Realms of Eden: A Warrior Rises

"No, Sir, Bonnie and Jo and Mr Gilroy and the soldiers they were the heroes. Not me! I didn't do anything but get pushed around in a chair!"

The President peered closely at him and saw the lad squirm, the little he could, under his gaze. "Is it not true that you directed Bonnie here to go back with her uncle and the security team to show them where the man was that Bonnie knocked out, even though you would be left on your own?"

Bonnie piped up, "Yes, Sir, he did."

"And did you not tell Nurse Jepson that she was bleeding even though you yourself were wounded and close to death?"

Sydney felt his face go crimson as he heard Jo giggle from somewhere behind his bed and finally nodded.

"Well I believe that all of those acts are worthy of this medal," and so saying he moved around to the young man's side placed the open box carefully on his bedside tray so that the boy could see it. Everyone clapped and Sydney's heart thudded in his chest with emotion.

"Miss Bonnie Gilroy," intoned the President and Bonnie's head turned so suddenly that Sydney almost laughed out loud at the look on her face.

"Young lady I hear that you have a fairly deadly right hook!" he said as he slipped another medallion from the case that had been handed to him, and placed it around her neck.

More laughter and Bonnie prettily lowered her eyes then raising her plastisheet coated arm asked if the president would sign her cast. The President smiled and producing a pen from his shirt pocket scribbled his name on one of the few bare spots.

"Nurse Josephine Jepson," the President said next as Jo solemnly walked forward standing before him to receive another medal and as she dipped her head, Sydney couldn't help wondering if the President was looking down her top as he had.

The thought almost made him burst out laughing and he made a mental note to ask Jo later.

The President made some formal presentations to the men that were involved in the fire fight and Sydney and Jo were very proud when Sergeant Richardson was presented with his.

Keith Richardson had shot the woman who shot Sydney before she had a chance to finish both him and Jo off. Thanking the President for his kind words on behalf of his men, Keith wondered again at what the hell was so important about this kid. He blushed slightly when he saw the hot look Jo Jepson gave him and was hopeful of receiving some more thanks from her when she finished her shift in the early hours of the morning. He had already tasted her sweet lips and her warm body against his promised so much more, the look she gave him now might be the indication that more was now forthcoming.

President Weir left and everyone crowded around to show each other their medallions until Dr Evans told everyone that they must go now and leave him to finish his work or the boy will never get out of here.

Everyone left and Nurse Wendy came when Dr Evans pressed the nurse's call button. She and the doctor rolled Sydney slightly and he felt a small tug then several more as they removed some tags from his back. He felt tingling in his arms and down to his hands and Wendy began to swiftly massage and rub his right arm while Dr Evans massage the fingers on his left hand more gently.

"Now, mate," he said, "I haven't reset your bed yet because I still don't want you sitting up just yet. You will be able to move your right arm and use it normally in a couple of hours, the blockers don't let go suddenly, it is a gentle process, so don't go over exerting."

Sydney nodded his understanding and listened while he explained about the progress of his arm, ribs and leg repairs.

"A few more weeks," he finished "and we will have you into therapy and soon after you will be knocking bowlers all over the park again!"

After they had gone he lay back on the pillow feeling very tired and dozed. Sydney's mind felt hazy, the node in his brain cast out, there was something important that she wanted him to see and the reaction to the other mind that it could feel close by triggered the mind walk that it tentatively attempted.

Images floated to the boy's consciousness, the President walking out the front stairs of the hospital, guards alertly looking around as they waited for his vehicle to pull up at the stairs.

The picture zoomed in as it watched a guard open the door and the President moved into the back seat. Sydney felt like he was in the hover with him and he was looking straight at him. "Well done Mr President," a female voice spoke as he sat back in his seat.

It seemed that he was looking directly back at Sydney as he spoke, "We are at war, Thelma. Sometimes the most shocking thing about all of this is the age of the soldiers. But from what you tell me that boy up there is going to be the most powerful that has ever lived.

"The number of attacks we have had to prevent and intercept in the last few weeks by people trying to get to him seem to back up that opinion. Obviously someone thinks that he is going to be dangerous to them at some time in the future. I think I would prefer him on my side than against us don't you?"

The female voice laughed lightly, "Don't worry Mr President, he will always be on the side of good, it's part of his nature. Or should I say nature is a part of him."

A knocking sound occurred and the hover slowed, then stopped. The door beside Sydney opened and the woman stepped out and turned back to the President, "If Cue Ball ever calls you Greg, make sure you listen!"

She turned her head towards Sydney, "Sydney go back to sleep." The image faded abruptly.

The little node sighed to herself, it had been the right thing to do else the woman called Thelma would have sent her back immediately. The happy hum as she directed the nano-bots transferred to a happy dream to the boy of playing cricket and running on a sunny afternoon.

Thelma grinned as she stepped from the President's hover and reflected on the presence of the mind of Sydney over peeping her own. It was a little unexpected but the presence of the little entity within Sydney's mind was a great step forward, it meant that Jebidiah's plans were starting to develop along the correct course.

When Sydney awoke later he puzzled over what had happened, something kept nagging in his mind and finally it clicked. He had seen the woman's face before! She was the one from his dreams that told him that she still had to give him a gift!

He lay there listening to the sounds of the hospital, unnecessarily starting to worry that he was getting stir crazy and that his mind was playing tricks. The node in his head directed his thoughts towards dissecting the conversation he had heard.

It was true Oceania was at war, with a force so evil that it had caused the world to be an extremely changed place from his dear old grandfather's days. Sydney still remembered the old man on his porch in the sun while sitting on the footstool beside him patting an old Labrador named Sport while he told him the history of the world.

He died when Sydney was six but his stories stayed with him and World history was one subject at school that Sydney really enjoyed because it kept him alive in his mind.

When the President of the old United States of America began a war against terror over 1,000 years ago back in 2001, after the destruction of the World Trade Towers, the world increasingly became afraid. Neighbour turned on neighbour because of religion or race and more and more people began to stay home rather than tour the world on the fast jets and trains that were available at the time. Eventually the suspicions and fears of the populations in those countries that were associated with the so-called "war on terror" aided the terrorists more than the terrorists themselves could have hoped for.

Doctors, policeman, journalists, solicitors, judges and ordinary workers were hauled in off the streets by overzealous authorities empowered by increasingly nervous politicians in an effort to reduce the risk of attack.

It proved to be no deterrent and instead of decreasing the terror threat it actually increased it as various militant groups began staging their own wars against autocratic governments. Soon the larger cities around the world began to disintegrate as services such as electricity, water, public transport and others were continually targeted by disruptions caused by strikes and threats of terrorism.

Union leaders were rounded up and accused of aiding terrorists whenever they called a strike to prevent yet another bill passing through parliaments to further increase the powers of the armed forces and civilian police. Sydney remembered reading how the Australian federal government had at one time passed 579 bills and amendments that restricted workers' rights, travel, benefits and payments, particularly for those of an international background.

Eventually the unions and the general population began to revolt. In 2021 the city of Brisbane, proudly opening its newest underground bus and traffic tunnels, suffered the indignity of having billions of dollars' worth of work and some 5,000 lives lost. A militant faction of one of the transport unions overestimated the amount of explosive it would need to seal the end of the tunnels in protest at wages and condition changes.

By 2025 many of the high rises and major land marks around Australia, New Zealand, USA, Great Britain and Europe had suffered in acts of rage by its own populations. The USA was a war torn shell as its own population revolted against administration after administration that continued to place itself on a war footing and sent countless soldiers to die on foreign soils.

Eventually the populations moved from the cities and took up residency on blocks of land that were worthless for farming and even more worthless to raise families on as they were scores of kilometres and further from employment, shopping centres, education and health services.

Real estate agents made a killing and crowed delightedly about the resurgent land prices in the bush. Their voices became more hushed as the agencies were targeted with fire-bombs and random shootings at any vehicle that dared show up on a road with real estate logos over it.

Finally there were those governments that pulled their troops back home from overseas encounters and turned them against their own populations, notably Germany and England. They and other countries became embroiled in civil wars that in some parts of what was mainland Europe are still raging nearly 1,000 years later. Some of course will argue that the wars there never really started at that time and point to the old Russian and Middle-East conflicts as proof that the trouble started long before then.

The Americas fell apart in 2031, when Canada, in an effort to provide support for the thousands of US citizens fleeing the draft and migrating there, declared Alaska and the Great Lakes areas as part of Canada. They attempted to have this ratified by the world council where the US threatened to veto the debate, and was itself threatened with expulsion by China, France and England.

When Mexico, Cuba and others declared their support for the southern states, namely New Mexico, Alabama, Florida, Texas and Georgia as a new country annexed from what the governors of those states at the time described as a "cruel and uncaring regime of war mongers" the US government totally collapsed.

Soon after, terrorists, of the real variety, sent shivers through the rest of the world as they used the chaos of population movements throughout the US to destroy large structures such as Hoover Dam, Cape Canaveral and the Golden Gate Bridge. The US economy nose-dived and eventually in despair totally closed its borders and removed itself from any world contact. Even today only special envoys are allowed in or out of that region of the world.

China threatened to become the sleeping giant awakened as was predicted late in the twentieth century but its own economic resources were found to have been totally mismanaged as some of the braver forecasters had predicted. It became a paper dragon and all of those countries that had cowered before its supposed might gleefully attacked it on every front including trade embargoes, diplomatic posting withdrawals, world court rulings and finally organised terrorism.

China's communist regime survived virtually intact but it had its own internal problems to deal with and the loss of face with its population in the eyes of the world was going to mean a long hard road back. The Chinese people meanwhile had managed to migrate in their millions to all corners of the globe and brought with them cheap labour costs and efficient practices. However, this was not met well in many countries and the papers virtually gave up reporting Chinese riots and the hundreds of deaths that accompanied them.

Australia, New Zealand and its neighbours, Fiji, Papua, The Solomon Islands and others met in peace in Canberra on 26 July 2028 and formed a defensive and trading partnership that would start the building of a united Oceanic region of the world. Within 10 years of this date an overwhelming majority of 4 to 1 elected the first President of United Oceania.

Ten days later the old United States gave one last convulsive death spasm and over 100 nuclear missiles streaked out of the silos dotted across its landscape towards targets selected by a despotic and insane president in her last defiant act against the world.

Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, China, Southern Asia, Africa, South America and Oceania were suddenly on high alert as tracking stations picked up the tell-tale signatures of the missiles, scrambled interceptors and positioned Satellite Defence Installations to bring them down before they reached their targets. Unfortunately 41 missiles found their targets and 20 others were inadvertently redirected by inaccurate jamming signals and attempts at shooting them down.

In the final analysis only Australia and her island states of Oceania survived relatively intact. Canberra was destroyed and a report from some early political reporter that it was probably the best thing that happened to it and that in 500 years' time Lake Walter Burleigh Griffin, now 20 times bigger than its creators intended, would become an idyllic summer retreat destination. Ironically he was correct with over a million visitors a year staying in the lakeside villas and resorts that provided fishing and water sports all through the summer months.

The vid-casts that had been replayed over the years showed unparalleled destruction in almost every major city throughout the world. Almost two billion people were destroyed in the initial attacks and almost as many more died of the plagues, cancers and starvation that followed in the next 300 years. Only frantic efforts by politicians, doctors, engineers and scientists closeted away in secret locations developing vaccines, procedures and cures prevented the total extinction of the humans on the planet.

Of course some retaliation occurred and though many were aborted after frantic pleadings and descriptions of nuclear holocaust scenarios, others were unable to be stopped. Several dozen warheads hit the United States of America and though many did not contain the destructive power of those that were launched from the USA that country was all but wiped out.

The devastating effect on the ecology was evident with harsh winters, hot dry summers and periods of torrential rains that carried death as it captured nuclear dust from the atmosphere and soaked the earth below. The polar caps increased in size by almost 500 percent as dust clouds blotted the sun for long periods of the years after the attacks. It was possible to walk from Melbourne to the South Pole, as if anyone wanted to and the shores of New Zealand were visible to anyone using a powerful telescope on the south-eastern beaches of what once was called Victoria.

The ozone hole that had been the subject of so much debate in the early part of the twenty-first century no longer existed as the blanket of dust and gases effectively sealed the earth off from the sun over the Antarctic and Arctic regions for almost 150 years.

Earthquake damage caused by the deep blasting of the earth's crust had resulted in the loss of further millions as much of the Indonesian and Malaysian islands and southern India submerged beneath the sea. Volcanoes that had been inactive for hundreds of years erupted without warning sending their basalt plugs exploding hundreds of metres into the air and releasing dust and toxic gases into an already polluted atmosphere. Huge molten rock rivers carved a path of destruction through cities and country areas alike and the earth's landscape changed forever.

Over the next several hundred years the reconstruction of Oceania as a power base and protectorate was taken on by the successors to their first president, Darren Lockyer. Oceania's navies and air force grew and became faster and more powerful than anything that existed previously. Naval forces became adept at moving quickly from island to island and the communications and computer technology grew towards unheard of speeds and capabilities.

Broadcast video became available to everyone and the population spread to cover the entire country of Australia, all the islands around her and managed to keep in contact with work and family instantly. You could travel from Perth to Townsville in a little less than an hour, so working and travelling was now little more than an inconvenient delay where it had once been described as the major barrier to the expansion of the country.

Sydney had read that Australia's population once confined itself to a 200 kilometre wide corridor down the eastern coast with only small populations of hardy souls choosing the west and inland areas. With the massive climate and geological changes to the Earth inland Australia now housed, clothed, fed and employed some 16 million people and there were great tracts of land that still were reserved for nature and future expansion.

The major change to society's structure was that populations no longer grouped around a single point. Sydney, Melbourne and even Brisbane contained populations of less than a couple of hundred thousand as people and companies withdrew from a centralised "easy" target and distributed themselves out across the land. Towns dotted the landscapes at roughly 60 kilometre centres and contained maybe three or four industries or part operations of industries. All to the formula of governments that took note of the destruction that took place over a millennium ago and planned accordingly.

Families lived on houses built on large properties, some even up to five hectares and rarely did neighbours live close enough to one another to cause the strife and conflict that was prevalent in discussions in the history books. This was not to say that neighbours didn't get on, it just gave people room to breathe, and it was often a catch cry of the now refined real estate industry to promote this and sell parcels of land at family affordable pricing.

Now the violent events that led to the holocaust were repeating one thousand years later. Of course it could be nothing on the scale of the nuclear holocaust of that time, but jealousy, racial vilification and religion were again playing their part in trying to bring down the human race.

United Oceania was one of the best-protected and wealthiest regions in the world. Its population of some 80 million souls was a far cry from the 20 million that once graced old Australia and the 17 million that spread itself over New Zealand and the other island countries. The air and naval fleets were the best trained and were on constant vigilance over the thousands of kilometres of coastline and waterways that marked its boundaries.