The Cupel Recruits (17 page)

As they moved through the valley, all frequently scanned the higher ground, almost in a paranoid way-eyes darting left and right, round and round, looking for the threat that might appear and wipe them out. After twenty minutes or so, they neared the other side of the clearing when suddenly a flare went up back at camp.

“Jesus! How could they be to camp already?” Lance exclaimed with his Texas twang. This was, however, exactly the pace Brett had predicted and he was internally grateful they would be out of the clearing, and out of sight, before the rebels reached the starting point at the other side. If they saw them in open terrain, it would be easy to follow them and there was no way to outpace them, unless the rebel force didn’t follow their path directly, but had to at least look for it a bit first.

As the first of the evacuees reached the far edge of the forest, they reassembled into a line to fit within the path toward the river. This path wasn’t wide enough for two lines, so they were instructed they would need to start moving double-time at this point. Three soldiers in front set the pace and the whole line followed. The remaining soldiers gathered branches and ground cover to cover their tracks. Lela lingered back to help, but when Brett noticed he marched straight to her.

“Lela! They need you up front! You’re the one who knows where this cavern is,” he scolded.

“I told them, go to the river, hang a left, not complicated from here,” she replied.

“You said you covered it well. We can’t risk it. Please.” His eyes pleaded with her. He had too much to think about to deal with her stubbornness right now. Why couldn’t she realize her obstinacy was her greatest drawback? Lela agreed and disappeared into the brush to catch up with the camp. She reached them easily and made her way toward the front. Miller ran pointe and when she arrived, she passed him up.

“Ma’am, please stay behind the armed detail,” he instructed.

“Brett told me you needed me to be up front. You guys should make up your mind.”

“He meant the front of them,” he nodded toward the line of evacuees, “not in front of us.” He affirmed this with slight amusement at the absurdity of this small, unarmed woman running pointe. One of the older people fell to the ground, obviously straining under the pressure of the double-time pace. Miller judged that they could afford to slow for a bit, and reduced the pace. They couldn’t stop, but it gave everyone a chance to catch their breath.

Brett and his team completed the ground cover and darted off into the jungle. Knowing they didn’t have to stick to the path as the others did, they began a diagonal course through the thick to intercept their group and be there when they arrived at the river. There might be trouble there if any of the rebels did know about the cavern, and they all knew they needed to be ready to fight. The five deftly made their way through the foliage. At this rate, they would catch the group easily. Speed turned out to be their enemy, though. They raced through the trees and around a puddle area when suddenly the first in the group, Kye, descended straight into a vat of quicksand. Instinctively, Kye outstretched his arms sideways to brake his body. The four behind him stopped short immediately and stepped back slightly from the menacing edges of the vat.

Kye knew well enough not to move too much, or to struggle, lest his descent be hastened by his actions. He breathed evenly and shallowly as Brett retrieved a strong branch from nearby. He leaned over extending the branch across the pit for Kye to hold onto. Next, Brett grabbed a second branch to assist pulling Kye out.

“You’re not batting a thousand today, man,” he said to Kye in a calming tone as he extended the branch to him. Kye did not speak, but upturned the corners of his mouth slightly in an appreciative grimace. He knew, as any trained person would, that his team could not simply pull him straight from the mixture. It was too heavy for that. Instead, he slowly leaned his weight forward in an effort to flatten himself out, as one does when swimming. He used the branch and a newfound hold on the firm edge of ground to slowly and steadily pull himself forward, maneuvering his legs closer to the surface as his angle became less than perpendicular, less than 45 degrees, then closer to 30. It was at this point that he nodded to Brett as the team pulled the branch forward as he held tightly, clawing the firm ground with his other hand and crawling his legs like a gecko until he was free from the pit. His heartbeat returned to normal as he righted himself. His pack was gone, a small price to pay to the jungle.

“That’s two,” Brett said as they moved out. Kye remained silent, but ran in last position. They reached the team shortly thereafter, who had resumed a double-time pace. Brett noticed first how tired they looked. Some were wheezing and clearly struggling to keep up. Almost all were limping. Brett was immediately struck by their lack of fitness. He wasn’t used to civilians in this context and was secretly appalled. The group reached the river and saw the canyon side. The mineral vein was clear back several feet from the river’s edge, but Lela had done an excellent job covering the entrance to the cavern. It was so well-concealed that, even in looking for it, Lela had to point out where it was specifically.

She pulled back the coverage and people began filing into the crevice. Brett and his team secured the area and covered their tracks around the trail and the riverside. Two men posted atop the cliff face hid as the first to take guard duty. The elevation provided excellent visibility, but the rocks hid them from approaching rebels.

Inside the cavern, the camp members were amazed at the sparkling beauty of the mineral-covered cavern. Mako smiled as he sat on his one plastic container, which he had elected to carry all the way from camp. Tina handed out provisions and began tending to minor wounds of the others. Moods were so elevated so quickly by having arrived that the noise level rose. Kye, who had entered the cavern to take a headcount, lost his count.

“Quiet, everyone!” he instructed, “They’re not far behind us and we still need to maintain silence to stay safe.” His words had their desired immediate, sobering effect and the group was silenced. Rachel managed to busy herself with a task in the vicinity of the young soldier.

“You look a mess,” she commented, staring at the floor and removing water from the extra packs. She tried to look indifferent, but her voice betrayed her.

“I’m fine,” he responded, with no inflection at all. She looked up at Kye, hopeful, searching his face for clues whether he was really in good health. She knew him well enough to realize something was off. He turned, gave her a quick wink, and exited. She smiled very subtly to herself. Lela noticed this exchange, but pretended she did not, since it was clearly intended to be an internal conversation. She strode outside to help gather brush, since she had already found some good sources. The cavern was covered except for the last few palm leaves and just enough space to crawl in.

“It really does look just as well-hidden as before,” she commented as Brett walked up alone. Looking at the rock face, he agreed with her assessment. He stuck his head into the cavern and was stunned to not only see sunlight streaming in unexpectedly from the other side, but the remarkable way it spun the lavender mineral into an array of rebounding dots of light enveloping the locale. He suddenly felt they might really escape detection and be able to get out of this situation without a fight. He jumped back out, picked Lela up and spun her around.

“I can’t believe you found this place!” he exclaimed genuinely.

“I know!” she replied enthusiastically.

“I can’t believe you hid it from everyone,” he added more seriously.

“I know,” she conceded guiltily. After retreating into the cavern and replacing the coverings, the entire group, sans those on guard duty, crouched in silence in the cavern, awaiting the arrival of the rebel forces. Kye hoped to himself that his luck would hold, feeling as if he’d already used more than his fair share in one day. Rachel slept leaning against his shoulder. She awoke suddenly at the sound of voices shouting outside and clutched Kye’s arm reflexively. Everyone remained still.

The recruits had returned to the common area still shocked by the information that the Cupel had sat silently in the corner of their training room all along. Saraceni and Ruth stood in the training room, staring at the lightly glowing orb in contemplative silence for a full minute after they left.

“Aristotle’s coma persists,” Ruth acknowledged, “and he is not replaceable.”

“I know,” Saraceni affirmed. “Should we consider moving him to the main medical facility?”

“We may have to, but the loss of time would be great indeed. I fear it might endanger the mission either way,” Ruth replied.

“He’s your son-Do you fear for his life?”

“Of course, but the fate of us all rests in the mission. If it’s the entire Dryan vs. my son, of course the decision is clear,” she responded coolly. After a moment she reflected, “Though I hope it does not come to that.” She walked to the window, weighing the variables before them.

“I’ve never seen the medical team struggle with something so basic as a coma before. Did he mention anything before he left for this lifecycle as Governor Jacob, anything off with his calibrations or his geodesics?” Saraceni queried.

“No,” Ruth confirmed, “but I highly suspect it is the decoherence causing the problem, so that wouldn’t have shown up that long ago. That’s 42 years in The Cupel. Symptoms began recently.” Ruth pulled up the master display and began double-checking the decoherence calculations from the last project team meeting. They were correct. It appeared they had slightly over two weeks remaining, which meant the mission should commence in one week. A decision had to be made.

“I have a strong feeling he’ll emerge tomorrow. I dreamt it,” Ruth advised. Saraceni nodded at the potential good news. Circle 20’s were rarely inaccurate in their dream-visions, but where they were, it was attributed to being too close to the subject, so the fact that Aristotle was Ruth’s son potentially corrupted her view.

“We’ll give it until end of day tomorrow, and if he doesn’t emerge, we will have to transport him to the main facility and continue the test runs without him to assess the impact. I just hope the biocentric release will still run with a lesser number of them,” Ruth declared emphatically, returning to her usual demeanor. Saraceni nodded encouragingly, but looked down at the soft brown leather of his shoe. Repeated projective tests over the last year had demonstrated the release would not run without all 10 of Molior. They were selected, and some of the younger ones designed, just to provide the combination necessary. Any deviation would not execute the lock and key model they’d built to open it, he thought to himself. Since the outcome would not change, however, he did not share his thoughts with Ruth. She knew this already and she couldn’t force George out of the coma, of course. They would just have to wait and see.

******************************************************************

Back in the training room, the group looked at Kyle as if an alien had landed.

“It’s still me, guys; I just didn’t have my memory before. It’s not like I intentionally deceived you. I didn’t know myself.” Kyle swiped his hair behind his ear, but his easy grin and carefree posture were gone. He seemed more intense, more measured, more thoughtful. As if he had aged overnight.

“Great, we started with a 16 year old who was like a 24 year old, and now we’ve got a 16 year old who’s like 40.” Juliet rolled her eyes and pressed her lips tightly together as she pulled on her red ponytail.

“More like a few hundred years old,” Enam corrected. Kyle decided to be forthright, though he could have deflected.

“Our time is not the same as yours, I mean --as in The Cupel. So, more like aeons,” Kyle confided.

“How long’s an aeon again?” Jack quipped.

“Old as dirt,” Chandra said, her Atlanta drawl rolling the southern phrase off her tongue like notes from an instrument.

“So, you were alive when the Earth, I mean The Cupel, was created?” Gabriel asked Kyle directly.

“Yes. George and I were on the original project teams that created the quantum computer and programmed the Cupel,” Kyle explained. He sat alone in a chair as the others sat on the two semicircular sofas to his left and right. The sofas were white. His chair was black. The sofas were soft, luxurious fabric. Kyle’s chair was hard wood. The room had a feeling of a trial, and the irony of that was not lost on the very old young man
.
“Well, it appears we have some time,” Juliet launched, “Why don’t you tell us how the project began? “ The others turned to Kyle expectantly.

“Like Ruth explained, our civilization had nearly destroyed itself. We’d come back from it and entered an enlightened era. The moral degradation and criminality that nearly led to our destruction led to a penal colony. We placed the disruptive thinkers there and prevented them from breeding through painless, chemical sterilization. Within a generation they would all be gone, or so we thought.”

“How did you choose the people to go there? Was it based on them committing a crime?” Chandra asked.

“Initially, yes,” Kyle confirmed, “but later we developed the soul map testing and realized we could sort out those who carried the DNA for disruption, and sent them, too,”

“Sounds unconstitutional,” Jane said.

“Sounds evil,” Chandra added.

“We don’t have the constitution here,” Kyle began slowly,” our body of law is founded on a set of principles around egalitarianism, but not so much a focus on individual freedom as the U.S. Constitution, though that is one school of thought here.”

“So it’s more like communism? Pure communism, I mean, though, not Marxism?” Jane’s anthropological brain dug to understand this new society within which she found herself.

“It’s just totally different. It doesn’t really translate. If you combined all the political systems you know, you would get the result. You are asking me to determine which is more important-the note, the musician, the composition, or the instruments? The symphony is the goal so asking to choose between these things is an impossibility.”

“But you did,” Juliet added, “choose, I mean. You chose to get rid of the so-called disruptive thinkers.”

“Yes, and we’ve enjoyed over a millennium of peace, prosperity and growth because of the choices we made,” Kyle defended.

“So peace trumps someone’s right to live?” she retorted, escalating in volume. Kyle’s tone remained more even.

“Juliet, we did not kill them. We quarantined them and prevented them from reproducing further. Most lived out a perfectly normal life.”

“If they were capable of living out a normal life, then why did they have to be quarantined? “

“It was the only way to be sure. You’re talking about people with a strong tendency to violence-upheaval. We’re talking murder, rape, bombings, making children live in a warzone, intentionally releasing disease and biotoxins-we’re talking evil stuff here.”

“Right, but you didn’t know for sure all those people would behave like that. You chose them based on a predisposition, and that is what I disagree with!”

“C’mon Juliet,” Gabriel interceded. She looked at him in surprise, “Are you really saying if we could ensure peace for a millennium by quarantining a few hundred thousand, you wouldn’t do it?” Gabriel pressed further, “Think of all the suffering, the millions that die in that space of time and the cruelty endured. If you could erase all that for one generation, you wouldn’t do it?” His gaze penetrated hers as if they were siblings. She squinted, considering, then remained silent.

“I know it’s difficult. It was for us, too, but it’s long since done and I do think it yielded more good than bad,” Kyle concluded.

“So no people with the “disruptive thought patterns” still exist?” Mr. Aquila asked.

“Not here.” Kyle answered. Gabriel noticed the measured response and, learning from the communication style used by Saraceni and Ruth, decided his next question.

“Then where are they?” he intensely threw the question at Kyle.

“Well, some escaped into The Cupel, after we constructed it, but I’m jumping ahead,” he responded.

“Well, get there soon, okay?” Gabriel directed. Jack was walking around the room. Enam got a drink from the wet bar area. Jane Grey Windsor settled for some tea and sat next to Chandra on the sofa, handing her a teacup. She accepted it in picture-perfect finishing school style that would have made her mother proud. She tapped her long fingernail against the delicate saucer, creating a gentle dinging noise each time she did.

“Okay,” Kyle continued, “so, while the DTs were all rounded up, our council of elders ruled on a proposal and it was decided that we should take great care not to disrupt our newly-achieved balance. If anything upsets that balance, the system will get out of equilibrium. Some were concerned, however, myself included, that we might implode from the inside societally if we had no avenues for growth, creativity, or expansion. So, we realized we needed a way to test any new ideas and make sure they could be introduced into the system in a way that didn’t disrupt the equilibrium. We needed a test environment.”

“And the petri dish that was our lives was born,” Juliet chimed in.

“Yes, souls were no longer allowed to pass directly into fetuses without screening, implantation, and calibration, so we could control the processes and make sure only the best of the souls were used,” Kyle added.

“That’s playing God,” Chandra reaffirmed her earlier position.

“Chandra,” David Running Wolf was the one to jump in this time. Kyle was grateful. He and Gabriel were expected to be the early adopters and, so far, they were proving that to be true. “Is it playing God to screen aging mothers for the genes related to Down’s Syndrome, Tay Sachs, Sickle Cell, any of the other diseases we can see the genes for? If we can see them, know they will be bad, and have the ability to control it, why not?” he inquired.

“I guess I’m just more comfortable with the clarity that those genes create those diseases. It’s proven. Screening for these soul-genes or whatever they’re called sounds more like moral judgment to me,” Juliet responded.

“I know it can seem that way, when you haven’t fully seen or learned our technology, but it has been just as clearly proven that some of the dark matter DNA in the soul is just as disruptive, just as much a clear clinical anomaly, and the outcomes just as far off of normal and healthy. Have we been wrong so far?” Kyle continued.

“How would we know?” Chandra defended, “Everything has been so secretive, and now you want us to trust you.”

“It wasn’t secretive because we were deceiving you. It was secretive because it had to be. We’ve perfected the assimilation process over a millennia. Can you imagine if we brought you in here the first day and told you all of this? Your minds would be so closed to it and then twice as defensive to learning the new information. We’ve done it. It ends up taking twice as long. Besides, there could be no errors with your class.”

“Why? What makes us so special?” Enam asked.

“We have a special purpose. I can’t advise on that. It must come from Saraceni or Ruth.” Several of the recruits shifted uncomfortably. Juliet was really pulling and twirling at her ponytail by this point.

“More secrets! You’re telling us to trust you and dishing us more secrets in the same breath. That’s it! I’ve had enough,” Juliet snapped. She rose and threw a water bottle across the room. She pressed against the door, which was locked and then began kicking with all her force against the windows, leaving size 7 footprints on the clear surface.

“Juliet, c’mon!” Gabriel tried to reason with her. She really let loose and started kicking twice as hard, with an occasional pounding of her fist. Running Wolf moved closer as if he might grab her from around the waist and restrain her, and he glanced sideways at Gabriel as if seeking permission. Gabriel shook his head, took one step back, and flung both of his hands away from his body emphatically.

“Just let her go,” he said more quietly. Everyone watched as she continued her tirade against the imprisoning walls. After two minutes or so, she fell onto her hands and knees and stared at the floor. Wood had seen this on the monitor and came flying into the room. Juliet did not sob, she just stared at the floor in complete silence, devoid of all energy or even mental capacity to absorb more. She just wanted to go home, back to her ranch with wide open skies and mountain views. She had a brief image of riding her horse across the plain, wind flying through her hair. Suddenly, she had an image of her horse now, smaller than the size of a cell and her shouting after him “Run, Oskadis , Run!” and she started to giggle. Escalating slowly at first and then exponentially, her giggle grew to a full laugh and then hysterics as she began laughing uncontrollably. Wood knelt next to her body, still on all fours, on the ground, but did not touch her.

“That girl’s done lost her mind!” Chandra exclaimed. This struck Juliet even funnier, that out of everyone’s mostly calm, cool reactions over the last weeks that she should somehow be the crazy one for reacting normally. What kind of genetic freaks were these people? It struck her so funny she now rolled onto her back and started howling with laughter, pointing at them-

“Genetic freaks!” she said, pointing and laughing, “Oh, Dr. Frankenstein, I wonder how a quantum computer is built. Oh it’s simple, I just attach these jumper cables to your neck and pow!” she roared. It should’ve been funny. On any other day, it would have been. They’d have all joined in the fun. Not today. Kyle then spoke to Stone as two parents discuss a child as if she isn’t even there.