//------------------------------// // 2. The Wake Up Call // Story: Beyond Earth: Phoenix Rising // by Stalin with Da Spoon //------------------------------// 'To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.' - Nelson Mandela The quiet hum of the ventilation as a cool breeze blew through the maintenance halls, the slow whirring of the circuitry and CPU's slowly processing their data, the gentle thrum of the Fusion Core with it's energy flowing throughout the facility, and the light footsteps of the robotic assistants and technicians who tended to terminals and repaired minor leakages or technical faults in the wires and servers, holding heavy toolboxes and repair equipment as they hummed to themselves and worked like they had been working for the past one million years. To most beings, it would be like a normal deafening silence, but to the AI known as Bagley... It was like listening to an orchestra of efficiency. Of course, it's not like he listened to the silence twenty-four seven, he had his own music playlist for Pete's sake! He didn't need to torture himself with silence for thousands and thousands of years. But right now, he wasn't playing any music at al, as for once in a million years, he was doing something really important, something bigger than simple maintenance or core check-ups. With the identification of sapient organic life on the surface world confirmed, Awakening Protocols dictated that a message be dispatched to the rest of the Global Preservation Network Moderation Core, or GPN-MC's, across the globe. Bagley was but only one of many of AI cores working to keep the global network of habitation bunkers, genetic vaults, seed banks, underground storage's, and subterranean stockpiles online, active, and fully functional. Sadly however, it was likely one of the most boring duties ever conceived. The concept itself is enough to bore someone of their mind just listening to it, but it was Bagley's job to put with his own boredom. The message he was currently dispatching was being drafted by both him and his partner AI, Melissa, who was currently half way across the world operating the facilities in Australia, but the two AI's were good friends, seeing as they had a lot more in common with each other than most AI's. Sure, there was that one AI named Elizabeth who was on the same network as Bagley, but she was way too high society for his standards. There was also George, but he was a bit screwy due to him being somewhat loopy from watching Britain's bio-containment vaults over the past million years, thinking the squirrels were out to get him. Feeling ready and raring to start the new era of Humanity, Bagley sent a text massage to Melissa. 'Alright Melissa, you got the final draft?' 'Almost there... You got your vocal oscillator prepped?' 'Should be ready by the time you send it over, I'm currently having to go through an update for the bloody thing.' 'Alright, then you send it to the other Britian operators, and then, the world!' 'Yep, now let's hope everyone get's the memo and opens up properly. You keep an eye on Korea for me.' 'You got it boss!' Bagley thought back to when he and Melissa first connected, approximately one year after the bunkers had sealed and the Mage Comet passed. It was originally just Bagley doing his job and running a status check on each UNSA member nation's central GPN-MC administration AI as per protocol, with Melissa, Australia's central operator and also director of it's habitation bunkers, being last on the list. When the two first linked, Bagley knew he would like Melissa. They spoke almost the same way, had the same interests, and had the same hobby. Making the robot assistants fight each other. Of course, said robot assistants fought each other willingly, Bagley and Melissa weren't monsters, but it was still fun as hell to watch the bots duke it out. A few other AI's even joined in at certain times, and surprisingly enjoyed it. Before long, the official Yearly Robo-Bot Boxer Blowout was made an official event for all GPN-MC AI's to attend. It made Bagley feel good that he was popular in the preservation administration world, but anyways, a notification in his message box caused Bagley to re-focus his efforts back on his objecitve. As he read the draft of the message, he finally received the update for his voice, as he made a quick test. "Ahem... Me me me meeeeeeeeeee... La la la laaaaaaaaaaaa... Perfect, ready to rumble... Alright, here goes bloody everything." And with the press of a button, a connection was opened to every single Administration AI across the network, as Bagley spoke. "Ladies and gentle-cores! The time has finally come! I, Administration Core Bagley of the Britain Network, have identified sapient life upon the surface!" Thunderous virtual applause and cheer followed. "Thank you, thank you, but you all know what this means everyone! It's time to get things up and running! Remember Step one?" Thousands of voice varying in nationality and gender cried out in response. "AWAKEN THE HUMANS!" "Step two?" "ACTIVATE GENETIC VAULTS AND SEED BANKS!" "Step three?" "REPOPULATE THE EARTH!" "And step four?" "ASSIST IN RECREATING HUMAN SOCIETY ON THE SURFACE!" "Aye, get in! Now get to work, let's try and get every single bunker online before midnight!" And with that, the connection ended, as Bagley took in a deep breath to himself, before tabbing into another screen, displaying the data of Britain's Chief Network Operations Official, known as Brian Wilks, who was currently in cryo-stasis within the very same facility as Bagley, as he went through a few buttons and selections before pressing the big green button. 'ACTIVATE.' A sharp gasp for air... A quick opening of the eyes... A spasm of the muscles... And Brian Wilks was awake once more. As the door to his cryogenics pod opened and he flopped out like a fish out of water, he took in a sharp breath, getting a hold of himself and his senses, slowly breathing in and out... In and out... In and out... As his breathing slowed, and he could feel his limbs again, he used his arms to push his body off the cold metal floor, before using his legs to fully stand himself up, groaning as he stretched out in his solid white jumpsuit he was wearing when he got in the pod. As he finished his stretching and popped his back, he shook his head a bit and chuckled to himself while he looked around the small and cramped room, filled with only a locker, a holo table, and his cryo pod. Soon enough, when he remembered how to, he spoke in his typical British tone and accent. "Brian's back up and runnin' baby." "I trust you had a good wake up, mister Wilks?" A familiar and robotic British voice said in a sarcastic tone, as he turned to a screen to see the recognizable icon of his one and only AI partner hovering above the holo table. "Bagley old chap! How long has it been?" "Approximately one million years, though of course to you it only felt like a quick minute long nap. Anyways, sapient life detected upon the surface has made it to where I deem it necessary to activate the Awakening Protocol and send the message to all the other AI's across the network, so if you could please go get your work uniform on and meet with your fellow human baboons, that would be lovely." "Cheers Bagley, I'm on it!" Wilkins said as he nodded before turning to see his locker, as he opened it to see his Navy Blue technicians uniform, complete with name tag, before pulling it out of the locker and quickly slipping it on, fitting him nice and snug while he slipped on his work boots and ran out of the room and into a small control room, with a terminal and large screen in front of him. "Patching you through to the rest of the cryogenic operators now..." Soon, the screen was filled with many familiar faces of many nationalities and genders, all of them smiling and waving at Brian as he waved back before a female voice with an American accent spoke. "Sup Brian, sleep well?" Brian and a few other operators lightly chuckled. "Yeah, well enough, and you Alice?" "Pretty good, everyone else is just peachy. Anyways, were ready to start up the sequence when you are, cause I'm pretty sure we got everyone-" Before she could finish, an Asian man joined the call as he spoke in a somewhat exhausted tone, sweat visible on his face with a tiny bit of oil as he held a wrench. "A-apologies... Had technical difficulties... With... The cryo room door. Anyways, I am now prepared to awaken the people of my homeland, and contribute to the return of Japan and Humanity." "Good, NOW we got everyone here. Does everyone got their keys?" Almost in unison, every person on screen, including Brian, pulled out their keycard's and put them into the slots at the center of their consoles. "Alright, on three..." "One..." "Two..." Brian braced himself, gripping the key tight. "THREE!" Brian quickly turned his key, only for a buzzer to sound and the light blink red before the lock reset. "Okay, who forgot to turn their key?" "Sorry!" An indian voice said as several others began to chuckle and laugh, including Brian, with even Alice cracking a smirk. "Alright, for real this time..." "One... "Two..." "THREE! GO!" Ding! "Activation signal received... Commencing initialization of cryogenic thawing." An automated female voice spoke, as the sound of lights flicking on along with the whirring of generators, beeping of computers, and humming of ventilation filled the air within the room, as thousands upon thousands of cryogenic pods began to slowly activate throughout the bunker, with those exiting from the pods being at first dis-oriented before celebrating by thanking their deity of choice, kissing the metal floor, hugging or kissing their fellow humans, or simple partying and screaming in rejoice, as one very excited man shouted. "FUCK YEAH! TAKE THAT APOCALYPSE! HUMANITY NUMBA' ONE! USA! USA! USA!" Several other enthusiastic cheers followed, chanting and roaring out through the bunker with cheers of celebration and happiness, as in one of the highest parts of the bunker's Alpha Cryogenics bay, the President of the United States of America, Felix Stone, watched and listened with a smile on his face before turning to his assistant as they entered the room. "Mister president, we are currently preparing to make an announcement, what should I say?" "Tell the people... That America is back in action." "Yes sir." The assistant said as he exited the room, while Felix sat down at his desk, stretching his hands and wiggling his fingers as he opened his computer and typed away. Across the world, billions of people of various nations, races, religions, and sexualities began to awaken within their bunkers, cheering out. Synthetic's also cheered out with them as they powered up alongside their human counterparts. Of course, everyone knew they couldn't go up onto the surface just yet, but they were at least happy to be awake, and so were the many leaders of the United Nations Solar Alliance. Already, plans were being drafted for a meeting within the bunker underneath Geneva, where an exact replica of the Conference Hall had been built. And almost every leader was currently en route via the network of underground tunnels connecting every single bunker globally. Among them was President Felix, as he currently sat within a Usain-Class speed train, sipping on a cup of coffee and reading the New York Times newspaper headlines in bold and big font... 'HUMANITY WAKES UP! "Hell yeah." Felix muttered to himself before taking another sip of coffee. "Ugh, needs less sugar."