[Earth, 506 years after first successful colony, 148 years after first contact]
Lila opened her eyes as a chilling sensation washed over her face, causing her to wake unexpectedly. As usual, she was wasting time in her bed, lifting not a finger to address the mound of homework on her desk. Yet despite her lazy demeanor, she remained sharp enough to notice the shift in the air.
The young girl brushed aside her brown pigtails, squinting with her dried brown eyes as she tried to wake herself up. Typically, the strategy was to just lie there and hope her body would feel better. But her curiosity had piqued.
"What happened to the AC?" Lila mumbled to herself as she turned to look at her plushies, as if somehow the circular pillows with little smiles sewn on their faces had committed the crime.
She knew more than most what her stuffy room felt like with the air on. Something had changed.
"Am I tripping?" Lila spoke more loudly, staring at her blue-painted wall with wide eyes.
After some time contemplating nothing, as she usually did, Lila's gaze shifted to her computer, its monitor showing a no-internet-access indicator. Checking her phone revealed the same; every form of connection Lila possessed was gone. Scratching her head, she began to slither her way out of bed as she reached for the window.
"Uh huh," Lila squinted, her hazel colored eyes peering out of her blinds. "Nice."
Her room was rather mundane as far as Earth establishments went. She had decorated the white drywall with posters of cute anime girls and LED lights, and possessed the most unremarkable assortment of dusty wooden furniture next to her queen-sized bed. The only notable part of the room she put effort into was her computer setup, featuring an adjustable desk and two high-quality monitors. It was all very Lila.
"And here I thought the city was done with this crap," the girl yawned with a stretch.
She wore a pair of tight blue jeans and a red t-shirt, unafraid of her own flat figure when it came to appearance.
By then she'd noticed the commotion of her neighbors just beyond her window's view. Craving answers and a solvent for her boredom, Lila had no choice but to abandon her room for a better look. It wasn't a far walk to the front door; her single-story condo was never known for its grandeur. But it was home. And she loved it.
"Don't follow me out pupper!" Lila yelled as she opened the front door. "The last thing Mom needs right now is you pulling another stunt."
She never really saw much of her mother anymore, not after father left. She was far too busy paying for the entire family. And with her brother's career firmly planted in the military, Lila was mostly alone. She had nothing but her own conscience to keep her out of trouble and on task with her college homework.
Refusing to wear socks or shoes of any kind, the petite girl hobbled into the front yard as she turned to see her neighbor, their face transfixed on something in the sky. In their hands was an old set of binoculars, clutched tightly in their hands. Around the same time, a few more of Lila's neighbors appeared outside their front porch, many of them staring silently in the distance.
"Hey, Diane! What is it?" Lila waved, coming to terms with her lesser eyesight as she tried to get a good look. "Space aliens?"
"No, uh," the young woman waved back without shifting her head, her blonde hair gleaming in the evening sunlight as she spoke. "I think it's the Air Force."
"Awesome! What branch?"
"You know I'm not into all that like you, Lila," Diane shrugged. "But I think it's all of them?"
"All of them?" Lila laughed. "Yeah, that's not likely. They wouldn't just-."
Just then, another set of aircraft flew high above Lila's house, their presence nearly as subtle as the last, albeit far more visible. It wasn't long before an entire convoy could be witnessed with the naked eye, their tightly packed formation sailing in an almost unprofessional manner. It was then that Lila became considerably more alert.
"Oh."
Lila stumbled back inside and began searching through her kitchen like an ant. She knew exactly what to look for in times of "excitement," as her brother would call it, yet her memory was a bit fuzzy on the details.
"Right," she bickered to herself. "Under the coffee table."
Scraping her knees against the wooden floor, she managed to retrieve a small black box from beneath the dusty table. Lila took pride in how easily she operated the kit. For despite her lack of success academically, she was quite the passionate spirit when it came to all things survivalist and militant. Working a SATCOM terminal was somehow easier than geopolitics homework.
"Wow," Lila grimaced quietly as she read. "That's busy."
Plugging her phone in resulted in an unusually weak connection, even with the military-grade enhancement. Still, it was enough to catch the news, which Lila swiftly displayed on her wireless TV. By then she still believed someone would come home and catch it.
She watched with silent pensiveness as the air grew hotter and hotter. It wasn't just the lack of AC by then. Lila was getting nervous.
"This is the Emergency Alert System.""The President has issued a national emergency.""A severe space weather event is occurring.""Satellite communications are currently unavailable.""Local telephone and internet services are disrupted.""All citizens should remain indoors immediately.""Keep your radio tuned to this station.""Do not attempt long-distance travel.""Local authorities will provide further updates here."
"Hey, I got the news up!" Lila called out to her neighbor, having scuttled back outside with a skip in her step. "There's a PSA on. Guess some kinda mass outage, I had to connect to my brother's hardware."
"Is that bad?" Diane asked loudly as the rest of the neighborhood began voicing their concerns. "I mean, maybe this is just a drill. My husband says sometimes they like to pretend we're in an emergency for practice."
Lila shook her head with a pointed finger. "No, that up there has to be the reserve as well, National Guard, too. It's all of them. All at the same time."
"Well, they're flying pretty high. That's nice of them."
"Yeah..." Lila muttered to herself. "They're booking it."
She sometimes envied people's tendency to assume the best. Lila was far from a doom-and-gloom kind of girl, but she knew better than to just overlook the omens of a mass military deployment.
"You should call your mom, Lila," another neighbor shouted in a masculine voice. "My money's on a meteor."
"Oh yeah, you'd love that, huh, Fred. Just like the movies?" Diane retorted. "Yeah, not on my Friday."
Lila ignored the rising tide of voices, her eyes fixed on the fleet of aircraft as she fumbled around for her phone. She wasn't nearly arrogant enough to assume what was really going on, but sitting around felt more rash to a girl like her. Using what she knew of Earth's post-colonial protocols in times of crisis, she began to piece things together.
"In other news, COLONEX has partnered with Tesselation to transfer assets for an on-demand ship-off."
Lila didn't take herself for a conspiracy theorist either, but the news wasn't looking any better. She knew just as much as anyone that when those with power saw trouble on the horizon, they ran. And they ran like hell.
"At least I got my cell on," Lila squeezed her phone as she sent a call to her mother. "That's money. I just hope Mom remembered she's got the same pack in her car."
"Hey, Lila," the same neighbor asked loudly, much to the annoyance of Diane, who was about to walk back inside. "You're a military nut. What's going on? Has your brother said anything?"
"Uh, not yet, Fred," Lila stumbled over her words as she listened intently, waiting for her mother to pick up. "But it's not a drill; I can guarantee you that."
She prayed to herself that her mother would respond.
"Lila? Are you okay?" A feminine voice spoke gently to Lila through her left ear. "Please tell me you're home."
"Yeah, of course, Mom. Where's brother-bear?"
"Jamie got called in; the entire base is buzzing."
"Yeah, I can see that. They're flying everything, Mom," Lila explained in as simple a manner as she could afford. "Not just the fast fancy ones brother-bear flies, I mean everything."
Her mother spoke warmly, relieved that her daughter didn't sound too frightened. "They mentioned an evacuation. Here, Lila, I'm at the front bureau. Just give me a second."
"Yeah, that adds up," Lila smiled, somewhat amused by the excitement. "Let's hope it's not already cooked."
A second, more professional voice emitted from Lila's phone, its cadence hiding a smidgen of fear. "Yes, Miss Macey. Jane Macey, we have your son on file right here. All service members have a guaranteed placement for families. There's no cause for alarm. Please just wait for an announcement, and we can provide more details."
Her mother's voice became louder, "Okay, Lila."
"Yeah, I know, Mom," Lila interrupted. "I'll meet you at Saint Spears airfield."
"Hm? How do you already know? Did they make the announcement?"
"Nope. I just know that's where they keep all the rockets and bunkers. And that's where this herd here is heading," the young girl spoke hurriedly as she slipped on a pair of shoes. "Please tell me we have a car."
"You don't even have your license, young lady, and no, we don't have any. Just take the bus." Jane sighed, trying to speak softly to her daughter.
"You're joking, right?"
"It's the safest-."
"Yeah, no, I'm hoofing it. See you there!" Lila scoffed before hanging up abruptly.
On her way out, Lila made sure to grab both her red bike and her dog, motioning for the brown Labrador to follow. She, of course, neglected the helmet and jacket in exchange for a few saved seconds as she barreled out of the driveway. But just before she could speed off, Lila made sure to brake in front of Diane's house.
"Hey!" Lila shouted to Fred, who was arguing with Diane and several other members of the community. "Spears, I bet five doubloons they still got wi-fi down there."
"The airfield!" Fred threw his hands up, his overweight belly moving along with him. "Of course. They're gonna leave without us in their fancy rockets, fucking cowards."
"Don't worry about all that, ya'll," Lila explained calmly as she began to speed up. "Just get there. It doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to point that out to you."
"Well, hold on. What if we're not allowed?" One neighbor protested.
Lila wasn't even sure if the crisis was that bad. But in the modern age of space-faring humanity, it was somewhat unheard of to suffer a mass blackout. Besides, space travel wasn't exactly a one-way trip anymore. If there was a meteor or solar flare inbound, Colonex could get them up and back down again within the week.
If they wanted to.
Lila tried to laugh it off. "Come on now, we've all seen the movies. Half the people on whatever fancy list they make won't show up in time. They'll take anyone they can get with this kind of short notice," she shrugged, giving one last moment to look at Diane, who seemed rather uncertain with her newborn clutched in her arms.
"But in the movies, don't people like riot at the fence and eat each other when it's too crowded?" Fred retorted.
"Well, it's a good thing we're a small town," the young girl smirked before speeding off, her dog giving chase.
It was true, Wyoming had escaped much of Earth's more troubled urban efforts. And when the colonial program took flight, it was left largely primitive by expansionist standards. It was the perfect home for a quaint little girl in a quaint little town.
"The city people," Lila chucked to herself, imagining the mile-wide hive centers trying to evacuate. "Yeah, no thank you. Not at this time."