Xn

by Clint Townsend

  Garret felt the attention of the room suddenly turn to him. He could tell by the wide-eyed expressions of his peers that the task and the short window of time to wrap up the CARBEL, Halo, and Aerie expansion was no easy undertaking.

  “Sure!” Garret blurted with a slight crack in his voice. “I mean yes, sir. I’ll see to it that Armada, Titan and the boys get the job done.”

  Everyone let their silent focus on Garret linger a few uncomfortable seconds.

  “What? I said we’ll get it done, so … we’ll get it done.”

  Garret’s comrades slowly shifted their attention back to Dr. Wyczthack.

  “What’s your ideal duration of deployment for the inhabitants of the Clouds?” Amanda asked.

  Cain hesitated to directly answer her question, “Let me come back to that in a while. There are more pressing details to cover first. Okay?”

  Amanda and the others at the table nodded in agreement.

  “Okay. So, all eight hundred Evan clones are in the four Arenas and dormitories. Right? Now, we assign the Evans to assemble each Cloud. One Cloud, one month. We split them into two companies of four hundred working in twelve-hour shifts. Every day we have eight hundred highly intelligent and reliable workers connecting pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. Minus the Garden and the Arks, all ten Clouds will be pressurized, tested, and certified and ready for placement in a close proximity, low altitude orbital position.”

  “You mean the Clouds won’t be in an affixed location adjacent to the Arenas or ISS?” Riggs questioned.

  “No, all ten Clouds will be placed in very strategic locations, as determined by myself and Dr. White, NASA and JPL, the Department of Defense, Solar Dynamics, and others. One over each pole, and the others will be moved on a rotating schedule. The Arks and Garden, however, will be in a somewhat fixed location, either with the Halo or ISS, or maybe one of the Clouds. We’ll see what the future holds in store.”

  “What’s the purpose of these Clouds?” one of Amanda’s assistants inquired.

  “Well, that’s a good way to put it. The ‘purpose’ of all this … the clones, the SUBOS … the ‘purpose’ for this elaborate agenda is … life. Designing, creating, supporting, and extending … life. Life for you and me and those that come after us. We’re testing new ways to live, new life forms, medicine, agriculture, reproduction, cryogenics, hydroponics, energy creation, storage and usage. We are, boys and girls, on the cusp of redesigning, reengineering, and restructuring creation. Everything is on the table. Options are open. Nothing is forbidden or taboo from exploring or experimenting with.”

  Cain’s face lit up like that of a child on Christmas morning, dashing to the tree to see what Santa had left them.

  “That brings us back to Amanda’s question: ‘how long’ will they, the civilians, be in their Clouds. We are aiming for a self-sustainable, multigenerational environment to be inhabited for no less than twenty years with a maximum of thirty years.”

  One could have disrupted the stillness and quiet of the room with the blinking of an eye. Riggs, Garret, and Light exchanged looks of panic. Amanda was unable to take her eyes off the Cloud schematics on the brightly lit screen.

  “Judging from your facial expressions, I guess you’re all experiencing a sense of ‘sticker shock,’” Cain stated, amused with the obvious display of panic. “Let me recap what we’ve discussed thus far. We’re expanding the Halo with a new frame that will allow us to add four more CARBELs. We’re going to assemble the Arena and dormitory facilities necessary to adequately house an additional six hundred Evan clones. We will then construct ten Clouds in ten months to house up to 45,000 civilian inhabitants for testing programs that have a duration period of twenty to thirty years. Do you understand everything thus far?”

  Cain momentarily studied each face as he slowly paced the length of the table.

  “Sir?” Light said, “Uh … can you … um, go back and … um….”

  “I’m moving forward, so if you have any questions or comments, write them down and we’ll address everything after I’ve presented the whole plan. Now, in response to Amanda’s inquiry regarding these three oval-shaped structures—and may I include another unit I will debut in a moment—we’ve dubbed them as the Arks … Arks One, Two, and Three. The 1,000 Chloe subjects I and Dr. White are scheduled to release will spearhead the greatest, most expansive safari and scavenger hunt in human history. We’ll make Noah’s Ark look like a puppy sale out of a car trunk at a flea market. Our collection will be different in that not only will we capture a male and female of every specie, we’re going to do it in triplicate. One pair for each Ark.”

  Every statement made by Cain was met with gasps of astonishment and disbelief. Riggs and his cohorts were drowning in a sea of information, details, and objective deadlines. Answers to questions only raised more questions and inquiries. Each time Cain explained the ‘how and why’ of a certain project, he revealed another set of goals that were more magnificent than the one prior.

  He wanted samples of every living thing: mammals, primates, reptiles, plants, trees, insects, bugs … everything.

  “The Chloes will be divided evenly between the three Arks and the Garden,” Cain stated. “Two hundred fifty for each craft.”

  “For the sake of our sanity, would you let me summarize what you’ve revealed thus far?” Riggs jokingly requested.

  “Certainly. By all means, feel free.”

  Riggs rose from his seat as Dr. White entered the conference room.

  “Ah, Alan,” Cain greeted his partner. “Right on time.”

  “I hope I’m not interrupting,” he coolly stated.

  “No, no, not at all. Mr. Woodburn was just about to regurgitate our little endeavor to his teammates. Weren’t you, Riggs?”

  Riggs looked down at his notepad, rubbed his hands together, and drew in a deep breath.

  “I’m going to review this in bullet point form and not elaborate on each topic.”

  Doctors Wyczthack and White sat at the adjoining table as Riggs made his way to the stage and podium.

  “Okay; first, braids and engines arrive this week. In the meanwhile, the Evans will enlarge the frame of the Halo. Engines and braids get sent up, we mount engines and attach braids, lower the braids to the SUBOS, and construct the four new platforms. Right?”

  “So far so good,” Cain smugly replied.

  Dr. White answered with a lifeless “Yes.”

  “Next, we assemble another Arena and dormitory facility to house two hundred new clones that you will deploy for NBS and EVA training while the dorm is under construction. Right?”

  “Yes,” Dr. White answered, already showing signs of irritation.

  “We build, then inhabit, two more times for a grand total of four Arenas and dorm systems and eight hundred clones. That should take us, in theory, six months to accomplish, if everything goes according to plan.”

  “It will, trust me,” Cain confirmed.

  “Once the dorm systems are completed, we’ll begin construction on the Clouds. We’ll work twenty-four hours a day in two twelve-hour shifts with four hundred clones on each shift. At that rate, you have an anticipated deadline of one month for each Cloud. At the end of the ten months, you will begin sending up thirty to forty-five thousand civilian personnel to inhabit the Clouds for a duration period of twenty to thirty years.”

  The doctors, unwilling to show any emotion, silently stared at Riggs as he expounded on Cain’s presentation.

  “Okay; next item. As the three Arks are being pieced together, you’re going to conduct a global safari and excursion to gather three sets of two for every living creature and multiple samples of every tree, plant, insect, bug, seed, and so forth. The Chloe series, all one thousand of them, will be divided evenly and placed in charge of the three Arks and Garden.”

  Light, Garret, and Amanda turned to face Cain and Dr. White and waited for their reaction to Riggs’ summary.

  Dr. White sat with his arms folded and legs crossed a
nd said not one word. Cain, on the other hand, leaned forward, placed his palms on his legs, and tapped his kneecaps with his fingers.

  “Did I get it right?” Riggs impatiently asked. “Did I leave out anything?”

  “Oh, no, you did fine,” Cain snarkily answered, “but there’s more.”

  “More what?” Riggs asked, “Did I skip something?”

  Dr. Wyczthack turned to Dr. White and nodded.

  Dr. White stood, looked at Riggs and his team, and stated, “There’s more.”

  CHAPTER 10

  AWARE

  “I found it!” Armada quietly exclaimed as he floated next to Titan.

  “Found what? Why are you whispering?” Titan responded.

  “Sshh!” Armada hissed.

  “What? Okay, I’m whispering. Geez! What’d you find?”

  Armada looked up and down at his brothers as they hovered in line, waiting for one of their three daily doses of liquid supplements. He grabbed a rung on the wall of the transfer tube and said, “Follow me.”

  Titan and Armada pulled themselves to the end of the cylindrical corridor. They passed by their last brother and maneuvered into the entrance of their dormitory.

  “C’mon, Arm. What’s so important? Garret’s gonna wonder where we are.”

  “I found the program!” Armada triumphantly declared.

  “How?”

  “I hacked White’s credentials and scoured the entire Engenechem database.”

  “Are you crazy? You know every access point to administrative programs and files are tracked and recorded!”

  “Who’s gonna check up on Dr. White? C’mon, think about it. Do you honestly believe that with all of Wyczthack’s responsibilities he’s gonna not only suspect Doc White of something nefarious but that he’d actually take the time to look at what all program files White has gotten into?”

  “No, Cain wouldn’t do that. But still, even though you logged on using his credentials, the access stamp will show your terminal number.”

  The ecstatic look on Armada’s face suddenly went to one of regret and concern.

  “Not to mention the video footage that’s recorded. I think you ought to drop this espionage gig and forget we even found out about it.”

  “That’s the whole reason why I hacked White’s credentials! I found the tracking program, the kind of chip they’re using, what data they’re storing in us … everything.”

  Titan poked his head around the corner to check if anybody was approaching as Armada continued.

  “I also located the RFID implant history for not only us but the Chloes as well.”

  Titan was anxiously hanging on to every detail and bit of information. Armada noticed Titan’s interest but suddenly stopped speaking.

  “And? What about it?” Titan impatiently asked.

  “Nah, you don’t wanna know. You were right; I should just forget the whole thing.”

  Armada started to exit the dormitory but Titan punched him on his arm and pulled him back.

  “C’mon, you idiot! You started this whole thing! Tell me!”

  Armada laughed out loud as his friend pummeled him.

  “All right, all right! I’ll talk! A while ago I looked at the bandwidth of all the currently running programs and applications. One of ‘em takes up nearly twenty-five percent of total bandwidth usage. That program is called ‘WATCHER,’ and it’s the one tracking our movement and whereabouts. But … come to find out, the chips we have in our shoulder, and in Chloe, are not transmitting chips. They’re not powerful and big enough. What’s embedded in all of us is merely for basic identity purposes and ‘snapshot’ tracking … a kind of ‘where are they now’ monitor that’s activated every fifteen minutes.”

  “What are they looking for?”

  “It appears that the program is set up to automatically scan for activated chips, then download the information to all of our individual records.”

  Titan peeked into the transfer tube and noticed the corridor of his waiting brothers was now empty.

  “What do you think they’re doing with all of that data?” Titan curiously inquired as he stretched out of the dormitory doorway to get a better look down the connecting tunnel.

  “That I don’t know. But two things I do know are: one, they’re crunching a lot of data, and two, I discovered the correlating chip numbers for each one of us.”

  “How many chip numbers are in the registry?”

  Armada pushed himself into the corridor to join Titan.

  “That’s the bizarre thing. It showed that almost seven thousand chips have been implanted, but less than three thousand are activated.”

  The brothers quietly stared at each other.

  “We had almost one hundred in our class, right?”

  “More like ninety. Remember? In the nursery? There were several that didn’t….”

  Titan’s words trailed off as he turned away from Armada.

  “Yeah. I remember,” Armada sorrowfully admitted. “So ninety of us, in one batch. Then the Cronus class after us, that’s another hundred-plus. The Perseus class will have three batches in eight weeks. That’s five hundred. I have no idea about Chloe.”

  “So? What’s your point?” Titan asked, lowering his volume and moving closer to Armada.

  “My point? We know here in two months’ time that there’ll be eight hundred of us and I don’t know how many there are of Chloe and her kind, or about to be released. But let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that there’ll be a total of eight hundred just like us. Okay?”

  “Okay … and?”

  “And what? C’mon, Titan, think! That’s only sixteen hundred current activated and trackable chips. The registry showed over seven thousand have been implanted and activated.”

  “That’s a discrepancy of more than five thousand!” Titan stated as he felt a knot in his stomach begin to tighten and beads of sweat suddenly appeared on his forehead.

  Armada slowly nodded his head in agreement and asked, “So where are they?”

  CHAPTER 11

  A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING

  “I’m telling you Amanda, we don’t … have … the room!” Light clearly stated.

  “What about the switchbacks? Can you store anything there?” she growled into her headset microphone.

  “No, ma’am. Like I said earlier, I got eighteen hundred rail cars waiting to be unloaded right now. All ten switchbacks are packed as it is without trying to designate a temporary holding zone. And we haven’t even addressed the capsules for the WES.”

  “Now for that I can guarantee that the additional ejection tubes will be up and running by tomorrow night,” Riggs confidently declared from the comfort of his office.

  “That’s fine and dandy for the day after tomorrow, but for right now I can’t unload any more,” Light complained into his phone, “I’m lookin’ right at it! I got a conveyor that I can’t start up because the SUBOS is stuffed. Because I don’t have any extra available rail space, this train will remain right where it is, backing up the one that’s already sit’n and wait’n behind it. And, to make matters worse, San Diego departed two hours early and El Paso is less than three hundred miles away!”

  “What about delaying receipt of delivery from Houston and Galveston and the others?” Riggs asked. “I mean most of this stuff, or at least a great portion, will be reloaded for relocation in Kansas and Colorado anyway. Will the ports be willing to off-load and hold our orders? Say, maybe thirty days? Forty-five at the most?”

  “I don’t know if they’ll buy in to that,” Light replied. “That’s an awful big chunk of change. I don’t rightly think I’d like to be the guy responsible for making sure that somebody else’s inventory is safe and up to snuff.”

  “The only thing we need for NBT are all the prototypes,” Amanda stated. “Once I get my hands on those, I can let Wyczthack and White know that they can release the next batch for training.”

  “Let me get the Evans focused on the WES. Maybe Garret and the b
oys can chop off twelve hours and then we’ll start shooting ‘em out five at a time,” said Riggs.

  “If y’all will push Garret on the WES, I can cut down my time on the capsules and focus on staging for the new Arenas,” Light added.

  “Find out which cars the carbon braids are in, move everything else, and get ‘em up here. The Evans finished the Halo expansion a few hours ago, so all we need to do now is connect the new platforms,” Riggs instructed.

  “Have the multimount engines arrived yet?” Amanda inquired.

  “No, ma’am,” Light quickly answered. “Lockheed is flyin’ ‘em in … should be touching down in an hour or so.”

  “Okay, so, let’s wrap up. These logistics are making my rear ache!” Riggs hurriedly suggested, “Light, locate the braids and Arena prefab prototypes. Move everything else back when you find them and send ‘em up pronto! Amanda, as soon as Light notifies you regarding the prototypes, alert White and Wycz. They’ll release the batch for NBT and your team, Amanda, can be fitting them for suits. Light, as soon as the flight from Lockheed arrives, send up the engines. With any luck we’ll beat the Monday deadline. We all clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” Light and Amanda confidently answered.

  “All right then,” Riggs replied and disconnected from the conference call.

  ***

  “Attention, please. Attention, please,” said the sensuous female voice. “All personnel are required to assemble in the arena at zero seven hundred.”

  The dormitory was suddenly illuminated as the lights automatically came on. Armada, Titan, and their brethren were slowly, and reluctantly, showing signs of life when the female repeated her orders, “Attention, please. Attention, please. All personnel are required to assemble in the arena at zero seven hundred.”