A Child of Atom

## Transcript

I had a dream. Am I in heaven? Am I in hell? Am I in purgatory? The answer is none of the above. It's also neither a nightmare nor a sweet dream I'm having. No! It's... a vision to the future.

It's 364 years into the future. Michael Andrews looked out the window of his Council Hall office. Titanic City bustled underneath the beautiful summer sky. He stood up to stretch his legs and take a better look. Across Vault Street lay Smith Square, where the 75ft. (23 metres) tall statue of Edward J. Smith, first High Captain of the Republic of Avalon, stood proud and mighty, as if the legendary Smith were still ready to lead the band of passengers and crew to starting a new life in Terra Nova (term for a post-Last Day Earth). The statue was one of the oldest monuments in city, built nearly 300 years ago to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Republic. Andrews began to think back to the history lessons of his youth at the primary school in Port Andrews, the capital of New Eire, the province which Andrews now proudly represented in Congress. Every child in Avalon learned of the brave founders who were swept across time and space to this location to build a new society in the untouched, pristine wilderness of Manhattan already restored via terraforming technology while most of the planet is reduced into radioactive ruins filled with raiders, ghouls and survivors. Provided with ample supplies and tools from the mysterious members of the Order, Smith, Murdoch, Lightoller, Ismay, Andrews, Astor, Guggenheim, and the many other leaders of the 2,202 people aboard the RMS *Titanic* set out to establish a new society of mankind. Andrews stood there looking out the window, wondering what it must have been like for his ancestors, arriving in this strange new world, having been whisked away by some unexplainable technology (still unexplainable to this day!) from everything they had known. Andrews looked away from the window across his office to where a portrait of the first Captain Smith hung on the wall. Smith was on the bridge of the *Titanic* (the ship was still afloat at the Memorial Dock, serving as part of the National Historical Museum), looking out at the untamed wilderness (terraformed from its almost-cleared ruins) that lay out before him as far as the eye could see. What must have gone through his head on April 15, 1912 (or as most common people thought of it, year 1), as *Titanic* sailed into what they thought of as New York harbor, only to find that there was no New York City?

Well, that's next time. But for now, I soon woke up to find out that I'm in the medical room inside the Astor House as I hear the heartbeats getting a bit slower as I finally recover from radiation poisoning from accidentally ingesting the radiated water while I was fighting against an Enclave soldier who was trying to detonate an undetonated atomic bomb fell from an American World War II-era B-29 Superfortress plane taken out from an aviation museum (since they had to use obsolete nuclear weapons out of their desperation due to their dwindling resources).

"Slow your breathing, Sergeant Su," said Ballard. "Recover your strength. Big plans are in motion. The tides are turning. The Grand Alliance is rising again. I will need you by my side.... when we make our move."

All of a sudden, I closed my eyes again and start dreaming about the not-so-far past. Just... well, a few weeks ago. Foreshadowing the next chapter is how the *Titanic* was heading to a new world... a destroyed, modern-day world scarred from the Last Day and the Third World War. And before being time-travelled to the future, my dream began a very long time ago, more than a century and a half ago. It was April 14th, 1912.

A sudden jolt reverberated throughout the ship. That’s what woke E.J. Smith up. He looked at the clock on the wall after switching on the light. Nearly midnight. What had gone wrong? He quickly dressed and then headed out of his cabin, down the hall and into the bridge. The captain found officer Murdoch on duty and asked him what had happened.

“Sir, lookouts reported seeing an iceberg right ahead. I ordered the ship hard a starboard and the engines full astern, but it looked like we were going to hit.” The captain interrupted.

“We WERE going to? We didn’t?”

“No, sir. We were just about to when a bright flash of light engulfed us and then..” Murdoch’s voice trailed off.

“And then what, Officer Murdoch?”

“Well, I’m not really sure, Captain. The ship shook, then the light went away, and there was no iceberg anywhere in sight. And it’s strange. You’ll notice the moon is out now sir, and very bright. And the sea is no longer calm like it was earlier.”

Smith walks out on deck and looks out at the sea, noting for himself what the First Officer had said.

“Yes, this is indeed strange. Have the radio operators see if they can raise any other ship in the area, see if they saw the great flash of light too. And let's decrease our speed by half. I don’t want to have any more near misses with bergs.”

Smith remained on the bridge for another two hours. Some crew began to inquire as to what had caused the shudder, since they were being asked by passengers. The captain told them that it was because of a near miss with an iceberg, and that there was nothing to worry about. Smith just wished he believed that himself. After two more hours, with nothing changing, the captain returned to his room, giving Murdoch strict orders to wake him if anything strange or out of the ordinary occurred. Little did he know that when he awoke to the dawn of April 15... in the 21st century... my time, that his life would never be the same.

I soon wake up. I opened my eyes once more and I saw some of my friends, including Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. They're looking at me as I finally regain my strength from acute radiation poisoning from drinking a puddle of stagnant, irradiated water by accident while I was fighting an Enclave soldier. They smiled at me too.

"The fever's subsiding... I think he's getting better... now," said Pinkie Pie. "He needs some rest... you too, Pepper... we've got hope now..."