Chapter 48: Solutions

Drake was back at another Smummr, but in a different seat than usual. This time, he was representing the Defense Force.

“I get that General Rein is not awake, but why the heck am I here?! What about the Commanders? Why couldn’t they come?!” Drake complained to himself.

They were apparently too busy with their own work and trusted Drake to be responsible enough to take the spot, but it felt more like they were lazy and dumped work on him.

He was still injured, parts of his body being wrapped in bandages, but the meeting was important, as the aftermath of Steve’s mutation incident had to be discussed, so he took the pain of coming.

Drake looked around the room. The meeting was set to start soon, but there were fewer members there than he was used to seeing.

“Man, these numbers are really thinning out.”

All the sudden disappearances and deaths were adding up faster than the replacements could be made. Drake missed Steve being there to explain. He’d carried most of the fun of being at the otherwise boring meeting.

As the President arrived and took his seat at the head of the table, everyone quietened as usual.

“Ahem. We have a lot to discuss this Smummr, so let us cut to the chase, shall we?

“First in order…Doctor Lazzie, I think we owe you an apology.”

Everyone turned to the doctor. She was seated calmly, listening with a serious expression.

“Some members in the government came to the conclusion that you were an alien, perhaps affiliated with those that sent the meteorite and hacked the SORSs. We did have what we thought was sufficient evidence for it, but we were planning to make a peaceful arrest followed by an interrogation to confirm this and extract information, so your life was not in danger. However, it would turn out that Steve was actually the alien, and you are innocent.

“We’ve gone through the doctor’s background documents to confirm this. The lesson here is that it is easier to accuse someone of a crime and pick evidence around the claim than to think clearly about both sides of the argument. I apologize on behalf of myself, those who were planning to arrest you, and the anonymous individuals who brought this information to our notice.”

Dr. Lazzie was about to speak when:

“What pathetic Intelligence we must have, to make such a blunder,” Zachary Straggler remarked with a sly smile. “Of course someone who has contributed so much to humanity’s survival and fight against the Mayhems couldn’t possibly be a traitor. I think our Intelligence agencies deserve to be under better leadership.”

“I’ll take your advice under consideration, Zachary.” President Atkinson gave him a stern gaze. “However, for now, we have more pressing matters to discuss.”

“More important than Intelligence? I cannot see how this is not important. Its demonstrated lack of ability has nearly led to the destruction of the city!”

Some members joined in and voiced their support for Straggler. Atkinson was getting frustrated.

But so was Drake. “Alright, listen up,” he stood up. “I’m tired of having to sit through these childish fights. I’d like to get all the topics over with as fast as possible so that I can get out of here, along with whoever else is sensible. The rest of you can spend the remaining time yelling at one another until you lose your voices, okay?”

Everyone sat in silence. Bill covered his face in his hands in embarrassment. Warren Atkinson stifled a laugh.

“Hold on, kid…” one Authority started.

“Drake.”

“…Drake, these topics aren’t something we can easily glide past.”

“Really? Why don’t we try this time, and see how it goes?”

The man wanted to protest, but was at a loss for words.

“Before that, are we going to ignore the blatant lack of discipline…”

“Oh, leave the kid alone, Jake.”

“I, for one, want to see what kind of vision he has.”

The riled Authorities unanimously agreed, with various excuses, to let Drake lead the Smummr to teach him a lesson on how difficult it was to get things done.

“First topic,” President Atkinson read from his clipboard, “after the fearless Expedition and long battle recently…”

“Get to the point, please.”

“…Rencia is out of gunpowder.”

Ah, right, we used it up in the explosion. This is bad. Our guns and Laser Shooters use it. We’re basically out of ammo, with no way to produce it.

“Department of Weapons and Technology, science people, is there any replacement explosive that we can produce?”

“Well, even if we replace it, the replacement won’t be sustainable. At some point, we’ll have to garner the component resources,” said Tristan Wells.

“I see… so we have two options now: to find a way to gather the components, or to create new weapons altogether that don’t run on gunpowder. Let’s see… Mr. Wells, your department has made a substance that is strong against Mayhems, right?”

“Er… yes.”

“Can we imbue that into the military’s swords?”

“…I think that’s possible.”

“That would be really cool. Let’s do that.

“That won’t be enough, though. We need explosives. The basic components of traditional gunpowder are potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur.” Drake knew this from classes in the Defense Force. “We might not be able to craft modern gunpowder, but this mix should work for now. I don’t think we’ll find everything within the Walls, though.

“Actually, we’re running low on a lot of other resources as well,” said the Authority of the Department of Manufacturing, Colt Russell.

“I see… Then, how about this: let’s organize another Expedition outside the Walls, this time for gathering resources.”

“One minute. You’re announcing that simply as if it’s not a big deal.”

“Of course, it’ll require a lot of planning. We’ll do it after the reparations to the city and Walls. Someone will have to locate nearby mines, factories to scavenge, forests to harvest wood from, and stuff. We can discuss that next Smummr. What’s the next topic.”

Everyone was flabbergasted.

You think this is easy?! James Wallace, the head of the Department of Agriculture and Food thought. “How about the food shortage after this winter?” No one’s been able to solve this so far. Give up.

“Ah, right. The food coupons have been annoying. The lack of farmland is so stupid. Let’s see… a few meetings ago, President Atkinson said that energy will also be a problem this winter, right?”

“Indeed.” The head of the Department of Energy, Samantha Jenson spoke. “We’re trying to extend our coal supplies as long as possible, but winter will deplete them significantly.”

“Ah, so the amount of coal is the restriction here. It doesn’t matter. Use it all up. We’re going to gather more this Expedition anyway.

“Also, can’t we put up some wind turbines on the Walls?”

“You want us to look back into Wind Energy?”

“Yeah. Seems easier than depending on coal.”

“Well… we can take a look… but someone will have to manufacture them.” She grinned and looked at Russell.

Colt looked disgusted and angry. “Heck no.”

“Why not?” Drake asked.

Colt looked at him. “It’s too hard.”

“Looks pretty simple to me. I think they even taught us how to make it in school.”

“We’re too busy with other stuff.”

“Aw, come on. We’ll solve your resource problem for you, and once the turbines are done, you’ll get more energy to work with, too. Think of it as a long-term investment.”

Colt looked at a few other faces, which nodded, before relenting. “Fine.”

“What’s this deviation into energy about, anyway?” Wallace asked.

“I had an idea: we have a lot of unused buildings lying around, right? What if we use heating to create a warm environment and grow crops indoors? Like a greenhouse.” This sparked debate. “This is only a temporary fix for securing food for the next season. Then, we can farm a lot.”

“But the farms are incapable of…”

“Space is the issue, right? Why don’t we do vertical farming?”

Once more, there was commotion.

“We’ve thought of that, of course, but we don’t have the infrastructure for it!” Wallace explained.

“Then procure it. Geez, if you guys look at everything as an obstacle, you won’t get anywhere.

“Mr. Russell, can you help them with that.”

“As long as we’re compensated, sure. We can print out the main structures.”

“Other stuff can be found in hardware stores. Would you look at that; we’re solving problems.”

Drake was surprised by the lack of communication between the Departments.

“Why don’t we take this a step further. In spring, let’s start farming outside the Walls.”

Silence.

“A-are you serious?”

“Why not?”

“Farmers can’t go out there!”

“They can be accompanied by soldiers. Besides, modern farming is mostly automated. There’s no need to check for pests or anything for now either, right? Most of them should have mutated, so little maintenance is needed.”

“The Mayhems will trample all the crops!”

Drake rubbed his eyes. “You guys haven’t seen outside the Walls, have you? I have. I can assure you there are far fewer Mayhems out there than you think. If it still worries you, we can stick to quick-growth crops and periodically eliminate nearby Mayhems.”

Potatoes were out of the question. Halfway through the twenty-first century, alarming news broke out that they were found to be carcinogenic—a fact industries and countries had been covering up. This discovery contributed to the start of World War III. Potatoes were, indeed, too good to be true.

As the Smummr went on, Drake continued to tackle the city’s problems, one by one. People at the table—Bill, President Atkinson, Dr. Lazzie, and others—noticed that Drake’s personality had changed from what it used to be. His personality could have once been summarized by the phrase: ‘mayhem-hater’, but he now had more depth. He’d been through a lot, and his experiences had changed him. One could tell that he cared about humanity now.

Suddenly, the door flung open. A messenger entered the conference room.

“Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt, but there’s an emergency!”

The room’s attention went to him.

“What is it?” Atkinson asked.

“It’s the SORS that Rencia recently connected to… it just alerted us that an object is descending to Rencia from space!!!”