Metafire

"Well, Erisa, that's where you are going. You are going to join the colony that you just saved."

Fear seared through Erisa. She thought these people were not going to let her out alive. She knew these men were absolutely ready to kill her. They seemed so intelligent, so well-off, though. She started to think, but all she could say was, "When?"

"The day after tomorrow. We have another capsule going up. You will be in that capsule. By the way, Frank, here, will be going with you." A name, finally, and for the person with the gun. "But don't worry, Erisa, you have done us a service, you will be protected for the rest of your life. We owe you, and we don't forget the people who help us."

"I am sorry, and I really don't mean to sound ungrateful, but who are you?"

Though perhaps sixty years old with thinning gray hair swept directly back on his head, he stiffened looked her directly in the eyes without emotion, and said quietly, "We are Metafire. We are the genetic mutation that saves mankind. We are the fire of life, Erisa. We are the ones that follow Oppenheimer."

"Who is 'Oppenheimer'?" she thought.