It was closer to three hours than two before Paul let himself out of the Lucy room and met his two friends in the laboratory. Tlase was busy reviewing computer files on the research that had been done before, during and after the virus that killed most of the planets population, and Zimuel was doing an inventory, at the direction of Tlase, on the various chemical formulas listed in the research data as Tlase called them out. There were numerous variations to already existing formulas that had been developed centuries ago on Xhondar; these new variations where vast improvements over the old formulas and Tlase was amazed that no one on Xhondar had thought of them before. She then realized just how complacent the scientists had become on Xhondar. They had been so far advanced compared to other worlds that they hadn’t even considered that they actually could continue to progress. When Paul came over to the terminal where Tlase was glued to the computer, she looked up and declared, “You should see this stuff. Everything I worked on when I was here is far better than I remembered. Illinasos must have been working on this himself or he had a secret group of geneticists, biologist, chemists and people very advanced in nanotechnology working here independent of the research lab across the bay, where I worked. This is way more advanced than what we did. Come; look at this.”
Paul walked over to get a closer view of the monitor as Tlase informed him, “This is from the research they were doing on the solution that has been used for years in Xhondar’s regeneration tanks. We have been able to regrow severed limbs and repair damage to a human body for years. We developed the technology during the wars we were involved in for thousands of years. We finally got so good at it, that if the heart and the brain were still functioning, even if badly damaged, we could regenerate the damaged or missing tissue. It was a slow process but a lot of lives were saved and people were able to resume a completely normal life. I have seen people who have lost both legs, an arm and even have a trauma to the brain who were completely restored to normal. However, it literally took months in the tank to regenerate the missing parts. Now look at this. “She clicked on a small icon and a film began to show an incredibly mangled body being placed in a regeneration tank. The print at the bottom of the screen identified the man as the victim of a Mountain Tiger attack. The body was mutilated beyond recognition. Once he was placed in the tank, the time lapsed film began to roll with a clock showing the actual time in hours and minutes. Paul thought it must be trick photography. Before his very eyes, as he watched through the clear top the regeneration tank, body parts began to grow back into place. The man’s half missing face, with most of his jaw, his left ear and his eye ripped from his body, began to materialize before Paul’s eyes; his midsection, where a good portion of his intestines and stomach had been exposed, were beginning to close. His missing left hand and deformed left leg were reappearing just like normal. Before long the man was whole, with every body part actually better than new; elapsed time 8 hours and 45 minutes. Tlase turned to face Paul and said, “The file indicates that he had his appendix removed when he was a teenager. He had a new one when he came out of the tank. I’ve never seen anything like this and it looks like he has the same astonishing results on rejuvenation and enhancement technology. I really don’t understand how he did this, but I’m certainly going to find out.” Paul gave her shoulder a squeeze and replied, “I know you will, but not tonight. It’s been a long day. Let’s get a fresh start on this in the morning.” Tlase nodded her agreement and shut down the computer terminal. Zimuel put his arm around his wife’s shoulder and half-jokingly said, “Do you want to kiss me goodbye now or wait until you’ve moved down here. This woman is officially obsessed with this lab.” Tlase kissed him gently and smiled, saying, “That may be the last one you get for a while.”
The three retraced their route back to the elevator and returned to the floor occupied by the store rooms. After exiting the elevator they decided to climb the stairs to the hanger bay and use the non-restricted elevators that went through the residential area of Mountain City. They first passed floors labeled Recreation Center, Mall, Medical Center and Education Center then proceeded to see nothing but labels for residential floors for the rest of their climb. The elevator ended in the lobby of what was designated the Lieutenant Governors Administrative Offices. There were two floors of very lush offices, meeting rooms, court rooms, what looked like a security section filled with dozens of computer monitors. There was a lush office overlooking the bay labeled Illinasos Xhondar, complete with a conference table large enough for 20 people, sofas and chairs in a lounge area, a desk that was at least 15 feet long and had monitors that came up out of the desk upon command. This office was not built to look beautiful, though it did; this office was built to work in. Paul sat in the futuristic looking office executive chair. First thing he had to do was adjust; Illinasos was definitely taller. He called, “Lucy, can you have the droids replace the name and title on the door?” Her answer came quickly in her new voice, getting strange looks from both Tlase and Zimuel, “I will do it immediately. What title would you like on the door?” Paul thought a moment and replied, “No title, I’m not quite sure who I am just yet.” Turning to Zimuel he continued, “Have the office next to mine prepared for Elder Zimuel. No title, I’m not sure who he is either. No need to prepare one for Elder Tlase, I doubt we’ll ever be able to get her out of the basement. Establish direct video and audio between these offices and the Research facility below.” Tlase and Zimuel nodded their agreement. Paul walked over to a hidden panel beside his desk and opened it to reveal a personal elevator. He gave an evil little smirk as he told his friends, “Lucy taught me a lot in just 3 hours. Let’s go get some sleep.”
The small private elevator opened into the small study attached to Paul’s bedroom. When they exited into the study Paul’s little boy mischievous streak kicked in. “Let me show you the view” he said as he opened the door to the balcony. He couldn’t control his laughter as both Tlase and Zimuel grabbed hold of the door frame to keep from falling to the sea below. He then calmly walked over to the edge of the balcony and smiled, “Isn’t this great? You can let go of the door frame now.”
Paul was able to sleep the night before, but only because he was already tired. With two Suns, he somehow automatically knew; this time of year the Sun Verron orbited around provided a normal amount of day-light. However, about the time it began to set, the star or other Sun would continue to provide a slightly lower level of light throughout what would normally be called night. He felt like he was back in Alaska. He remembered covering his windows with black poster-board back then, so in the middle of the night he asked, “Lucy can you do something about this light, it makes me feel like it’s still day and I can’t get to sleep” Just as he finished speaking, solid panels closed over the windows turning the room so dark he could not even see his own hand as he waved it in front of his face.
Chapter 7
Paul was dressed, ready and entering the kitchen at an indicated 0600 on his new watch. He realized that with a 36 hour day, even though his body felt like he had gone to bed late, at 3100 hours, he still had managed to get over 9 hours of sleep. He was greeted by a smiling Tlase and Zimuel who had obviously gotten there early enough to prepare breakfast. In the middle of the table was some kind of dark-brown bread, some fruit and a huge egg, hardboiled and sliced in three pieces. He stared at it a moment and asked, “What on Earth is that?” Tlase answered, “That is a Kinfu egg. And for supper tonight we shall have Kinfu for our meal. I had almost forgotten what it was like to live on a planet where there is plenty of meat running around for the taking.” Paul looked at Tlase and asked, “You killed a Kinfu?” She grinned, “Of course not, there were Kinfu eggs in that double door cooler over there, pointing behind her with her thumb, and the rest of it was in the walk-in freezer.” Paul sat down and took his third of the egg and asked, “Isn’t this thing just a little old to be eating? It’s got to be at least, what, 300 years old?” “Three hundred and ten years since anyone lived on this planet. But a
Kinfu egg does not begin to spoil until it is cracked open. I used to eat them all the time with my family. She suddenly looked sad. Before she could take time to think about her loss, Paul asked, “So what’s up for today?” Tlase stood up and grabbed a small medical bag, “Before you two do anything, I need to give you this.” She removed two syringes filled with an orange solution. The needles looked like gas pump nozzles; they were the largest gauge needles Paul had ever seen. Then Paul remembered the antivirus formula that he and Zimuel needed to take. She pulled out four more syringes and even Zimuel started to squirm. “These are the antivirus, antibacterial and anti-poison vaccines. I don’t want to hear a word of complaint. You both knew you would have to get these shots.” Zimuel went first while Paul ate the rest of his Kinfu egg and toasted bread. He thought he’d volunteer to make a Kinfu omelet tomorrow.
As they got up from the table to leave, kitchen droids immediately started cleaning up the mess they had made cooking and eating. Paul asked, “Zimuel, what’s up? Should we go check this planet out?” Zimuel took a list from his pocket and handed it to Paul. “Lucy gave me a list of locations on the planet where there were population centers or industrial complexes. While my wife tries to decipher the miracles in the depths of the mountain, we shall go explore as many of these locations as we can possibly see today. Familiarizing yourself with what is on Verron is top priority and this list is probably the best place to start.” Zimuel looked to Tlase and asked, “Will you be alright by yourself?” She chuckled, “There are exactly three people on this planet and I’ll be in a place more secure than anything on Xhondar, yes, I think I’ll be fine. It’s you that I’m worried about.” She didn’t have to elaborate. Paul could sense through his connection to Lucy that there will be many unexpected and dangerous things outside of Mountain City.
They exited the elevator on the hanger floor and Tlase took the stairs down to the next level. She looked at Paul and asked, “Are my authorizations in place?” She was answered by Lucy in her new voice, “All authorization was implemented yesterday when Mr. Verron commanded me to do so; your lab awaits you. If you should need anything else, just ask.” Tlase looked at Paul and asked, “What have you done to that girl?” He smiled as he walked away towards the Class IX Light Destroyer and answered, “Exactly what she wanted to do, what else!” He waved bye and Zimuel gave her a light kiss on the cheek and followed. The door to the Destroyer was opening as the two approached it. When he entered, Paul couldn’t help but notice some cold weather gear in an open-faced locker beside the entrance. He asked, “Is it cold where we’re going?” Lucy answered, “One of the locations on your list is located in the northern range. It gets quite cold there. This time of year the temperatures can reach 50 degrees below zero.” Paul thought a moment and before he could form his question to ask, Lucy said, “There are no Mountain Tigers in the northern mountains, they all live in the range you can see from here. You do have two stops in the southern mountains. However, the Mountain Tiger hibernates this time of year. Just stay out of their caves. You do not need to take one of the plasma rifles with you. The stun-gun in the pocket of your survival gear will stop anything on Verron. We can’t have you going around killing off all the wildlife on this planet before you even get settled in.”
Zimuel looked at Paul as he heard Lucy’s comments and realized Paul had said nothing. “What’s going on here my friend?” Paul knew he could never explain what happened in that room below Mountain City and simply replied, “Lucy adjusted her programing in order to better communicate with her new owner. She is a very perceptive lady. She knew where we were going, knew I had seen the results of a man mauled by a Mountain Tiger, and knew how much I loved to play with that plasma rifle I had in my hands yesterday.” Paul silent thought, “It was a better explanation than, “She reads my mind!”
Paul sat down in the pilot seat and the controls felt completely familiar. Evidently when it was designed it was intended to be part of the Xhondarian fleet. Zimuel sat down beside him looking around at the controls and targeting screens and asked, “You sure you know how all this works?” Paul handled the controls and answered, “The flying is the easy part, what I want to do is play with is all these other controls.” He pointed to the weapons and targeting systems. Zimuel patted Paul on the head and said, “Down boy, you’ll have plenty of time to blow things up later. Today, this is simply our transportation.” As Paul fired up the drives and began to maneuver the ship toward to hanger door, he mumbled, “Your no fun.” Zimuel sounded like a father when he replied, “Probably not, but for now we need to work, not play” was his reply. As they exited Mountain City and headed across the bay toward where the river cut through the low mountains, Paul realized that he knew every detail of how this ship flew, how the weapons and targeting system worked, the ship’s capabilities in fire power, the speeds that this drive design was capable of achieving and even knew how many plasma rounds, photon torpedoes, thermal bombs and antimatter missiles were on board. Then he realized without a doubt that he knew the locations of each facility on Zimuel’s list without even looking at it. It was then that he understood just what the bonding last night had done for him; thousands of years of knowledge were at his disposal instantly. His confidence in achieving his future goals was quickly rising.
They followed the river for only a mile or two and turned into a wide valley that lay between the bayside mountains and some taller mountains about twenty miles farther inland. His first thought was, “This will be a great place to build a city; high, dry, beautiful setting and plenty of water.” The research facility was on the side of the bayside mountain, about three miles from the river. There were several good sized buildings and numerous smaller ones scattered through the surrounding forest. As he got closer, Paul could see that it looked more like a small military base than a town. The buildings were the same color and same design and built from the same material. They weren’t ugly, but they weren’t exactly pretty either. They landed in the middle of a small field that looked like it had been intended for exactly that purpose. Though the place definitely appeared abandoned, the grounds and buildings were almost pristinely maintained. Paul realized that he needed to find out more about this army of maintenance droids that obviously inhabited his new world. They walked into one large five story building and realized it was an apartment building. The apartments were clean and sparsely furnished but actually very cozy; ranging it appeared in size from approximately 600 square feet to 1500 square feet, with 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units. There was even a community room on the ground floor and a pool and workout area in the basement. There were several buildings just like it. They entered a small but efficient shopping area, almost a mall. There were a variety of services available: grocery store, barber shop, drug store, a doctor’s office, a couple of clothing stores and a restaurant. Everything someone would need, but no luxuries.
As he walked toward what was obviously the research facility he estimated that this location could house about 20,000 people. He knew that not all the residents here worked in the labs, others did biological research out in the forests and jungles, some, were marine biologists, geologist and environmentalist. This was after-all a scientific community. To the right of the laboratory entrance was a garage like maintenance building. He took a quick look and observed a couple dozen ground vehicles, some with tires and others with tracks. Among them were a few Xhondarian styled transports and hovercraft.
He and Zimuel entered the research building which was a moderate sized two-story building. The offices were nice but not elaborate like the offices in Paul’s administrative suites. Lucy opened the numerous security doors as they wondered deeper in to building. Finally they came to a long hallway that illuminated just as they stepped into it. The thing was at least a hundred yards long. They ventured to the end of the hall and were greeted once again by a set of even higher security doors. Once again Lucy opened them and they stepped into a large research floor. When the lights came up Paul could see that there were stat
ions for probably a 1000 researchers. They walked to a bank of elevators and noticed that there were five floors below and three floors above the floor they were on. “We don’t have time to look at all of them, where do you want to start?” Zimuel asked. Paul reached for the elevator button as he replied, “It seems that the deeper the secret the deeper the floor it’s on.” He pushed the button for the bottom-most floor. As they exited Paul knew he had guessed right. This place looked like it was the laboratory for Dr. Moreau. Paul had never seen genetic research before, with the exception of a little agricultural research. This place had no living animals but had row after row of creatures in huge liquid reservoirs. There was one creature that was part man and part tiger, another creature that looked as if it had been a mix of a bear, a rhinoceros and a lion, with six legs instead of four, fangs a foot long and gigantic paws that had no less than eight long claws on each. The room was full of every kind of genetic disaster imaginable. The most disturbing were the ones obviously conducted using human genes. When they reached the back of the lab and opened another heavily reinforced door they found dozens of cages, open and empty. Zimuel and Paul looked at each other wondering where the former occupants were now.
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