Sparks of Chaos (4 page)

Rex reacted angrily by saying “Wait, wait, even if we initiate Cheswick now we will be forced to postpone bringing Professor Hauptmann to the island. Plus Tedford has already been programmed to partner with the Professor.”

“Armstrong and I have already discussed it and we don’t see any viable alternative. Allowing an unknown teenaged boy to live on the island without the proper ‘guidance’ could be a potential disaster. If there had been more time to build a supply of BLIs I wouldn’t have to be reassigned to Chase. Now we will just have to postpone the Professor’s induction for a short time while we regroup and adjust to our new situation. I am ready to partner with the boy and ensure that Cheswick will be ready for the Professor,” Tedford stated.

Rising from the couch and beginning to pace, Rex turned suddenly and pointed his finger at both of them “I am already regretting my decision to save that boy. I hate having my plans disrupted. I expect the two of you to support my plans; I don’t like this at all.”

“Sir” Armstrong said to placate him “We are still completing your plans, just being flexible and making the necessary adjustments. It was you who always said that we needed to deal with things as they are, not as we wish them to be.”

“This better be the last complication I deal with because of this boy. I need both of you to control this. Go ahead and proceed, now leave me,” he said dismissing them both.

They quickly left Rex’s quarters and began walking to their rooms. As BLI they required no sleep or even food and thus had no need for bedrooms or kitchens. Their personal space consisted of a work area and meeting spaces. The furnishings and surroundings were comfortable and reflected their individual personalities much like humans. They felt free to create an environment completely suited to their needs as no humans would ever visit their rooms. They had waited until they were alone to discuss their meeting with Rex.

“That did not go as well as we had hoped, he seemed very angry,” Tedford said.

“Quite the contrary, we got exactly what we wanted. Although I’m afraid we will have to get used to him being angry more often. I believe this is only the beginning of the disruption to his plans. We will need to be prepared for this. It is essential that we ramp up the BLI production as quickly as possible. If my projections are correct we are going to need the reinforcements,” Armstrong answered.

“I hope you’re correct about all of this, something about it doesn’t seem quite right,” Tedford stated.

“Trust me; this is the only way for everything to succeed. Now I have to deal with our new friend.” Armstrong said as he went to his desk to call Chase.

Chapter 10

Lying on his bed, Chase waited impatiently for whoever or whatever to get in touch with him. Without a watch he had no real way to determine the passage of time, there were no windows so he didn’t know if it was night or day. He estimated it had been about two hours since his meal and though they said patience was a virtue, it certainly wasn’t one of his. Of course it could be worse, he was safe, comfortable, well fed and it sure beat slowly dying on a small boat.

With nothing to do, he dozed off until he was awakened by a chiming sound and a flashing white band of light that appeared along the top of the walls in the room. A voice came on and said “Please prepare yourself for an important message.” After a few more moments the friendly warning was repeated and then repeated again. 

Suddenly, the far wall which was about ten feet high by thirty feet wide became a crystal clear video screen. A face appeared and called his name. It was a man and he was old, short graying black hair, like fifties or sixties or something, even older than his dad. He asked Chase to come to the couch opposite the wall and sit facing him. With equal parts excitement and trepidation he sat down to get the information he’d been waiting for.

After a pause, the huge face on the wall said “Hello Chase, my name is BLI Armstrong,” he pronounced BLI as a single word that sounded like ‘bl-eye’ and made it sound like a title such as Mr. or Professor.

“Where am I, what is this place?” Chase demanded.

“Patience, patience young man, please allow me to explain. It will go much more smoothly if you allow me the courtesy of speaking. If you prefer, we can stop now and you can sit there a few more days before we try again. Armstrong told him gently but firmly. After Chase nodded his acquiescence, he continued “The answer to where you are, is Surga Island, as to what this place is, that will take a quite a bit longer to explain.  “As I told you in the note, we mean you no harm and you are in no danger.”

“So there are others of you, why am I being held here locked in this room? When can I go home to my family?” Chase interrupted.

“There will be ample opportunity for you to ask questions but that time is not now,” he answered him more decisively this time. “You don’t yet realize it but this certainly is the most important day of your life and you will remember it forever. The story I am about to tell you will sound incredible, even insane, yet everything is true. It would help immensely if you keep your mind open to new possibilities. It may be helpful to provide you with some background information before I start explaining your situation here. Without the background none of this will make any sense.” Pausing for a moment he asked him “This may take a while but I guess you don’t really have any other place to go. Are you ready to begin?”

“I suppose so, I guess I don’t have a choice anyways,” he replied somewhat sourly.

“Then we will begin our story with a brilliant scientist. This scientist is one of mankind’s smartest men; he is eclectic in his pursuit of knowledge in many disciplines of science. Unlike the majority of his peers he chose not to specialize in just one area but instead worked in multiple areas such as; physics, robotics, biology and computers. He was not well known at first and never sought fame.” It had just started and Chase was already starting to fidget in his seat until he heard Armstrong say, “One day he made the most wonderful discovery of all time, a discovery that would change his life along with many others and now including yours.”

As Armstrong peered at Chase intently from the full wall screen, he certainly didn’t appear to be on any type of TV screen that Chase was familiar with. It looked so realistic that it seemed more like a wall had opened up between two rooms. Armstrong continued by saying “This discovery is at the heart of everything, so pay close attention. After many years of research our scientist, let’s refer to him as Mr. King, finally discovered the atomic shift process, a way to change the size and mass of atoms. This discovery could change the world and the life of everyone on the planet.” Staring at the look of befuddlement on Chase’s face, he asked him “Do you not understand the magnitude of what I have just told you?”

Scratching his head, Chase said, “No I don’t get how changing atoms affects everyone and what it has to do with me being your prisoner on this island.”

Showing a quick look of anger and frustration at what he perceived as a lack of intellectual astuteness on the boy’s part, Armstrong continued. “Let me explain it in words you can understand then, everything on Earth is made up of atoms and the discovery meant that he could alter the size and weight of anything and anyone on the planet. Now do you understand?”

“There is no way that could happen; you mean he could make himself into a giant if he wanted?” Chase asked.

“Yes, I imagine that he could if he wanted to but you’re missing the whole point about this. Let me demonstrate it to you. Take a piece of bread from your tray on the table there,” he told him. As you can see it is only an average piece of bread with nothing special to it. Now take a bite of it and then set it back on the plate.” As he watched, the bread shrank to a third of its former size. Picking up the bread, he examined it and saw that his teeth marks appeared as a nibble from a small rodent. At Armstrong’s request he placed it back upon the plate and watched as it changed to four times its original size.

Tasting it, Chase saw that there was no difference from its original and said, “That’s truly amazing.”

“Think of the implications. You could take a small piece of gold or a diamond and make it into a huge piece that was ten, twenty even fifty times larger. The same thing could be done with food. It could end world famine and no one would ever go hungry again. The same would be true of medicine and oil; the world would have a limitless source of power that could essentially be free,” Armstrong explained.

“Wow that is amazing, how come I’ve never heard of this? If he discovered this several years ago why doesn’t everyone know about it? He would be rich and famous and they would have given him a Nobel Prize. That’s not to mention the millions of lives he would save from starvation alone.” Chase stated.

“Even Mr. King had difficulty avoiding the temptation of widespread respect from his scientific peers and the entire population. As a good and careful scientist though, he avoided making his findings public until he could further examine what all the implications of his findings were. Can you think of any reason why he wouldn’t release this discovery to the world? He asked Chase.

“If he kept it secret, he could make billions of dollars by making gold and diamonds and keeping it for himself,” he responded.

“No, greed had absolutely nothing to do with his decision.” Armstrong said exasperated. Think of what would happen if everyone could have as much gold and diamonds as they wanted. Their price would collapse to almost zero and they would be useless as stores of value. Just the effect from gold and oil alone would almost destroy our society as we know it today. Millions of people are employed in the energy business today and the world’s largest companies are involved in oil. Overnight major companies would go bankrupt; millions lose their jobs, countries and entire world regions dependent on oil revenues would collapse and be destabilized. The end of gold reserves would cause currencies to be worthless. The global economy would be in ruins and chaos.”

Stunned by what he heard, Chase replied timidly, “I never even thought of that.”

“Sadly, that’s not even the worst part, the political and social ramifications are even worse. You could miniaturize an army and sneak into any country and change them back to regular size and catch your opponent’s off-guard.  The same thing could be done with a nuclear bomb in the White House or even set loose a hundred foot tall grizzly bear in your enemy’s capital city. Anyone could sneak anywhere, steal anything and it would be the permanent end of privacy and possessions. Our calculations estimated that between one and two billion people would die in the ensuing chaos from unveiling this discovery and civilization would take at least a century before some new form of normal arrived,” Armstrong told him.

Stunned by what he heard, Chase said “I would have hated to be responsible for killing that many people but what does any of this have to do with me?

“I will tell you this, without his discovery, you would be dead right now, that’s how it affects you,” Armstrong told him testily. His first exposure to a teenager was proving the old adage true that with a youth at that age ‘it’s all about me’, he would have to try and be a bit more patient himself.

“I’m sorry; it’s just that this is a lot to absorb at once. My world has been turned upside down and I am being asked to accept all this freaky magical stuff like it’s nothing special. Cut me some slack man.” Chase said rather petulantly.

“If this is too much for you, we can stop now and try again later if you wish. I’m afraid there is quite a bit more to cover and it gets even freakier magical to use your words. There is a well-known quote by a famous science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, which says ‘
Any sufficiently advanced technology is 
indistinguishable
 from magic’
. I assure you that there is no magic involved whatsoever; this is all scientifically based technology. It is important you understand that.

“I don’t know who he is but no, I don’t want you to stop I want to understand what’s happening and sitting here alone will drive me crazy anyways. Go ahead and keep going, I am ready now,” Chase told him as sat up straight and looked at the wall screen intently.

“Don’t worry, once you hear and comprehend the whole story you will understand soon enough how this all affects you. Believe me when I say that it is very important for both of us that we get along, so let’s start off on the right footing,” Armstrong said smiling in an avuncular way to get his trust.

“Okay I’m really willing to try,”

“Good, I will continue then. You were correct when you guessed that Mr. King decided to go ahead and make gold and diamonds for the money but it had nothing to do with greed. He had to do it very carefully so as not to draw any undue attention upon himself from the authorities. Making sure to always pay his taxes and creating a plausible paper trail should he ever be investigated, he began purchasing metal trading and even mining and technology companies to better explain his activities.  Over a short period of years he was able to build a considerably large and legitimate business empire and could focus upon his real intentions.  His focus was never upon business and getting rich. It was simply a means to have the necessary funds to pursue his varied research activities,” Armstrong explained.

“Electronics and computers were a particular point of interest. The ability to make components as small as he wished enabled him to make amazing breakthroughs in computer technology that were light years ahead of other scientists. The more they progressed the farther they pulled ahead and the faster the advances came. He built the world’s greatest computer and electronics research lab and hired the most talented experts. Many of the improvements you’ve seen in smartphones, tablets and the internet are due to the small amount of advances he allowed to be released. It was not by chance that all of these new products have started to appear now. Mr. King even built a secret laboratory to work on his most sensitive and confidential projects.” Armstrong explained to him.

Starting to fidget a bit Chase knew this was important and that he needed to pay attention. What the old dude was saying was mostly interesting, stuff about computers and labs but it was reminding him of sitting in a classroom at university. Unlike Professor Wilkinson’s economic class there wasn’t going to be a test or grades on this but somehow he knew it was crucial to pay attention to what he was explaining. At some point though his mind was starting to wander and like the class lectures all he was hearing was blah, blah, blah computers. It was one of the real reasons he had decided to take a year off to go sailing around the world.