Crimson: The Second in the Trinity Series Novels

by Blade, CG

  “Yes Ter it sure does.”

  Jackie laughed aloud and turned to look at Ray in awe. “Ray what the hell is COZAP and how did you do this?”

  “Cobalt Infused Zettabit Amalgam Particles. I took the liberty of naming it already, if you don’t mind that is.”

  “No by all means call it whatever you want to, Holy shit Ray!”

  All eight of Petra’s drones had combined to form one hell of a weapon.

  “She is now properly linked to her drones through Terprise and each drone is Cobalt infused with fuel cells similar to AA5C39. The drones are handshaking with her network and hers alone with no satellite link. Petra is now capable of producing anything at any time.”

  Petra turned towards the Abrams Tank, closing her eyes. She blinked and there was a collective gasp in the room.

  “Petra due to the safety concerns of our guests not this, not now.”

  “Ter I’ve got this.”

  “Ray how does she fly that out of here?”

  “Jerry will you open the bay doors please? Now of course Petra can open the doors with her Comset but we added a manual override just in case of emergencies. Everyone hang onto your hats!”

  A multiple set of 200-foot steel circular spiraling doors opened up like giant rose pedals in the wall next to the jet. Exhaust fans automatically came on as the new tunnel system opened fully. Petra inched the hovering plane forward with the joystick operating the controls like a seasoned pilot. She maneuvered the F-35B towards the circular hole blasted out of the earth. The jet disappeared into the opening in the room as the massive doors slid shut behind her.

  “I think we are going to need a bigger lab Ray”

  “I thought you might say that. We need funding for a brand new updated building and I was thinking somewhere warm maybe this time. It’s time for Rayson Industries to make some changes.”

  Jackie smiled lovingly at Ray. She put her hand into Rays arm and turned him towards the elevator. “So Ray are you ever going to tell me how you did this?”

  “Later Jackie,” He spun her around pulling her close, bending her over backwards with a passionate kiss, holding her around the waist tightly. Everyone in the room began yelling and whistling in joy. “Hey—you two—get a room!” Someone yelled cheering them on.

  “You do realize you’re actually sixty-one-years-old right Ray?”

  “Do I taste like it?”

  “No, no you don’t—not at all. Let’s go get you out of these clothes—Mr. Nelson.” Jackie eyed him with searing desire and pulled on his red tie walking him towards the elevator like an obedient dog on a leash.

  “Sounds good to me!”

  Petra spent the rest of the night experimenting with her newfound friends above ground while everyone at the lab took the night off, enjoying a well-deserved break. Evil however was not pausing for a moment and it was coming fast and steady from the east. Its 165 lb. three foot high curse was 500-feet off the surface of the earth traveling from Sweden and it was disastrous venom in its purest form.

  Chapter 6

  ABSORBABLE

  Wednesday October 14th 1:00 AM

  “Wakey wakey eggs and Bacey!”

  “What—what the…?”

  “Get the FUCK up NOW doc!”

  The frail man sleeping soundly in his bed awakened abruptly to a woman’s boisterous and obnoxious voice. He was still in a groggy dream state. “Who—who the hell are you? How did you get in here? Lights” The bedside lights came on, slowly getting brighter, revealing a woman sitting next to him cross-legged in a blood covered yellow smoldering sundress with crispy-burnt hair and a blackened face resting her chin in her hands like a small child gleefully watching a school play. She started licking and sucking on her wet blood covered fingertips and toes playfully eyeing him. The smell coming off her was repulsive and rancid like a mixture between a dumpster and a thawed out morgue. “I don’t have anything of value Miss—?” With shaking hands, he retrieved his glasses from his nightstand to better view this intruder. The woman was beautiful despite covered from head to toe in blood, mud, and charred clothing. A large circular snake tattoo was visible on her right arm eating its own tail with the word ‘COBALT’ inside its center. “Have you been in an accident? My God miss!” He asked wondering why this person was here in the wee hours of the morning and in his bed.

  “No. But you will be if you don’t fucking get dressed right now doc!”

  “How did you get past my security codes?” He was angry, mad, and confused all at once now. “I don’t have any money—miss.” Visibly shaken, the petrified man with thinning, greying long brown hair was perspiring with beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. He was trying to cover himself up, pulling his nightshirt together at the collar. He wrestled the quilted blanket on his bed closer to his body trying to shield himself from her. The intruder moved closer to him on all fours licking his cheek with her tongue, feeling his stubble and tasting the salty sweat that was forming on his brown skin. He tried to back away from her but she just kept coming at him. She forced him down against the headboard and pillows as he fought against her with everything he had in him. The bloodstained woman straddled his torso pinning him down firmly with her muscular thighs. Squatting on top of his chest, she shoved a hypodermic into the side of his tanned veiny neck. She continued licking her fingers and hands clean of any remaining dried blood spatter while grinding her pelvis into the trembling man under the blankets, howling loudly with pleasure like a wolf on a clear moonlit night. The contents of the syringe emptied into his pulsing veins. Becoming still he smiled at her with a mischievous grin as she spoke almost out of breath.

  “The name is Jane, Jane Toppan—Professor Trefoils, the Magistri in Artibus Liberalibus Studiorum Prolatorum and also a Divinitatis Doctor and a Professor with a PhD in Latin and Roman Studies from the University of Hawaii’s Liberal Arts and Sciences program I presume?”

  “Yes dear that is my name and my profession and you my dear are Ohana. Now what can I do for you this glorious morning my beautiful Jane?” Professor Parson Trefoils crawled from the bed and onto the floor. He knelt down beside her and began worshiping Dreama, cleaning her dangling filthy bloodstained and burnt toes and feet by licking and sucking on them. She started chewing on a palm full of red Skittles she threw onto her bloody tongue as she cracked all of the knuckles on her fingers one by one. Sweet red liquid started to form at the sides of her mouth. She tilted her head violently cracking her neck as the sugary crimson froth began to drip from the corner of her mouth. “That’s better, much better doc—a little more to the right—yea that’s the spot doc. Ohhhh yea… Now, what are your Cruiser lock codes and how well do you speak Latin baby?”

  Wednesday October 14th 3:00 AM

  The door was slightly ajar when Petra heard a light knuckle tapping on it. “Come in Ray.” Petra could tell from the scent in the air that it was a male coming closer towards her. She could deduce it was Ray from his unique ‘toe first’ foot shuffle when he was overcome with exhaustion.

  “Petra, can I talk to you?” He peeked his head through the crack in her door.

  “Yes Ray come in.” Petra was in her steel chair in the Preservation Room sitting with perfect posture staring into the stainless steel wall in front of her, synchronizing with the network. Her irises seemed to be burning with a beautiful blue hue that had a rhythmic pulse to them. The room was dark with the exception of the small lamp that was perched under a cabinet hanging on the wall casting shadows on her body. A perfect pyramid of creamy goodness sat on a plate next to her on a wooden counter top. “You are up late Ray. It is 3:01 a.m.”

  “Yes I have problems sleeping with so much information rolling around up in my brain. I’ve always had trouble shutting it off at night so I work till I drop.” His hair was still fragrant and damp from the shower and he was dressed casually in a sweatshirt, sweatpants, and running shoes. His choice of attire noted and logged by Petra only because it was unusually different from his strict patriotic r
egimen.

  “Please have a seat Ray. I would like to ask you a question since you’re here.”

  “Sure, sure okay,” Ray pulled out the only other movable piece of furniture in the room, a steel chair, from under the desk and straddled it backwards.

  “Can you give me more information on Dreama? What do you remember about her from your past?” Petra continued to stare at the wall in front of her.

  “Well let me see now.” Ray began scratching his head, “she was a gifted and talented student I can tell you that. She stuck close to me in most of her early years but she loved her studies, especially science. She was definitely a daddy’s girl.”

  “Can you elaborate Ray? Did she have friends, hobbies, boyfriends or anything else that she became overly attached to?”

  “Well I—I’m not sure Petra, I was always in the labs working. I know she excelled in math, physics and chemistry in school and she was way beyond any other student as far as academics go. She began taking college classes at night and was interested in my work. She didn’t care for sports, celebrities, or videos. She never had any close friends or acquaintances and sometimes I almost felt sorry for her and encouraged her to find some friends and play like normal children did. She always bucked back on the subject. I used to talk to her about being humble and learning social skills around other children but without a female role model in her life, after her mother died, she was hard to manage. I let her do it, the night classes at the college that is. She was only nine or ten at the time. Then the possibilities of science and all it had to offer possessed her. She started following me around in the lab so I prepped her for college programs, possible because of my grants to the science department at the university, and they were happy to have her attend, but then she disappeared. She was excited at the thought of going to college and I guess you could say she was a chip off the old block. After her mother died, she was gone from our lives, or my life I should say. Kirk and I searched for her for months but came up empty. She vanished right out of thin air and I exhausted all my resources looking for her. I gave up hope and wrote her off as missing or worse. It was easier that way just forgetting so I became more and more engrossed in my work and then you found me—the way I was. You probably know more than I do at this point. The last thing I ever remember is riding in a limousine to Rayson from the airport in California.”

  “I am bringing up files now Ray. It is probably when they made the switch. What about your wife Ray what do you remember about her acquaintances or friendships?”

  “Well she was a great mother and a good wife. She didn’t deserve to die the way she did. She was a gentle soul and put up with my obsessive personality for as long as she could. We separated for a couple of years when Dreama was—oh maybe—one or two. As far as friends go, I don’t think she had many close friends. Why do you ask about her?”

  “I am piecing together your past history. Rayson, Dreama, your wife. Some of these pieces fit correctly and some do not. Something is missing. Is there anything you are intentionally not telling me?”

  “No not that I am aware of Petra. I have no reason not to tell you my history. My life is an open book. What part doesn’t fit?”

  “Dreama.”

  “Yes, well I can see how that doesn’t fit or make sense to anyone.” Ray bowed his head staring blindly at the floor over the back of the chair. “There’s been something I have wanted to say to you for a while now, since you’ve been awake. I think now is as good a time as any to tell you.”

  “Yes Ray?”

  He lifted his head back up and stared at her “No one knows this but Jackie. I talked to you quite a bit while you were in your tank over the summer as I did with Carnise, my wife, when she was sick.”

  Petra slowly pivoted her head and looked straight at him. He was studying her like a kid preparing a school science project that was due on Monday. She was stoic and perfect, grown from a fusion of determination, perseverance, and science. She was flawless and exquisite. He looked at her as if she were the stuff of dreams.

  “I think that you’re the most important person on the planet right now Petra and I am amazed and awed that you exist at all. Your genetic makeup and programming is, to say the least, astonishing. You are a great example of an ideology that works. You are hope. I am merely stating that, as a man of science, you are the most amazing and astonishing person I have ever had the pleasure of personally knowing, of interacting with.”

  “I would say “thank you” Ray but I know you are not finished and are going to explain yourself further.”

  “Yes, yes I am going to explain. You are the next step in our evolution Petra. You are the answer that man has been looking for since we were able to stand, think, and speak. You are a perfect meld of man, or woman I should say, and technology. You are an unblemished culmination of biology and programming and are the perfect creation in every way. Ever since there have been machines we have tried to become closer to them and we design them to function and imitate us. Some would say that concept or belief is ridiculous. Look at everything we use on a daily basis. Our Cruisers, our Carriers, our homes, our bots, and our lives all rely upon and intersect with technology of some type. It is our way of life and it seduces us and pulls us into its grasp. There is no escaping it anymore. I don’t care how much anyone tries to fall off the grid, technology is our master, and we have become its slaves.”

  “On a philosophical level Ray this thinking is not new and should come as a surprise to no one.”

  “Yes Petra that’s just it. It has always been easier to dismiss the fact that the technology that make us better and improves us can also be destroying us in the end. Do we ever really stop to think about how our daily lives have ever-changing technology that performs and functions just like us? Without it, we would come to a halt. It consumes humanity Petra but you are now a part of it and you are consuming it.”

  “Yes I am Ray and it is just a normal function of my everyday existence.”

  “How does it feel to bond on that level? To bond with something that sometimes irritates us humans until we can no longer stand it. There are times I want to run away from it and just forget about it forever. Can you shut it off or does it drive you crazy?”

  “No Ray I cannot shut it off completely. I would cease to exist. Terprise is always in the background monitoring my vitals but my algorithmic processing is not unlike a machine’s program. The part of my brain that would normally feel pain, remorse, guilt, pleasure, or confusion bypassed with subroutines that incorporate logic as simple as Boolean, Deductive and Predicate. The programmers have replaced those feelings with memory blockers through processors, computation, and mathematics that reside in argon. That is my primary logical thought coding. I process variable inputs from my environment through Terprise then deduce outcomes in fractions of atomic gas particles and core light waves. My algorithms cannot be recorded on any known manmade scale. Terprise masks the part of my brain that is normally used for fear in humans to provide adrenalin for agility, strength, and speed in unwarranted situations. The Thalamus and Amygdalae centers of my brain responsible for fear inputs and crisis outputs have been removed. Terprise is responsible for providing me with the best logical output to any situation. I do not have to think about how I feel anymore. Humans would say I am analytical and critical to a fault. I can adapt to my own programming structure if needed. I am also my own philosophical contradiction.”

  Ray Nelson was so intrigued with Petra he could not think of a single solitary place he would want to be at any time in his life other than with her right now. “My God Petra you are the most amazing person man has ever known. You are by no means a contradiction though! Did we as humans contradict machine invention, the automobile, or—space travel? No! Well at first, but eventually we embraced these things and we make them our own. We fall in love with the things we invent as humans because it takes so long to make it a reality and it makes us better. It is our dreams and our love of inventing that made us who we ar
e today. Without the satisfaction or the need to invent and further evolve, we would still be huddled around a campfire throwing rocks at each other. I embrace you because I know you are a part of me and I would not be here right now in this room without you. We scientists have a moniker we call ‘creative destruction’.”

  “Yes I am familiar with the term Ray.”

  “In order for us to advance technologically as a civilization we must destroy what we have created and leave it in the past. As we improve our present technology, we must leave inventions and dreams behind that we no longer need. We must destroy what no longer can assist or advance us. The two of us in fact made each other what we are today because of this past. One day my technology and all of this will be obsolete.” He raised his hands in the air as a preacher would to his congregation.

  “That assumption is correct Ray. That is its own paradox. I would not have found you in Cryofreeze if you had not produced the technology to provide me with a second life. The conspiracy to overthrow the government also pointed me towards your direction so Dreama might also be a part of this paradox.”

  “Yes Petra. That subject has been bothering me a lot lately. Dreama never leaves my thoughts and I hope and pray that she is not a willing participant in all of this. Just the thought of her Pseudosynth being older gives me hope. I now have an image in my mind of how she could look.”

  “The only files we have are on the Pseudosynth Dreama’s images so I am as much in the dark as you are Ray.”

  “Well anyway Petra, I can’t begin to tell you how much I admire you. Thank you for all you have done for all of us. Even before your unfortunate circumstances in Khost when you volunteered for the Army. It means a lot to me.”

  “You never have to thank me Ray. You have provided me with a means to an end. Your work on AA5C39 and COZAP is, in a word, remarkable and it will assist me greatly in the future. I am, after all, merely a vessel, a chameleon, a patriot…a War Machine and nothing else.”