Canaan

by David Salvi

  May 2065 Entry -- Yukon Territory, Canada

  I write these for future generations. Always make progress possible.

  We are ready to embark on the most significant event in human history—departing our home planet, Earth, for a new planet to build a new civilization. Tens of thousands of years of human history has led us to this moment where intelligence, ambition, and courage peak at the top of a pyramid of evolution, transforming us into an interplanetary species.

  All of the preparations are in order. Stargazer is loaded with the appropriate supplies in the event our trip is ten times the duration we have currently calculated—which is two weeks. So, we have roughly five months of provisions in the event something goes incredibly errant. Exotic matter is created, on both ends of the proposed wormhole passage. Our crew, made up of dozens of individuals, all genetically selected for the trip, is ready. We were tested and trained for space travel. Next is to fire our rocket into space, dock with the Stargazer, and let the exotic matter do the dirty work. We’re along for the ride.

  As a ballast to the mission, Rob shows enthusiasm (which says a lot for an piece of artificial intelligence). He says the calculations are tested, tested again, and again, and always arrive at same conclusion. We have what we need.

  T-Minus two weeks until we launch. Nothing will stop us.

  End of Entry.

  Oscar Marian

  CHAPTER 17

  CHRIS LED THE GROUP through small roads in Canaanite City. Riley followed closely behind with Lavik pulling Jack, who was shackled and gagged, along for the ride. Their small group tread quietly on gravel roads, stopping periodically to check corners and avoid open conflict. Since most of the Canaanite forces were ordered to run down the rest of Motus’s army up the garden, they had relatively light traffic through the streets. Smoke and ash floated everywhere, fogging their view, but also disguising them among other Canaanites. Pandemonium had played in their favor.

  Although they called for the retreat, disparate soldiers from Riley’s company scattered around the immediate area in the city and continued an unorganized attack in hopes of survival. Fight and win, then run away. They had little choice. It was, however, a welcomed distraction. When a soldier approached their group, Riley ordered them to flee. Take to the Herod Hills to the north. Just as easily as she gave the order, the soldier followed it.

  As he walked passed one last corner before reaching the Canaanite Tower entrance, Chris halted and stared back at Riley.

  “Why’d you do it?” Chris asked.

  “Because I can’t see any more men die. What good is a free life if you’re dead?” Riley stared at the pebbles on the ground with baggy eyes. Streaks of dirt covered her face.

  “Things are worth dying for.” Chris believed it when he said it.

  “Maybe. But there are things to live for too. And whatever power they have in Canaanite Tower needs to be taken away. You know where it is. We’re going to use it as leverage.”

  Lavik nudged them forward and urged them toward the entrance—several yards ahead. At the fingerprint-secured metal door were two guards waving smoke out of their eyes. They looked lost and confused by the chaos around them. Indiscernible orders blared from their radios. They had no idea what people were saying, or who was saying it. They just stuck to their post.

  “Tackle, stun, and shackle. Motus style,” Lavik said with a grin. At his hip was Jack murmuring something under his gag cloth. It did not matter since there was enough noise in the air to drown out any cries for help.

  Riley nodded, glanced at Chris, grabbing his arm, and darted at the guards.

  When Chris dug his shoulder into one of the beastly human beings, he felt an immediate soreness. But the guard writhed in pain underneath him. Finding the guard’s stunner and shackles, Chris carried out the sequence. Stunned. Shackled. Riley did the same to her victim.

  Gagging and carrying around their hostage proved beneficial. They could not afford a snitch. And they needed his fingerprints to open any security doors. So, Lavik stretched Jack’s shoulders more than Jack would like, and placed his fingerprints on glass panel.

  The door hissed open automatically, unlike anywhere else in the city, revealing an empty foyer with metal and glass adornments. Not much to it other than a pathway to an elevator and a few open spaces for storage. It was well lit and enchanting to first time observers.

  “The blueprints said in the lower level, accessible by the elevator straight ahead…” They took one step and bright fluorescent lights popped on, causing them all to squint and draw arms. Every pore, smudge, and droplet of sweat was illuminated under the skylight.

  As they approached, Chris noticed the curvature of the elevator’s door, seemingly pushing out as an egg in the wall.. They saw a blurred reflection of themselves in its silver shine. On the side was a button. Chris pushed it.

  “Ya know…we are in the tower, where the Arch Canaanites are,” Lavik said.

  “I like the thought, but we don’t have the manpower,” Riley said. “Let’s just help Chris however he needs us right now. We gotta keep this stuff out of the Canaanites hands.”

  “As you wish, Captain.” Lavik’s shoulders depressed.

  Ding!

  Parting in the middle, two doors opened to reveal a white interior, all metal but not shiny. They entered and found a panel on the right side of the door when facing out with all the levels of the tower, including a LOWER LEVEL at the bottom. Riley pushed it.

  Swoosh! went the elevator car, downward.

  The four of them fit comfortably with space for four more. They looked around at each other and shrugged. Nothing to do now but wait for the elevator to do its job.

  Though it was only one floor on the panel, the subterranean trek in the elevator took longer than Chris had expected. He glanced over at Jack, who stared into nothingness. Even when addressed, Jack ignored his captors.

  Several moments had passed and Riley worried this was not the right way. She questioned Chris, but he reassured her of the blueprints his mother had smuggled out of the tower. This was the way. No mistaking that. What was actually in the lower level was another question.

  Ding!

  When the elevator doors reopened, Riley and Chris hid on the right side for cover. Lavik, pressing Jack into the white wall, hid on the left. Nothing came from the other side, save for a faint light reflecting yellow off the slick floor. It appeared to be an cold and uninviting concrete.

  Riley quickly glanced to see, then shot her head back into the elevator.

  “Uh oh. They were ready for us. Dozens of guns drawn. As soon as we move, they’ll fire away,” she said.

  Then Riley motioned to Lavik. Lavik caught her message and smiled. Chris smiled too, knowing what she wanted.

  Lavik hurled the shackled man to the center of the elevator car. He screamed under his gag and tried to fight the overpowering Motus man. Chris and Riley yelled into Jack’s ear. Jack continued to shout and clinch for the impending pain. But none came.

  When Jack opened his eyes, he saw no one. But he heard plenty of laughter. He tried to curse them through the gag, but was drowned out by the giggles.

  The group then entered the room, first met by a massive ivory-colored wall with a glass panel. It had a faint yellow light.

  “Couldn’t risk another ambush,” Riley said, laughing off the gesture. “Thanks for being our bait.”

  Jack snarled at her. She winked back.

  The four moved swiftly to the door. This panel however was a bit higher than the other asking for fingerprints. This panel asked for an eye test, prompting the person to crouch or stretch, depending on their height.

  Lavik, Riley, and Chris once again looked to Jack, who refused to offer up his eyes. Through the gag he mumbled “No!” while shaking his head and convulsing in rebellion.

  Not wasting time, Lavik mangled Jack’s shoulders and pressed him toward the panel. Still, Jack resisted by shutting his eyes. Lavik looked back at Riley and Chris.

/>   “What do you want to do with this one?” Lavik asked.

  Riley, without missing a beat, stepped forward and fired her hand like an upside down catapult. She ripped into Jack’s genitals and tugged backwards. His eyes shot open, and what should have been a high-pitched wail spewed from his mouth, but absorbed by the gag. That’s when Lavik balanced Jack’s face to get a scan from the panel. Success.

  Chris scoffed and laughed.

  “That’s the most a woman has touched him since he fooled around with his cousin when we were fifteen,” Chris joked.

  Jack snapped back with a red face, both from anger and embarrassment.

  Chris said, “Oops. Sorry, buddy.”

  Lavik and Riley’s mouthed “eeeek.”

  “Hey, it is a small city.” Chris winked again at Jack. “Who could blame him?”

  But the group’s focus diverted to a major spectacle before them as the door cracked in two, like the elevator, and opened.

  Jokes were thrown aside. This was the real deal.

  They stared into a cavernous room lined with computer systems blinking lights. Most of the machinery inside hummed along in monotonous fashion. The room was dimly light by skylight. Ventilation surrounded the very top of the room, pumping clean, cool air. Almost no humidity was allowed inside, giving it a static smell and feel.

  They slowly walked in and gazed at the massive machinery. They stopped in their spot when they heard a voice. Chris and Riley raised their weapons. Lavik threw Jack in front of his body like a human shield. Jack was visibly annoyed by his prop-like status.

  “Who’s there?” an omnipresent voice said. It echoed against the walls, but was warm and inviting. “I do not have eyes, but the system has alerted me of your entry. Who’s there?”

  Riley glanced over to Chris. She wanted him to lead the charge. He obliged.

  “Christopher Menas.”

  Almost immediately, the voice said, “I’ve waited a long time for your, Christopher.”

  “Rob II?” Chris said with a twinge of doubt in his voice.

  “Yes, that’s me.” The computer was delightful in its replies. And respectful of its visitors and their certain confusion.

  “You can’t see us? So, there are no cameras here?” Chris asked.

  “No, the Canaanite Council decided it was best to isolate this room. Hiding it from the outside world. No hacking. No entry except for Arch Canaanites. If people knew what was in here, they’d surely come after it. But you knew. Which is why you are here.”

  “My friends and I need to take you with us.”

  “I know.”

  “And we need…”

  Rob II finished Chris’s sentence, “...the exotic matter…I know. Your mother told me. I have the conversation recorded.”

  Suddenly a faint recording popped on and relayed Myra’s voice mid-sentence, “when Chris comes, take care of him and tell him all he needs to know…” Chris drew heavy breaths and shut his eyes, listening to his mother’s soft, sweet, and maternal voice. “He’s a sweet boy. Strong and determined. But he has yet to find his way. Please show him the way.”

  “Stop,” Chris asked, holding back tears.

  “As you wish,” Rob II said.

  “Where is the exotic matter?” he asked.

  “It is near the center of the room, securely fastened within a device that I alone can open with a hidden passkey, and only when placed inside the spacecraft as outlined by Oscar Marian’s plans. The latches securing the material simply won’t open without the proper structure around it. I currently do not possess the plans as they were transported and isolated by Myra Menas. The plan, accordingly to your mother, was to take me and the exotic matter to the appropriate location for safety.”

  “Then that’s what we will do.”

  The group walked to the center of the room. Ignoring the machines that flanked them and covered most of the real estate inside, the primary attraction was a center console, lifted into the air like a platform. On it was a square device, as Rob II described, made of a thick charcoal metal the size of a tigrus fish. Divots and grooves were scattered around the device in a seemingly organized fashion. An insignia was on the top right corner - OM, Oscar Marian’s logo. The O was like the Greek Omega. The M was a regular English M intersecting with the Omega symbol.

  Chris reached out to hold the device.

  “I should warn you, you shouldn’t touch the device. It’s highly unstable.”

  Chris immediately retracted his hand in fear. The rest of them stepped back in awe of the device’s power.

  “Just kidding. How else would we get it out of here?” Rob II said.

  Eye roll. Big time eye roll.

  “Before leaving, Christopher, your mother left equipment for the best way to transport me. It is wearable, and straps around your head and shoulders. It also allows me the appropriate sensory protocols, making them congruent with yours. I see what you see. I sense what you sense. An added benefit is my ability to be eyes in the back of your head. As well as short-range radar to detect movement around you. It is located in the console. Open the latch and you’ll find it.”

  “Uh, sounds good.” Chris was not going to complain about the extra help.

  So he found the console’s compartment and opened it. Inside were straps with metallic platelets attached. All together they connected to a monitor that fell onto Chris’s chest. He put the equipment on with Riley’s help and Rob II’s instruction. Easy enough.

  “How durable is this thing?” Chris asked.

  “Very durable. You’d need explosives or extreme temperatures to destroy it. You on the other hand aren’t as durable. So please be careful.”

  Chris nodded.

  As she adjusted the straps on Chris, Riley spoke up, “Why didn’t you help the Canaanites?”

  Rob II replied, “It wasn’t the right thing to do.”

  “Isn’t that against your programming?” Riley asked.

  Chris, Riley, Lavik, and even Jack awaited an answer.

  “My original programming motive, as Oscar Marian intended, was to help life thrive. I may be software, but I am not without knowing what is right for prosperous life and what is wrong for that prosperity. For over three hundred years, I have witnessed and assessed human behavior. Based on the evidence, the right thing to do was to help Myra Menas.”

  Chris paused and let the words sink into his soul. All of the bullshit from the past year of his life, and even before that, weas summated by artificial intelligence software better than anyone could before. Canaan saw his parents as traitors. Motus revered them as gods. And then there was a supercomputer, alive three hundred years with a notion for doing the right thing. He had no side. He had no allegiance rooted in centuries of tyranny and war. Simply the right thing to do was to help Jason and Myra Menas. It was a principal, not a flag that drove his decision.

  “Not to mention, you were held captive down here for hundreds of years,” Riley said. He walked to the center area where Rob II was held.

  There was a pause, then Rob II said, “That fact did not hurt my justification either.”

  “Funny guy,” Chris said. He cracked a smile and looked around the room thinking Rob II could interpret the data through a camera. Although the artificial intelligence couldn’t, Chris did it anyway.

  “I am not a guy, Christopher.”

  “You’re real enough for me, Rob. Whatta say we get out of here?”

  “I would very much like to see Apollo again. Okay, releasing me from this prison is easy. I am embedded in the drive currently lit up green. It will fit inside the monitor on your chest.”

  “Let’s go,” Chris said. He unplugged the drive from the location Rob II directed and put it into his monitor.

  Riley grabbed the device holding the exotic matter. It was compact with handles, making it easy to carry, and barely heavier than a small child.

  Lavik still had Jack, much to Jack’s continued dismay.

  “Can you hear me, Christopher?” Rob�
�s voice said from a speaker on the monitor. It was loud enough for the four of them to listen in.

  “Yep. Can you see what I’m seeing?”

  “Yes, I see Riley Reuben. Leader of Motus’s military and criminal in the Canaanite database.” Rob II said. Chris turned from her and looked over at Jack and Lavik.

  The software continued, “Lavik Dosseline, Motus military. And…oh…Jack Braukus, Arch Canaanite in charge of the Imperial Canaanite Interstellar Program or ICIP. He appears to be your captive.”

  “Uh, yeah,” Riley said. “We need to go.”

  “Wait, someone is coming down the elevator,” Rob said.

  “Shit, we don’t have the weapons for a firefight,” Lavik said.

  Rob II spoke up again, “No, you do not. There is one other way out. Back wall. Through the ventilation systems. You must climb up the computer systems and rip off the vent covers. Go now.”

  Lavik stepped forward and charged toward the plastic and metal mountain of computers. For as large as Lavik a person, he was as experienced a climber. He was able to reach the top in less than a minute. He huffed and puffed in the final few steps, but reached the ventilation with plenty of power and stamina to spare in order to rip through off the vent cover. After opening it, he stuck his head in and looked left and right.

  “What now?” he said.

  “There should be a tunnel spacious enough to crawl through,” Rob instructed.

  He spotted it and gave a thumbs up. Only a few feet from where he opened the vent.

  “Let’s go,” Chris said.

  “What about Jack?” Riley asked.

  Rob II said, “Leave him. We will not need his security clearance.”

  The group collectively nodded. Riley stashed Jack in the back of the room and pinned him between two metal desks, putting desk legs between his back and shackles. He was stuck. He wiggled for freedom, but only found the clanking of metal. A few more attempts but he gave up.

  Riley ran over to Chris by the mountain of computers.