Operation Red

By Carol Thomas

CyberCity is a calm city-state where people are in slow mo. It's recovered from the Great Crash of 2023 and once more technology runs the city, until the event that humans have long dreaded changes everything. Ariel and friends fight technology with technology, and Ms President creates havoc in CyberCity with Operation Red. Traffic lights operate in reverse; teachers turn up to school; and students solve the mystery of the solar plant that produces no energy. The teenagers are heroes.
The novel is supported by a free ebook study guide.

Extract
‘We have a change in routine today, as per this instruction,’ said their English teacher. She waved a sheet of paper as if it were a dirty tissue.

‘In summary, usual lessons are suspended because of Operation Red. The three morning lessons will be compressed into one. You will stay in this room and be provided with a set of questions and a problem, as sent to the school this morning for our part in...this event. Your task will be to come up with some answers to these tasks, using the—tsk—the rather discredited technique of brainstorming. This is where students work in groups and talk about whatever pops into their heads, in relation to the question at hand, and someone in the group writes it all down. How such a loose procedure helps critical thinking, I do not know. However, that is our instruction, and that is what we shall do. Despite the fact that I had a superb comp-vision lesson on the hidden beauty of internet poetry planned for today; well, no matter, you shall do that tomorrow.’

‘Good. I loathe internet poetry,’ said John.

‘Its hidden beauty is extremely well hidden,’ agreed Ariel.

‘I have four copies of the task, so I want four groups,’ continued the teacher. ‘Nita, Penny, Voula, John, come up please.’

She waved the papers at the students coming towards her.

‘You will each lead a group and nominate a student to write the group’s ideas. Choose your group—Nita! What’s the matter with you?’

Nita chittered nervously as she stooped to pick up the dropped papers.

‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘Not used to papers. They’re flat. And thin.’

‘Good heavens girl, get a grip, as we used to say. Now, you have the rest of the morning to complete these questions. At the lunch bell, I will take your answer sheets. Very good. Proceed.’

The teacher slunk back to her desk, flicked open her computer and immediately went online to browse her favourite internet poetry site, Itmustrhyme.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carol Thomas
• Release date: Oct 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9780473223403

Carol Thomas

I've been a high school teacher and editor (and bus driver, strawberry picker, insurance clerk, courier driver, shop assistant, etc.), and in the year of Covid-19 I'm a student again, doing a Grad Dip of Creative Writing in Wellington NZ, and writing a YA novel for that course.

Book preview

Operation Red

Carol Thomas

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Carol Thomas

ISBN 9780473223403

SCIS 1581608

Smashwords Edition License Statement

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or electronically shared; if you would like to give this book to another person—that’s great! To do this, please return to Smashwords.com and purchase another copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s hard work.

Table of Contents

Prologue

24 July 2029

Being thoughtful

19 June 2029

A great idea

30 June 2029

Recruitment

5 July 2029

Sabotage

24 July 2029

CyberCity responds

25 July 2029

Operation Red

28 July 2029

Prologue

24 July 2029

Ariel rode past the target and into Simcard Park. He parked the tri-bike and walked casually back. The building was an early 21st century concrete and glass rectangle. Unremarkable then; less so now.

He turned off the street, onto a path made from recycled tyres. His destination was now obvious to anyone watching. He knelt before the building’s front door, pretending to adjust his skywalkers and trying to catch any movement on the other side of the tinted glass. The interior was lit, but he could see very little, until a shadowy figure materialised. It yanked the door open and a hand shot out, grabbing Ariel’s jacket and dragging him in.

‘Urgh!’

‘Quick, get in! Out of the light!’

The two figures lurched away from the closing door and sped through the lobby.

‘This way!’

They bolted past the reception desk, down a gloomy corridor towards a bright exit sign. The leader ducked sideways into another corridor, then another. Finally, in a large, dimly lit room, filled with silent workstations, the leader stopped and exhaled loudly. A third figure joined them.

‘Excellent,’ Ariel muttered. ‘Excellent.’

He gripped the arms of his conspirators.

‘Lead on. It’s up to us. We are going to fix CyberCity good and proper.’

Being thoughtful

19 June 2029

Ariel stared out the window of the classroom, silently counting all the shades of green he could see in tree and grass and bush and hillside.

7, 8.

Subtle differences. Sun and shadow on the same hill creating blue greens and yellow greens and brown greens. Natural greens, not reverse processed.

The Digital Delights course had ceased to delight Ariel very early in the school year. The teacher droned on.

‘... pixels, and a breakthrough in photography. Digital imaging caused the steady disappearance of film cameras beginning in the late 1990s. Since then, pixels ... ’

Even the novelty of having a real teacher in the classroom didn’t appeal to Ariel today. Teachers appeared once a fortnight, burbled for a lesson, then passed students back to their usual cyberlessons. Despite the promise of creating photographic delights and experimentation with digital technology, the lessons were always a dull and predictable homage to the wonders of digital photography.

Ariel turned his attention back to admiring green and the more interesting task of light and colour research.

9, 10, 11. Jade

Tiny differences. The grey green, celadon.

‘Light was no longer important in photography,’ said the teacher.

12. Wrong.

‘Pixels and dpi became important. Light could be created. Artificial light could be made to look like daylight. Images could be taken in any light, then manipulated to show daylight, neon, solarisation, tungsten lighting—whatever was wanted. Any image could be manipulated. Anyone could be a photographer.’

Anyone could take photographs. 13. Dark green on the shaded parts of the hill, almost black.

‘Digital technology made everyone an artist, and photographers could do wonderful things such as... making waterfalls that dropped hundreds of feet from a spaceship into a desert, or making the sky pink instead of blue.’

Ariel snorted. He mouthed ‘bosh’ to his best friend sitting next to him. John was frowning, staring at the teacher, and Ariel was surprised when he spoke.

‘Excuse me, Mr Silver’.

The teacher paused his prepared spiel and looked blankly at John.

‘The sky actually was pink. When the Earth was created, you know the Big Bang and all that, the sky was pink,’ John said. ‘For millions of years. It turned blue later.’

‘When the world became green,’ added Ariel in support of his friend. ‘Photosynthesis.’

‘Yesss. Thank you, John. And Ariel. Do you have a question?’

‘Um, I’m not sure, sir. It was just an observation.’

‘Oh,’ said the teacher, perking up. ‘Just an observation. A pixellated moment. Well, stay on track then, there’s a good lad.’

He dismissed John with a shoulder turn.

‘Now, pink skies, hmm, where was I? Oh yes. I have some images here to demonstrate the artistry of digital imagery.’

The teacher caressed the control panel of the classroom’s Photomegastore machine. The students fixed their stares on their desk computers.

Ariel returned to the natural world beyond the classroom. The pale grey clouds had disappeared, and bright sunlight was changing the palette on the hill.

14. 15

Bright lime. Nice.

‘But…’ John was still hanging in there.

Ariel turned to his friend, grinning. He winked encouragement.

‘Mr Silver, what’s the point of creating an imaginary pink sky? Why would you want to do that?’

The teacher’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly. He took a breath.

‘It’s just an example, John,’ he answered. ‘To show what can be done with digital imaging. To show how wonderful technology is.’

Wrong.

‘But, why? Isn’t that just playing with techno? Well, so what? What’s it for? It doesn’t create anything worthwhile.’

‘It’s artistically worthwhile, John.’

‘Maybe,’ John muttered, unconvinced. ‘I don’t think it’s artistic. I just feel that’s it’s a waste of time. It’s just fiddling. How is that art? I couldn’t give a bosh about a lot of ‘art’ created by ‘photographers’. The exhibition we looked at last lesson was crap.’

John looked around the class for support.

‘Crap p p p ,’ someone giggled like a gun.

‘Fiddlin’.

‘John—’, began the teacher.

‘Hey, Mr Silver,’ said Ariel. ‘If you took your pink sky, and put it into a science book, to illustrate