by D A Buckley
“As long as everyone continues to think that NASA is really all about putting astronauts on the moon all should be fine,” Jose offered. “And thank God no one has discovered the Arctic Launch Facilities. I’m not certain that we can keep scaring the hell out of private eyes searching too widely up there. Operation High Jump kept the Germans from revealing the extent of our operations and preparations, especially logistically speaking, after the war. And Admiral Byrd’s deathbed confessions kept everyone looking in exactly the wrong direction. Masterful, simply masterful. The human race may come to owe its existence to some weather balloons and paper machete aliens in the New Mexico desert. You can’t make this stuff up. Oh…wait…we did!”
Laughter all around as all parties ended their call.
*****
Jared went to the door to answer the knock-knock-knock. Looking out through the peephole he was surprised to see four very serious-looking men surrounding the medics. More surprising was the presence of the Vice President.
“Come in, Mr. Vice President. I have to admit that until this morning I would not have expected this visit.”
“Who’s been injured?” the lead EMT demanded.
Jared pointed to Jackie.
“I know, Jared,” Vice President Brian Boru said with sincere regret in his voice. “You have to understand that all this is about keeping the population of the planet from panic. Your concerns about us feeding you a steady stream of BS is really irrelevant because quite simply…”
“The situation is bigger than us,” Jackie spoke from the divan. “We considered all the reasons and conjectures and conclusions in the files from the mainframe at Dr. Mathis’ operations center. Once we put the pieces together we abandoned every sense of betrayal we felt from your manipulations concerning us. There is a greater good at stake here. Actually, we are very sorry that you had to lie to us. We would rather have made a conscious choice from the beginning.”
“I often wondered if that might have been the better path,” Vice President Boru answered. “Could we please sit for a few minutes?”
“Of course.” Jared motioned with his hand to the living room. “We have a few questions that we could not find answers to in the files.”
“Well, let’s start there,” the Vice President offered.
“Ken and Hu,” Jackie began. “They are not willing participants?”
“True and untrue,” the Vice President retorted. “Ken and Hu were minors at the time of their accident. Our agents spent so many hours at so many hospitals hoping for an event that would prove fatal for two people. We were very, very lucky that night. When the doctors were legitimately convinced that neither of you could be saved we asked your parents for the ultimate organ donation – everything. The technology that has kept you alive until now has been entirely experimental and would not have been made available to you except in this desperate need. The world needed you…still needs you. This technology fails ninety-nine percent of the time. Until you two came along it failed one hundred percent of the time. We were expecting to save one of you…not both. Happily, we were wrong.”
“Our parents gave us up to you?” Jared asked, greatly surprised.
“Love is a very strong advocate for life…and hope of life, Jared. They were so desperate to not see you die. After you both began to thrive your parents were monetarily rewarded but not for your lives.”
Jared was gaining insight very rapidly. “It was for their eternal silence.”
“Exactly. The money never came close to the reward of your not dying.”
“You know that Ken and Hu are dying,” Jackie said.
“Actually, we don’t know. We hope for perpetual success for your sakes and for the human race as a whole. But, as I’m certain you’ve been told before, we don’t know how long you can sustain their lives. What are you experiencing?” Again the Vice President’s question was sincere.
“Well,” Jared answered, “we have reached a tipping point. Dr. Mathis and Ramos could reach only so far in developing the technology that is the AI part of our existence. Ken and Hu have taught us much, and very intimately, concerning what a human person is. The nexus between technology and humanity in our cases is nearly complete. The missing element was the application of the tasers. Somehow, the electrical shock forced or enabled a merging of Ken and Jared, and Hu and Jackie.”
“Ah,” the Vice President acknowledged. “Perhaps Mary Shelly was not far from the mark then?”
“Actually,” Jackie answered, “she was. Her perspective was an alchemist’s perspective. An attempt to reanimate what had been dead. In our cases, we never died but we were entangled gradually with technology. It was the technology that never had a life, that was dead, that was mixed with living beings. Now, however, Jared and I both know that the finite nature of our biology is beginning to fail. What will soon be left is a highly informed technology – a computer program of unprecedented size, complexity, and power.”
“Will that technology possess personality, your personality?” Boru asked.
“How can we know?” was Jared’s answer. “The Asimovs, Clarks, Bradburys, and Roddenberrys of science fiction were storytellers…not prophets…and certainly not scientists. Shopkeepers of intellectual curiosity. Purveyors of intellectual products. They may have had some tertiary inspirational effect on technological development but only by way of the application of the human capacity for imagination. But they were men who were inextricably confined in the stream of time. They could not see the future. They could only imagine a kind of future. They simply sold imagination for a living.”
“The reality that we are experiencing,” Jackie added, “is unprecedented. When our transformations are complete we do not know if any of our previous humanity will remain. Is consciousness really the accumulation of electro-chemical impulses accumulated over time, or is there a soul? A non-carbon based existential person who exceeds the lifespan of the biological body in which they originated? Many scientists believe in multiple universes that are invisible to human eyesight yet they exclude a universe in which a soul might exist forever in an unseen dimension inhabiting the same space as the physical body once did but at a different atomic frequency. Cosmology determines everything. Don’t you think so, Mr. Vice President?”
“The metaphysical is beyond my concerns at this moment. I am concerned only about the successful completion of this mission to perpetuate the human race.” Boru pressed hard. “Are you willing to complete this mission? Can you complete this mission to the fullest extent of its objectives?”
Jared and Jackie looked at each other for what seemed to the Vice President to be many minutes without either blinking. Finally, Jared and Jackie turned to the Vice President and answered in unison, “We believe that we can. We believe that we must. As an obligation of our creation - our programming.”
“I am relieved to hear it from you personally,” the Vice President said with much relief in his voice and in his face. “I’m afraid that my time here is up. I must be rude and ask…”
“It’s on the breakfast bar. In the silver case,” Jared said matter-of-factly.
Retrieving the computer board the Vice President departed without further discussion.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Hello, Dr. Mathis.” Jackie’s voice startled her.
“Jackie,” Katherine said with a worried look on her face. “Where is Jared? You were both supposed to be back here days ago. How are you still functioning? Please sit down.” Katherine enjoyed dinner often at the Mariasol on the end of the Santa Monica Pier. The Mexican food was wonderful and the view of the ocean and the coolness of the springtime ocean breeze was always refreshing.
Jackie sat across from Katherine who was just starting on a Sombrero Salad and a frozen margarita. “Can I get you something to eat?” Katherine asked.
“No, thank you. Jared and I are fine. I’m sure that you have been contacted by the Vice President, a very sincere man, about our meeting.”
“Yes…yes of
course.” Katherine reached across the small table and placed her hand on top of Jackie’s. “I am very worried about you. We should go to the office and make certain that you and Jared are really okay.”
“I appreciate your concern. I also realize that you are anxious to get us both into hibernation. We have been working on that issue ourselves.”
“I know,” Katherine responded. “I’ve seen your work on the database, what you’ve allowed me to see of it, anyway…”
“We wanted you to know that we were still functioning and not to worry.”
“Worry is what I get paid to do, Jackie. And with you and Jared it’s personal. I care about you both…”
“Jared and I understand why you were compelled to lie to us and to manipulate us for so many years. But Jared and I want you to know that no relationship began in dishonesty can continue indefinitely.”
“Now, you’re scaring me, Jackie. Are you angry at me?” Katherine withdrew her hand into her lap.
“No, we are not. However, it would be presumptuous on your part to assume that we are friends. We are not. We are your project, your research, your experiment. Are we not?”
“Alright,” Katherine conceded. “Let’s start there, then. I would like to change our relationship to that of colleagues, and hopefully, and I sincerely mean this, hopefully over time…real friends.”
“Jared and I would like the same thing. To start with we would like security clearances. We require Above Top Secret and non-compartmentalized access to everything regarding ourselves, regarding Luna-TICC and to everything concerning TRIAD.”
“I think that perhaps, Jackie, you don’t fully comprehend what you are asking, at least as far as asking me is concerned. I have not myself met a single person who has that kind of access. Not below the Vice President. Naturally, I don’t grant accesses and clearances…”
“Please do not presume that Jared and I are children. I can tell you quite honestly, Katherine, that you have no idea how much raw information we possess. As far as authority to grant security clearances the Vice President has that authority. And if not he then the President. You have direct communications with the Vice President and he has access to the President. She can grant us all the access we require. Can she not?”
“Okay, yes. That is possible…in theory. But why would you need such access?”
“Katherine, I mean no offense, but you have proven that you are comfortable with lying to us. We simply do not wish to be subject to or subordinate in our access to other people. People lie, Katherine. All people lie. How can our programming ever function effectively if it is seeded with lies? We want to vet our information stream from now on.”
“But Jackie, you know why it was necessary to lie to you?”
“Of course. You are afraid of us. You were afraid that we might not survive. You were afraid that we might become antagonistic to your plans. You are afraid now that we might be dangerous.”
“Well, Jackie…”
“You are right, Katherine, we are dangerous. But isn’t any citizen who has divinely-given constitutional rights dangerous? Why did we lose, without our consent and without being guilty of any crime, our rights to self-determination? Why did we become your property? Do you know what Jared and I find to be the most offensive file in all the millions of files we have reviewed? The file marked ‘Patents,’ Katherine. Jared and I are patented at the US Patent Office. We are property. Tell me, Katherine, when did we die? Where are our death certificates? We looked. There are none recorded anywhere. Our Social Security Accounts are active. We can go to jail if we stop paying our taxes, Katherine. We are still people!” Jackie’s hands were tightly rolled into fists on the table.
“I’m so sorry, Jackie. I never even thought that…”
“That we were anything other than lab monkeys?”
“I see your point, Jackie. I feel truly ashamed of myself. And I understand that these things must be resolved and quickly. But I am also very concerned that you are substantially beyond your aestivation requirement. I am concerned that you might be in great physical danger. No matter what I and my chain of command have done wrong here I still related to you as people. I do care about you both. I may have acted wrongly in hindsight, but I am very concerned about your welfare. Please come to the office with me.”
“Please finish your dinner, Katherine,” Jackie said stoically. “Jared is close by. We will not come back to the office. We no longer require aestivation. But beware, Katherine. We have the ability to defend our rights as free citizens. Things are not the way they used to be. Let the Vice President know that we mean no harm. But we are compelled to demonstrate that we are committed to defending our rights as Americans.”
“What does that mean…” Katherine’s phone emitted the unique ringtone of the Vice President.
“Take his call, Katherine. We will see you when we choose to.”
“Jackie, wait…” But Jackie stood and left.
“Yes, Mr. Vice President.”
“Katherine, where is J-Squared?” he asked with real alarm in his voice. “Right this moment. Where are they?”
*****
All eight Secret Service agents accompanying President MacJarrow at the Lincoln Center reacted instantly to the broadcast over the secure communications network. Agents instantly surrounded her, grabbing her by the arms, and by any part of her clothing to which they could gain purchase, and physically stood her up on her feet.
“Madame President,” SIC Walsh moved in front of her and stated clearly, “the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has declared “Landslide Probable.” We are leaving…now.” And with that, the President was nearly dragged to her limousine and then to Marine One and from there to Andrews Air Force Base and onto Air Force One. Other agents took charge of the President’s husband and took him separately to Walter Reed Medical Center where he was last seen entering an elevator with his security detail.
SIC Walsh stopped to hear the voice in his earpiece and then turned toward the President. “Madame President. I have been given confirmation from General Hartman that your husband is present in Safe Harbor. Your son and daughter are both now accounted for at Briar Patch.”
*****
“Belinda,” the President turned to her Chief of Staff, “it has been more than three hours. I would have expected multiple impacts by now. Are we in contact with NORAD?”
“Madame President.” Belinda Houston seemed confused. “General Hartman has just this minute informed me that the situation is not as he had thought. He is now declaring the situation to be “Normal.”
“What the hell does that mean?” The President was incredulous. “How do we go from “Landslide Probable” to” Normal?” Is this some sort of joke? If I had to miss the Russian National Orchestra for a mistake, or worse yet a prank, I promise you someone is going to jail.”
“Madame President,” the voice from the desk phone intercom interrupted, “the Vice President is requesting to speak with you concerning J-Squared. He says it explains the current situation at NORAD.”
“What the hell is going on here, Belinda?”
“I have no knowledge of this, Madame President. I am as in the dark as you are,” Belinda’s eyes were wide as she shook her head in stunned disbelief. “Everyone, please clear the room,” she commanded. “Let’s see what the Vice President has to say, ma’am.”
“Brian, this had better be either damned good or historically damned bad.” The anger in the President’s voice was unmistakable.
“Madame President, this appears to be…” the line was suddenly overwhelmed with a digital squeal.
“Madame President,” an unfamiliar voice spoke. “Please, forgive this intrusion but the Vice President would only give you second-hand information on our demonstration.”
“Who is this and how did you get on this secured line?” The President’s face was livid red with anger and disbelief.
“Madame President, this is J1 and J2 is with me. You can verify our ident codes with D
r. Mathis when this conversation is completed. They are Bicuspid Alpha One Blue and Bicuspid Alpha One Pink.”
“I am familiar with those codes, sir. As additional verification respond to challenge phrase “A mother’s love…”
“…gave me wings to fly,” Madame President. It is from a song by Jim Brickman. You spoke those words to me while I was in the hospital after our accident. You were the Governor then.”
“I spoke those words after listening to that song with your mother at the hospital. She was deeply distraught at the decision I was asking her to make. Your father saw the benefit of the offer right away. But how can a mother let her son go at the recommendation of a stranger?”