Chapter 2: Day 0-continued

Steve was badly shaken. He didn't doubt for a minute that what he had seen was real, which meant that everyone and everything he'd ever known had been destroyed by... someone. 'They' claimed it was an accident, but... He was too stunned to think much about that.

As he looked around, he saw the same reaction, to varying degrees. The more educated women (Mary, Danielle, Nytoya, Yoshi, and Moesha) were as shocked and horrified as he was; most of them were sobbing, and all of them were crying. The less educated women were clearly more upset by the reactions of the others than by the video itself. Steve had been raised at the tail end of the 'real men don't cry' period, and had always been the 'strong' type, so he automatically (he might have said instinctively) stepped up and tried to take command of the situation.

"Can I have your attention, please?" said Steve, as he waved his hand to get everyone's eyes looking in his direction. "If you think you understood what was shown on the screen, please step over here so we can discuss it. If you didn't, please wait by the couch over there. I could describe what I think I saw, but I want to get the opinions of the rest of you before we get too worked up."

Mary, Danielle, Nytoya, Yoshi, and Moesha joined Steve as the rest of the women moved in the direction he'd indicated.

"OK, here's what I want to do; I want a quick consensus on what we saw, so that someone can explain it to the rest of the group. While that's happening, the rest of us can write down our impressions of the event, and any questions we have. Then we'll review that, and see if we can get some answers from our 'hosts'. Any objections or counter proposals?"

A quick glance showed agreement all around, so Steve continued, "I saw what looked like an extremely high-energy impact in the Northern Hemisphere, by something that seems to have gone all the way through the planet, and propelled a considerable amount of magma into space, where it subsequently fell back, causing what I assume must have been a great deal of damage, on top of the mess caused as the object passed through the Earth."

Again, unanimous nodding led him to continue: "The second scene seemed to show a recovery process of some kind, with human beings being 'beamed up' somehow, then scanned and put into some kind of treatment unit. What went in looked dead or nearly so, damaged to one degree or another, and of various ages. What came out looked alive, healthy, and young. I didn't see anything that looked like a child being 'treated.'

"What I think we need to do next is have someone update the rest with that summary, emphasizing that it's just what we think we saw in the video. That someone needs to go over the video with the group and get their impressions and questions as well as recording their own. Meanwhile the rest of us will do the same thing individually. Finally, we'll all go over the results and see where we stand.

"Do I have a volunteer to take on the educator role?"

Moesha spoke up, "I can do it; I've taught a few classes at the community college, so I'm kind of used to it."

Looking around for objections or other volunteers, Steve saw none, so he nodded. "Sounds good to me. Thanks. Stop at the replicator and get a notepad and pencil; I'll get some for the rest of us." Moesha moved off to do just that, as Nytoya spoke up, "I'll take care of that for you, Steve. You just sit over there, and I'll get the tablets and pencils for us."

Steve shrugged, said "OK, that's fine, thanks," and sat down in the indicated chair. The rest of the women settled into nearby chairs as Nytoya returned with pads and pencils. She gave a set to Steve, then to the other women, then settled herself on the floor at Steve's feet, and started writing. Steve glanced at her, then exchanged looks with the other women, who seemed to have calmed enough to be slightly amused at Nytoya's actions.

Steve shrugged again, and began making his own notes.

After about fifteen minutes, Steve leaned back in his chair, and looked around. Moesha and her group were still talking, with Moesha making a note every few minutes. The women around Steve seemed to be reviewing their notes and making adjustments as they did so.

As each women finished, she looked up, then handed her pad to Steve, who reviewed them. Mary had been speaking English, so he wasn't surprised when he could read her notes. Nytoya had also chosen to use English, rather than one of her other languages.

Danielle's notes, on the other hand, reminded him rather abruptly that he'd been relying on a translator to understand her. He was surprised when, as he looked at her neatly written French, her voice began to 'read' it to him in English. He looked up at Danielle's amused face, then back to the page. As his eyes moved from item to item on her list, the voice followed along. Another glance told him that she wasn't translating, even though Steve was hearing her voice. More magic from their hosts.

As Steve began to copy her notes to his own, annotating hers as he went, Danielle's face went from amused to puzzled. "I thought you could not speak French without the translation. Can you read it, then?" she asked.

"No," Steve replied, "It seems that my request for a translator includes written documents. Another item for the 'How do they do that' list, I guess."

As Steve finished with Danielle's list, Yoshi handed him hers. Like Nytoya, she had written her notes in English, rather than her native tongue. Steve was reviewing her notes and updating the common list when the last item shocked him into immobility.

Under the caption of "Inexplicable Events", was a very disquieting question. A question that hadn't occurred to him. He wasn't sure if the question itself was affecting him, or the fact that he hadn't thought of it.

As the women around him looked on, Steve shook himself, and tried to think. Finally, he looked at his waiting audience and spoke.

"Yoshi has a very interesting question. Why, she asks, are we suddenly so calm about what she calls quite accurately 'the destruction of our entire world and the death of all of our friends and families?' Have we all been drugged?" He'd felt groggy when he awoke, which was unusual, but the feeling had passed. Was that the sign of some kind of drug, or other external control? With a sudden craftiness, Steve continued, "Room, can you answer that question?"

There was a pause, then a voice spoke. It was as emotionless as the voice that had spoken at the end of the video, but had a slightly lower pitch. "You have not been 'drugged' as you would use the term. Your emotional responses are being limited to avoid mental breakdown. It was felt that this would fall under the category of necessary medical treatment as part of your restoration. If you disagree, the treatment can be stopped immediately, without harm to you other than the impact of the suppressed emotions."

Steve exchanged glances with the rest of the group. No one said anything, but everyone seemed to have noticed that the 'room voice' had known what was said, even when it wasn't being directly addressed. He replied to the room voice, "We'll get back to you on that."

Steve and his group began to review their various notes about what they had seen, and the questions they had about it, addressing the 'room' as necessary. It became apparent that (unless they were being lied to, which no one discounted completely) that Humanity was in a tight bind. They had a population of roughly eleven thousand to work with, at a ten-to-one female-to-male ratio. The 'good' news was that everyone had a healthy body, was fertile, and was physically a young adult in their prime. Another positive point was that they didn't have any consanguinity issues to deal with. The most recent common ancestor for any two survivors seemed to be 6 generations back.

That last fact cut at Steve's heart a bit. He and his wife Amanda shared a great-great-grandfather; her sister had delighted in teasing them about the hazards 'when cousins mate.' And of course, it also meant that his kids were gone. Despite the intervention by their 'hosts', that hurt.

Mary was similarly affected by the loss of her children and grandchildren. None of the women had been married at the time of the disaster; Mary and Nytoya were widows (Nytoya's marriage had been childless), and Danielle and Yoshi were unmarried and between relationships.

Before any of them could get too wrapped up in their losses, Moesha returned with her list of notes from the rest of the group. Since their experiences and education had left them unprepared to follow the presentation, they'd tended to focus down on single elements to try to make sense of what they were seeing. That had a good side and a bad side. The good side was that it brought out details that Steve and the 'educated' women hadn't picked up on because they'd been swept up in the big picture. The bad side was that most of the questions raised brought various forms of "I can not give you that information at this time" from their otherwise helpful 'host'.

After they'd finished updating Moesha on what they'd figured out, and worked though her notes, it was time to figure out what to tell the waiting women about their situation, and to decide who would do the telling.

Moesha said, "Steve, in case you didn't notice, all of these women are from cultures where the men are in charge and make all the major decisions. It's only natural to them that you take charge, and they may not react well if you seem uncertain. To tell you the truth, that's the way I was brought up myself, and it would be very easy for me to do the same thing."

Yoshi nodded. "I too would find it natural for you to lead us. Most of my generation of Japanese women are willing and able to be independent, but our culture still pressures us to find a man to serve. I think that you must tell them what we know, and what we do not, and how we will act given that knowledge and its limitations."