmaceutical cure-alls as Jack tries to get his own black-market amounts of Dylar. However, Dylar fails to work for Babette, and it has extreme side effects, including forgoing the capability to "distinguish words from things, so that if someone said 'speeding bullet', I would fall to the floor and take cover".Jack continues to obsess over dying. While having a conversation about mortality, Murray suggests that murdering someone could relieve the apprehension. Jack decides to find and assassinate Mr Gray, whose real name, Jack understands, is Willie Mink. After some black comedy of Jack driving and practising, in his mind, the different methods in which their encounter might take place, he successfully finds and shoots Willie, who at the time is in a delusional state caused by his own Dylar use. Jack places the weapon in Willie's hand to make the killing seem like a suicide, but Willie then wounds Jack in the arm. Suddenly contemplating the pointless waste of life, Jack hefts Willie to a hospital run by German nuns who no longer can speak the German language and do not believe in God or an afterlife. Having rescued Willie, Jack goes home to observe his children sleep. The final chapter describes Wilder, Jack's youngest boy, riding a tricycle across the highway and incredibly avoiding any accident.
“SHE DIES TOMORROW” - FILM ANALYSIS IN THE WAKE OF CORONA VIRUS. During the Contagion of the Pandemic, an American theatrical film was released called “She Dies Tomorrow.” (2020)During the film, the character Amy is a young woman who has recently bought a home and is congratulated over the telephone by her companion Jane. Amy appears distant, confusing Jane, who says that she cannot come over to visit because she has to visit her sister-in-law's birthday party, but says she will visit anyway. Amy goes on the Internet and begins surfing for urns, before altering her Internet search to leather jackets. When she arrives, Amy demonstrates to Jane that she knows she is going to pass away the following day, which Jane initially puts down to Amy drinking too much alcohol, revealing that Amy is a reformed drunk. Amy repeatedly states that she wants to be taxidermied into a leather jacket after she expires, so she could be returned to an item of use. Jane exits, reassuring her she will check in the next day. Jane goes back to her home to continue analyzing samples under a microscope, but quickly becomes anxious and quickly goes over to Amy's house, leaving several voice phone messages but not being able to talk to her directly. She then exits to travel to her sister-in-law's birthday celebrations. At the birthday celebration, Jane seems unkempt and in her nightclothes, confusing the other guests and shocking them by admitting that she, too, is going to expire tomorrow. This angers Susan, Jane's sister-in-law, while Jane's brother, Jason, tries to sort through the upset. Tilly, a party member, says to her partner, Brian, that she imagines that Jane was crazy as they are in the car getting ready to leave. However, Brian remonstrates he imagined that she was correct, showing that both of them had also become infected. Jason and Susan are then infected while clearing up after the party, as they result in passing the contagion of terror onto their daughter. At a hospital, Brian euthanizes his father by cutting off his life support systems, upon which Tilly abruptly says she was only waiting for the passing to leave him. Jane goes to see a medical expert, who initially wants to refer her to get psychological help. Amy goes on a trip in a dune buggy with a driver, during which she has a flashback to a time before the film's beginning, in which she and her partner Craig went to Craig's brother's holiday house at a week's end. During the weekend, the pair ring for pizza, and it is implied that Craig became contagious by the pizza delivery man, beginning the chain of situations for the film in motion. After the ride, Amy then transmits the terror onto the dune buggy driver, before the duo shortly and awkwardly tries to kiss, before ceasing. Returning to the doctor's office, Jane infects the doctor, who has a break with reality before exiting to be with his wife. Jane comes back to her house and starts talking to the microscopic creatures she sees under the scope while trying to calm herself, before observing an unknown entity enter her house that she asks of "is this the end?" Amy comes back to the holiday home to find that Craig has killed himself. The following morning, Jason and Susan talk about what they think will be their final day and say they will not wake their child so she can die painlessly in her sleep. Jane then walks into the nearby backyard of two young girls, Sky and Erin, who appear unperturbed by Jane's blood-stained looks, before demonstrating they both have the illness, as well. Jane questions if she can use the pool, and begins wading as her blood dilutes in the water. Sky and Erin discuss unconcernedly what they will miss when they have passed away. Amy then goes to a leather shop, and starts to ask questions about custom cutting, eventually desiring to know what leatherworkers could do with 'a mammal'.Amy starts to sob as the worker tells her the process, before she awakes with a start, discovering herself lying on some stones. She starts whispering to herself, oscillating between "it's okay" and "I'm not okay", before gently rocking herself as the movie closes.
POKEMON CYBER SOLDIER EVENT. An example of hysterical suggestion and contagion as per COVID19 was the largely misunderstood incident involving Pokemon "Electric Soldier Porygon.""Dennō Senshi Porygon" (Japanese: でんのうせんしポリゴン, Hepburn: Dennō Senshi Porigon, translated as "Computer Warrior Porygon", however more often "Electric Soldier Porygon") is the 38th show of the Pokémon cartoon's initial run. Its sole broadcast was in Japan on December 16, 1997. In the show, Ash and his comrades discover at the local Pokémon Center that there is something amiss with the Poké Ball issuing apparatus. To discover what is the cause, they must go within the apparatus. The show demonstrated continual visual effects that supposedly induced epileptic seizures in a large number of Japanese TV watchers, an occurrence claimed as the "Pokémon Shock" (ポケモンショック, Pokemon Shokku) by the Japanese press. 685 children from across Japan were taken to medical facilities over the next two days; two stayed in the hospital for more than a fortnight. The shares of Nintendo, the company that made the electronic and computer entertainment systems they were based on, plunged by about 5%. Because of this occurrence, Nintendo demanded the specific show yanked from rotation and it has not been shown in any nation since. After the occurrence, the Pokémon cartoon went into a four-month hiatus, removing the TV Tokyo red circle decal and the チュッ! marking from the Japanese cartoon, and it returned on TV in Tokyo on April 16, 1998. From that point, the time slot changed from Tuesday to Thursday. Since then, the specific show has been ridiculed and nuanced in cultural contexts, such as The Simpsons show "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo" and the South Park show "Chinpokomon".In fact, the Pokemon Cyber-Soldier episode's effect was proven to carry over two successive nights in Japan even though it was only shown once. It was found that the children involved communicated with each other via the Internet, mobile phone, and at school the following day. During this gossiping, the rumours spread of the very isolated incidents of actual seizure from the initial night's episode. So, actually, very few children suffered from the real seizure effect on the night of the sole broadcast, and the rest merely suffered from a hysterical reaction and psychological contagion spread by social networking rumour-mongering by the Japanese Press, Japanese social networking habituation and by the Japanese schoolchildren themselves, it is now believed. This demonstrates that belief in a malady is often more important than the actual infection of a real malady itself. It also demonstrates this hysterical malady is contagious in itself. Was COVID19 largely a believed malady that spread through the hysterical contagion Mass Big Media?
COMMUNIST TPLF.To demonstrate the collusive nature of Gates' Event 201 and connected organizations such as the UN's WHO during the COVID19 engineered crisis, consider the case of the leader of the UN's WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Ge'ez: ቴዎድሮስ አድሓኖም ገብረኢየሱስ; born 3 March 1965) is an Ethiopian biologist, public sanitation engineer, and communist bureaucrat who has been since 2017 the Director-General of the World Health Organization. While being the first African in the role he is also the first Director-General who was not a doctor; he was promoted by the China-influenced African Union. Tedros has maintained two major prestigious positions in the government of Ethiopia: Minister of Health from 2005 to 2012 and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012 to 2016. Leader of the UN's WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has overseen the WHO management of the Kivu Ebola outbreak. He made early visits to both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Communist China during the Kivu Ebola outbreak. He began his political career as a member of the Communist Tigray People's Liberation Front. Years later, he would be running the UN WHO despite not being a real medical Doctor. Currently, the Communist Tigray People's Liberation Front is holding out in strong resistance pockets on the Ethiopian border, firing heavy explosive rockets from the backs of trucks at Ethiopian and UN troops. Tedros has singled out free or reduced-cost and subsidized universal health coverage as his top need at WHO. He promoted the point and repeated this set of principles in his first address as Director-General and to the end of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly. In October 2017, he put forth his senior logistics group, with females performing 60% of jobs in the administration in an equal opportunity effort. While Tedros was issued commendations for his lack of sexism, he also received flak for a lack of professionalism. He appointed Dr Tereza Kasaeva of the Russian Ministry of Health to lead the WHO Global Tuberculosis Program without collating any sort of opinion among the community; weeks before being appointed, community institutions had put out a media circular demanding a less regulated process based on free-market competition and rivalry to select the Program's new director. On 18 October 2017, Tedros formerly stated that he had selected President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to act as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador to assist in defeating non-communicable diseases in the continent of Africa. He said Zimbabwe was "a country that places universal health coverage and health promotion at the centre of its policies to provide health care to all." Mugabe's selection was strongly attacked, with WHO associate states and non-governmental organizations stating that Zimbabwe's state healthcare system had actually slid in reverse under his dictatorship, as well as indicating Mugabe's enormous human rights abuses. It was also pointed out that Mugabe himself refuses to patronize his own health system, instead of travelling to Singapore for medical advice. Observers stated Tedros was giving back a political favour. Mugabe was in charge of the African Union when Tedros was promoted as the single African Union representative in a hijacked election process that refused to consider free candidates like Michel Sidibé of Mali and Awa Marie Coll-Seck of Senegal. His decision was strongly criticized on the Internet. The editor-in-chief of Lancet, a long-established doctor's gazette, called Tedros "Dictator-General." After many attacks, on 22 October 2017 Tedros revoked Mugabe's goodwill ambassador job. In comments to the Anadolu Agency, some East African medical administration staff could and did anonymously accuse Tedros of soliciting support for the Tigray People's Liberation Front during the 2020 Tigray war. They demanded Tedros had pressurized UN bodies so they would attempt to divert the leadership of Ethiopia's attack on the TPLF, as well as trying to garner support from Egypt and East African nations for the group. The Chief of General Staff Birhanu Jula Gelalcha publicly accused Tedros of backing the group on 19 November 2020 and trying to get arms and equipment for them. Tedros denied trying to gain support for the TPLF.
THE UN BIOLOGIST, AND THE WUHAN MILITARY LABORATORY. The enormous elephant in the room that no-one wants to address is why a Communist biologist should occupy the chief role as Director-General in the UN's WHO at this precise time when an alternate yet entirely feasible vector for the COVID19 virus existed from a Communist Chinese bio-warfare lab less than 10 km from the Wuhan wet market site? In Washington, a private investigation of cellphone positioning information supposedly shows that a high-security Wuhan laboratory studying coronaviruses had an emergency in October, three sources informed on the situation reported to NBC News. The data — uncovered by the London's NBC News Verification Unit — says there were no cellphone broadcasts in a highly sensitive section of the Wuhan Institute of Virology from Oct. 7 through Oct. 24, 2019, and that it was likely that a "hazardous event" occurred sometime between Oct. 6 and Oct. 11. The believed outbreak was in the P4 Military Laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on April 17, 2020.
PREDICTIVE PROGRAMMING AND LAVEYAN GREATER MAGIC. If world governments are attempting to use subterfuge and secrecy to control the global population at large, why would they expose and telegraph themselves and their intentions using predictive programming like “Stephen King's 'Dead Zone'” (2003)? Potentially the method that state spy agencies are utilizing stems from the CIA occult work of Anton Szandor LaVey and the Church of Satan. Anton Szandor LaVey (born Howard Stanton Levey; April 11, 1930 – October 29, 1997) was a US writer, song-writer, and spiritualist. He founded the Church of Satan and the sectarian cult of LaVeyan Satanism. He wrote several books, including The Satanic Bible, The Satanic Rituals, The Satanic Witch, The Devil's Notebook, and Satan Speaks! Further, he recorded three albums, including The Satanic Mass, Satan Takes a Holiday and Strange Music. He acted in minor screen roles and was a technical consultant for the 1975 movie The Devil's Rain and acted as convener and narrator for Nick Bougas' 1989 auter cinema classic “Death Scenes.”LaVey pioneered the occult practice of Greater Magic. The chief trait of Greater Magic was that it had to be performed in front of the victim to achieve its consequence. Thus it was not hidden or secret magic. In fact, LaVeyan Greater Magic defers to Frazer's Law of Sympathetic Magic in that it falls under the Law of Similarity. From the Law of Similarity, the magician infers that he can produce any effect he desires merely by imitating it. LaVeyan magic augments this work of Frazer's by adding the condition that each simulation must be demonstrated to the victim for the occult practice to work and achieve its desired effect. This may explain why the entire sequence of the present Pandemic would be shown back in 2003 as a piece of predictive programming. Predictive programming is a Central Intelligence Agency program that seeks to sow agitation propaganda themes in the minds of enemy populations subconsciously. In fiction, the reason the main character, Alex Du Large, and his “droogs” of the Burgess novel, “A Clockwork Orange” speak the strange proto-Slavic youth argot of “Nadsat” is due to a Sov-Bloc satellite campaign of electronic predictive programming. Predictive Programming revolves around laying out a theme that the author hopes will be predictive of the audience's subsequent subconscious behaviour. An example of recent predict programming concerning COVID19 includes the 2003 US science fiction mystery drama series, “Stephen King's 'Dead Zone,'” starring Anthony Michael Hall as “Johnny Smith.”Predictive programming can be seen by its state author as an attempt to prepare a civilian audience with the indoctrination of agitation propaganda. It can be seen as the thin edge of the wedge in psychological warfare programs. Predictive programming can be compared to First World War preparatory barrages of artillery designed to soften enemy defences before men went “over the top.” Yet why would the predictive programming of “Stephen King's 'Dead Zone,'” (2003) starring Anthony Michael Hall as “Johnny Smith” proceed by such a length of time – unless the act of the 2020 Pandemic was intended to have such a massive, Earth-moving effect?

ABOVE: “Stephen King's 'Dead Zone,'” (2003)
FROM GELDOF'S LIVE AID TO GAGA'S GLOBAL CITIZEN: A NEW GENERATION OF CELEBRITY LAYABOUTS. In July 1985, the self-obsessed and painfully-narcissistic members of the world's entertainment glitterati found a new vehicle for their continual clawing for money and fame by fashioning the bodies of the starving Ethiopians to their televisual ends. The teen idols of the First World got put down their industry spats for an afternoon, shared their payola designer drugs backstage, and caterwauled to a writhing mass of well-fed assholes which was televised everywhere but the desert where the Ethiopian victims awaited food. These rockstar bums attempted to distribute their donated tribute without much success to the famine-struck of Ethiopia. But most of the money went to the dictatorial, socialist, Ethiopian regime of Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam – a regime the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (a right-wing western dictator) wanted to "destabilize" – and it is also reported that some of the donations were used on weapons. At the time of Sir Bob Geldof's “Live Aid” Concert in 1985, the leader of the UN's WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was working for Mengisitu's ruling Socialist Derg regime. Shortly thereafter he trained in Science as a biologist, not in medicine. At this point, he was accused by the UN of covering up a cholera outbreak in the East African region. As a communist apparatchik, Tedros was cultivated by the hard-core socialist People's Republic of China as it made increasing inroads into Africa since the time of Mengistu. By the turn of the 21st century, the PRC had made similar moves into controlling the United Nations by out-manoeuvring an increasingly isolationist US, culminating in the US President of the United States, Donald Trump, and represented in his physical wall-building projects. This is how the first non-physician found himself voted into the top position of the UN WHO body by totalitarians and dictators like Mugabe.
ALL THE USUAL SUSPECTS. Like LiveAid in 1985, the COVID19 Disaster of 2020 was seen as a vulture-circling opportunity by celebrities and glitterati like Lady Gaga, Alanis Morissette, Andrea Bocelli, Billie Eilish, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Burna Boy, Chris Martin, David Beckham, Eddie Vedder, and Elton John et al. Just as the likes of Midge Ure, Sting, Bono and Paul McCartney had fed off the starved bodies of the Ethiopians in the 1985 Famine Crisis under Mengistu and LiveAid, Global Citizen under Lady Gaga sought to turn the COVID19 Catastrophe into a cash grab at the cost of the Earth's people.

ABOVE: Culturecide - \"They Aren't The World.\"
Thus, it is the very real scientifically-proven facts of Nocebo, Psychogenic Death and Hysterical Contagion that the ill-educated Stalinist Dankey Kang misinterpreted in his vid, "Weird Ancap Memes Me to Oblivion on Twitter."
By reading my blog about hysterical contagion, Dankey Kang only served to spark hysterical contagion within himself, Jason Unruhe, Fellow Traveler, Ewoks Unhinged, Comrade Net and other followers of theirs. This is evidenced by their collectivised paranoia over the recent scandal of the Nazbol Blogger site that Fat Controller definitely had no role in as an Anarchist.

ABOVE: Evidence of Tankie Hysterical Paranoia generated by Dankey Kang distributing an incorrect version of my esoteric webpage. NOTE: Fat Controller is an Anarchist - NOT a Nazbol. His family fought each of the Axis Powers during WWII on a variety of fronts for the entirety of the war.
This has occurred to insert the psychological seed of the panic that has been reaped by world governments during this suspicious infection. This has led to worldwide lockdowns and security situations. It can be seen that world trillionaire Bill Gates has experimented with the simulation of pandemics with his Event 201 simulation and that simulations exacerbate situations with the rise of COVID19 seemingly months later in a supposedly unconnected manner. Also, it would appear with the spread of the COVID19 infection that there is a nocebo effect in operation alongside the very real infection. This is being exacerbated by Big Media discussion and paranoia concerning an actual medical pandemic. Examples of this include the Global Citizen set of feel-good international pop concerts designed to bolster the profile of the UN's WHO Director-General and supporter of the hard-line socialist, PRC, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. There is little more that can be expected from an organized world System that indulges in the deliberate starvation deaths of over 20,000 children per day in a globe full of bread and milk.

The Creature in the Baltic

I am an oceanographer. Ever since my family started bringing me to the beach when I was young, I was fascinated by the sea, but fascination turned to something else when I was hired to work in an underwater sealab in the Baltic.
My name is Will. I had recently graduated with a degree in marine biology and was looking to start my career. I had always thought that the only underwater research lab had been off the coast of Florida, the Aquarius Reef Base, but here I was staring at an application to work on another sealab across the world. I chalked my lack of knowledge up to my own incompetence, and applied for the job.
It wasn’t long before I got a reply. A sophisticated man with a German accent spoke with me about my education and all the other regular things that you would hear in a job interview, but at the end of the conversation, things started to get a little weird.
“Are you in any way afraid of any sea life like sharks for example?” asked Bertram, the German interviewer.
“I have a healthy fear of ocean predators,” I said. “But I don’t mind swimming with them. They mostly aren’t interested in humans.”
“Good to hear!” he said. “I completely agree. The job will involve some diving in some deeper waters, and this can make some people uneasy.”
To my surprise, I was hired. I boarded a plane and ended up in Rostock, a medium sized German port city. I made my way over to the port itself, where I was to meet with the team and start travelling to my new home under the sea.
I had read the documents they had sent over to familiarize myself with the underwater environment. I had noticed however that there were no bathrooms, and this seemed a little strange. I assumed that I probably would just go in the ocean. I had been peeing in the ocean since I was a kid, but I had never gone number two. I laughed to myself as I thought of how silly it was that I was dwelling on such a triviality.
When I arrived on the dock there was Bertram. I recognized him from the video conference we’d had before. He was taller than I had figured. Next to him stood another, tall skinny man.
“Ah! Speak of the devil,” Bertram said as I approached. His accent made me chuckle to myself, but his grammar and diction were very good nonetheless. “Will, I would like you to meet Derek, our colleague.”
Derek also seemed very polite, and his English was excellent.
“We have a team of French, German, and English speakers. We mostly speak English, but you will have to forgive us if occasionally we start ranting in our native tongues together,” said Bertram
At that, Derek mumbled something in German, and they both laughed.
We hitched a ride on another vessel out towards the east. After about an hour, I saw a little ship.
“That is the Hoffnung,” said Bertram. “Our humble ship.”
The ship was small and rusty. It looked like it had seen better days. Something seemed off. The facility underwater was much too advanced to be paired with such a beat up looking ship.
We geared up for the dive.
As far as depth is concerned, the Baltic is pretty shallow, yet I was surprised to hear that we would be diving down to a depth of 65 meters. The deepest I had ever gone was 30, and going 65 didn’t help my growing anxiety.
“Don’t worry, it is a one way trip, so it isn’t very dangerous, you don’t have to worry about the bends.”
I remembered how cool it was that the underwater facility used ambient pressure and a moonpool. The entire facility was pressurized. It was still too deep for humans to live at the pressure between seven and eight atmospheres. Though humans can free dive quite deep, they cannot live in such crushing pressures for extended periods of time. Three atmospheres was what the facility was pressurized to. Still, the time saved not having to go back and forth between sea level, and seven atmospheres made this facility useful for studying the seabed. We have all heard how we know less about our oceans than outer space. This was what fascinated me so much about the sea.
The beginning of the descent was uneventful. Things started to become darker as less light was able to penetrate the depths. When we reached 40 meters, it felt like I was entering another world. It was surreal. I had never been this deep before, and I remembered my diving instructor mentioning how dangerous it was. People were said to fall into a trance.
As we continued to descend into the misty depths, a building appeared. It was taller than I had expected, spanning at least three stories upward. Certainly this was not the facility that I had read about. Soon enough however I saw the moonpool. It was a peculiar thing to emerge from the ocean into an indoor swimming pool, and we all treaded water for a minute.
Bertram and Derek turned and smiled at me. I couldn’t help but smile back. It was just so badass. I felt like I was in some kind of sci-fi movie. The room we were in was pressurized higher than the rest of the facility, and we made our way into a depressurization chamber, after removing our gear.
“Watch your arm,” said Derek as I clumsily walked into a loose panel. It grazed my skin a little.
“Sorry,” said Bertram. “I should have mentioned the loose panel.”
“The facility is much larger than I read,” I said, inquiring about the large structure I had seen.
“Yes,” said Bertram. “That document is out of date. The facility has expanded in several areas, though we lowly scientists are to remain in our humble quarters.”
He and Derek laughed.
“I thought that this facility was entirely run by scientists,” I said. The job application had been from the website of GEOMAR, a prestigious research institution in Germany.
“It started that way, but after funding was cut back, it looked like we were going to have to abandon the facility,” said Bertram. “But then they discovered the ore deposits down the hole.”
“The hole?” I asked.
We entered the habitat I had familiarized myself with from the manual. There was a bunkhouse, a mess hall, and a couple other rooms for science and storage.
“Is this the new bloke?” asked a voice from around the corner. In walked a short man with a smile on his face. He had instant charisma. “Don’t let the krout scare you mate. Things are peachy down here.” He shook my hand with a vigor that left my arm noodling. He was a middle aged man, a little older than the rest of them. “Name’s Doug. I am from Newcastle.”
I nodded.
“This whole Krout thing.” said Bertram. “I just don’t understand why you all think it is offensive. It just means cabbage. Your people’s world war two put downs weren’t very good.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at their relationship when, suddenly, a loud explosion rang out. They all grabbed for something to brace themselves with.
“Is everyone alright?” came a shrill worried voice from deeper into the facility, amidst the flickering buttons and endless readouts. A french woman cautiously came into the room hugging the wall. Despite the fear the crash moments ago had instilled, she smiled politely to me.
“Welcome Will. It is good to see you,” she said somewhat nervously.
“Hi,” I said smiling back. She was wearing a cap and bulky crewman coveralls, yet I could tell that she was really beautiful.
“The bastards are really pushing our luck with those explosions,” said Doug. “They’re gonna get us all killed.”
“Why are there explosions?” I asked.
“We didn’t have the funding to keep this place running, we were forced to entice some other parties. I said it then and I say it now. It was a short sighted decision,” said Doug.
“Yes, but what choice did we have?” asked Bertram.
The rest of the day was spent familiarizing myself with the facility. Everything was just like it said in the manual, except for an ominous looking door just after the depressurization chamber. That was new.
Though the whole place looked like a futuristic spaceship, this door seemed to be even more so. It looked strong.
“At first there was constant traffic in and out, but after they completed their submarine docking station, a soul hasn’t passed through that door in months. We occasionally speak with one of them on the radio, but we have less and less contact as they need us less. It is a little strange, but it is better than being shut down,” said Bertram as he noticed me looking at the door.
“Who exactly are they?” I asked.
“At first it was underwater welders and construction workers who worked for a German mining company, all the usual stuff, but after several months the miners left and apparently ownership of the facility changed hands again, though I have heard nothing about who. GEOMAR has been vague about it all. No doubt they are up to some kind of exploitative act, probably attempting to weaponize something beautiful. That is why I get the feeling that we are no longer welcome in our own facility. They wouldn’t want their secrets exposed by us pesky good intentioned scientists,” said Bertram laughingly.
Eventually I had to go to the little boys room, and I finally inquired as to how this was done. They all laughed.
“It is a pleasure goin’ number two durin’ the day! The fish can get quite frisky” said Doug.
Manon rolled her eyes, smiling.
“The fish sometimes eat your waste,” she said. “Don’t let Douglas scare you, they are just fish.”
“There is a dome several meters out from the moonpool where you can hang out and do your business. But you won't catch me goin’ out there in the dark,” said Doug.
“Ha. Yeah I can imagine the fish are much more frightening in the dark,” I said.
“Actually that is the weird part,” said Bertram. “There are no fish at night.”
Manon lashed the shirt she was holding at Bertram’s arm punishingly, yet in a soft motheringly way.
“I am just saying, I don’t go number two at night either,” said Bertram.
“If it is an emergency, I drop the log right in the moonpool and you should too,” said Doug. “Floaters be damned.”
“That is disgusting,” said Manon.
“Why do the fish only come at night?” I asked.
“We aren’t sure why. Derek thinks it has to do with their body chemistry. Their noradrenaline levels start to spike as the light stops shining through. They scatter in all directions,” explained Manon.
“All except towards the hole,” said Derek.
“What is this hole?” I asked.
“It is the twenty meter wide hole in the bottom of the ocean out the moonpool to the east. It is hard to miss. We stay away from there,” said Derek.
I made a point to do my business during the daylight and was alarmed and amused by the amount of fish it attracted. I swam out to the dome and soon several fish began to investigate me.
I looked around in the area and saw the massive hole to the East. I could see that the facility must have been built to study the hole.
It was starting to get a little darker and I was ready to swim back to the moonpool when I noticed a small submersible ascending out of the hole. The submersible propelled itself towards the large three story complex attached to our habitat. A hatch opened and the submersible ascended up into the hatch. My imagination ran wild as to what this mysterious other faction was up to behind that hatch.
As weird as it all was, after several days I had fallen into a rhythm and everything became normal. I would gather samples and document the wildlife by day, and study my findings as well as talk to my colleagues at night. Occasionally there would be an explosion, and, like clockwork, a submersible or two would ascend from the hole at sunset.
Sunset became a time of caution, I noticed. The fish would remain until it was dark, but almost in a flash, they all knew to disappear as the last sun rays left. It was part of a fascinating cycle. I had seen things like this in nature before, like when bats all fly out of a cave at the same time, or birds migrating for winter, but this was different. There was a desperation about it. For the fish, it was more of a desperate scramble. I quickly understood why Doug wouldn’t go number two at the dome after dark. I found out that none of them did.
Every day I would walk by the mysterious door leading to the other facility, but the hallway beyond was always dark, and I could never see that far. It was unnerving. On top of that there were no portholes or windows of any kind to look into from the outside, only the submersibles at sunrise and at sunset.
One day I joked.
“Maybe one of us should try to swim up the hatch one time,” I said.
The mood in the room became very tense. It wasn’t long before Manon burst into tears. I didn’t understand.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“It’s okay mate, it isn’t your fault,” said Doug, as he went to console Manon.
I tried to look at Bertram who usually explained things to me when I was baffled, but his eyes remained fixed on his breakfast. I looked at Derek.
“It is time Will knows about Javier,” said Derek.
Nobody said a word. All that could be heard was Manon sobbing.
“Who is Javier?” I asked.
“Javier was the marine biologist you replaced,” said Derek. “And he also had the idea to swim up the hatch.”
“We were informed that he was dead over a week later, the bastards,” said Doug. “We began searching desperately, but after a couple hours, we knew that the air would have run out. We started searching for his body. Apparently the whole time, he was in the other facility.”
“What?” I asked, mortified.
“Aye. They said that there had been an accident and they weren’t able to save ‘em,” said Doug.
“And they waited to tell you?” I asked.
He nodded.
I never looked at the hatch the same way. Had Javier been trapped in there and run out
of air? Surely there must have been some way he could have entered the facility as it is how the submersibles went in and out.
Over the coming days, things went back to normal, or at least, as normal as living 60 meters underwater could be. I didn’t dare broach the subject of Javier. I just kept my head down and did my work. There was plenty of plant life to catalog, not to mention all of the different species of fish and jellyfish. Occasionally a pod of sea mammals would pass through.
As I was performing my nightly bathroom ritual before the dark set in, one night I noticed the submersible ascending from the hole as always, only this time, it seemed to be having trouble moving through the water. It almost seemed to be stuttering. As I looked closer, I saw what looked like markings on the side of the vessel, as if it had been in some kind of accident down there. I shuddered to think of what would have happened if the craft had been damaged more.
There I tread in the outhouse dome, pondering what I just saw. It made me feel uneasy, but nothing like what I felt after what I saw next. My gaze fell back on the giant sinkhole. There at the very edge, I saw something that will horrify me for the rest of my life. I saw a head looking back. The rest of the body was hidden down the hole. Just the head, as if it was peering at me. Even with the water clouding the distance between us, I felt his stare burn into my soul. Here, 60 meters below in the middle of the ocean was a face, completely unencumbered by gear, no air tanks. What was he breathing?
I must have been hallucinating, but the moment lasted for what seemed like a lifetime. Up until then, it was the longest moment of my life. His eyes locked on mine, just his head.
As it got darker, I came out of my confused trance. I made a mad dash for the moonpool. I didn’t dare look back. I leapt out of the moonpool and into the decompression chamber. I was terrified. I stared at the moonpool through the window, half expecting the head to emerge from the water.
How could a man have been in the hole? He would have had to have held his breath for at least five minutes as I hadn’t seen anyone else as I swam to the dome. Although with training, a human being can hold their breath that long, something was just off. I had goosebumps all over my body. I had heard of pressurized air playing tricks on people’s minds. Perhaps I had nitrogen narcosis.
I quickly went in and told the others.
“Elevated levels of nitrogen affect us all in different ways,” said Manon as she examined me. “It is possible that you hallucinated.”
“I must have,” I said.
“If anything like this happens again, come tell us right away,” she said.
I noticed Derek looking at me from across the habitat. He quickly looked away when I made eye contact. There was something about it that made me feel like he knew more.
I decided to sleep it off, but had wild dreams about what I saw.
I woke in a cold sweat. I felt even more exhausted than before.
The crew, for the most part, hadn’t noticed that I was a little off. All except Derek. He approached me that night.
“You must be feeling a little rattled,” he said. “I was good friends with Javier. When he died, I sort of lost it a little bit. I couldn’t sleep or eat. I even saw things too.”
He became very serious.
“This place is dangerous. More so than the others understand,” said Derek.
He brought me over to a laptop and opened up a folder with images. He then brought up a picture of the crew all happily posing. There they all were, Doug, Manon, Derek and Bertram. Then my eyes came to rest on the fifth person, and when they did, electricity ran through my body all at once as horror welled up from the depths of my soul into my throat. There stood the very same face that had stared at me from the hole, and all at once I knew who that was, what Derek had seen, and what it meant.
I could barely speak. I just muttered.
“That was the man I saw,” I said.
“We have to tell the others, and they are not going to believe it, or like it,” he said.
We headed into the common room where the others were gathered. Derek led bluntly in a dire tone.
“We both saw Javier, alive in the water,” he said.
Doug almost dropped what he was doing and turned around to look at us, then looked at Bertram who was as bewuthered as him. Then they both broke into laughter.
Manon looked very upset.
“That is not funny Derek. And Will, I didn’t think you were like this,” she said.
“Derek showed me a picture of Javier, and it was without a doubt the same face that looked at me,” I said. I didn’t care about impressing Manon anymore. Something was horribly wrong.
“I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me because Javier had just died. I heard you can see people sometimes who have just died,” said Derek. “So I didn’t think much of it. But one thing is very clear. We need to leave,” he said. It was empowering to be next to him. I would have never had the courage to say these things.
There was a moment of silence.
“Okay, I will put in the call for the ship to come pick up whoever wants to leave, I guess, but this is my life’s work. I can’t just leave because you think you saw a ghost, you understand,” said Doug, respectfully.
“I strongly urge you to reconsider,” said Derek. “And we can’t wait for the ship to get us, we need to take the Hoffnung, now.”
Suddenly this wasn’t sounding like such a good idea. The Hoffnung had seen better days.
Bertram started to argue with Derek in German. Manon and Doug started jumping in and I had no idea what was going on. At last, however, Derek won out with a loud exclamation that silenced the rest. He then turned to me.
“I know it seems like the Hoffnung isn’t seaworthy, but she is. She passed the required inspection.”
“That was five years ago, Derek, really,” said Doug. “There is a reason we don’t use her anymore, she is a floating platform, just in case something happens down here. Really, what is another day to wait for the ship?” he said.
“If you had seen what we had seen, you would understand,” said Derek.
I wasn’t sure what to do. On the one hand, waiting another day for a proper ship to take us back seemed reasonable. Yet, what if that thing in the water came into the moonpool tonight? What if it came into the decompression chamber?
“Very well. I am going to make the call to be picked up,” said Derek.
He left and came back moments later.
“There is a storm coming. They can’t make it here for two days,” he said.
My stomach started to turn. That rusty old boat was starting to look more and more enticing.
I was starting to feel better about everything. There were tests to be run, and flora to be catalogued. Manon even helped me, which put me at ease. During the day she started asking me questions.
“So you are sure that it was Javier that you saw?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said. “He must still be alive, but we watched each other for minutes. I don’t know anyone who can hold their breath that long.
Manon looked at me horrified.
“He was a good swimmer,” she said. “But five minutes?”
“I know,” I said.
After I finally started to feel normal again, I started to feel tired, even though it was just the afternoon. Something about the pressure, or being cooped up. That was why I went to sleep early that night. Going to sleep early turned out to be a giant mistake.
I woke up in the late evening around ten. I had to poop something fierce. I instinctively went over to the decompression chamber. When I entered the moonpool, for the first time, I saw pitch black water. I stood there watching it ripple. Beyond was just the murky black depths.
I remembered Doug admitting he wouldn’t go to the bathroom at night, and now, I understood. I walked up to the edge and looked down. There was absolutely no way I was going to swim to the out house dome. With little options left, I pulled down my trousers and attempted a squat right over the moonpool.
Still, squatting there, I couldn’t help but look back every couple seconds to make sure something wasn’t coming up to grab me. It felt silly, but it was a very vulnerable position to be in. After trying for a couple minutes, I stood back up. It is amazing what kinds of things the body will do when it knows it is not safe. I suddenly felt no urge to go to the bathroom at all. I slowly backed away from the edge of the moonpool keeping my eyes on its dark, rippling depths. I thought I saw something move. I felt a deep fear. I had to get out of there.
I went for the decompression chamber, and, to my horror, I saw out of my peripheral a mass cresting out of the water. I threw myself into the chamber and, as fast as I could, tried to throw the door closed.
A monstrous dark grayish green tentacle moved with startling speed and just as I was shutting the door, wrapped around my leg, sinking several spines into me. I cried with pain as the creature began to drag me out of the chamber. I slammed the door on the tentacle, but it was thick and strong, and continued to drag me. A second tentacle just like the first was starting to crest out of the moonpool.
Just then I looked up. It was the same sheet metal panel that had grazed me when I first walked in. I ripped it off the wall with surprising ease. With all my might, for my life, I cleaved the tentacle. It didn’t sever but I cut it deeply and it released me. Before the second tentacle could reach the chamber, I slammed the door with all my might. I looked at the tentacles prodding and probing the sealed door. It was absolutely horrifying. I knew they had every intent on dragging me down into the depths.
They were terrifying, like a giant octopus, with spiny thorns attached, to hook its prey. After what seemed like hours, the decompression finished. I had already been screaming and the others had gathered at the door. I exited the chamber and turned to the others.
“We have to get the hell out of here, now!” I screamed.
“Calm down,” said Manon. “What happened?”
“There is some kind of,” I stopped. I didn’t know what to say. “I know this sounds crazy but a massive, predatory invertebrate grabbed me in the moonpool.”
“Like a pacific octopus?” Doug asked curiously. They were not understanding the gravity of the situation. The tentacles weren’t visible from this angle, and I dared not open the door to show them. Instead I showed them my leg.
It was bleeding, though not profusely. The puncture wounds were still clearly visible. The others began to inspect his leg. Derek went into another room and came back with a couple knives. They were the only weapons we had available.
“At first light, all of us should make a break for the Hoffnung,” said Derek.
“But, what about the storm?” said Bertram.
“I would rather take my chances with the storm than be down here. At least I would die a natural death,” said Derek.
I don’t think the others understood, but I knew exactly what he meant. The idea of drowning in the open waters somehow seemed like a tolerable alternative.
It suddenly made sense. The explosions. The beaten up submersible. This animal was being studied by the other facility.
“One thing is certain,” said Derek. “The creature only seems to be around at night, and we seem to be safe in here. I am swimming for the Hoffnung in the morning. I strongly urge the rest of you to come.”
I nodded. The others looked among themselves, not knowing what to think.
We all went to our bunks and tried to sleep. After hours of tossing and turning, and staring at the entrance, half expecting a dark gray tentacle slither around the corner.
My wound felt better. Manon had bandaged it and applied disinfectant. I slowly started to nod off.
When I awoke, I started my daily routine. I even got ready to go out and swim to the bathroom when I stopped dead in my tracks. I felt a deep sense of horror, as if I was just remembering what had happened to me in the moonpool just hours before. I suddenly felt no urge to go to the bathroom at all. I just stood there gazing at the pressure chamber.
All of the others had risen and were mulling about.
“Have either of you seen Doug?” said Manon. “I am waiting for his data but I haven’t seen him.”
“Maybe he hasn’t woken up?” I said.
“He isn’t in his bunk,” said Manon. “I am starting to get worried.”
“He probably just went out for some samples,” said Bertram.
“You are probably right,” said Manon, and she started busying herself with her work.
I finally worked up the courage to go out to the bathroom dome.
The water was moving faster than usual, but nothing I couldn’t swim against. I could see how being a poor swimmer would be very hazardous and understood now why they insisted on strong swimmers in the job application.
Out at the dome, I looked around and realized that there wasn’t a fish in sight. Usually during this time of day, the ocean was full of them, but now, it was barren. It was unnerving.
I looked around the erie depths, trying to make out what I could through the misty sea water. I noticed something strange. The hatch to the other part of the facility was open. That same hatch that Javier had swam up. Upon thinking about Javier, my eyes darted back to the place where I had seen his eyes, staring at me from the hole. I shuttered and suddenly started to feel very vulnerable. I got done with my business and started back towards the moonpool.
When I entered the habitat I saw that Manon was coming my way with Bertram and Derek.
“There you are,” she said. “We are going out to look for Doug. He should have been back by now.”
“The hatch is open,” I said.
They all looked at one another.
“We will have to think about that later,” she said. “Everyone, suit up and make sure you are full of oxygen.”
The water was still moving fast due to the stormy conditions. It was difficult to fight against the current, but Doug should have come back by now, and there was a chance he was stuck and running low on air. We had to look for him. We checked down the slope in the opposite direction of the hole, but there was no sign of Doug. We finally came to the hole.
We shined our lights down into the depths. Nothing but darkness. After a while, our oxygen levels were getting low and we returned to the habitat. On our way back, we all saw the opened hatch. No doubt we were all thinking the same thing. Doug might have gone up the hatch for some reason.
When we had shed our gear in the moonpool, Derek was the first to mention this.
“We need to get in touch with the other part of the habitat,” he said. “I will try to radio them again.”
As I walked past the door that connected the two habitats, I peered down it’s corridor. Surely we could just override the locks and walk in there. It seemed like the right thing to do given the circumstances.
I shined my light down the corridor through the glass. It was strange. Something at the very end of the corridor seemed to be floating. I squinted and tried to discern what it was that I was looking at.
“Hey guys,” I said. “I think something is moving in there.”
We all gathered at the glass of the door and peered into the darkness. There was something that seemed to be hovering. It was drifting closer. I knew what it was before my mind could register what I was seeing. It was a strange feeling. On the one hand, there was a pen, but on the other, it was drifting right in the middle of the air. The pen was floating because the chamber had filled with water.
“It won’t break through,” said Derek. “This door is designed to withstand pressures far beyond this. It was always a possibility that one of the habitats would be compromised.”
His words did little to reassure me. I kept staring at that pen, as it seemed to drift aimlessly. It ricocheted off one of the walls, gently.
“What happened to all the people?” asked Bertram.
There was nothing but silence for a moment. Then Manon spoke.
“We have to go in there,” said Manon. “That must be where Doug is. Maybe he is trapped.”
Derek and Bertram exchanged glances and started speaking in German. Manon interrupted them and they all started yelling at each other. I stood there puzzled until finally they switched back to English.
“I can’t believe you two,” said Manon. “Doug would have done it to save you.”
“Doug is dead,” said Derek. “Or worse.”
“What do you mean ‘or worse’?” said Manon.
“He has been out of air for a while now and we all know it,” said Derek. “Bertram and I are going for the Hoffnung. We aren’t waiting for the ship.”
Bertram stood there looking as guilty as he was terrified. Finally, they were starting to understand. We had to get the hell out of there. I opened my mouth to agree adamantly, but Manon spoke first.
“I am going over there,” she said defiantly.
She looked at me and waited for me to speak.
“Okay,” I said. “I will go with you to look for Doug.”
“This is crazy,” said Derek. “I don’t want to be on that sinking boat in a storm any minute longer than I have to. We can’t wait for you.”
“One hour,” said Manon. “That is all we need.”
Derek and Bertram started arguing and German again.
“We will wait one hour,” said Bertram. “Then we will head to the surface together.”
Suiting up went fast. We did our final checks and dove back into the moonpool. The hatch seemed to beckon me. I thought of Javier, and how I had seen his head staring at me. Even now it gave me the chills, but I put it in the back of my mind.
Soon, we could almost see up the shaft. I thought of how much had happened in my life since I had taken this job. How much I had learned and seen. It was hard to remember what my life used to be like. It seemed like so long ago that I had been sleeping in a nice bed and eating all the food I wanted. Mostly, I thought about how much I had taken for granted. You don’t realize how important it is to feel safe until you don’t.
We reached the entrance of the shaft. It became dark fast. Manon turned on her light and my heart sank. At the end of the shaft was a metal door, but it looked as though it had been warped. What could have done this? Luckily, our divers' masks had radio communication built in.
“What could have done this?” said Manon. She looked over at me. She knew what I was thinking already.
“There is no creature ever discovered like the one you hallucinated, Will.”
I went to retort but stopped. There was no point in arguing. I wanted to live, not to be right.
“Let’s hope not,” I said.
It took everything I had, but I managed to start kicking, and swam up into the shaft. Manon soon followed after me. We traced the dark room with our lights. It seemed to have been some kind of submersible docking room. What once was a moonpool had been overtaken by water. All manner of clutter floated about.
It was unnerving to be there in the darkness, 60 meters beneath the surface of the water, in a breached habitat that had gone silent. I swatted a tablet away from my head as we continued onward.
The decompression chamber was wide open. Both of the large doors stood unsealed.
I knew what had happened. That creature that had tried to grab me, that.. giant octopus creature, had gotten through the decompression chamber. I couldn’t stop thinking about those tentacles that had grabbed me. They looked like they were as thick as a tree trunk as they disappeared into that black water. I will never forget it.
As we swam into the next room. It was large, and quite long. It was full of all types of computers and lab equipment, but in the center of a room and to my horror, there it was. That same, dark gray tentacle. It must have been fifty feet long. . I instinctively swam away. This was horror movie 101. I had done everything I could to convince Manon that my story was true. If she didn’t believe me now, it was on her. To my great relief I saw her swimming fast behind me. She now understood that our lives were in imminent danger.
As we rounded the corner in the room with the hatch we saw Doug. It seemed like a miracle. There he was, floating there in his diving gear.
We made it up towards the moonpool and started to get out of our gear. That’s when I caught out of the corner of my eye. Doug’s oxygen meter had been empty. Still, I didn’t think much about it as we made our way to the decompression chamber. I wish I had.
“Doug, I have to say it is good to see your stupid face,” said Manon. “Why didn’t you respond to my radio?”
Doug gave a slight smile.
“We looked everywhere for you,” I said.
He looked at me. He looked like he had some kind of debris in his eye. Still he said nothing. He just stared at me. That is when I realized that Bertram and Derek were nowhere to be found.
“Derek! Bertram!” I cried out.
“You don’t think they would have left without us do you?” asked Manon.
Suddenly, I heard a loud crash a distance from the habitat. It was as loud as the explosions, but it was different. I could tell Manon thought the same thing as we looked at each other in horror.
Putting it out of our mind, Manon and I desperately scrambled around the habitat. When we returned we noticed Doug standing by the decompression chamber. He seemed to be examining it.
“You okay there, Doug?” I asked.
He turned to me and gave me that same hollow stare. I had seen that stare before, somewhere. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. He soon returned to the decompression interface. He just stared at it.
“Any ideas on where Derek and Bertram are Doug?” I asked, more to make conversation than anything else.
We stood there in silence for a moment. I dared not walk away.
Manon had made her way over to us after searching for Derek. By the look on my face she could tell that there was something wrong.
“Doug?” she asked.
After a moment of silence, Doug’s hand rose, and pressed one of the buttons.
He pressed another button. He was starting to figure it out. I tried to block the panel, but he swatted me away with a speed that was uncharacteristic of Doug. He was trying to open the decompression chamber.
I tried to push him away from the panel, but he headbutted me, hard. I fell to the ground. I felt woozy. I tried to stand up but fell over again.
“Manon,” I cried out. “Don’t let him open the chamber!”
Manon stood there, horrified, as I finally got to my feet, but it was too late. Doug managed to open the decompression chamber. Still, there was a failsafe mechanism. Both doors couldn’t be opened at once, unless overridden in an emergency. I had read about it in the manual before I came aboard. There was a way, but if it was done underwater at that depth, the moonpool’s integrity would fail, and the water would rush into the habitat.
Doug stood there once more, thinking. Thinking with that horrifying, hollow stare.
My head was still spinning but I managed to grab a hold of his arm and we both went tumbling over. I managed to dodge some swings at my head and scrambled backwards. Doug refocused his attention back on the panel. Suddenly a loud alarm sounded. It was over. The moonpool integrity had been compromised. Water immediately began to rush in.
Manon and I looked at each other in horror. She rushed over to a cabinet. The water was already up to our knees and rising fast.
Doug simply stared at us void of emotion. The water poured forth and in seconds I had taken a deep breath from the air at the top. I tried to think of something, anything, but before I could, Manon grabbed my hand. She had found the life raft. We swam for it.
We both started towards the moonpool when all of a sudden I felt a strong hand grip my leg. It was Doug.
I thrashed and kicked but to no avail. I tried to fight Doug with all I had left, but he was too strong, and I was running out of oxygen. The edges of my eyes were starting to turn black, and my lungs were crying out. This was it.
Suddenly Manon drove a fixed blade deep into Doug’s stomach. He momentarily let go and we scrambled out of the moonpool with Doug right behind us. To my horror, I saw Doug swimming down after us, blood pouring out. Manon screamed and pointed towards the hole. There was Javier, Bertram, and Derek swimming for us, all with that hollow, lifeless look in their eyes.
All we had to do was clear the building above us, and we could pull the rip chord. We were so close. That is when I saw the Hoffnung. It was the ship that was supposed to be above us, but there it was. I could barely make it out through the murky water, but it was hard to miss something so big. The storm, or maybe the others, had sunk it. That was what the crashing sound had been.
We cleared the structure, and just as the creatures were closing in on us, Manon ripped the cord.
Holding on, we started to ascend fast. I watched as we left that horrible place behind. It disappeared into the misty ocean underneath my feet.
We hung there, blind and helpless all the while thinking to ourselves, what if the others swam up after us? How long would it take them to reach us?
My joints were hurting and I knew why. Decompression sickness was setting in. Still, we were alive.
The more I strained to look, the more I started to make out several shadows. They were getting closer. I could start to make out the human bodies now, they were no more than several meters away, swimming for us.
My joints were in agony, and I felt so tired. I needed to sleep. Still, the sight of the surface so close, its glimmering majesty. Just a little farther.
We broke the surface gasping for air. The life raft was so close. We scrambled into it as I felt that fear of having my last leg grabbed, but it wasn’t. We had made it. We quickly looked over the side.
A chill ran down my spine as I saw, right beneath the surface, the faces of Javier, Derek, Doug, and Bertram. All of their eyes fixed on us. There they remained as if unable to break the surface. Doug was still bleeding profusely from his stomach, and a cloud of red was gathering. We collapsed in the bed of the life raft, exhausted. We had made it. We could feel their hands scratching at us through the raft. It was unnerving, but the raft seemed to be holding. The sun was setting and the sky was a beautiful pink color.
That brings us to now. The last light has gone away now. The others are still scratching at the bottom of the raft. The sun is no longer holding it at bay. The creature will surely come for us tonight.

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First Contact - Fourth Wave - Chapter 416