Budding Hope

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One

Sam

It's been two months, 19 days and I've finally pinpointed the other's location; a coastal mining town in North Queensland Australia. I sag into the swivel desk chair at the thought of the fourteen hour long plane trip ahead of us; lovely. I've never been to Australia. After Logan and I left China we stayed only in the Americas; North America a majority of the time.

The past two months have been spent training and practicing, preparing for the obvious battles to come. Watching the kids fighting has given me some hope. They are keen and willing that's for sure, but can a bunch of teenagers really protect an entire planet when faced against a race that was breed for war? Only time will tell.

I shut down the identification system I'd run through the Australian town's security data and open up my latest mapping software. I type in the location and search through the list of town names until my curser rests on the correct one, Mackay. The computer zooms in on a large white house with a high pitched aluminium roof. I bring the page down to street view. The yard is manicured and beautiful gardens line the wooden post and rail fence that edges the entire of the property. Several cattle graze in a nearby paddock and across the road a field of sugar cane stands straight as arrows frozen in the satellite's photograph. The house itself is a classical Queenslander home; built off the ground with a carport underneath. Now that I have a closer view I can see that the paint on the outside of the house is peeling and worn from the constant battering of the coastal weather and the harsh sun. Leaves and twigs fill the house's gutters from several large mango and paperbark trees growing alongside a thin and winding creak. The creek is dry and dusty and I remember that in Australia it is still at the end of winter, meaning no rain for a little while yet. The creek's usual flow path is clearly marked from the back of the property, running down to the gutters alongside the road. I roll my chair away from the desk and rub the sleep from my eyes. The computer's clock reads 2am. I had been too engrossed in hacking into the Mackay city council security that I'd not noticed how late it was. I catch the elevator downstairs and traipse to my bedroom, trying to shut the door behind me as quietly as possible so as to not wake the others.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next morning brings excited expressions and hopeful chatter when I tell the residents of the bunker about my late night find. Everyone other than me stands to attention, speaking excitedly about the obvious trip overseas. Strangely enough no-one else has ever been to the land down under either. I temporarily push aside the nervous fluttering in my stomach that has been hanging around all too often. Everything will be fine. Well unless the other Synthiens think we are Eilnardian spies and try to kill us. I shiver at the thought; together we can become great enemies to any foe but I would dread to see the damage we could cause each other. Because of the lessened gravitational pull on Earth we are much stronger than humans and all of us are gifted with extraordinary abilities; abilities that can be used as dangerous weapons. I pick up my glass of water from the bench top in front of me and take a sip, swirling the water around in my mouth several times before swallowing. I developed my abilities at the age of sixteen, considerably late compared to most of my peers. When I had discovered that I could manipulate water in near any way I wanted though, my fellow students and friends put aside their taunting names and regarded me with a new respect. Power over the elements, although fairly common, was considered a very useful ability. Several millennia ago when our race was still in its primitive form our abilities sole purpose had been to help us survive. Modern advancements though had brought about hundreds of new and economical ways to use our powers; aiding the development of our society. Synthiens who developed more advanced abilities such as elemental control or great strength were expected to provide towards jobs that corresponded with their abilities. When I left Doloris Engineering School for the Gifted, I had wanted to become an inventor but because of my ability to manipulate water it was encouraged, even pushed for me to become a pilot, work with the city's watering systems or the large pleasure ships that sail our waters; sailed our waters. The prospect of living the rest of my life in the city horrified me at the time, although I now regret that feeling. There is a lot I would give up for the chance of my home to be whole once more. I had no interest either for the wide and never ending expanse of fresh water that surrounded our world; so evidently I chose the sky. Working in the city's air currents wasn't my dream job but I enjoyed it well enough and eventually was promoted and allowed to pilot international and intergalactic flights. Flights to space, though my favourite, were few and far between; usually only six or seven trips per year. The sky ships we used to travel ran on short wind turbines that rotated at the speed of sound, urged on by the passing water vapour in the air. That was my job, as I flew I would concentrate the air's water vapour into a fast and constant stream, propelling the turbines onwards. Space travel is a little more difficult than land travel considering there is no water in space, so the ships have to carry their own supply which was constantly recycled and cleaned.