24 Mindfall One

Dawn began to lose touch with space and time. He was overcome by a sudden fainting when the world around him seemed to dissolve and he entered an endless void. Intense fluctuations pervaded Dawn's Personality Engram, almost like his mind was leaving his body. He tried to concentrate on his thoughts and his subconsciousness, while all of his senses were numbed.

Finally, he found himself at the crossroads between two opposing dimensions that suddenly became distorted. One familiar, the other completely unknown. But all of a sudden, they seemed to merge, until finally, they became one. The contrasts blended, as peaceful as they were for a moment. But that moment didn't last long and Dawn felt his artificial skeleton torn apart and his soul pouring out of him. Reality froze as Dawn crossed the borderline and the void took over Dawn's mind.

After a while, he slowly came back to his senses in a strange environment.

Dawn stood on a stage behind a lectern and looked up into the starry night sky. The platform was placed in the center of a square in a park. Dawn noticed that one of the stars shone extraordinarily brightly and seemed to be bigger and closer than the others. He looked at it more closely and noticed that it could by no means be a star. Rather, it was a moving object, stationed in Earth orbit. It was a gigantic satellite pointing through the night sky with a red laser beam every few seconds.

"Mr. President. The people are waiting for you to inaugurate it" an old lady in a business suit said to Dawn.

***Mr. President? What does she mean?***

Dawn was watching into a turned-off screen of a tablet lying on his lectern, seeing his face mirrored in it. However, the face that was glancing back at him did not belong to Dawn, rather it resembled the one of the mysterious man he met before he passed out. When Dawn saw that he shrank back for a moment and looked closer. But nothing has been changing.

***Is this a body switch thing now? This does not look like Haven at all. Everything here is so green and the air, it even contains more than 20 percent oxygen! I should find out where I am, and more importantly, who.***

Dawn wanted to ask the lady behind him, but instead, he just felt his alter ego turning to the crowd in front of the stage.

"This is President Lance M. Jaeger's speech on the Fourth of July" the next speech was announced.

***I have no control right now, this is not real. Is this a dream?***

Some people applauded, others whistled. There was a small group of activists at the edge of the crowd with signs saying "Orbitals are wasting taxpayers' money" and "Stop Inversium mining in nature reserves."

Suddenly his mouth began to speak without Dawn knowing what he had to say. He arranged his microphone and looked on the tablet in front of him. "Dear compatriots, on this day we have gathered to honor this great nation, like many generations before. I am proud to announce that from now on this country will be protected against all attacks from nuclear missiles. Unlike those who came before, we are well and truly safe. With the discovery of Inversium, new possibilities opened up for us to protect us against attacks, and we have exhausted their potential to the fullest. The result of the work of our best engineers is enthroned above us in the sky." He paused dramatically while pointing to the giant object "This, Ladies and Gentleman, is the very first orbital in the world. It will defend this great nation and us people who live in it for many, many years. When the development of the orbital was started five years ago, in 2207, under our deeply esteemed President Clark, I never expected such a rapid completion. All the more I am pleased today to be able to inaugurate this accomplishment with you during the last year of my term of office."

***2207, that was almost one hundred years ago. This is too accurate for a dream, maybe it is a very detailed simulation?***

While a solemn hymn rang from large speakers below the stage, a swarm of drones flew out of the orbital. The swarm was consisting of blue, red and white shining drones. They left the inside of the orbital and first swarmed around like a uniformly coordinated flock of tropical birds until they arranged themselves row by row. Alternating white and red rows piled on top of each other. The result was a flag of drones that waved as if it was blowing in the wind.

People looked up into the night sky with enthusiasm. However, after some seconds unexpectedly the drones darkened and suddenly bounced to the ground like apples from a tree.

"Mr. President, there is an emergency. Come with me," said one of the dozen bodyguards who now closely surrounded him. Dawn's alter ego still couldn't take his eyes off the orbital, which began to sink slightly and accelerated steadily. The crowd became panicked and began to seek shelter. Some hid under the stage and others sought cover behind a nearby memorial in the park when the orbital hit the ground several hundred kilometers away and the earth shook briefly.

"This is an attack, Mr. President. We have activated your neuro implant as a precaution," he heard the woman next to him say.

"Evacuate, open the bunkers. Without the orbitals, we are now completely unprotected. I am sad to say it, but this is the beginning of the end."

All these impressions flashed before Dawn before they disappeared again shortly after. He was shaking when he regained consciousness, standing in a dome-shaped hall. The hall was shady and only from a small hatch in the domed roof dimmed sunlight could stream inside. Small blue luminescing particles floated all across the room, that contained nothing besides a single leafless tree. A single wire ran into it, leading from the dark part of the room.

"Was this a simulation?" Dawn said nervously to himself, not expecting an answer.

"No" replied Jaeger, who was now appearing behind the tree and walking towards him. "Not a simulation, a memory."

Dawn was frightened that he was not alone in this strange place and backed away. Also, his circulation had yet to recover. "How could you show me this?"

"You let me," he said relieved.

"What was it that I saw?"

"Everything I had to show you."

"Did you have a neuro engram too?"

Jaeger laughed briefly. "I didn't have just any neuro engram, I had yours..."

***That means I'm not the first one, they had to overwrite him. But he still exists in fragments of his own memories...***

Jaeger had already disappeared again in the meantime, without Dawn paying attention to it.

*** He showed me everything I needed to see... But what happened on that day, the Fourth of July 2212?***

After Jaeger left Dawn saw a white glistening light and heard Jaegers's voice echoing from all sides of the hall. "I will wait for you right here..."

Then Dawn woke up in reality. He was lying on a table in the middle of the ATC's laboratory, with a white lamp shining onto his face. Perplexed he gasped for breath.

"Why are you breathing, Dawn?" he heard Dr. Shen Hualing's gentle voice ask.

"Just a reflex… What happened to me?"

"You passed out again. I do not know about the trigger yet. Maybe after-effects of the restart or system overload. You don't seem to have any damages, at least I couldn't find anything."

"That is a problem. What if it happens again?"

"I have to perform more tests with you so it won't…"

"When did I agree to be your guinea pig?" Dawn joked.

"Well, fortunately, you are now back among the living" Erik entered the lab. "How do you feel, Dawn?"

"At the moment all I can think of are more questions than answers."

"Yes yes, that's how it is sometimes."

"I just hope that one day all the pieces will fit together and I will finally get an answer."

Erik tapped Dawn on his shoulder and said "Everything makes sense in some way, nothing happens by chance. But now it's not the time to become soppy. You have to get yourself back on track. The General wants to take you on a little trip later."

"The General?" Dawn and Dr. Shen wondered simultaneously.

"Yeah, watch out. I don't know what he has in mind."

Jo, who was sharpening her combat knives in the back of the room, joined in the conversation. "This means our rookie is in a whole lot of trouble…" She let the knife slip playfully through her fingers.

"He will pick you up at your quarter, so get ready, " Erik said to Dawn who stood up from the lounger.

"Looks like I will have to postpone the tests a little bit, " Dr. Shen said.

"Come with me, we can try out some new doozies from the armory in the meantime," Jo said with great excitement, while Dawn was leaving the laboratory.