Greenhaus Part 1: A Storm Brews (5 page)

Jasper was already working when Jacob arrived. Jasper had an undeniable love for what he did, it gave his life a sense of purpose and fulfillment, a feeling Jacob and many others in Engineering felt as well. “Looks like you beat me here again old man, do you ever stop?” The days of Jacob’s shyness were over and what little bit of coyness still in him was left on the other side of the whooshing doors, saved for those he didn’t know. He felt at ease on the job site and the jokes were always flowing. His jests were not always taken in kind by Jasper and no reply outside a grumble was returned in Jacob’s direction.

The sky was still dark, and the dull blue glow of the power lines and untamed current flowing above them was the only thing lighting the work area.
Jacob flipped the switch and the long tubular bulbs flickered before coming on, causing grumpy Jasper to shield his eyes.

“
Thought I’d bring a little light into the darkness,” a chipper Jacob said to his co-worker.

“
How about a little warning next time, huh?” Jasper barked, as he often took some time to warm up to the day. That did not stop Jacob from joking around with him, just as his father had done going back to their time as school bunkmates. Only then, Jasper was young and gregarious and often returned the barbs with fervor. Jacob did everything in his power to bring ‘Old Jasper’ back, but so far was unsuccessful.

“
Ok. Tomorrow morning when its dark and the next day and the next, I am gonna turn the lights on some time after I arrive at work. Happy?” Jacob remembered he had to record his time since the sensors at the doorway were disabled and would not read the Embedded Personal Chip (EPC) in his arm. He walked over to the table and picked up the small wand with the circular opening at one end and ran the opening over his arm up to his elbow. A green line flashed across the small touch screen indicating the chip has been read, followed by his personal information, available gredits, and his personal sustainability score. He verified the info before returning to needle Jasper. “Now, is a whole day enough warning for you?”

“
I suppose so,” Jasper flatly replied. “Now that you are officially on the clock earning your gredits, how about you do something besides flipping a light switch?” That was as comedic as Jasper would ever get, but even the slightest joke from him brought laughter from Jacob. “Now get your ass over here and help me release these bundles,” the grumpy elder boomed, indicating the joking was over, at least from Jasper’s side of things

Releasi
ng and then securing materials was the first and last thing to do every shift, in case of an attack from the Outsiders. New St. Louis had not had an attack in years, but the threat was ever present and stories came of attacks in other cities, including a devastating attack on Newer Orleans in recent days. The Rangers knew of nearby camps of Outsiders, but their policy was to leave them alone as long as they kept their distance.

“
Sure thing boss, consider it done.” Jacob mockingly referred to Jasper as boss, though they were nothing more than coworkers, despite the fact that Jasper had him by decades in both age, experience, and seniority. The title meant he had to attend meetings with the higher-ups, but gave him no real power, the work to be done was spelled out for every citizen by the Sustainability Charts.

As the duo undid the straps on the glass and steel and unlocked their tools, they were joined by Virgil Green and Brent Lee Bagwell who wore the same bright orange rubber Nu-Skins as the rest of those
in Engineering.

“
Virgil G and BLB, glad you gentlemen decided to join us. Your materials are unpacked, tools hooked to the air hoses, you need us to affix the glass for you as well?” Jasper had no patent on being the butt of Jacob’s jokes, not even this early in the day.

“
Nah man, we want it done right,” replied Brent Lee as he pulled his long red hair back into a ponytail, part of his daily pre-work routine. “You stick to the easy stuff and let us handle the hard part. This annex will never support life if you bunch of knuckleheads from metal did the glass.”

This brought a chuckle from the dark-skinned Virgil. “
Yeah and just cuz you steelers want to show up early, don’t mean the rest of us have to, so long as we meet daily demand, what the hell does it matter when we get here.” Then he turned to Brent Lee and added, “We might have to build a statue for all the damn martyrs around here.”

“
Ok, I see the ‘glassys’ brought jokes too,” Jacob said, “Now let’s hope you brought the hardhat and lunch pails fellas, we have a lot of steel up there waiting for you.”

The bright blue eyed Virgil closed out comedy hour with one final jape, “
Well with as slow as you guys in metal move, we should be caught up in no time flat.”

The back and forth brought a chorus of laughs fr
om the participants before they got down to work. The jabs were playful in nature and common among the different parts of Engineering, whether it be metalworkers, glassworkers, electrical, or any others present. For now, it was just the three sub-departments of Engineering putting the crown upon the latest annexation. Within a year, the last pane of glass would be set in the floor and a ‘best use study’ would be conducted by the Department of Research and Development to determine how the newest annex would be most efficiently utilized.

More and more workers joined them as the sky began to brighten. Somewhere behind the thick haze on the eastern horizon, the sun was rising. After all the supplies were released, Jasper, Jacob, Virgil and Brent Lee, harnessed u
p and began their ascent. The joking was left on ground floor. When ‘on the beams’, everything was serious. The work required great precision, not to mention balance and focus. Their harnesses would protect them from hitting the ground, but did nothing to prevent them from crashing into the constant flow of materials being raised all around them.

Glassmen began affixing panes on both sides of the beams. They swung back and forth in their harnesses with suction cups strapped to their hands, which they used f
irst to catch and then maneuver themselves around the large panes of glass as they were placed in the proper position by the cranes. Once in place, Virgil and Brent Lee ran a set of long screws, as thick as a human arm, into the predrilled holes of the glass and into the heavy-duty steel beam. After applying a natural sealant they finished the work by capping the holes with specially made glass dowels, pounding them flush with a rubber mallet.

It was not uncommon for the metalworkers to catch some amuseme
nt by watching the ‘glassys’ floating in the air, waving the suction cups frantically and often times futilely as the large panes of glass seemed to try to dodge their best efforts. Once they attached themselves to the glass and it was placed into position, it did not take them long to complete the process.

As Jasper and Jacob waited for more bolts, they watched the glassmen catch another pane. As Brent Lee and Virgil used their suction cup hands to crawl to opposite ends of the forty foot pane, the welder
and boltman struck up a conversation, this one started unusually by Jasper as a tinge of sadness crept into his voice. “You know, me and your dad used to sit here and watch this same process. Well… not
right
here, but on different beams all over New St. Louis. Other Greenhaus’, too.”

“
Was it as funny to watch then as it is now?” asked Jacob.

“
Funny as it ever was,” replied Jasper followed by a rare burst of laughter. He quickly put a cap on the chuckles and the smile left his face. Jacob figured something was wrong as Jasper stared off into the distance.

“
Is everything ok? Did you see something in the hills?” Jacob wondered aloud, as Jasper seemed to be staring past the men at work into the drab nothingness.

“
Nah… it’s just that, well, I don’t see the point of all this sometimes.” There was great hesitation when he spoke and he nervously looked all around him, like he was unsure he should be saying what he was about to say. “Don’t get me wrong, I love building new things. It’s just, the Founding Fathers, the Green Constitution. Is this what they envisioned? And where does it stop?”

Jacob furrowed his brow, as if offended by the question before he proudly stated matter of factly, “
When all can share in the bounty of Mother Earth again, just like the Green Constitution says.”

“
I know what the Constitution says,” snapped Jasper, whose years removed from his schooling clearly had taken the shine off their beloved Green Constitution. “Look around you Jacob, your father saw it, I see it, someday you will too.”

“
See what?” the confused young man asked while he looked all around him as if expecting to see things he didn’t see before.

“
See what’s real. And what’s not,” Jasper retorted as his baby blue eyes nervously jutted back and forth. “See the distractions and learn what
they
are hiding.”

Caught off guard by the direction in which this deep conversation with Jasper was headed, Jacob paused before making a reply. This topic had never been discussed or even hinted at in
all the years Jacob had known Jasper. The odd behavior Jasper was exhibiting made Jacob think he had finally reached the tipping point in life and gone mad, something that happened to many in the ‘Haus. Jacob was intrigued by his words, even if he partially doubted their legitimacy. He crouched down to receive the shipment of bolts as he issued his response, a series of rapid fire questions, somewhat sarcastic in nature, but also to put feelers out to gage Jasper’s credibility. “Distractions? From what? The beautiful scenery? Clean Air? Plentiful food rations? Why would anyone need to be distracted? And from what? By whom? It all just sounds like crazy nonsense.”

Jasper
’s eyes widened and his lips tightened. “It’s not crazy nonsense.” Jasper was walking toward Jacob, his blood boiling, the sound of tools and cranes working filled the background. “The answers to your questions are out there somewhere. I am not sure about where and neither was your father, but we did ask those same questions. It’s what we spent our lives trying to figure out. It’s why we traveled together so much and why I continued to do so after his death. We had our theories and reasons for suspicion, but nothing concrete ever surfaced,” he explained, calming himself as he gave his speech

“
Reasons? Suspicions? Like what, I gotta know,” Jacob laughed. The mention of his father further piqued his interest, but he was still mostly skeptical of Jasper’s statements. Jacob continued to needle him, hoping to get just a shred of evidence.

“
I shouldn’t even be telling you any of this, because I promised I wouldn’t involve you, but it’s time you know what we know. You make the decision to get involved or not. I figure out here is as safe a place as any to do it,” started Jasper, who had been visibly nervous throughout this brief conversation, continuously checking all around them even though they were alone on the beams. “Things are not as they seem Jacob, but I can’t explain it all right now. Me and your father both had similar suspicions and good reasons for why we had them. The main reason for me was the Sustainability Charts, specifically the false demand it creates. For your father, it was the amount of waste around the ‘Haus.”

“
Waste? The Sustainability Charts? We are a zero waste city. The Sustainability Charts show we are at maximum capacity for population and all demand is being met. Been that way for decades. What proof do you have to back this up?” asked Jacob, stunned and offended by the accusations against a system he believed to be perfect.

“
Just a hunch, same as your father had, but add a lifetime of observations to that hunch in my case.” Realizing the last comment could be seen as insensitive Jasper quickly apologized, “Sorry…what I meant was…that…”

Jacob stopped his apology with a simple ha
nd gesture, waving it off as unnecessary before Jasper continued, “As you walk through the ‘Haus, look at all the extra things we don’t need, things that are superfluous to the simple life detailed by our Founding Fathers. The Gardens you lived above, for example, or the other rec areas throughout the ‘Haus. It is a waste of space that could be better utilized into growing farms or residences, further expanding the population. But people are distracted by their beauty and forget that these extraneous amenities are a direct violation of the Constitution and the mottos that hang above all our doors. These things are placed there because
they
are hiding something. We aren’t sure who, whether it’s Planning, Recycling, the Rangers or the higher ups in Engineering or another department, but your father firmly believed this. I think he stumbled on to something in Newer Orleans, in fact I’d bet my life on it. Sadly, he made the same wager and he never got the chance to tell me, but I think he was going to, we were supposed to meet privately, to discuss something, when… well… you know, the harness.” Jasper’s voice trailed off and he did not finish his thought right away.

Jacob did not like talking about his father
’s death so he kept quiet also; hoping Jasper would lead the conversation down a more pleasant road and away from this conspiracy talk, something more amusing in nature, like the talk about the glassmen from just moments earlier. Jasper shifted moods again, looking around nervously, as if he knew someone was watching him and said, “Jacob, what I am about to tell you can never be repeated to your mother, or anyone else for that matter. I don’t believe your father’s harness broke, I think it was cut intentionally,” he paused slightly after stating something Jacob always believed and leaned closer before finishing. “And I’m not a hundred percent certain that he was wearing it when it was cut.”