Chapter 12: Snow

Location: Columbia Mountains, Unclaimed Territories, Earth
Era: Thursday 3rd March 2163CE

"So, where are we?" asked Mark looking out over the snow draped mountain-scape.

"Somewhere in what will one day become the North American Coalition. We are in a place called the Columbia Mountains. More important is when we are. We are in 2163. The Sequestration Wars have just ended, more than half the Earth's population is dead, civilization is in disarray. The people are asking why the most prosperous and enlightened era of human civilization ended with the most horrible and most devastating war in human history. They are pointing the finger at their leaders: political leaders, military leaders, religious leaders, and business leaders. If you were in a position of authority and could not show how you actively tried to prevent the disaster, you would be publicly garroted. There was such long queue of people who wanted to do the garroting, they held a lottery. A lot of old institutions, nations and even a couple of religions disappeared in this time. In summary the people of this era have their own problems and are unlikely to interfere with us. And since all satellites capable of observing us or our camp were destroyed in the wars along with the infrastructure to replace them there will be no record of our ever being here."

"Sounds like a grim period of history."

"Very grim. I have no plans to visit our neighbors. Most space colonies are not self-sufficient in this era and the destruction of Earth's space capabilities means that most of the colonists will die from lack of air, food, or water. Most of the population of Mars will die leaving only colonists with radical physical adaptions to the Martian environment. The whole sorry mess sets space colonization and many other human endeavors back a hundred years. It seems to me that these colonists are as deserving of being rescued as Mozart. If we are going to rescue entire colonies we are going need more C-S particles."

Mark accepted a token from 'Saffron'. 'Rescue 22nd century space colonies' appeared in his work item backlog.

"And when are we going to get around to doing this?"

"Not soon. It is a big undertaking. It's going to take more than the two of us. We are going to have to build a large organization. Too large to keep secrets from history, it's time for you to choose a new name, unless you want to end up like me."

"How about Kade Freedman?"

Fury looked startled as if she expected him to say something else. "Kade it is," Fury said as she helped him to his feet. She pulled him up by the hand. He noticed his hand was larger and, his fingers longer. His skin was tanned, in fact it was only slightly lighter than Fury's. His arms were toned with well-defined muscles. Glancing down, his body looked like it belonged to a body builder. He brushed some of the snow off his hair and discovered that it was now reddish brown and fairly long.

"I take it you are responsible for this," he said, gesturing at his body.

"It is no good changing your name if you are not changing your appearance."

The air felt cool against his skin but despite the snow and altitude he felt warm. "What is the temperature?"

"It is minus 4 degrees Celsius. Low enough that an unprotected baseline human would be in trouble fairly quickly. You can detect the external temperature yourself. It is part of your sensor suite," she replied. She passed him a token. It linked to a tutorial on using his sensor suite.

"I suppose there is a face to go with this body?"

Fury lent him her eyes. It was strange, looking at his body from the outside. His hair reached down to his shoulder blades and he sported a well-trimmed light beard. He thought he was slightly taller and noticed his equipment was larger in length and width. He was hairless from the neck down. He was standing in a Mark-shaped hole. Cables, tubes and wires radiated from the hole.

"I should have made you disconnect the support system yourself, but you were so disoriented, I decided to go easy on you and do it for you," she said.

"Thank you, it was confusing after so long in the virtual world. - I look like a model or a movie star. Sorry, rail screener star."

"You look like an average well off mid to high level Tarkika. No one in the 23rd century uses the appearance bequeathed to them by their generic heritage. I don't even know what baseline appearance goes with my original DNA."

"Original DNA?" he asked.

"You don't think I could have hidden from the authorities for 11 years with my identity written into every cell in my body, do you? When you change identities, you need to change DNA, fingerprints, gait, gestures and speech patterns."

She sent him a token linking to tutorials on how to change your identity. He accepted it automatically and it went on his backlog. It was a good thing he was going to live a long time. He would need the time to get though the items currently on his backlog and Fury kept giving more tasks.

"You have not done much of that lately. Pretending to be one of your personas, I mean."

"I have been sloppy. Just because I am safe from my old enemies - as long as they don't get time travel before they fall from power - you'll notice that that's a big series of assumptions right there. Their fall from power is not going happen by itself. I am going to have to bring down the 2299 era governments," she said.

"What! All of them?"

"The North American Coalition, its major allies, and a big chunk of Earth's intelligence community at the very least."

"Didn't anyone tell you that you can't fight city hall?" he asked.

"I have been fighting city hall for the last 11 years. All you need is a big enough lever. And you gave me a big lever. Thank you." Fury stepped closer and kissed him. "But that is just my old enemies. As a time traveler I need to consider the possibility of enemies that I haven't met yet, who are angry about things I have not done yet," she continued.

"You worry too much."

"Or not enough."

"So do I get any say in the way I look?" he asked.

"One, I am the one who has to look at you all day. And two, do you have any body design experience?"

She passed him a token linking to tutorials on design, 3D modeling, and body sculpture. They went on his backlog. "Oh, joy."

"Exactly," she said.

"Why don't we try out that new body and have a little sparring session?" She asked, stepping back into a fighting stance.

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't feel like having the crap beaten out of me," he said.

"You know, at this stage of training most people are feeling overconfident and need to be taken down a notch, but if anything, you are too timid."

"It is hard to be overconfident hanging around you. And I was right. You, were going to beat the crap out of me."

She sighed and shook her head. "Let me show you around the camp," she said, gesturing at three nearby tents.

Marching up to the first tent she parted the front tent flap. "In this tent we have the fusion reactor which supplies all our power needs. Here is the digester. It breaks down any organic matter into enzymes, amino acids, simple sugars, and other nutrients. I usually fill it with leaves cut from the valley below. This is the assembler. It assembles those simple nutrients into more complex molecules. The complex nutrients go both to the simulator support systems out in the snow that we have both been spending a lot of time in recently and this food printer that will print out almost any food you can imagine. Here is the water purifier. I usually just fill it with snow. It supplies water to the digester, the assembler, printer, simulation support system, and this water dispenser," she continued.

Leading him to the next tent she grabbed the tent flap and revealed the interior. "In the second tent we have the drones and weapons for my parents' rescue. Hopefully we won't need any of this gear, but it is better to have and not need it than to need it, than not have it. You have trained with this gear in simulation and you. You should try it in the real world." She reached into the tent and handed him a Himura anti-tank gun. He hefted it, checked the safety, and connected to the scope. It was loaded, he noted. It felt just like it did in the virtual world. How would he know if this was really the real world or just another simulation? He gave the command to dissolve the scene but nothing happened. He shrugged. Like many a philosopher before him, he noted the possibility and moved on.

Fury seemed to be taking a long time rooting around in that tent. He glanced at the gun and then her back.

"You bitch!" he exclaimed.

She turned around and gave him an enquiring look. "So what has gotten 'Mr. Calm and Collected' all hot and bothered?"

"You know very well what has upset me. It does not take that long to fetch something out of the tent. You were waiting to see whether I was going shoot you in the back! With an anti-tank gun no less."