Chapter 16
“I don’t get it,” Garret growled, “point six eight miles is what she said. It should be right here.”
“Bishop, you and Reef look forward, Vixen and Ghost go back.” Gideon ordered, “We check every inch of this tunnel until we find that connection.”
“Hold on a sec.” Elena said softly as she rotated through the filters in her goggles. “That’s what I thought, follow me.”
Elena walked straight at the wall of the tunnel they were in and vanished.
“Rook?” Gideon said.
“I’m right here,” her voice was soothing in his ear, “it’s a hologram, just walk through the wall right here.”
Elena reached her hand back through the hologram and her disembodied hand jutted out from the wall in front of the rest of the team as she waved for them to follow. The mine shaft they found themselves in was visibly ancient, tool marks from pick-axes and dynamite were etched in the walls as a permanent reminder of the old ways. The mine shaft ran straight and level as they followed the old mine cart tracks into the darkness. After about an hour of carefully picking their way through the mine a small dot of light appeared in the distance.
“Do you supposed it’s the exit?” Kira breathed, “I’m starting to get claustrophobic down here.”
“Is that you guys?” Mark Sr’s voice crackled into their ears.
“Mr Halvorsen?” Gideon’s relief was written in his tone. “Thank the gods!”
The group exchanged hand shakes and expressed their relief at the safe return of the insertion team as they shared the story of the other world.
“We searched banks, schools and office buildings and grabbed as much as we could carry.” Gideon explained. “It’s gonna take us some serious time to sift through all the information we got to even figure out if it’s useful.”
The flight back to the Nevada research site was spent inspecting the alien technology as Sophia took one of the laptops and set it on the table, opening it as soon as the captain said it was safe to use electronics. The entire computer was made from the continuum lattice, smooth, sleek and completely seamless, the device appeared to be nothing more than a single sheet of glass that folded in half when closed. The keys of the keyboard were etched into the bottom half rather than having raised buttons of any sort, the moment Sophia touched one of them the screen flashed to life with an image of a tropical island with waves crashing on a palm tree lined beach.
The computer seemed to function the same same as the computers they were used to using, having a small track pad below the keyboard as well as a touch sensitive screen. But it was fast, each touch, each mouse click or keystroke was instantaneously met with a response. Programs opened instantly, data streamed across the screen with breathtaking speed. To say it was advanced would be an understatement, and Sophia was in her element eating it up. Sophia spent the entire trip back to Nevada completely engrossed in the alien technology. Once back in the field office the team started unpacking the haul, sifting through it one item at a time as they got a first peak.
“This ones from a couple of schools we searched.” Elena said as she sat in front of a stack of computers, tablets and an odd looking pedestal that was only about six inches tall. “Check this out.” She said as she touched the top of the pedestal.
The pedestal pulsed the familiar soft azure before a hologram of a globe flashed into existence just above it.
“A globe?” Sophia asked softly as she touched the hologram and spun the globe. “It looks like the planet is arranged the same as ours.”
“The continents are,” Gideon said as he turned the globe to the western hemisphere, “but the countries are all different, look here where the USA is supposed to be. Union of the Five, what’s that even mean?”
North America was divided into five main regions spanning from the Panama Canal all the way to the Attic Circle with dense cities spanning the entire continent.
“These don’t look like city names.” Garret sighed. “Rubix, Asgard… Looks more like mythology mixed with toys.”
“But they seem to draw the main city centers.” Tessa added. “Look at this one.”
She touched the map in the center of an extra dense looking city, the map zoomed in to show the city at street level.
“Cool.” Kira breathed.
“What’s that?” Gideon was focused on a large circle of trees surrounded by a wall, the center of the circle turning back to dense looking city beyond the thin wrap of nature.
“Looks familiar,” Jaxson said softly, “makes me think of the drone footage before we lost it.”
“Lost it?” Sam asked.
“Got shot down,” Gideon explained, “looked like a laser shot that got it. This does look like where we were though, looks like it’s called Rubix.”
“Like the cube?” Caleb asked.
“Zoom in there.” Tessa pointed to a spec of a building within the circle, as the image expanded she added, “That’s the building we camped in, this is definitely the place.”
The team moved on from the globe and started inspecting the computers they had retrieved.
“This stack is from a school,” Gideon advised, “the best we could tell, those are from a language classroom, these government, a couple from a robotics lab and those over there are a mix of the rest.”
Three months passed as they examined the haul, Sophia mastering the language easily as she taught it to the rest of the team.
What they found changed everything.
“So,” Elena said as she slid the computer to the side, “continuum lattice is made with a device called a Lattice Weaver.”
“Correct.” Gideon confirmed.
“And that consists of a weaver head and the machine that runs it.” Julian added.
Elena, Gideon and Rachel had spent most of the last few months studying everything they had gathered from the robotics labs, while Tessa, Sophia and Victor focused on what the team had brought from the languages department of the school.
“But what’s it made of?” Julian puzzled. “I mean, I can’t find anything about the material the thing uses to make the lattice itself.”
“Yeah,” Rachel offered, “me either.”
“It’s solidified light.” Sophia called from across the room. “I found a holographic tablet about engineering, it covered the whole process. Evidently the weaver head is comprised of a full spectrum laser and a special lens made of a material I’ve never seen before. When the laser is focused through the lens it somehow turns it into a solid, then the weaver head programs it to…” Sophia trailed off as she searched for the right word. “Do whatever they want it to.”
“What?” Mark Sr shot out.
“It makes sense,” Sam said as she picked up another laptop, “these computers are impossibly fast but if they are made of programmed light…”
“Light speed processing!” Mark Sr gasped. “Can you imagine the applications?”
“Everything from aerospace to construction, right at the tips of your fingers.” Gideon said softly.
Mark Sr was already counting the money in his mind, “How do we get hold of one of these weavers?”
“Why don’t you just use the one they held me in?” Victor asked it as though everyone should have had the same thought.
“There’s a weaver head in that machine?” Rachel looked up from her laptop.
“Yeah.” Victor shrugged. “That’s how I made the lattice that led you to where I was being held.”
“I would love to have one of these computers running Windows.” Mark Sr ran his fingers over the edge of the computer screen. “Can you imagine having an unbreakable computer that runs this fast?”
“I can’t count how many screens I’ve broken in the field.” Devon laughed.
“Well,” Sophia’s brain switched topics as her ADHD kicked into overdrive, “these two are identical, and I don’t need both…” she paused as she grabbed her personal laptop and started tapping away on the keyboard. “With a little tweaking…” she trailed off again as she clicked on each of the computers in succession.
A smile crossed her face. “Viola!” she exclaimed with a satisfied expression. “The OS on these is an adaptable artificial intelligence,” she looked up at the group, “I figured that out on the plane. All I had to do was introduce an exe file to the new operating system and it learned how to run it!”
“So that one will run windows programs now?” Mark Sr asked incredulously.
Sophia turned the screen to face him, “I give you Google Chrome and the Internet!”
“An adaptable AI operating system that just learned it?” Mark Sr was still having trouble believing his own eyes.
“This thing is so beyond anything we have ever seen,” Sam nearly whispered it, “imagine if it got into the wrong hands. As fast as it just learned how our computers function, I bet it could hack just about anything you wanted it to.”
“We need to maintain top secret security on all of this.” Gideon said grimly. “If this AI is as powerful as you think, it could pose a serious threat to national security.”
“Mr. H?” Sophia asked.
“All of this is HGH property,” Mark Sr began, “I’ll call Hannah and have her send a full team for Mr. Navarro, we’ll get the whole place locked down.”
“Perfect.” Sam said softly.
“Meanwhile,” Mark Sr looked at Gideon, “lets start planning a trip back to that machine, I’d like to start figuring out how to use it.” He paused as he looked at Victor, “And I’d like for you to lead the team since you already have experience.”
“I would love to.” Victor smiled a vindictive smile, “I have been dreaming of the day I got to turn their technology against them.”
“They appear to be an oligarchy,” Sophia offered, “their governmental history is quite the tale. Within the last fifty years they moved from a democracy with open elections to an authoritarian regime run by the wealthiest five, the owners of the companies…” she paused, “the city names on the map, they’re actually the five company names that it says run the country.”
“Sounds…” Rachel sighed, “dystopian!”
“Worse!” Jaxson hissed. “The history department has been very,” he paused as he searched for the right word, “enlightening.”
The room fell silent as Jaxson began describing what he had learned.
“They were a lot like us a few dozen years ago,” Jaxson began, “most of them any way. All of North America was occupied by smaller countries, not the big three that we have but like, balkanized. Only all working together in a cooperative government for the continent, it says they lasted that way for more than two hundred years before resources started running thin around the world. Having used up nearly all non-renewable’s, the whole globe started suffering, fuel, building supplies, fertilizer and eventually even food became scarce as greed, crime and desperation took root.
“Then the wars started.” Jaxson continued as he shifted the hologram to the next image. “No corner of the planet was spared, stronger nations began to ravage smaller ones, alliances were formed, some broken and later remade and the world was divided. That’s when the big five emerged. Five corporate giants that, between them represented more than sixty percent of the economy of the entire world!” he paused to let the words hit. “As countries teetered on the brink they came to the rescue and one by one, the whole continent joined the collective.”
“And that’s how governments topple.” Gideon said grimly.
“At the hands of people like me.” Mark Sr frowned.
“Or people like you come to the rescue Mr. H.” Sophia put her hand on Mark Sr’s shoulder as she added, “The choice is up to you.”
“What else can you tell us?” Mark Sr asked.
The question was aimed at Jaxson but Devon answered, “They’re big and they’re powerful. One corporation held out, one last independent, free society.” He looked around the room, “You wanted to know why the city we found was empty boss? Once they had control over the entire continent the five unified and became one regime, run by the CEO’s as though it were one giant company.”
“Except the one hold-out?” Mark Sr asked.
“Except the one hold out.” Caleb took over telling the story. “They called themselves The Vanguard Commonwealth, a free society run by the people.”
“I take it they didn’t last?” Sam asked.
“They had discovered the mineral used to make the sense in the lattice weaver,” Jaxson explained, “the only deposit of it on the entire planet. They built a headquarters factory on top of it to hide it from spy satellites and developed the tech used by the lattice weaver.” He paused, “And it was the breakthrough they needed to survive, until some of the tech was captured by the Union.”
“What happened?” Victor’s expression turned.
“They killed them all.” Rachel joined the conversation as a tear slipped out of her eye. “I remember reading about the conflict.”
“They used a neutron, cobalt hybrid bomb.” Jaxson continued. “One shot, right above the city center killed everything within a ten mile radius.” He paused, “No destruction, no damage to a single thing, just complete biological annihilation.”
“After that,” Caleb continued the story, “they just moved in, hauled all of the bodies to a mass grave and claimed the discovery for themselves.”
“I’m surprised they left that in the history books.” Gideon said.
“It’s how they got the entire globe cow-tailing to them!” Tessa shot out. “A weapon like that would scare just about any nation into line.”
“And it did!” Jaxson responded as he looked around the room, “Between the fear of destruction and the capabilities of the lattice, a complete and renewable technology that can do anything from generate electricity to space travel, Earth minerals became useless and the planet used only for growing food. Without mining extraction or pollution from power and travel the histories show a planet rejuvenated amidst a technology bloom that makes our best inventions look like stone-aged tools.”
“No wonder they seemed so indifferent towards me,” Victor breathed, “we must seem like apes banging rocks together to them.”
“Never again my love.” Sophia wrapped her arm around Victor’s waist. “Not while I have breath in my lungs.”
“We need to investigate those gates and free anyone they’re holding.” Gideon looked at Mark Sr.
“Yes we do,” Mark Sr’s expression was grave, “and whatever this continuum lattice stuff is we need to find a way to use it against them.”
“What’d you have in mind?” Mark Jr asked.
“How deep did you say that machine is Sophia?” Mark Sr asked.
“A little over a hundred feet Mr H, why?”
“It’s going to be a huge excavation,” Mark Sr started, “but we are going to dig up that whole thing and take it apart one piece at a time until we know exactly how it works.”
“I wonder.” Sam picked up the globe and spun it to where the mineral deposit was discovered. “What if we go out there and take a look, if the continents are identical there as they are here, it would seem assumable that the mineral deposits might be the same as well.”
“San Rafael Swell,” Devon zoomed the globe in to show a large flat mesa in the middle of a line of jagged red rock hogbacks. “Hidden Splendor Airstrip right there,” he pointed to a ribbon of dirt and gravel, “looks like a ribbon taped to a red table top doesn’t it? My parents used to fly us in there when I was a kid for family trips through the box canyons, they’re mining enthusiasts.”
“My kinda people.” Victor laughed. “Always preferred being below ground.”
“Yeah, that about describes my folks.” Devon chuckled, “I learned how to tread water out there.”
“In the desert?” Sophia asked.
“We were camping up Muddy Creek,” Devon started, “went there for a rafting trip through the chutes but me and my older brother took out for a hike and found what’s called a pothole, places where the flood waters from monsoon season carved natural bowls into the sandstone. All that water, no current, hot day…” he paused “what would you expect a couple teenage boys to do? I jumped right in. Allen, my brother, was a half second too late with his warning.”
“What happened?” Sam asked.
“Those potholes turn into keeper holes after a few cycles of the rains filling them and evaporating, a keeper pool is one that the sides get so slick you can’t get out and drown.” Devon continued. “Most of the time they’re filled with stagnant water, stinky and easy to spot, but this was right after the monsoons, mom and dad wanted to catch the whitewater. Anyway, he tried everything he could to get me out but he couldn’t reach so instead he taught me how to tread water. He had a water survival class earlier that summer, so he took off his pants and tied the legs closed and told me to saturate them, then drape them over my shoulders and use the waistline as a scoop to fill them with air. I didn’t learn until the Navy that that’s what they teach for survival!”
Sophia’s mind was busy envisioning the scene, Devon as a kid with his brothers pants wrapped around his shoulders, scooping air to survive.
“You must have been scared.” Sophia said softly.
“I was,” Devon admitted, “but not for my life. I was young and thought I was invincible back then, the fear came from my father’s reaction to finding out we took off without bringing a radio. Kowalski family rule number one, never go anywhere without a radio.”
“What’d he say?” Mark Jr asked.
“Let’s just say it was the last time it happened.” Devon grinned, “I stood up through dinner and breakfast too the whooping hurt that bad!”
“How hard do you think it would be to get in back there?” Mark Sr asked, “I mean with something heavy, you mentioned an airstrip?”
“Mostly for small bush planes,” Devon explained, “but I do see the strategic angle here. We can use the airstrip and make base camp right there on the mesa, it’d give us easier access to the bottom of the canyon where the deposit is supposed to be. But to get anything more than small Cessna or Piper in there is gonna take some work on that strip.” He paused as he considered the idea, “But it’s definitely possible!”
“First we need to get in there and make sure it’s even there.” Mark Jr announced suddenly, grabbing a notepad and pen as he scratched out his notes. “I can arrange an expedition within the week, but we will need Chinook or something like that to get us all in one trip. Once we’ve determined that it’s there, we can evaluate extending the runway for a Hercules to get the rest of the equipment in.”
“Impressive.” Mark Sr’s approval was obvious. “Maybe you don’t need Wharton after all son.”