The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1) (7 page)

* * *

“So,” Teague started off, “shall I continue where I left off
last night?”

“Please” Jack said. There was little question in his mind
that everything he had been told so far was true. Up until seeing his face in
the mirror, he had doubts, reservations, and a desire to look for some other
answer that made more sense, something that would put him back in the world he
came from. So despite the fact that he had not had the time to process how he
really felt about everything, he found himself eager to learn more.

“Okay, I will jump right in then.” Teague stood up and
started pacing again. “We left off talking about cloning.” He paused long
enough to see Jack nod in acknowledgement. “So, up until about the year 2012,
there were scientists around the world who had no reservations about attempting
all sorts of cloning experiments with humans.”

Jack shifted uncomfortably in his seat, not sure if the
sudden anxiety brought on by the subject was because of his hunger for more
information or if it had to do with the sketchy nature of human testing. Teague
went on, “At first they created test tube zygotes, er... fertilized eggs that
had split a few times,” another pause to confirm he wasn’t talking too far
above Jack’s understanding, “and genetically altered them, planted them in the
womb, and waited to see the results. Some experiments were a success, and some,
well some were not. After a few years, one group was successful in cloning a
human. They were able to remove the DNA from the zygote, replace it with
complete DNA from a living person, and after nine months, a baby was born.”

“Is that what you did? Grow me inside a test tube then
inject me into a woman? Then where have I been growing for the past twenty five
years?” Jack interrupted. He knew from Wendy that somehow they sped this up,
but he wanted details. It was his nature, probably from his teenage years in
the orphanage where the nuns would always tell him that the Devil was in the
details. Of course they were referring to his confessions, not experimenting on
cloning, but ever since that part of his life he’d figured out that the details
were usually where the most important information resided.

Teague didn’t hesitate long. “I’m guessing you had a visitor
last night?” The room felt suddenly warmer. The doctor stopped pacing, waiting
for an answer.

Jack was a little embarrassed, and a little hesitant to
explain the previous night. “I uh… I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but a
woman came into my room last night. She um… enlightened me to the age of my
body.” He was not sure how much he should say. If there was some kind of social
protocol she had broken, he didn’t want to be party to any trouble it might
cause her, particularly given the circumstances.

Amusement was plain on Teague’s face. “Oh don’t look so
embarrassed Jack. It is practically a custom these days that one of the women ‘enlightens’
the men on the first night.” Teague started chuckling then shook his head
thoughtfully. “Some of the men have even tried it on the women but the results
are… less predictable.” This was clearly an inside joke and Jack wasn’t exactly
sure what to make of it, and he was more concerned about the nature of last
night’s visit to really consider what that meant. “Did you get a name by
chance?”

Jack’s hesitation was not lost on the doctor. “Oh, don’t
worry, whatever happened last night is very acceptable, even encouraged around
here. If you don’t want to say, you don’t have to, we will figure it out soon
enough.”

Another hesitation and Jack spilled it. “Wendy, her name is
Wendy.” He picked up his glass of water as if signaling that it was time to
move on to another conversation, but kept a close eye on Teague’s reaction,
hoping he hadn’t really screwed up.

The look of surprise was not what he was expecting. “Really.”
It was not a question, more like a statement. “Hmph.” The doctor seemed to be
putting something together in his head. He shook it and shrugged, then in
explanation said, “She is very… reserved. And shy.”

Jack was taking a sip of water when he said that and almost
choked as it went down the wrong tube. He started coughing. Teague looked at
him to see if he was all right, and Jack looked away. “I will do my best to
explain the women’s behavior as we go here. I think I owe you that one. I hope
it was not too embarrassing?”

Still coughing and turning a little red, although whether it
was from the cough or from embarrassment he wasn’t sure, Jack exclaimed, “Oh,
no! I mean, not in the least. It uh… It was… well, can we talk about something
else?”

“Oh certainly, I don’t mean to... well anyway, where was I?”
Looking down at his notepad he said, “Oh yes, so they successfully cloned a
human.” He started pacing again. “But, it was just another baby. Genetically it
was the same as the host, but it was really just a twin, the only real
difference was it was younger than its counterpart. Just because it would grow
up to look identical to the parent didn’t mean much, at least financially.”

The doctor didn’t give Jack a chance to ask what he meant. “There
was no financial gain in creating a twin of someone, and back then there was
only one reason to research anything – money.” The way he said it made it sound
like something about the concept was somewhat foreign to him. “For a while it
was popular, among the wealthy, to have a child that was an identical twin to
one of the parents. But it was never enough to keep the research funded.”

“I’m not quite following you here, Doc, what financial gain
did these scientists hope to capitalize on?”

“Well, organ replacement was one of the goals. If you could
create a perfect replica of a person, that replica would have organs that were
identical to the host. With perfect replicas, transplant was a nearly
guaranteed success. If someone’s heart was failing, you could grow a new heart
and replace it.”

Jack thought about that for a moment, then said, “I read
about heart transplants and how doctors couldn’t do it successfully because the
body rejects it as something foreign. I guess if the body thought it was an
original part, it wouldn’t reject it.” This was all incredibly interesting, and
he was enthralled.

“Not to split hairs, but eventually they were able to use
drugs to keep the body from rejecting the new organs, but it was crude and didn’t
always work right, so yes, the idea was that if it was already genetically the
same as what you had, it would not be rejected.” Teague was on a roll now. “So
organ replacement became the driving force behind cloning, but you can’t exactly
have a baby just to kill it and take its heart. And even if you could, it would
take too long – nine months to give birth, then you would have to grow the
child for at least five years before the heart is mature enough to put in
another person. Most times, if an organ failed, the person would die relatively
quickly. The research did eventually lead to advances in organ replacement, but
the moral and scientific boundaries were an insurmountable barrier toward any
kind of cloning for parts.

“There was a better reason to research cloning, however. It
was perceived as a potential fountain of youth. There were many people in the
world who would pay any price for immortality.”

“Immortality? Like living forever? How could cloning make
someone live forever?”

 “Well, it isn’t like the historical fountain of youth, or
the biblical Holy Grail, but think about it. If you had a dictator who didn’t
want to give up his power, and he had the means to clone himself, with all his
memories, he could rule his domain forever. The same thing goes for super
wealthy people. They either wanted to live forever, or if they lost someone,
they wanted them back. People with wealth and power assumed they had the right
to try their hand at wielding the power of God.”

Jack thought about his wife and daughter for a moment.
If
I could have them back, memories intact, would I? Even knowing that it was not
really them?
Now Jack started thinking about philosophy, and another truth
struck him. If he died, and was cloned, he is not really the same person, just
a copy with all that person’s memories. That is all good and well for the
clone, since, as Jack himself could testify, for all intents and purposes that
clone thinks he is the original, but the original has to die at some point. “Religion,”
Jack said. “What happens to the soul?”

“You are a sharp one Jack. That is exactly the moral
dilemma. If the original person dies, and is cloned, did his soul go to heaven
or hell, or did it come back to inhabit the body? Furthermore, if that clone
has the memories of the original, but not the soul, is it a soulless creature
or does it get a new soul? These were questions that the religious authorities
had to answer, and they couldn’t. They were lucky though, because they never
had to answer. The cloning never got further than making babies with the same
genetic material.”

“Wait a minute, then how am I here? What do you mean that it
never got further?” Jack was suddenly angry. It had taken him a lot to get to
the point where he believed what he was being told. Now the doctor was telling
him something different. The idea that this was an elaborate hoax set up by
some mentally unstable patients came back to him. This was frustrating and he
was about to give Teague a piece of his mind about it. A grim look from Teague
stopped the emotional outburst in its tracks and he waited for an answer.

“War. In 2012, war broke out, and for the next hundred
years, nobody was worried about cloning humans.” Teague stopped pacing and sat
down.

The news stopped him cold. He knew all about war. He had
fought on the front lines in Korea for over two years. He had watched his
friends die, and then later, after becoming an officer, he watched soldiers
under his command die. Korea wasn’t even a real war. Not on the scale of WWII
anyway. Jack served with enlisted men who had fought in the big war. He was
just a kid back then, barely sixteen years old and full of piss and vinegar,
but he remembered the stories they told. He also remembered the concentration
camps. Worst of all, he served a two year tour in Japan, just before going to
Korea. He saw first-hand the power of the atom bomb, and the horror of
radioactive fallout. In a way, seeing the damage in Japan had helped to make up
his mind to re-enlist after his first four years. He figured as long as there
were people willing to give up their lives then the leaders of the military
wouldn’t have to drop those horrible bombs. Looking back now it was probably
very ideological, but he was young, and young people follow their heart.

“Was it nuclear?” It was a simple question, but Jack was
holding his breath waiting for an answer. He had lived the last 20 years of his
life in a “cold war” with Soviet Russia. A few years ago he had feared, along
with the rest of his country, that Russia’s moves to put missiles in Cuba would
result in the mutual destruction of both countries, and subsequently the world.
Everyone knew that the next big war would be the end of life on earth if
nuclear bombs got involved. The idea that people he knew might have been in a
nuclear blast was making him sick to his stomach.

“Not at first, but, eventually, yes, bombs were dropped.” Teague
stared off into the distance, as if remembering it. That was crazy though, from
what he had said this would have taken place some three hundred years ago. Jack
knew that there was a lot more to this, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear
more about it.

“Look Jack, I could spend hours telling you what I know about
the war, and later I will, if you want me to, but I need to finish explaining
how you came to be here, and we might be a little short on time.” Jack wondered
what he meant by that, but he looked up at him and just nodded. Teague got up
and started pacing again. He opened his mouth to talk, and just then, two
people walked into the room.

* * *

The first one to walk in was a man, about six feet tall with
dark, weathered skin and black and gray peppered hair cut pretty short. He
looked to be about thirty years old, and he appeared to be in excellent shape,
evident by his lean stomach, broad shoulders, and sinewy neck and arms. Jack
imagined that if the only diet around here was the odd slop he had been eating,
that just about everyone would be lean. The man had a weariness about him that
suggested he had already had a long, hard day, despite the early hour. As he
walked in to the room, he smiled at Teague, and seeing Jack, he nodded and
said, “Well, doc, you haven’t lost your touch. Hi, I’m Charlie, you can call me
Chuck. Your name is Jack right?” He had a gravelly voice and his eyes were
compassionate, but Jack also saw in them something he had only seen in people
that had been in hard battle. He didn’t appear to be focusing on anything in
particular, but Jack didn’t think for a second that there wasn’t a detail in
the room Chuck hadn’t noticed.

“Yes, nice to meet you Chuck.” He was wearing what could be
called military fatigues, and they were rumpled as if he had been in them for a
while. Jack was still taking in the new face when he saw the second person
coming in behind Chuck. The person was not nearly as big, and was wearing
greasy coveralls. As she walked into the room, Jack did a double take. The red
hair and freckles threw him off, but it was Wendy! The night before he only saw
her in the dim bluish light of the monitor next to his bed, and the tint of the
light camouflaged the red, so he never saw the freckles and assumed her hair
was black or brown. Wendy was not making eye contact but headed right over to
sit down next to him. “Uh, Hi.” was all he managed to say to her.

He wasn’t sure she was going to respond at first, she seemed
intent about not meeting his eyes. Finally she glanced at him, and smirked. “Hi,
Jack, did you sleep well?” Their eyes held for another moment, and then his
attention was pulled away when Chuck, opening what must have been a
refrigerator and burying his face in it, said, “Jack, care for a brewski?”

Jack looked over and said, “Isn’t it a bit early for that?”

Chuck popped his head out and grinned at him. “Not for me it
ain’t.” He pulled out what looked like an old fashioned root beer bottle, with
a rubber cap and a wire lever to hold it on. He popped the lever and the bottle
made a small pop sound, and a little mist wafted out of the mouth. Chuck took a
deep pull, winced a little, and let out a little belch. “Ahhh, nothing like a
refreshing drink after a long night of work.” Before Jack could ask any
questions, Chuck sat down, looked over at Teague, and said, “So doc, you done
playing teacher yet? I’m anxious for some company out there.”

Teague rolled his eyes in irritation and said, “Fuck you,
Chuck. For your information Jack here accepted his situation in less than three
hours. It took you a damn week!” Jack was surprised at the comment and looked
at Chuck both watching for a reaction and wanting to ask him a lot of
questions.

Chuck just smiled at Teague and said, “Bah, it isn’t like
you haven’t had the practice. I figured you would’ve taught him how to pilot a
flyer by now.” The smirk on his face made it clear that he took no offense to anything
the doc said to him. “Jack, it’s been a pleasure meeting you, but I need to hit
the rack. We can chat later this afternoon or tomorrow, after I’ve caught a few
hours.” He got up from the table, set the now empty bottle on the counter, and
headed toward the door. As he passed Teague he slugged him on the shoulder and
said, “Don’t fill his head with too much of your bullshit doc, he seems like a
decent guy.” Teague just shook his head as Chuck left the room, letting out a
decent belch that echoed sharply down the hallway.

Jack was kind of dazed by the whirlwind encounter with the
man. He had about a hundred questions, but he hadn’t been able to get a word in
edgewise. He looked at Wendy, half expecting her to get up and follow Chuck out
of the room, but she gave him a look that said she wasn’t leaving just yet. “I
suppose you told Doc here all about last night?” she said a little tentatively,
in a not
too
accusing tone of voice. Teague was taking the bottle that
Chuck had emptied and putting it in a stainless steel looking cabinet that had
a few other bottles and a couple dishes from breakfast in it. He closed the
door and pressed a button on the top of the door, and a whooshing sound was
faintly heard coming from within the cabinet.

He looked at Wendy and said, “No! I mean, I told him that
you visited last night but not...” He stopped mid-sentence because he realized
that even though he hadn’t shared any more than that, Teague pretty much knew
what went on. He blushed a little, feeling embarrassed that he had let the cat
out of the bag. “I mean, he sort of figured it out and I...” once again he
stopped because there was no good way to say it.

She gave him a look as if she was offended and Jack sort of
withered in his chair, but then she smiled and said, “Don’t worry about it; I
knew Doc would get it out of you, I just wanted to make you squirm a little.” Jack
was relieved that he hadn’t made some social misstep and relaxed in his chair a
little. Wendy leaned in and gave him a peck on his cheek and whispered in his
ear, “I had a good time last night, maybe I’ll visit you again later.” And with
that she got up and walked out, not meeting either man’s eyes.

He looked up at Teague as if to ask if the last few minutes
in the room was normal around here. Teague just smiled and said, “People here
are always a bit odd around the new guy. Nobody is sure what to say yet.”

Jack had picked up on a lot in the last few minutes. The first
thing he noticed was that the two new strangers’ speech –
well, Wendy wasn’t
quite a stranger
– was a little different than Teague’s. He couldn’t
exactly put his finger on specifically what was different, except maybe Teague
spoke a little more ‘formally’, with much less slang. Jack was never good at
picking out accents or dialects, so maybe there was a subtle difference in
accent he could only sense when comparing the two side by side. Whatever it
was, he filed that piece of information away in his head for future use.
Just
another piece of the puzzle
.

Next, it was obvious he was not the first one to be here
under these ‘circumstances’, and it was also obvious he was not here because
someone felt charitable or wanted his company. He was here for a reason, and
now on top of figuring out where he was and how he came to be here, he wanted
to know why he was here.
That might be the most important question,
he
thought to himself.

Perhaps sensing that Jack was working some details out in
his mind, Teague let the silence linger for a few more moments. Finally, he broke
the silence, “Well, now that you have tasted a bit of the local culture, shall
we continue?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “So as I was saying, the war put
research into cloning on hold for about a hundred years. As a matter of fact,
the only research going on in that time was either on how to kill people, or
how to save them.”

Jack wasn’t ready to get back into the story yet, so he
asked, “Doc, why am I here? I mean, it’s obvious I’m not just a hobby for you,
there has to be a good reason you went through the effort you did to...” He
searched for the right words. Saying they ‘cloned’ or ‘grew’ him felt kind of
weird. “You know what I mean. Can you just cut to the chase and tell me why I’m
here?”

Teague hesitated. “I don’t want to drop too much on your
brain and make you process it all at once Jack. I’m not saying you will, but
people have snapped by hitting them with too much at once. I feel like you have
accepted that you are not in 1966 anymore, even though your memory tells you
that less than twenty four hours ago you were heading into surgery. Until you
know how you came to be here though, you probably won’t understand the why.” Teague
was pacing again, and again Jack had the impression that he was more of a psychologist
than a medical doctor. He was phrasing his words carefully. “Okay, I will tell
you this much. You
are
here for a reason Jack. We need help, and we
think you are –
qualified
– to do what we need, in more ways than one.”

Jack accepted the answer, not really expecting to hear
anything different. Nearly all his life he had been ordered to do things, and
he was used to doing what was required of him, even when it meant his life was
on the line. He was a square peg and if there was a square hole, he could fit
in it. There were still a million questions however, and one in particular had
been burning in his mind for a while now. “Do I still have cancer?” It was
simple question, but the implications of any answer weighed heavily on him. Three
days ago he was told that his life was coming to an end, and now it appeared he
had some kind of second chance. The idea of being told that was not the case
was a bit frightening.

“No, Jack, I can happily say that not only do you not have
cancer, it is extremely unlikely you ever will. Not only that, but any other
genetic defects you might have had were cleansed from your system before you
were reconstructed. As things sit right now, you could very well live to be a
hundred years old.”

A weight lifted from Jack’s mind and emotion gripped his
heart. He didn’t realize how tense he was in waiting for that answer, and the
relief came so quickly that he actually teared up for a second. He looked away
from Teague and closed his eyes.

Not sure if he could trust his voice, and not wanting to
look so damned vulnerable, he cleared his voice and simply said, “That’s good
to hear doc, thanks!” There was a pause as he struggled to change the subject. “Was
that really beer that Chuck was drinking?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes. I imagine you would not think
it tastes like beer any more than you would think that our water tastes like a
Pepsi.” Teague chuckled at his own attempt at humor. Jack got it – there
probably hadn’t been a human alive who had tasted Pepsi in hundreds of years. Teague
was a bit of a nerd. “Some of the guys set up what they call a ‘micro brewery’
a few years ago. The ingredient we use in our food is combined with some
specific bacteria and some vegetable matter and allowed to ferment. Once
processed, the resulting beverage is said to taste something like ‘root beer’. It
has a ten percent alcohol content. It is a popular drink around here,
especially considering the alternative beverages, but it is in pretty short
supply. I would prefer you wait until later today to try one, we have a lot to
go over today and I need you staying sharp.”

Jack smiled and said, “I was just curious doc, I was serious
when I told Chuck it was too early for a beer. Speaking of Chuck, there seemed
to be a little tension between you two. Care to tell me why?”

“Bah. Chuck and I get along fine, he is just a soldier
through to his core, and doesn’t really respect the more... educated people. I
guess you could say he is sort of a bully.” Teague seemed to think about the
word bully and nodded. “He is a good man though, and I can honestly say he
would lay down his life for me. Even so, I don’t take his crap, and I give it
back just the same.”

Jack knew the type, and easily accepted the explanation. He
could tell that the doc was anxious to get on with his story though, so he
finally relented with the questions and said, “Okay Doc, continue.”