by Clay Moore
Before he walked out of his room, he had to take care of a little business. When he had captured Janice, he had mostly leaped from his bed and mounted her her with his legs. The sudden movement had twisted his undershorts. So, he took a moment before he left his room to reach down his pants and set his undershorts correctly. In the Marines, he used an under=suit for the Battlesuits. When he got out of the Navy, there was no need for under suits. That was when he began to wear under shorts and under shirts. Most of the time men will find some discrete location in a public place to reach down and adjust his undershorts. His fame about a part of his anatomy made him be more discreet than usual.
With everything on that he needed, he walked out of his room. And through the lobby to the front door. He walked out of the front door and straddled his Grav-rod. There were more than the usual number of vehicles in the parking lot. So he could not only start up the jet and fly out. That would damage a lot of capital goods. He simply engaged his null grav using the internal battery. He lifted up the parking sling. He used his feet to push the Grav-rod back. Once clear of any other parking vehicles, he started up the Radamite jet engine. That also began the recharge cycle of the internal battery.
He drove his Grav-rod out of the Township of Settlement. This was the main road and was maintained by the Settlement government. As a true further from the settlement and got closer to the buildings, he found a different architecture and a different way of building. If someone from settlement had looked at the building, they would have seen that this was an unusual facility.
The one person that he knew from the previous incarnations of a genetic robot factory was Doctor Yada Grosvenor. Yada was not worried about profit. She just wanted to know what the technology could do. For that John was willing to give her a break. In the same vein, she seemed to be the catalyst for building more genetic robot factories. That could be a simple fact that she was the scientist in charge of the project. She's the one person that knows the most about genetic robots. It irritated John that no one would ask questions about the capabilities of the genetic robots as she knew them. If a planet decided to tinker with that idea, then they would be subject to the greatest single punishment that could be found.
By the time he reached the turnoff to the road of the genetic robot factory His mind been made up. He didn't care who did it, but somebody was going to let Yada have her time of research. John was very much of the idea that she had to carry this on a deserted planet. In the map of his mind, he knew at least five planets that were not owned, had oxygen nitrogen atmospheres, and liquid water. The rest was a matter of supply. They would ask her not to put a production line together. This was just a pure research facility so that we could learn everything there is to learn about genetic robots so that we could kill them if somebody else produces them.
John coasted his Grav-rod to the first façade wall. When he found himself in the deepest darkest shadow, he completely stopped his Grav-rod. John pushed down the parking sling. He took off the duffel and set it very carefully next to the bike. Then John got off the Grav-rod and exercised his legs.
* * *
This was the kind of things that Vivana love to do. She loved getting into places that people said she should go. One of the first stories she told him was that every Friday her father went into town. He came back a little tipsy and smelling of beer. Her father was a mellow kind of drunk. But that was not what he went there for. He could have gone to the store and bought a six pack or two. There was something else that her father was doing there and she wanted to know what it was.
She knew that she had it to disguise herself. It may be that wherever her father was going, it was someplace that was gender specific. She needed something that would make her appear an adult male. While her father was out working she went into his closet and discovered a piece of cloth that was worn as a cloak. When she put it on herself to completely in the case itself in a cloak, she did not appear to be a female. She also knew that she might need some cash to be able to get in that place. She reached into her father's cash stash and took on about 40 marks.
She did not have a vehicle, so that meant that she had to catch a ride. The only one that she knew that was going in that direction was her father. When he started to make his preparations for going into town, she ran outside with the cloak around her and may believe that she was a pillow. Her father came shortly behind her God in the grav-truck.
The truck ride was tough. Vivana didn't understand how a null grav vehicle could feel like it picked up every Brett on the road. Vivana was a master of comparisons. Her father drove her to where he went. She waited enough time for him to make it inside. Then Vivana cloaked in her cover disguise made her way to the door. There was no one protecting the door or collecting money. She walked into what appeared to be an ordinary bar. However, there was one thing that was different about this bar. This bar had a performance stage. Somebody was going to do something on the stage. Vivana did not have a long time to wait. Out walked eight totally naked women. Each woman would raise her hand and shake them to draw applause. The one that drew the most applause started. Her father's secret was that he enjoyed a strip club.
In many ways, she was more mature than he, though he was a lot older than she. He had a single person that he fell in love with. And that relationship sucker punches him in the stomach. That gave him a sour disposition when it came to relationships. When Vivana came to him, she was just a woman who needed help. In the three days that they had spent in the same starship, they had produced a love for each other that other people respect.
After the collision at faraway John had sent his starship to a nexus point that he knew about. Nexus points were a point where a starship stops figures out where it is and continues on its journey to its target destination. In this particular nexus point, there were not that many people that used it. So, he could see if Vivana was feeling as frisky as he was.
* * * Not only was she frisky as he was, but she was also even friskier. She went to the bedroom and got into an interesting costume. Then she called them into the bedroom. When he entered the bedroom, he saw that she had put on an under -suit. For women, the other suits were not that. Unless you shaved yourself and that special spot. Men on the other hand when they were the under suit it was all revealed at some point during the journey she had managed to shave. The under suit did as was advertised.
"Well, you see. I got to see all of you during this mission I thought that I should turn the tables." John's squeezed his eyes trying to stop the flow of tears. He knew that he should be over the need to grieve for Vivana. In many ways, Vivana helped him to release his inhibitions. That was indeed marked by the string of meaningless relationships.
The laundry is set on his watch went off with the high pitch low-volume alarm. John could've had the watch that the service wanted him to have. The thing was it was not a dive watch. Johns was among other things. No one was going to challenge John on the possession of the standard watch. The fact that John would spend his own money to buy a better grade of March only told everyone that he had a different idea as to what it meant to be an operative of the Eridani Secret Service.
The alarm only said that John was to get ready for the last run. And Ronnie was going to have to do. He had to get up to the factory walls before any of the genetic robot security guards saw him coming. John was going to have to get in with the jet at almost redline. Then he would have to use all of the flaps and other items that were built into bringing Grav-rod to stop.
He checked all of his body for all the different places that he put weapons. All he had was his blaster in the left armpit. He also had another one of those non-steel fighting knives which he had put behind his neck down the back of the jacket. Among the many magazines for his pistol in his left pocket he also had some brass knuckles. In his right pocket, he had that telescoping baton. All of the weapons except for the blaster was supplied by the Gravrod gear shop. John knew that he was going to have to continue to buy at Grav-rod gear shops
. They seem to have a wide variety of things that might be useful to a Z agent.
John got off his Grav-rod. He lifted up the duffel bag and put it over his head and down his back. His two arms went through the loop handles. Then he got on his Gravrod. He started it up. He pulled up the parking sling. Then he gave the Grav-rod a slight push. Then he gunned the engine. The next part of the ride was incredibly fast. John like going fast, but not in an open vehicle like this. He would rather have a hull and other things around him.
Since most of the sound was out the backend, the sound he made as he arrived at the genetic robots factory was rather gentle. Nevertheless, one of the genetic robot guards at the North East corner of the building fund slung his sub machine blaster.
John had a lot of things to do if you wanted to use this vehicle as a getaway. He had to stop his correct grav-car completely get the parking struts down and then turn off the engines. Then there was that other thing he had to do which was take care of the guard. John brought the engine speed down to almost nothing. He swung down the parking sling. And then John jumped off of the bike at the genetic robot security guard position. John took out the telescoping baton and hit the guard three times before he could even pull the trigger. In the genetic robots makeup of what they are, they really don't want to hurt anybody else. Which is why the hospitality industry was an excellent place to find them.
The telescoping rod did what it was supposed to do. John got a little sick when he heard the distinctive crack that told of a broken skull. The name tag on his uniform said that he was known as Bert. Well, he was Bert no more. There were no more security guards at that corner.
John pushed the telescoping baton back down to its original size. Then he put it in his right jacket pocket. John didn't feel any pain, but Z04 knew that that was probably because it would be a while before it would be prevalent. He reached down and verified that he didn't break any legs, knees, or tear any ligaments. Then he jogged over to the door and opened it.
This place is being treated as if it were a laboratory by a scientist. Security was not an issue with that person. That was why John didn't have to worry about opening locks. You might have to worry about getting files out of computers, but that was not something he was asked to do
The door opened on a staircase that led up to the top floor. John knew they do would rather go down stairs, then have to go upstairs all the time. He jogged up the stairs until he got to the fourth floor. He opened the door and then stopped.
John was looking at 10 mechanical wombs. Every single one of those was topped by that weird plastic barrier. He walked over to one of the chambers and saw that there was a human-like creature under the fence.
When Vivana was at this position in their earlier mission, all she had time to do was cut open the barriers. This time John had sufficient explosive to end their lives and to destroy the abominable devices that created them.
John had no idea of how these devices were arranged in on each floor. There were indeed 10 devices. Each device had approximately one meter between them. John did a quick mental calculation, and his idea of collecting the bombs together was not going to work. He was going to have to put a bomb on every other machine. John unzipped his duffel bag. He reached in and grabbed one of the weapons he removed the wrapped paper. Then he came up to the foot of the machine. There were a lot more devices and tell tales there than anywhere else. So if he had to guess, he would have to put the bomb on the instrument at the toe.
* * *
He took this weapon, and he pushed it against the mechanical womb. John waited a few seconds to make sure that the bomb completely adhered to the mechanical organ's surface. John picked up four additional weapons. He put each bomb on the surface of the device it was to adhere to. Then he put each bomb on the instrument and slipped the detonation control unit's switch.
John picked up the duffel bag. This time he did not put it on his back. The removal of 10 bombs made it all easier. He ran out into the stairs and went down to the third floor.
He essentially repeated what he did on the fourth floor. As he looked at this third floor, he realized for the first time he was not looking at a laboratory. He was looking at a factory. They may not be making super soldiers, but they are violating the law by making genetic robots.
On the third floor, he found evidence of a living person still awake. The guard was wearing leather soled shoes which made a particular scruffling sound. That was his warning. He kicked the duffel under the third-row number one machine. He pulled out his blaster and held level with the door. With that door opened and it was a person he was going to put a blaster bolt through it. The door did open, but the guard did not come through. Somehow just a look in the room was all that he had to do.
That little encounter was enough to give John a heart attack. Yet no one had to die, and that was a good thing. He went back to the duffel and removed all the other bombs for this level, a total of five. He then went ahead and pushed each of the bombs against its mechanical womb. He set each of the bonds detonation control to on. Then he grabbed the duffel and went down to the second floor.
There were of fices on the second floor, and that meant that the mechanical wombs were not in the same footprint. Instead of a nice grouping of 4-3-3. This floor had a grouping of two rows of five. Whoever had run this particular factory wanted the maximum production possible. They knew that they could not build a large size building without somebody getting suspicious.
John unzipped his duffel bag and pulled out five additional bombs. He did a mental count in the duffel and saw that he had five more for the first floor. Since this floor had offices, there was a distinct possibility that some of them would still be occupied by scientists at this point. Scientists and engineers are liable to sit at their desks for extended periods of time only to fix a screw or a chemical reaction.
John pushed his bomb against the womb. He then did the same thing for all of the targeted mechanical organs. All of the bombs have been placed in the detonation control turned on. This is the point in his mind where he had to have possession of the controller device. Yet slip the controller device into the duffel. He found it make sure that it was still operational and put it in his right coat pocket.
* * *
John ran down the stairs to the first floor. He opened the door to an exact duplicate of the second floor. There were offices and support rooms on the first floor. That made the mechanical wounds in a narrow line of 10. He took out the remaining bombs. He set each bomb on its mechanical womb. He was able to turn on the control unit for each of the bombs. For the first time, his plan had come to fruition. Then he heard someone behind him that he did not expect to see.
"You will turn around slowly," said a feminine voice that was much more luscious than the woman who had it. John turned around to see Yada Grosvenor wearing a crumpled brown dress with a long white coat covering it. Yada was the only person that he knew who actually wore glasses. They were unattractive, but with so many things against her, it only added.
"Hello, Yada." Yada adjusted the glasses on her face to see if the person that she was looking at was who he was. To change her glasses, she forgot what was going on. She put her pistol in her lab coat pocket while she adjusted her glasses. In a few seconds, she realized what she had done, and she had pulled it out before John could do anything. John missed it just as much as she did. However, this was John's milieu. He should be able to outsmart and out-think people who are holding weapons on him.
"Is it a wonder that I am thinking of actually overproducing the super soldier. You guys will not let me do what I want to do what is research. Instead, I have to make my meal by making genetic robots."
"You know the law just as well as anyone else. You cannot make anything that is artificial and intelligence. I don't care to fight this argument again about how these things really are human. They have not come from the insemination of a human ovum with sperm from a human male. These people came from a device. I think you call the device DNA s
equencer.”
"What are you saying? Are you saying that what I produce has a potential to hurt humans?" "So much time as you are the person making these things I will trust you. It's the person next to you. The scientist that you hired to help you. There's very little control that you offer at the factory level."
"You think one of my colleagues might have ulterior motives. You think that they might want to do harm to other humans."
"Instead of doing harm to the entire race. Let's just start having one of your robots trained to kill a target." Yada looked at her pistol for a moment. She looked back at John. Then she said: "come into my office. You and I need to talk."
John entered her of fice. Just like every single scientist that he knew it was cluttered with paper, notebooks, hardcopy magazines, and hardcopy books. The scientists types always seem to be bibliophiles.
She waved the gun towards John and said: "what kind of detonators you have on those explosives?”
“I have a three-way detonator in all 40 charges."
"I assume that you have some kind of anti-tampering system?" "That is correct. We built this anti-tampering to deal with the most intelligent people out there. Did you leave your creatures out in the floors?"
"Yes I did. I always try to run things as if those are people and not creatures."
"I've always wondered what creature did you start from to create the genetic robots?" “I started from the great apes material that Alphacent has. Once I had enough base material, then I did not need anything from Alphacent. That was why we ended up here in Faraway."
Yada tipped her chair forward and look through the slight opening into the beginnings of floor one. There she noticed one of her guardsmen looking at the charge on one of the mechanical wombs.
* * *
“How long after charges been disturbed till detonation?”
“15 to 20 seconds." "This backdoor will lead you to the outside. I just noticed one of my people was playing with the charge. I would guess you have about 15 seconds to get out here.”