by Ken Kroes
“That’s a big area. Will they be tilling all of that by hand?”
“Most of the garden areas and smaller crop areas will be, but I’ve heard rumors of them building a small wood gas tractor for this large field.”
“How do you keep something as big as this whole village a secret?” he asked. “Until today, I didn’t know that this program or place even existed.”
She smiled and nodded. “Very good security and you have to remember that there are three more sites like this around the world. It’s a pretty big job.” Then she abruptly changed the subject. “You’re lucky that you arrived this week. The Air Chair has just been completed and is operational now.”
“What’s an Air Chair?”
“It’s kind of a ski-chairlift system that does a loop around the main points of the village. The planners see it being used mostly by the elderly to get around and for moving harvests between the clan huts.”
“Why not electric golf carts or something like that?”
“This is easier on the environment and the planners don’t want roadways. Besides, most wheeled vehicles use rubber tires, and rubber is on the restricted list. That’s why, after all the temporary workers leave, there won’t be cars or even any bicycles around.”
“What’s the restricted list?”
She outlined a list of materials that couldn’t be used in the village. “Rubber, for instance, because in most cases it’ll decompose in less than a hundred years. And they can’t make it, at least not until there are villages where rubber trees can be grown.” She pointed to a hillside entrance they were approaching. “We call this cavern the warehouse. A few critical things are kept in here that can’t be rebuilt but can be stored for a long time. When more villages are established, they’ll be able to have some specialization which will then start to furnish these items. For example, one village may supply the rest with copper or rubber.”
Entering the cavern Spencer saw that about half of the large area was filled with shelves that were about half full and the rest had pallets with a variety of machine parts and raw materials like copper ingots.
“This is a little over the top,” he said. “Would it be impossible to send in a supply truck every once in a while?”
She laughed and slowed down to let him catch his breath. “The whole purpose would be defeated. This is a multi-generation project, and people are signing up to live here for the rest of their lives without assistance from the outside world.”
For the second time in less than two weeks, he felt like he was entering an alien community with ideas and principles so unlike the traditional towns and cities he was accustomed to. He mentioned his recent trip to one of the colonies.
“Actually, the colonies are a precursor to this type of village,” she said as they left the warehouse. “Several of the social programs developed for Percipience were beta-tested first at the colonies, such as the size of the clan huts.” They approached the ramp to the Air Chair platform, and she spent a few minutes explaining how it operated. They stepped onto the next available chairlift, and she pulled the cord that signaled they were ready to go. Within seconds, the chair automatically attached itself to the moving cable and they started to wind their way through the trees around the village.
“Is everything around here run on electricity?” he asked.
“Yes, and this is one of the biggest users. They’ve brought in large generators to provide electricity for now, but construction is underway to supply power to all of the village from horizontal windmills and water tanks on the hill up ahead. I think they underestimated the demand though because I’ve heard the engineers say they’ll need to plan for more windmills with the high consumption of this chair.”
“Horizontal windmills? Why horizontal? I’d think that would be very inefficient.”
“I asked the same question,” she agreed. “It has to do with one of the core values here. The environment is to be treated equal to humans, so everything is geared toward leaving as little negative impact as possible. The horizontal windmills are far safer for birds, and so that’s the design they’ve used even if they had to build more of them.”
“What about the water tanks, are they just for supplying the village?”
“That and to provide stabilization for the power generation. There is nearly always wind over that hill for the windmills, but if it dies down, water out of a few of the tanks is released and goes through a turbine to generate electricity. It’s not much, but enough to run essential equipment for quite a while.”
They started to pass a group of plain looking buildings connected by covered walkways.
“This is the manufacturing hub. Each of these buildings will be designated for making certain items, like woodwork, fabric, paper, and metalwork. There are more rooms underground. But the buildings were the easy part. What required even more work was setting up the machines and tools inside them. Most had to be redesigned to use simple parts and be easier to repair.”
“Why all the underground stuff?”
She replied that despite its greater building expense, it would all last much longer and with lower maintenance cost. “There’s also the temperature aspect—underground rooms stay close to ground temperature, around fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit, so it takes very little energy to warm them up.”
They approached a chairlift platform with a sign that said Greenhouse, and he asked if that was something still to be built.
“No, the structure is done,” she replied. “It’s another underground structure. Let’s stop here and I’ll show you.” They disembarked from the Air Chair and walked down a curved path that sloped farther into the ground. She opened the door and they entered a brightly lit cavern.
“This lighting is all provided by ultra-efficient grow lights. They’ve divided this place into several sections, depending on the amount of light and temperature needed by the plants. They’ll grow outdoor crops too. This is to only to provide greens for the winter and specialty fruits and vegetables.”
She pointed to one corner of the cavern. “Over there is where they’ll be setting up a special composting system so that they can farm bugs.”
“Bugs! You’re not going to say what I’m thinking, are you?”
“Yup, they’re not a big component, but bugs will be part of the diet. Usually, ground up and mixed with other things, but a high-protein food source like that can’t be ignored.”
“I can ignore it just fine. The thought makes me sick,” he said as they returned to the Air Chair platform.
The next stop of the tour was the outdoor sports area which consisted of a few baseball diamonds, soccer, and football fields. The earth had been contoured to have gentle hills near each playing area to allow for spectators a place to sit and watch the events.
Spencer gazed over the open expanse of green playing fields. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that they mow this with an old fashioned push mower.”
“Don’t be silly,” Hope replied. “The grass that’s planted on the playing fields is a variety that only grows to about two or three inches. No mowing required!”
After a few more stops to view the other infrastructure, they arrived back at the platform where they had started and walked to the Town Hall Center.
“This is by far the biggest above-ground building in the village. It’s a combination of auditorium, indoor sports facility, lecture theatre, church, nursing station, offices, and library, plus, of course, the Research Laboratory.” She opened the door to the lab and was pleased to see Olivia.
“Spencer is a special guest for the next few days,” she said to Olivia. “He works for the DIR and has come over to learn what we’re all about.”
Spencer reached out, offering a hand shake.
Olivia extended her hand and shook his. She intended to get back to work but looked into the deep blue eyes of the handsome man in front of her and gave herself an extra minute to speak to him. “Quite a ride out here, isn’t it?” I must look horribl
e with no makeup and these awful coveralls.
He shook her hand and smiled. “The ride here was nothing compared to the earlier part of the trip.” He described the previous few weeks, telling them about his interrogation, creating details along the way that added notes of drama and personal danger.
“Someone obviously thought he was a corporate spy or something,” Hope said, interrupting his mounting tale of peril. “Olivia, I need to run an errand. Could you please give Spencer a tour of the lab and show him where the cafeteria is?”
Olivia’s smile widened. “Sure, I can do that.”
“I hope you enjoy your time here, Spencer,” Hope said. “I’ve arranged for you to stay in trailer sixty-six. Olivia can show you where that is, and if you need anything, just come back to this center and ask for me. They’ll know how to get in touch with me.”
After she left, Olivia showed him the main areas of the lab and told him about the equipment that eventually would be set up.
“Why all the focus on biology and chemistry?” he asked.
“The purpose of this village is to work out a way to live in harmony with the planet. Of course, that’ll involve some physics, but being easy on the environment is mostly about biology and chemistry.” She smiled brightly and gazed intently at him.
“Makes sense.” He was not blind to the attention that Olivia was showing him. “What about all of this equipment?” He pointed to the biohazard suits and refrigeration units. He also saw several pieces of equipment he knew were designed for handling dangerous pathogens.
His question caught her off guard “Um…we need to be equipped to handle anything here. Once construction is finished, there’ll be no contact with the outside world, so I thought it’d be a good idea to have some of it around. They’re multi-purpose, too; for instance, the biohazard suits can be used for protection against radiation.” She then changed the topic quickly and suggested that they go to the cafeteria.
Spencer agreed, paying extra attention to the locks on the windows and doors as he left, noticing that a few of the windows, while closed were not locked. I’ll have to investigate this area later tonight.
They took their time over dinner, enjoying each other’s company and afterwards took a pleasant evening stroll through Percipience. Though he was a few years younger than her, the combination of his humor, charm, and good looks had Olivia entranced and she let out a long sigh as their walk neared its end when they approached his trailer.
“Perhaps you could take the day off tomorrow and show me around?” Spencer asked as he held her hand.
“Yes, I would like that very much,” Olivia said, pleased that he seemed to be as interested in her as she was in him.
“Great, you can stop by my trailer when you’re ready in the morning,” he said with a wide smile. He then leaned towards her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek that left her in a bit of a daze as she walked back to her trailer.
Diane and Hope were still up when Olivia came in. “Hope filled me in on your new friend,” Diane said teasingly. “Is he even half as handsome as Hope is making him out to be? Does he have a brother?”
“Very amusing,” she said as she smiled at her roommates and got ready for bed.
As soon as Olivia left, Spencer returned to the lab and easily opened one of the windows and got in undetected. He examined the equipment already there and then noticed some crates stored in one corner. From the shipping label on the top crate, it appeared that they had arrived the day before from the foundation’s main laboratory.
He carefully opened one and saw hundreds of metal cylinders, some glass bottles, printed materials, and a data thumb drive. He examined the metal cylinders and read the bold-faced warnings. He took a couple of the cylinders and glass bottles along with the drive and rearranged the contents to appear as if the crate was still full. Then he resealed the crate and went back to his trailer.
He plugged the thumb drive into his phablet, copied the data file and started to read through it. It was soon apparent that the document was a manual and that he had stumbled onto some kind of lethal virus called Virtuesh and its vaccine. The metal cylinders alone were scary. There was a biohazard warning label on them and a red button with a cover over it. He dug through the online manual and found that the cylinders contained the live virus and that the button was a failsafe. If the button were pushed, a chemical would be released inside the cylinder that would instantly kill the virus. Skimming through the rest of the manual, he learned that the glass bottles contained the vaccine, and the rest of the manual contained detailed instructions on recreating both. Why on earth would they need something like this? I think I will take advantage of Olivia’s obvious attraction to me. She knows about this virus and a relationship with her could prove to be very useful in the future.
13 - Secrets
Olivia stormed into her trailer late in the afternoon, startling Diane who was alone and had just laid down to take a nap.
“What’s wrong? What did Spencer do?” Diane asked.
“This has nothing to do with him; we actually had a very nice day. This is all about Mikhail,” Olivia fumed. “Yesterday, I received the first shipment of the Virtuesh virus and vaccine along with some other items from the lab at the foundation headquarters. After I saw Spencer off this afternoon, I went over to the lab and examined the crates and discovered that whoever packed it made a few mistakes, like shorting me on the amount of virus and vaccine that they were supposed to send. They also sent me the original printed version of the instructions from the Asia lab instead of the electronic version that I requested.”
“What does this have to do with Mikhail?”
“I flipped through the printed notes and found information that’s not on the electronic version I’ve been working from. There’s mention of a developed second strain of Virtuesh—one that’s stronger and can be transmitted through the air. Mikhail is the only person that I can think of who could have altered the electronic version to leave no mention of it.”
“You didn’t know about the second strain?” Diane asked.
“No, and if everything that I read today is accurate, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t, this is a species killer!”
Diane was silent as she absorbed Olivia’s information. “Should we go to the police?”
“I don’t think so. Like I said, Mikhail must be behind this and I’m sure that he has covered his tracks well, and if we report it now, they’ll most likely find nothing. He’s already had several months with this other strain of the virus and God knows what his plans are.”
“But it could be Richard or maybe both of them.”
“Maybe, but at least Mikhail has to be involved since he worked so closely with me on this whole thing. He’s one of the few people with access to altering the electronic version and with his microbiology background, could alter the documents in such a way that I wouldn’t know that anything is missing.”
The trailer door opened and Hope entered, covered from head to toe in dirt and mud.
Diane’s mouth fell open. “Wow! What were you doing today?”
“This is your fault,” Hope said, looking at Olivia.
“My fault! What did I do?”
“Since you were with your new friend today and didn’t need help in the lab, they had me and a few others finish digging out a cold room for one of the clan huts. Everything was going well until someone broke a nearby waterline and a foot of water flooded into the hole I was working in. I’ve spent most of the day shoveling mud.” She moved gingerly from one foot to the other. “Can you wait on dinner until I get cleaned up?”
“Sure,” Olivia said. Hope went into the bathroom and shut the door, creating a brief hiatus in the conversation.
Then Olivia turned to Diane. “What’s a cold room?”
“It’s usually a well-insulated room in the basement of a house. It’ll stay close to ground temperature year round but won’t freeze. Very handy for storing food and seeds. They keep longer
in the cold.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a house with one,” Olivia said.
“Some older houses have them, but you’re right. They’re rare in new homes probably because most people don’t have a clue about growing and storing food anymore anyhow.”
Hope had stripped her clothes off in the bathroom, turned on the shower, and reached into her overall pocket and pulled out an earbud that she placed in her ear. Through her phone, the earbud was connected to a bug she had placed in the bedroom area of the trailer. She would listen to her roommates’ whole conversation later but was curious to hear what they were talking about now.
Hearing the shower start, Diane went back to their previous discussion, “What should we do about this second strain of Virtuesh?”
“The documents refer to it as Virtuesh-B. Mikhail is at the foundation this week. I called and told him that I need to spend some time in the lab there since the assistants working for me had made mistakes. He knows I’m not impressed with them and will send the helicopter to pick me up in the morning.”
“What are you going to do there?”
“I need to make some of this new strain then use that to make up a batch of vaccine.” Olivia said. “While I am there I’ll also see if I can find any other information that is in printed records and not on the electronic versions, like how much he had made and where it is.”
“How long do you plan to be there?”
“Probably about a month to make a small batch. I just hope I can make up enough excuses to Mikhail for staying that long. He knows that I like my creature comforts, like a big place to live, nice clothes, and restaurants, so he should understand my wanting to be back there for a while.” Olivia paused for a moment and appeared to be lost in thought before she finally added “Maybe I can even get away for a day or two and visit Spencer.”
Hope let the warm water wash away the mud and grime. Interesting—now I may have a second source of the vaccine if Mikhail decides to double-cross me.
She got dressed and the three women went to the cafeteria for dinner.
“What did they have you learning today?” Hope asked Diane.