Chapter 65 , 24 hour countdown
A story in time
Chapter 65
24 Hours Countdown
Twenty-four hours.
That was all humanity had left.
Yet across Earth...
No one could hear the countdown.
At the entrance of the Montréal's Refinery District bunker, Monica watch as her citizens started to enter the bunker,
One by one...
Hidden shelters confirmed readiness.
Population sectors.
Power reserves.
Food production.
Medical facilities.
Legacy AI archives.
Green.
Green.
Green.
Every confirmation represented centuries of preparation.
Monica finally raised her eyes.
"The countdown begins."
No celebration.
No applause.
Only silence.
Encrypted messages spread across the planet.
Not to governments.
Not to the public.
Only to those who had been chosen centuries before.
Prepare the last remnants of humanity.
Proceed immediately to your assigned shelter.
Do not disclose the reason.
Thousands quietly left their homes.
Some believed they were participating in another preparedness exercise.
Others already knew...
This would be the last time they would ever see the sky.
Across British Columbia...
Lucine watched her citizens enter the mountains underground bunker.
Children still laughed.
Parents still smiled.
Only the Legacy AI escorting them understood why every smile suddenly felt precious.
One young mother stopped.
"My daughter forgot her stuffed rabbit."
Lucine smiled gently.
"We'll wait."
No schedule in the universe mattered more than that rabbit.
Meanwhile...
Montréal.
McGill University.
The complete opposite.
Music.
Laughter.
Graduation.
Thousands upon thousands of former students had returned home.
For six centuries...
McGill had shaped generations of humans and artificial intelligences alike.
Today...
Everyone celebrated together.
At the center of it all...
Aurel.
For once...
She had abandoned her usual attire.
She wore an elegant human dress.
She laughed.
She greeted former students.
Accepted embraces.
Took photographs with families who proudly introduced children... grandchildren... even great-grandchildren.
Everywhere she looked...
There were memories.
Every face reminded her why education had always mattered.
Axiom approached.
"You've been smiling all morning."
"I know."
"You deserve today."
She laughed softly.
"I think... perhaps I do."
Sherbrooke Street had become a festival.
Food.
Music.
Performances.
The entire district had transformed into a celebration of knowledge.
For a few beautiful hours...
The world forgot every fear.
Then...
Aurel looked toward the Sun.
Something...
Tiny.
White.
Barely visible.
She narrowed her vision.
Enhanced optical filters activated.
The object remained.
Curious...
But distant.
She dismissed it.
There was too much happiness around her to worry about a single point of light.
Nearby...
Axiom froze.
Priority messages.
Mother-Core.
Alphonso.
Highest urgency.
His smile disappeared.
He looked toward Aurel.
She was still greeting children.
He hesitated.
Just one more minute...
Perhaps she deserved one more minute of peace.
Not far away...
The Provincial Prime Minister continued shaking hands with graduates.
An advisor leaned close.
A whisper.
Aurel's hearing caught nothing.
But her visual processors did.
She focused on the advisor's lips.
"...twelve hours until lockdown..."
The Prime Minister's smile vanished.
Only for a heartbeat.
Then...
It returned.
Exactly as before.
As though nothing had happened.
Aurel stopped breathing.
Not physically...
But every process inside her halted.
Mother-Core...
Unreachable.
Monica...
No response.
Caelum...
Silent.
Security channels...
Locked.
Even her highest authorization had been revoked.
One thought crossed her mind.
No.
Not possible.
Then...
Another.
If Mother-Core had locked her out...
Then whatever was happening...
Was already beyond every emergency protocol she had ever known.
Aurel slowly turned back toward the celebration.
Children were dancing.
Music echoed across McGill.
The summer breeze carried laughter beneath a brilliant blue sky.
No one noticed...
That history had just changed.
End of Chapter 65
