Her Secret Passions [Jan2014]

Her air-cruiser was transparent as a bubble so she could see the endless sheets of snow and ice beneath her and as far as the Horizon would stretch. New Years Eve was approaching, and the rebels had planted a bomb that would destroy half of the planet, causing earthquakes and tidal waves this World had never seen. The bomb was to go off at midnight. Her job was to fly around her air-cruiser and try to spot it. Not with her eyes, mind you, but with a scanning device that ranged 100 square miles in all directions. She wasnt the only one searching of course. But she was the one who had a vague idea of where the bomb might be planted because she had connections within the rebel group. The endless white was only occassionally spotted by black pyramid shapes, cones and squares which were the remains of a civilization that had fled the planet centuries ago. Of course her society hadnt even gotten to salvaging the treasures and structures that lie beneath the snow and ice in these regions yet. And those ruins may be ruined and rendered rubble come midnight.

Her device picked up a signal. She hovered in on the area. A scan revealed that she was indeed the one who had discovered the bomb that was to change History forever. "Well, get to work and defuse it" said the OB-CC (on-board conscious computer). She turned the CC off. You see, she had a few secret passions that the CC was not to see, not to record and that nobody knew. She supported the rebels at heart. She wanted the bomb to explode and take half the planet with it. She wanted widespread destruction and doom. This her passion was so secret not even the rebels knew about it. She was a crypto-rebel of sorts. So secret was it in fact, that she wasnt even sure herself whether those were her true feelings. She had kept them suppressed and at bay. But now that she hovered before the bomb, her true feelings arose and she realized she is part of the rebels.

Was it cruel of her to feel like a terrorist and be willing to sacrifice millions of women, children and men? Had she lost touch with reality? Was she possessed by some evil force to think the way she did? Or did she realize that her society, as it was, had become rotten beyond redemption and needed to be destroyed before it could be rebuilt? Did she see that the total-control-and-microchip-implant-surveillance-system that her world was was not indeed "normal" and that there was a better way to live? Just because everyone lived this way didnt mean it was "normal". Just because they knew no other way of life from birth, didnt mean it was "normal". The rebels had a point.

And now her job was merely to secure the location so that nobody else defused the bomb. "I cant find anything out here" she lied back to headquarters. And then she waited for midnight. Hovering. Looking out of her bubble at the endless snowscape. Watching the sun set. At one point she tried watching a movie on her screen, but her mind just couldnt focus. This was too historical of a thing.

As midnight approached she became aroused as excitement upon excitement mounted. This was it. The climax was fast approaching.

But her excitement turned into a sense of shock and fearful foreboding when midnight passed and nothing...nothing! happened.

"What the..."

At ten minutes past midnight police cruisers came to escort her back. The moment she exited her cruiser she was arrested. The whole thing had been a set up. A test of merit, a test of her ethics. There was in fact no bomb. Dozens of people participated in the test. Had she reported and defused the bomb, she would have been passed to the next level of her career, the next step in the Hierarchy. Instead she was incarcerated and sent to a correctional farm. Her husband was disappointed. "Let millions of innocent people die? For real?" he accusingly asked her. Her whole world was shattered. Her secret passions had gotten the better of her. And society had stopped one deranged terrorist more. Or had they?

Nice twist at the end !

Great twist, worryingly I was rooting for the terrorist!

Thanks for the Flags people.

Yes, it was meant to be ambivalent.

reply to post by Skyfloating


Interesting premise.

I really enjoyed this story and wasn't expecting the final spin !

S&F.