The Jovian Legacy (19 page)

Jack,
Megan and Sobek gave each clone a name, although to identify each
little girl they had to memorise the name alongside their clone
numbers, a number which had painlessly been branded at the top of
each left arm. Thankfully the branding was small and i
nconspicuous
.

F
or
the best part of the first year their large family was a happy one,
with lots of love and laughter and a heap of cuddles every day. The
girls were no trouble to care for, although it appeared quite strange
to see a one-year old baby girl dress herself and brush her own
teeth. The toddlers even knew what to put on and when. Their
bathtime consisted of six at a time, in three large tubs that took up
the entire huge bathroom. The baths would always be run by the house
staff and refilled after each group had finished. The girls would be
in the bath for a maximum of ten minutes each in order to get through
and leave plenty of time for story-telling. Once the lights went out
not a peep out was heard.

Over
the following weeks Sobek became withdrawn, and it seemed to Megan
like she was concerned about something, retiring to her own wing
straight after the girls’ bedtime and without her usual chat
with Megan and Jack. The two were becoming increasingly worried
about her, so decided to tactfully confront her about it. Sobek sat
down and sighed like she was about to release a huge load off her
shoulders.

“I
know it isn’t fair not to keep you informed about what is going
on around here,” she began. “Megan, do you remember when
the alarms went off and I told you about the tropopause layer?”

“Yes,
how could I forget?” she answered. Jack chipped in and asked
what was going on. It was all news to him.

“Sorry,
Jack,” Megan apologised, “I’d meant to explain to
you some time ago, but I thought, was hoping, that the problem had
gone away as the alarms haven’t gone off for ages. Sobek, can
you please tell Jack about the layer?”

Sobek
duly explained to Jack about the tropopause layer and the possibility
of disaster. Jack was flabbergasted as was Megan on Sobek’s
initial explanation.

“Anyway,”
Sobek continued, “as I was about to explain, they have been
having problems with the system again and had a close call last week
when we came fifty-two seconds away from devastation. One of the
scientists was able to rectify the fault, literally within the last
minute.”

“Bloody
hell! What about the girls?” Jack asked, shocked.

“Everyone
could have been annihilated, Jack,” Sobek soberly stated,
“including our girls.”

After
collecting his thoughts, Jack affirmed, “That’s it! We
have to get them out of here. Stuff the Jovian Secret Service and
their selfish greed for power, we’re going to take our girls
home!”

Megan
faced him squarely. “Jack, how? The Lucre Boxes are gone.
There’s no way to travel.”

“There’s
got to be a way,” he asserted, turning to Sobek. “Sobek,
there’s got to be a way, hasn’t there?”

“No,
there isn’t,” she replied flatly, “We are in a dome
five miles across which is guarded at every outlet. You may not
realise it but they keep watch over us all the time.”

“Really?
Twenty-four-seven?” Jack asked, feeling threatened.

Oh
man, they’ve probably seen me do private stuff,
he
thought, a hot flush reddening his cheeks. He quickly turned away.
“Pull yourself together,” he muttered to himself.
Talk
about The Truman Show!

The
two girls were unaware of Jack’s discomfort, as Sobek was
consoling Megan. Jack excused himself and remained in his room for
the rest of the night.

The
next morning he awoke bright and early, even before the baby girls
did, and rose to dress, thinking all the while of a way out of this
place.

“That’s
it!” he said aloud.
All
I need to do is find a computer
.

Not
that he missed it, but it was then and there that it occurred to him
that they hadn’t been provided with a computer, supposedly for
that very reason – to have no contact with the outside.
Neither were they provided with the link phones that everyone on
Jovian possessed. He had to find a computer soon.
Today.

Jack
wolfed down his breakfast and quietly slipped out of the house
without waking anyone. He drove slowly down the drive and out onto
the road, heading off to the laboratory.

He
made up some plausible excuse to the staff as to why he was there,
and made his way into an area that would be the likeliest place for
computers. In fact, they were everywhere; he just hadn’t
noticed them before. They didn’t look the same as his, all
with curved flatscreens, although basically the same design. Jack
keyed in his personal code to reach his own computer at the Thebes
Federation of Science. When he did so he was immediately rejected by
some defence warning. Its message read that if the code number was
re-entered, an alert would appear on all computers that were linked
on the Jovian Secret Service network.

“Shit!”
he said aloud, “I guess they would’ve thought of that.”
He wondered now, how on earth he was going to contact the Government
of Thebes without causing an alert? He had to think of some way of
bypassing it.

Hmm,
I wonder?
He tried out an idea
of instigating a message via his computer back in his home country,
which would, in turn, transmit a message to the computer where he’d
initially been contacted by his parents all that time ago. He typed
nimbly and rapidly, as he didn’t have time to spare, and within
a minute, which seemed like an eternity to Jack as he sat there
expecting the worst, he received an answer.

It
read,
“We are currently
ascertaining your location…..We have instigated an air-rescue
operation.”

“Yes!”
Jack cried out triumphantly. He continued his communication with
Thebes, explaining how they were trapped in a dome that covered the
whole city, and that it shouldn’t be too hard to find from the
air. After a few moments of waiting their reply, he heard the alarms
sound.

Oh
cripes! Of course! The aircraft will interfere with the tropopause
layer,
he comprehended. He
frantically called off the rescue, knowing that everyone would be
dead within a few minutes. He would have to devise some other way of
escaping.

Though now they know our whereabouts
they’ll be on a mission,
Jack told himself,
feeling
pleased with himself.

On
his request the air fleet was called off, and over the next hour was
given instructions as to what to do. He was to collect everyone
together, and that night make their way to the northern end of the
compound.

At
the designated time that evening, Jack, Megan, their twenty-four
charges and Sobek commenced their dangerous journey in the three
utility air vehicles that had earlier been provided for them.

Jack
lead the way in the first AV with eight of the babies secured in
their seats, Megan in the second AV with eight babies, and Sobek at
the rear with the remaining eight babies. They were unable to use
their global positioning system in case it was intercepted by the
Jovian Secret Service, which could have been alerted by this time
that their ‘potential super-powers’ were missing. The
groups had to negotiate thick vegetation alien to their normal
thoroughfare. Their utilities glided quietly deeper into the
foliage, and even though they were in an incredibly dangerous
situation, they couldn’t help but marvel at the highly unusual
and colourful flora. Even in the dark they could see plants of
striking colour, some that gave off a spray of gold dust that
sparkled in the air. A patch of wild flowers looked like they were
from the orchid family, only that the flower heads were the size of
dinner plates, and patterns of dazzling array.

They
heard the alarms sound off again, this time the alarms did not cease.
They feared the worst. Jack led the way out to the clearing and
signalled the others to stop, forming a circle. They gathered their
respective charges up and scrambled out into the night air. Feeling
a chill they made a huddle, not knowing if they were going to be
rescued or disintegrated. Something alerted them to look skyward,
the starry night sky turning grey black, then breaking violently into
an electrical storm. No rain or thunder accompanied the lightning
that struck in a dome-like shape.

“Oh
Heavenly Mother of God!” Sobek screamed. “The tropopause
layer is malfunctioning!” It was the first time Megan had seen
Sobek lose her composure, and it frightened her. The three of them
felt gripped with fear that this was going to be it.

An
oval-shaped aircraft appeared overhead with its lights illuminating
them. The group didn’t know whether or not it was the rescue
aircraft or the Jovian Secret Service. The light blinded them, Jack
barely making out some Egyptian lettering on the side of the
aircraft. He pointed them out to Megan who read and translated them.

“J.I.M.R.O.”
she spelled out. Jack figured it stood for Jovian International
Military Rescue Operations. He grouped everyone tighter together,
the light so bright at this point that the aircraft was impossible to
look at. A flash and an ear-shattering explosion occurred, and an
intense green light enveloped them. Within seconds they were raised
into the aircraft, the vehicle jetting away from the explosions that
caused mass destruction of the compound and its occupants in a matter
of seconds. The huge balls of flame billowed after them at lightning
speed, and for a few scary moments it appeared like the fireballs
were advancing upon them when their aircraft thrust into full power,
barely escaping.

Where
once was the dome-shaped Underworld of the Jovian Secret Service,
there remained a crater in its place, five miles wide.

Jack,
Megan, Sobek and their twenty-four babies were safe and on their way
back to Thebes, back home.

The
rescue team couldn’t believe their eyes; twenty-four babies
with exactly the same faces. And to observe them walking around and
acting in a manner much older than their years simply baffled them.

Sobek
drew quiet. Although her younger brother Timos had been a criminal,
he was still her brother, and once a happy, honest and intelligent
young man. She remembered how they used to share a great deal of
laughter within their family unit. Megan saw her sadness and wrapped
her arms around her, hugging her tight.

Chapter 15

I
t
was hot news enough that the newcomers to Jovian had been rescued
from the Jovian reprobates, but it was even hotter news that they’d
returned with twenty-four babies in tow. Twenty-four clones of
Megan. The girls became celebrities overnight. They were the topic
of the day, and were talked about right throughout the entire world
of Jovian. Jack, however, was very protective of them and made it
clear to the media that they should not be turned into a freak show
but to be accepted as normal citizens, even though they were
prototypes and perhaps had superior intelligence to other children of
their age.

Megan,
Jack, his parents, and Sobek met with the Government of Thebes to
discuss how they would plan a suitable future for the girls.

Jack’s
parents were made legal guardians of the girls, and the large
extended family lived in a twenty-room mansion fully staffed by five
assistants, a chef and general duty staff, so that Jack, Megan, Ben,
Nancy and Sobek were free to enjoy and have fun with their girls,
shaping them into well-behaved, considerate young ladies with
thoughtfulness towards one another. In fact, they never argued and
enjoyed an especially strong bonding with each another.

There
was one exception to Jack and Megan’s happiness, however. The
fact that they were still unable to live as they wished, although
love and affection still prevailed. They reluctantly accepted that
that would have to be enough for them.

Sobek
was an incredibly attractive woman, so there was a certain degree of
anxiety for Megan that Jack would be tempted into a liaison with her.
Sobek, on the other hand, had no attraction whatsoever for Jack, as
he was too young for her and too different from the men she had grown
up with. Besides, to her he had a funny accent.

Ben
and Nancy grew attached to their children. The girls referred to
them as ‘Mummy and Daddy’ and lavished kisses and cuddles
on them.

Jack
eventually returned to his post at the Thebes Federation of Science
and resumed his research programme. He’d found out a great
deal while he’d been away.

Neither
was there ever a dull moment in the Dunlop household, with
interesting things happening every day, new things the girls came out
with. There was the incident when one of the girls, Kamilah, had
picked up and started playing with her laser doodle - a glass screen
that can be written or drawn on with a laser-tipped pen then simply
wiped clean with a slide bar. Kamilah had effortlessly drawn a
picture of a flower with detail that was fit for framing, and with
remarkable speed. The girls never ceased to astonish everyone with
their skills. When Kamilah finished drawing, some of her sisters
gathered around to admire her work. Then it was all on to see who
could do a better picture of a flower in five minutes. Eshe set the
timer and they were off.