by David Harp
Chapter 43
The Jack in the Box
“So what do you mean ‘everything changed’ when I was born?” Haley asked.
Claude described the cascading events which coincided with her birth.
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There were at least two dozen scientists and technicians in the vault on the morning of September 11, 1983. They had learned a great deal from the complex devices in the months before Haley’s birth, but could not get anything to.function.
At precisely 5:03 a.m., every artifact in the room lit up, started humming or in the case of the man in the box, sat up in his casket.
The blood curdling screams of at least two technicians rattled the windows as they witnessed Count Dracula coming to life. His black cape and pasty white complexion accentuated his bizarre appearance. As he blinked hard, rolled his glowing eyes and moaned, the room was emptied of humans within thirty seconds.
Dozens of distinguished scientists could be seen hiding behind bushes and peering around trees as the tall pale man emerged from the vault. His walk more closely resembled Frankenstein than Dracula.
He staggered outside and covered his eyes as if the barely perceptible light was blinding him. He put on what appeared to be a pair of welding goggles.
Claude, J. Alfred, and Noreen heard the commotion and ran out of the house. The strange man was standing on the porch.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello,’ Claude gasped. It took him a minute to realize the man came from the casket in the vault. “Do you speak English?”
“Yes, I seem to have a rather extensive vocabulary,” the man replied with an expression of satisfaction.
“How, how is that possible?” Claude asked.
The strange man cocked his head slightly. “It appears in your efforts to translate our writings, you downloaded much of your language into our collective processing unit for conversion. The information was passed to me through my continuity pod.”
“Do you have a name?” Claude asked.
The man replied with an unintelligible sound, “Blosviduixxxtp.”
“Is there a translation into English?” Claude asked.
“Yes,” he replied, “Custodian.”
Claude considered the stranger for a moment and then asked, “Do you mind if we refer to you as Dr. Custer?”
“I do not object, but the designation is unnecessary.”
“It is for our benefit,” Claude responded. “We have occasional visitors; they may find it odd if the scientists keep asking the custodian questions.”
Dr. Custer seemed amused and smiled. Claude found it somewhat reassuring to know the strange man had a sense of humor.
“What brought you out of stasis?” Claude asked.
“It was initiated by the Queen’s birth.”
“The queen? What are you talking about?” Claude asked.
“She was born early this morning. We refer to her as Queen Mahu Kuwanlelenta. Her birth produced a biological signature which was released into the atmosphere. My resuscitation and the activity in the area you call the vault is in response to those signals.”
Claude asked, “What does this queen person have to do with this vault?”
“Without her, nothing in the vault will operate. If anything happens to her, everything will shut down.”
“Why, who is she?”
“She is the genetically engineered culmination of the Homo princeps species, purified through many generations within the human genome.”
Claude and J. Alfred were both getting nervous.
“Are you the interface with the vault,” Claude asked.
“No. I am the Custodian,” he answered. “My function is to maintain the vault for the Queen. She is our gift to you and will help you avoid the mistakes our people made.”
Claude, J. Alfred, and several scientists met with the man for several hours. He recounted the Nina Nizhoni’s growth and eventual demise.
He explained the purpose of the vault was to preserve technology and teachings, including mistakes which led to his civilization’s virtual extinction. He claimed to be a clone who had been in stasis for over ten-thousand years, but was now the human equivalent of sixty years old. Normal aging would resume outside of his continuity pod and he could clone himself once more in ten years. He would die of old age within eighty years after the final cloning process.
J. Alfred was interested in Dr. Custer’s resemblance to the person suspected of murdering his father. He asked, “Are there others like you?”
“It is possible,” the man answered. “If they still live, they are the powerful and dangerous remnants of the technologists who betrayed the Nina Nizhoni ten thousand years ago.”
“If they are still alive? How could that be?” Claude asked.
“They are clones,” Dr. Custer replied. “But unlike me, there is no limit to the number of times they can replicate. Each of our individual lifespans is similar to Homo sapiens but memory cloning technology enables them to replicate with their memories intact. The cloning procedure was eventually forbidden by the Nina Nizhoni, but it was too late.”
“Too late for what? Why was cloning forbidden?” J. Alfred asked.
“It leaves the host infertile after repeated use. The Nina Nizhoni became so addicted to extending their individual lives, they could no longer support a viable population. Natural offspring could not be produced, even in the laboratory.”
“So who are these technologists you spoke of, and why do you think they may still be around?”
“In their final days, the Nina Nizhoni’s Elder Council voted to accept the inevitable extinction of the species with dignity and allow Homo sapiens the opportunity to dominate the Earth. When the vault was being completed, the Council intentionally excluded the technology responsible for their own demise, memory cloning.”
“What about you? Claude asked.
“I am the lone exception, but as I told you, my genetic material will become unstable after a single replication.”
Claude asked, “If that is true, then why do you think other clones may be alive?”
“The decision to accept extinction was not unanimous. The same faction of technologists who created memory cloning, rebelled against the council. They escaped with the most dangerous and destructive technological devices and vowed to prevent inferior Homo sapiens from controlling the Earth.”
J. Alfred instantly concluded the fugitive technologists were the people mentioned in his father’s conspiracy files.
“I learned of a secret society called the Qabalah,” he said. “They have been around for centuries and linked to numerous assassinations. I think one of them murdered my father.”
“That would not surprise me,” Dr. Custer said. “A side effect of memory cloning is the impact it has on the Ventrolateral Frontal Cortex region of the brain. Repeated cloning results in a complete lack of conscience. If the clones still exist, they are certain to be psychopathic.”
“Will the equipment in the vault tell us if these clones are still alive or if they are part of the Qabalah?” J. Alfred asked.
“Yes, it provides limited details, but a device called the Quantum Biomolecular Interactive Field Indicator will indicate how many Homo princeps clones remain, if any.”
Claude interrupted, “I am still thinking about this queen you mentioned. I have a lot of questions. When will we meet her?”
Dr. Custer laughed, “Perhaps you misunderstood. She was born early this morning. She is a baby. I will watch over her as she grows, and after eighteen years living as a human, we will send someone to initiate her transformation.”
“Eighteen years!” Claude said. “That is in the next century! What are we supposed to do until then?”
“Prepare,” Dr. Custer answered.
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And they did. ORION scientists learned more about the artifacts in the next few weeks than was discovered in the prev
ious year. The mysterious man in the box continued to maintain the equipment and would become known by many names: Custodian, Dr. Custer, Archie, and Anastasius.
They used what they learned from the vault to build a preeminent institution of higher learning, unparalleled in faculty, facilities, political connections and innovative architecture.
Over the next eighteen years, Claude and J. Alfred helped Dr. Custer to ensure the Queen was protected. Her human name was Haley King.