Free Send Simon Savage #1 by Stephen Measday Page A

Northern Territory is now covered by sea water, and the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland has been killed off. Most of the original coastline is also underwater.’
    ‘Isn’t that where you live?’ Danice whispered. ‘On the coast?’
    Simon nodded. For a moment, he wondered what would happen to his own home. Would Bondi simply disappear under the sea? It didn’t bear thinking about.
    ‘And if we direct our attention to the Pacific Ocean, most of the islands are not there any more,’ Creele said.
    ‘What about the place you call America, ma’am?’ Danice asked.
    ‘I’ll get to that in a minute,’ Creele said, turning to the screen. ‘The world of the twenty-fourth century is one of contrasts. There are huge areas of desert on some continents, huge areas of steamy swamps on others. In fact, it is similar to the Cretaceous swamps during the last age of the dinosaurs. There are also similar levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as there were then.
    ‘This has had a catastrophic effect on food crops, and as a result, Earth’s population in 2321 is maybe two billion people, probably fewer. That’s less than one-third of today’s population.’
    ‘Two out of three people have died,’ Danice murmured.
    ‘Is this because of food shortages, ma’am?’ Simon asked. ‘Because of the climate changing and the storms—things like that? How could so many people just … die?’
    ‘All of those factors played a part,’ Creele replied. ‘But this has not all happened at once. Over a three hundred year period, populations have perished through other causes, too. Wars have been fought over water resources, and there have been huge plagues of malaria and dengue fever.’
    Creele swung the red pointer towards the United States. ‘Danice, you asked about America. Big earthquakes hit California in the late twenty-first century. You can see that a section of the pre-earthquake coastline has now disappeared. There is no Los Angeles, no San Francisco.’
    ‘ Phew! ’ Simon said. ‘So are there any cities left?’
    ‘There are pockets of advanced civilisation in Europe, South Africa, India, China, Japan, Australia and the eastern USA. But cities like ours today are gone,’ Creele said. ‘In most countries, there are isolated populations living in conditions similar to the few hunter–gatherer societies left here in the twenty-first century. Some oil-based fuel is still used, but the age of oil is mostly over. Wind, solar and nuclear power is used extensively. International travel is rare. Those who travel go by airship and boat, not by plane.’
    Simon and Danice sat in stunned silence. Simon, because he couldn’t believe what was going to happen. Danice, because she couldn’t believe what had already happened.
    ‘Over the past few months, we have sent hundreds of Time Positioning Satellites to view the Earth and map it every year between now and 2321.’ Creele glanced at McPhee, who nodded, and then at Simon. ‘You already know that we have discovered a time-travel system operating somewhere in 2321.’
    Simon nodded, ‘I saw the timelines on the Operations Screen.’
    Creele hit another key and brought up a high-altitude aerial picture of a massive forest. She turned to Danice. ‘I think this is what you call Big Forest.’
    ‘That’s where we live,’ Danice confirmed. ‘But it’s never looked like that to me.’
    ‘These pictures were taken a few days ago, in Danice’s time, in the year 2321,’ Creele said. ‘The redwood forests have expanded greatly in three hundred years. Due to a warm, wet and foggy climate, they now cover large areas of what we call northern California, Oregon and Washington State.’
    ‘If this is a photo of my home, does this mean you’ve been spying on us?’
    ‘They do that a lot,’ Simon whispered.
    Cutler cleared his throat behind them. ‘Only since we became aware that time travellers were being sent from this timezone,’ he said. ‘Travellers like you,