"Seriously? How did you do?"
“In this century, you can't hide from technology. Wafner needs a way to keep in touch with his generals. His communications are heavily encrypted, but we managed to identify them”
“Do you have the coordinates?”
"No not yet. The communication scheme uses mnemonic files that modify the user's position through a morping program that…”
“Speak less difficult”
“Sigh. We will trace him in the next few minutes, but we need the line to remain constantly active”
Jocelyne frowned. “Okay, I understand. Stay on the line,” she said, and then ran to the other heads of state. "To the! Hey Al!”
Everyone turned to her, including the allosaurus in question. "What happens?"
“RE/SYST has traced Wafner's communications” Jocelyne replied, and everyone let out a surprised and hopeful 'oooh'. Finding Wafner meant ending the threat of
“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