Regolith

by Brent Reilly

  The Landshark also used regenerative brakes to charge the ultracapacitor, as well as a new cousin: a shock absorber called GenShock invented at MIT that converts vertical motion caused by bumpy roads into useful electricity. Hence, Jackson’s car is constantly charged by 1) a car body painted with organic solar, 2) regenerative brakes, 3) shock absorbers, and 4) transparent photovoltaic windows that use heat resistant glass which dramatically cuts air conditioning costs. Those who only drive short distances could conceivably go years between refills. Drivers could refill with pressurized hydrogen canisters from Home Depot.

  Using an amorphous metal frame to take off several hundred pounds, Jackson now had a car design and business model that would allow him to dominate the global automaking industry.

  But, then, he went one crucial step farther.

  Instead of producing cars himself which, admittedly, is a bitch of a headache, he entered an agreement with BYD to buy up to 250,000 Landsharks a year. BYD already had several factories and the Chinese government seemed willing to lend them the money to build a new state-of-the-art factory, so Jackson asked them how many Landsharks BYD could make a year, including the new plant. Since they figured they could probably build just over 200,000 units a year, Jackson promised to buy up to 250,000 a year for ten years. China already offered a 60,000 yuan ($8800 USD) electric car subsidy, giving Jackson a big domestic market as well.

  Jackson knew introducing them to the public was crucial, so he sold them through a reverse auction where insatiable demand and limited supply quickly drove up the price to over $100,000. Which became a selling point and a marketing tool as the Landshark became a status symbol.

  Meanwhile, the financial crisis that resulted in Bush’s 2008 Wall Street Bailout was still increasing unemployment in China. Too much unemployment threatened the government’s image as capable governors. Fearing the seeds of revolution, they offered to expand capacity to as much as Jackson felt comfortable buying. They were willing to build BYD several next-generation factories if Jackson became a guaranteed buyer. They even offered very favorable prices, preferring to take a loss as long as they employed a few million more Chinese workers. Which, admittedly, is much cheaper than suppressing rebellions.

  The Chinese made an offer Jackson couldn’t refuse.

  With prices so low, Jackson decided to make the most of it by promising to buy up to ten million vehicles a year, not that he ever expected a tiny Chinese automaker to ever produce so many. The Chinese government, however, needed to give jobless workers hope, so they held a joint press conference to announce the government was loaning BYD several billion to make several large next-gen production plants that would employ several million Chinese. They even opened up a new school to train these new workers while the factories were being built. Jackson became a household name in China as the guy creating several million jobs.

  So, to Cooper’s fury, Jackson was not only going to become the biggest automaker in the world, but was doing it with other people’s money. Cooper knew that Jackson was counting on him as president to buy several million of those vehicles to replace the federal government’s fleet. Jackson already told him that his SUV would be a great replacement for the post office’s 260,000 mail delivery vehicles, much less their freight trucks. Plus, Jackson wanted to allow state and local governments to buy into the pool to replace police cars, as well as school and inner city buses. Which Cooper hadn’t promised to do yet, if he won.

  Yet the political profit was so much more:

  Jackson had a car that didn’t consume oil, pollute, or contribute to global warming. Since transportation accounts for two-thirds of America’s oil consumption, and vehicles alone consume 44% of all oil in America, replacing gas and diesel vehicles with plug-in solar fuel cells would make America energy independent. This would save millions of Americans from dying prematurely from air pollution, save generations of kids from asthma and respiratory diseases, keep millions of workers at work instead of sick, and prevent future wars over oil. America remained at the mercy of oil exporters like Russia, Iran and Venezuela for only as long as its drivers consumed 150 billion gallons a year of gas.

  Instead of an expensive national dealership distribution system, Jackson used a website where buyers could order exactly what they wanted -- outer color, interior, sound system, etc. The waiting list was over a year long anyway, so Jackson made a virtue of necessity. Or, in computer parlay, he turned a bug into a feature. Buyers could even track their car online though the production and delivery process, a la FedEx.

  “I’m the Landshark girl,” Monique admitted, quite pleased that he recognized her from just two commercials that ran briefly. She appeared in tons of magazine ads, but print ads didn’t matter to models like television did. Fame to an aspiring actress is like dope to an addict. “Last week I finished several commercials for the new 2012 models. Are you familiar with plug-in fuel cells?”

  Cooper flashed her his trademark smile, the one that barely fit on his face.

  Jackson’s beautiful sky-blue Landshark stood out more than his borrowed three ton Hummer. Which was the point. While the Hummer looked like a land yacht, the Landshark looked like it could fly. Or swim. But the beauty of the Landshark was not just skin deep. It was the economics that rocked the industry.

  Because the Landshark was freed from designing around big boxes like the engine, steering column, and trunk, it was far more evenly balanced, with its weight lower and better distributed to give it an optimal center of gravity which enabled it to hug curves at high speed.

  But the best part was each skateboard chassis could accommodate dozens of different bodies, including compacts, vans, sedans, pickup trucks, and SUVs. Switching vehicle bodies only required tying down a dozen connection points and inserting the control wire into the main port. Because the bottom half of the vehicle was the same, one factory could produce dozens of vehicles with one platform, without costly makeovers. In contrast, GM had 68 car models using 50 different platforms.

  While every major automaker develops models and then tries to share platforms to reduce costs, Jackson first designed a common platform, then came up with various models to build on that platform. Or, specifically, four platforms that theoretically could handle every car, truck, van, and SUV he imagined making. And even that fourth platform would make various buses, freight trucks, SUV limos, and an armored military transport that could accommodate an entire light infantry platoon. Designing several platforms was hard, but made turning out various models relatively cheap, fast, and easy.

  And refueling was as easy as plugging into a 220 outlet, buying a canister of pressurized hydrogen gas, or just leaving it out in the sunshine. That eliminated the chicken-and-the-egg dilemma of sinking trillions in a vast hydrogen distribution network. If clean energy was the future, then Cooper was looking at tomorrow.

  “I’ve heard of them,” Cooper obliquely answered her. “You know how I can get one?”

  Monique leaned towards him and whispered.

  “Don’t tell anyone, but Henry’s prototype is a piece of shit. That’s why he won’t sell it. He only drives it to show off or get on TV. Lorena won’t touch it because it’s so unreliable. He’s getting the very first 2012 model to replace this piece of crap.”

  Cooper loved hearing bad news about Jackson.

  “I won’t tell a soul,” he lied.

  Despite having decided to replace federal gas hogs with plug-ins as much as possible, Cooper still had not told Jackson yet. He hadn’t decided what to ask for in return. Jackson was always pestering him for something. Cooper wanted something back. But when you’re already the president of the United fucking States, what more could you possibly want?

  A billion dollars.

  The thought hit him like a brick. He said it again in his own mind, loving the sound of it. One billion dollars. Now that’s validation! He then wondered what Jackson would have demanded if their positions were reversed.

  Monique wrapped her arm around his and walked
him into the house as he, still flying like a kite, reveled in the most unexpected sex of his life.

  And, as it turned out, the last.

  If he only knew how many cameras filmed his infidelity, then he would really realize just how fucked he truly was.

  8

  Buck naked in his second floor bedroom, Henry Jackson’s only son watched his longtime lover feed his warm cum to the next likely president of the United States. They just had sex minutes before, so Monique must really hate that guy to make him drink David’s juice. David had done a lot of mean things in his life, but feeding a guy someone else’s sperm topped them all.

  If he wasn’t busy masturbating while operating three hidden video cameras, he would have screamed at the top of his lungs. Although it wasn’t clear what he would have screamed.

  Named after his grandfather the astronomy professor, rather than his father the governor, he insisted on being called “David” instead of “Henry” or “Henry David” because he did not like being in the shadow of his father. David and his father had enough bad blood between them to stock a blood bank. Although a compulsive workaholic like his father, he otherwise did everything possible to appear different.

  Jackson spent most of David’s childhood building his fish farms in the South Pacific. David tried all of the usual attention-getters, like excelling at sports, shooting, flying, martial arts, and learning the family business, but his father always seemed to have more important things to do than spend time with his only son. Other kids would have concluded that this was somehow their fault. Not David. He concluded that his father was an asshole. And grew up with enough issues to employ an army of shrinks.

  David worked off the anger by kicking the shit out of people, first in martial arts tournaments, sometimes in bars, and later in semi-legal cage fighting bouts. He only stopped when he beat the reigning cage fighting champion to a bloody pulp, giving his father the governor another public relations bitch slap.

  What kept David so pissed is that his father did the opposite with Lisa. His father tried to justify it by explaining that he was not spending more time with his daughter – his daughter was spending more time with him. In other words, she spent her free time with him; he was not spending his free time with her. Like David cared. While his father joked that Lisa was the son he had always wanted, Lisa had the father that David always wanted.

  But that did not mean he wanted his father to fail. His father promised to fund his “special projects” if he scored big, and so David had serious chips on the table. Money drove father and son apart, so maybe money would help them connect once again.

  The trauma of losing his wife to leukemia made wiping out deadly diseases his mission in life. So an obsessed David earned both a doctorate in microbiology and a medical degree, although he never took the medical exam because, quite frankly, he should not be around people. No, David wanted to become a research geneticist like his mother. Or, rather, manage genetic researchers.

  David had two obsessions, and his twin six-year-old kids by his dead wife were not among them. First, he wanted to rid the world of genetic diseases via pre-conception screening of the egg and sperm. Choosing the best sperm and egg did not involve any genetic cloning or manipulation. This would prevent millions of babies from being born with disease and disabilities. No genetic disease has ever been cured. Prevention is the only cure. Or, as his mother phrased it, “prevention is the cure.”

  Which is why he needed his father. Geneticists could identify ever more bad genes, while making screening eggs and sperm ever cheaper, but most people would continue to have babies the old fashion way unless the pre-screening and artificial insemination was fully covered by health insurance.

  God, he hated politics. And politicians.

  Babies screened of genetic diseases would be stronger, healthier, and live longer. Studies showed that people would pay ten year’s income for another good decade of life. The several thousand dollars invested would save hundreds of thousands later. Crippling conditions like Down’s Syndrome would be wiped out forever. As the genetic screening became better, more and more bad genes would be screened out. Every generation would enjoy greater quality and quantity of life, and turbocharge the economy with healthier workers productively at work instead of in hospitals.

  David also favored a national healthcare system that paid for vaccinating babies against inherited forms of cancer, obesity, alcoholism, dyslexia, and diabetes. Just take AIDS. HIV attaches itself to a molecule called CCR5, which sits on the surface of white blood cells. Those who don’t have CCR5 don’t get infected. And a single gene producing a molecule called CCL3L1 prevents HIV from attaching itself to CCR5, meaning screened babies would be immune to HIV.

  Prevention is the only cure.

  Virtually everyone has genetic disease pre-dispositions, and the list of genetic diseases is long and sad: Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Down's Syndrome, Tay-Sachs, Cooley's anemia, Werner syndrome (causes premature aging), cystic fibrosis, sickle cell, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, lupus, Type 2 diabetes, arthritis, familial breast cancer, prostate cancer, fragile X syndrome, Asrskog-Scott syndrome, Beckwith-Wiedemann (gigantism), hemophilia, muscular dystrophy, and some forms of alcoholism, depression, mania, addictive behavior, schizophrenia, asthma, neurosis, and obesity. Experts could one day screen out nearly 2000 genetic diseases, disabilities, and preconditions.

  Another example was cancer, the third biggest killer of all time after 1) stupidity and 2) not paying attention. Cancer has 67 “master” genes, so genetic versions could theoretically be prevented by removing or turning off these 67 genes.

  Treatment is expensive, prevention cheap. Diabetes costs America $132 billion, autism $43 billion, and asthma $11.3 billion every year. Genetic diseases, including lost productivity, cost America half a trillion a year.

  David also obsessed over life extension medicine.

  Aging is mostly regulated by the gene clusters that control the release of certain hormones, which hold the key to slowing the aging process. Life can also be significantly prolonged by removing or turning off dozens of bad genes and enhancing dozens of good genes, or the proteins they control. These target genes produce antioxidants, make natural microbicides, and some, called chaperones, keep the cell components in good working order. Other ways involve reversing or repairing decay in mitochondria, organelles that serve as a cell's main energy source.

  Some people collect baseball cards or rare coins. Others obsess over sports or soap operas. David’s mission in life was preventing genetic disease and extending life spans.

  But everyone needs a hobby. David’s was re-creating extinct animals on a chain of islands his father controlled in the South Pacific, several thousand kilometers from the nearest continent. The Pitcairn Island group, with a total area of 47 square kilometers, consisted of Pitcairn, Sandy, Oeno, Henderson, and Ducie Island. Pitcairn Island is infamous because it was populated by the descendants of the ship Bounty, from “Mutiny of the Bounty” fame. Until rape and incest of young girls forced authorities to remove their leaders in the 1990s. With less than two dozen left, and their leaders gone, the rest of the descendants of the Mutiny crew sold their land to Jackson and left.

  Like Puerto Rico, which is its own country as well as a territory of the United States, Pitcairn was its own country as well as an English territory, although it used the New Zealand dollar. Its mayor served as head of the government in the world’s smallest democracy -- well, until convicted of sexual abuse of little girls along with several other men. So, in buying out every land owner, Jackson effectively bought his own damn country. The couple hundred workers that Jackson employed on the five islands then became its only citizens, revoking everyone else’s citizenship and visitation rights. The new citizens replaced the 1964 constitution and voted unanimously for independence from the United Kingdom, which the English call Great Britain. And they elected Jackson as their mayor/governor/president. Not that the British Parliament recognized t
heir independence.

  Guaranteed privacy, David spent millions optimizing the islands for his experiments, such as enlarging the islands by incorporating the surrounding islets. He mapped the shallow water and even had engineers analyze how best to maximize the surface area. What he needed was a lot more money.

  Especially since his wish list kept growing:

  Dinosaurs: Spinosaurus, a theropod a dozen feet larger than T-rex; a 66 foot-long hadrosaur; a 26 foot-long head-butting pachycephalosaur; stegosaurs; triceratops; 30 foot-long armored ankylosaurs; a 23 foot-long raptor called Utahraptor; and Argentinosaur, a 100-foot, 100-ton sauropod, the largest land animal ever.

  Extinct reptiles: flying pterosaurs the size of planes; 12 foot long turtles; 50 foot long croc-like armored amphibians called plagiossaurs; 45 foot snakes; and 30-45 feet long lizard-fish called ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs.

  Extinct mammals: the indricotherium, the largest land mammal ever at 26 feet and 30,000 pounds; a 10 foot tall Bigfoot-like ape called Gigantopithecus; the 9 foot tall Australian kangaroo-rat; the camel/horse/giraffe-like macrauchenia; Josephoartigasia monesi, a one-ton hippo-size rodent; dwarf horses, elephants and mammoth the size of dogs; mammoths twice the size of elephants; the lion-bear-like sarkastodon with a raccoon tail; the bear-wolf-like borhyaena; the 10 foot long horse-like chalicotheres with claws; the 2000 pound wolf-like megistotherium; the rhino-like toxodon; the camel-like litoptern; the ox-sized rodent telicomys; the 16 foot long rhino called elasmotherium; the 20 foot long giant sloth megatherium; the 30 foot long Steller’s Sea Cow that survived until the mid-18th century; a Madagascan lemur the size of a gorilla; the allodesmus “sea elephant”; gomphotheres, a four-tusked elephant; the giant pig with wolf teeth dinohyus; the 60 foot long ancient whale called basilosaurus with a mouth like a crocodile; and giant beavers, dogs, peccaries, wooly rhinos, armadillos, deer, mastodons, lions, bears, and wombats;