Eila pressed a button and the gentle humming of the coil gun suddenly turned into a loud thud. The cartridge vanished and in a fraction of a second they saw it bounce off the wall about 10 meters away. The children shrieked with delight.

Eila fired off the coil gun 3 or 4 more times and even let Sven press the button once. By the last shot the children were getting somewhat less excited about the whole thing and Eila decided that they had had enough. She turned off the apparatus then walked over to the electrical panel on the end wall and closed all of the breaker switches.

Back in the classroom Eila said her goodbyes to each of the children. Some had made up farewell cards for her and, as a group, they presented her with a small gift; a snow globe with the Stortinget (parliament) buildings in it.

After the children had left Eila retrieved her outdoor clothes and suitcase and walked out of the school. Standing at the bottom of the entrance stairs she took one long last look back and whispered to herself “hurdle number two passed – and I’m alright.”

The voyage from Oslo to Bilbao, Spain was uneventful, taking less than three days. Upon arriving in her new home city Eila reported to the migration control office and was assigned to live with three other women in a small apartment in the Zorrozaure district. Two of her new roommates were from St. Petersburg, the other from Helsinki. Eila had been studying Spanish quite intensely for more than a year in preparation for the migration and was almost fluent. Unfortunately her roommates had not made a similar effort.

Communication was difficult, even using translation computers and Eila found herself spending a lot of time outside the apartment, exploring the docks and alleyways of the nearby harbour. She did this partially because she was a naturally curious person but mainly because of the intense loneliness she felt when she was being ignored by the others in her apartment.

It was after only about three weeks of living in Bilbao that Eila ran across an advertisement for educational tour guides at the Lemoniz nuclear facility northeast of the city. With her teaching background and workable Spanish she had no problem securing a position.

The facility, which consisted of six 1 GWatt generators, was being decommissioned and it was the job of Eila and the other guides to explain why and how. It only took a few days for Eila to complete her training. Although she would conduct a number of tours while working at Lemoniz it was the first that she would always remember the best.

“Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the Lemoniz nuclear facility. My name is Eila Ojanen and I will be your guide today. I have recently migrated from Oslo, Norway so I hope you can forgive me if my speech is a bit awkward and my accent seems a bit strange to you.”

“As you probably know, this facility is being shut down as part of the global program to stop using nuclear power. Does anyone know why the Global Council made that decision?”

“Because of the terrorist attack on New York!” The response came from a middle-aged man at the front of the small crowd that made up her tour group. His name tag read “Juan Alvarez”.

“That’s correct Senior Alvarez. And do you know what motivated that attack?”

“They claimed they were trying to save the earth – but I think they were just possessed by the devil!”

Eila nodded her head but she did not speak for a few moments. This response had caught her off guard and she wanted to think about what she said next.

“It was a horrible tragedy. We can all agree on that point. But I think it is worthwhile to consider some of the background to the event.”

“During the late 20’s the effects of global warming were becoming very problematic. The average sea level had already risen 2 meters and scientists were forecasting that an eventual rise of 10-15 meters was likely.”

“Governments in the industrialized nations had to devote more and more of their resources towards dealing with these issues. Under the financial strain these same governments began to cut aid payments to less prosperous areas of the world at a time when drought in much of Africa and increased monsoon activity in SE Asia were destroying crops and making whole regions uninhabitable. The predictable result was instability in those parts of the world which led to civil wars and multinational conflicts. Millions of people were being killed each year. In northern Africa there was even the serious threat that armed militia would launch a military campaign against southern Europe.”