Image by wal_172619 from Pixabay

Viv sighed as she stepped out of her house and into the heavily polluted air of the city. She coughed, like everyone around her, as she made her way to the bus stop. She remembered the politicians spinning no one having private vehicles. “Help prevent pollution,” they’d said. They’d done away with the public vehicles ten years ago and it hadn’t made an appreciable difference in the air quality.

“Hey Viv.” Simen grinned wearily in the smog filled air. “Headed to work?”

“Yeah.” Viv nodded. “You think today’s summit is going to do anything about this slag?” She gestured to the greenish grey air.

Simen snorted. “Hasn’t happened at any of the others.”

“I heard this was the reason we left Earth in the first place,” Viv told him. “You’d think they’d have learned their lessons from that.”

“Greed is greed, Viv. No one cares about the environment when there’s a profit to be made.” Simen’s voice was scornful and Viv couldn’t help but agree with him. “You know as well as I do unless they shut down the factories, or upgrade them at huge expense to reduce emissions, they’re not going to fix this slag.”

“Yeah, I know.” The bus pulled up and Viv and Simen got on. The two fell silent and Viv watched for her stop. She saw her office and hit the button. The bus stopped and let her out.

She went in and found everyone was gathered around the holovision in the break room. “Viv, you have to see this,” one of her coworkers told her, grabbing her and dragging her over.

Viv focused on the newscaster who was speaking. “To repeat our top news story, President Hellene Brakel and her constituents have signed a no emissions law into effect. All businesses have five years to comply. To summarize, they must find a way to reduce emissions down to less than three percent or they will be fined one million cyberdollars for every day they are in excess of three percent.”

Viv stared at the screen. “Maybe someone cares after all,” she muttered as she made her way to her desk and the start of her day.

A/N: As a reminder for those who missed yesterday’s post, Phoenix Rising – the third and final book in the series I’ve been posting – will start posting on Monday. I lost the file briefly and it took me until yesterday to find it. I want to make sure it’s the most up to date copy before I start posting.