Empyrean Rises

by Spencer Pierson

  “Aristotle, please display the file ‘palm growth forty-one.’ Please accelerate the time passage of the video at a ratio of one day for every thirty seconds in actual time.” Alex said to his DPA.

  “Yes, sir,” Aristotle answered in a warm, deep tone. A moment later, a holographic image of a test dirt bed appeared, tiny due to the confines of the plane. It reminded Leann of R2D2 broadcasting his plea from Princess Lea but in brilliant color. For the first minute, there was only the occasional, very sped up presence of various white-coated scientists moving in and out of the frame, but a moment later, a green shoot began to break through the soil, and then proceeded to grow at an astounding rate.

  In the span of twelve minutes, the shoot turned into a fully grown palm tree before Alex told the drone to stop the recording. He sat in silence, letting the two Agents absorb what they’d just seen.

  Finally, John took a breath and gave Alex a probing look. “If it’s not genetic manipulation in the plant, what is making it grow so fast?”

  “I can only give you the laymen’s answer. My area is more in building, construction, and planning. Our specialist, Doctor Helen Harken, will be more than happy to give you a more in-depth answer after we’ve landed if you are interested. As I understand it, she uses a combination of fertilizer that can release nutrients at an increased rate, and some sort of cell stimulator that pushes the cells into absorbing those nutrients to make it grow much faster.”

  “There’s got to be issues,” John said, frowning. “I can’t imagine cells growing at a hundred times as fast is good for them. Does it mean the plant dies as fast?”

  “We’re still working on some things, yes. As you can imagine, we want to make sure there aren’t dramatic breakdowns like the ones you mention. Again, Helen can probably discuss some of those issues with you. Would you like me to set up a meeting with her?”

  John nodded, once again looking at the still image of the palm tree. “Yes, I think I’d like that. I’d be very curious to see what this woman has to say, as well as what your intent is for its use in the future.”

  “Aristotle, can you contact Helen? Let her know I want to set up an appointment for the Agents to talk to her about her plant growth.”

  “Yes, sir,” Aristotle said once again, then a few green lights blinked on and off, indicating it was working. A moment later, the drone spoke again. “Doctor Harken is on the line, sir.” Then a second hologram appeared, showing a handsome, older woman with blonde hair smiling into the camera. There was jungle behind her, and it looked like she had been digging recently.

  “Yes, Alex?” Helen said, then glanced at both John and Leann. “Are these the agents? I’d love to meet with them, though I’ll be out in the eastern biome for most of today. Can they meet tomorrow for breakfast before I head out? Seven?”

  Alex quirked his eyebrow at the two agents who were both surprised that Helen could see them, but John quickly rallied. “Yes. Breakfast sounds wonderful. I’d love to see some examples of the growing plants, too, if that’s all right.”

  “Sounds fine and Alex can get you here on time. I’ll see you then,” Helen said happily. “Is there anything else?”

  Alex looked at the agents, but when it was clear they had nothing else, he shook his head. “Nope, enjoy digging around in the dirt, Helen. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Bye!” Helen said, and then her image disappeared.

  “These are a bit more than floating phones,” Leann said, peering at the DPA that was floating between them. “What else can they do?”

  “You’ve seen most of their cool tricks, though they also have the ability to measure and image objects, at need. Otherwise, they are as I said, just floating computer phones though I’ve been quite happy with mine. At least, when I can use him.”

  “Are these going to be available to, uh, regular people?” Leann asked. This was one of the questions that was slowly developing in her mind. The island itself was a fantastic feat of engineering, but accelerated plant growth and holograms? She was beginning to wonder what else Empyrean was working on and more importantly, who would eventually get access to these technologies.

  “A good question,” Alex said, leaning back in his chair. “Perhaps one of the best questions. We are working on many technologies that will be of great benefit to the people of earth, but we’re going to take it slowly. There will be a lot of people that will like what we’re doing, but we know there will be others that won’t. Like our building methods having so much difficulty being approved in the U.S. As I’m sure you know, a lot of that resistance is being put up by business moguls who either don’t want to or can’t change.

  “Do you blame them?” Leann asked. “They probably see it as a threat to their business and livelihood.”

  “Yes, I blame them,” Alex said, his eyes flashing and making Leann blink. “We’re willing to transition slowly, making sure that whatever we can provide will allow the economy and impacted people time to adapt. We’ve done exactly that in some of the countries that have worked with us, so the precedence is there, but instead of looking to the future, too many of the businessmen in the U.S. and other powerful countries just stand in the way. They throw up roadblocks, and it’s all due to their greed and unwillingness to lose control of something they think they own. There’s absolutely no caring at all of the people they should be helping, besides themselves.

  “Sounds like you’re a Socialist,” John said, frowning slightly.

  Alex shook his head. “No, or at least not entirely. I believe very strongly in people working and gaining. There has to be a benefit for people to work hard and succeed, but I don’t believe the shark eat shark method has to be the only way. There are too many people that want to get ahead at other’s expense. Too many that enjoy stepping on someone else to get a leg up. That isn’t the way I do business. I’d much rather bring people along with me. A harder road for the short term, but I firmly believe that in the long run, it will pay off.”

  “Sounds like a nice fairytale, but it’s too ingrained in the world. If you don’t do something unsavory, there are ten others out there that will happily do it, and then they’ll just shuffle you off as a failure,” John said, bitterly.

  Leann couldn’t help but look at John from the corner of her eye. She had known that John had once been deeply involved in military intelligence, but something had happened to make him leave the service, and she well knew that he’d been kept on unimportant jobs for his entire career with the State Department. This was the first time she’d even gotten a hint as to why.

  Alex met John’s gaze for a long moment before responding in a low, earnest tone. “Yes. And it sounds like you hate it as much as I do. That is the mind of small men, and only great effort can change it, but I plan on doing everything in my power to make this world a place where such men cannot thrive.”

  The two men continued to look at each other in silence, absorbing each other’s words until an announcement from the pilot requested them to buckle up and prepare for their landing. Alex quickly retrieved Aristotle, placing him back in his case, secretly wondering if allowing the two Agents into his world would, in the end, be a good or bad idea. Either way, it was too late to turn back now.

  Chapter 11

  Time: August 23, 2027

  Location: Empyrean Island, Pacific Ocean

  Despite the still very light population on the island, the airport had been assigned a great deal of space with several runways already built, and room for more on the Northwest coast. Close by was an equally large area, but there was little construction there to date. However, it was dominated by two massive hangers that wouldn’t look out of place on an Air Force base. There were airstrips that could easily be accessed from them.

  Five months ago, those hangers hadn’t been in existence, so drew a curious eye from both of the Agents as they disembarked from the plane. They didn’t have long to contemplate the huge buildings before they were interrupted by the energetic greetings from a young blo
nde woman and the more reserved presence by an Indian national.

  “Alex! Welcome back!” Piper said, giving her brother a warm hug. It had been two months since she’d seen her brother back in Portland.

  Alex grinned, swinging his sister around before putting her down. “Piper! As enthusiastic as ever. Good to see you as well, Nabhitha. Thanks for coming to greet us. It’ll be good for the agents to see someone other than just my ugly mug. Speaking of which, this is Agent Leann Bates and Agent John Malcom.” He turned, presenting the two younger ladies to the Agents. “This is my sister, Piper Drake and her friend, Nabhitha Mahajan.”

  Leann stepped forward, giving her best smile to the two ladies. There hadn’t been a file on Nabhitha, but the woman looked intelligent and capable. She doubted Nabhitha would just be on the island taking a vacation, so guessed she worked in the company in some fashion.

  Piper, on the other hand, had a file that was almost as impressive as her brothers, though she appeared younger than her supposed twenty-seven years of age. Still, the young lady was a doctor of three major, if related, disciplines which more than belied her cheerleader appearance.

  Either way, Leann decided she wouldn’t take either of them lightly which was something she herself had experienced far too often in her life for being a young, pretty woman. “Pleasure to meet you,” Leann said, “I heard you’re going to be on task to show me the best beaches?”

  Piper grinned and nodded. “You bet, though we’ll stick to the north shore. The other three are still being expanded, so they didn’t bother to put sand on them since they’re just going to be inland eventually.”

  “How big is the island going to get?” John asked.

  “Our initial plans are to be about a hundred square miles within a few years, but plans may change depending on a variety of reasons. Either way, we won’t be able to go much bigger due to the size of the seamount that we are based on. If we want to get bigger, we’ll have to go either down or up. We’ll drive to the main compound on the cart.” Alex offered, leading them over to a large golf-cart that was being driven by a large, muscular man with a military haircut. “This is my chief of security, Nathan Adamson.”

  Nathan nodded to both of the agents, reaching out his big hand and encircling theirs with a gentle power and ready grin. “Pleased to meet you,” he said in a thick Australian accent. “If you need anything while you’re on the island, please let me or one of my men know. I will be close, cleaning up all of the spy devices you’ll probably try to plant, so it won’t be any trouble.”

  “We’ll try to be discreet,” Leann said, grinning back at the jovial man. Despite his glib manner, she didn’t think Nathan was anything but business since even sitting; he looked dangerous despite the khaki shorts and a collared shirt. Once they were all seated, the cart began to move soundlessly, without even the whine of an electric engine.

  After they’d begun to move, Alex resumed talking. “We plan for the island to be our main headquarters, but as I mentioned previously, we will eventually open it to tourism and visitors. We’ve scaled the airport accordingly, and left plenty of room around it for future expansion.”

  John raised an eyebrow and kept looking around at the vast area they were traveling through. It wasn’t the largest airport he’d ever seen, but it was of significant size and much too large for even an island of around a hundred miles across. He couldn’t help but be curious about the ultimate purpose, and why Alex and his company believed it would be needed. “You said something about down or up if you wanted to expand. What does that mean exactly?”

  Alex grinned. “Caught that, did you? Pretty much exactly how it sounds. Either down to the ocean floor, floating sub-ocean habitats or up to orbit.”

  John’s eyes got big as he stared at Alex. Down or up, indeed. His mind reeled at the implications. There were already some powerful companies vying to get into orbit or make the journey to Mars, and he wondered how Empyrean would stack up to SpaceX or the others. He almost would have scoffed at the notion since the other companies had been working on the problem for decades, but he was standing on an island that hadn’t been in existence just five years earlier. Maybe Empyrean had a chance.

  “What are you going to do down on the sea floor?” Leann asked, her mind going the opposite way from John’s. It was one of the reasons they worked well together.

  “I can answer that,” Nabhitha said in her pleasant, musical accent. “Ocean’s cover about seventy-one percent of the earth’s surface, but currently it’s almost impossible to utilize most of that area for mining, farming, or habitation. Most of that is because of the cost of building or working in those environments, but with the technologies we’re developing, those costs are going to plummet.”

  “Are you saying you have those technologies?” Leann asked.

  Nabhitha tilted her head to the side in a half shrug. “Not all of them, but we are developing what we need quite quickly. Many of those will be useful in both the deep oceans and space. We already have several submersibles operating off of our coast building up the island from the seamount. However, they are capable of going much deeper right now.”

  “That’s amazing,” Leann said softly, her eyes distant in thought.

  She was about to ask another question when Nathan stopped the cart and held his hand up to an earpiece. He listened intently for a few moments before turning to a curious Alex. “Sir, I think we need to go back to the plane.”

  “Why? Is something wrong?” Alex asked.

  “Yes, sir. Apparently, you had a stowaway on your plane. They caught him trying to sneak out of the vehicle just a minute ago.”

  “What? Do your men think there’s a danger?”

  “Uh, no, I don’t think so,” Nathan said, clearly amused about something. “It’s a ten-year-old boy.”

  “Oh boy,” Alex said, giving the Agents an uncertain look. “Do you mind if we go back? If not, I can call for another cart and have Piper get you to your rooms.”

  “No, that’s okay. We’ll be happy to come with you.” John said with a cautious look. A ten-year-old? This he had to see. Alex nodded, then indicated for Nathan to turn the cart around and head back to the gate.

  Chapter 12

  Time: August 23, 2027

  Location: Empyrean Island, Pacific Ocean

  The cart pulled up to the gate area silently with Nathan stepping out first and eying the young truant that sat on one of the padded seats. The dark-skinned ten-year-old was dressed in a pair of jeans, striped shirt, and had a winter coat lying on the seat next to him. flanked by two security personnel, his eyes had locked on the occupants of the cart and stayed there, almost as if evaluating them for some purpose.

  What was even more curious, from Leann’s point of view, was the odd looks that Alex and Piper were returning. It was a cross between confusion and a strange sort of recognition.

  “Do you know him?” Leann asked, raising an eyebrow at the younger Drake.

  Piper blinked, almost as if coming out of a trance and turned to Leann. “No, I’ve never seen him before,” she said before glancing at Alex.

  Her brother had gotten out of the cart and approached the boy, clearly uncertain how to handle the situation. Finally, he just sat down next to the boy and took a deep breath. “So,” he began, slapping his thighs. “My name is Alex. What’s your name?”

  “Alex Drake. Your name is Alex Drake and that’s your sister Piper. My name is James, but I like to be called Terry. That’s my middle name,” Terry said, sounding far too mature for his age though his voice was still that high pitched tone of youth. “Terry Young.”

  “Pleased to meet you, Terry,” Alex said, holding his hand out to the boy.

  Terry took it, shaking it firmly, once again looking out of place with his maturity. “Nice to meet you, too, sir.” He turned then, looking at Alex’s sister who had also gotten out of the cart and approached. “I’ve read your Facebook page. I like your ideas. You like to build things, right? I like to build thi
ngs, too.”

  Piper grinned and nodded. “I do,” she said. “What kind of things do you like to build?”

  Terry smiled, his teeth shining brightly from his face. “I like to build rocket engines, though right now I can’t really build the ones I want. Just some chemical rockets through hobby suppliers. Dad won’t let me make anything more powerful than what the club would build. He says it’s too dangerous, which I know. I wouldn’t do anything that might actually blow up the shed out at the university. I’m really good at following the safety rules. The president of the rocket club says I am really good, too.”

  Piper blinked. “So, if you could build rocket engines, what kind would you build? Also, what club at what university?”

  Terry squirmed in his seat, taking a sip from his can of cola before continuing talking a mile-a-minute. “Oh! Yeah, the rocket club at UCLA. Dad works there, and he took me a year ago. He was worried about me building things and launching them from the park near our home. It’s a cool club, but they are still so limited. It’s annoying that they can’t do anything more like what I want to do. Plasma engines and ram scoops!”

  “Wow,” Piper said, sharing an impressed look with Alex. Those types of engines were high on things her grandmother was working on, amongst many other projects. “Uh, I’m going to hazard a guess that your parents don’t know you’re here?”

  Terry wrinkled up his mouth and looked down at his hands, for once looking like the ten-year-old he was. “No. I sent an email to them that should arrive in about thirty minutes. I wasn’t due back from school until now, anyway. I don’t think they’ll be worried, yet.”

  “Well, that’s…smart of you,” Piper said. “What did you tell them?”