Cobalt: The First in the Trinity Series Novels

by CG Blade

  “Petra you are a breath of sunshine in a world of negativity.”

  “Thank you Ter, thank you very much.”

  “I’m just glad you didn’t have a Twinkie sometime during that last scene. I don’t think I could have taken the hilarity of it all without introducing the proper laugh.wav file to you.”

  Chapter 34

  INAUGURATION

  “Petra you have a call coming in from Vice President Harrison,” Ter told her as Petra stepped into the Hover-Buggy.

  “Yes Mr. Vice President I’m here.”

  “Lieutenant Dace we destroyed the spire on top of the Capitol building like you asked. We may need a stonemason or a carpenter soon as there is a gaping hole in the Rotunda dome now. One of the Kirk guys you mentioned is lying below it on the floor in about, oh I’d say thirty-six different pieces maybe.” He started laughing proudly. “Your watchful drones and your newly formed army took care of Kirk—who was guarding the secondary elliptical dish—splashing him with a barrage of ammo that left him dismembered and smoking with a terrible aftertaste.”

  “Great Mr. Vice President I will be there soon.”

  “What about some inspirational music for the ride to the Capitol Ter?”

  “Music.wav files up now Petra.”

  The Bee Gee’s ‘Holiday’ began playing in Petra’s ears.

  “No Ter too soft and way too emotional. Something with heart and soul and a rock beat. Vintage ’80s is good maybe, 1980s?”

  “I thought that song would settle your system down.”

  “Give me something that kicks a little butt Ter.”

  “Yes Petra.”

  KISS’ ‘War Machine’ began playing loudly.

  “That’s better Ter, much better. The Creatures of the Night album was underrated for its time.”

  “I wouldn’t know Petra. I am more of a fan of Robert Noyce and his groundbreaking work at INTEL.”

  ***

  As Petra made her way towards the Capitol in her buggy the scene at the now drying Capitol steps at 6:00 p.m. was frenzied as every newsperson in the area along with several hundred video crews holding Vidsets waited in anticipation of the next hour’s amusements. The rain had come to a slowing halt and a slight sunset could be seen peeking over the horizon in the west. The chilled soaking rain and wind had made way for some warmer temperatures that late afternoon.

  Vice President Roger Harrison and The Speaker of the House Rick Connley were leading the charge at the steps of the Capitol building. The eight soldiers and Patrick leading the other seven patriots were standing and hovering behind the podium up at the top of the steps in front of the Capitol’s doors. “We will just be a minute ladies and gentlemen” Harrison piped up into the mic in front of him. A large fifty-five gallon plastic blue barrel sat next to the podium.

  “What’s that?” someone in the crowd pointed to a tilted blue Hover-Buggy in the distance rounding the curve of Northwest Drive towards the Capitols Peace Circle. As it got closer, several hundred people all turned to look at it simultaneously. The Hover-Buggy was scraping the pavement on its front end and its back end was up in the air at a forty-five degree angle off the ground.

  “Is that—?” one of the cameramen asked pointing to the hood section of the buggy.

  Petra didn’t account for the fact that Long looked over two-hundred pounds but weighed nearly four-hundred. Her early robotic parts were heavy and clunky. Many of the models like Nelson made years after her inception had been infused with lighter metals and polymers. Long was strapped to the hood with the cables that she used to recharge herself in the Oval Office on a daily basis. Her batteries now ran low and she was no match for Petra.

  “Is that President Long? Oh—dear—my God,” another person yelled as Petra pulled up to the First Street area in front of the Reflecting Pool. Photos and videos from Vidsets were being shot and recorded as First Lieutenant Petra Kayden Dace stepped out of the tilted Hover-Buggy in her Dress Blues and black sunglasses. The world that was connected to this gathering was watching with anticipation some of them crawling out of their beds from the four corners of the earth in the middle of the night awakened by buzzes and beeps from their families and friends. Mrs. Roger Harrison was glued to the Vidscreen hanging in her living room as Jackie and Emily with a much younger Dr. Noman Sanders and the real Ray Nelson were watching from the Meredith Lecture Hall with around two-hundred other lab employees on the one hundred foot wide screen. Bar and Tinker who were in the city of Ushuaia Argentina on the southernmost tip of South America, were sitting next to each other glued to their Vidset on top of a wooden crate at the twelfth collider site they were overseeing. Philip K. the Fructose Mart manager and the rest of the country wanted to know what event was going to unfold before them this afternoon. The newly formed patriots including Patrick and the boys warned the remaining WASP soldiers in attendance earlier not to interfere with today’s proceedings or the consequences would be dire for them.

  Petra began to untie the cumbersome Helen Long from the front of her vehicle as if she was a prized deer she had just shot. Long rolled off the front of the buggy and onto the street with a loud clanking noise and a thud in the process. The back end of the buggy hit the ground with a bang as the overburdened vehicle tried to rebalance itself. Petra grabbed Long by her bun and began dragging her from the street through the front lawn of the Capitol building. Long was trying to break free from Petra’s grasp kicking and gouging the earth in the lawn below her. She rutted the mud soaked grass a foot down as they went forward forming a new sewer trench at the Capitol. The people in attendance parted ways to allow this scene to unfold before their shocked eyes. Petra finally made her way up the Capitol steps with a mud and grass covered Helen Long next to her. The former President was pulling down her lime green pantsuit top over the rolls on her midsection. She was visibly shaken and wobbly trying to stand erect next to Petra who was now standing behind the podium shaking hands with her fellow patriots.

  Petra stepped up to the microphone as someone in the crowd yelled “Hey that’s the president! You can’t do that!”

  “Oh really I can’t do what?” Petra asked leaning into the mic a little closer. Long was now trying to fix her bun but she was running out of steam moving slower in her actions. “This is not your President! She never was. She’s a surveillance replacement put here to control you. All of you!” Petra was now pointing at the crowds of people who were now silent and had their eyes open wide fixed on Long. “You all are under a type of hypnosis and a signal coming from a project called HAARP. This signal was introduced through wind generators YOU allowed the government to erect for credits. For some measly credits! This was used against you in conjunction with vaccinations you have received in the last couple of years. All of you let your guards down by no free will of yourselves and allowed your freedoms to be taken away from you—slowly and methodically taken away.”

  Everyone was stunned as the world watched this event unfolding in front of their eyes.

  “Why should we believe you? Who are you to tell us what to do?” a woman asked yelling from the crowd.

  “Ter I’m going to need something to prove a point.”

  “Yes Petra.”

  “Who’s she talking to?” someone in the crowd whispered.

  Petra stepped out from behind the podium and from the toes up changed into the most magnificent glowing red white and blue crisscrossed striped armor. Gold stars evenly spaced across her body stretched diagonally starting at her left shin and moving up to her right shoulder. They represented the original thirteen colonies. Patriotic colored stripes intersected the opposite diagonal direction of the stars going from her right shin to her left shoulder. The 1775 Cavalry Sword she was holding in her right hand emitted red white and blue flames as well as her now matching hair lying on her shoulders. Her irises were lit up like patriotic bull’s-eyes.

  “Holy Shit!” someone in the crowd yelled.

  Petra grabbed Long’s left arm and sliced off he
r head at the neck in one final and fluid motion. The head tumbled down the Capitol steps as people tried to move out of its way. It bounced and struck concrete, marble, and onlookers’ legs and shins before it came to a halt on the lawn. The eyes and lips were still moving around trying to get a look at its newly formed point of view. Petra let go of the torso as a brown grungy and awful smelling liquid sprayed out of its neck in all directions. Long’s lower half fell over with a huge thud making various dents and chips in the marble steps below it. People were avoiding the liquid as it flowed freely now from the open neck area of the torso and down the steps stopping short of the lawn. Long’s morbidly obese body wiggled and shook violently as it lay on the concrete. Viewers were gasping and holding their mouths watching the horror that had just unfolded in front of them. The fattened lime green stump of the robot came to a slow stop as Petra stepped back up to the microphone.

  “No sense in losing one’s head over this.”

  “Good one Ter, good one. Finally you’ve got a sense of humor!”

  “Who’s she talking to?” a man in the crowd asked his wife.

  “Who’s Ter?” someone else asked. Everyone was now looking around and asking, “Who’s Ter?”

  “Presidents Keller and Sheehan will be executed by me or the U.S. Army for treason if they decide to arrive back in the United States anytime soon!” Petra declared now producing copies of the Declaration of Independence and The Bill of Rights in each of her hands holding them up to the feverish crowd. “This is your future! This is your freedom! Not tyrants and virtual prison wardens and not some kind of mind control!” Petra kicked the fifty-five gallon plastic blue barrel down the steps. As it rolled, thousands of sets of keys flew out of it in all directions, tinkling and clanging all over the concrete and marble. They shone as they tumbled down the steps landing at the feet of shocked onlookers. These keys to the Rayson warehouses and armories were holding the nation’s weapons hostage. “These are the keys to your future! Don’t let it pass you by again! You might not get another chance! Fight for your futures before it’s too late. Remember, a prison is a home if you have the key!”

  The crowd was starting to get behind her now cheering chanting and waving.

  “We Americans will not be a part of WAS or WASP or any other New World organization! We will not be a part of a mind control scheme to milk you out of your homes and your money and your children’s futures. Your free will is yours to command if you have the fight left in you to do it! Our forefathers fought for our independence and fought for our freedoms. They fought for our right to choose! I’m telling you right now to choose. Stand and fight or die on your knees!”

  The crowd with every other American watching was up cheering and screaming. Some of them were crying as the broken elliptical dish signals were starting to slowly wear off their migraine infused and confused brains.

  “We will now be taking control of our own borders. As of today anyone with a WASP uniform who was prior US military is asked to remove that uniform and re-join the United States Armed Forces with full honors!” Petra held up both of her red white and blue clenched fists to the sky. Harrison, Connley, and the soldiers behind her were clapping and whistling. Patrick and the boys let out a binary chirp as they all took a collective sigh of relief saluting each other in victorious patriotic drone like motions.

  Petra once again stepped up to the mic: “I would now like to introduce you to the President and Vice President of The United States of America Mr. Roger Harrison and Mr. Richard Connley!”

  “Wait!” A reporter yelled loudly in the front row of the Capitol steps. Most of the crowd was now settling down to listen to him. Everyone in attendance was becoming quieter. “Miss—miss who are you?” he asked holding up a Vidset a couple of feet from her face. Hundreds of people were now waiting in anticipation for an answer from this beautiful patriotic savior.

  Petra moved back to the microphone and leaned into it. “My name is First Lieutenant Petra Kayden Dace U.S. Army and I am the new America and she is reborn. America’s name comes in many different colors. Mine is Cobalt!”

  “That was a little overdramatic don’t you think?”

  “Sure was Ter, sure was. By the way I hope they don’t change your microchip during the upgrade surgery.” Petra laughed to herself sarcastically and smiled as people cheered around her.

  “Gulp”

  Chapter 35

  RECONDITION

  It was a brave new world as America started to rebuild herself slowly from the ground up. The stars and stripes were hoisted back up onto the White House and Capitol building dome in a glorious ceremony as the country moved in a better direction guided by the first Republican and Democrat to hold office in the White House simultaneously. It was a bittersweet pill to swallow for some, as the American people would have to wait another four years until the next election in 2080. The majority of people loved the new idea as fresh thoughts arose out of the funk most of the country had been in for the past two years. The effects of the signal had been erased forever and most Americans chose to have the microchips removed. Those who didn’t were older or didn’t believe the hype Petra threw around that day. Those with migraines and other life threatening health issues were soon miraculously cured. Regardless, the American people were headed on the right track now. Signs were erected countrywide saying “Freedom isn’t Free” and a lot of the younger female college students decided to follow in one certain officer’s footsteps and attend military schools and training. The Army’s female officer uniforms were changed to a darker blue to commemorate the occasion and the woman. As requested by First Lieutenant Dace, a bill was introduced into legislation on May18th, 2076, making Arcing illegal across the country. It was the first bill that the newly sworn in President Roger Harrison signed at the White House on May 25th, 2076.

  Teams of NIB agents were sent to look for Dreama and her supposed robot replacement laboratory. The NIB scientists labeled the doppelgangers Pseudo-Synthetics or ‘Pseudosynth’s’ for short, as they would later come to be called. They were a new form of technology grown out of decades of experimentation with casualties that were yet to be found. In essence it was a deadly form of replication that was years ahead of its time. The teams knew she could not have done all of her damage from Mercury but she was never found. Scientists and the U.S. Marines along with NIB agents were sent to Mercury to go over what was left of the site with a fine toothed comb and make sure nothing else was hidden away.

  Keller and Sheehan were suddenly and tragically killed while on a Transport-Carrier flight from Geneva to Greece. The flight didn’t crash. They just suddenly died in their seats. The autopsy later revealed they had passed from accelerated Cobalt poisoning.

  WASP was eradicated from the US as the rest of the world continued using the WASC monetary system and their soldiers. The United States began printing paper money again and the twenty-dollar bill was changed to a familiar female face. For the first time in American history, it was Cobalt colored at that.

  Ray Nelson dropped his weapons and drone programs from his company. He decided to go in a different direction making an effort to change his tarnished image and better humanity while he stayed on at the Med Lab with Doctor Sanders and Jackie at times discussing their future projects at great depths. Most of Nelson’s “RC” weapon drones were reintroduced to companies for transport carriers and delivery services. Nelson tore down the wind generators that bore his name; they weren’t needed anymore. Colliders provided enough power for the entire world’s growing population.

  General James S. Cooper never regained consciousness. Something went wrong in his organ replacement surgery. Jackie and Norman kept him alive in Cobalt solution until they could both agree on an action.

  Patrick, Benjamin, Thomas, John Paul, John, George, Ethan, and James were given beautiful new patriotic paint jobs and were allowed to hover and chirp quietly inside the Meredith facility near the room of another beautiful patriot by the name of Captain Petra Kayden Dace who
lay peacefully in a Cobalt solution next to her friend Jim Cooper. After visiting her father’s gravesite in Arlington Virginia Petra’s microchip surgery was performed by Jackie. On the road to Petra’s upgrade, the team discovered a newer faster microchip that held more memory than a brontobyte chip. They called it the Jacchrbyte microchip packet after Jackie and the Med Lab’s dedicated hard work on the project. A fine Cobalt colored velvet cloth lay on a glass table that sat next to Petra’s Cobalt gel filled tank with awards and accommodations from her President and Vice President Roger Harrison and Richard Connley. A single solitary Twinkie wrapped in plastic also lay next to her new Captain’s rank insignia, which were two silver bars. The lecture hall at the Med Lab was the only place that could hold all of the handwritten letters she had received during her recovery. All 331,400,798 pieces of them lay unopened waiting…

  Chapter 36

  MULTIPLICATION

  A petite angelic beautiful slender and auburn haired thirty-one-year-old woman with dark features and mascara was sitting in a Honolulu Tattoo shop with her red short-sleeved shirt rolled up on her right arm tight under her armpit. The warm Hawaiian breeze blew smoke off the homemade hand rolled cigarette that she puffed every couple of minutes or so. She wanted a unique tattoo on her left upper arm. The young grey bearded biker in a black leather vest doing the tattoo work was having a hard time puncturing her pale white freckled canvas.

  “I don’t know what to tell you miss—something is wrong. Maybe it’s this gun?” The tattoo artist was holding his ink gun and blankly staring at the tip of it. Red ink was dripping onto his fingers and hand. He would make a swipe with the tattoo gun on her skin then turn and dip it in ink. By the time he turned back around it had disappeared already. The tattoo was erasing and healing itself in seconds.