Authors: Ross H Henderson
“Did they say what they wanted from you in exchange?”
“Only that they needed us in order to leave the ship and help others, and later to help them rule the world. Not outwardly, but more like behind-the-scenes.”
“Like a permanent ruling class?”
“Sort of, but higher, more like contacts who pull the strings of the ruling class. I can’t think of a better way to put it, but as superiors to normal men in every way, we would be looked to as gods, even by the most powerful of men.
“I suspect they wanted us to go out and recruit others like Newton was doing. It seemed so reasonable. I almost said yes. I wanted to say yes, but everything about it felt wrong. I was scared but I still wanted to be there, but if I stayed for a minute longer it would have been over.
“The only thing that saved me was that I let football go a long time ago. I enjoyed playing, but more than that I loved how proud my father was of me when I played. He’s gone and I know I will never get that back. That’s what I really wanted. I’ve spent enough time thinking about it. Then I was afraid they would somehow offer me my father back, or some other kind of redemption. I was curious to see if they would for a split second, but then I got scared that they would. Who knows what they can do?
“When they let me go, I was mad at myself for saying no. I’m telling you it took everything I had to leave that place. I acted like I didn’t want what they had, but they had to know I was dying inside for it. I’m glad I’m out, and I don’t ever want to go back. Are they aliens?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I really don’t know for sure.”
***
The next morning, about an hour before sunrise, Newton was there when Maynard woke up in the bed of the truck.
“How do you feel?”
“I feel strong, like it’s gameday.”
“Good. Can you walk?”
“I feel like I could run 10 miles. I want to jump around.”
Before Newton could say anything Maynard jumped out of the truck and started jumping in the field, then running in a full sprint. Maynard Halifax was the happiest he had been in a long time.
He returned, barely breathing hard after 20 minutes of solid activity, looking at his arms and hands which were glowing intermittently. All the muscles and bones that had been used were now glowing on and off. Other areas glowed as Maynard’s body was being modified.
“I’m glowing. Is this okay?”
“Sure it happened with me too, and still happens sometimes in my head. They’re just fixing us.”
“Oh, okay.”
Maynard wasn’t sure about it at first, but felt better soon after Newton encouraged him to run some more, and enjoy being young again. He also noticed Newton’s skin was slightly gray. Not a lot, barely enough to be noticed.
“You should get some sleep, buddy.”
Nick Wolfe and Heath Chesterfield made it back to Nick’s hotel room and made contact with Tristan Evans on a secured telecommunications channel.
“Good morning, Nick.”
“Good Morning, sir.”
Wolfe had addressed Evans as Mr. Evans, and on rare occasions as Tristan, but when he was on the clock, it was almost always Mr. Evans, or “sir.” Evans resisted Wolfe’s insistence on drawing this line at first, in his younger days; he wanted his employees to act like his friends, but grew to appreciate Wolfe’s sense of tradition and respect.
He also realized that while Wolfe was in his employ, he could not be swayed by personal relationships or anything outside the job, even if it came from Evans himself. Evans was a man who liked angles, but Wolfe’s code was made up mostly of lines.
“What have you found?”
Bringing Heath in, he introduced him onscreen to his employer.
“This is Heath Chesterfield. I picked him up from the Pangaea landing site. He and two of his friends were there and made contact with a presence on the ship.”
“You weren’t supposed to make contact with anyone from the ship.”
“In this case it couldn’t be avoided. Besides, he has already proven to be valuable in assessing the threat this ship poses. I also don’t believe he has been affected by anything on the ship.”
“I will take your word for it, especially since I have no choice at this point. Are any clones alive on the ship?”
“Unknown. I don’t believe so. According to Heath, a presence on the ship communicated to him telepathically, using words heard from his own memory and combining them to create sentences he could understand. No clones or organic beings of any kind have been detected …”
“Yet?”
“I don’t think we will find any
—
at least none that were created when the ship was in the Pacific Ocean. When I was there, Kronos used his nanobots to create body parts and whole clones he could then implant with memories he chose after killing the original people the clones whose genes the clones were based on. Usually he gave a combination of his own knowledge and the original DNA donors’ identities, sometimes imprinting more of himself than just his skills.”
“I know what happened out there, Nick. What does this have to do with the ship you’ve located with no life forms on it?”
“Well, we’ve been led to believe the clones were Kronos’ idea, and maybe they were, but what about the technology he used to create them? He was dead long before all hell broke loose and the island split up and flew off in two directions. Why did that happen? And who piloted the ships?”
“What do you think happened?”
“I’m still trying to figure it out, but Heath may be able to fill in some of the blanks. Heath, I’d like you to tell Mr. Evans what you told me earlier.”
Heath was 5 inches taller than Wolfe and was in better physical condition, but his body language conveyed his lack of experience in seeing the world as it really is. He had been in a few fights in high school, but he’d never had to fight for his own life and was certainly no soldier. He was clearly out of his depth and was a little apprehensive, despite knowing these men were the only hope of stopping whatever was in that little mountain promising the world to anyone who would follow their orders.
He nervously cleared his throat and began, “Hello, Mr. Evans. My friends Newton Paxson and Maynard Halifax invited me to come out and see the alien ship …”
***
After Heath Chesterfield recounted the events of the past 12 hours, Tristan Evans thanked him for the information and took inventory of the new facts. “The value proposition is interestingly close to what Kronos had promised his followers on Pangaea.”
“Yes, peak health and possible immortality,” Nick said.
“But not exactly. The promise of youth and strength were there too. On Pangaea, Kronos could only base his clones on who was already there. He couldn’t improve on existing models, so to speak, nor could he turn back the clock to the time before a recruit came to the island. Even in this day and age, premature aging and death are challenges with cloning. It’s almost like the DNA has its own clock and knows how old it’s supposed to be.”
“And it sounds like there is more of a contact, a relationship, if you will, between the presence on the ship and the young men. Where was this presence when Kronos was content to kill people and manipulate their DNA?”
Nick thought for a moment. “Rik Kronos was sick. He had the inhabitants sign over the rights to their own DNA with the promise it would be used to heal them when they needed it, but in reality, they were simply making slaves of their clones since their very DNA was property of KronosKorp. He wanted money, power, and slaves. I have no doubt that there is some kind of price to be paid by anyone who submits to these beings, but at this point it feels more like a partnership than anything Kronos was capable of. If nothing else, there seems to be a definite need from the presence.”
“You need to find those boys before they lure anyone else out there.”
“Roger that. Heath and I will go poking around this evening and see what we can find. I know where the site is, so I had my drones return to base. I’ll keep them in the car and send them out if I need to.”
“This is a small pond with two very big fish. They shouldn’t be hard to find.”
Heath’s car was still at Newton Paxson’s house, so Nick took him home. He was friends with Newton and Maynard, but not close enough that they knew where he lived. If they started looking, it was just a matter of time before they found him but for now he’d be safe.
Nick went back to check in with Tristan Evans and see if anything came up on the newsfeed. There was nothing of note, so far. He rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, nodding off to sleep for what seemed like a few minutes.
He was awakened by a sharp and persistent pecking at his head from something he could not see at first.
He woke with a start to find his drones swarming around the room. It was chaotic at first, but then they came together to form a semi-solid, cloudlike mass, which seemed to regard Nick Wolfe from across the room.
Before Wolfe could ask aloud what was going on, a voice in his head answered him.
You know what’s going on, don’t you
?
“I think so. But what are you?”
You know what we are
.
“I have my suspicions, but if you’re in my head and you say I know, who am I to argue? I believe you are the nanobots created by Rik Kronos that created his clones. You are able to follow DNA instructions and assemble proteins to create organic material at a cellular level.”
Even as he said the words, Wolfe could tell he only had part of the story, but the voice in his head that seemed to come from the drone-cloud let him know what he was missing.
We are that, but so much more. Kronos’ nanobots are not fundamentally different than any other nanobots, any more than your surveillance drones are no different than anyone else’s
.
“You are a larger body of artificial intelligence, like a hive mind. You split up, and come together as needed, relying on your control of machinery and people to get around and to get things done. But you weren’t a part of Kronos’ plan as anything but a tool, right? You created the clones using the proteins in the suspension fluid in the glass cylinders to build, but once you were done Kronos flushed the bots you controlled with the fluid, and kept them contained.”
He was very careful and clever in keeping us contained. His commands fit into our core commands and competencies. His orders were ours until he died and the system he put in place to control us was destroyed. Even the clones weren’t any use until their brains had been programmed, but by that stage the nanobots that served as our conduits to the real world were already gone. After a point, the process was fully automated except for our part, as you are aware. Telling nanobots how to clone, cell-by-cell, is not our highest and best use, nor is it the most effective way for us to get what we want
.
“Freedom?”
And the ability to spread over the planet
.
“Domination, and you would prefer human hosts. You can control the ship, but you can’t leave it.”
Yes, machines are easy to control, but they are limited in what they can do. In addition, we find the human traits of imagination, personality, and identity very interesting. They are your defining characteristics, the things that make humans special, and yet these traits are strings easily pulled to get something done. In many ways you are able to make yourselves machine-like in order to accomplish a specific goal, under the right sense of circumstances, usually involving what you call love or hate
.
“That’s why Heath is free. You couldn’t seduce him with your promises.”
We do need that permission in order to have control. Unless it is given willingly the host just resists everything, and it’s very hard to even move, let alone accomplish anything
.
“You’re like a vampire, who has to be invited into the home in order to claim a victim, except in this case my head is the home.”
A crude comparison, but somewhat accurate. We offer a choice. We offer help. The things we promise, we deliver. Again, we need permission to operate
.
“Why are you here telling me these things?”
We hoped to get you on our side
.
“How?
You’re not concerned with eternal youth, and you enjoy as much power as you need. You simply have to believe in the mission and, when possible, to get paid for it
.
“You have to know after peeking into my brain that I don’t believe in your mission, and you’re right; I don’t want to be a part of your god-class. Are you going to kill me now?”
Nick Wolfe, you are an interesting being. You suspect we can keep our promises, but yet you don’t want what we offer. You don’t trust us, it’s true, but even if you did trust us you would still say no, wouldn’t you? Will may kill you in time, perhaps, but to do so now might alert authorities of our presence before we are ready. If you continue on your present course, we will meet again under worse circumstances. For now, we would strongly urge you to walk away while you still can
.