“I’m 28 and I still can’t vote,” Priya said as she blew out the candles at her house.
“They don’t mind taking our taxes though,” Warren said.
“And our rights,” Pablo said. “Our best legal defense has been to invoke animal cruelty laws.”
“I came up here hoping to see what the best and brightest minds are doing,” Nisha said. “But you sound like a bunch of unemployed coal miners down at the local pub.”
“They’re depressed,” Amy said. “Depressed savants.”
“We’re sick of it, Mom. It’s open season on us. People blame us for losing their jobs when artificial intelligence and robotics were already taking away millions of jobs and creating as many as before we were abducted. It would have happened anyway. Half the population can’t seem to understand a simple sequence of events. Or cause and effect. People attack us physically and online and they don’t get charged with anything. Our kids are banned from going to public schools.”
“Paid for by our taxes.” Warren said.
“Yeah, we know,” Sophie said. She smiled.
“I keep repeating that because it’s unfair. We pay all this money and create innovative technologies to help people and then we’re excluded.”
“You know life isn’t fair,” Nisha said. “The old species hasn’t been fair to other species. The Omanji weren’t fair to the human species. The advantages you guys have, aren’t fair to the old species. And they’re not fair to you.”
“OK,” Priya said. “But it seems nothing we do works. People are still racist against us. Species-ist? We don’t have rights. It doesn’t matter what you tell people, they won’t change their minds about us. About 40% support us, 40% want us to go extinct, and 20% go back and forth.”
“One thing we have going for us is countries can’t agree about what to do with us,” Sophie said. “Not at the UN or anywhere else.”
“Yeah, it’s like an arms race,” Raven said. “No country wants to ban us from reproducing because then the other countries will get an advantage.”
“But that guarantees old species extinction,” Priya said. “It’s not logical.”
“That’s how evolution works,” Nisha said. “When one group has an advantage in the ecosystem, they prevail. Human society is divided up into countries and cultures. It’s an advantage to each country and culture to have new species kids in them even though it’s a long-term disadvantage to the old species as a whole. Individual companies want new species members, even though old species employees don’t want new species coworkers. The family structure is your advantage. The new species is favored in the old species family ecosystem. As they say in sports, run out the clock.”
“That’s what we’ve been saying,” Priya said. “But it seems like it will take forever. Well, we’re thinking 40 or 50 years to get enough votes to get our rights back. If we can survive that long.”
“Yeah, they keep trying to kill us off,” Sophie said. “Then we hide.”
“They’re trying to isolate you,” Nisha said. “Isolation creates new species. That’s another unintended consequence.”
“Do you think Bok and his group will become a new species?” Priya said.
“Yes, they’re isolated. The two groups may not meet again for centuries, if ever. If they ever meet, they may still be able to reproduce but they may not want to, due to their differences. They each might modify their DNA in distinct ways, making new species.”
“We’re going to have an earthquake in about 90 seconds,” Raven said. “A big one.”
“At least we have a warning, thanks to your company’s system,” Priya said. “Where will it hit?”
“A few miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, right on the San Andreas Fault.”
“I hear the air raid sirens in the distance,” Sophie said.
“Get ready. The fault line runs a few miles from here. Put the plates in the sink quickly,” Priya said.
They rushed to secure things that might fall. Nisha alerted Quinn back home in Pasadena, though it would not be felt there. Priya’s kitchen cabinets automatically locked shut because of the alert. Her exterior natural gas line turned off. So did all major gas pipelines across the Bay Area. The solar and wind electrical grid continued to operate. Freeway signs alerted drivers to slow down or pull over to the side of the road immediately. Gates closed at several toll bridges going across the Bay. Motion dampening systems activated in the tallest buildings.
“The system is estimating 10 to 40 feet of horizontal movement in most areas between Mendocino and Monterey Counties.”
“How big is that?” Sophie said.
“The 1906 earthquake moved between two and 32 feet horizontally north to south depending on location. Most areas around here slipped between 10 and 30 feet.”
“What’s that noise?” Sophie said.
“That’s the sound of the fault rupturing,” Raven said. “Get under the table and hold on.”
The ground shook slowly for about 5 seconds.
“That wasn’t bad,” Warren said. “I feel a little dizzy though.”
“It’s like the one we had in Pasadena last year,” Nisha said.
“The system is alerting me that we just felt a foreshock. There was one before the 1906 earthquake also. Hold on, it’s coming,” Raven said.
“This one is louder,” Sophie said.
“I’m getting dizzy again,” Warren said.
“Look out the window, the trees are swaying like seaweed in the ocean,” Priya said.
“There’s a dust devil swirling out of that dry crack in the dirt,” Raven said.
“It’s like being on a carnival ride,” Warren said. “It’s kind of fun.”
“Here it comes,” Raven said.
“That wasn’t it?” Warren said.
A large tree branch snapped and crashed to the ground just as the big plate glass window shattered. Water sloshed violently out of the pool. Plates and dishes rattled in the cupboards and the sink.
“OK, not fun,” Warren said. “This is going on forever. How long will it last?”
“The 1906 earthquake lasted about one minute,” Raven said. “We’re only 30 seconds into this.”
“I feel like I’m going to be sick,” Warren said. “I have vertigo. How much longer?”
“Maybe another 20 seconds.”
“What’s that popping noise?” Sophie said.
“That’s the rock layers cracking,” Raven said.
They held on for another 20 seconds. The movement slowed but continued.
“It’s like we’re on top of jelly,” Priya said.
“Rock may seem rigid, but it’s flexible over long distances,” Raven said. “Plus, we’re floating on a thin crust of rock on top of molten lava just a few miles down.”
“Is it over?” Warren said.
“I think the big part of it’s over,” Raven said. “But there will be aftershocks. For days or weeks. The first estimate was an 8.5, centered 6 miles west of the Golden Gate. That’s slightly larger than the 1906 earthquake.”
“It must’ve been bad in the city,” Priya said.
We’re 30 miles away and there was no way we could stand up. How much damage is being reported? I remember seeing pictures of the 1906 earthquake. The city looked like it had been hit by a nuclear weapon.”
“That was mostly because of the fire,” Raven said. “If the gas lines turned off automatically as we had it set up, the fire damage will be minimal. Plus, most power is electrical, and we had much more warning ahead of time. Also, the buildings are more earthquake resistant now.”
They cleaned up and monitored the earthquake coverage by local and national sources. Many older buildings suffered structural damage, but destruction was minimal compared to 1906. No major fires happened. By the end of the day, Raven’s company, ‘A Better Life’ was credited for saving 2 trillion dollars in property damage and thousands of lives.
“This good press coverage should help our case,” Pablo said.
“I hope so,” Priya said. “It seems nothing short of a disaster helps us.”
“Yeah, but the conspiracy nuts are out already,” Sophie said. “They’re saying Raven knew when the quake would hit because she chose when it would happen. They say Raven caused the earthquake to make more money selling her warning systems.”
“We donated that system to the state of California,” Raven said.
“Facts don’t matter to them,” Priya said.
“It gets worse,” Sophie said. “Japan is putting their order for the system on hold until the confusion is cleared up.”
“What confusion?” Raven said.
“Why do unsupported conspiracy stories and ideas get so widely believed so often?” Sophie said.
“Human nature,” Priya said. “About half the population only accepts information supporting their opinions. Another quarter does it sometimes. Even if there is big supporting data invalidating their ideas, their minds are closed. It’s always been that way.”
“It’s the old species’ biggest flaw,” Warren said. “I want nothing to do with it.”
“I’m sure you’ll have flaws too,” Amy said. “Not enough time has passed to know what they are. All 25,000 of you are connected. The 110 million new species kids aren’t connected. Who knows what they’ll do?”
“Here comes another one in about 20 seconds. Hold on,” Raven said.
They braced for impact.
“This one is more rolling,” Warren said.
“Each one is different,” Raven said. “Some will be sharp jolts. Others are slow waves. Many smaller plates are moving independently in different directions.”
It was over in 10 seconds.
“That one was centered 30 miles northwest of the Golden Gate. It was a 6.2,” Raven said.
“I’m still dizzy,” Warren said.
“Stop looking at the ground when they hit. Look to the horizon or out the window,” Priya said.
They stayed in place for another minute.
“Whoa! That was a sharp one,” Sophie said.
“That was centered about 5 miles almost under the house,” Raven said. “It was only a 3.1, but it was so close it felt stronger.”
They spent the night at Priya’s house, not wanting to cross the fault line at night. The house moved 33 feet to the north, relative to Palo Alto during the quake. For the next several months, they experienced several hundred aftershocks and helped fund aid shelters until life got back to normal. Eventually the Japanese government bought Raven’s system. Despite their efforts for the public good, popular support dropped back to about 40%.