III #2
"So what are we waiting for?" Nika was already at the elevator.
"Wait," Nick stopped her. She looked at him. "Who knows what could be down there. And we have a problem."
"What problem?" she asked him.
"Tomi got the P.A. working, and we've got two thousand young people expecting a party, and there'll be hell to pay if we don't give them one, or at least some explanations."
Nika returned to her spot beside the server and waited.
"What do we tell them?" Nick asked those present.
"The truth," Nika suggested, while Tomi's expression agreed with her. "It's best to give people the plain truth, especially if the news is hard. And not to give them time to think, but to steer their thoughts to something else."
"Yeah, that worked with war survivors — I read somewhere that it was easier for them to live with loss if they had some motivation to move on," Tomi deepened the idea.
"Okay, what motivation do we give them?" Nick asked with a frown.
"Something that would give them the will to go on, to keep their morale and their wits, some goal," Nika was completely absorbed in the idea. Her gaze wandered over the machinery around her. Her face brightened. "A Restart!"
The two of them looked at each other. Nika explained:
"A Restart means starting over. Building civilization. Being the pioneers of a new age, and being grateful for the sheer luck that the party was thrown in an atomic shelter," she looked at them energetically, expecting a reaction.
"What godforsaken building of civilization, woman?" Nick waved a hand. "We're in a fucking atomic shelter — where do you see green fields and meadows? I see only concrete and stone, and people need to eat, as far as I know."
Nika thought for a moment, then answered him energetically:
"First of all, from what I understood, this was used as a warehouse?" she asked.
Nick nodded, and she went on:
"So there must be some food here, at least for a while. We should also check the water supply, which comes from somewhere. The designers didn't build here for nothing."
The two of them fell to thinking. The idea, at least in theory, held water; now the facts just had to be checked. Nika continued. She looked at Nick boldly:
"Besides, you don't need meadows and fields for food, just knowledge and will. You'd be surprised."
Untouched by her jabs, Nick had, for the first time, a glimmer of some kind of hope, and in his head he searched for the warehouse inventory records. He knew that as many as three big supermarket chains rented space for non-perishable goods. He just had to check the paperwork. Tomi suddenly added:
"We need to set up a structure of responsibilities. Down there we have young people and some of the smartest minds of the generation. Harness them to create a functional community of people contributing all the knowledge they have. A system of governance, something like a technocracy.
Streams are formed that will be responsible for managing some part of the community and have their own representative, or a head, to speak for them."
Nick scratched his head thoughtfully, but then agreed:
"That really could work. Most of the crew is intelligent enough to grasp what's happening or what we intend to do."
"And it will also sway that minority who might have trouble accepting the situation," Nika added with satisfaction.
"Okay, then let's not wait," Nick sat at the console and took hold of the microphone.
"Wait," Tomi suddenly interrupted him.
Nick paused and looked at his friend questioningly.
"Let me ask, what exactly do you want to tell them?"
"What do you mean?" Nick didn't understand.
"Well, if you get on and tell people the world is bye-bye, and then announce that they have to rebuild civilization, you'll have riots if you don't package it in an acceptable way."
Nick looked at the girl, who, like him, didn't understand where Tomi was going. Tomi continued:
"First of all, you have a too-deep and dangerous voice. You'll sound like a kidnapper or I don't know what, but dangerous, mostly. That won't help you win the support of a crowd of frightened people," Tomi explained as they began to understand.
"I think she…" Tomi nodded toward Nika, whose eyes widened, "would be a much better choice for delivering the news. The fact is that people react much more easily to bad news if a pleasant female voice delivers it."
"Where'd you get that now?" Nick couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"I read it somewhere on the internet," Tomi explained shyly.
"And you believe such nonsense?"
"Something about the association with a mother and motherhood in a female voice makes people more receptive and calmer. That's how it was explained, at least."
Tomi pushed the words out, though he didn't believe the theory himself.
But he forced himself to sound serious and convincing, because the fact was that Nika sounded phenomenal and every word she spoke sent shivers down his spine.
He'd never reacted to a female voice that way before — he just wanted to listen to Nika and admire her, from the sidelines.
Unconsciously he looked in her direction.
And again she noticed him, and again gave him that incredible smile.
For her a completely natural reaction, and for him an ecstasy of the nerves as shivers ran through his body. Nick brought him back to reality:
"Okay, if the internet said so, then it must be true," he sounded sarcastic, but got up from the chair anyway and invited Nika to sit.
She reluctantly agreed and sat down in the chair.
Tomi, breathing hard, explained the controls of the old-fashioned microphone and what she had to do to broadcast.
After a moment's hesitation, Nika pressed the microphone button, and her voice rang out through the static of a system that had probably never been used before.