by Grant Pies
“You see,” the man continued as he redirected attention from the large screen and back to himself, “we cannot plan for all of these events. We must narrow the field down from the multitude of threats and extinction events to only a few. And if possible down to one.” The man paused and wandered around the large table. Ellis watched the men who sat at the table. All of them stared back at him with the same unexpressive look. “We need people to go forward in our time and note what major events are unfolding and which are the most devastating. And ultimately, we need to know what wipes us out once and for all.”
“We think that you are uniquely suited for this task,” the man said as he turned his back towards Ellis and peered out the window on the opposite side of the room. “Your obvious knowledge of the sciences and emerging technologies, as well as your drive to succeed, makes you a prime candidate for our program. Not to mention you have no burdensome ties to this time. No wife or children. No ailing parent to care for. You are untethered.” The man turned around to face Ellis.
“Now we don’t expect you to build or operate the technology necessary to complete this task,” he said with a smile. “We only need you to have a basic understanding of the functions of the machinery and the…” the man hesitated. He looked up at the ceiling and spun his hand in the air as he tried to summon the perfect word. “The toll the procedure may have on the human body.”
The man concentrated on Ellis. He walked back to his seat and placed his hands on the large table in front of him. He leaned forward and looked along the table at Ellis. Ellis’ eyes darted around the table and tried to avoid staring directly at the man. He gripped the folder that sat in front of him. “So,” the man said softly, “are you ready to take that next step forward?”
CHAPTER 38
2066
DENVER, CO
From that point on, Ellis was moved around from one secure location to another. In the coming months he went through various physical tests and examinations. They measured his temperature and blood pressure as he jogged on a treadmill. They measured his brainwaves as he swam laps in a shallow pool. They subjected him to extreme centrifugal forces and had him immediately attempt to assemble a puzzle afterwards, timing each attempt. They strapped weights around his waist, and dropped him in a pool. He was given an oxygen tank and told to run on an underwater treadmill for thirty minutes. The doctors stood over him with blank faces and jotted every movement and reaction down.
When he was not physically exerting himself the doctors drew blood and studied urine samples. They checked his pH levels and his cholesterol. Assessed the amount of iron in his blood, his perspiration levels, and his sperm count. They extracted cells from his liver and scraped miniscule amounts of tissue from his eyeballs. They measured his hair growth, on both his head and his body. They took x-rays, MRIs, PET scans, brain mapping. They injected radioactive dye into his veins and tracked his blood flow in real time. They checked him for cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, Lyme disease, tuberculosis, and lupus.
Every three weeks a doctor approached him with an oversized needle. Every other doctor had on a white lab coat, but this doctor wore blue scrubs with the Wayfield Industries logo embroidered on them. He held the large syringe in his gloved hands. The syringe was long and encased in metal. There were two loops of metal for the doctor to wrap his index and middle fingers in. The doctor placed his thumb on the large metal plunger. Ellis felt every bit of the viscous liquid enter his body. He felt it for a long time after too. He didn’t know what it was, at least not at that time. He never bothered to ask because he knew no one would tell him.
After months of training and experiments, Ellis finally met some other people who were recruited for the same reason. They were all assembled in a briefing room in a government facility. Ellis was flown to Phoenix, blindfolded, and driven almost three hours before arriving at the facility. Including Ellis, there were twenty people assembled in the room. Officially the Ministry called these people ‘chrononauts.’ But informally they called themselves ‘surveyors.’
The group of surveyors sat silently in the windowless room. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all cement. Thick metal beams were positioned around the room to support the structure, and exposed pipes ran along the ceiling. Ellis guessed that they were deep underground; the air smelled of moisture that one would find in a cave.
“Have they been injecting you with those nano-robots?” a man next to Ellis whispered. The man scratched his arm; the same part of the arm where the Wayfield employee injected Ellis every three weeks. “They give me an injection every six weeks. It’s this thick stuff that burns in my veins.” Ellis shifted his eyes to look over at the man, but he did not turn his head; maybe now he’d get his explanation. The man had hair that was so blonde it was almost white. His nose looked as though it had been broken on more than one occasion. He rapidly tapped his right foot on the ground, and Ellis felt the vibrations shiver up from the ground through the chair he sat on.
“I worked in the TDA before this, and we saw plenty of companies working on hybrid liquids. It was a mixture of organic materials and complex nano-machines. Android DNA we called it. I was in charge of confiscating all of the materials and research from these companies. From what I could tell they were all trying to make some type of robotic cells. They were making injectable robots that would go through your body and repair any deformities or abnormal cells.” The man kept scratching his arm while he said all of this. “I confiscated the stuff, but I don’t know where it all went after that. The Ministry probably passed it off to Wayfield. Don’t ya think?”
What the man said to Ellis made sense. It was no secret that the TDA took technology from unauthorized companies and handed it over to Wayfield. Before Ellis could think about it any further, or reply to the blonde man’s questions, a stranger entered the room, wearing high boots, camouflage pants, and a solid black shirt with the emblem of the North American Territories on it. He stood at a podium with his shoulders thrown back and his feet placed together.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the man barked, “you are here to participate in Project Oracle. This is an important cause, not only for your government and for your country, but a cause for the survival of our entire species.” The man leaned his hands on the podium and looked around the room. “You are to travel to the time that you are told, take the required measurements, and note any observations you believe to be relevant. You are to return once this is complete.” The man paused and exhaled.
“You are not to leave your designated geographical area,” the man said. “You are not to speak to or interact in any way with anyone in your designated times. You are not to monitor lottery numbers, the stock market, or any sporting events while in your designated time.” The man next to Ellis let out a soft sigh.
The man left the podium and approached a large flat screen nearby, and brushed his hands in front of it to activate it. On the screen was a global map with points on it. Ten of them. Around the points were circles. All of them the same size. The points were situated in the major territories of the globe. There were two points in North America, near Atlanta and Denver. One point in Paris. One in Moscow. One in Sydney. One in Beijing. Another in Mumbai. One in Cairo. One in Lusaka. And another in Buenos Aires.
The man pointed to all of the points on the map. “You each will be assigned a location. You are to remain in that location during your travels. You are not to move to another territory or country.” The man next to Ellis still tapped his foot and scratched his arm. Ellis still felt the vibrations through his own chair.
“Once you have collected the required data, you will initiate your personal retrieval beacon. The operators back in your own time will initiate the retrieval sequence. After each travel you must report back here. Upon each return, you will be quarantined for an indefinite amount of time before you are able to interact with other humans. Between travels, if you are medically cleared to do so, you will be given a short amount of time to attend to your pers
onal affairs. But the rest of the time you will be housed here.” As the man said this, another man walked throughout the room and passed out large envelopes.
The envelopes had two small circles of raised paper on the flap in the middle of the envelope. A short piece of twine wrapped around both in a figure eight to keep the flap closed. Ellis grasped the envelope in his hands; his chair still shook.
“If you arrive at your pre-determined time and location, and you believe that the location is uninhabitable, you are to initiate your retrieval beacon only after you have taken the necessary tests and measurements.” The man next to him twisted the twine from the fasteners and pulled out his assignment documents. Ellis glanced over at the paperwork. At the top was a large red stamp that read “classified.” In the middle of the page in bold letters it said “Assignment location: Buenos Aires. Assignment date: 2165.”
“If you are injured or maimed, you are to collect the required data and then initiate your retrieval beacon. But not before you collect the data. If you are infected with a deadly virus or bacteria while on assignment you are to disable your retrieval beacon and then ingest the capsule provided to you,” the man explained with little emotion. “The capsule will speed up the decomposition of your body, so no one will be able to retrieve or examine your body.” Ellis looked down at his envelope and untwisted the twine that held the flap shut. He reached in to pull out his deployment papers. As he read his first assignment, Denver 2165, he realized that his chair was vibrating so much that it was nearly rocking. He looked over at the man next to him; his leg was still. Ellis’ leg was frantically tapping on the cold cement floor.
CHAPTER 39
2066
DENVER, CO
When it came time for Ellis to make his first travel, he made his way down the long hallway in the underground facility in Denver. He rode an elevator down a long shaft until he was far beneath the surface of the earth. Even though it was cool this far underground, sweat beaded around his brow and his heart bounced around in his chest. A scientist approached him with the large familiar syringe and stuck it deep in his bicep. The thick slime crawled into his body and burned from the inside. Ellis wore solid linen pants and a short sleeve shirt that buttoned up the middle. Maybe the Ministry of Science hoped that the plain clothing would help the surveyors blend in.
The scientists prepped Ellis on how the device worked. The device could only move one person at a time they told him. Any more than one person and the results became less predictable. They told him to wear as little metal as possible when traveling. His shirt buttons were plastic. His pants had buttons instead of a zipper. They told him that they could alter both the time as well as the geographical destination. He was to report back any geographical changes in his destination city, so the operators could readjust his physical location in future trips.
Ellis had a basic understanding of the device. He knew that it created a wormhole that folded space and time onto itself, and it propelled the surveyor through the wormhole. The wormhole remained open while the surveyor collected the required data, but it was stagnant. They told Ellis to take note of his immediate observations. Had the surroundings changed drastically? Were there visible signs of life? Had the topography changed? Were there cities where there used to be none?
After his initial observations, Ellis was to take certain measurements. The Ministry gave him a device that measured the air temperature, air quality, and chemical composition of the air and soil. Ellis was to use this device in different locations to obtain an average reading. He was to travel to three points near where the wormhole was created, making a triangle with the wormhole in the center.
Once he was done, he was to go back to where the wormhole dropped him in the future. Ellis was given one other device that emitted a radio signal. The signal travelled through the wormhole, and when received on the other end, the time movement device would pull Ellis back to the present and collapse the wormhole behind him.
Ellis had to be precise when standing ‘in’ the wormhole. There was no noticeable difference in the air where the wormhole sat. It was invisible to the naked eye, so he was instructed to mark his entry location with a distinctive rock or a pattern of sticks. Ellis and the other surveyors would be the first humans to travel through time. The Ministry did not trust androids to perform this type of work.
Ellis stood on the large stage surrounded by tall pillars, taking his place on the ‘X’ marked on the ground. The device was housed in a massive room. The ceiling was far too high for light from above to illuminate anything below, so lights were installed in the floor of the large room, and lights were mounted on portable stands scattered throughout the area. Ellis couldn’t see anything past maybe ten stories; after that it was just darkness above him. Ellis guessed that the room was the size of a small building.
Doctors and scientists with the Ministry of Science huddled behind a metal and glass partition. He stood perfectly still as the pillars started to move up and down, and he felt a tingling energy come off of the many large cables that covered the floor. His vision blurred and his hair stood on end; he closed his eyes to calm himself. In a matter of seconds, he felt the vibrations of the pillars stop. He pried his eyes open to find himself outside. In the future.
UNIT 5987D V.
FEDERATED NORTH AMERICA
CASE NO. 2070FN99823
(The following ensued at the bench)
Court: Counselor Powell, what is your response?
Counselor Powell: This line of questioning directly relates to my client’s motivations in conducting human experiments. I would argue that no person on the jury is capable of using this information in any real way, or of relaying it to a third party in enough detail to allow the replication of unauthorized androids.
Court: I agree. You may proceed, but refrain from asking questions that would elicit responses that are very specific as to how the androids operate. I don’t need the Court sanctioned by the Ministry.
Counselor Powell: I understand. Thank you, your Honor.
(The following ensued in open court)
Q: Please continue. What did you discover in your examination of Delta Models?
A: The android Delta Models utilized human DNA to aid the android in completing more complex tasks, such as learning and retaining information without the use of software uploads, understanding human emotions, and forecasting the consequences of particular movements.
Q: Without going into specifics of how the model works, what do you mean by ‘forecasting consequences of particular movements?’
A: The Delta Model is capable of predicting how their surroundings would react to their movements and act accordingly, without trial and error. I intuitively know how this desk will feel if I knock on it.
(Knocks on desk)
Or I know the weight of a soda can before picking it up. I do not need to first lift the can and record the data.
Q: So in a way you are more advanced than human babies?
A: Yes, in many ways we are. I do not need to go through the self-discovery phase that young babies do. It is as if this information was imported to the model, but not through the typical software update that other information is given to us.
Q: How so?
A: The information uploaded to the Delta Models is information that is factual in nature. We are given historical data, mathematical data, and data on social conventions. The intuitive data we have is something that is not easily quantifiable. It is more of a feeling.
Q: And this comes from the DNA used during your manufacturing process?
A: I believe so.
Q: Is this something you discovered during your experiments?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you explain what you found?
Federated Prosecutor Klipton: Your honor I would like to simply renew my objection to this specific line of questioning into the technology of the androids.
Court: Overruled.
A: Well the units I studied did not have complete strands
of DNA, but it is safe to assume that they once did. A strand of DNA is comprised of two complimentary strands that lock together using a unique structure. It is somewhat like a zipper. I believe that the units were initially given human DNA, but the heat from their internal motor caused the DNA to denature, or ‘unzip,’ leaving the two separated individual strands. Typically, the unzipping of DNA can be undone.
Q: In other words, you can zip the DNA back up?
A: Yes, in most cases that is possible. However, the DNA found in the units I examined could not be reassembled.
Q: Why?
A: I do not know. I reached an impasse in my experiments.
Q: What would you learn from reassembling the two strands?
A: Essentially, I would learn whose DNA each unit had in them. The DNA in our model is what makes us more close to human than any other android in our history. Not only is it a scientific quest of mine to determine how I personally operate and how my model as a whole operates, but it is a personal goal to discover who I come from. There are humans out there that gave a part of themselves so that I could be who I am, so that we can be who we are. I would like to know more about them.
Q: It seems like you view it almost like a foster child treats their biological parent?
A: Yes, I believe it will shed more light on why I see the world as I do.
Q: You said you reached an impasse with your android experiments. Is that when you began human studies?
A: Yes.
Q: What did you hope to learn in your human studies?
A: Essentially, I hoped to learn either how to reassemble the DNA strands after they denatured, or, alternatively, I hoped to find a way to identify who the DNA belonged to without the need to reassemble the strands.