Just a Thought

'What's that, Sal?' Johnny asked, turning the page in Sally's newest edition of "Mars for Mommies."

'Just a thought,' she said, putting John Jr back down in the crib. 'A sketch. I was thinking - what if we set up a system of satellite arrays, a particle accelerator, that could redistribute some of the sun's energy? Redirect it away from Earth while we evacuate, and make more material,' she paused, nodding at the crib, 'for him, them - his generation, when it's time.'

'I like it, Sal. Great work, I'll get it to Jimmy and his guys.'

Watcha Cookin'

Jones sat down across from Sandy. ‘Watcha cookin’?’

‘Nothing,’ she answered, confused. ‘We’re in the living room.’ She turned to look at Johnny and Sally in the kitchen. ‘They’re cooking. We’re their guests.’

‘Okay,’ he smiled. ‘Just checkin’.’

Patriotic Partners

‘Nah, tell her not to worry, Sal. It’s a new Program. Some of the boys, the ones at sea for a long time - they get a little nervous back on land. They get a little land-lubber syndrome going on. Like to team up with a Patriotic Partner. Might seem like a too-close relationship, but it’s not. The partners are pre-vetted, pre-picked. Chosen. It’s like a buddy system, pen pals for patriots but with a HoloSpheric twist. Jones is a good guy, I vetted him myself for Sandy. She’ll get used to him, and Sal - she needs him, too. She just doesn’t know it yet.’

Up North

‘They turned on US, in a big way, the biggest way, Sal. I got confirmation from all the guys in the ward. Every one was shipped out to a different place, a different biome - a rendering. Closest thing left to countries, now. And the AI matched up, everywhere. The leaders, they became oligarchs, corporate stooges for overseas interests. Every overseas simulation matched, though the causes were different. Some times they was drugged, or disarmed, hypnotized, brainwiped, bribed, blackmailed.’ He paused a second, unsure if or how to proceed. Steadying his breath he said, ‘I got word, from some of our older allies, last night in the HoloSphere - they abandoned US for a supply chain up north. Dug a hole deep, filled it up, military, personnel, scientists - everyone but US - that was the entry fee - Turn on your country, give access to your contacts, best science, supplies, and you get in - but they didn’t get in. They locked ‘em out. Used the satellites to deep freeze the hole. Miles of ice over the entrance now. When they land, ain’t no one to greet ‘em this time. And they don’t have enough fuel on board to get back. It’s up to US, now, Sal. Everyone left here. Everyone who didn’t jump ship.’

Started with Seeds

‘It feels good to be home, Sal.’ Johnny peered at the glass bottles his wife had crafted, displayed on the kitchen island. ‘Explain it to me more, Sal, now that we’re back in person together.’

Sally smiled at Johnny, pleased to have her favorite person puttering around the home again with her. ‘I wanted to get ahead on some things, while you were busy healing. I mapped future biometric migrations across not only the USA, but across the rest of the planet. Depending on where we’re headed, as a nation, and what happens elsewhere abroad, new climatic zones will sector in eventually here. Plants and seeds need to be able to take root in every area of the country, and we need backups in case one area gets attacked, cordoned off, or overthrown. We’re a diverse populace, so it took a lot of time and renders. We need to ensure every branch of our American Family Tree can be fed, without cutting into someone else’s supplies or designated zone.’

Johnny nodded his head slowly, and smiled, as the HoloSphere projected a new forest across the West Coast of America. ‘Can you imagine, Sal? If our Grandkids and their friends one day actually rebuild the Redwoods? That’d be somethin’.’

DataBases

‘Looks like they's tryin’ to control the databases, Sal - they couldn't bring their servers over here, too obvious, right? So what they did was import ‘em, real cheap, had ‘em disguised as our appliances. So all the while the machines were doin’ back door surveillance on US - but not only that, they'd push a trend, economically, so when the kids are doin’ a search to buy something, not only is it learning about our kids, but its pushin' launch codes and savin’ data about US - tryna engineer US subliminally. On top of that, they got the machines stealin' money from US, changin’ the prices, overcharging. The chips in ‘recalled items’? Most of ‘em are just being recalled for data assessed as high classifications. And crime, or this - if we report any of this, it's all pre-coded. Their little brain modifications and pharma prompts start kickin’ in, tryna to attack US harder, tryna make US shut up.’

Knittin'

‘It’s knittin’ ‘em, Sal. Knittin’ these people together into new things. New kinds of people. It’s reorganizin’ the infrastructure inside o’ ‘em. Jimmy said he had intel from inside the hospital last time he came to visit me. Once they’s stuck the AI inside the bodies, it changed everything. Took lipids, aminos, even some eggs o’ the gals on the 5th floor - started buildin’ little organoids inside their bodies and brains. They act different now, the patients in here.’ Johnny breathed a sigh, of relief, ‘I’m happy I’ll be comin’ home soon, Sal. Should be another three weeks or so and I’m good enough for a chair instead o’ this bed.’

Gardenin'

‘Controllin’ the food supply controls the biome - not only external, but internal, behaviorally.’ Johnny glanced at Sally breastfeeding his baby. ‘Ya see that, Jimmy? Long term immunity, free of cost. Ensurance, not insurance, of our continued American gene pool.’

Jimmy and Johnny looked at Sally and Suzie sitting in the living room together, going over the Mars for Mommies pages on the wall. ‘It’s for them, too, Jim. Ain’t just for us boys and our rockets and spacetoys. They need hope for a better future, too.'

Jimmy turned over the soil in the garden outside with the shovel. Jimmy saw his friend’s hand beginning to shake. ‘Sit down, Jimmy. Take a load off. The plants got the rest. Let nature do its thing.’

Mouse Trap

It's a mouse trap, Sal, Johnny scribbled to his wife in their notebook. She was sleeping with the baby, and he needed this transaction of information to be nonverbal. Putting his pen to paper, he continued, They's got tons of US, on file. Hundreds per citizen. It's a game to them. They replicate US, and run US through these mazes, generationally. The same family, same genes, different careers, different bunkers. They're neural mapping US, Sally. Not even sure what generation of US we are, you and me. I think we're still close to the first ones, the originals, but God knows how long this has been going on for. I didn't tell Jimmy or the guys back on base yet. He looked at his wife, sleeping soundly next to the baby. Can you imagine, doing this before? What if we already had him before, too? What if we're living with or talking to our own descendants from these other generations? He put the pen down and rubbed his face with his hands, more exhausted than he'd been in long time.

Like Fertilizer

‘Nah, Sal, ya can’t touch the invaders. They’ll call it their monarch or caste system, but the guys’s been researchin’ back on the base. They’s loaded, with biological weapons, mold, fungi. Everywhere they go they plant death and disease, it spills off o’ ‘em. Ya just gotta let nature do it’s thing with these people. If you can call ‘em people anymore. They’s like fertilizer, walkin’ around. Every where you turn.’

Bingo

Johnny and Sally sat across from Jimmy and Suzie. The Church Rec Room Basement had been turned into a makeshift Bingo night.

‘For the kids,’ Johnny said, winking an eye at Jimmy.

‘For the kids,’ Jimmy said, winking back at Johnny.

Sally moved her bingo chip across the number that had just been called. A small holograph shimmered, and the number changed into a letter. She looked at Johnny, surprised.

‘I made a few modifications, so we can talk while we play.’

Biome of Bull

‘Nah, no way, Sal. I ain't gonna place my kid, our kid in no kinda school program, not now. You should see the idiocy Jimmy found out hackin’ the school server systems. Any kid a little too smart? Crap in the school food to downgrade their intelligence. Any kid still thinking for themselves by the time college is on the line? Suicided. They engineered the pot, the weed, the hash, the vapes, the pen - the whatever the hell kinda pacifier they can stick in your kids’ mouths, and they use that to reduce the deductive reasoning skills of these kids. Any thinkers left not swallowin’ the professors’ bulls-hit hook, line, and sinker by the end of first tri-? Gone.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Just like that.’

Planets with a Purpose

‘What’s this, Johnny?’ Sally asked, taking the shiny pamphlet from Johnny’s hands.

‘Planets with a Purpose, Sal,’ he answered his wife, taking their newborn son in his hands as she took the pamphlet from his. ‘I got together with some of the guys while you and Suzie was doing the dishes, and we wanted you to read what we’d been workin’ on.’

Sally smiled, opening the pamphlet.

The Way

‘The space race?’ Johnny huffed at Sal. ‘Ain't been no race for space since the 1950s. You know, Sal, our tech is always ahead of what we tell the dames at the news station. Space? Been populated for years. Ain't no race for space. Don't make sense sendin’ all those rockets up - bad for the Earth, ya know what I mean?’ he said sitting back in his chair on the porch, winking at Jimmy. ‘When you're picked for space programs, you're shown the way.’

Walking

‘Walking through Life is like a Choose Your Own Adventure Book, Sal. I know I'm choosing you every life, we'll just switch up the scenery once in a while.’

She turned her gaze in the HoloSphere from him to everything around him. Stacks of books already written.

‘For when I get out, Sal. Just some ideas about Our Future with the little guy.’

We ain't goin'

‘Nah, Sally, we ain’t goin’ to that stupid concert with Timmy and Tina. They don’ know what they’re in for. I heard the guys by the docks talkin’ about the mosquitoes again. So’s I pulled it up on my HoloSphere chart, the biome, goin’ back about fifty years. The kinda grass in that area - back then that grass kept the bad bugs away, the one’s with the dengue. Now’s they plantin’ new grass, that looks like the old, but it’s got this sheen to it, this, this lil’ irridescent shimmer. It attracts the diseased bugs. Let Timmy and Tina have their fun, but ain’t no beach for US, not this winter.’

The Sector

‘No worries, here, Sal, I got US covered.’ Johnny looked at Sally as she unpacked the last of their bags from the SUV into the cabin doorway. ‘Sorry I couldn’t-’

Sally glared at him, sharply, knowing he was about to apologize again for being in his wheelchair. He turned red, for a moment, blushing the way he did when they first met. She smiled in return.

‘Anyways, Sal, I got the place covered. The inserts Jimmy gave you guys, instead of the vacc- it’s part of the Home Security System in this Sector.’

The new cabin looked like any other cabin in the middle of the woods, but it had a few updates, including the goo swimming around in their blood.

‘The Vector,’ she said.

‘Yea,’ Johnny smiled. ‘I thought you’d like that term for it. The Vector for The Sector. Anyone gets too close to you or the little guy, or anyone enters without the proper modifications, they get escorted right out.’

Sally knew by ‘escorted’ Johnny meant blown to bits outside of the perimeter. And with the war going the way it was, she was okay with that.

Perfect Person

‘Ain't no thing as the perfect person, Sal, until there is,’ he said, sitting down in his chair across the room, looking at His Wife and Child. ‘How'd you figure out we're perfect for each other? I had a feeling…but you - you seemed more rigorous.’

She smiled, looking up from her embroidery and into his eyes. ‘You know me and science, Johnny. I figured everyone has a Soul Mate - a person designed by God for them, sewn from the same cloth, like Adam and Eve. I designed a coordinate mapping program, based on DNA. Where I'd go, what I'd buy and eat, to sustain myself, and based on the environments I was grown from, and what I wanted to do as a kid…I figured our DNA was maybe a stepping stone to each other.’

‘So when you first met me, did you know I was your Perfect Person?’

‘Nah,’ she said. ‘I knew when I saw you smile.’

Spoofs

‘We’re already on LockDown, Sal. Jimmy and me, and all the guys - we couldn’t wait to get back and tell you. Everything’s shut down overseas. Too chaotic, too-dirty dirty bombs - nothing was gonna survive. We got everyone out we could from their bunkers after their leaders - after their leaders…’ His voice trailed off, and she knew to let him have a moment - to collect his thoughts. ‘Anyways, we saved who we could. Even our top dogs, our leaders - gone. Everybody’s gone. Everything was rigged. We’re lucky we even got out.’ He looked at his wife, looked at how she was taking it all in. Stoic as usual.

He continued, ‘We got AI configured. It’s gonna drop all the data to Americans, piece by piece, plan by plan. Slowly. Until they adjust to the new way things are running. Spoofs, for now. Everything is spoofs. Don’t trust what you read, and don’t get into fights with Suzy, Sarah, Siobhan - all them housewives down at the market provocatin’ an’ like - let them figure it out their own way.’

Post War

‘Post war kits is what we need, Sally. Can't trust anyone to do what we need for ourselves. If you can, get the word out quietly, to some women on base - don't want China or the powers that be catchin’ on. They'll halt supply chain and sabotage what does go through.’

Sally listened, uninterrupting. She knew when Johnny meant business.

‘Make excuses, use the kids to gather supplies. Field trip to a clean area, get sand. Geology project, charcoal, quartz, copper, a few other conductors. Glass blowing factory, some good steel bottles. Microscopes and slides for biology lessons.’

‘Water filtration?’

‘Every kid needs to know how to survive, in case we don't.’