Perched elegantly upon the soft majestic hills of Eastern Canada, somewhere between here and there, an elderly man quaintly smokes his tobacco pipe. Through his years he has seen many things, from the beginning of what was christened an age of peace to a severe arms race between competing Empires which would surly now bring humanity to the brink of war.

For now, he pondered to himself, at least we’re far away.

---

“Sithik! Sithik wake up you fool!” A voice in the distance was shouting. Sithik could make out a distinct tone of both panic and excitement.

“Sithik! Get up! Get up now!” The voice was getting louder, or perhaps closer. Sithik was still caught in a daze. He could remember a face, someone elderly he once knew, or at least thought he might know, but the face had faded to the sounds of alarms slicing through the air.

Sithik tried to open his eyes, but no light begun to fill them. His world remained in darkness. “What’s happening? Why can’t I see?” Sithik asked the mysterious voice, one he was sure he had herd before, but couldn’t quite put a name or face to.

“Your eyes were damaged. The doctor did everything he could. You may never see again. We won’t know for sure for a while.” The voice was right above him now. The panic had faded and now it only conveyed a sense of urgency.

We? Who is we? Who are you? Sithik couldn’t understand what was happening around him. As he begun to rise from what surly was not his bed, a sharp almost debilitating pain filled his body.

“You still can’t move can you? Let me help you”. Sithik could feel himself being lifted, no more like hauled, out of his bed. “Common, get in the chair. Help out for Christ sakes we have to get out of here!” Extending his hand, Sithik was able to make out a metal bar, it’s an armrest, he thought.

“Don’t grab that. Here. It’s over here!”

Suddenly, Sithik was violently thrown, almost as though the entire building he was in dropped and the suddenly returned to its original position.

“Who are you? Tell me what’s going on right now! I want to know!” He proclaimed.

“It’s me Sithik. It’s Vicious. There’s not time to talk. We’re leaving.”

---

“Are you smoking that old pipe again? You know that stuff will kill you… I don’t like when you smoke that stuff around Sithik!” Donna exclaimed as she clambered for the front door.

“The boys inside. He’ll be fine. You coddle him too much. I’ve been smoking this pipe for 74 years, and I’ll be darned if I let some whippersnapper like you tell me to put it down. Hell, I don’t even let the old lady tell me what to do!” Gerald shot back.

“Oh you’ll do what I tell you to old man, or your off my Christmas card list!” came a voice from inside the house.

“Sheila you old bag, I told you not to undermine me. Women… can’t live with em—“

“Can’t live without em. We know dad. Please don’t smoke near the house. I’m so afraid you’ll damage little Sithik’s lungs.” Donna continued.

“He’s a coordinator. There’s no use fumbling about worrying about this and that. In my day we didn’t have advanced genetics’, genome modification and all that other mumbo jumbo! People were born naturally, we didn’t screw around with them to make them ‘better’”

“That was my choice Dad! I wanted to give my son the best future possible! Damn you for not understanding.” Her words turned to tears as she scurried through the door.

“Now look what you’ve done you old fart!” Cries begun to emanate from up the stairs. “Look, now you’ve woken the baby! Go apologize!” Sheila bellowed.

“I WILL NOT! What they’ve done is unnatural!” Gerald was furious. He rose quickly from his throne and darted for the car.

For an old bugger, that heap can really move! Sheila quietly thought to herself as she entered the home. Donna had already made it to the bedroom and locked the door, she wouldn’t be out for a while.

“Well, I guess that leaves the baby to me!” Sheila triumphantly exclaimed as she rose up stairs to tend to the crying child.

She gently embraced the child, swaying him ever so slightly. “There there child. Shhh. Everything is alright.” She elegantly whispered. She gazed upon Sithik, his blue eyes occupied with tears, but yet somehow still managing to exude a sense of peace and tranquility. His face red and bloated, his blood pressures rising as the tears begun to stream down his cheeks. Sheila begun to drift backwards, almost gliding. She was headed for the rocking chair in the corner of the room. The rocking chair which at one time she used cull her daughter, Sithik’s mother, to sleep. One day, one day you’ll be important. I just know it, one day you’re going to be very important”

---

More to come.