by CG Blade
Bar closed his virtual clipboard and sat down as Emily thanked him for his words. Everyone in the hall was eerily silent. Emily rose up and proceeded towards the podium with her own tablet. Petra seated in the back row of the hall was eating Twinkies and listening intently to every word being said. She was eyeing Cooper, who was concerned she might have ditched her training to be here at this meeting.
“Hello everyone I’m Doctor Judson but you all can call me Emily.” She was now wearing a blue lab coat Jackie had lent her. Her reading glasses hung at the end of her nose by a thin chain around her neck. She adjusted the mic down to her size while reading her notes. “I’ve met a lot of you here already and Doctor Siebert has been gracious enough to lend a hand and her labs.” Emily tried to stand up straight and be strong for this next part. “We of course already know that some of us have been infected with some type of microchip meant to distort our thoughts and memories. We believe that the only way to remove these devices is to use shock therapy to get the signals to stop by shorting out the microchips and then let our bodies do the rest.” She was all ready for things to be thrown at her so she flinched a little thinking she might have to duck. Again, there was just a collective gasp and murmuring. “Doctor Ringler will you please change the slide for me?” Tinker changed the slide to one of the images they acquired during testing. “Here in this image the microchip in this lobe has attached itself to the brain using small prongs that seem to be grabbing or biting the tissue.” She was using her own red laser pointer to show the area. “We believe that by sending an electrical signal through it we can disable it and its power source located on the microchip itself thus rendering it useless so the antibodies will then consume it and destroy it.” Again, the room was all hers as everyone was silent. “For those of you who have electrical devices and metal implants, we’re going to try a more invasive and slower approach of surgery. We think we can go through the nose and drill into the cartilage and remove it without any side effects.”
“You think?” One of the techs yelled angrily from the back of the room. It echoed loudly as everyone turned to look at him.
“This is insane!” someone else yelled three rows away from Emily.
Cooper stood up and asked, “Anyone else got a better idea?” He stared them down.
Emily continued. “I know this is all very unnerving so we’ll give everyone a slight sedative and of course anesthesia for surgeries. I know everyone wants this thing out of their bodies so please be patient with us. Thank you.” Emily then returned quickly to her seat.
Jackie stood up and thanked Emily then proceeded to the podium. She adjusted her reading glasses, cleared her throat, moved the microphone to her own height, and began speaking. “Doctor Sanders is familiar with Psychotherapy so he will be giving the treatments while Doctor Judson and I perform the surgeries. We will start as soon as possible by numerical badge numbers. I promise you it will be as painless and as quick as possible. Thank you all for coming. We’ll have a list outside this door in a couple of hours stating the badge numerical order and times we expect you to show up.”
Petra waited for Jackie to leave the Lecture Hall and followed her into her lab office to discuss some “modifications” to Terprise’s programming. Bar asked Cooper if he would mind having a drink with him as he had some private matters he wanted to discuss. Cooper agreed and they walked towards his private quarters. Everyone else in the hall was in a complete state of shock with mouths wide open. Some of the employees wept and held their heads wondering if they were going insane. Most of them were in denial and a lot of them were angry that this had happened to them in the first place.
Chapter 13
DISCUSSION
“I don’t think that’s an unfair question,” Cooper stated after pouring Bar and himself a drink of his finest malt whiskey. “I thought it would be a good idea to allow Emily the chance to see what we do here. I wanted to let her explore her options as a doctor. It’s no secret what we do here. Everyone in this facility is involved one way or another from the security guards to the janitors. They have to be involved or everyone would be throwing baseless rumors around. I run this facility like a company and try to be fair about it. I just ask that everyone keep their mouth shut when they leave. Most do and I normally don’t have a problem. They respect me and I don’t demand that of them,” Cooper finished, sitting down in a leather chair loosening up his collar.
“So you don’t deny you’re making a ‘weapon’ here?” Bar asked.
“No,” Cooper responded stiffly. “We can make anyone anything we want to here. You have to understand the circumstances—”
“We all just stood out there,” Bar pointed out the door interrupting the General, “and said these microchips are probably influencing us somehow and you are doing it here on purpose?”
Cooper got up out of his chair and voice instructed a Vidscreen on his wall to “call Jackie”. Coopers quarters were not unlike a ship Captains quarters decked out with the finest woodgrain leather furniture and amenities. It was spacious and warm yet had a strong military feel to it. Various pictures of battles and military vehicles hung on the paneled walls.
“Yes General?”
Bar swigged down more liquor.
“Jackie could you have First Lieutenant Dace come see me when you get a chance?”
“Yes Jim. She’s updating some modifications right now but I’ll send her to you shortly.”
“Thanks” Cooper instructed the screen to turn off and mixed himself another drink. “What would the implications be if you had found the fountain of youth? What if you could repair wounded soldiers and you could save your loved ones from death? If you could stop pain and suffering would you do it?” Cooper was staring straight at Bar, who was now taking large gulps from his sweaty glass. Brown colored ice remained in the bottom. “Soldiers, accident victims and paralyzed people all would have the same chance as everyone else in life, wouldn’t they?”
“Okay General are we talking Gene Therapy? Because I have seen that in action and the outcome has not been too favorable. There are too many side effects and too many risks. Are you playing God here? Did you have anything to do with the brain scrambling were seeing at these collider sites?” Bar held up his drink, pointing a finger at Cooper. Cooper was going to let this one go even though he hated that finger in his face.
“Absolutely not Bar, everything you see down here has never left and no one has taken it with them. Not ever. I can assure you that. The only thing I am is a patriot a doctor and a friend to these people. Some lunatic is out there screwing with everybody’s mind and we have a good idea who that is. The question is why? Excuse me for a second…” Cooper got up to answer the door after he heard a light rapping on it. He looked Petra up and down and whispered something in her ear as she stood in the doorway. “Come on in First Lieutenant.” He showed Petra to an empty leather chair in the room right next to his. “Bar, I would like you to meet First Lieutenant Dace.”
“Nice to meet you Bar” She removed her officer’s cap out of respect and shook his hand. He pulled his hand back quickly shocked that she had the gripping strength of a gorilla and tried to shake the pain away clinching his fingers making a tight fist. She sat down quickly.
“Likewise Lieutenant what brings you to this facility?” he asked staring at her wondering why she was so strong.
Petra looked like she was heading out on a trip. She was dressed in a dark blue officer’s flight suit with one silver bar on each of her shoulders and her lieutenant’s cap in her lap adorned with silver epaulettes. Her blonde blue streaked hair was up on her head now and Bar could not take his eyes off her. She was breathtaking.
“I’m just getting some orders from the General. You know how it is: busy, busy, busy. I saw your report in the Lecture Hall and I must say it was very thorough. Where do you believe the generator signals are coming from?”
“Why thank—you. I’m not sure probably somewhere isolated—out of a populated area for cove
r perhaps. What exactly do you do lieutenant?”
“Oh, I do a little of this and a little of that. I’m kind of like a cleaner of sorts.”
Bar didn’t know what that meant other than some military jargon.
“Have you gotten any further on the number puzzle it just fascinates me?”
“Uh—no we—are still working on that…”
Petra stood up and shook Cooper and Bar’s hand again this time a little less firmly.
“General may I speak with you before I leave tonight?” Petra asked politely.
“Yes First Lieutenant. I’ll be there shortly. Thank you for stopping by.”
“I will be in my quarters. Nice to meet you Bar.”
“Likewise lieutenant”
Petra left and Bar looked strangely at the General.
“Is her hair—the blue—like military legal or something?
“Oh, the blue streak you mean? Yeah, we’re kind of relaxed down here. It keeps ‘um happy. “So you want another drink?”
“Okay. Just one more maybe General gotta get some rest tonight. Big shocking day we’ve got tomorrow,” Bar replied with a gritty grin. The alcohol had loosened him up a lot.
Cooper mixed up two more drinks.
Bar looked over Cooper’s quarters and wondered how someone could spend their whole life taking orders that sometimes meant doing things other people wouldn’t do or couldn’t do or could never talk about…ever. He rather felt sorry for Cooper who was stuck in this choice he made.
“So, what did you think of the First Lieutenant?” Cooper asked looking for a known response.
“She’s damn beautiful I’ll tell you that! Is she single? She’s seems very intelligent.”
“She was pronounced dead two years ago.”
Bar spit a big mouthful of his drink all over Cooper’s chest. His eyes were open as wide as someone who just found out they had a long lost sibling they never knew about.
“So—she’s— one of the ones—in the tanks?”
“Yep,” Cooper replied wiping his chest with a towel. Cooper spent the next two hours mixing drinks and talking to someone outside of the facility that could understand and was interested and amazed by what he was trying to accomplish. He had never been able to let his guard down like he had now. It was a relief to Cooper that she was mobile and healthy. Bar hung on every letter of every word and every sentence he spoke. Cooper never revealed his ‘plans’ to Bar; he couldn’t take the chance or get anyone else involved just in case things took a turn for the worse. After all, Bar was still a civilian that couldn’t be fully trusted.
Bar left Cooper’s barroom quite talkative and happy. He went to pester Emily before heading to his own quarters. Cooper called Jackie to his own quarters and she showed up minutes later.
“So how did our girl do today?” Cooper asked half buzzed.
“Did you happen to see her at the lecture today?” Jackie asked taking the glasses off her face. They dangled by a blue rope chain against her blue smock.
“Yeah I saw her. Why do you ask?”
“Well when you saw her she was finished—with everything!”
“You’re kidding me right? All of her training—she’s done with it all?”
“No I’m not kidding, and yes, she’s done. She knocked out seven instructors, tore down two walls, and blew a hole in the back of the pistol range. Not only that Ter and her started writing an alternate night armor program and she is now certified in flying Helo and Jet-Carriers. I have five men in the infirmary with severe lacerations and broken bones. She finished downloading a lot of information off the net today. She’s ready to go. Oh, and she is addicted to Twinkies for some reason. I still haven’t figured that one out yet.”
“Yeah I saw that. They won’t kill her. They still make those?” He thought. ”Okay I’ll give her a sendoff here in a bit. Oh and Jackie—great job. You should be proud of your girl. I know I am.”
“Thanks Jim. Get some rest.” Jackie was becoming very emotional over Petra and it showed in her voice and her face when she spoke of her.
“Okay will do thanks Jackie.” Jackie left his quarters and Cooper took a shower and got dressed in sweats and comfortable clothes. His short black and progressively greying hair was still wet as he headed down to the Preservation Room through the elevator and knocked on Petra’s door of her quarters by force of habit. The door was slightly ajar. She was sitting in her chair jacked into the network. A lone Twinkie sat next to her on a plate on her desk.
“May I come in Petra?”
“Yes, Jim. I have completed my training today as you asked. How did Jackie rate my performance?”
“Petra you did great today. She said you might have increased our workload in the Infirmary for the next couple of weeks.”
“I cannot say I am sorry to the trainers and martial artists who were injured or hurt by my efforts during training. I really cannot say I am sorry. It is not part of my programming.”
“You’re correct Petra you cannot. Those types of emotions were removed during your ‘process’ so you will not be bogged down with our human vulnerabilities or weaknesses. You are correct in your assumption that your programming will not allow it. You are designed for maximum efficiency as a weapon but you will also be a great chameleon over time. Where do you think we should start with our little problem we have?”
“I have surmised the greatest percentage of probability to be ninety-six point five four percent that an encounter with Ray Nelson the CEO of Rayson Industries to be my best opportunity of getting a resolution to this dilemma so I shall start there in the Cayman Islands at his mansion—In Hell. He is holding a party this weekend to commemorate the anniversary of his family’s first acquisition of land on the island. He seems a bit—egotistical if I may say Jim.”
Cooper chuckled to himself.
“He is that Petra. From now on, don’t contact anyone but me on this subject. Use this secure chip for your Comset.” He handed her a small crystal microchip the size of a fingernail. “Petra please be careful. You mean more to me than you know and—”
She interrupted him quickly. “—yes I know Jim.”
“Do you have all the programming and gear you need from Jackie?”
“Yes, Jim. I also have a new additional piece of equipment Doctor Siebert and I designed. And Jim—,” she turned to look at him, “I cannot find a file on the network on how my father passed away.”
Cooper had a long talk with Petra about her past and her father. Bringing up information that was never recorded through any known processor or drive. He filled her in on the events that had transpired over the past two years. The two of them seemed to bond. She definitely understood him and his motives he thought. She mentioned something about ordering more ‘Body Bags’ before she left down the hall to the elevator. Like a shark, she never needed sleep again so she went silently into the world for the first time while he retired to his quarters. She was very alone now and very prepared. She seemed more comfortable and confident to him after she finished uploading all the information from the Med Lab files armed with up to date information and knowledge of the real world in real time.
On a hidden farm outside Meredith, Petra whispered Si Vis pacem Para bellum in Latin to herself meaning, “To have peace you must first go to war”. She pulled up on the virtual yoke of the small and silent Jet-Carrier and left the darkened runway lit by moonlight and stars.
Chapter 14
PERCEPTION
As Petra flew to The Grand Cayman Island the teams of doctors in Meredith worked diligently through the afternoon and into the night sending people either to Doctor Sanders for shock therapy to eradicate the microchips which seemed to be working at low doses of amperage or to Emily and Jackie for surgery. This surgical procedure took a little longer due to the need for anesthesia.
“Maybe she wasn’t in our database at the time?” Emily stated as Jackie looked over her list of candidates for the shock therapy, swiping through files on her Vidset. Th
ere was one name missing that may have not gotten imaging done.
“Let me see here—Dreama, Dreama Vernucy. Yes that’s it”
“Conrad, could you find Dreama for me? Thanks.” Jackie thought she went through imaging files but couldn’t find her on the list. Um…that’s strange she thought.
Conrad was one of the neatly dressed security guards shuttling people back and forth for microchip removal in his blue Med Lab uniform. He took off to see if he could locate their missing employee while Jackie and Emily took a break in their surgeries to look over the stainless steel plate that held all of the bloody microchips and leads they had removed.
“Quite a mess we got here,” Emily stated pulling off her bloody gloves and washing the fragments of surgery off her arms with soap and water.
“Yes let’s get these over to the Micro lab and see if they can come up with anything else we missed.” Jackie handed the plate over to another security guard who took it and made his way to the set of elevators at the end of the hall.