Xn

by Clint Townsend

  Armada read and reread Chloe’s intimate admission.

  ‘I’m so relieved to know you’re not hurt or feeling ill,’ he declared. ‘And no, it’s not weird at all. To be perfectly honest with you, I, too, had a very similar incident happen to me, and if I’m not mistaken, probably right about the same time as you. Euclid and I were preparing to enter the transfer tube to go to the Arena, get our supplements and assignments, and suit up for EVA. I heard a man say ‘Stay here,’ just like you, but I thought it was Euclid messing around with me. I asked him, ‘What do you mean stay here?’ and he told me he didn’t say a word. He went into the tube and I was right behind him when I heard that voice again. I didn’t follow Euclid and never went to the Arena for my supplements. No, I don’t think we’ll get into trouble for not taking our supplements. That is, unless we both simultaneously happen to get sick or our life cycles begin to deteriorate.”

  ‘Have you noticed any changes in the way you feel without having taken the supplement drink?’ she inquired.

  ‘No, nothing significant or of major importance. However, I have been perspiring more than usual. But now that I think about it, Euclid and I got into an argument last night. That’s never happened before, as far as I can recall. He said that I’ve been acting irritable the past two days.’

  ‘I’ve felt the same way!’ Chloe confessed. ‘I’m feeling impatient and anxious, but it’s over simple things, things that normally I wouldn’t give a second thought to. Yesterday, after we tallied the second harvest yields, I actually started crying.’

  ‘Crying as in a few tears?’

  ‘No!’ she admitted. ‘I started weeping. I couldn’t control or suppress it. I had to leave the clean room and hide in one of the decontamination chambers for almost twenty minutes. It was so bizarre. Do you think that not taking the supplements could have something to do with this?’

  ‘Maybe. You never know what Wyczthack and White will do. I do know that none of the Engenechem or SUBOS officers take supplementation like we do. It could be that they’re introducing something in liquefied form they can hide in the supplements. We drink it three times a day, so it can obviously be flavored to taste just like the primary base. Do you think you could keep a sample and take it to your lab on Eden?’

  ‘I’m not so sure about that. These suits don’t exactly leave room for imagination, let alone a container big enough to store a pint of liquefied supplements.’

  ‘You shouldn’t need an entire pint. All it would require is a half-ounce or less. What about using your L-GEN? Wouldn’t that give you a molecular breakdown of the supplements?’

  ‘It doesn’t work that way. The generator emits a laser and can tell what kind of mineral it’s pointing at by how quickly vibration waves are reflected back and their strength. Liquid samples aren’t applicable.’

  ‘I’m stumped. We don’t have access to a lab up here. I know that I could smuggle mine out of the Arena to my dorm, but after that it’ll get tricky.’

  ‘If you can manage somehow to get me a sample on Eden, we can test it here,’ Chloe suggested.

  ‘That’s the problem. How do we reach Eden from Arena One? Anywhere I go, WATCHER scans will pick up my movement.’

  ‘Can you delay the program?’ she asked.

  ‘No. It was designed to monitor automatically and record movement of RFIDs. If I go in and alter the coding, then tracking reports won’t get compiled. That’ll send up red flags and then we’ll really be in trouble.’

  ‘Do you trust Euclid enough to ask him to remove the RFID?’

  ‘I trust him plenty, but I’m not about to let him start cutting on me. Besides, where am I supposed to lay my hands on a scalpel and all that? Remember, we still come all the way down to the SUBOS Nursery for our evaluations once a month. No lab, doctors, or medical facilities up here.’

  “What about bringing the sample with you when you have your next evaluation?’

  ‘That won’t work either. My next evaluation is two weeks out. We need to know now if there’s something in the supplements that’s keeping us alive or under Wyczthack’s control.’

  Armada stretched his arms and momentarily peered out the Arena observation panel. From where he stood, he could plainly see Eden, the three Arks, the WES platform, and launching tubes. He could also see Arena Two and Three, the Cloud staging zones, all five CARBELs, and the four SPUDs. Like a bolt of lightning, it hit him.

  ‘I figured it out!’ he typed. ‘I’ll go to one of the SPUDs and cut out a tiny piece of the fabric from the underbelly. It’s perfect! I can cut out enough for both me and you.’

  ‘What’s the SPUD got to do with testing the supplements?’

  ‘Don’t you get it? The fabric on the bottom of the SPUDs is impermeable. Heat, infrared, sound waves, laser, nothing can penetrate it; the fabric can either deflect or absorb anything you throw at it. It’s space stealth. This means that you and I can place this on our shoulders, under our suits, and WATCHER won’t be able to track us. Except for the cameras, we’ll be free to go where and when we want.’

  ‘Are you positive? What do we do about the cameras? They’re everywhere, even in the restrooms and shower stalls.’

  ‘If we move slowly and keep our voices low, the sensors won’t pick us up and the cameras won’t be activated.’

  ‘What do we do when I’m in Eden or you’re working on Cloud assembly? They’ll know something’s up when all of a sudden a male and female have their RFID chips disappear at the same time and then reappear in unison at another location. I don’t like it.’

  Armada received Chloe’s reply and quickly read through it. His enthusiasm began to diminish as he reread the text and considered the negative consequences. Chloe was correct. If she and Armada were not being monitored with their whereabouts, how would he explain an abrupt presence in another location not related to either one of them? How could they account for the tracking of the WATCHER program without interfering with, and altering, its coding structure? If Armada were to rewrite the coding, could he disable the entire scanning process and substitute data to the individual records? No, that would take an incredible amount of time, not to mention the enormous volume of information needed to fill each file.

  Armada pondered the situation for both him and Chloe and weighed out his options before responding to her last comment.

  ‘As I see it now, you and I, all of us, are in a very precarious situation. We don’t know if our food and liquid supplements are being tampered with. We do know that Wyczthack and White are tracking each of us, and that Engenechem is preparing for a disaster of immense proportion. Furthermore, sub-outs and replacements have been increasing and our life cycle has already reached five years. I can’t say I know how you feel, but if you’re anything like me, then you’re well aware that things are going to be headed downhill for us and soon. I would suggest, if we can’t safely disappear for even a little while, then perhaps we should disappear permanently.’

  Armada sent his message, and had no sooner than taken his hands off the kiosk keyboard that he received Chloe’s rebuttal.

  ‘WHAT?’ she asked, followed by, ‘Are you out of your mind? How? When? Where would you suggest we go? How do you propose we get off the SUBOS and air base?’

  ‘First, I’ll get the SPUD shielding fabric,’ Armada typed. ‘Then I’ll generate passes for the CARBEL, go down to the Aerie, then up to Eden for you. You’ll join me for the SUBOS descent, and as soon as we get to the Nursery we’ll have our chips removed.’

  ‘But that still doesn’t address the problems with the cameras, recognition scans, and getting off the SUBOS.’

  Armada could sense that Chloe was stressed with the seemingly impossible idea of escape.

  ‘I can generate passes, establish new parameters for motion sensitivity on cameras, and completely erase all records of our existence. Dr. White scheduled evaluations for the entire Cronos class for tomorrow. I’ll create a false ID to board the CARBEL, remove the transponder from my helmet,
and disable my microphone. There’ll be at least sixty of us hooked up to the POG, so I’ll blend in with everyone on the CARBEL. Plus, there aren’t any recognition scanners on the platforms. So when you stop and think about it, getting off the Arena and down to you isn’t that big of a problem.’

  ‘Pardon me for pointing it out,’ Chloe blasted back, ‘but we go straight from the SUBOS to Eden and back. Forget WATCHER, there’s cameras and recognition scanners everywhere. From the moment you step foot on the Aerie you’re on camera. You have to enter a preset authorization code to board the platform to get up to Eden. Once you’re there, you have another security gate to pass through and that authorization code is separate from the CARBEL code. Just to throw salt in your eye, we’re timed from the instant we dock to entering Eden, then the dressing room, decontamination and sterilization, and finally, the clean room and actual Garden. I’m sorry, but this won’t work, Armada. There’s no way to bypass all of Cain’s cameras and scanners. We’ll always be trapped.’

  Armada ran his fingers through his hair and scratched gruffly in frustration. Once again, Chloe was correct. While deleting one’s digital existence was a relatively simple task, it would be something entirely different to evade, hide, and escape.

  ‘I’m curious to know something: when do you dispatch your harvests to the SUBOS?’ Armada asked, not at all addressing Chloe’s comments.

  ‘Every six hours,’ she quickly typed.

  ‘How do you pack the produce? What type of container do you use?’

  ‘The harvested produce is weighed and recorded before being loaded in temperature-controlled, insulated cubes. Containers are kept at a constant sixty-two degrees for the hour-long descent. Why?’

  ‘When do you receive empty containers? When? Where?’

  ‘The harvests are taken directly to the lab on fifteen, and if everything tests okay, the produce is sorted for distribution. I believe I overheard Dr. Phu saying that the SUBOS has eighty-five kitchens. Back to the Eden containers. Once everything has been off-loaded, each container undergoes sterilization with hot, pressurized, chlorinated water. After that, they’re sent to a kind of oven where any stagnate water is blown off and the interior is dried. The lid is then shut, locked, and the remaining air inside is pumped out. On top of that, the sterilized containers are shrink-wrapped prior to deployment to the Aerie. Depending on yields for the day and CARBEL availability, we can receive as few as thirty containers every six or eight hours. But I have noted that on more than one occasion they’ve delivered almost sixty.’

  ‘Darn!’ Armada commented, ‘I was thinking that perhaps I could stow away in one of the incoming units.’

  ‘That wouldn’t help us with the objective of escaping.’

  ‘What about gas? When do they refill canisters and tanks?’

  ‘That’s all done externally. CO2, nitrogen, ammonia, everything comes to us in massive tanks that are swapped out on Eden’s exterior.’

  Armada glanced at the clock in the lower right corner of his monitor. It was half past 2:00 a.m., and in a little more than an hour, the sun would be rising. He knew that Garret began his day at 4:00 a.m., but also remembered that Garret experienced bouts of insomnia. The last thing Armada needed was someone wandering the dormitories and activating the video cameras.

  ‘I hate to do this, but I have to go,’ he stated. ‘Garret will be up and around soon and I don’t want to be caught out of my room.’

  ‘Do you absolutely have to leave?’ Chloe asked. ‘This whole thing scares me and we haven’t solved any of our problems. If anything, I have more questions than before!’

  ‘Yes, I must. I’m sorry and I wish that we had more time, but it’s necessary. Before I sign out, can you tell me anything about the solar arrays? Who services and replaces the panels?’

  ‘I have no idea. On occasion I’ve seen several technicians exchanging panels, but have never really paid attention to the uniforms. I would assume that Engenechem is sending up their own people for maintenance of the energy systems.’

  Armada took his hands off the keyboard and turned back slowly to the Arena window. He peered down at the CARBEL and its platforms and how Eden was tethered to the five interconnected Halos. By his estimates, the bottommost row of collection panels on the lower section of Eden’s solar arrays was thirty to forty yards away from Halo Five. He also noted that the platform for CARBEL Five was equipped with a POG. The platforms for CARBEL One and Two were also equipped with POGs. Platforms three and four didn’t have a POG, as those were used primarily for shipping and receiving material without human accompaniment.

  Armada visually leapfrogged a path from Arena One to the CARBEL Halos. If the timing were right, he could exit the Arena, cross over to the staging zones for the Clouds, and hook up to the POG next to the SPUD dock. He could then remove a miniscule amount of the shielding fabric and return to the Arena. After that, Armada reasoned, it should be fairly simple to get from the Halo on CARBEL One to Halo Five and up to Eden. It wouldn’t be difficult at all to locate the maintenance and service records for the solar arrays. He could then generate access codes to gain entrance on Eden, go in, get Chloe, cross back over to either CARBEL One, Two, or Five, connect themselves to the POG, and enjoy the hour descent to the SUBOS Aerie. Once safe on the SUBOS, Armada could generate zone authorization passes and sneak into one of the Nurseries. After they’ve removed the RFID chips, he could back out all records and medical files, and delete the entire history for both of them.

  Armada felt reenergized with his newest epiphany and typed out the brilliant scheme as fast as he could. Just as he sent the detailed plan to Chloe, he looked at the clock on his monitor. The time was 3:15.

  The chime for a new message faintly rung and Armada hastily read Chloe’s reply.

  ‘There’s plenty of ifs in this idea of yours. There’s also plenty of opportunities for being caught, stranded, and suffocating. I don’t even want to entertain the thought of becoming detached and floating away, or worse yet, being drawn into Earth’s atmosphere and vaporizing on reentry.’

  ‘I know there’s several areas where things can go wrong, but I genuinely feel positive about this. I sincerely believe we can do this. Furthermore, we both know what the future holds in store for us if we were to stay put.’

  As he was composing his message, Armada suddenly became aware of his heart beating faster. He also realized he was perspiring, the palms of his hands were moist, and his cheeks were flush.

  ‘I just know that something inside….’ Armada stopped typing. This time, however, he had to wipe his eyes.

  Why is this happening? he asked himself.

  The more he thought about Chloe, the more his heart pounded. Armada shook his hands out and took several deep breaths. He felt a buzzing in his lips and his chin quivered, ‘is compelling me to come to you,’ he admitted, finishing his statement, ‘I’ll figure this out and will find a way for us to escape. Trust me.’

  ‘I trust you,’ Chloe’s next message stated. ‘I’ll be waiting for your letter.’

  ‘Goodnight,’ Armada typed and clicked ‘send.’

  Armada copied the content of their conversation to a file he created on the Master Server, then deleted the entire strain. He backed out the imposter terminal number from the Arena server and erased all incoming and outgoing communications from Chloe’s terminal.

  After he shut down the kiosk computer, the room went dark. With the exception of the green light of the overhead cameras, there was very little natural light.

  Armada turned towards the connecting tube entrance and prepared to launch himself to his dormitory. He noticed he was casting a shadow on the wall, but not from the green of the cameras. Armada rotated and gazed in wonderment at an orb hovering in the transport tube. He was drawn in by the comforting glow and warmth of the almost transparent and growing sphere.

  Armada felt his eyelids growing heavier and heavier, until he could no longer keep them open.

  As he peacefully closed h
is eyes, he heard a man softly call out, “Evan.”

  CHAPTER 19

  INVITATION

  Bianca’s perfectionism, impeccable taste and sense of style, coupled with Cain Wyczthack’s wealth, was in top form. She wore a simple, black silk Armani evening gown and draped her soft and flowing golden locks over the front of her left shoulder. Cain’s attire consisted of a charcoal-gray suit and pocket square kerchief, but in place of his traditional white shirt and tie, he opted for a powder-blue, V-neck cashmere pullover with a white undershirt. Whenever he wanted, or found himself in need of new clothing, Cain wasn’t the kind to shop. Even with easy access to a handful of fine and reputable clothiers in Las Vegas, he didn’t much care for the ‘off the rack’ format of purchasing his wardrobe. Instead, Cain stayed at the SUBOS while the likes of Alexander Amosu and William Westmancott came to him to handcraft his suits.

  Cain’s private and personal entertainment and lodging facilities were palatial, to say the least. They took up the entirety of the first two floors at the one-mile mark of the SUBOS. The first floor consisted of several banquet halls, a main dining and conference room, a couple of bars and lounges, a coffee house, swimming pool, day spa with massage parlor, gymnasium, and a minor medical treatment center. The second floor served as temporary living quarters for invited guests and could easily house a thousand individuals in spacious, lavish luxury.

  The second floor also contained a heliport. Engenechem constructed a monstrously large hangar at Nellis Air Base just to keep up with the demands of those who required absolute secrecy and privacy when travelling abroad. Guests would land at Nellis, taxi to the hangar, and transfer from their private plane to a helicopter that would whisk them to the SUBOS. It wasn’t that uncommon to find forty or fifty jets parked next to the massive hangar at any given moment. Gulfstream, Bombardier, Embraer, Dassault, Airbus; the runway was littered with the best in personal air travel.

  After a cocktail reception, dinner was to be served in the main dining room, a cavernous dining hall Cain had come to fondly refer to as Bacchus, in honor of the Roman god of wine and festivity. The Bacchus Hall kitchen was equipped to rival those of the world’s most renowned restaurants, and was the envy of many Michelin three-star chefs. It wasn’t so radical of an idea to bring in a chocolatier from Switzerland, a pastry chef from France, or saucier from Sweden, for an evening of exquisite gastronomy. Cain spared no expense when it came to fine food and wine.