Birth of the Alliance by Alex Albrinck Page B

transmitted from the tiny cameras embedded in Will’s eyeglasses. Franklin had noticed the “imperfection” in the spectacles the miniature cameras provided. Charles needed to move out of the sight of the residents of Philadelphia, who would take exceptional interest in the device… especially if they saw one of their better known residents moving around on it.
    “Will, I’m looking now,” Charles’ voice came through the earpiece two minutes later. “Good news! The video came through just fine. It’s not perfectly clear by any stretch… but it’s clear enough.”
    The cameras at this size would be useful in spying on the Aliomenti, and were another step along the miniaturization journey they’d need to complete to get inside cells and view the effects of ambrosia. They weren’t small enough yet, but the steady progression was encouraging. His nanos included miniature cameras and microphones that fed signals to the communication nanos in his head. The video images were blurred, though, and he had no means of determining the problems with those devices without knowing how they’d been made. Thus, he’d need to invent the nanos himself, figure out the reason the camera images were blurred, fix the images, use the images to decipher the riddle of ambrosia, then….
    Hope had stopped him from this line of thinking, or at least slowed it down. Will didn't need to do everything himself. Others were becoming motivated to find what was referred to as the Reversal or the Cure, and for the same reason as Will. None had the deadline he did, but the motivation was there, nonetheless.
    “We’re getting closer, Charles. I just know it. It won’t be long now.”
    “I hope so, Will. Rachel and I… well, you know exactly what we’re going through.”
    One of the core differences between the Alliance and the Aliomenti is that the members of the Alliance were encouraged to find love and start families if they wished. Recruits had no obligation to ever take morange and zirple. They were not required to take ambrosia. Not everyone found that opportunity right away, however, and many chose to accept the ambrosia believing that they’d have a better chance at some point in the future. Charles had joined the Alliance in 1720, and had taken the ambrosia five years later.
    Rachel had joined the Alliance in 1740. The relationship had developed and deepened quickly, and they wanted nothing more than to start a family. But the ambrosia prevented them from doing so. Rachel, who had been 27 when she’d joined, had waited nearly a decade, but seeing no cure, she’d elected to take ambrosia as well, hoping she’d still be around when a cure was found. They were certainly eager, as eager as Will and Hope, to find that cure, and both worked on projects to guarantee success would come to them one day.
    “I’m looking forward to being an uncle to the kids you and the Shadow have, Will. She’s a great woman.”
    Will smiled, even though Charles couldn’t see him. “She most definitely is, Charles.”
    Hope, known to the Alliance as the Shadow, had become an immensely popular member. Hope had gained tremendous stature in the hidden underground city of five hundred residents. She trained new recruits to use Energy, helped them identify their particular area of specialization, and perhaps most critically, she trained those preparing to go Outside to survive and thrive without raising suspicion among humans and without being detected by the Aliomenti.
    She was also a popular babysitter for couples with children. In the forty years since the Alliance had started, they'd seen twenty children born to their group. Most couples were content with one child, and would take their ambrosia once their healthy child was born…. Most were quite happy with the choices they made in regards to taking or not taking ambrosia, and it was expected that the community would accept each choice without scorn, regardless of what it might be. That included