Sparks of Chaos (7 page)

“The process that you went through has greatly enhanced all your senses including your sense of taste. You will be able to taste a much broader array of flavors in anything you eat. We have experimented with creating new forms and flavors of meat that can be grown, so that we always have a supply of fresh food here and a wider variety of meats and fruits and vegetables to enjoy. Our projections showed us that it would be important to find every way possible to reduce any form of boredom or staleness for those of you who will live forever.”

“I have been meaning to ask you, have you and Armstrong had the biobots process?

“We have, but not the same as you have. There has been some uncertainty among us as to how to explain this to you but I suppose now is as good a time as any. You asked me how many people there are on the island and technically there are only two, yourself and Mr. King.”

Chase stuttered, “I don’t understand, what about you and Armstrong?”

“We are not human in the same way that you are.” Tedford answered.

“
Why does that not surprise me,” Chase responded.

“We are closer to what you would call a robot, although we are much more than that. Mr. King created us as well as all of this,” he said waving his arm to mean the entire island. “We have a metallic based skeleton and our organic outer body is grown around it. Our brains are mostly organic and we have individual personalities and a fully human range of emotions and feelings.”

Chase just stared at him and said “How can that be?”

Reaching down and selecting a palm sized rock from the landscaping, he placed it into Chase’s hand and asked him to squeeze it. When of course he was unable to do anything with it, Tedford took it back from him and squeezed it himself. The rock broke in his hand with a loud crack and he continued to squeeze until it cracked into several pieces. Placing the pieces on the ground, he told him, “I am here to help you and we have a lot of work to do.”

“
Wow, his earlier idea of overpowering the old guys didn’t look very promising any more. Looks can certainly be deceiving, Tedford was far stronger than he could have ever imagined. He cringed at the thought of what would have happened to him if they had gotten into an actual fight. “Remind me to never get you mad at me.”

“You have nothing to be worried about, we are normally quite non-violent”

“I guess that’s good to know.
You have built this enormous place and there are only two of us. When do I get to meet the mysterious Mr. King?” Chase asked.
Trying not too successfully to act nonchalant at this latest discovery.

“We will be discussing all of that with you this evening as there is a rather urgent task we are going to have you begin working on.”

“When am I going to get to see the rest of this island?”

“You will have eternity to explore; right now there is some work to be done. I will see you later this evening to brief you on your work assignments,” Tedford said as he turned and strode to leave the rooftop garden.

After eating, Chase sat and digested his lunch and what he had just learned from Tedford.  Smiling to himself, he thought even if they were some type of robot, they weren’t perfect. Tedford had forgotten to bring him the second sandwich he had asked for.

Chapter 15

Chase sat in what he thought of as his receiving room awaiting Tedford and Armstrong’s arrival. It was what he guessed a nice office would look like, plus it had some cool looking chairs to have a meeting with a few people. There was the ever present wonderful view out of the large windows and he had even decided to put out some snacks for the meeting as well. There was a huge well stocked pantry and kitchen, full of every kind of food imaginable and some not so imaginable. Tedford told him they would send a Tasker over with some dinner for him but he wasn’t sure he was ready for that yet. All in all, he loved his house, why wouldn’t he, it was a mansion.

A bong sounded to let Chase know that his guests, if he wanted to call them that, had arrived. Somehow they knew where he was in his large home and entered. They were dressed as always in the formal looking black suits, while he had on a red shirt and dark brown pants that didn’t require a belt. He was startled though to see that standing next to them was a six foot tall shiny blue, faceless robot. The thing, there was no other way to think of it than that, was completely featureless and its skin looked almost liquid. It was carrying a medium sized box and it went to stand quietly by the wall until it was called upon to do whatever it was here for.

Armstrong started things off by saying “This here is a Tasker; it is a machine and not a living being. There are thousands on the island and they perform a myriad of tasks including the everyday maintenance and chores as well doing all major labor involved in building the physical geography on the island. We brought it with us tonight so that you could begin to at least familiarize yourself with them.”

“Thank you,” he replied.” Would you like something to eat or drink? Oh and what’s in the box?” he asked pointing at the Tasker.

“We don’t ever need to eat or drink,” Tedford explained. “As I explained to you earlier, we have two items that we need to discuss with you. The first is the longer term job that we wish for you to work on here. Your job is to be The Builder. The terraforming of the island’s interior was only just completed. The building that we are sitting in is one of only a few that we have been able to complete. There is a need to step up and manage the entire process. Mr. King has neither the time nor inclination to do this.”

“I have no knowledge of architecture, engineering or design, how am I supposed to do this?” Chase retorted.

“That is not a problem, we have the ability to give you the knowledge you require. The biobots inside your body can be used to implant the needed knowledge directly to your brain. What it cannot do is to change your innate intelligence or to impart skills such as creativity. That is where you come in. You have an opportunity to put your own stamp upon the development of this civilization. Make no mistake about it this is going to be one of the most important developments in human history,” Armstrong explained.

“Look at this place, how can I ever do this?” Chase asked feeling a bit overwhelmed at the thought.

“It is not as difficult as it looks and you don’t have to do them yourself. Mr. King has access to any resources you will need. That includes architects, designers and materials. These homes were built by hired help as working small scale models and then enlarged to what you see here. Your inexperience is an asset as well it helps to have someone not set in their ways with knowing what can’t be done. The rules are all different now; the materials and styles should all be new and non-standard. We want you to manage the whole process without bringing any suspicions as to what we are actually doing here. Mr. King has run things similar to the Manhattan Project. Do you know what that is?” Armstrong asked.

“I may be young but I’m not stupid, the Manhattan Project was the development of the atomic bomb,” Chase said indignantly.

“Correct, so like that project, everyone involved knows only about the small piece they are working on and not the big picture of the whole project,” Armstrong said.

“There’s only two of us here, what do we need more buildings for?” he asked

“Actually that is the main reason we wanted to speak to you. Mr. King has created an entire plan to populate this island and your second job is as The Recruiter. We are going to have additional people here soon enough,” answered Armstrong.

“You mean I can recruit whoever I want to come live on the island?”

“No absolutely not, you will be given a list of very eminent scientists from throughout the entire world. Your first assignment is Dr. Karlheinz Hauptmann and you’re going to Germany,” Armstrong ordered.

“What, I am going where?” Chase said.

“Heidelberg, Germany and you are leaving tomorrow.”

“I am going when?”

“Are you having trouble hearing, or understanding, either way I am concerned for you,” Armstrong said.

 Ignoring him, Chase asked “How am I going to get there? We are in the middle of the ocean and I didn’t see any airports on the island.

“We will cover all of that, now let’s begin the briefing,” Armstrong said matter-of-factly. He removed the food that Chase had set up for them and set them on the floor to use the table as a display. Flicking his wrist, he called up a picture of Heidelberg University. “This university is where our first candidate works; it is one of the oldest in existence having been founded in 1386. It is very strong in the sciences and has produced ten Nobel Prize winners including Dr. Hauptmann. It is located in southwestern Germany near the French border and there are almost 30,000 students.”

Tedford stepped in to call up a video of Dr. Hauptmann and said, “Our potential candidate won his Nobel Prize in Chemistry more than twenty five years ago and it was for this skill that Mr. King wishes to bring him to our island. He is very elderly now and the main reason for the time pressure to recruit him. Using Rex’s ties to the US security services, he has access to certain surveillance operatives who have provided some current information on the Professor.  Unfortunately, the information is quite limited. He didn’t want to raise any suspicions about showing a keen interest in him before he seemingly disappears.”

The first video that Chase watched looked like it had been taken several years ago. It showed him accepting his Nobel Prize in Oslo and he looked to be in his mid to late sixties and that had to be at least twenty five years ago. He was tall and rather gaunt, with slicked back mostly silver hair and a prominent hook nose. It then changed to the next video to see what he assumed was the same man today.  He was walking down a street accompanied by a pretty young girl. He looked much frailer, walking with a cane and the girl assisting him. He was dressed in a suit that was probably forty years out of date and seemed to hang on his bony frame like something made for a much younger man, which he supposed it was.

Armstrong began again by pointing to the display as it shifted to an aerial view of Heidelberg and the University. The city while clearly modern had a distinctive European look with many medieval looking buildings and even some castles. Gesturing to focus the display on the University area, he pointed to a five story structure that was only a few blocks from the school, “This is where the Professor lives. It is a senior housing unit that is used by retired University personnel. His wife died more than twenty years ago and he has no surviving children and as he has outlived most of his contemporaries, he is almost always alone. He does maintain an office at the University and walks there almost every weekday for at least a few hours a day,” He pointed to the office building and warned Chase to pay attention as he would be there tomorrow. “The information we have says that he may be suffering from mild dementia but it is unconfirmed and that the office is much more of a courtesy than for performing much work.”

The questions he had regarding this whole operation were being collected in his head the way a squirrel gathers nuts for the winter. He knew better though than to interrupt the old dudes when they were talking as it tended to make them either angry or sarcastic and he wasn’t a big fan of either of those things. It was smarter to just keep quiet and see where this was going.

“We do not have any pictures or video of the inside of his room at the senior home or of his office,” Armstrong continued. “We believe it will be too difficult to approach him where he lives, as the security is very tight and requires entrance past a receptionist who asks for ID from any visitors and keeps a log of all entries and exits. Our best time to approach him is when he is in his office, as it will be the only time to get him alone.” Bringing up a picture of a young girl he explained “This young woman named Birgit Freund is currently working as his secretary. You are to obtain an appointment with the Professor or somehow convince her to let you see him.”

The girl was very pretty about his age or a little younger with long strawberry blonde hair that he was already imagining smelled like strawberries. She had a light dusting of freckles across her cheeks and nose that he thought looked great on her. If he wasn’t mistaken she was the same girl he had seen in the video walking with the Professor down the street.  He was already looking forward to trying to convince her. He had a feeling this whole project of theirs was going to be much harder than it looked but at least he would get to go to Germany for the first time and probably see some fine frauleins.

The briefing continued with Tedford explaining “That was the background information. It is time for us to review the action portion of this plan. You will arrive there during their early morning tomorrow. You will fit in with the rest of the students and begin to scout out the environment and plan your approach to the Professor. It should take you no more than a few days to find a way to speak with him and move on to the next phase of the plan. You will be given a script to read to the Professor to convince him to accompany you to the island.”  

Finally interrupting him, Chase asked “What if he doesn’t want to go with me?”

“We believe he will come willingly, you can force him if he doesn’t agree. Once he is here, we are very confident that he will wish to stay, if he chooses to return we have a way to return him as we have no wish to make our island a prison. As long as he has not been treated with the biobots we can simply put a memory block in place and return him with no danger to us.”

 “How exactly am I to force him to go?”

Armstrong shut off the display and motioned for the Tasker to approach with the box he still held. Setting the box down it returned to the wall where it stood. Reaching into the box he handed Chase an ordinary backpack. Next out was a small stack of clothing and a pair of tennis shoes that would be useful in blending in with college students. He handed a brown leather wallet directly to Chase that contained a stack of Euro notes, a US driver’s license, passport and credit card in the name of Michael Wagner.