Chapter 6 - History

Kharak was an independent city, just like the other cities that were established after the nuclear war in 2320. The city was located in between the former city of San Jose in California and the boundary of Arizona, away from the fringes of the radiation left from the blasts. Its total territory was roughly 1000km² and encompasses the Salton Sea and a big stretch of the Colorado River. There were some outlying territories outside of the city which contained an important element, Boron. The element was frequently used to shield themselves from the harsh environment tainted by radioactivity.

The population of 25 million survivors mostly from America and Canada initially left their own cities and towns on a journey after the war and nuclear fallout to settle down in Kharak, as most of the soil in Northern America wasn't suitable for planting and they were facing the threat of starvation once their current food supply had run out.

Those who never joined the journey were recruited by the Resistance Movement, a group whose leaders had doubts of the intentions of Kharak's new mayor. Those who managed to survive the nuclear blasts regrouped to continue the fighting, they were convinced that the peace-seekers were traitors to the people and community, and had to be eliminated one way or another.

Public morale was generally high when the survivors reached the site and managed to grouped up with each other. Under the newly elected leadership of Mayor George Glenningham, who later became the first King of Kharak, they were able to start the construction of the new city, with some assistance from other independent cities.

After a stable government was established, the Kharaks occasionally sent teams beyond its city limits to other areas to check on survivors who didn't managed to make or complete the journey, at the request from the people's friends or relatives. Occasionally, there was a few communities scattered across towns in America who were able to fend themselves off from the influence of the Resistance Movement. They were a tightly-knit community who were almost isolated but the Kharak teams were able to convince them with news from relatives living in the city. It was later decided, with the inhabitants approval, that not-so-far-away towns would be annexed by the city while they would establish diplomatic relations with the other areas.

The economy of Kharak now depended mostly on both agriculture and technology, using desalinated and purified water from the Salton Sea and Colorado River to sustain the growing of crops and rearing cattle. The water had already been heavily polluted before the war, but since it was the few places to not have been contaminated with radioactivity, they were able to turn the sludge water into drinkable water.

The people there were mostly a happy bunch, contented with what they have left, for things could have been much worse if it was different. The new government was now a constitutional monarchy but the lower seats were elected by the inhabitants of the city. Kharak's relations with other independent cities were generally well and air and sea transport facilities between the cities were built to for trading and travelling purposes.

Once there was enough manpower available, there were plans to set up defence forces to keep the city and its territories safe from Resistance threats. It was initially successful at quashing gun and bomb attacks along the border but it quieted down soon to help them concentrate on accomplishing something concrete.

Now the Resistance Movement had been battling to establish a new government in the former United States, with the headquarters located in the untainted sections of the Caribbean Isles. Despite frequent attacks and incursions by members of the Resistance Movement, fatalities were far and few as advances in treatment and medicine after the war made sure that there was always hope for the wounded, no matter how serious the injury was. The problem was getting the injured to the hospitals in time.

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The conflict in the Middle East was presumed to be main cause of the war. After another Arab invasion in the middle of June 2010 involving Israel, aided by the United States and the alliance forged between the Arab countries triggered the war. Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran had acquired modern attack jets and tanks from Russia and China to be used in the war. Egypt decided to remain neutral throughout the war but they were dragged down along by the other countries. Both civilian and military casualties were high on both sides from frequent bombing of cities.

Battle was raged on throughout the whole year as the Israeli defence position was weakening. Artillery teams shelled the oncoming tanks as they advanced towards the capital. They managed to hold back the onslaught for another week before succumbing to the overwhelming numbers of tanks and troops. In a last ditch attempt, remaining jets carrying nuclear warheads were sent to target the attacking countries, similar to the methods used by the United States in World War II to officially end the war. Unfortunately, most of the jets were shot down by anti-air missiles before they reached their respective targets, but one did manage to hit a city in Jordan, that wasn't enough to stop the war and instead the Arab states got hold of the nuclear weapons. It was hell after that.

Although two of the largest organisations, the United Nations and the OIC, didn't collapse after the war, they were as good as useless as the victorious states demanded more power in the United Nations Security Assembly and wielded their nuclear weapons as a threat towards the other states and countries.

Faced with having another several nuclear powers made the Western and European countries worry. Troops in Europe were mobilised straight after the Middle Eastern war and were ready to strip the Arab states of their weapons. The whole situation exploded when the former Allied powers, including United Kingdom, France and Germany attacked through Turkey and former Soviet Union countries while United States troops landed in the remaining sections of Israel.

Countries started to align themselves on different sides. The Nothern African countries sent troops through Egypt and managed to hold back the border while a partial truce was declared 6 months in the war. The South Asian countries tried to act as negotiators during the truce but this was proved useless as talks soon broke down and war quickly resumed.

At that time, most countries tried to remain neutral to avoid getting themselves involved in the conflict but they did sell weapons if they were requested The armies of surrounding countries were watching the conflict carefully as the Arab states managed to hold back most of their borders.

Eventually North Korea decided to join in the conflict, and it seemded to be the beginning of the end of civilisation.

When the nuclear warheads streaked across the mid-day skies, an enormous flash erupted and for one brief moment, time stopped.

World War III had started.

[Author's note: I do not hope for such a situation to actually happen in the Middle East, but the current volatile position of this issue does not rule out the possibility stated above. Good luck to the peace talks in the future!]

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Captain DeMarco emerged from the cockpit and loudly announced that the engines have been already repaired, it was joy for Jacques!

"Get back in your seats, we'll be taking off in a few moments!"

Jacques placed the e-book back in its original place and quickly returned to his seat, he was the last person to do so, as the others had already been strapped in. He was able to do so without assistance after seeing it for the first time. While waiting for the lift-off, Jacques noted that Kharak's history was definitely interesting, he wondered what how would the place look like there.

"Lift-off in three... two... one... Lift-off initiated."

Captain DeMarco keyed in the time, date and year of the intended location personally even before they left the atmosphere.

One of the reasons time-travel had to be done in space was because of the Earth's position in the universe. You see, since the Earth revolves around the Sun throughout the year, if a time-machine sets off from a particular spot in the universe and arrives at the same spot in the past or future, the time-machine would not be on Earth anymore. And since advances in space travel shortened access to faraway spots in the Milky Way, time-travel in space was a brilliant idea to the researchers.

Only a selected number of government officials, researchers and scientists were involved in this time-travel project. When it was soon about to be completed, a scientist leaked out important information to the Resistance Movement and helped them in constructing their own time-machine. Unfortunately the scientist managed to escape to the side of the Resistance before he was caught. They had already started construction when the Kharak's were almost done with theirs.

As the ship prepared to undergo an exhausting Hyperspace Drive stage again, Jacques braced himself for the trip.