Jump Starting the Universe Book Bundle

by John David Buchanan

  The response to Dex’s question was immediate. “The guard you bound and gagged isn’t here to protect us; he is here to make sure we don’t escape,” said one of the scientists.

  “They’ve threatened our families if we don’t cooperate with them,” replied the second man. “If we help you, we are signing our families’ death warrants.”

  “What if we help you escape,” replied Dex, “you and your families? We can take you someplace safe. You won’t be able to take much, but you’ll be free of this place and its owners.”

  The two scientists stepped to the corner of the room to privately discuss Dex’s offer. After several minutes of rapid conversation, they turned to approach the group.

  “Can we make it look like we were forced?” said one of the men. “We don’t want them coming after us.”

  “And we will need to contact our families,” said the second man, “so they can be ready.”

  “We would have left this horrible place long ago if it weren’t for the threats against our families. You can understand that can’t you? If you can guarantee no one will know, we will help you,” said the first man.

  “Deal,” said Dex

  “My name is Levon, this is Nevel,” said the second scientist.

  “I’m Dex, this is Joules, Blackie and Joe. Mark, Wayne, and Guzzle are in the viewing room,” he motioned them to come to the processing room. “Nita is keeping watch outside the door.”

  “That won’t be necessary,” said Levon, “No one is scheduled in for several days.”

  “Good. How do we get started?” asked Blackie.

  “First, I’ll find the people you’re after in the database,” replied Nevel, “it will tell us where they are stored. Then we bring them here and reverse the process.”

  “We want every Centorian in this facility and all of the people they were brought in with,” replied Dex. “Joe, you can help with the equipment. Guzzle, see if you can assist Levon.”

  “Once you’ve located them, exactly how do we bring them here?” asked Blackie, remembering the rows and rows of cryogenic units as the rest of the group entered the room.

  “Each of the cryogenic units is an independent chamber on rollers. They are stored with the rollers in their locked position. We just have to unlock each roller and wheel them down here.”

  “That sounds easy enough,” said Mark, who had joined them near the middle of the room. “I take it you’re going to help us?’

  “Yes, we are, and I think we should get started immediately,” replied Levon. I don’t know how many Centorians are here.”

  “What about the prints?” asked Nita. “Don’t we need those for reanimation?”

  “They are stored in the room next door,” he said as he pointed to the climate-controlled room adjacent to the processing chamber. “First, we sort the database by origin, then we look up each of the Centorians file numbers. We can use that number to locate the correct storage cabinet, open the door and pull out the designated drawer, and identify the slot number.”

  “To remove them, you move the tab on each end of the slot and slide them out vertically. You’ll need to use special gloves,” explained Levon. “They are on a shelf just inside the door, and make sure none of your skin comes in contact with the printed surfaces.”

  “What happens if you touch them?” asked Wayne.

  “Only one person that I know of accidently touched a print surface with his bare arm,” said Nevel. “He was never the same. He couldn’t explain exactly what happened, but we could tell from his mannerisms that the effect it had on him wasn’t good. Not long after, he quit showing up for work. We have no idea what happened to him or his family.”

  “We should get started,” said Levon. Guzzle accompanied him to the control room and helped boot up the computer equipment while Joe helped Nevel inspect the circular array of conical devices around the ceramic gurney to make sure they were clean and in the proper position.

  “One of you could get that spray bottle and those wipes, put on some gloves and clean off the gurney,” said Nevel as he and Joe continued their inspection. Nita grabbed the spray bottle and began wiping down the gurney.

  “If this has to be done between each use we’re going to need more cleaning fluid,” replied Nita.

  “I’m going to check on the guard, I’ll be right back,” said Dex. When he returned, Levon and Guzzle were just coming out of the control room.

  “We did a data sort for Centorians and another sort for everyone brought to the facility the same day,” said Guzzle. “We found 73 Centorians and 160 others.”

  “I think we should process the Centorians first and maybe they can help us verify the identities of the others,” suggested Nevel. “We printed seven copies of each list; Centorian on one list and the others on the second list. There is also a map of the grid so you can find the cryo units and another map of the print cabinets. Let’s start at the top of the Centorian list and work our way down – four people moving cryogenic chambers and three retrieving prints. If we work straight through it should take approximately five hours to reanimate all the Centorians and another eleven hours for the rest of them.”

  Blackie, Mark, Wayne and Dex immediately took lists and began looking for cryogenic units. Nita, Joules and Amelia went with Nevel to the print room. He unlocked the door and showed them the gloves and how to find the cabinets.

  “Remember to change gloves each time you retrieve a print,” cautioned Nevel. “When you bring the print to the room, place it on top of the matching cryo unit. Then, clean the gurney with the spray and wipes; there’s more spray in the control room.

  Blackie retrieved the first cryo unit and Nita met him inside the processing room with a matching print. Levon showed them how to slide a small panel on the cryo unit to reveal a small red button, which he pushed. Within seconds the button turned green and the curved front door of the unit moved slightly inward and slid sideways to the back of the chamber.

  “This is the awkward part,” said Levon, who pulled an overhead lift into position and quickly fished a strap under the inhabitant’s arms. When he had finished he used the hand control on the crane to tighten up the lift strap. Then he pushed a small black button on the edge of the exposed door facing and the bottom plate of the cryo unit slid out, bringing the body with it. Levon used the lift to place the body gently on the ceramic gurney.

  While Levon placed the victim on the gurney, Nevel checked the code on the cryo unit to make sure it matched the print code, then he placed the print in the extraction chamber and went to the control room.

  Levon asked everyone to go to the viewing room. “You should see at least one of these,” he said, “so you’ll know what you’ve done for these people.”

  He returned to the control room where Joe and Guzzle were waiting. Nevel flicked a switch on the control panel and the ceramic tank began to fill with a fine powdery mist that hung in the chamber’s atmosphere looking like a thin fog backlit by soft white lights. Inside the ceramic tank a mist formed and began to swirl, creating a vortex over the print where a vaporous image began to take shape. The mist thickened and poured itself against the image that stood upright against the onslaught as it developed. Finally, the mist became so thick the group in the viewing area couldn’t see the struggle taking place inside the tank.

  Then, an unmistakable image of the person laying on the gurney was visible, pressed against the viewing port still fighting against the thick vapor tearing around it. But its eyes and face were calm, there was no look of fear on its face. Its mouth opened wide then closed into a slight frown then opened and it looked as if it were trying to speak to those in the viewing area. The heavy mist continued its assault on the image but not a sound could be heard.

  With the mist swirling violently, the process timer actuated an automatic valve and the inside of the tank was sprayed with a bioactive extraction liquid that knocked the vapor out of suspension and onto the floor where it collected in a small sump. The image was gone.
A valve in the bottom of the sump opened and all the liquid was vacuum lifted into a small, sealed ceramic jar in the control room. Nevel pushed a cover plate mounted near the switches sideways and exposed a keypad. His finger hovered over the buttons momentarily, then he entered the time 8:30 IPT, the 12th of Cenorary in 5997.53 and pressed the enter button. He flicked a row of switches and as he did the conical-shaped devices around the gurney made a slight whirring noise as they moved upward to point at the gurney.

  The body on the gurney convulsed violently then relaxed; his face twitched and immediately he lost the waxen expressionless look he had worn inside the cryogenic unit. Dex left the viewing area and stepped into the processing room.

  “Where am I?” asked the man on the gurney.

  “You’re on Numaria in a warehouse,” responded Dex. “Do you remember how you got here?”

  “No,” replied the man quickly. “We were gassed. I passed out and don’t remember anything after that.

  “You were disambiguized,” said Dex. “How do you feel?”

  “I feel great,” said the man. “How long was I out.”

  Dex didn’t answer. He knew how crushing the answer would be when the man found out how much time had passed.

  “You’re Centorian aren’t you?” said the man.

  “Yes. I’m here to get you and all the other Centorians out of here. Do you think you can help?”

  “Sure, I feel fine,” said the man. “But you didn’t answer my question. How long was I out?”

  “A very long time Jerin, a long, long time,” replied Dex. “Help us and we can talk later.”

  “What do you need?”

  “I need you to greet everyone as they wake up. Tell them you just woke up too and they’re being rescued. Tell them to go to the viewing room over there,” said Dex pointing, “and tell them we are being picked up soon.”

  “Okay, I can do that,” said Jerin.

  Dex motioned for the others to join him and he introduced Jerin to them. Then he asked Mark to close the curtains in the viewing room. “There’s no sense in letting them witness what happens in here,” he said, “it would only bother them and haunt their dreams.”

  “If we are going to finish in sixteen hours we had better hurry,” said Levon.

  After eight hours of reanimating victims they took a break. Joules and Blackie raided the warehouse pantry and brought carts of food and drinks for everyone, including the people in the viewing room. “There’s a ton of food and drinks in that pantry,” remarked Joules. “There should be plenty for the others as well.”

  Wayne came out of the viewing room to get a drink and informed Levon that the viewing room was full. “Is there another room we can use?” he asked Levon. “That one is packed.”

  “We can have them sit in the aisles,” said Levon, “there’s no other place to send them.”

  “Dex, could we chance a midnight pick up for half of them and pick up the rest tomorrow?” asked Amelia.

  “If the fighter was spotted we would end up in a fire fight with 235 people to protect,” said Dex. “I know it’s not the best situation but I’d rather wait. What do you think?” he said looking to Jerin.

  “We should wait,” replied Jerin. “A little discomfort doesn’t justify the risk. Everyone will be fine with that; I can assure you.”

  Jerin rounded up some extra help from among the Centorians and before long the remaining cryogenic units were queued and ready for processing. Joules and Nita made another trip to the pantry for more refreshments for the newly reanimated while Blackie helped in the processing room, loading prints into the extraction chamber. Wayne, Amelia and Mark continued retrieving prints and put them with their matching cryo units.

  The extra help expedited the process and several hours later they had finished over three fourths of the reanimations. When number 182 was finished Blackie poked his head out of the processing room door and called out, “Hey Nita, could you come in here for a moment?”

  “I can finish passing these out, go on,” said Joules.

  Nita walked to the processing room and stepped through the door to see her father sitting up on the ceramic gurney in the middle of the room. She walked forward and stopped a few feet away like she was seeing a ghost.

  “I know you,” said her father, as he slid off the gurney and embraced his daughter. “They told me your brother will be out soon.”

  Nita didn’t say a word. She just hugged her father tightly.

  “This is the only worthwhile thing I’ve done in years,” said Levon to Guzzle as they watched Nita and her father from the control room. “A close second will be destroying this equipment before we leave.”

  “What if they need to reanimate some poor soul who is found to be innocent later?”

  “Nevel and I can rebuild all this stuff somewhere else,” said Levon, “and we can design the equipment only for reanimation. And,” he added, “I’d like to do it with patent approvals this time.”

  “I’m sure we can work something out,” replied Guzzle.

  Nevel left the control room and suggested to Nita and her dad that they use his office next to the control room. “We’ve got this under control, Nita, go visit with your dad.”

  “What about my brother?” asked Nita.

  “He’s in the queue somewhere,” replied Nevel. “When we find him, I’ll bring him to my office.”

  The reanimation process was working perfectly and they were processing much faster than when they first started. When number 210 was finished Jerin explained to him what had happened and showed him to Nevel’s office. Nita let out a cry as she moved across the room to hug her brother. Jerin smiled and quietly closed the door, not wanting to impose on a private family moment.

  Finally, after seventeen hours of exhausting work, the reaminations were complete. The viewing room was full and there were people sitting in most of the aisles in the cryogenic unit warehouse. Mark grabbed a victim list, and starting with the viewing room went through the entire building calling out names and checking them off to make sure no one on the list was overlooked. Wayne helped Amelia get more food and drinks from the warehouse pantry. When Mark was finished he met Blackie and Levon in the processing room.

  “Everyone on this list is accounted for – now what?” he asked.

  “Nevel, how long will it take to destroy the equipment?” asked Dex.

  “With a little help… forty-five minutes… an hour tops with everyone chipping in.”

  “If everyone is accounted for, let’s wreck the equipment,” said Dex. “Then, Nevel and Levon, you need to call your families. Tell them to pack light, grab only the essentials, and drive into the spoils west of town about ten miles. Once I activate my transponder our ship will be here within thirty minutes. When we’ve loaded all these people we’ll pick up your families in the spoils.”

  “Let’s get started demolishing this equipment,” said Levon. “There are some large electric drills, wire cutters and hammers in the maintenance room. We need those to disassemble the equipment. Once we remove the ceramic exterior panels we can cut the wiring harnesses, pull them out, and clip them into small pieces. We can use the hammers to shatter the ceramics. We shouldn’t destroy the computer equipment, but we can erase the names of everyone we’ve reanimated,” finished Levon.

  “We should install a virus,” suggested Guzzle. “One that won’t affect normal functions of the system, but will shut it down if someone tries to recover the identities of these people.”

  “Get started writing that virus,” said Dex. “Mark, Blackie, help Levon get the tools we need.”

  Within ten minutes Blackie had removed the first ceramic panel from the extraction chamber and moved to the opposite side so Joules could begin cutting the wiring harnesses. Mark and Amelia worked on disassembling the gurney while Wayne and Joe helped Levon take apart the array of conical devices deployed around it. “What are these exactly?” asked Wayne.

  “The cones are fitted with extractors and injecto
rs,” said Levon over the sound of a large drill whirring in the background. “The extractors initiate a shear between the essence of a being and its corporeal body. The pinholes in the gurney lead to a vacuum chamber beneath the recliner surface. When the shear occurs, the essence is captured by the vacuum pressure and pulled through the pinholes into the vacuum chamber where it is directed by more vacuum to the extraction chamber.”

  “The injectors are used to reverse the process. Before extraction we typically have to give a patient a sedative; they don’t willingly give up their essence. But for reanimation an injection isn’t necessary. The essence is absorbed by the body immediately without the help of a stimulant.”

  “Could you put the wrong essence in a body?” asked Wayne.

  “We haven’t intentionally tried, but we don’t think so. One of the first reanimations performed many, many years ago was conducted to obtain additional testimony from a criminal. Someone filed his print incorrectly and when they initiated reanimation the essence wouldn’t enter the body. The attending scientist, Dr. Leondro, quickly deduced the problem, found the correct body and reanimated someone only to have to disambiguize him immediately.

  Shortly afterward the new system was installed to prevent print filing errors. As soon as someone is disambiguized they are assigned a print file slot. The new system automatically locks all slot tabs in the print warehouse until the correct print is inserted in its slot. When that happens the system automatically unlocks all the other slot tabs. Anyway, based on that experience, Zin Charr scientists concluded that whatever the essence or spirit is, it seems to be unique to each individual, and you can’t go sharing it with someone else’s body.”

  “We’re almost done here,” said Mark as he placed the last piece of ceramic from the gurney in a pile on the floor. “You need a hand, Blackie?”

  Amelia was still cutting the wire harness loose and clipping it into little pieces. “They won’t be using this wire again,” she said smiling.