End Of Days Chapter 5

7/31/2019 End Of Days Chapter 5

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Colonel Genesis had controlled the meeting

to the best of his ability. His fear that itwould become another gripe session

motivated him to begin the meeting with a

simple expectation.

This meeting will not become a repeat of

our last. There will be no finger pointing and

blame games played here today. Every one

of us is aggravated by the lack of resources.

We are here this morning to prioritize andaddress practical and realistic solutions to

our challenges using the tools and supplies

we have. The bottom line is that we have

jobs to do and this meeting will about

solutions and not complaints.

With such intent the meeting began with as

positive an atmosphere as one could expect.

All six department heads struggled with

morale on a day by day basis due to a

desperate lack of materials, resources and

equipment needed to perform their most

basic day to day job responsibilities. The

lack of fundamental resources was asymptom of a greater illness. The most


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recent Eleazar revolts and raids on supply

lines had only exaggerated the greater worldwide crisis. There were just too many people

sharing our dying planet. The terrifying truth

was that our corrupt, dystopian

governmental society was primed to

implode.

Sadly the Zevlon intelligence laboratory was

the best in the world. It was the A.W.Cs

primary go to source for decoding andscanning worldwide communications for

potential civil threats. Zevlon was

synonymous with oppression and brought

fear to the minds of both honest and

dishonest citizens alike. They governmentdepended greatly on the labs ability to

search for common chatter in worldwide

communications. Chatter was essentially

unrelated bits of communication that

collectively suggested some threat or

conspiracy against the government.


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Genesis team had the thankless job of

culling through massive amounts ofinformation to separate and label good

chatter that could indicate a military threat

from noise that likely posed no threat to

the greater good. Dr. Gavriel Genesis was

recruited for the brilliance which made him

successful in the private sector. Like any

good citizen Genesis he served his

government honorably despite the unspoken

shame of running a facility that so deeplyinfringed on the liberties of its people.

When his team was successful innocent

people often became collateral damage in

the governments ruthless and even paranoidpursuit of control over its citizens. When the

lab found no chatter predicting upcoming

terroristic activities Genesiss was ridiculed

for his incompetence. It was, in many ways,

an unwinnable situation.

With the meeting nearing its end Genesis

mind began to wonder. He was exhausted

and worn down by the fast pace of the lab,the unreasonable demands of his superiors


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and the daunting responsibility of keeping

the lab operating without the necessaryresources. His weary mind drifted back to

his days as a respected father, teacher and

engineer in the private sector. For a brief

moment Gavriel faded back to that happy

period when he had time for his work and

his family.

A tangent of conversation amongst his men

ended as one by one they began to notice thedead air stare on the Colonels face. Each

man fell silent as they noticed his seemingly

hypnotic state. They were confused and

looked at each other as if to ask where the

Colonel had gone?

Colonel? ....Are you alright?

Colonel Genesis was thinking about how

upset Micah had been that morning.Thoughts of her distress over the nightmare

reminded him of another, older but vividly

haunting memory. It should have been a


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comforting memory but instead it only

settled over him as a distressing fog ofanxiety.

It was the memory of Aris birth. Without

argument that day was the proudest moment

of Gavriel and Micahs lives. He knew Ari

would be special from the first moment he

held him. He knew in his heart that such a

perfect innocent creature could not exist

with out purpose. Like most, Gavriel wasnot a religious man, but in the traumatic

hours following Aris birth Gavriel spent a

great deal of time thinking about the idea of

God.

The memory always brought about a strange

combination of emotions because Aris birth

almost cost Micah her life. More troubling

was the fact that one of Micahs dreams had

predicted the rare complications in the

weeks before Aris birth. Seven years later,

those hours of holding his beautiful new

born son and not knowing if Micah would

survive, still haunted Gavriel. Although hewould deny it to Micah, her latest


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premonitions did occupy his thoughts, and

his fears.

Colonel? Sir, are you alright?

The Colonels shoulders had curled forward

as he sat there. His glazed eyes stared intothe empty space above the table. Then he sat

up and rejoined the meeting seeming almost

rushed to finish.

Sorry, gentleman, I was lost in a thought.Lets wrap this up for this morning. I believe

we have accomplished a number of things. I

will be working on the System III with

Captain Gidon and then back in my office in

two hours.

The team seemed a bit confused by the

harried end to the meeting. There were

several open issues they had expected to

cover. Lieutenant Uriel was in charge of

incoming requests for specific military

intelligence and reconnaissance. He had

received over a dozen requests that morning


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alone from General Amorah. Between the

peace negotiations and the impendinginvasion of Thode he was facing what

seemed to be an insurmountable mountain of

work orders. Young Uriel nervously begged

Genesis to address this challenge before

adjourning the meeting.

Colonel, incoming has received over a

dozen decode requests this morning alone.

We have almost a dozen open orders we cannot even begin to process because systems

are either down or compromised in one way

or another. I dont mean to complain sir, but

how do expect me to explain the back up?

Lieutenant, I will explain to General

Amorah that we are having to prioritize

decodes and that our teams are doing the

best they can. Tell your officers to start with

the decodes that will need the least band

width and or will eat the least code. Then,

work their way to the larger ones. Chances

are that any super sensitive information the

Eleazar rebels are passing along will be on


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older technology and likely have shorter

code.

Most of the career military men in the room

resented Genesis for being an academic

genius who was drafted into the military and

placed in charge of the Zevlon laboratory. In

moments like these, when his clever

problem solving ability offered them hope in

the face of such impossible goals, his men

could not help but respect him.

Yes sir, Colonel.

The room slowly emptied as each of the men

headed to the challenges before them. As

Genesis completed gathering his notes an

eerie silence fell over the room. He was all

alone and the space fell silent except for the

sound of his own voice inside his head

trying to make sense of reality.

What am I doing here? The war is

escalating. When will I get to continue with


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my studies? What if there was some truth to

Micahs dream?

Genesis paused on this question but in doing

so his anxiety turned quickly into a

frustrated anger fueled by the lack of control

he had on his situation. He felt helpless and

buried as he slammed his fist violently down

on to the table.

Damn it!

Releasing an exhale, as if remembering to

breath after an inhale moments before,

Gavriel murmured three words aloud to

himself.

Get it together.

Collecting himself the Colonel straitened his

uniform before heading to his first

appointment for the day. Genesis hadpromised Captain Gidon that he would

personally diagnose System III, one of four

systems with completed of the heart of the

Zevlon laboratory computer network. Each

of the four systems worked independently


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for its sector but with his main-frame down

Gidons segment of the laboratory could notprocess code and the speed of the greater

network was severely hindered.

As Genesis entered Sector III officers and

recruits alike scurried to look busy. Their

productivity had ground to a halt during the

twenty four hours that the system had been

down. Finding Captain Gidon, Genesis

wasted no time trouble shooting theproblem.

How many times have you run worms

through the system for repair?

Twice, Colonel. Diagnostics came back

both times negative for issues. This machine

is half as old as I am and my gut is that it is

something mechanical. If it is mechanical

the worms are not finding it. Like I told youin this mornings meeting, my team and I are

baffled.


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Genesis began applying his signature

mechanical genius to the problem. He hadbeen a gifted problem solver since childhood

and, although he would modestly deny it, his

gift kept the Zevlon laboratory functional

when the resources to complete even the

most simple of repairs were most often

unavailable. He quickly began moving

sporadically around the large room from one

digital display to another. Aside from an

occasional request for a password he couldnot override, Genesis spoke only to himself.

The way he mumbled to himself in a chaotic

array of rapid questions and answers was the

source of light hearted ridicule which the

Colonel sometimes even joked about

himself.

His trance like frenzy soon involved Captain

Gidon and two younger privates as the

massive mainframe was pried apart to reveal

a glimpse into the electronic bowels of the

giant antiquated system. Genesis wiggled his

way inside and started to tinker. Soon he

began to scream out commands from inside


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the body of the dead machine. Captain

Gidon and his technicians began enteringcode as directed by the Colonel.

Damn!

Genesis released that single explanative andthe rustling from inside the beast ceased.

After a moment of silence a technician

spoke up and asked the question many were

beginning to wonder.

Colonel, is everything under control?

Another moment of silence passed before

Genesis yelled out his answer.

Who is the lowest ranking officer in the

room?

Everyone looked at each other as if

confused. A young, rather effeminate maleofficer spoke up after a brief hesitation.


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This is Lieutenant Esau, sir; I believe I am

the lowest ranking officer here. How can Ihelp?

Lieutenant, slide your communicator to me

through the crack on my right side.

The young officer took the piece of

equipment off his belt, waked over to the

opening into which the Colonel had

disappeared. All the eyes in the room were

on him as he bent down, placed the item on

the floor and gently slid it to Genesis.

Within seconds pieces of the communicator

began to fly out from under the massive

computer. First came the broken casing ofthe device followed by small pieces of

molded plastic and metal shards.

The lieutenant had a helpless look of

frustration on his face as he raced to gatherwhat was left of his equipment from the

floor. Laughter broke out amongst ranks and

Colonel Genesis once again yelled out for

assistance.


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Someone grab my legs and pull me out of

here slowly!

Two other young officers hurried to gently

pull the Colonel from the machine. Once

clear, Genesis calmly walked to the control

panel and booted the system which slowly

began to hum as it came online. The

laughter prompted from the destruction of

Lieutenant Esaus communicator quickly

turned to applause and then to an explosionof frantic discussion as one by one computer

stations began to come on line.

The pride of accomplishment in a problem

solved was short lived for Genesis as nosooner did System III come on line did he

received a communiqu from his superior,

General Amorah.

Be in my office in an hour, it isURGENT!

What had almost been a smile on Genesis

face quickly melted into a miserable look of


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intense frustration. Not once since leaving

civilian life had Genesis enjoyed a positivemeeting with Amorah. The General was a

life long military man, as corrupt as any,

who poorly hid his disgust for any civilian

given a high ranking military position.

Amorah resented Genesis and no amount of

eighteen hour days or undying loyalty to the

A.W.C. seemed to be able to earn his

respect. This loyalty issue and a hundred

other thoughts thickened the fog of anxietythat was weighing so heavy on him.

Genesis made it back to his desk knowing

that he had only a short time before he

would have to leave for his meeting withAmorah. No sooner did Genesis sit down

was he interrupted by Lieutenant Uriel. The

young officer ran into the room holding a

disorganized stack of reports. He quickly

shuffled towards the Colonels desk only to

be stopped abruptly by the furnitures edge.

The stop forced Uriels body forward,

jarring a couple of the sheets of paper loose.

They floated down to the desk as he


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attempted to organize the bulk of the reports

in his hand. The young man began to rambleon uncontrollably as he fumbled with his

print outs.

Dr., I mean Colonel, sir. You were right!

Well, at least I think you were! Look! We

changed the system settings in order to

process data scans and we began picking up

Chatter we have never picked up before!

Lieutenant Uriel stopped briefly to gasp for

air when Genesis interrupted him.

Lets slow down for a minute. What was I

right about?

Oh, sorry sir. You idea for us to prioritize

the scanning by data size prompted us to

change system settings. We started

processing the smallest requests but almost

immediately the scanners began picking up

chatter that mentioned old fashioned radio

transmissions. We then turned on an old

scanner and looked for radio transitions just


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to see if we could confirm the chatter. We

found dozens of separate transmissionsalmost instantly! Most of them seemed

harmless; just old timers or illegal

gambling.

Genesis was now slightly intrigued but

growing irritated with the young mans

inability to arrive at his point.

So you rushed into my office and

interrupted me to tell me people are

communicating on old short wave radios?

Yes sir, I mean no, not exactly. You see

there are clearly some rebels using radio

communications to circumvent the

networks.

Let me see!

The young man handed the disheveled stackof report to Genesis. As he sorted though

them it became clear that the rebels had

recently found a way to slip information past

the Zevlon computers. Genesis instantly

came to the realization that this was not


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going to sit well with General Amorah. How

had such a simple method of bypassing thegovernment watchdogs been overlooked?

He knew Amorah would not be happy when

he found out.

As he gathered the papers and prepared that

thank Lieutenant Uriel for a job well done

the Colonels eyes were drawn to the loose

page of the report that had fallen when the

officer bumped into the desk. Genesispicked up the paper and rushed to add it to

the bottom of the stack of reports. Before he

could do so something on the page caught

the Colonels attention. His eyes scanned the

page quickly and it appeared to LieutenantUriel that Genesis was re-reading a section

of the data repeatedly to himself in an

attempt to make some sense of it.

Colonel, what does it say?

Genesis scratched his head before answering

the young officer.


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Temple Abba: 02:00 Hours. The package

will be delivered.

Colonel, thats an old church in the

industrial district, I believe. What do you

think it means?

After a long moment of reflection Genesis

looked up at the young officer and smiled.

It is probably just illegal gambling vice of

some sort. Good work Lieutenant; I amheaded to go see Amorah and will explain

the findings to him. Get back to your station

and have a status report on any potential

chatter in those radio transmissions ready for

my by this afternoon!

Uriel left hurriedly to begin sorting out the

depth and scope of his new discovery.

Genesis gathered the reports and headed to

see General Amorah. The long walk allowed

him time to plan his proactive verbal attack.

He was tired of Amorahs one sided tirades

which generally left him with more

challenges than solutions. Genesiscommitted to himself that, this time, he was


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going to do the talking and Amorah was

going to listen. They needed resources to dotheir jobs. How could we repair computers

with parts from communicators and expect

to be perform as expected? He was fired up

and ready to give the General a piece of his

mind.

End Of Days Chapter 5

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