The Rowen (A Rossler Foundation Mystery Book 7)

by JC Ryan

  “Micro-sealer,” he said and immediately received the tool from Korda, who placed it in his hand in exactly the correct position for use.

  Aiming the beam at the edges of the chip, he sealed it to the surrounding tissue to keep it in place. Then, handing the micro-sealer back to Korda, he pushed a button on the panel and watched as various lights began flashing in colors of amber and blue. When he didn’t see any red lights, he knew the chip was functioning properly and was running through the set-up process.

  “Alright,” he said as he released the lock on the separator and gently let the tissue resume its natural place. “By the time you finish closing up, Siasha, the chip will be fully functional, and we will be ready to start with the reanimation process.”

  Siasha stepped forward, picked up the Sealer, held it over the wound, and began fusing the skull bone back together. It then stimulated the cells of the skin to regenerate and seal up the wound. “That’s it,” She announced placing the Sealer back onto the tray. “Revive him, and this will be a successful reanimation.”

  “Excellent! Well done Siasha!” Korda congratulated her.

  Linkola had been monitoring the microchip and the progress of the nanites, watching as one by one each indicator light turned green. By the time she finished, the nanites had completed making repairs to the existing synapses and pathways through the brain, making it function again, and completed the repairs and restoration to the rest of the body.

  “The chip is ready for new programming. Let’s get him reanimated and get Tawndo loaded,” Linkola said. “Stand back, and I will start his heart.”

  “Korda, let’s help him out with some oxygen.”

  Korda stepped to the head of the operating table and adjusted the dials on the panel. They all heard the soft hiss as the oxygen began to flow.

  Siasha stepped back from the table as Linkola set the toggle switches and pressed a button on a panel at the side of the table.

  The body of the man twitched and spasmed, jerking as if he had been woken suddenly. Then he lay still again. A steady rhythmic ticking sound was heard from the monitor displaying each heartbeat as a dot on the screen. After about sixty beats, lines began to connect the dots.

  “Let’s keep the oxygen on him for a while yet, Korda, but it seems as if we have brought him back!”

  Linkola pressed a few buttons on the panel and announced “Ready for total transfer. Siasha, Tawndo’s file chip please.”

  She fitted the data chip into the small indention on the panel. It will be him… but it won’t… Tawndo will be in that body, but he will look different. What if something goes wrong and he doesn’t know me? “Ready for transfer,” she whispered.

  Linkola pushed another button and lights began to flash; the transfer was in progress. New synapses and pathways were being formed allowing Tawndo to fully assume the identity and control of the body formerly known as Robert Cartwright.

  Chapter 9- We are in the Eleventh Cycle

  He felt air moving through his lungs and became aware of the beating of his heart. A voice whispered near him; Tawndo, Tawndo, wake up.

  Slowly he opened his eyes and was pleased to see a beautiful and familiar face watching over him from a chair beside his bed. He smiled. “Siasha,” he breathed, reaching for her and feeling the softness of her skin as she took his hand in hers.

  “Tawndo,” she whispered, resting her forehead against their entwined fingers. “It’s good to have you back.”

  He reached out with his other hand to run his fingers through her long, soft, brown hair and looked deeply into the dark brown eyes.

  She kissed his hands; gentle tears ran down her face.

  Looking at his surroundings, he recognized the setting. I’m not in a hospital; I’m in a lab. He frowned. “What has happened?” he asked.

  “What’s the last thing you remember?” She asked.

  He thought for a moment, and then his eyes grew wide, and his body tensed. “Nator! Somehow my duality was exposed, and Nator discovered that I am the L’gundo sympathizer the Council of the Selected has been looking for—he stabbed me, tried to kill me!” Tawndo sounded nervous.

  “Shhh. It’s alright; we’re safe here,” she said and saw him begin to relax.

  “Are you sure we’re safe? What happened to Nator? Does anyone else know who I am?”

  “Yes, I’m sure you’re safe. Nator is dead he won’t be able to touch you again—ever.”

  Tawndo sighed in relief. “What has happened? Tell me.”

  “Nator found out about you and discovered how to access our secret passageways. He managed to get into one of them and confronted you at the Chasm of Marwolaeth.

  “The two of you had a furious battle, and he stabbed you just as you succeeded in pushing him over the edge of the chasm.” She looked down sadly. “You both died.”

  “What? How could that be? I’m alive!” he exclaimed.

  “Yes, you are now.”

  “Ah, they were able to reanimate me?”

  “Not exactly.” She saw the fear began to grow in his eyes. “You have been given a new body. We were not able to return your body in time for reanimation, but we didn’t want to lose your knowledge and expertise, so we managed to transfer your synaptic patterns into storage before they degraded and became unrecoverable.”

  He raised his hands to look at them and for the first time noticed they looked different, smaller, a darker skin tone. This is not my body, but it’s my mind. “What happened? He asked.

  “As you know, the B’ran scientists started to suspect that the Council of the Selected had begun using The Healer to further their own objectives as we feared they would. Many of the scientists became L’gundo sympathizers.

  “When these scientists refused to make any more of the adjustments to The Healer that the Council requested, the Council coerced some other scientists to make them. The new scientists did not understand the technology, and their tampering had terrible consequences; people began to die by the millions.

  “When they tried to shut The Healer down, they discovered that it had become self-aware. It interpreted their shutdown attempt as an attempt to kill it, and The Healer turned on them and killed them. It became a terrible Beast and destroyed everyone who had been implanted with the health monitoring chip.”

  “But that was most of the population!”

  “Yes.”

  “How is it we are still alive?”

  “The reanimated were impervious to the death brought by The Beast and survived.

  “Shortly after you were killed, the Council ordered all the reanimated B’ran soldiers to go to the L’gundo facility to attack and capture it. This was done, and according to the last transmission I received, was successful.

  “Just as the soldiers succeeded in capturing the L’gundo facility, The Beast unleashed its death. The transport pilots were all killed in mid-flight; all the transports crashed and were destroyed. The soldiers, if there were survivors, couldn’t come back, and we haven’t heard from them since.

  “That was when I was discovered, captured, and held in a cell in the detention area. When The Beast killed everyone, I thought I would die of starvation or thirst, but just as I was about to give up, two scientists from this facility found me. Linkola and Korda are L’gundo sympathizers; the three of us were the only survivors in this facility.

  “They gave me food and water, helped me regain my strength, but we became aware of the fact that there was no way to rebuild our society at that time. We knew that there were people who had objected to the health monitor chip and had refused it, so we knew that someday the world would be populated again.

  “We decided to enter the deep sleep and wait for someone to discover us. We trusted that it would be a society large enough and intelligent enough that we could merge with.

  “A short time ago, men entered this facility which triggered the awakening sequence. They did not find our secret labs. We monitored them to see what kind of people they are and how long we
had been asleep.”

  “And?”

  “We are in the Eleventh Cycle.”

  “Eleventh!” he said looking dumbfounded. “But that would mean we slept for a very long time!”

  “Yes, nearly seventy-two-thousand years.”

  “Do they calculate time the same as us?”

  “Yes, there is no difference; the passage of time is based on the Earth’s rotation around the sun.”

  Tawndo was silent as he took in all that Siasha had told him. “Our son?” he asked softly.

  “I don’t know. He was at the L’gundo installation and hadn’t been chipped. Even if he survived the attack, he would be long dead by now -unless he was put in deep sleep and… survived. We don’t know… yet.”

  “How is it that I am alive if I couldn’t be reanimated?”

  “As I told you, your synaptic patterns were transferred into storage before they degraded. An evil man, John Brideaux, one of the Eleventh Cyclers, killed one of his own people, Robert Cartwright. Linkola, Korda, and I repaired the damage to his body, reanimated it, and transferred your synaptic patterns into his body.”

  “You chose me because of my military expertise,” he stated without reproach.

  “Yes,” she said. “And because I love you,” she added with a smile.

  Chapter 10- Contact

  Lights came on automatically as Tawndo stepped through the entrance to the control center.

  When Siasha asked him to help restore the facility, so they could discover more about the world they had awoken to, he agreed immediately. He was the only one who had the knowledge and experience to reinstate their communication infrastructure and their only hope to make contact with people from their cycle—if there were any.

  Korda, Linkola, and Siasha followed him into the room and stopped just across the threshold—they had never seen such an array of equipment.

  “What does all this do?” Korda exclaimed. He began to move around the room looking at the pieces of equipment with intense interest.

  Tawndo replied, “If you’re really interested, help me to get it up and running, and I’ll teach you what I know.”

  “Yes please!” Korda was excited.

  Tawndo smiled.

  With Korda as his enthusiastic assistant, Tawndo restored the control center to full working order in less than a day. Korda was a quick study with natural mechanical and electronic acumen, combined with a healthy dose of curiosity and keen intelligence.

  Korda could learn just about anything he wanted to with speed and ease. Tawndo thought as he watched him at work.

  Tawndo and Korda spent the next few days getting the communication equipment back into an operational state. As the terminals were brought back to life, Tawndo started tracking down the details of the twelve satellite sites set up across the globe in the days of the 8th Cycle. Each of those sites was equipped and configured as a regional control center, linked to each other and the Central Command and Control Center in the Grand Canyon. He assumed that if there were any people of their kind, they would be in one or more of those regional centers. If they were still in deep-sleep their awakening could be triggered by a command from one of his terminals—if their control center equipment was still functioning.

  Siasha arrived at the center, bringing a very welcome meal with her. When they sat down to eat, Siasha remembered how, seventy-two-thousand years ago, Korda had discovered the food storage room within days of The Beast killing everyone.

  When they found Siasha in her cell, almost dead from starvation and dehydration, she’d welcomed the tasteless stuff; it renewed her strength. But after suffering through several days of the meals prepared by the men, Siasha was strong enough to be shown where they’d found the food and promptly took over the cooking duties. While it wasn’t fresh, their taste buds were much happier after she took over the meal preparations and introduced a bit of creativeness with the various ingredients.

  Linkola showed no interest in cooking and was more than happy to leave it to Siasha. Korda, however, was delighted when Siasha agreed to teach him how to cook and was now capable of turning out tasty meals himself. She did have to keep an eye on him, as he sometimes tended to experiment with spices and seasonings that didn’t go well together.

  Tawndo had activated a search routine to connect with the twelve satellite sites on one of the terminals before he sat down to eat. A few minutes later a sound emanated from the terminal.

  “We might have a connection! Tawndo said, setting his plate down.

  “What is it?” Siasha asked, moving to his side.

  “It looks like there’s activity at one of the other sites.”

  “Can you tell which one?”

  “Not yet, just a moment.” Tawndo continued to tweak dials and switches then tapped a few keys on a flat, square, silver panel. He took in a sharp breath. “It’s the L’gundo site.”

  “Are you sure? Is it functioning?” She asked.

  “Yes, I’m sure, and yes, it’s functioning.”

  Korda and Linkola had joined them, looking over Tawndo’s shoulder.

  “Wouldn’t it be fantastic to make contact with more of our own people,” Korda said excitedly.

  Tawndo half turned to Korda and Linkola. “Let me first see if I can access their data storage unit and learn what they’ve been up to. Maybe they survived too and maybe it is possible to establish contact with them and... well, let’s first find out if we want to make contact with them.”

  Linkola slowly nodded. “Yes, I agree. Let’s not rush into it. There was a lot of turmoil and some dastardly people in the world towards the end of the 8th Cycle; we shouldn’t make any assumptions until we know more.”

  ***

  About mid-day the next day, a deeply perturbed Tawndo made his way down the long, narrow corridor toward the Sanctuary, an enormous cavern where his people had created a beautiful oasis for relaxation. Korda was the one who rediscovered it. Although overgrown in most areas it was still accessible and very enjoyable.

  He was troubled by what he’d found in the records from the L’gundo site. Siasha, Korda, and Linkola had invited him to join them at the Sanctuary for a swim some time ago, and he’d agreed to meet them there when he’d completed his work. He hated to bring such ominous news, especially in such serene surroundings, but they had to know sooner rather than later.

  Reaching the end of the corridor, he paused for a moment before stepping through the doorway into the haven beyond.

  This is truly magnificent he thought looking out over the lush valley created in the cavern. To his left a high waterfall plunged over hundred feet into the crystal-clear cave lake formed by a natural dam across an underground river. Luscious green grass stretched right to the edges of the water while ancient trees with huge trunks grew along the edges of the cavern. Bushes and shrubs intermingled with the forest, ferns, and other shade loving plants filling the areas between the trees.

  Artificial illumination that simulated the sun shone high overhead, giving full light to the valley, reflected in blinding flashes off the waves caused by Siasha, Korda, and Linkola swimming in the lake.

  “Tawndo!” Korda shouted and waved. “Come join us; the water is tantalizing!”

  Reaching the edge, he removed his robe and waded into the water, diving under the surface when the water reached his waist. He rolled onto his back when he returned to the surface and floated peacefully for a few minutes.

  “I have always loved this place,” he said.

  Playfully, he splashed water at Siasha and when he dunked Korda under, a free-for-all frolic erupted. They played until they were tired and returned to the bank to dry off and rest.

  “What did you find out about the L’gundo site?” Siasha asked.

  Tawndo frowned, he was reluctant to put a damper on the fun, but he thought better of it. “It isn’t good,” he replied. “We definitely don’t want to regroup with them. They have become dangerous—that is my initial assessment of them. I’m afraid we are goi
ng to find even more to be concerned about as I continue to dig into their records.”

  “What did you find,” Siasha whispered.

  “Based on the research I’ve done so far; The B’ran were successful in their takeover of the L’gundo site shortly before the Beast destroyed everyone who was chipped. All the transport pilots were killed by the Beast rendering the transports useless, stranding them there with no means of returning to our main site here in the Canyon.

  “They obviously had no choice but to make a life for themselves and the captured L’gundo over there.

  “They knew, as we did, that reanimated beings are incapable of reproduction. Like us, they also realized that there were, some people who succeeded in hiding from the Council, remained unchipped and survived the Beast’s attack. That’s when they decided, just like we did, to put themselves into the Deep-Sleep to be awakened sometime in the future when the Earth would hopefully have been repopulated by the offspring of those survivors.”

  “How long ago were they awakened?” Linkola asked

  “In the year 1908 of the current cycle, which would be 115 years ago by my calculations, a shift in the Earth’s crust directly beneath the facility triggered the awakening of one of the leaders of the B’ran. He discovered a problem in the volcanic fissures used to power the facility, and although he awoke other B’ran soldiers and the L’gundo scientists, they were unable to stop the build-up of gasses. An explosion occurred that severely damaged the facility.

  “After the explosion, it took forty-five years for them to fully repair the damage to the facility and restore it to its former operating capacity. During those years, the B’ran commander, a man by the name of Viktor, forced the L’gundo scientists to create more reanimated beings in an attempt to create a new powerful race called the Re’an.”

  “How was he able to do that if all of them were already reanimated and couldn’t reproduce?” Korda asked.

  Siasha and Linkola looked horrified when they understood the implications of what Tawndo was saying.