Variations on Humanity

by Paul Eslinger

  Long moments later he responded, “Uh… Hi, Rhona, I was busy with something else.”

  “Do you see the vehicle trailing us?”

  “No.”

  Rhona activated the full suite of defensive mechanisms when she heard Keene’s response. Every system came online and information poured into her headset and displays while Keene continued talking. “Dulcis is so busy this morning we dropped coverage when you left town. I’ll try–”

  “They’re here,” Elaine shouted as headlights bored through the rear window.

  Rhona’s intuition proved correct when the oncoming vehicle didn’t swerve around them. Instead, it came so close she could see faces in the mirror. The vehicles weren’t more than three or four feet apart.

  “They’re dropping back,” Elaine shouted again when the light level diminished.

  “They got a good look at us,” Rhona countered, knowing her equipment had picked up the license plate number on the front of the other vehicle. Indeed, it seemed like the other vehicle was slowing. Moments later, they could barely see the headlights through the blowing snow.

  “That was close,” Elaine said in a shaky voice.

  Rhona glanced over and saw sweat gathered on Elaine’s brow. “Relax. This pickup is much more capable than the old dental van.”

  “Sure,” Elaine responded and then swiveled to look at the small display again. “Uh-oh, they’re closing the distance again.”

  Without any hesitation, Rhona’s right hand speared out and tapped on the equipment console. The ambient light level diminished and the swaying motion of the vehicle changed.

  “What did you do?” Elaine exclaimed.

  Rhona didn’t respond as the vehicle behind them continued to accelerate. It didn’t make any move to go around them and then it smashed into the rear of the pickup.

  “Oh–” Elaine’s screech broke off suddenly when she realized they weren’t hurt or hurtling off the road. “What did you do?” she asked again with her eyes so wide the white dominated her face.

  Rhona studied the display as it showed the other vehicle cartwheeling off the road. It came to a sudden halt in a grove of trees and a flare of yellow light blossomed. Her hands shook so hard when she looked forward that she clasped them together in her lap. This was the second time her actions had led to the death of attackers. She didn’t like the feelings it brought.

  She ignored the flood of questions pouring from Elaine’s mouth and took several deep breaths. Finally, Rhona held up one hand for silence. “I activated a force field. The inertial dampers are always active when someone is inside the vehicle. We didn’t even feel the shock while the truck acted like it had just run into a solid mountainside.”

  “Why–why would someone do that?”

  “We are using advanced Abantu technology and a lot of people out there either want it or want to erase it.”

  Elaine took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’m not an adrenaline junkie. Does this kind of happen all of the time?”

  Rhona shivered. “More often than I like, but Laura takes good care of her people.”

  Chapter 12 – Baggage

  The snow stopped just before they turned off of I-80 east of North Platte, Nebraska, and headed south on US 283. There were nine inches of fresh snow on the ground, but snow plows had cleared the road. There weren’t any vehicles within sight on the smaller highway and Rhona leaned back with a sigh of relief. She still didn’t know whether to expect a second attack, but she had tensed up every time another vehicle came close to them. She kept the force field active the entire time.

  Elaine gestured at the joystick. “You haven’t touched that since we … we left that other pickup behind.”

  Rhona nodded. “Self-driving cars are nice when they work right. This model works a lot better than the Google car or the Tesla road models.”

  Elaine patted the cushion with one hand and then leaned back in the comfortable seat. “I’m not an entrepreneur at heart, but it seems like there should be some way to install this control system in human vehicles. Driver error would no longer be a cause of wrecks. Laura could make a lot of money.”

  “You’ll have to ask Laura.” Rhona laughed. “Maybe she’ll put you in charge of manufacturing or marketing the idea.”

  “Hmm.” Elaine thought for a while. “You haven’t really said what I’m going to be doing.”

  “I’m not sure either. Laura asked me to try to recruit you and Diana.”

  “But not Joan and Kelly,” Elaine remarked.

  Rhona nodded. “That’s correct.”

  “Why not?” Elaine demanded.

  Thoughts of the deep insights Elaine had displayed while they spent three weeks together hunting for Keene caused Rhona to respond with a question. “How would you decide if you were searching for good, flexible, people?”

  Elaine stared out the window for a while. Finally, she looked back over at Rhona. “They are on the good side, mostly, but they aren’t very flexible. They had their preferences in the office, and they didn’t welcome suggestions for improving operations.”

  “Flexibility, creativity, and a good nature are important to Laura,” Rhona replied. “They even have developed a psychological index to help them assess people.”

  “What kind of index?”

  “They call it the Karthi Index.” The two women spent a long time discussing the specific index and the ideas behind it.

  Hours later, the AI signaled for attention as they passed through Ness City. Rhona looked at the display and chuckled. “I like ignoring the driving. I told the AI to notify us when we were getting close. We have about 25 miles to go.”

  Elaine nodded. “I’m starting to trust this thing. On a different note, could Keene and Sam help with my suitcases? They’re too big for me to drag very far.”

  Rhona touched her earpiece. “Keene, are you there?”

  His baritone voice responded instantly. “I’m here. We’ve kept tabs on you since you left Rapid City, especially since your little incident.”

  “Did the license plate number I sent you help?”

  “A little,” Keene replied. “It’s one of a small pool of numbers issued to the Air Force for use in intelligence operations. We’ll spend the processing resources to try to track it back to the individual section after you get here.”

  “That figures,” Rhona growled. “Anyway, I have a different request. Elaine brought two gargantuan suitcases with her. Could you and Sam help as luggage boys?”

  Keene chuckled. “Some things never change, do they? Sure, I’ll help. I can use the exercise.”

  “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “You just left Ness City. We’ll meet you in the barn.”

  “Bye,” Rhona said. Dulcis terminated the connection even before Rhona tapped the earpiece.

  The men were waiting in the barn when the women pulled in. Rhona hopped out and hugged Keene fiercely. “I love you,” she whispered in his ear. She barely heard Sam greeting Elaine as her hug shifted so she could kiss Keene. The shivers she had suppressed after the vehicle crash came back for a few moments.

  “Let’s take the luggage and get inside,” Keene gave her another tight squeeze before he pulled back slightly.

  Rhona reluctantly loosened her grip and stepped aside. “The suitcases are in the back,” she said.

  “Oomph,” Sam said when he slid one of them out and lowered it to the ground. “This is heavy.”

  “Everything I own is in those suitcases,” Elaine said and selected the moderately sized one. “I ignored Rhona when she said to pack light.”

  “This thing is just barely lighter than an entire house,” Sam replied with a mock groan.

  The bantering continued while they moved across the gravel driveway and up the paved walk. Keene opened the door and said, “Trixie will meet us undergr
ound to make sure Elaine can get through the facility entrance.”

  “That’s good,” Rhona replied. She gestured at the wide interior stairs. “The lift to the underground facility is down the stairs.”

  They stepped into the lift and descended more than one hundred feet to the tunnel level. Keene opened the door and led the way to an electric cart nosed into a nearby alcove. A charging cord ran from it to electrical equipment on the wall. He grimaced. “It’s only 100 yards to the facility and normally we would walk.”

  Rhona gave a peal of laughter. “What’s the matter? Is the suitcase too heavy?”

  “Right,” Keene responded. “Sam, can you help me lift these things on a cart?”

  They loaded all the luggage on the cart and Sam drove behind them while the others walked. Rhona gestured to the right when the tunnel branched. “We’re almost there.”

  They rounded a gentle curve and approached a featureless wall that looked like limestone. Trixie was waiting at the side of the tunnel. She waved her hand at the flat wall. “Elaine, welcome to Jetmore again. The door requires a retinal scan to open. Please step closer.”

  Elaine glanced at the others and then stepped close to Trixie. “Do I have to look any particular place?”

  Trixie shook her head. “No. The door mechanism is quick, which is nice when you want the door to open when you walk up.”

  Rhona spoke into the slight pause. “The door will respond to active intrusion measures. Although the protection schemes are designed to be nonlethal, it isn’t wise to persist in trying to enter after being denied access.”

  Elaine spun around and looked at Rhona and then at Trixie. “Has anyone been hurt here?”

  Trixie’s face turned ghost white. Her voice came across as a hoarse whisper. “The terrorists who were here during your last visit were persistent and inventive. One supposedly nonlethal protection measure induced cardiac arrest in two individuals. We have changed several protocols since then. Nanda thinks they are nonlethal.”

  “I’m not volunteering to test them,” Elaine responded. “What’s the proper way to get in?”

  “You say the words ‘open friend’ in the Abantu language,” Trixie replied. “The authentication process uses retinal scan information, gross body measurements, electricity from your body, your voice pattern and the specific words.”

  Rhona patted Elaine on the arm. “You’ll start language lessons right away. Abantu is a nice structured language. The word for open is aperi and the word for friend is amicus.”

  Elaine looked at the door and her lips formed the words, “Aperi amicus.” A door immediately opened in the wall where no seam had existed moments before.

  They headed towards the cafeteria rather than the apartment complex. Rhona stood beside Elaine in the impromptu receiving line as Abantu and humans cycled through it. At the end, Elaine shook her head. “I only remember a few of the names.”

  “You’ll learn most of them within a week,” Rhona assured her.

  “Probably,” Elaine responded as Laura moved towards them. Elaine looked at Rhona. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I don’t see any decorations.”

  “Christmas is a human holiday,” Laura said. “Jesus Christ was born here on Earth.”

  “True,” Elaine replied. “But if his teaching was accurate, that shouldn’t make any difference.”

  Laura raised one perfect brown eyebrow. “What teaching is that?”

  “There’s a lot in the Bible, but his claim to be the son of God, without a human father, and the statements Paul made in Colossians that he created the universe and statements in 1 Corinthians 15 that he rose from the dead and he will eventually destroy death come to mind. You Abantu have learned to postpone death, but the grim reaper still wins in the end.”

  “We’ll have to talk more,” Laura responded. “We have studied most human religions. We only surveyed those that worship evil. Samuel was a believer in Christianity.”

  Elaine cocked her head. “Samuel? Did I meet him? There aren’t very many men here.”

  Rhona laughed again. “You got that right, and I already have dibs on Keene. I didn’t mention it before, but Sam and Trixie are engaged.”

  When Laura didn’t respond to the question about Samuel, Elaine picked up the hint and turned towards Rhona. “You’ll have to use that Karthi Index thing to find a few good men.”

  “That is one use for it,” Laura responded.

  “You said Samuel was a believer,” Elaine said as she turned her attention to Laura. “Rhona also told me Nanda said there were nuggets of truth in the Bible.”

  “She was referring to the historical literature,” Laura remarked. She then gestured around the cafeteria. “Do you think we should put up Christmas decorations?”

  “I’m the newcomer here,” Elaine said while looking around. “However, decorations would be nice.”

  “They’ll be up by tomorrow morning,” Laura turned towards the door. “I’ll show you to an apartment. We can house about 200 individuals here, and only about 60 live here. However, there are only a few open apartments. You can have one of them.”

  “You’ll love the apartment,” Rhona said when they arrived at the door. She laughed at the look of amazement on Elaine’s face as Laura demonstrated the ability of the AI to produce furnishings that transformed the cavernous room into comfortable living quarters.

  Laura stepped towards the hall and then turned back towards Elaine. “Did Rhona explain the medical treatment options?”

  “No, but I know you treated Keene and those people with Ebola.”

  “We did, but there are also a number of preventative options.” Laura glanced at Rhona. “She can use the same options you are. Can you explain? I need to run over to the portal and meet someone.”

  “Sure, I’ll explain,” Rhona replied quickly while her mind raced. Why would Laura need to meet someone at the Star Portal? Was it someone from Ceres? Did Laura need approval to implement another one of her multitude of plans?

  “What preventative options?” Elaine asked Rhona as Laura vanished through the door.

  “Leave your stuff here and come on over to my apartment,” Rhona suggested. “I’ll explain when we get there.”

  Elaine paused as they entered the hall. “How do you lock the door?”

  “You don’t,” Rhona replied with a laugh. “There isn’t any theft here.”

  “I like that idea, but what about privacy?”

  “You can ask Dulcis to set a privacy lock. You have to give approval before the door opens.”

  “Okay. How do I talk to this Dulcis?”

  “Dulcis is the facility AI. There are audio pickups–don’t ask me what kind–all through the facility. You saw Laura issue commands in your apartment. Just talk to her.”

  “Her?” Elaine raised one black eyebrow. “Do you mean Dulcis uses female gender?”

  Rhona chuckled. “Why not? Abantu society is ninety-eight percent female.”

  “Who is Samuel? Laura brought up the name but she didn’t want to continue that conversation.”

  “This is my apartment.” Rhona stopped, issued the open command, and then led the way inside. She pointed at a comfortable looking recliner. “Have a seat.”

  Rhona returned to the previous conversation when they both sat, knowing it would provide a good segue into a discussion about preventative medical treatments. “Samuel was Laura’s husband.”

  “I didn’t know she was married.”

  “Abantu males won’t pair with a female that is modified to pass as a human. Laura married a human by the name of Samuel.”

  Elaine looked startled and then she shrugged. “We knew Edgar Brown had an Abantu mistress. After that, the concept of husbands isn’t too farfetched. Can I meet Samuel?”

  “He’s dead.”

  “Ooo… That’s too bad.”

 
; “He died because Laura couldn’t give him advanced medical treatment under their rules of engagement.”

  Elaine leaned forward in the chair. “Yet, she treated Keene. What changed?”

  “The rules of engagement have changed,” Rhona acknowledged. “I’m not sure of all of the ground rules, but at least some medical treatment is now allowed. Not everyone qualifies, for lack of a better term, for the highest level of treatment, but you are now on the select list.”

  “Hmm,” Elaine leaned back. “I was so surprised when I saw Sam I almost stepped on my lower lip. You were so busy snogging Keene you didn’t see me. What happened to Sam? He looks much younger.”

  “He’s been taking the same medical treatment Laura authorized for you.”

  Elaine jumped to her feet and paced back and forth. “He looks as young as I do.”

  “You’ll look young for a long time.”

  “How long?” Elaine whirled around and stared at Rhona. “I know the Abantu live a long time.”

  Rhona paused and thought. She had several suspicions, but not enough facts to make a definitive statement. She shrugged. “Several hundred years is my best guess right now.”

  “Oh.” Elaine plopped back down in the chair. “Could I bring my mother to Jetmore for treatment? She recently developed diabetes.”

  Rhona felt a sense of frustration that she hadn’t already asked Laura that question. She pushed aside the feeling and looked up slightly. “Dulcis, did Laura leave any instructions regarding Elaine’s mother?”

  “She can receive the same treatment level as Elaine and she can also move here.”

  “That’s great,” Rhona responded. She saw relief cross Elaine’s face and decided to ask the next obvious question. “You’ve never mentioned your father.”

  A flush moved up Elaine’s cheeks. “He got the church secretary pregnant and then ran off with her when I was twelve. I haven’t seen him since then and I recently heard he was dead.”

  Rhona shuddered. “I’m sorry.”

  “That’s life,” Elaine responded. “I hope to someday meet a better man.”

  “Wish you luck.” Rhona suppressed her next comment before it crossed her lips. I already found one.