[Megan and Sarah’s farm on The Madonna]
CAPTAIN REPORT: ANITA: STORM 29, 3621
Crew is 2 weeks from Earth. We have been traveling with the IC’s for the past twelve years. We come in peace.
Eden is habitable, and the crew is intent on helping launch an interplanetary exodus.
BLACKBOX DATA: STORM 41, 3621
Ship – Refueled (E.S.F. Satellite)
Ship – Orbiting (Earth)
[end of data]
THE MADONNA ORBITED EARTH for the ensuing 20 days of Storm season. During this time, the crew was anxious to hear from base control. None of Anita’s reports registered as received by base control for the past 12 years, 20 weeks and 3 days (since their initial entry into the wormhole – before their arrival at Eden).
During this period of time, after the execution of Dr. Carson Withers and his family, the CW base control became a battlefield between the CW and NWO. The CW eventually bombed the base, killing many NWO and CW personnel alike. The destruction of the base corresponded with Ava’s first few days on the surface of Eden.
Following the destruction of the CW base control, the CW continued to sustain attacks from the NWO. The fighting ran the CW further underground. Their government and population was dissolved into factions of survivors and military commanders desperately trying to communicate and coordinate operations.
The CW lived in a state of martial law for the next 12 years, hiding and leading counter attacks where possible.
– Editing Team
BLACKBOX DATA: POSTORM 1, 3622
Ship – Landed (33.029969, -105.963343)
[end of data]
RECOLLECTION: MISTY:
The base had been destroyed, we walked for a few days trying to find anything that showed signs of human life. We found closer towards the mountains a large set of metal doors that went into the mountain.
When we approached, they shot at us. The IC’s protected us. The bullets broke on their skin and we retreated back.
When we got to shelter we were fired up and ready to go barge in there. It didn’t take long for us to realize that wasn’t going to be an option with the ICs.
I think it settled on us in that moment how hard this was going to be.
WE WENT BACK TO the ship and stayed there for a few days. It was fairly uneventful. After about a week things started happening.
We would be standing outside and could see people in the distance start to settle into the mountains. They were coming from every direction. Just slowly trickling in — small group by small group.
A small community formed and we felt comfortable approaching these groups. Naturally, people feared the ICs and sometimes tried attacking them, but with no success. Those people often wandered away confused and frightened. The more people spoke to us, the more they realized we weren’t there to harm anyone. They couldn’t believe that we were the actual crew of the Madonna. I think it just took people a minute to wrap their heads around it all.
THESE GROUPS OF PEOPLE had traveled at the end of Storm season. They had either heard about the CW base or saw the Madonna enter the atmosphere and land. From far away, to many it looked like a star.
Some people attempted to enter the base but were shot. We took these people to Carson or one of the others, and they healed them. When people saw this, we began healing a lot of other people who were sick and injured.
We shared food from our ship that was stored for the mission. People also shared their food with us and the others. But after a couple weeks of this we began running low.
Megan then had the idea to turn the ship into a farm. It was crazy, but also kind of brilliant. There was a lot of room. It became a whole operation, Brooklyn and Sarah had some ideas on how we could purify the soil and water. We filled the ship with dirt. Megan had brought with her, plants from Eden, and she planted and propagated different kinds throughout the ship. The air was becoming so pure and good. Sarah rerouted power lines and put in irrigation systems.
We used the air locks on the ship to keep the plants from being infected by the Earth's atmosphere. Megan and Sarah didn’t only make it practical, they made it stunningly beautiful. I think everyone appreciated being able to work on something like this together. The IC’s were really helpful, their claws dug deep into the earth and could access soil that was less toxic. They dug wells, helped build shelters, and carved caves into the mountains.
When food was no longer an issue we began letting people into the farm just to walk around. It quickly became a Haven. Everyone took hope from our stories about our journey and the promise of a new world.
DURING ALL THIS, A group arrived and in it was Shawna’s husband, Derek. None of us, besides Anita, knew she was married.
Derek was skeptical of Donavan at first, but it didn’t take long to win him over. When I asked Shawna what happened, she explained that Donavan was the name of their son who had passed away as a teenager. Derek was in tears, like all of us, when he finally placed his hand on Donavan’s palm. Donavan shed a couple tears too, he’s a bit more emotional than the others.
AFTER THE IC’S FIRST started healing – people began telling us about family and friends that had been left behind. People that were trapped, hurt, starving, or hunted by NWO ground teams.
When things were running well at the encampment we decided we’d try to go find and help these people. We split the crew and our sons into little teams.
The first group was Anita, Ava, Carson and Rafael. The next group was Shawna, her husband Derek and their son Donavan. The last group was me and Brock with Brooklyn and Peter.
Sarah and Titus were going to stay behind with Megan and Kenyen to make sure everything kept running smoothly with the farm and the encampment.
— Misty Renae Dawson
THE FOLLOWING ARE RECOLLECTIONS from children alive at the time who witnessed some of the IC’s travels with their mothers through CW territory.
Over the course of the entire Postorm and Prestorm seasons many rescues were performed by these teams. Most of which have not been recorded.
Brooklyn, Megan and Misty have respectfully declined sharing their experiences on these rescue missions.
Of surviving individuals the following three (Zuri Adeola; Scott Hokulani; Roshni Müller) are the only known wittenesses of the rescue portion of the Madonna Mission.
Given the crew members request for privacy, and the sparsity of survivors, the following three recollections are invaluable.
– Editing Team
RECOLLECTION: ZURI ADEOLA:
When I was a young girl I had a large family. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins. The whole deal. Every night we’d dance around the fire and share stories and music. During Storm season we had taken shelter in bunkers deep in the mountains. When Storm ended, we resumed our tradition outside. My parents and grandparents had chosen this spot because it was far enough away from the old base. It had been a safe place for my family for nearly a decade now.
After Storm season though, this year, we soon started hearing gunshots echo through the mountain valleys. We realized we needed to be more careful. We weren’t sure at the time if these were NWO ground patrols, or other CW people hunting or fighting each other or something. We decided to hold off on the dancing and music for a while.
As a kid of course I didn’t understand why we needed to be so careful. I had been born into this little community – into this safety. I hadn’t seen the war firsthand. So, every night I cried, and cried. I had been waiting those sixty-one days for this, and I wanted to have fun again. Eventually, my whining got to my mom and dad and everyone else. Other kids started protesting, saying we would be safe. So they caved.
Even as a kid I could tell it wasn’t just my parents giving into me though. I think they were tired of living in fear. I think they decided, if they were going to go, it was going to be while they were dancing.
[Zuri paused]
Sorry. It’s taken me a long time to realize it wasn’t my fault. We all needed the air, we needed to dance. And everyone chose that.
SO WE DANCED. WE sang. It was beautiful. We built the fire even larger that night.
Soon after, the shooting began.
The NWO stormed our camp and began firing on all of us. I didn’t see much, but what I did see, I thank the Lord, I can’t really remember.
I took off running. I eventually stumbled and fell. I hurt my foot really badly, my ankle got all swollen. I eventually climbed into a bush to hide.
I was there for hours. Days. I had begun starving. But I was so terrified to move. I could hear the soldiers nearby. At one point they walked right past me. They were still firing on people even days later. Eventually the soldiers made camp and I was stuck. I was terrified and frozen, day in and day out.
There was a stream nearby and when I would get too thirsty or hungry to bear it any longer, I would drag myself over to the stream and drink. I caught little frogs and fish from the stream and ate them too.
I got very sick. My foot and ankle were now infected and the uncooked food made me sick.
That’s when I saw them. They had been drawn by the sound of the gunfire.
HE WALKED BY ME; a huge creature tall as a tree, covered in beautiful red feathers. I was terrified, but I felt in my heart that he was good. He was shot at until the NWO soldiers realized they couldn’t kill him. They ran away.
That’s when Shawna and Derek found me. I tried to run but Shawna came and picked me up off the ground. She just held me in her arms and repeated over and over again, “you’re safe. You’re safe, girl. I’ve got you. You’re safe.” Eventually it hit me and I just sobbed for the first time. It all came crashing down on me like a cloud burst.
[Zuri paused]
Sorry.
Eventually I approached Donavan, and let him heal my leg. They got me food and water from their packs. We were able to find one of my cousins, he was with his little brother and he had starved to death waiting in the bushes with him. We buried the bodies of our family, and that’s when I think Shawna and Derek decided they would keep us. They adopted me and my cousin into their family.
— Zuri Adeola
RECOLLECTION: SCOTT HOKULANI:
My sister and I were trapped in a bunker that was bombed the day after Storm. The concrete collapsed in the room I was in with my family. My sister and I got cornered under the concrete and separated from everyone else. We were stuck about fifty feet underground.
The dust was thick and coated everything. There wasn’t enough room for me to stand. My sister was terrified and weeping. I was around ten at the time.
I fought against the concrete for the first few hours. I pushed and punched until my arms were raw and burning. Towards the end I knew I had really messed something up in my wrists. After resting a while I tried to keep pushing, but the pain in my wrists and hands was too much.
I huddled down and my sister and I nestled into each other for warmth. When the dust fully settled we could see a single thread of light beam down to where we were. It’s all I looked at. The longer I was down there, the more bright that beam seemed to become.
We cried out to our parents for hours – and eventually they heard us. They were still unable to get to us. But they could call down to us.
I could hear them above us trying to move things around. I was afraid they’d cover the beam of light. I told my little sister that as long as that beam of light shined we would be okay.
I heard after the fact that my father eventually left to go and try to find help. But my mother stayed behind. She would call out to us, trying to get us to keep yelling back.
We were down there for days. At first I was angry and afraid – eventually I just became numb. We responded throughout the day and the night. But our responses and her calls began to taper off. The more starved we got, the quieter everything became.
I’ll never forget the faint echo of my mom’s singing bouncing down off the giant slabs of cold concrete. The two of us shivering on the cold floor.
I went from looking up at the beam of light, to studying the illuminated inch or so on the floor. I took turns with my sister playing with the dust and pebbles in the small patch of light. Eventually, not even this could keep the numbing apathy from seeping into my bones.
My sister kept this up for a while, collecting the dust, and the rocks — organizing them in little patterns and swirls. My mom kept singing, but it became more and more faint as her voice became more tired. We were all dying.
I got so tired and weak that I almost didn’t care if I was saved or not. My little sister held onto hope for a bit longer than me.
My mom’s singing stopped one day, and I didn’t know if it was because of her or me. I couldn’t even hear what my sister was saying to me anymore.
EVENTUALLY HELP CAME, BUT as they were moving the rubble, a pipe must have burst or something, because water began pouring into the hole.
Sadly enough, I was just grateful for the change. It didn’t occur to me till we started to float a little that this could kill us.
They finally got to us. Before lifting me out I remember this massive leathery hand reaching towards me. I had nothing left in me. But I reached out and grabbed the finger and placed my other hand on the palm of the creature. I was filled with joy. As soon as I began to feel again, I started crying. But no tears came, I was sucked dry.
I’ve since heard about the “mental bridge” and I wonder if that’s what happened when I touched his hand. But it was this overwhelming feeling like everything was going to be okay. An intense pressure that sat in my chest in the most pleasant way. I couldn’t help but smile as I cried.
I tried to hand him my sister, but my arms failed me. I didn’t realize how weak I was. I felt like passing out just from finally feeling something again.
He noticed what I was trying to do, he reached for my sister and handed her to the other one above him. He then lifted me into his arms. I’ll never forget how warm his dark brown feathers were as he held me to his massive torso. He healed my arms and we got fed in small doses.
It took a minute for me to want to leave his arms. It took seeing my mom again. She had wandered away in a starved confusion. But the other one, the big blue one, went and found her and brought her back to us.
I remember on the walk back that Misty was extremely funny. She made me and my sister laugh the whole way home. Making funny faces and teasing us and stuff.
— Scott Hokulani
RECOLLECTION: ROSHNI MÜLLER:
My father was a good man. He worked hard and carried many burdens. He studied geology, and was renowned in the CW for many years. I was born shortly after the destruction of the CW base.
After the base was destroyed my family traveled north. I was born on that journey. They named me Roshni, which means ‘brightness’, after the white desert we traveled through. The sand was white as snow.
We settled in a beautiful valley between two mountains. They built bunkers with the robots we had taken with us to endure the Storm season. They began underground farming and were doing really well as a small community of about ten families.
My father and mother became leaders in this community. That was until the CW troops found our encampment. Their leader was a highly decorated colonel in the CW army, Colonel Netwon Daughtry. They took over command under martial law.
Our family kind of just faded into the background. I think it was for the best. Our community thrived under the command of the military. At one point we were even visited by General Martin Rocha. As a child I was very scared of him. No matter how much my father told me he was a good man, I refused to even look at him.
He had started another community south, closer to the original base. Many people started leaving to live there. Eventually the entire military left for this base. A lot of the original families stayed. We went into Storm that season with very little provisions. Most of what we had was taken when the military left. Colonel Daughtry said if we didn’t want to starve that we should come.
Even though we had to ration, we were grateful to be rid of the Colonel and his men. We felt like we could breathe again.
AT THE END OF Storm we emerged in desperate need for food. That’s when most of us decided to leave south to the other base. My dad and his brothers were the last to eventually decide to leave.
I was now about 12 years old, and I was eager to help as much as I could. But that excitement quickly faded, the provisions we packed and pushed with us weren’t much, but it was still very heavy. It ended up being my dad just pushing by himself most of the time, and he refused to ask for help.
Just before we left the mountains, my father attempted to keep our things from sliding off a cliff – in the process he fell and hurt his back. He couldn’t lift anything or walk. His legs stopped working. We lost most of what we had down the cliff. We would have lost all of it, if it weren’t for my father’s efforts.
We eventually reached the white desert. That meant we were about half way. I couldn’t believe it. My stomach felt like it was eating itself. My skin had begun to crack and my hair was falling out. We had been traveling, pulling my father behind us for weeks now. Storm season was approaching and I honestly started to believe we weren’t going to make it.
I’LL NEVER FORGET THE image of Ava and Anita walking with their sons towards us. It didn’t register how large Carson and Rafael were, until I realized it was two grown women walking in front of them, not children. Their white feathers shined bright even against the white sand dunes. They looked like they were glowing.
Carson and Rafael stooped down to my father’s level and took his outstretched hand. They healed his back. They let him carry the sled all the rest of the way back.
Anita and Ava shared the food and water they had in their packs. It was still dicy getting back, they didn’t have much food or water left. But when we got too tired, Carson or Rafael would just carry us. When they held me, strangely enough, I didn’t feel hungry anymore.
— Roshni Müller
RECOLLECTION: MEGAN:
Things were going well. We had an established community. The plants I collected from Eden were thriving. They grew rapidly and with great strength.
We had attempted peace with Gen. Martin Rocha, we gave food and I shared some of the plants I had grown on the ship. We wrote letters containing information about the success of the mission and the IC’s.
None of it worked. Every time they just shot at us. Eventually the other women and the sons started showing up to camp with others they had rescued. The women would grab supplies and leave again.
That’s when the CW did the unspeakable. They bombed the Madonna. Luckily no one was in the ship at the time. But there went all our food. In spite of trying to stop them, the refugees stormed the base. They were getting shot down, and the only way we could stop it all was by offering ourselves as prisoners. It was Titus’ idea.
So they took us into their base and separated Sarah and I from Titus and Kenyen. The boys just let it happen. I think they figured getting in was better than anything. Even if it was as prisoners.
I was horrified that the CW would discover some way to hurt them. And they did.
EVENTUALLY THE WOMEN ALL came back. They found the ship destroyed, and us missing. Gen. Martin Rocha met the women at the ship with a convoy of men. He told them that they had taken us prisoner, and that they had found a way to hurt the IC’s. They threatened that unless they came willingly as prisoners, that they would kill Titus and Kenyen.
So they went willingly.
– Megan Chelsea Peterson
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