Continuum2012/I

[last lines]

Kiera Cameron:
[as young Alec walks away] What are you up to, old man?

[the POV moves past behind her as the path she stands on is flooded. The tree dies, is cut to a stump, then it too vanishes. A crane in the distance starts building a barrier. Another joins it. Deforestation creeps up the hill across the water. The city sprouts new, taller skyscrapers as dusk and night fall. A CPS aircraft hoves into view, then veers off to reveal a floating advertising platform, the same as Keira's husband looked at at the start. The older Alec Sadler is at its center, looking down. He pulls up his sleeves, then goes to his desk to record a message. On a virtual screen, his words appear in all-caps. It's the computer taking dictation, but with minor punctuation omitted]

Older Alec Sadler:
I speak to you, not as who you'll become, but as an old man who knows you best. You and I were given a gift from our father. He died young, but he imparted in us a passion for technology and innovation. What you need to know, what I tried to do... Listen to me carefully, Alec: I have gone down a dangerous path and I have taken the world with me. Only you can prevent this future from happening.

[Mr. Sadler turns around to the other half of his desk and accesses the CPS database, it rising as a cylinder of photos. He scrolls through a list of agents in the air, stopping on the record for "Cameron Kiera". A virtual "Transfer Data" button appears on the desk's surface, which he presses. A line shoots forward, makes a 90-degree turn right, then another 90 degrees upward to the record. Vectorized blocks of data rise from the desk along the line as her CMR interface accepts the upload]

Kiera Cameron:
[waking from the nightmare, touching her temples] *NO*!

[On Mr. Sadler's display appears the words "Upload Complete"]