Chapter One: We Were Clueless 1

The year 2195

The sun had already dipped under the horizon some five hours ago, the stars and the moon the only source of light for miles around. This was hard to come by in this day and age where the surface of the earth was riddled with high tech cities crisscrossing one another. When viewed from the sky almost eighty percent of the land and seas combined imitated the surface of a motherboard. The sad thing was it had become the norm and has been for more than a century.

I looked up from the screen showing the holographic geographic map of the area I was standing in. The ground green with plant life growing healthy, trees dotting the landscape and the night's silence disturbed by the harmonic sounds of the local insect life. This did not match up with what was on the screen, barren land that had been divested of its natural resources some twenty years back. The question repeating at the back of my mind was 'how was this possible?'. The sheer impossibility of the situation has yet to set in, my mind empty from the lack of explanation. Though I could not explain how this came to be I had a niggling voice at the back of my mind that it was very important and should not be rationalized away.

It is important to note that what had led me to this location was not just a stroke of luck or an imagined coincidence. Earlier that day I was in my room working on my thesis titled 'The Usage of Limited resources on the Planet' for my degree in Resource management. I was using archived data on the surveys done within the last decade or two as research material when on a whim, I decided to do some on the ground analysis to compare and contrast with what was in the archives. The first location I chose was some few miles away from the city I lived in, Kivalis. It wasn't an important city, just one in a million third rate cities that housed the bottom rug of civilization irking out a living from day to day. the university in the city could not even be called a university. It was a community college, to tell the truth.

'This has to be a mistake, barren land can't just all of a sudden begin to grow anew' I told myself, trying to comfort what was already reaching a full-blown panic attack. The implication of this actually being naturally occurring was not lost on me. There were several questions that needed to be considered. First of all, was this phenomenon already known and hidden away for some reason? If this was the case then this discovery was way above my paygrade and was in a world of hurt if I was discovered to be in possession of such knowledge. The second question to consider was if people were not in the know then how was it not public news? Finally what in the world am I going to do if the first two questions were to be answered?

Putting disturbing thoughts out of my mind for the moment I checked out to see if there were any other barren land in the area. 'I have to confirm if this is an isolated incident in the area'. Quickly I made it to my hoverboard and headed to the next site some ten miles east of Kivalis. The area around Kivalis was not monitored by satellite in recent years since there was nothing of note in the area and the only roads leading into and out of the city did not go anywhere near the former barren lands. This was the only explanations to why the regrown land had not been discovered as of yet, together with the status of the people living in the city no one would have the time nor the inclination to find out if anything had changed in the area surrounding the city.

After arriving in the new location, I looked at data of the area and it should have been a wasteland with the water heavily polluted with toxic chemicals, a remnant of the early century. This did not compute with what I was seeing with my eyes. The wasteland had now become a marshland with tall grass at the beginning stage of growth and the water source crystal clear. the next three sites that I visited had the same phenomenon occurring with some in what seemed to be the beginning stage of the transformation. It was at the beginning of dawn when I made my way into my flat totally exhausted and confused. I had quickly disconnected my tablet from the local network keeping it totally offline at the beginning afraid of the information getting accessed from an outside source.

"This is crazy!!" I couldn't help but murmur in my daze and sleep deprived state. All I could do was stare at the tablet that held such dangerous information I repeatedly cursed myself for finding myself in this mess of a situation. "Ok, let's lay down the facts as I see it. Fact One: I have no idea what to do. Fact Two: This information is too valuable for me to handle safely. Fact Three: I have no idea if someone else knows this information. Fact Three: Being found out is a big NO NO. Fact Four: I have no idea if this phenomenon is benign or hostile. Fact Five: I need help." Laying down the facts helped calm me down "Hmmmm, Lisa is the only person I trust enough to tell this to and come to think about it she is the only person who can help me figure out what all this could mean in the long run." Seeing no choice but go for it I picked up my tab and made the call."Micheal its not often you call at the break of dawn." "Hey Lisa, can I come over to your place? I've got something to show you" there was a pause at the other end of the call "Sure, I'm still working on some stuff. Won't be going to bed in a while."

Twenty minutes later I was standing in front of a very large warehouse at the abandon industrial complex. From the outside, the complex was rundown with rust covering several decade-old metal frames and some buildings with holes in them. I raised my fist to knock when the door swung open. "Hurry up, come in." Framed by the open door was a woman who was 5.4 feet spotting a reddish brown buzz cut sharp chin and steel gray eyes. She grabbed my hands and pulled me inside whiles checking outside for some odd reason. I looked at her with an eyebrow raised in question. "You are scared of something you found" I blinked in surprise at such an accurate conclusion. She scoffed at my surprise, "you'd think I didn't know you by now, it's been over ten years since we've met." I let out a sigh as I followed her into the warehouse that served as her home.

"So what's got you so twitchy", the room we stopped in was filled with monitors and holographic displays showing codes I couldn't make heads or tails of. "This, look through the data and tell me what you think" I handed over the tab with the data that I collected and made myself comfortable in one of the old school beanies in the room. "Why won't you tell me what's in there?" "Don't want to taint any conclusions you might come up with". She plugged in the device and started sorting through the data. After an hour, she frowned and begun typing out several lines of code. After another thirty minutes, her frown had deepened "what in the world is this. This should not be possible. I cross-checked the local archives as well as the international ones. I even hacked into the closest satellite in the area but they all tell me the same story, the pictures you took should not be real but I also cross-checked the images you took as well and they are all real". She turned around from the screen towards me, her eyes visibly dilated, fear was written all over her face, "What the hell did you bring me?".