by John Lane
After rolling onto the carpet of the research floor, she stood and sprinted to her lab. The foam left a trail on the carpeted floor behind her. Agnes’ DNA scan would give away her location, so she hotwired the door to open and remain identified as locked on the security boards. Once inside, she relaxed briefly. In her office, she broke open the med kit and gave herself a shot for the pain in her arm. She couldn’t fashion a sling because her next step was to shave. Donning a protective mask for her face, she stripped, stepped into the prep booth, and activated the foam spray that would dissolve all of her hair. Next she took a shower.
The results were encouraging. Take the biometric fusion circuits that Jasper developed for Cassius and build a better storage unit. The brain was, after all, an electrical chemical unit. She couldn’t wait to share the results with her father, and the best way was in person. After nine months of work, her team had something to show. They were finally beginning to realize she did have more to contribute than just being her father’s little girl. She was a talented engineer on her own.
The lift stopped on the lowest floor where her father’s office was located. The only things below this level were newly dug out warehouses. She didn’t even pause at the reception desk to announce herself. She bypassed this for most meetings with her father. On this occasion, in her excitement, it was no exception. She heard loud voices coming from behind closed doors as she rounded the corner to the office,. She froze in her tracks, not believing her father and brother could be so angry.
“Dad, you’re not listening. With a fully integrated system, these soldiers need never die.” Jasper yelled.
“Exactly! Because they would no longer be human,” Caesar Zephyr responded in kind. “Replace a limb or an organ and you restore their quality of life, maybe improve them. But when you go mucking around with the brain, what are we doing? Just building more computers and programing them with Ai’s.” He caught his breath and calmed down.
Jasper took advantage of the pause. “This is the best of both. The programing restructures the subject piggy backed on a virus. It rebuilds any damage and restructures it into a better soldier. They send us back cadavers, and we give them new soldiers, new life.”
“Son, don’t you see the ramifications? If we can program those poor young people, we take away free will. We take away what makes us human, and the grave potential for abuse is introduced. You will create a race of slaves to do the bidding of a… of a…” he searched for the right word, “a master race.” Caesar’s voice filled with horror at the thought.
Jasper’s voice reverberated through the closed door. “You are so closed to understanding. This is a better way. Look at the poverty that still persists throughout the Central Systems and in the Frontier. Every soul will finally find purpose and contribute to the common good.”
All this was frightening Agnes. She had to put a stop to it. She pushed open the door shouting, “Stop it both of you. We’re scientists not politicians. We have ethics to guide us not political philosophies.”
Both men were shamed into silence. Agnes caught her breath for a moment. Her father finally broke the silence. “Please, Jasper, Agnes, forgive my passion. Life has always been sacred. That’s why I went into medicine.” He sat down in his desk chair emotionally drained.
It was Jasper’s turn. He was still red faced and breathing heavily. “I’m not afraid of the debate when it could save lives, Dad. This isn’t over.” He didn’t storm out of the office so much as he surged out with the energy of a zealous devotee to his cause.
When calm settled once more, Caesar asked, “Monkey, you wanted to see me?”
“Yes, Father. I’ve got what I thought was good news, but after that, I’m not sure it’s good news anymore.” She shared the results of her team’s test on memory transfer and storage with her father.
He gave her a small smile. “This is good news.” When this didn’t cheer her up, he reminded her, “Progress takes different forms, and it is our human ethics that keep us on the right path, on your razor’s edge between what is best for the good of all civilization and preserves individual dignity and freedom or the alternative.” She gave him a questioning glance. “We must relearn from history harsh lessons about how humanity can be enslaved to the will of a few. We would stagnate, and be sacrificed in a holocaust of individual selfishness and greed,” he spoke softly with a sadness that was breaking her heart.
“You mean Jasper…” her question faded into unspoken fears.
“No, but our research can be use by some to gain those same means. The quick and easy answers, the fast results that Jasper is excited about may lead down dangerous paths for us.” He took her hand and looked into her eyes. It was the first time Agnes realized that her father was just a man, with worries and fears like any other person, not a god. It was at this moment she saw him, not from her child’s eyes, but as a colleague. He may even have more worries because he was responsible for so many people in his company, the settlement and even the galaxy. Agnes had to be honest with herself. Her father hadn’t recovered from Mother’s passing. He lost his better part.
Those eyes looked back at her in the mirror. They looked desperate and sad. She treated her abrasions and her shoulder was back in place and healing. It now only throbbed. And her hair, she really liked how it had finally grown back in after her last storage update. This thought brought a small smile to her lips as she stared at her bald pate again in the mirror. I might beat Jasper in the hundred meter crawl now, she thought. And that just brought her down again as she realized that she probably wouldn’t ever see any of her family again.
Was it her imagination or was the room shaking. It was real and too soon. But the toothbrush she kept in her lab vibrated off a shelf and crashed to the floor. Her home was being blown out of its orbit. When their star began to expand, the Astrologic research team gave the planetoid a twenty percent chance of survival. Evacuations started immediately. The tremor stopped. The end had begun, but there was still time to get everybody off, except her.
A few remained until the last ships were prepped, but they didn’t know she was here. The manifest recorded her leaving in the previous round of evacuations with her father and brother. Her father had put Annie on one of the earliest ships with most of his medical staff. But Agnes had been caught where she shouldn’t have been looking, and now there was no escape.
This prompted her to get her aching body moving. She found her workbench to prep the data transfer. From a nearby cabinet, she pulled out one of many identical storage devices. She placed it on her workbench, and plugged in several leads that led to a medical exam chair. Agnes then sat down and pulled several more leads from the chair and attached them to her chest and specific spots on her head. She forced herself to go slowly and be accurate with the placements. Otherwise, she would lose all the data she wanted to transfer, and she did not have time to try again.
“Marcus, please begin data transfer procedure from short term memory,” she said quietly, knowing that her Ai would hear her. Somehow, she had never trusted Cassius. She had installed a copy of Marcus in her lab.
“Confirmed,” was the equally quiet response that Marcus gave her from a speaker near her head on the chair. As the chair reclined and slide into the MRI, she was thankful that she had played with his programming as a girl. He understood some subtlety of human discourse, like the need to be quiet and calming.
She didn’t want to argue with Jasper, but he hadn’t been home for days. He wouldn’t answer any of the family’s calls either. So, she requested Marcus to interface with the settlement’s systems and track him down. Now she used her access code to open the door to his office lab.
“Jasper,” she called. “I know you are here. Please, let’s talk. Father and I are worried.”
“Go away, you shouldn’t be here,” came a tired voice from a far corner of the lab. Agnes followed the sound. She found Jasper slumped over a large lab workstation console. He was in sweat stained lab coveralls, and to her re
lief, she was sure she saw food and coffee stains on his chest. At least he was eating.
“You look awful,” she tried to joke. When this didn’t get a response, Agnes tried a different tack. She knew her brother, like the rest of the family, could get lost in a problem, but they rarely missed more than a day away from home. Sharing their work at the family table was one way they all had found to clear their heads and find new solutions to dead ends in their research. Both Jasper and Agnes had absorbed most of their advanced education through these discussions at the dinner table. But Jasper had changed as much as father since Mother’s death.
“So, tell me about your day…” She began much the same way their mother would begin discussions around the table.
This brought an unexpected laugh from her brother. “My day. My days have really sucked. Thank you very much for asking.” But then he turned and looked at Agnes for the first time. Now he saw her as his little sister, barely nineteen years old. “You have so much to learn.”
“Jasper, you’re creeping me out. Won’t you come home? At least to get cleaned up?” she asked.
Jasper addressed the surrounding air, “Brutus. Don’t you think I should? Appearances, you know.” He pleaded.
“Yes,” a quiet deep base voice responded.
Jasper stood patting the console as he did. “Let’s go. I’ll have to get back soon.” He had been sitting too long. He took hold of Agnes, and she had to help him across the lab.
That evening at dinner, Jasper had cleaned up, but remained mute as he ate. No one wanted to intrude into his wretched solitude. They were just happy he was home. The family felt incomplete with the loss of Mother, and another one of them was hurting, Jasper. Wrapped up in his own pain, Caesar did not know how to help his son. They hadn’t really spoken as father and son since their big argument months ago. Mother had always been the peacemaker. Her death left a void that neither crossed. They only shared the compulsory communication of employer and employee.
Agnes tried to fill her mother’s shoes and took the lead. “Jasper, I’m glad you’re home.” This only elicited a pause in Jasper’s slurping his soup and an apologetic look around the table at his family. Agnes pressed on hoping normalcy might relax the heavy mood of her family. “Did anything interesting happen at work today?”
After a pause to allow Jasper to start, Agnes began, “We finally licked the speed issue with the personality storage units. Now we can upgrade the medical caskets and begin shipping them to the frontlines where they are needed.”
“That’s wonderful,” her father beamed self-consciously.
“Yeah, Agnes.” Five-year-old Annie clapped her hands in pleasure as she often did when she heard good news about the family projects. She eat contentedly, oblivious to the mood of the room.
Uncharacteristically, her father mumbled, “Got to find a better name for those damn things than casket. Too much death.” Agnes looked at him with concern.
Jasper smiled into his soup and then lifted his head. “I’ve had a great success, too. But I don’t know how many will like it. I’ve finally been able to combine human brain cells with….” That was the beginning of the end.
The emergency claxon sounded. Everyone knew what the sound meant from regular drills. Shockingly, this was not a drill. All the apartment monitors activated as the family moved to the common room. There on the large screen, the Governor spoke. “This is not a drill. This is a Type One emergency. Evacuation procedures will commence immediately. Via drone report, our sun is expanding. This was triggered by an accident with our deep astrological research teams. We have roughly ninety-six hours to complete total evacuation. This will only allow a twenty-six hour margin before the outer crust reaches our orbit. Projections are that there is an eighty percent chance this planetoid will not survive the impact. Please, follow all Type One emergency protocols now.”
“I’ve got to get to Operations, they’ll need my help,” Caesar said already crossing the room to leave.
“I’ll go with you, Dad. My evacuation station is there with you,” Jasper said, following his father to the door. Caesar stopped to let his son catch up. At the door a moment passed between father and son when both men looked into each other’s eyes and found forgiveness in the face of bigger issues.
Agnes picked up Annie in a protective hug. Their father embraced them both. He held them both close for just a moment longer than a ‘goodbye’ needed. “The first transport out. You are on it,” he said.
“Yes,” she promised. But even though she would take Annie and put her on the transport, her heart remained here with the rest of her family until they were safe.
Agnes wasn’t safe. The settlement’s population was safely evacuated by now. Only Ai controlled bots remained to monitor all systems. They would continue any manufacturing processes and load vital personal items into automated ships until forced to stop.
She pulled off the last lead when a quiet buzz alerted her she might have been found out. Still naked, she checked the dedicated security monitors that kept her lab protected. “Mistress, there are several maintenance bots approaching. They signal a chemical leak is eminent, and that you must evacuate. As per your instructions, I am denying access until you indicate they may enter,” Marcus’ voice issued from the speaker at the security station.
“No access,” she whispered, almost afraid that even her voice behind several layers of metal walls would give away her location. She had to buy some time. She entered instructions at the security station to reroute several internal systems. Then she grabbed a tool kit and popped a panel next to the lab’s main hatch. She spliced in several lines of wiring and extended them to a generator.
“Marcus, you are to manage this power supply as long as you can. When any bot attempts access to this lab, send out a variable EMP to knock out those systems. I have set up shielding to protect the systems of the lab. You are to protect this lab at all cost. Acknowledge instructions,”
“Acknowledged,” Marcus responded.
“Good, start with these bots, please,” she commanded as she ran through her lab to an area where her prototypes were kept. There, she found and opened her casket. Desperate now, she had to warn the galaxy. She knew the truth about the Wars and how to stop them.
Agnes was due out on the next transport. Most of the settlement had been evacuated. Only key personnel remained to shut down delicate systems and batten down the hatches hoping, if the planetoid survived, there might be a home to which might return. That slim hope was based on the twenty percent chance that the gas giant they orbited with their twin moon might block the approaching apocalypse.
One of her last jobs as a department head in the family company was to confirm evacuation of the offices and labs of her section. She completed the labs and was checking her department head offices when she ran into her brother doing the same thing.
“All clear?” Jasper asked. Agnes found some hope because her brother looked more like his old self now that doom was descending on their home.
“Yes. I’ve just got my office to close down. How about you?”
“No one is left. You’d better get on your transport. I’ll take care of the last of it when I close mine,” he offered.
“OK Thanks.” She started to hug her brother when he put one hand on her shoulder and stretched out his other hand in a formal business shake. She ignored the strange gesture and hugged him anyway.
Jasper held on to her for the hug but again offered the handshake. This time, she took it out of reflex and astonishment. “Keep solving those puzzles, Monkey,” he said and then released her.
As Jasper walked away, Agnes clutched the piece of paper and data chip he secreted in her palm tightly. Somehow, she knew not to look at it or reveal that she had it. Her brother never called her ‘Monkey.’ That was only for her father. And he never solved the puzzles with her. Again, that was father.
There was only one place she could solve this mystery unobserved before she had to meet her transport. Sh
e went back to the apartment and the closet in her room where she long ago disabled any access from outside systems. A girl wanted her privacy.
Her casket cycled through its preparation sequence. The lid stood open waiting for her. More power surges ripped through the lights. It was one of the few external links that her lab had to the rest of the settlement and their only way to get to her. As a final shower of sparks rained down on her bare skin, Agnes heard banging coming from the main door to her lab. “Marcus, show me the exterior view of the hall, please.”
Without a word, Marcus brought up the view just outside her lab on an auxiliary monitor in the prototype room where her casket waited. She saw several incapacitated bots lying on the floor. The banging came as several smaller delivery bots from the Postal Service were lined up and rammed the door. As each came in range, Marcus sent out an EMP. They went slack, but not before each built up momentum and their inertia carried them into the door to batter it down.
The Postal bots gave her an idea. She only had time to climb into her casket and hastily give instructions. “Marcus, please set up a false signal and mask my presence.”
“Done, Mistress,” Marcus now appeared on the same auxiliary monitor in his full Roman armor, sword drawn and ready to defend her. She smiled at the protection subroutines she wrote when she was eight, asserting themselves now to protect her.
“Thank you. Now I must mail this casket. Please have it sent to the Postal Service,” here she paused. “Send it general postage and lose it.”