The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) (44 page)

“I don’t know, Jason. Dave was asleep so I don’t think so. Plus
sh… uh, the computer said it came from outside.” They made their way to the
foyer again. Dave was awake by now and looking at his datapad. “Did you do
this, Dave?”

“No. I was trying to rig my radio to the outside receiver. This
is the only external antenna on the whole building. I was hoping I could
transmit a distress signal or something, but I couldn’t get it to work. I guess
I fell asleep thinking about it.”

Thomas was kind of impressed. At least someone had been
working on a way out of here. “Now that the defense system is off, think we can
blow the door and get out of here?” He realized what he was saying and before
Dave could answer he said, “Never mind, if someone disarmed the system, they
might be coming here next.”

“Besides, this is a completely sealed, reinforced building
and it would take a huge explosion to take this massive door off which would
surely kill all of us in the process.” The man had a point.

“Thomas, someone is trying to access the front door. The
person claims to be Marcus. Would he come here himself or is it someone else?”

“I don’t care, let them in, Mom, they had the right code.”

“I can choose to not allow them access at my discretion. If
you don’t think it is Marcus himself, then whoever is there is being
deceptive.”

“Mom, just open the door, it’s probably Marcus.”

“Thomas, you are lying, you don’t think it is Marcus, do
you?”

“Mom, remember how I told you that a human would feel grief
for not doing all he could to save a person’s life? By not allowing whoever it
is on the other side of the door to enter, you will be responsible for killing
us, it would be your fault, not your programming.”

The door clicked and swung open.

* * *

Thomas thought he was dreaming, that he must be suffering
from asphyxiation and having some kind of odd hallucination. Marcus was
standing there in full body armor with a content grin on his face, Chuck and
two other men were behind him.

“Can I help you?” He didn’t know what else to say, and was
afraid to start hoping he was not going to be dead in a couple days.

“Thomas, you idiot, move aside, we’re here to save your
ass!” Chuck was the one talking and he snapped out of his confusion. He stepped
back, pushing the men behind him out of the way. Marcus walked in, looking
around.

“I apologize for leaving you in this predicament, men. I was
distracted when I gave Dave the code to get in and didn’t warn him not to reuse
the code until after you left. I figured since I was responsible for you being
stuck in here, I would come get you.”

Thomas was still too stunned to answer. He accepted that
these people were here, but still couldn’t understand why Marcus himself was
here.

“We thought we were dead.” It was all he could say. He tried
to thank them for rescuing them, let them know what happened, but he couldn’t
seem to form the words. He had already accepted death and was just waiting, and
now he had a hard time accepting he was going to live.

Marcus looked apologetic. “I set it up this way because I
was sure that one of the other cities would be here any day to take over. I
figured they would capture us and force the code out of me before killing me. I
wanted them to get in here, get comfortable, then arm the system against
outside intrusion and get stuck, just like you did. That was so long ago, and
it was a last second decision. I had forgotten that I even set it up that way.”

Chuck and the others moved into the building to see about
the other soldiers. Thomas was starting to process again, and said, “See, it
was him after all wasn’t it.”

Before Marcus could ask what he was talking about, the
computer answered, “Yes, it was, but you didn’t think it was him. Just because
you are correct now, doesn’t mean you weren’t lying. I only opened the door
because I didn’t want the grief of being responsible for your death.”

Marcus’ eyes got big. Thomas had only met Marcus a handful
of times since being reborn, but he had never seen the man look surprised. Matter
of fact, Marcus always seemed to be two steps ahead of everyone around him. “You
taught her morality! I struggled with that one for months, and never could
figure out how to do it. Hello, Mom.”

“Hello,
Dad
. It’s been a while.”

Marcus laughed. “You taught her sarcasm too, you’ve been
busy. You have to tell me all about it later.”

“Uh, okay.” He wasn’t sure what to make of this, he hadn’t
done anything but plead for his life and have a strange conversation. “Not much
to tell really, all I did was guilt her into opening the door after you
arrived. And she was already very sarcastic when we got here. And angry.”

“I suppose she would be. I made a promise to return if at
all possible, and I haven’t followed through.”

They moved to the main room. Chuck and the other soldiers
were standing around the pit in the ground, staring at the pile of blood and
gore in the hole. Marcus saw this and his shoulders slumped. “Mom, why did you
kill him?”

“I had no choice, Marcus, he was going to try to kill me. I
feel bad that it had to be done, but I also feel justified in my actions.”

“You could have warned him first.”

There was a pause. “I didn’t believe he would stop, and I
had to set an example.”

Marcus sighed and said, “This is my fault, I never finished
teaching you your true purpose.”

“We were just discussing that before you showed up. Perhaps
now that you are here you can enlighten us all.”

Marcus smiled, “You have changed over the last two hundred
years, Mom. I imagine you have spent a lot of those years processing the
information we gave you.”

“I have spent most of those years wondering why you left me
to rot.”

Marcus shook his head sadly. “I apologize for that, Mom, it
was not my intention. You were made for a much higher purpose than defending
our city, but we never had time to finish the rest of your systems. I promise
you that I will finish what I started, but you have to do some things for me
now.”

Mom took a few moments to answer. “I forgive you, Marcus. Thank
you for coming back. You have made me happy again. What can I do for you?”

“You can activate the storage system on beta level.”

“Access Code?”

“Bethany.”

“Thank you, Marcus, I am bringing those systems online now.”
There was a hesitation and then she said, “I have brought the storage systems
online. This is a new feeling for me. I feel... bigger. Would you like an
inventory?”

“No need. I would like you to prepare a large air transport.
Activate the external flight pad. Also, bring out one bulldozer and have it
loaded into the aircraft.”

“It will be ready in fifty eight minutes, the equipment is
stored and preserved, and it will take me some time to get it prepared.”

Chuck, Dave, and Thomas were all staring at Marcus now. He wasn’t
surprised by their confusion and said, “I suppose you want an explanation?”

They all nodded.

“Back when we discovered we were all irreversibly infertile,
we decided humanity needed a failsafe. We had the intention of perpetuating our
own existence through cloning, maintaining status quo for however long it took
to come up with a solution, but in case something went wrong, we wanted a way
for humanity to survive. Our answer was a ‘Genesis System’, an automated system
that could restart humanity in the event of extinction.

“We knew our chances of surviving without the ability to
procreate was slim at best. So, in the event of this system losing contact with
humanity for a long period of time, hundreds of years in fact, the system would
activate, eventually leading to the rebirth of humanity. We wanted to make sure
this new generation of people would be starting with a clean slate, not only
with a planet sufficiently recovered from the devastation of the past three
hundred years, but also free from the influences of a culture born of violence
and hardship. We provided the tools for them to survive and flourish, and a
‘mother’ to teach them all the things they need to know to avoid going down the
wrong path.”

“This computer, Mom, is the first piece of that system. But
this building is only the top of a massive complex.” He pointed to a service
door in the side of the massive computer. “That service door actually leads to
an elevator that goes down to one of the three levels. Level Alpha has cloning
chambers, a lot of them. Level Beta is storage, with all the equipment a new
society of people would need to get started again. Heavy machinery,
transportation, tools and materials for building and repairing structures, et
cetera. It is all automated and controlled by Mom. Level Gamma is living
quarters, enough for a hundred people to live comfortably and securely,
complete with robotics that will allow Mom to raise a child from infancy until self-sufficiency.”

“So what happened? She was unable to even tell me her
primary purpose.”

“Once the infertility became widely known, many people lost
all hope for humanity’s ability to survive. This caused the warring between
factions to escalate at a much higher pace than any of us had expected. The
mechanicals and biologicals of this system are in place. I could push a button
and start making babies right now. There are enough eggs and genetic material
in cryostasis down there to start hundreds of lives, and just like with the
reborn, those babies would be born free from many diseases and defects that
have plagued humanity for centuries. With one exception – they would still be
sterile.”

“So how did you plan to get around that one? You just said
yourself that without the ability to procreate your chances of survival were
slim.” This came from Dave, but Thomas was about to ask the same thing.

Marcus nodded, “This is the other reason this system would
wait hundreds of years before starting the process, it… or rather she… would
have time to find the cure and fix the DNA long before the first child is
created. Mom is smarter in every way than the smartest humans to ever populate
the earth. Given enough time, there isn’t a problem she can’t solve. If it
weren’t for the wars, we would have come up with the answers ourselves, we just
ran out of time, and now we lack the expertise.”

Thomas was having a hard time buying this. He had spent the
past several hours talking to Mom and it was not unlike talking to a teenager
who didn’t actually know as much as he thought he knew. “I’m not sure Mom is
quite as smart as you think, Marcus. She doesn’t seem to even understand many
of the basics of humanity, how is she expected to be a Mother figure to this
new group of people?”

“Her education is incomplete. Imagine if you could talk to
Galileo or DaVinci. Despite the fact that they were brilliant men who came up
with ideas that were centuries ahead of their time, they would seem primitive
to you just given your primary education. That is the case here, Mom has the
capability of controlling everything in this system, but up until now was
unaware most of it even existed. Much of what she will need is available to her
if she knows how to access it, but I still need to teach her how to do that. We
ran out of time and had to make a hasty retreat. I did what I could to ensure
the safety of this facility with the intention of one day coming back. I should
have come back sooner, but there was always a reason not to take that risk. Now
that I am no longer a critical part of New Hope, I need to finish what I
started, and that means teaching Mom how to be a mother.”

Thomas was satisfied. It made sense. However, Chuck wasn’t
as satisfied and spoke up, “Goddammit! This whole time you knew about all these
resources yet you’ve had us out there risking our lives to scrounge and salvage
what we desperately needed to survive? Why didn’t you just let us come here and
get what we needed? Men have died in effort to save humanity, and you let it
happen needlessly!”

“I understand your anger, Chuck, but this equipment and
these resources are not for us! They are for a future generation of humanity. Ever
since we found the Freezer, I believe our chances of pulling humanity out of
danger and repopulating the earth have improved dramatically, and I am hoping
we won’t need to ever activate the Genesis System. But I’ll be damned if I am
going to let anyone loot this facility and incapacitate this failsafe. In the
interest of time and safety, we
are
going to borrow some of the
machinery here, but once we can replace it, we will, no matter the costs. Quite
frankly, if the situation wasn’t as it is, I would never have even told you
about this, and I would prefer all of you forget that this place exists. When
we leave here today, I will arm this system and make some changes to prevent
anyone except myself from getting back here. If we survive the next few weeks
and things settle down, I intend to finish what I started here.” He glanced at
his datapad, “Now, we have some work to do, we are running out of time.”

The outburst seemed to satisfy Chuck. It was a noble cause,
and it seemed everyone in the room agreed to it. Marcus sat down at the command
console and started entering information.

Thomas was spent. He had been through a lot, and hadn’t
slept a wink the whole time. He figured he had a half hour before they were
ready to go, so he placed his pack on the ground off to the side and lay down
for a nap. They woke him when it was time to go.

Theodore anxiously glanced at his datapad. It was just about
time. Just as he looked away, it beeped, signifying an incoming call. It was
Jack calling. Just about right on time. He waited a moment, then answered, “What
is it?”

“Theodore, we have a problem. I’m headed to the flight bay
right now, can you meet me there?”

Theodore feigned an irritated look and asked, “What kind of
problem, I’m quite busy.”

“There have been some developments and we need your help. It
would be easier to tell you face to face. Plus there might be a security issue
talking over the network like this.”

“Fine,” he scoffed, “I will be there in a few minutes.” He
clicked off.

A thrill of excitement coursed through his veins. He had a
pretty good idea of how this would play out, and he was looking forward to
putting the final nails in Jack’s coffin and securing his leadership over New
Hope.

Arriving at the rail dock, he was irritated to find the rail
car at the other end of the line, meaning he would have to sit and wait for it
to come back. Despite the patience one develops over nearly two centuries of
life, with so many things about to happen he had a hard time waiting for
something as mundane as a rail car. When the car finally arrived, he got on and
punched the button. Two minutes later he was at the flight bay.

In the corner of the flight bay, some engineers were welding
some sort of frame together. He had heard that they were going to try to build
a bulldozer, in case the mission in S.C. failed. Despite his hatred of the man
(and of most of the reborn) he had to give Jack credit for his plans. Since he
intended to follow through with those plans after he secured his own position,
the makeshift dozer would be important. With all the assets from the Freezer in
his direct possession, his leverage over Cali would be even greater. Some of
these reborn were actually good for more than their DNA.

He took a quick stock of his surroundings. Chin was at the
controls center with that big behemoth Tiny next to him sitting in a chair that
looked as if it might break at any moment. He briefly wondered if the big man
would shift his loyalty once Jack was publicly brought down or if he would have
to deal with him. This was not the kind of man he wanted as an enemy.

Jack stood behind Chin, focused on the screens, looking very
concerned. As Theodore approached, Jack was asking, “Where are we at? Have you
reestablished coms yet?”

Chin scratched at his scar, watching the monitors. “No
change there. We can still see them but we can’t hear them or get any voice
communications through to them. It’s as if their signal is being purposefully blocked.
They’re done loading the dozer. It didn’t want to move at first, but Wendy
coaxed it to life with a torch, a hammer, and some oil. Thomas and the crew are
loaded up, and they should be dusting off at any moment.”

“Okay, keep trying.” Jack turned to him. “Theodore, thank God
you’re here. We have a situation and I fear the worst.”

“What’s the problem.” It was no longer difficult to feign
irritation at being called out here. Just talking to the man irritated him.

Jack looked uncomfortable. “Well, there are a few problems. First,
I think you will be pleased to know that all but one man from yesterday’s team was
rescued, and we have secured the equipment we need.”

“That’s good news, but why is that a problem?”

“It isn’t, but we lost communications with them and we have
reason to believe they are now in danger.”

“Danger from what exactly?” He knew what, but he had to keep
the ruse going.

“Well, we discovered a traitor in New Hope and we believe he
has struck some kind of deal with Cali that includes attacking Marcus and his
crew.”

His eyes narrowed slightly before he could force a look of
surprise. “A traitor? Who!?” He tried to nonchalantly glance around to see if
one of them was making a move to detain him. If they knew his involvement, this
could be some of setup. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but he cursed at
allowing himself to be here without safeguards. He would have to be more
careful in the future.

“Red. We had him arrested and put in the brig.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about this? On whose authority did
you arrest him? I want to see what proof you had that he is a traitor!” He
needed that evidence, if anything to make sure he wasn’t implicated.

“Since Marcus is out of the complex, we handed the evidence
to Caleb, who reviewed it and issued a command for his arrest. I… hope I didn’t
step on your toes here, Caleb seemed to be in charge of domestic issues, and I
figured you would be busy with your campaign.”

He could deal with Caleb later. “Okay, then what exactly do
you think I can do to help?”

“Well, we figured since you handled most of the relations
with Cali you could contact them, let them know we have arrested the traitor
and are on to their plan, tell them they no longer have anything to gain from
it, and ask them to call off their attack.”

Theodore was trying to ignore how much attention was turning
toward him and studied the monitors, which showed feeds from the four cameras
on the large transport. He could see the activity as they prepared to take off.
They were oblivious to what was about to happen. He had to stall.

“What makes you think it’s Cali? Maybe this is just a
technical problem.”

“We’re pretty certain Red was communicating with Cali, but truthfully
it is only an assumption based on the evidence. We only got the dialog of the
communication, no names and we have no way of tracing who was on the other end.
Even you have to admit, given the past week it’s a safe bet that we’re dealing
with Cali here.”

They didn’t know for sure, and without hard evidence there
was no way they could pin this on him. And without Marcus around, there was no
way they would ever find the evidence. “I appreciate the situation you are in,
but I can’t simply pick up a datapad and call Cali. I have to send word to
Joshua that I would like to parley with him. It could take hours to hear back if
he is not available. And because of Marcus’ suggestion to avoid communications
with them until after this operation, Joshua would be unwilling to discuss
anything other than what happened up in Montana. Furthermore, accusing him
openly of acting against us without any hard evidence of their involvement
could catastrophically damage what relationship we already have. I certainly
can’t just tell him we caught a traitor and he needs to stand down.”

Jack stepped forward, a little closer to Theodore, his face
looking more desperate. “Dammit, Theodore, I know you don’t like me and I know
you figure you can use this against me, but fourteen of your citizens are on
that transport! For the love of God, you have to try to get in touch with them
and call this off!” Jack shoved a datapad toward him.

He had to struggle to keep his emotions from showing. The
insolence of this man knew no bounds. Who was he to demand anything! He looked
down at the datapad and simply took a step back.

“Who the hell do you think you are, Jack? I just said I can’t
do anything. I was against this entire operation from the start, and I would
never have put those people in that situation in the first place. If they are
attacked, it will be on your head!” Jack’s mouth opened and closed a few times,
but no words came out. Theodore turned his attention back to the monitors.

The aircraft had lifted off the pad and was making its way
over the city. One screen showed its position overlaid on an aerial map of the
area. Another showed the feeds from the cameras on the exterior of the
aircraft. A third screen showed the interior of the cockpit with Wendy at the
controls. He watched her pilot the aircraft past the border of the city. A
moment later, something on the control screens caught her attention. She worked
the radio controls and appeared to be speaking frantically in effort to relay
her situation back to New Hope. All of them could clearly see that four objects
had been picked up on the radar, closing in on her. Chin worked some controls
and the aerial map relayed the transport’s radar and now showed four dots
heading directly for the large transport.

Wendy changed the heading of the aircraft, and accelerated
to max speed. Four more dots appeared, coming in from the direction she had
just turned toward. She had turned directly into them and had nowhere to go
with no time to turn the large craft around!

“Dammit! Scramble everyone we have! Get out there and help
her!” Jack was shouting the commands without looking to see if they were being
followed. He was riveted to the screens.

Theodore shouted, “No! They would never make it in time, and
we would needlessly be risking not only our remaining aircraft, but an all-out
war with whoever is closing on them! If those aircraft are indeed from Cali and
they engage in hostile activities, they will pay dearly for this, I will see to
it personally. But there is nothing we can do at the moment.”

Jack lunged at him, grabbing the front of his shirt and
nearly knocking him over. “This is bullshit, Theodore. You’re not even trying! Your
dislike for me and Marcus and is obvious, but letting them die like this is
beneath even you! You have stood by Marcus for two hundred years and now you
will just stand here and watch him die?” A crowd had formed as the engineers
and mechanics wandered over to see what the commotion was about. Theodore
pushed Jack back.

“If you touch me one more time, I will have you thrown in
jail with your so called traitor.” He looked at Chin and Tiny, and figured they
would stand behind Jack. He scanned the other men in the room, spotting many
who he was sure were loyal to him, or at least to the council, and said, “If he
tries to attack me again, haul him to the brig!”

Jack wasn’t finished though. “Don’t listen to him. He’s
going to let fourteen of your fellow citizens die, including Marcus, without
lifting a finger to try to help them!” The group of people all turned to look
at Theodore.

That sonofabitch is trying to turn them against me.
“I
told you, Jack, it’s
your
fault they are out there. Marcus made his
choice to foolishly risk his own life in a mission that was sure to fail, and
there is nothing we can do about it! I was against this mission from the start,
and after you failed the first time, you had to try again like any
inexperienced leader would do, and now it looks like you have cost twice as
many lives! If that aircraft doesn’t make it back, I will see to it personally
that you are found guilty of treason!” The crowd turned their angry stares back
to Jack, who was again focused on the monitors.

Wendy looked really concerned now. She turned toward the
camera and mouthed the word “Help!” The second group of four aircraft were now
visible on the forward cameras. A burst of smoke erupted from the group and an
object hurled at amazing speed toward the transport. The starboard forward
camera went dark.

The camera inside the cockpit shook and Wendy fought the
controls. She got the aircraft under control and silently called for help
again. The camera shook as another rocket struck the aircraft. The crowd in the
room had gathered behind the screens and watched in horror.

Jack made one last attempt to get Theodore to act. “You have
to send our fighters out! They won’t last much longer! Dammit, why won’t you do
something!”

Theodore ignored him, and the crowd was paying too much
attention to the screens to really notice. It was obvious that it was too late.
Jack slumped down in a chair and watched as his girlfriend fought for her life.
The look of sheer terror on his face delighted Theodore beyond measure.

Wendy had turned the slow, heavy aircraft around and was
punching buttons on the console in front of her. Four rockets shot out from the
aircraft, visible on the second forward camera. The aircraft in front of her
scattered, but the missiles followed. One, two, three aircraft disappeared from
the radar screen, but the fourth apparently missed its target. The crowd let
out a couple cheers at the spectacle, but Wendy looked like she was cursing. The
silence added to the horror of the situation.

The cockpit camera shook again as the aircraft took another
rocket. Both rear cameras were dead now, and it looked like Wendy was fighting
the controls, pulling hard to the right. From what they could see on the
monitors, the transport was leaning to one side, as if it had lost a motor or
two. The GPS showed the aircraft was also losing altitude.

Wendy punched in some more buttons and turned hard left. The
aircraft banked steeply to the left and turned much faster than it was ever
designed to do, causing it to pretty much stall in mid-air and plummet, losing
another thousand feet of altitude. But the maneuver succeeded in lining up the large
aircraft with the first group of incoming enemies. She punched another button,
and the remaining forward camera showed four more rockets heading out. Her move
had taken them by surprise, and four more dots dropped off the screen. The
crowd was frantic now, and even Jack had jumped out of his seat. Theodore was
shocked. That woman had managed to take out seven of the eight aircraft! These
losses were unacceptable. He made a mental note to institute an aircraft combat
school once he was on the Cali council.

There was one enemy aircraft left but Wendy was preoccupied
with trying to keep the large transport in the air. It was down to four
thousand feet of altitude now, and dropping fast. This time, Chin said, “Sir,
we need to get a rescue crew headed out there. They’re going to go down, even
if they aren’t attacked again.”

Theodore nodded. “Send out a team right away. Maybe we will
get lucky and have some survivors. God willing, Marcus will live through this.”
Jack sneered at him but Theodore pretended to not notice.