Chapter 1

The public has been seriously misinformed. After so many years of blind faith, shouldn’t we, the people of this wonderful planet called Earth, know everything that goes on here? According to the people who call themselves our superiors, we should not.

I think differently. I think we should be able to know anything we want to. Every piece of information that the “superiors” deem unfit, should be made available to the world populous. Or is the agreement we made a hundred years ago worth nothing? That's what I am for, to make right the wrongs of our governments.

To start, I will tell you the truth about the real cause of The Tension.  It is not, as we have been told, about the nukes, that problem was solved with the agreement. Instead, it is about interstellar travel and the use of ansibles. For those who don’t know what an ansible is, it is a device capable of faster-than-light communication. They can send and receive instantaneous messages to and from other existing ansibles. So, if we strapped an ansible to a starship, we could communicate with them instantly, no matter where in the universe the starship was.

-Daedalus

10/7/2186

Two major events occurred in the year 2186. Number one, I gained access to the entirety of the nets. Number two, the world entered a stage of tension, the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the Cold War.

Almost as soon as I received my access to the nets, I joined a web article by the name of “The Delian League”.

“The Delian League” is a reference to the special force put together by the ancient Greek city-states in 477 BCE. The purpose of this league was to protect Greece from outside threats, like the Persians. My modern day Delian League was a collection of the greatest political writers of the century. Anyone is allowed to join, but only those who work hard are noticed.

        My essay on the ansibles got me noticed. To be honest, I didn’t think that my essay would pick up the amount of attention that it did. I even had two government accounts post counterarguments. Neither of them were very strong, but another argument from an untraceable account, going by the name Artemis, countered all but one of my major points. That point was the reason for The Tension, the ansibles.

The fact that I produced such a strong reaction with the essay only confirmed what just an educated guess was, until now. I had come across several emails from throwaway accounts when I was researching interstellar travel for my Advanced Academics class. The contents alluded to the real reason for The Tensions. I gathered what I could from the emails and got out of there before I could be traced.

Using the information that I got from the emails I found, I compiled a reasonable article. That was what I was good at, taking a small amount of information and turning it into a full-fledged story.

Then there was school. I don’t hate school or think it is boring, in fact, I think it is very important. The only problem was that the classes couldn’t hold my attention. No matter how hard I tried, after a couple of minutes my mind started drifting to a different place. That place is different every few weeks.  At one time it was nuclear science and after that came space exploration. It doesn't matter that I think of other things, the teachers almost never called on me, and when they did I always answered correctly.

Home may be the only place, other than my personal work, that I could be challenged. My older sister, Anna, is in Upper school and whenever we talk, it always starts the same way. “Hello David, what if…?”  Followed by some theoretical question she was thinking of. In my head, I call it the what-if game, and it always ended with a good natured argument. In this aspect, we were very much like a family.

Every other aspect is the complete opposite of what most would call normal. Mother and Father both had doctorate degrees and tenures as professors for the College, which causes them to be buried in work all of the time. This is fine by me, because it means I can do more things on my own. When I was five, I wanted to get to the library by myself, so I dug Anna’s old bicycle out of the garage and taught myself how to ride it. I might have come out of it with a few more scrapes than necessary, but it taught me that I could do anything that I set my mind to.

The following week after I posted my first Daedalus post I had risen to the third most read profile on the article, I got an average of 500,000 reads per day, and the Artemis character had become my known enemy. If anything, Artemis just helped boost my publicity and give me something to write about, so I can’t complain. I am mostly on the defensive now with no new outrageous claims to make, but I still keep myself busy. After a while, the soft blue light that the terminal emitted became familiar and the format of “The Delian League” was ingrained on the surface of my brain. My room was cluttered with printed papers concerning the world tensions and other important topics, but it was an organized mess, with a purpose. A purpose that I shared.

        That same purpose was making me rich. Every time one of my essays was read, Daedalus received 0.01 Units. With an average of 500,000 reads per day, I already have about 35,000 Bits in the incognito PayComm account. Bits are slowly taking over as the main form of currency everywhere, like the metric system did 200 years ago.

        Everywhere except for Russia, where the biggest anti-agreement supporters were. I have been analyzing Russian troop movements, even the ones that my government doesn't even know about yet. My results show patterns that might be interpreted as signs of preparation for war. But I don’t want to start a war, I want to prevent one.  If I released the results I had found on Russian troop movements it might create a reaction that won’t help anyone. On the other hand, if I didn't release them and Russia started a war without provocation, the States would be unprepared for any form of attack. So there it is, my first moral crossroads.

        If I choose the wrong path, Daedalus will be put out of business for sure and other, more important things would also be put at stake. I’ve gained a lot of influence over the general populace, so if I warn them about the Russians, but also tack a warning along with it, the effects wouldn't be as devastating. It is in times like these that the people need to stick together and sort out our many differences. It’s times like these where we can’t be human.

        Oh, how lofty of me to say that human nature is the root of the problem; that everything would fix itself if we all just got along and were happy. But like most wars, this is the solution. If only we as humans didn’t hate everything and anything that was different, then we could exist in harmony. The Agreement fixed the problem temporarily, but anyone with half of a brain knew that it would only last as long as we had our self-control. With this idea dancing around in my head I sat down in front of the terminal, a weapon more powerful than most nukes. The ability to spread ideas with a few commands and the click of a button. So I did just that, writing about the Russians and their armies. Then, boom, the idea was already planted in 500,000 people’s mind. Now it is up to them to use it wisely.

        There wasn’t even time to organize the thoughts sprinting across my mind before my terminal flashed white with a notification telling me that, already, Artemis had a counter. I opened her short essay and read it thoroughly. She agreed! Artemis didn’t respond with the level-headed counter that I expected of her, instead she wrote rashly, and agreed. This is bad. I had expected her argument to balance out the frightening information in my essay. How stupid of me. No, how stupid of Artemis! Why couldn’t she see that what she said against me is just as important in this equation as what I said in the first place? Or maybe she did understand, and wanted to instigate a war.

        Either way, damage was done and the webs were already teeming with conspiracies and demands to attack. To think, that only a few minutes ago, entire countries were with me. Not under my control, but they agreed with me wholly. My ideas were part of them but they were also their own, each with a personal spin on things. Then I felt them slipping away from me, becoming something else, something far more dangerous.

        Sure, maybe I can soften the blow, but the real damage is already done, and war will come, no matter what. Then, as if to make me suffer, another message came to my terminal, making it flash. It was Artemis again, with a personal message.

        <There, isn’t this what you wanted? Now there will be no more tension, just outright chaos.>

        I was exhausted and I didn’t want to deal with mind games right then. My fingers slid around over the holo keyboard for a few moments then hit the send key. The message I sent had only two words, the same two words that reflected my state of mind perfectly. <Go away.>

        In an instant the answer arrived, <No, you and I have equal responsibility in this and we have to deal with what we've done.>

        <Why should I be responsible for your actions? We both know that it was you who caused this, you who pushed the Tension to the point of conflict. Just leave me alone to think.>

        I don’t know whether she responded to that or not, with a flick of a switch and a couple steps the terminal was off and I was in bed.

        The terminal was on again, and flashing in a quick long, long, short pattern. My body may have been rested, but my mind was just as tired as it was the night before. Swinging my legs out of bed, I made my way through the maze of clutter toward the terminal. As soon as I signed on by pressing my hand onto the panel next to the keyboard, a message from Artemis showed up on the screen.

        <We need to talk, and this place shouldn’t be too far away for you. Burke Park, Boulder, Colorado>

        The sneaky ----- tracked my essays! But this told me that the government would be able to as well. It is probably better to have her break in than someone who could - and would - do some actual damage. Nonetheless, she was right. We do need to talk and face to face is even better. So I hopped onto the bullet train that ran from Fort Collins to Boulder and waited the five minutes it would take to get to the stop I wanted.

        After arriving in Boulder, it was only another five minutes to the park from the station while traveling on foot. That was all the time I needed for my mind to wake up and for me to start feeling excited. The circumstances didn’t matter, I was still meeting the person who was smart enough to counter my essays. The person who had practically been my muse for the past ten days.

The place that Artemis had picked out - Burke Park - was quite nice. The main section was only about the size of half of a football field, and it was bordered by three meter high hedges the entire way around. There was a simple fountain in the center, which, upon closer examination, turned out to be a wishing well too. Small rose gardens were to the left and right and even though autumn had already started, the sweet smell still hung around in the air, penetrating every fold of my clothing. The place was truly beautiful.

        On more pressing matters, I had to find Artemis, which shouldn’t be too hard, since it was still early in the morning and there were only four people in the park. Two of them appeared to be a couple, so I ruled them out. I assumed that Artemis would be here alone. This left two people, one a man maybe in his thirties and the other a girl, maybe a year or two younger than me. I was a living example that age didn’t matter, but I was still worried that the girl might not be Artemis. What was the worst that could happen, I would make a fool out of myself in front of a random girl?

        Now filled with a little confidence, I crossed the park to the bench where the girl was sitting and sat down next to her. Not too close, but close enough that I could see what she looked like. Up close she was very pretty, with long dirty blonde hair that ended mid-back and eyes that were a little wider than normal, as if she was trying to see more than everyone else did. Freckles dotted her nose and cheeks, but she was almost as pale as me. After a few moments, I realized that I was staring. It would be incredibly awkward if she turned out not to be the person I was looking for.

        I took a deep breath and said, “It’s too wondrous a day for a war, don’t you think?”

        She looked at me quizzically for a few seconds, and I could feel my cheeks go red with embarrassment and my heart filled with dread. I had picked the wrong person!

        But not a second after these thoughts ran through my head she responded, “Hello Daedalus.”

        “Hello Artemis,” I answered, relieved that I had picked correctly.

“So… Are you happy now? War is unavoidable.”

        “No, I’m not happy!” I started to raise my voice, “I never meant to start a war! I just wanted to educate the public. You were supposed to counter that essay, make my words less potent!”

        When I finished I was yelling and the other people in the park were watching us now. Something glinted in Artemis’s eye, was it anger? Curiosity?

        In an instant it was gone and she was speaking again, calmly despite my outburst, “Just so you know, my name is Lily.”

        I was confused for a few seconds, wondering why she told me her name, then I realized that it was her real name, not the pseudonym I knew her by. If she will tell me her real name, I should tell her mine, “David. My real name is David”

        She smiled at me and spoke, “I know what you are thinking.”

        “No, you d-“

        “You think that I am the incompetent one, that I am the one who started the war. Now, this may come as a shock to you buddy, but it was you who miscalculated and it was also you who bit of way more than you could chew. So if any of the blame is to be put on me, it would be the same amount that is put on you.”

        I studied her after she was finished, and thought about what she said. It wasn’t what she said that intrigued me but how she said it. There was the same amount of anger in her words as there had been in mine, but she didn’t have to raise her voice to feel like she was being heard and she had stayed perfectly composed throughout our talk. She certainly was something special. If not special then at least someone to pay attention to.

        “If you’re done staring at me with that stupid smile on your face, I have to get back to Denver now.”

        I smiled wider and answered her, “I you go now, at least give me your Net address so we can talk more about this later.”

        With an exasperated sigh, she took my cell and punched in the 7 digits that would let me talk to her through the Nets. Without another word, she spun around and marched out of the park. I would have followed, but this place was to amazing to pass up. Plus, it was Sunday and I didn’t have anything better to do, everyone at home could live without me and I didn’t have any homework.

        I wandered through the rose gardens smelling the roses, letting myself get lost in their sweetness. After some time, I sat down on the same park bench as I did earlier and watched the fountain bubble. There was a natural feeling to it, the way the water flowed every which way, always changing and moving. There was no real pattern, just perfect imperfectness. It made me think deeply and I stared at the water for quite some time. I stayed there until the cold seeped through my jacket and nipped at my ears.

        I shook myself out of my stupor and took my cell out of my pocket, to look at the number Artemis �"no- Lily gave me. There was nothing exciting about it, but as I put her name into the memory, I had the sensation that something wonderful was starting.