L.O.C.T.

Air Force Technical Sergeant Alicia Petersen scrutinized her computer screen, she had received an impossible e-mail and was trying to make sense of what she read while aware of the immediate need to report any breach such as this to her supervisor. The email though, was blowing her mind, and she hadn't even opened the attachment.

To: [email protected]

From:

Subject: Human Race Possible Extinction

Tech Sergeant Petersen,

Please be advised this is not a hoax nor a hack. We have intentionally sent this message to numerous persons working in the NORAD system as this is currently the planet's most secure and unhackable computer system. This is intentional to demonstrate we are not of your time, and can therefore access any computer system and person in your era. Our current year is 2222. We have developed the means to send messages to computers in the past, we have not developed a means of future contact so this communication is unidirectional. We will in future emails send you a detailed list of worldwide events transpiring in the next twelve months to demonstrate our legitimacy. We have sent e-mails to other government entities, corporations, and even celebrities for the last twenty years. This particular attempt though is for descendents to correspond with their ancestors who are military or government workers holding the highest level of security clearance. Basically we are contacting the uncontactable. My name is Mygon, and I am your descendent. I work for H.O.P.E. You were born in Cuthbert, Georgia in a nursing home due to the speed of delivery and lack of a hospital in the town. Family rumors state your MotherMomma had a cat/opossum mix named 'Croak-a-see.' You will need to report this up your chain of command and request they submit it to POTUS for further dissemination to other world leaders. Due to our study of world political and business leaders of your time we have little faith in them changing the course of history and therefore petition you to help with a grass roots effort to save humanity. Please share what you have learned in the following document. to P.S. You should go out with the ginger haired Coast Guard Lt. Commander you will meet in Chicago. I and your offspring would appreciate it.

Sincerely, Mygon L.O.C.T 51689433

Technical Sergeant Petersen knew she should read no farther and must report the email. She was reeling though,knowing the city of her birth could easily be determined but it didn't reference the facility and she had never told anyone of her Momma's cat/opossum for fear of ridicule. And all this on the most secure computer system in the world?

The attachment opened automatically.

Technical Sergeant Petersen glanced around nervously and it appeared several other sergeants in the comm. center looked similarly nervous. She read rapidly.

Attachment:

Dear Mr President and all humankind,

Human life expectancy has steadily decreased over the last eight generations. Currently death in the mid-thirties is a life well lived, locket free. Generations of vaccines and boosters rushed to market resulted in species- wide cardiomyopathy. The original CoVid 19 virus is now referred to as Virus One. The anti-vaxers died out within three generations. Virus One continued to evolve and other viruses carried by the bats from the Guangzhou region and their subsequent variants became Viruses 2-27. The Wuhan laboratory had collected corona viruses for decades prior to Virus One and warned against human encroachment into the wetland cave systems, but developers were not dissuaded. As the anti-vaxxers died off the global scientific community finally got on top of the viruses and petitioned for the displacement of all humans from the pertinent southern Chinese provinces. Sixty years after Virus One the life expectancy due to cardiac damage was 65, prompting the UN and especially the G-14 to support the resettlement of 80 million people. The area was declared a world wide superfund/ hazardous site. More commonly known as, "the human races' self-destruct button." A few world leaders had originally called for the use of nuclear strikes, "nuking the bats and viruses into extinction,' but the scientists prevailed and continued to push more global conservation changes. All energy is now renewable, refuse is developed in closed loop local development centers. All food, as well as animal and human waste is processed in digesters, the methane burned results in stored electricity; the water vapor, heat, and carbon monoxide cultivate/support/assist plants growth in greenhouses world wide. Bananas and tomatoes grow year round in Greenland, Alaska and Siberia. Norway and Finland compete for the world's most beautiful tropical hibiscus. The coral reefs are bright again and global temperature stabilized. Human life though continues to lessen. Cardiologists and scientists cancould not slow the ever increasing cardiomyopathy. When the life span decreased to fifty years, scientists shifted from a biological to a technological solution. Artificial hearts limited by their materials and powering system were a short term fix. The UN created the Human Longevity Protection Enterprise, H.O.P.E. The human race's top priority:, reversing or stopping the cardiac degradation. The breakthrough occurred as many such do, a convergence of hard work, intelligence, and luck. Work conducted simultaneously at hadron super colliders in Brookhaven, CERN, and Huairou. A young apprentice at Brookhaven accidentally transposed the coordinates during one experiment resulting in the existence of theoretical dark matter. The result was shared and the experiment replicated at the other two laboratories; the resulting application of channeling dark matter as a perpetual energy source. The channeling device is only a cubic centimeter, an indefinite power source for something as small as a heart. The cardiac pump retains the basic heart shape and structure of four different chambers attending to the specific cardio pulmonary needs of human physiology. The componentry of the locket is comprised of platinum and an evolutionary silicone influenced by the amniotic fluid of Ssouth Aamerican howler monkeys. The resultant silicone out performs any human tissue and remains pliable for well over a hundred years. The 'locket is the colloquial/common term for the acronym of the life extending device; the Longevity, Oscillating Cardiac Transmutation device, L.O.C.T.

The componentry, science, and manufacture of the locket results in a price tag similar to one of your F-35 fighter jets. Fortunately large militaries are also defunct so the money for jets and bombs can be used to construct lockets. Fifty years after the development of the locket though, less than ten percent of the population possesses one. Fairness of access to the locket was recognized at the outset. A worldwide lottery was imposed; due to the extreme cost of the locket and the transferability of the locket only one locket is granted per family. While not awarding immortality (other body systems continue the normal aging and failure process) it does grant familial continuation. Once a locket is awarded the family is excluded from any future lotteries. One locket per family. The lockets are federally registered to each family and each transfer is recorded.

The transference of a locket is the ethos of humanity. To whom does one transfer their very existence, their life? Some persons only enter into relationships with other locket possessors, this is the only means by which families may increase their locket quantity. Locket possession also regulates family size, most families only have one child to negate choosing which child receives the locket. Grandparents are a rarity.

Lockets can also be harvested from corpses years after death as they contain no living tissue. During locket transfers the locket is refurbished with new silicone sleeves to fuse with the vena cavas, aorta, pulmonary artery and vein.

We know persons of your time respond best to anecdotal illustrations:

A gold medalist olympic swimmer started showing symptoms of heart failure at age thirty-three, ten years after winning his medal. His father, a novelist, was prepared to transfer his locket to his son. His son told him, “People need distractions now more than ever. I distracted millions of them once for a short period of time. Your books distract them everyday. The world needs you more than me. My time has passed. Keep the locket.” The son died, not accepting the locket. His father continues to produce novels, each one dedicated to his son.

Halfway through her reading Alicia noticed two other technicians rising from their work stations, walking straight-backed through the communications center to the duty officer’s desk at the rear of the communications center. She was too engrossed in the story to stop but skimmed rapidly through the last half. She was glad she skimmed because shortly after finishing the document as she was just starting to stand to report the security breach all of the computers all of the computer screens in the center started flashing bold red letters “security breach.” She turned and looked at Major Deavitt standing in front of her desk, arms crossed, jaw tight, “Sergeant Petersen, do you want to tell me something?”

“Yes, ma’am, I’ve received an email addressed to me that appears to be a breach.”

“How many of the rest of you received the same type of thing?” the Major demanded.

Three additional hands went in the air.

“What the hell do I have going on here people? Smith and Kelso reported to me the minute they determined something was off, Petersen apparently had to skim a bit further, and the rest of you… What the..?” She stood now with her hands on her hips knowing she should say something, the right thing, “We control the nuclear weapons of America. A seconds delay matters, people. I If you detect anything weird, you tell me ASAP. Got it?”

The center murmured their affirmation.

“I will deactivate the breach screen, send me any suspicious emails or files. And in the future do not open anything. Good God, you people know better.”

“Ma’am?” Petersen said.

“Spit it out, Petersen,” Major Deavitt ordered.

“I didn’t open the email, it and the attachment opened automatically.”

The heads attached to the hands that had raised earlier all nodded in agreement.

“Very well, send the emails, there will be a debriefing later, Back to work and pay attention, that’s our job to be ready for the crisis event.”

.