by J. M. Barber
“How are you doing this?” she asked, finally getting to her feet. When she did, her top half was suddenly inside of the aircraft display. The blueprint of the walls, the corridors, and the ceiling rotated slowly around her.
“Don’t really have time to explain it. I just want to give you a preview of what the aircraft is going to look like when it is done. I know there’s no definition, no exterior and exterior color. But this is its essence. This is the Autumn Aircraft.”
“You said the Autumn Aircraft.”
“This is what you’ll be a part of. It’ll be your job to protect the aircraft, get recruits, and serve as a soldier for the cause. The cause of this aircraft. What this display will be used to create. Because when everything comes down on us, it’s going to come down hard. We have access to a technology that wouldn’t be seen on Earth—if Earth survived—for countless years. In fact, the technology we have access to is not even something that we fully understand. Not something that I fully understand.”
“And you want to take us to the nearest habitable planet?”
“Yes.”
“How far is that planet?”
“Two hundred and thirty two light years away. Out of planets in the habitable zone, it is the nearest guarantee.”
“And where did you get this information?” Bell asked, and stepped out of the diagram of the aircraft. “NASA?”
Avery smiled and shook his head. “No, not NASA.”
“And let’s say I go along and I help to get a bunch of people to go along with this lifesaving aircraft, what are we going to do when the U.S. government, the Chinese government, and the Russian government decides that they want to take the ship for themselves? What are we going to do about nuts who think this technology is evil and want to sabotage it? Is your technology going to be enough to deal with all of them? What about spies, assassins, bombs. Corporations? They will use TV, funnel in millions, hell, billions for nothing other than to slander you and turn you into the bad guy so the people turn against you. That is, unless you give up everything and tell them all you know. And Avery, how do you know all you know?”
“Well, it…I will say, was all found out by accident,” Avery answered, his eyes fixed firmly on hers. He looked intrigued by her line of questioning. “If you had happened upon what I had, I would think you’d be doing the same thing. And as far as all the government forces are concerned, I’m going to need enough people on my side, that’s for sure. The technology we have, with the right amount of people, would make us untouchable. Hell, it’d make us downright terrifying. But that’s only with the right number. Now the right number doesn’t mean most of the world, or even half of it. I just need an army of my own—which I don’t have right now to defend the cause. It’s simple technology that’s keeping me from being behind bars right now.”
“Why did you go back to your school like you did? You could’ve just kept away, kept quiet, and continued to make moves under the radar.”
Avery smiled, snapped his fingers and made the diagram disappear. Then two metal chairs appeared in the center of the open space, facing each other. Avery put out his hand and invited Bell to take a seat in one and when she did, walked over and took a seat in the other.
“The people who are going to help me need a face,” Avery said. “Without a face, I couldn’t get enough people to put their lives on the line for the cause. God is faceless, Bell, and look where He got them. Not my personal belief, just what a vast number of people are thinking. Without a face, they would think that all of this is a fiction because they’ll already be on edge because of how having faith in God supposedly let them down. Everyone’s always looking for a reason not to believe something, no matter what they hear. And some are always searching for a reason to do the opposite. To believe. The world’s different now and with the countdown clock clicking down the final days, transforming at a rate we’ve never seen before. This demonstration I show you along with my face is the proof, the type of proof it’s going to take for enough people to join this cause.”
“How many are a part of the cause now?”
Avery smiled. “Seven, and that’s only if you come along. There will be more. Next year, our numbers and set to swell significantly.”
“And this count you have now. This includes you?”
“Yes, it does.”
Bell took a deep breath, took a brief look around the room, her bottom lip sucked in. Then she put her eyes back on Avery.
“This ship, how big will it be?”
“It might vary, but I would guess about two hundred thousand feet long and ten thousand feet tall upon completion.”
Bell blinked.
“Yeah, it’s like Texas’s little brother,” Avery said.
“Are you kidding?”
“Anything but.”
“But how…how the hell are you going to have time to build it. There’s no way you can get the manpower to build it, Avery. No way.”
Avery chortled, almost as if he’d expected her to already understand. “Trust me, that’s not going to be a problem. Building the aircraft, in fact, isn’t the issue. The issue is protecting it. You see, if I wanted to, I could avoid getting people to help protect it, build it, and try to get the passengers and go on faith that it will all be all right. But when word leaks to the wrong person—which it would—they would come at me and the unprotected aircraft with a force I wouldn’t be prepared to handle.”
“Even with the technology?”
Avery gave a small smile. “We need the soldiers. And I need you.”
Bell took a deep breath and looked momentarily down at the tips of her sneakers. They were scuffed with the dirt and oil of countless days spent trekking through the woods to help build Arnold’s hopeless space vessel. She looked up at Avery.
“Are you even here right now? Can I touch you?”
“Am I here? Mentally, yes. Physically, no. You can touch me, but you wouldn’t actually be touching me. You’d be touching what you expect to be here.”
Bell extended her hand, the tips of her fingers vibrating slightly. The tips of her fingers touched the stubbles of hair on Avery’s cheek. As far as she could tell, there was no difference, not even a hint. Bell’s lips trembled.
Avery shook his head slowly. “You don’t need to do that. There’s no need to be afraid.”
Bell moved her hand away, clutched her hands together, and looked down again. She let out a long sigh, her body trembling as the air left her body.
“Just…just a lot to process. Oh, boy.” She put a hand on her forehead, rubbed the smooth skin there. “So am I knocked out right now?”
Avery simply winked, smiled. “You’re mid-blink.”
“Huh?”
And the next thing she saw was the rippling screen in front of her, the surface moving as if it were black water. Alan pulled it away and handed it to Danny on his right.
“You good,” he said, helping himself to some of Danny’s fries. “Avery makes the best mind games.”
Bell blinked. “Wha—what—” She looked around the room, squinted as her eyes landed inadvertently on the spinning strobe light. “What the hell just happened?”
“What happened,” Alan responded, “is you met Avery, that’s what happened. So how do you feel? It’s a trip, isn’t it?”
Bell felt her gut tighten suddenly and put a hand to her stomach.
“We got another puker,” Danny said. “I got it, man, don’t worry.”
Danny stood up, walked around to the other side, and put his arm around Bell and helped her to her feet. She allowed him to lead her to the female restroom, where she stumbled through the door and ran into one of the stalls. With her head practically inside the toilet bowl, she emptied her latest meal into the water.
8
January 2017
Underground Antarctica
Bell thought the little humanoid robot, pacing back and forth in the snow, looked familiar, but realized it was nothing like the robot footage that had inund
ated the Internet and video sites like YouTube over the last several years. It moved at a normal, humanlike speed for one, its exterior was a flawless brick red, and it held what looked like a firearm in one hand. It stood half the size of Bell, who stood an even 5 foot 7. When they came upon the robot, it turned to Bell then turned to the boys who flanked her, Alan and Danny.
“Cute,” Bell said.
“Not if you fuck with it,” said Danny.
They were covered from head to foot in sub-zero outerwear, their faces shielded by a special glass that looked like what you’d see on a motorcycle helmet.
“How cold is it here?” Bell asked as they walked behind the robot that seemed intent on leading them to their final location.
Alan chuckled. “Put it this way. Come out of your clothing now and you’ll be dead in ten minutes flat. Keep moving. I want to hurry up and get to the safe zone so I can get out of this thing. I’m burning up in here.”
“Your breath burns my ass up too, man,” Danny said.
“Shut up.”
“So how’d you build the elevator?” Bell asked.
Another chuckle. “Is that even something you have to ask?”
The floor of the tunnel they were in was paved. Whoever had carved through the snow had been careful to make the pathway as convenient as possible. Bell was impressed. She couldn’t help but to feel uneasy at the thought of having the ceiling cave in on them. Being in this cave, feeling the ice beneath her feet, and listening to nothing but an eerie quiet, evoked a feeling of homesickness like she had never felt before. In fact, it hurt so much that she had to force her mind onto something else.
“So that little robot is there to stand guard?” Bell asked.
Alan glanced at her. “Yeah. Our little robot friend plays no games. We’re getting close now.”
Bell nodded. “Good.”
The cave was obviously not big enough to encompass the whole spacecraft. Bell thought that was fairly obvious. She guessed that the cave would be dug out where necessary as the construction of the aircraft progressed.
“So is the safe zone the inside of the vessel?”
“Well, no, the vessel hasn’t been started yet, remember? Today is the first day of construction.”
“So we’re behind a lot of others.”
Alan turned glass protected, hooded head toward her. “At the rate we’re going to be moving you might as well say everyone’s way behind us.”
The group made its way around a bend and thirty or so feet ahead saw a man facing them, no special warming gear on, standing with his hands behind his back. Bell knew she was looking at Avery Johnston and wondered briefly where he had really been when they had been having their meeting. Ten or so three foot robots stood around him and the one the leading the group, seeming to notice this, turned swiftly around, its little gun still in tow, and ran back the other direction.
“Such an adorable little thing,” Bell said and giggled.
Seven others emerged from what looked like an opening behind Avery and strolled over and flanked him. They were all young and unlike Avery, looked a bit green behind the ears. A lot more enthusiasm than experience, that’s what Bell believed they brought to the table. Still, she thought that Avery would change that promptly.
“All right,” Avery said when they had arrived in what must have been the safe zone.
Two of the robots, Bell noticed, stood still, their helmet-like faces glowing red. Upon later examination Bell would discover that they were the source of the heat that allowed this safe zone.
“Welcome to what will be the home of the Autumn Aircraft and the home of a number of recruits and future passengers while the aircraft is under construction.”
Bell, Alan, and Danny removed their masks, and Alan, the most grateful of all, took a deep breath, and pushed his long, black hair back from his perspiring face.
Everyone behind Avery strolled out from behind him and joined Bell, Alan, and Danny to face him.
“So everyone good? You guys ready?”
Everyone either nodded or said they were.
“I’ll let everyone get into the one-on-one introductions later, but for now, I just want to do a quick run-through of the things you’ll need to expect for the year 2017. And I’ll only say this once. You don’t write shit down, ever. Feel free to put it in your A.A.W. smartphone because that is tamper free. Got it?”
Everyone said they did.
“So can we expect lots of sleep and many pleasant, relaxed nights,” Danny asked.
“Ha, ha. Funny man right here.” Avery shook his head, extracted a smartphone and stylus pen from his pocket, and started to read from the screen. “All right, here’s the first day of news:
“Our new president, it looks like, is going to be Republican Howard W. Hicksville.”
Bell snorted.
“Hard to believe that name is real, huh? Our friend, the president, happens to be very anti almost anything common sense, so pay attention to up and coming proposals for legislation and, of course, the actual legislation passed by the House and Senate. And some of the Democrats in Congress are just as bad as him so it might be best to remain aware of that.” Avery scratched at his chin briefly with his stylus pen and used it to continue to scroll on his smartphone. “But, hey, he might cure cancer—I already have the cure to cancer by the way, isn’t that funny—and inexplicably pass a bunch of green energy initiatives. But you never know. Drugs and stupidity make a man unpredictable.”
Everyone laughed heartily at that and when they quieted, Avery continued.
“As you all should well know the police are after me for supposedly endangering the life of a bunch of high school students. You know what I’m talking about, my little talk when I visited my old school. Yeah, they didn’t like that too much. Sheriff Jerry Jenkins pretty much wants to nail my head to the wall. He hasn’t said this on record, but word is he’s called me an ingrate asshole countless times behind the scenes. Though no one was injured at the school, I am conveniently Colorado’s number one threat.” Avery laughed and everyone joined in. “Oh, man, wait until the end of this year.”
“On the next piece, as you know construction of the ship starts today. If it’s a great mystery to anyone how this cave got built and how the Autumn Aircraft is going to be built so quickly, it no longer should be. Robots. That is the answer. Simplistic, but true. These little robots, which are keeping this area warm and protecting it, will be the source of other robots, machinery, weaponry, vehicles, and the countless other tools that we’ll need at our disposal to see this project through. Everything that is needed is in their heads.”
“Who built the first robot though?” Bell asked.
Avery looked up from his smartphone at her. “Who do you think?”
“So you must know, just like the robots.”
“We…we’ll get into the details of that later. Now, onto the next piece. All of you guys, with the exception of a few, are not going to remain here. You’re going to be needed in the States and other countries for the majority of this project. The manpower we have back here to help guide the robots and give accurate reports of the conditions will increase month by month. But the most of the struggle isn’t going to be with building the ship itself, —I can assure you of that—it’s going to be with every crazy motherfucker out in the world with their hands on the levers of power. I’m telling you well ahead a time, combined, the world is going to spend at least several trillion dollars trying to bring our little venture to the ground. I don’t intend to let them do that.”
“Damn, I hope not,” Bell said, and chuckled nervously.
Avery smiled. “There are ten of you in front of me now. Everyone, except for three—names yet to be announced—will be headed back to the states to work. As you pick up recruits, it’s also your job to select as many candidates as possible for guest spots on the Autumn Aircraft. The soldiers you select will be trained in the States. The rules of training are available in your tamper-proof phone.
&n
bsp; “Now a committee—also yet to be formed—will decide who makes it on the aircraft and who doesn’t. Pick as many candidates as you want, remember, there are one million spots. Give a name, address, age, and picture, and send it in and we’ll go from there. If you want a part on the committee, go to the A.A.C. app on your phone—that stands for Autumn Aircraft Committee, different from A.A.W. which stands for Autumn Aircraft Warriors. That’s pretty common sense, but worth stating again so there’s no confusion.”
Bell raised her hand and Avery called on her. “So is this like a background check you’re doing. I mean as far as candidates for the ship? Making sure that everyone doesn’t have a history or—”
“Or aren’t connected to trouble. Case and point, parents closely connected to corrupt sects of the government—the House of Representatives, hint-hint.”
The talk continued for another half hour and Bell listened attentively as Avery laid out everything, piece by piece. At one point he put the smartphone away and did it by memory. Alan and Danny asked questions along with the other members of the team. Bell had a feeling that a least half the members were just as new to the cause as she was.
“All right, so I’m opening the floor to questions,” Avery said. “Who wants to start?”
9
“Well, I have to say, I feel pretty good about this whole thing,” Alan said, taking a seat in a chair built by one of the many robots running around. He, Bell, and Danny each sat in one of these, watching the robots sort through what was the largest pile of junk Alan had ever seen. Where the team members had been, before they stepped out behind Avery, was just inside a wide opening carved into the wall to the right. Alan was aware there would be a lot of junk to sort through, but the amount he laid eyes upon when he looked into the section of tunnel, was truly breathtaking. Inside of an opening that must’ve stood fifty feet tall and fifty feet wide, the pathway was blocked.