Brotherly love

The heavy doors of the elevator open and a handsome man steps out of it. His eyes are held on the device in his hands. It is not hard to recognise him as Avialy Roland, the youth inheritor of the Avialy Company from his well known and easy recognisable face. His gaze is projected solely on one spot, on the picture of his dearly loved little sister. He dosen’t really know when he fell in love with her but the burning sensation in his heart has been there for a long time. It’s not usual for inexperienced influential sons to declare love on their siblings for the sake of ensuring their business’s future. However, he never found this trait desirable. Opposite to that, he genuinely loves her from the depths of his heart and dedicates his life to earn her recognition. He finds other families who take away the free will of the lesser party, be it the man or the woman, utterly disgusting. An Avialy knows that a happy slave is still one. There is a certain charm in affection unfolding after forced marriage but true love cannot bud from from that, at least that’s what he firmly believes in.

With a sigh he puts his phone away as he arrives at the conference room. Heated but certainly not spiteful arguments leak out from behind the door as they try to convince the other party. The moment he enters the people in company uniforms go silent to greet him then continue from where they left off. He sits down on one of the chairs to listen to the conversation.

“The whole Western-Szegy is cut off connection. The underground cables are damaged at multiple areas. We should not waste any effort in neither of the wastelands that were once a capital nor the Industrial City. They are gone and we can’t do anything about the radiation yet. We have to go and check the Szegy department and rescue our people! They are trapped with little food and no electricity. Everything runs on the private power grid. They can’t even leave the building.”

“I agree with that but we can hardly spend that much effort. Repairing the line would take too much time and we don’t even know if they are still alive or not. The capital should not be fully contaminated, we have to move to grab the opportunity to gain a foothold there.”

“What about our people?! They are the most important, we can’t leave them alone to die.”

Man and women from young to old are sitting behind the large table debating about future actions. The Company does not really care who you are and where you came from, if you are a true member of the family and your abilities are recognised you are given the role most benefitting for the Avialy Company. Even with that, differences often arise which lead to new unique viewpoints of the situation that helps gaining an edge over other companies. The almost religious faithfulness and reliance on each other is a rare virtue in the whole world. Ever since religion itself was banned and frowned upon, science marveled and people began to bond in other ways. Still, this level of cohesiveness is uncommon.

Roland frowns a little hearing the news. He is the one who has to decide in the end so to stop useless topics take up the the already meager time they have, he cuts into their words. The other people in the room are a bit surprised about this but with a mere nod they let it go.

“There is no way we can leave our own alone. The Avialy never leaves their own behind. We will rescue them as soon as possible.” To his decisiveness they all fall into deep thought already trying to find the best way to solve the problem.

“Are you sure?” 

A short haired woman ask this question not so after. As he turns to the direction of the voice, he recognises her as Palma Viola who represents the research and development branch. He smirks a little thinking of those quirky people. They rarely bother to sleep, let alone get out of their labs or workshops. They don’t care about politics or inner competition at all, they always send the newest employee so that they are not interrupted in their work. They are really nice people, but only if you go to them. They never really noticed or cared about the current events either, continuing their job as if nothing happened. 

No matter what, even the ‘children’, as the workers call new employees are all already competent people with a long history of success. There are exceptions for prodigies, but that is not an everyday occurrence. Roland answers her question.

“The repairs are going well and we already began to refit Base Delta to be the new HQ. I see no problems, in a few days we should be able to expand. Until then, we have to save our own we swore to protect. Base Szegy might be still intact, which is important to know as important data might get stolen. Or worse, others might try to claim it to live inside safely, underground. The ASDF has more than two thousand guards on standby with nothing to protect. I say we go and check it. On our way we can inspect the damage to the connection and if we can repair it. No use in having them sitting around doing nothing.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“ ‘On our way?’ you said?” An older man sitting close to him asks surprised.

“Of course. I have to go to enter the databank and the vault. Worst case we bring back some supplies from the storages.” 

Few people in the room are already standing over a map, marking different areas they have intelligence about. There are many smaller towns in the way that are completely intact, but they are full of scared people with without running water or electricity. They have food for a few days at best. Even if some have more stored, they won’t be able to transport it very far. Most cars are electric as the oil became really expensive ten years ago. This ordeal was a small catastrophe that drove technology further really quickly, at least until it was resolved. People used the well developed mass transit systems that became even cheaper than before. Well, the Avialy never had such problems from the beginning. Although it’s inefficient, they can synthesize enough for themselves.

The electric cars can’t carry heavy loads as that cuts their travel distance drastically. The ones that still use diesel are mostly the farm machinery and lorries. Those will get people to other people, but then what? Give their own precious food and supplies to others? Waste the little fuel they have to use to grow food? There is no way people are that kind, unless they have enough for themselves first.

The people commented, that’s their job, their purpose. Even Roland himself doesn’t really like the idea that he himself has to go, but he is the only one who has access to the vaults. He can’t leave sensitive information behind and without the connection he can’t have it self-destruct. No, there is someone else, but her sister should stay in a safe location. He gave her the authority to protect her, not to put her in danger.

He grows into a smile thinking about her beautiful and kind sister. That girl never in her life had a selfish thought and stayed away from the company for his sake, so that he can build up respect without fear of competition. In his heart he knew, she could do much better than him which left a sour taste in his mouth. Roland knows that if the two of them turned against each other he couldn’t bear to lose to her. He wouldn’t give up even after his genius sister stomped his face into the mud a thousand times with little to no effort.

But she just doesn’t like doing it for some reason, thankfully. She hides her strong and beautiful personality behind a timid and lovely one people can only adore. Long ago, he thought she feared that others will start hating her, but he realised, her sister doesn’t see the company more important than a rock on the street. She would not care if she was reduced to a simple working class, normal girl. She just… doesn’t seem to find a reason for herself to fight and live for.

“It might be actually a sickness” He mumbles under his breath with no one hearing it, then raises a question to the girl that spoke up before.

“How is the QUA.. QMUEG... whatever the acronym is project going? Why did father approve of this name...”

“It’s quantum mechanics under controlled electro-gravity fields.”

“Yeah. That.”

“I believe we provided a detailed report. Why?”

“I want to know one thing. When will it reach the level of usefulness?”

“We can’t be sure. It can be now, tomorrow or years later. We work day and night and use the best supercomputers and simulations in the test field, but it’s impossible to predict.”

“Alright. I’m sorry, but it seems we have to put this on freeze for the time being. We need the monstrous amount of energy you use up for the base. I promise you get back to it as quickly as we are done.” 

He stands straight as a drop of sweat drops from his face. As the head of the company, he has to tell this to them. It’s not like everyone pushed the troublesome task upwards.

The girl frozen still gazes his face with empty eyes, she is already gone to the wonderlands. This is the problem with these genius scientists. At times like this they are like children who got their favorite toy taken away. When they fall into the frenzied state all that is in their heads is the research they are working on. They are like the religious fanatics back then.

As the girls returns to among the living the others flinch in the room. She darts towards Roland and clutters.

“Right? Right. It’s expected. Just a few weeks at worst, right? Right. It’s normal. But boss, are you sure about that, you will cut electricity from us completely? Everything?” As the girl speaks to him closely lining in his face, he has a hard time not stepping back.

“Of course not. You will just be limited to the normal energy levels other facilities have.”

“Then the computers will work, right? If it’s the normal energy and we cut down the back..and we disassemble a few cores. It should, right?”

“I don’t know, but it should. Only the test fields will be at null.”

“I see.” She steps back, and start to chew on one of her nails. “I see. We can.. Somehow live through that. I apologise Mr. Avialy.” 

The girl dashes quickly out of the room, but Roland knows that for a few days he can expect a few stares on his back. It’s not like they will really hate him, they are the most rational people on the planet, it’s just not easy to swallow this for them. He also understands that interrupting an incredibly complicated task is very taxing on their minds. With a sigh he returns to his previous business. 

Thus, it was decided that they will leave the next day before her sister gets back. He forbid anyone to inform her beforehand.

Next: The people of the city