“How did you find this number?” Wafner asked.
“You're not the only one who can rely on good hackers” Jocelyne replied. “I've asked RE/SYST to track you. Despite all your defenses, they were more skilled than you"
“I had imagine it. I guess you already know my location"
“Not really, but RE/SYST is tracking your signal. Don't think you can escape by turning off your device, they'll still track you down now that you've answered"
“You don't need to tell me. I'm not an expert on the subject, but I know something. And in any case, it no longer makes sense to hide"
"No?"
“I'm able to recognize when I was defeated, president Jersey. I have definitely lost. I had only one chance and I failed. Even if I managed to escape now, I would spend the rest of my days hunted down, and we already know that my life would be short. Any life form on this planet that would be able to recognize me would be my exe
The bombs went off exactly three minutes after that last conversation. Jocelyne's call had been recorded and in the future historians would remember it as Wafner's last words. Whole branches of psychology and philosophy would have been interested in them, since they contained the thoughts of a man who, however insane, had demonstrated considerable acumen.Whole branches of psychology would arise that had that last conversation as a basis, which compared the democratic and free thought of Jocelyne with the absolutist and dictatorial one of Wafner. Within a few decades a new term would even be born, 'Wafnerism', aimed at indicating the mental condition of a person who has spent too much time in power to be unable to let it go.But above all, that conversation would be remembered as the last attempt at peace before Mushroom Day.As soon as the countdown ended, the teleportation device installed on the bombs transported them over the cities they were intended to hit
Finally, with the subjugation of the Empire, the world had achieved peace. However, it was not a victorious peace.After the explosion of the bombs, most of the cities of the world had been completely destroyed. Hundreds of millions of people had lost their homes. Several historical places were reduced to ashes. Where there had been wonderful cities, now there was nothing but rubble and ruins.There was no mourning, but tears were shed nonetheless. Millions of people had lost everything: homes, property, even memories. The number of refugees was incalculable. For several days, all the nations of the world had to do their utmost to contain the wave of desperate people.But then, after the tears, the world recovered. Everyone rolled up their sleeves and got back to work. After all, there were two things humans were very good at. The first was to destroy; the second was to rebuild.Millions of people set about rebuilding their cities, house by house. It was
Sobek was in the middle of the sea. He was placidly lying on the water on his stomach, barely moving his legs to be able to float. Incredibly, despite his enormous bulk, he wasn't sinking.It was a beautiful sunny day and the warm rays warmed his back and dorsal sail. If he wasn't careful, Sobek could have fallen asleep from how relaxed he was. The movement of the waves that cradled him did nothing but make them fall asleep even more.However, he had thoughts that kept him awake.'It's useless to wait any longer now. While the world isn't quite a utopia yet, it is safe and peaceful enough for me to have offspring without worrying too much about the consequences. Before I was too scared of what could happen to my son, but now that would be an irrational fear.Sobek wanted to have a child, he had wanted it all his life. To generate offspring was the intrinsic desire of almost every living being, written in their DNA. Sobek hated the idea of having to leave
For several months, Sobek stood on the river bank, not moving an inch. Even the slightest movement worried him: he was seriously afraid of inflicting too much weight on the egg and breaking it, or not heating it enough and freezing the baby inside.He didn't even dare to sleep. Fortunately, after five evolutions his brain had become so powerful that he was able to stay awake almost continuously. Sobek would not have been surprised to discover that he had assumed the ability to sleep with only part of his brain, as dolphins did.So the weeks and months went by. Sobek didn't move a muscle; when he wanted to eat he used his [Personal Manger], and when he wanted to drink he stretched his neck slightly and plunged his muzzle into the river. If anything, even a tiny crab, dared to come within five meters of the egg, a deep growl would emerge from its jaws and the unfortunate creature would sprint away. Sobek had noticed several animals, humans and even drones watching him fr
It had been a while, and the world was changing rapidly.Now that most of the problems on Eden had been solved, the cities had been rebuilt, the economy had stabilized and everything seemed to be going well, humanity finally had the opportunity to look at new goals. To be precise, humanity was aiming for expansion.With world peace now achieved and teleportation technology at hand, there was literally no reason to remain anchored to their homeworld. After all, humanity has always been hungry for exploration, for colonization. Now that their world had no more unexplored places, humans aimed for space. And even the animals, despite their simplicity, began to be interested in those bright dots they admired every night in the sky.Thus the Eden Union had launched several exploration missions throughout the inner solar system. They aimed to explore all the rocky planets and even a large part of the asteroids, so as to increase their knowledge, acquire new resources a
Another year had passed, and the world kept moving on.The expansion of humans into the solar system seemed unstoppable. Dozens and dozens of missions had been sent to different moons and planets, studying their composition, atmosphere, surface and so on. Thanks to teleportation technology, traveling through space was no longer a problem. Fixed colonies had now been built on several asteroids to act as mineral deposits to obtain resources that would then be sent throughout the solar system to be used for the most disparate projects.Davis now numbered over two hundred cities. While he still needed to import many things from Eden, the factories and infrastructure built on the planet were rapidly making him self-sufficient. The population now numbered about three hundred million people and billions of animals that proliferated everywhere on the red planet. Within a few years, Davis would become the first fully autonomous planet outside of Eden, achieving an immense goal
Another year had passed. And the world had continued to move on.Sobek could barely keep up with the rest of the planet now. The technological and scientific level progressed so rapidly that he didn't have time to get used to one novelty that another immediately appeared.Aphrodites now looked completely different from her appearance a few years ago. Oceans, continents and countless small islands were formed. Thanks to the huge mirrors positioned in space, the planet was able to receive the right amount of sunlight. However, many planetary scientists had begun to consider whether it was not possible to accelerate the planet's rotation in an artificial way using gravity control technology. At the moment there were only plans on paper, but in the future they could come true. Meanwhile, some small settlements had already been established on Aphrodites, and thousands of animals had decided to travel there to explore a new resource-rich planet.Davis was now effectiv
Two more years had passed. A very short time, but which had marked new changes.The humans had finally begun the construction of the great looking glass to obscure Afrodithes. Using teleportation technology and bases established on main-belt asteroids, they had brought tens of tons of materials into the planet's orbit. Those materials had then been transformed into an initial structural system which would then be connected with glass to reflect sunlight.The mirror would not have been thick: the structural system was barely a micrometer wide. With the teleportation technology and the technological advances that humanity had achieved it was almost more difficult to build the mirror than to transport the materials to the right place.Afrodithes, meanwhile, had now become very similar to Eden. Its dense, carbon dioxide-laden atmosphere had been almost completely converted to one similar to that of humans' home planet. The modified plants had almost completely clear
It took Sobek a few moments before he realized he was back in the room where it all began. That room where time and space ceased to exist, and where everything and nothing seemed to have changed at the same time. He already knew where he had to go; walking through the infinitely large (or perhaps infinitely small) room, in a few minutes (or perhaps a few centuries, who knows) he reached the familiar armchair on which was seated a woman with white skin and light hair.God didn't even seem to move since she sent him to Eden. Even her expression didn't seem to have changed at all. She was still the same, beautiful and terrible at the same time, whose gaze was both magnetic and loving on him. “Welcome back, son,” she greeted him in her crystal clear voice.Sobek advanced on her. This time there wasn't an armchair waiting for him, but a large mattress wide enough to allow him to lie down. She lay back on it and gazed intently at God. Even now, after he'd grown i
On the continent of Maakanar, near a river that was once a typical spinosaurus nesting place, something immense could be seen. A huge creature was lying on its belly, but nevertheless it was so tall that its dorsal sail towered over the surrounding masts.Sobek was now thirty-three years old. To say he had grown into a behemoth was an understatement: he now measured 150 meters from head to tail and reached 45.6 meters in height. Even without activating the mutation he was now larger than Godzilla: the gigantic atomic reptile was a tiny lizard compared to him. All kaiju would be small compared to him. Even King Ghidorah would have been forced to acknowledge its superiority.In the last five years he had hardly moved. After the death of his last loyalist he returned to his birthplace and settled there. He ate what was provided to him from the [Personal Manger] and drank the water from the river. Otherwise, he remained calm, warming himself in the sun or admiring the star
After a few days Nefertiti settled at the lake together with her father and her last remaining uncle. With the help and indications of Sobek she built a comfortable nest and there she laid her egg.Thus began the brood. The female spinosaurus never moved from above her little egg, keeping it constantly warm. Sobek and Buck brought her food and water. When Nefertiti was hot, Sobek used her huge wing as a parasol and Buck fanned her with his tail. In the rare moments when it was cold, the two of her huddled to help her warm up.That routine went on for three months. Finally, at the end of the third month, a familiar clicking sound came from under Nefertiti's paws.The female spinosaurus reared up and looked down. A small crack was opening on the egg. With a smile she moved from above it. The crack widened more and more and finally a large piece of egg broke off, showing a lively green eye that stared intently at Nefertiti.“Hello, baby. I'm your mothe
Time had passed again. Sobek couldn't even figure out how much time had actually passed now. One year? Two? Maybe three? He didn't know.After his retirement, Sobek had gone deep into the forest of Maakanar. It was hard for him to move his huge body through the trees and very often ended up destroying them: his passage was evident as a trail of uprooted trunks was always behind him. He had moved permanently to the lake where he had met Buck and where he had established his first army. And he hadn't gone there alone.Carnopo and Buck had joined him just a month after his departure. They, too, had decided they'd had enough and abandoned their roles entirely. After all, in the new world there was no longer a need for either an army commander or one of the shock legion. Now there was peace, and the old war veterans had no reason to try to find their place in their world. So they had decided to do what they had always done: follow their pack leader.The trio spent th
Another year had passed. In Sobek's eyes, time seemed to have begun to flow more rapidly. The months and weeks all passed almost the same and in a flash the morning turned into evening.Humanity had continued its advance. By now, Aphrodites had been fully colonized. Whole cities had sprung up on it and millions of settlers had begun to live there. Davis had now reached more than a billion inhabitants and Hermes now owned thousands of mining establishments.Thanks to teleportation technology it was so advanced that traveling between planets was even easier than going from one city to another. Since energy and material consumption were now no longer a concern thanks to solar panels on Hermes and mining plants on asteroids, everyone had a portable teleportation device. By now, being hired to work a mine on an asteroid was no different than being hired to work at the local convenience store.Colonies on the moons of Leviathan and Behemoth had multiplied, providing e
More time, more changes. In just one year, many things had changed.Nefertiti had assumed control of the entire astrophysics division of the dinosaur pack, effectively acting as acting pack leader for them. After the first shared mission, she had begun to promote more policies of integration and union between humans and animals. She had facilitated interspecies interspace operations, sending animals and humans to work together in the new worlds to be colonized. Furthermore, there was still much to colonize, as human attention was slowly shifting beyond the outer Solar System to the dwarf planets and comets of the Oort Cloud.The work was not cheap and with it the possibilities of working together. With the Dyson Sphere nearing completion, energy was no longer an issue. After determining which moons to colonize, the Eden Union had begun an intensive mining program in the asteroids of the main belt in order to be able to build huge lenses to capture the sunlight and also
One more year, more innovations. The more time passed, the more progress seemed to accelerate. It was like a speeding train that multiplied its speed every second: first slow, then faster and faster, until it turned into a giant projectile.Sobek knew that progress was bound to accelerate more and more, after all it was his nature. For each new discovery, countless doors open. And every door leads to other doors. This was the nature of progress. It was no coincidence that it took humanity less than two hundred years to go from horses to aircraft capable of leaving the orbit of their home planet.He recalled that on Earth, where he came from, progress had become so fast in the 21st century that it was enough to be born even a generation later or further back to find oneself in a completely different world. While in 1990 the main communication system was the satellite phone, in 2020 people used social networks for the most disparate things. While in 1990 movies were watc
More time had passed. This time it was a year… or maybe a year and a half? I don't know. Not that it mattered much, actually.The world's attention to the inner solar system was gradually waning. Now that three planets had been terraformed, even if one of them still wasn't enough, and Hermes had become a stable colony that was continuously producing large panels of glass that joined in the orbit of the Sun to form the Dyson Sphere, the humanity was beginning to anticipate new challenges. From the inner solar system it was time to move to the outer solar system.Although some colony outposts were already present on some moons of Behemoth, they could not be defined as true colonies. However, now that energy consumption was no longer a problem thanks to the Dyson Sphere, which although not completed already released enormous amounts of energy, the Eden Union decided to start an exploration program of the entire outer solar system, or at least of the space between B
Two more years had passed. The advance of humanity towards the stars continued inexorably.The hypotheses of the scientists had proved to be correct: using a combination of gravity control technology and energy obtained from the Dyson sphere, although still incomplete, they had managed to accelerate the rotation of Aphrodites. The planet was slowly accelerating, though not too fast. There was generally talk of an hour each week. At this speed there was no risk of destroying the infrastructure already present on the planet. Yes two years, the rotation period had gone from 2082 hours to 1978 hours. Continuing at this rate, it was expected to reach 24 hours in 'just' another 38 years.Once this process was completed, the huge orbiting mirrors could finally be taken off. The day/night cycle would no longer be artificially determined and there would no longer be the risk that something would go wrong due to the impact of a micrometeorite. In addition, the accelerated rotati