Free Polaris by Todd Tucker Page B

impatiently, but let him touch the icon.
    A computer animation launched, showing the earth’s oceans rising several years in the past. Low-lying cities and islands were wiped out.
    In the second part of the video, the more recent past, populations became more concentrated as people moved inland. Food supplies, shown in yellow, began to dwindle. Regional conflicts broke out, and soon global war did as well. Typhon formed, and the Alliance followed in short order. Looking at the timeline on the bottom of the screen, Pete saw that this brought them to the present day.
    A new wave of color began to spread across the global map, the time now projecting into the future. Pete understood it to represent the spread of an epidemic of some kind, brought on by the war, the rising waters, and the concentration of the population. According to the video, the epidemic would soon decimate the world’s population.
    It ended five years in the future, as the formerly bright-red population centers dimmed and turned black.
    â€œJesus,” said Hamlin.
    â€œI can see why these projections are so classified,” she said. “It would cause a panic. People might turn against the war effort.”
    Hamlin turned to her. “Maybe they should.”
    She smirked at that. “You’re still an engineer at heart, Hamlin. Which is why I’ll let that go. But the good guys are going to win this one, and you are one of the good guys. Now, let’s see what’s in your orders that I don’t already know about.” She reached over his shoulder and touched the PATROL ORDERS icon, but it didn’t work: the tablet was keyed to Pete’s fingerprints alone. Frustrated, she tapped the screen with her fingernail and handed it back to Pete.
    Reluctantly, he tapped the screen, and a document came to life. It was all text, with a number of embedded coordinates on it and a few interactive colored charts. In the first section of the orders was a chart that Pete instantly recognized as the degaussing range. He scanned it quickly as Moody read over his shoulder.
    â€œComplete, right?” she said.
    Pete read that section and saw that she was right—they had orders to degauss, which he had done completely. He scrolled down and saw a block where he was to verify completion with a swipe of his finger.
    As he did so, a new section of orders immediately came to life. Hana inhaled eagerly as the screen changed. She looked over his shoulder, staring at the chart that came up first.
    â€œThere!” said Moody, pointing, excited. “I knew it!”
    Pete scanned the text section. Top secret … vaccine at hand. Locate and deliver to global medical command … critical importance to war effort … Engineering Research and Implementation Station.
    Moody, on her feet now with the excitement, put a hand on his back. “It makes perfect sense! I told Frank this is where we were going. All those eggheads out there—and I knew you’d been stationed out there! Plus, I’d heard what happened to your wife.…” Pete looked up at her quickly, a stab of heartbreak going through him at the mention of a wife he didn’t even remember.
    Moody quickly changed the subject. “At ahead flank—” She looked at her watch and did a quick mental calculation. “—we can be there in two days.”
    Pete swiped the screen with his finger, expanding the small chart of their destination. A tiny spot of land became visible. Several bands of dotted lines surrounded it with the words RESTRICTED ZONE . It was the research station, he could see. And on the chart its name had been abbreviated.
    ERIS.
    Pete touched the map, and the image of the island expanded.
    It was a navigation chart that looked deeply familiar to Pete, in the same way the control room felt familiar, something borne of thousands of hours of studying. A TOP SECRET label adorned it on top and bottom.
    He tapped a button on