Earth Station (Station Series Book 1)

by Martin Schroth

  “We will be sending up a construction crew by the end of the week. I’ve got them training on some simulators up in ESSC. They should be good to go by the time we send them up. Once we have the crew in place, construction should go quickly. I suspect that we will be operational in a week after they get started.”

  “What do you mean by operational?” Mac questioned.

  “The control center is the first order of business and that will be operational as well as some crew quarters. You can have a permanent presence on the station at that time. I suggest that Paul, and whoever else may be involved, start training a station crew. The simulators are already finished and are sitting up in ESSC.”

  “Paul, get started on the training and I suggest you get Heinrich onboard. After all, it’s basically his baby and he could be invaluable in training the crew. Also, Phil, could you make sure that there is a large enough computer presence on the station to accommodate ESSI? I believe she would be of great assistance in the construction operation, as well as maintenance of the completed sections. Does that sound good to the rest of you?” All of them nodded approval.

  “That’s all I have for now, anything else we need to discuss?”

  Phil spoke up. “I do have one bit of news about the download technology. With John’s engineers, my geeks have built a matrix for the downloaded individuals that is a cube, about 15 cm on a side. It can contain the entire brain download plus the coding for the environment that the individual will be ‘living’ in. We also included the ability for the downloaded individual to create his or her own environment or modify the ones we have pre-installed. It’s still in the testing phase, but as soon as it’s done, we will ask Carlos if we can make a copy of him and use that to further test the new matrix cube. We should be ready in a week or so.”

  “That’s great. By then, we should know what is going on with Carlos’ soul. Anybody else?” No one spoke up. “See ya tomorrow. Welcome aboard doc.” Doc nodded his head and the meeting broke up.

  Dr. Clay and Mac stayed behind. “What can I do for you guys?”

  “Your mother is showing signs of great improvement, but Mac pointed something out to me that should be considered. Your mother has been in that detention center for almost 30 years. She could be a security risk. At a certain point, we need to test her loyalties. I’ll let you know when I believe she is at that juncture.”

  Mac added, “We will let you know the details of how we intend to test her before we proceed. We really need to do this, you know. It’s your mother, I know, so I realize that you tend to trust her, but she could be a liability. We have to know.”

  “I don’t like it but I see your point. I agree with your assessment. Keep me informed.”

  “Sure thing, Jake,” Mac said. “Do you have any other concerns at this time?”

  “No, nothing except for some internal emotional turmoil.” With that, the two got up from their seats and left. I will be talking to my mother later today. I hope my ‘truth meter’ will work when I deal with her. I’m biased and the rest of the Committee realizes that. Even though I can know her loyalties by talking to her, I know that Mac must do what he must do so that the rest of the team can have assurances.

  July 27th, 2112

  I really miss being out in the field. Just because I am the emperor doesn’t mean I can’t share in the fun. Daydreaming in front of a stack of paperwork. It is what it is, so I better get back to work.

  As I go through another report, I hear my communicator beep. Tapping an icon on my desk, Mike appears on one of the wall screens.

  “Hey there buddy, I see that you are engaging in one of your favorite pastimes,” Mike said smiling.

  “You’re just too funny,” I said with a scowl. “So, what do I owe the pleasure of your presence.”

  “The US has made contact with us. They want to speak to our leader.”

  “Who is it exactly that wants to speak to me?”

  “A general Lex Myers.”

  “Is he in charge?”

  “No, he is a middle level operative.”

  “Is he available now?”

  “Just hold on a second, I’ll check.” A minute later, Mike came back. “I’ve got him on the line. Should I patch him through?”

  “Yeah, go ahead.” A few seconds later, a middle-aged man in military attire appeared on the screen. “I understand you wish to speak to our leader.”

  “Yes, we have matters to discuss.”

  “I happen to know on good authority that you are not ‘the leader’ on your end. If we are going to speak to anyone it will be Defense Secretary Harmon, who really is your leader. End of discussion.” With that, I terminated the conversation.

  “That went well,” Mike said with a smirk.

  “When they call back, let them sweat for at least an hour.”

  “By the way, how did the conversation go with your mother?”

  “She is doing much better. I can’t detect any deception in her. But then again, I’m biased. Mac is going to test her loyalty in about a week. I’m sure she will pass with flying colors. On another note, how is Nik?

  “That boy is excited. He can talk about nothing else except the rescue mission. He is in the simulator right now honing his skills, itching to get out there again.”

  “He needs to be careful what he wishes for.”

  “Paul has him training new pilots. Even though he is only twenty, he has shown definite leadership qualities. It makes a dad proud.”

  “That’s good to hear.”

  Mike looked away from the screen for a second. “That was fast. I have the Secretary of Defense on the line. What should I do?”

  “Make him wait. Call me back in about an hour.” With that, Mike disappeared from the screen and I went back to my paperwork – ugh.

  An hour later, Mike came back on the screen. “Are you ready now? Believe it or not, he is still on the line.”

  “Okay, patch him through.” After a few seconds, Secretary Harmon appeared. “Good morning Mr. Secretary. I am sorry you had to wait, but leadership knows no rest. What can I do for you?”

  “The citizens of the United States do not take kindly to having one of our valued employees being kidnapped.”

  “Cut the bullshit. She was not an employee; she was a prisoner in one of your top secret detention facilities.”

  “That is preposterous. She worked there.”

  “Let me tell you a story. Thirty years ago, Mary Parker and her husband were dissidents that stepped on the toes of some very important people by exposing their corruption. It was decided they would be apprehended and locked up. When that happened, Mary’s husband was killed during the raid that captured Mary. Mary was pregnant and had a child soon after. Your compassionate government ripped her newborn son from her and placed him in a House. You then began the process of brainwashing Mary. It is taking us a while to undo the damage you have done. Oh, and by the way, I am that son that you took away from his mother.”

  Secretary Harmon was speechless for a moment. “That is a very interesting story; but that is all that it is, a story. You have no evidence of any of it.”

  “Oh no? ESSI could you please send the good Secretary the file we have on the detention facility and Mary?”

  “The file has been sent.”

  “Call me when you are ready to deal in the truth.” Smiling at the Secretary, I terminated the communication.

  “What do you think Mike?”

  “He looked pissed. I doubt he will own up to any of it. I’ve seen his type before and they are stubborn, set in their ways, and unwilling to compromise. It’s their way or no way. He could be trouble.”

  “Let him bring it on. We need to make a plan. I will contact Paul and see what he has for our defense. Keep an eye on the Secretary and the rest of that bunch. If anything comes up, let me know right away.” Mike left and I called Paul.

  “Hey your highness, what’s up?”

  “How are we doing for defense? I think that we might hav
e some trouble brewing on the horizon.”

  “You already know about our ‘knock out beam’; we haven’t come up with a name for it yet. The guys here are floating all kinds of names – zapper, sleeper, knocker, and other stupid names. None of them have stuck. John recently handed me a really doozie of a weapon. It’s a concentrated EMP device. It can generate an EMP that will knock out any electronic device. It can focus the beam to as small as 5 cm or as large as a football field. It also can fire a short laser burst to penetrate any shielding, followed by the EMP. They can have as much shielding as they want but that won’t keep their stuff from being fried.”

  “That sounds good, but what do you have for protecting us from incoming armament?”

  “John’s squints have come up with a defense for beam weapons, but we don’t have anything for stopping projectiles, except for the laser weapons controlled by the Earth Station computers. If there is a massive amount of incoming, some of it will get through. We are however, several thousand meters underground, which serves as pretty good protection. We have surrounded each launch tube with a battery of defensive weapons, lasers, the EMP device, rocket launchers and our knock out beam. If we lose the launch tubes, we will be in real trouble.”

  “I’m going to talk to Barry about constructing a back-door escape hatch. It needs to be big enough to handle one of our transports. I don’t want to be buried down here. Begin training your men for a defense of Earth Station. I don’t currently expect an attack but it’s better to be safe than sorry. By the way, how’s the space station coming?

  “Barry has a construction crew up there and they are working around the clock. We have the gravium device already set up and the radiation coming from the sun is bent around the station. It cannot be seen from any direction. It is as if it is in its own pocket of reality. You must know exactly where it is to reach it. We have a homing signal being broadcast from the station to guide our transports into the hanger bay. It is being broadcast at right angles to the sun-earth line so that, even if they were to be able to figure out the frequency, they wouldn’t be able to detect it from earth. Like Earth Station, though, the space station will eventually be discovered. Hopefully, by then, we will have a defensive grid set up to protect the station.”

  “That sounds great. I’ll let you get back to work.” I terminated the connection.

  Looks like we will be okay. We need a little more time to be ready for just about anything. My com beeped, it was John. “What’s up John?”

  “I have something you might like to see. My team and Phil’s geeks have come up with this.” He swung the camera to face a 2+ meter robot. It looked pretty human, although obviously a robot. “This little baby has the ability to be connected to a human’s brain for control. Watch.”

  As I watched, John put on a small headset. Within a few seconds, the robot moved. It walked back and forth, sat in a chair and said, “Good morning your highness.”

  “That’s not all it can do.” With that, the screen split into two. John was on the right and a view that looked like it was coming from the eyes of the robot was on the left. “If I close my eyes, I see what the robot sees. Basically, it is an extension of your own body. We can configure the robot to do whatever we want. It doesn’t have its own brain so it can’t go rogue on us. It can only function as an extension of a human brain.”

  “So we could use this robot for hazardous work, and it would be as if we were there doing the work ourselves?”

  “You got it boss. The only thing is, for now, we only have this one. It was built by hand. It will take us quite a while to ramp up an assembly line. Even so, lots of the work must be done by hand. Then there is testing, which we are not finished yet with our prototype. I figure we could crank out one of these a day once we get set up. What do you think?”

  “These things could be invaluable to our future. You don’t need to make it a priority, but get things rolling. How long before you can start producing the robots?”

  “If we continue at the pace we are now, we can start having them come off the assembly line in about three weeks.”

  “Make it so. You’re doing a great job John.” I terminated the connection. We are doing some amazing things. I can’t believe it has been a little more than one year since we were sitting at the Thunderbird dreaming up Earth Station.

  July 29th, 2112

  Phil popped up on my wall screen. “I think you might want to get down here.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Carlos’ corporeal body just died. Some very interesting things are happening in the matrix.”

  “Okay, I’ll be right down.”

  As I entered the computer ring, I was met by Dr. Clay. “Carlos is still alive and well in the matrix. His body died about 30 minutes ago. I’ll let Phil tell you what we found.”

  “A few seconds before Carlos died, there was a burst of activity between the body and the matrix. The space Carlos was taking up in the matrix increased by about 30 percent. Our suspicion is that his soul transferred to the matrix just before his body died. Carlos has been quiet since then, but we know he is still in there, because there is a lot of activity going on in the matrix.”

  One of Phil’s geeks who was monitoring the matrix spoke up. “The activity in the matrix is slowing down.” After about a minute he added, “it seems to be stable now.”

  “Carlos, are you able to respond?” I asked.

  Carlos’ hologram suddenly appeared. “What was once lost, now has been found. I have my soul back. It is me and it is not me. It’s hard to explain but I am much more aware of its presence and it can communicate with me. I believe the matrix allows my soul to be more on an even footing with my consciousness.”

  “That’s insightful, have the geeks down here been rubbing off on you?” I asked with a smile.

  “Even though my soul is me, it is separate. I believe that you can talk to it apart from me; by that I mean my consciousness.”

  “How can I summon your soul?”

  “I believe you just ask me and I will answer.”

  This is very weird. “Carlos, what are you?”

  “I am part of the universal consciousness. You know the universal consciousness as God. I am a small piece of that consciousness.”

  This is wild. Am I really talking to God, even just a small part of Him? “What happens to you when you die?”

  “The part of me that is my soul returns to the universal consciousness. It then lives on for eternity.”

  “I really don’t know what else to ask you at this point. This revelation is overwhelming. Carlos, could you put together a report on you and your soul; what it is, how you interact with it, anything you or it can tell me about the universal consciousness? I’m sorry if I offend you by calling your soul ‘it’; I just don’t know what words to use to describe your soul.”

  “I’d like to know myself. I will get right on it your majesty. And don’t worry about calling my soul” ‘it’. It doesn’t mind,” Carlos said with a smirk

  I didn’t expect this. I am going to have to sit down with Bodhi’s clergy. They may have some insight and I am sure they have tons of questions. I lifted my communicator and called Mike. “Mike, could you have the executive committee meet with me in an hour? Something extraordinary has come up.”

  “I don’t know if everyone will be available, but I will get as many of them as I can. What’s this all about?”

  “You won’t believe it, but I think I just talked to God.”

  “Do I need to make an appointment with Dr. Skinner for you?”

  “I’m not going crazy. Just get the meeting organized.”

  “Okay, see you in an hour.”

  Next, I called Charlie. “Hey Charlie, Mike will call you in a minute about an emergency meeting of the executive committee we are going to have in an hour. What I need you to do is get together as many clergy in Bodhi as you can find. I would like them available for this meeting.”

  “I don’t know how many I will b
e able to get to the meeting, but I am sure that the ones here at Earth Station will be there. I can have the others around Bodhi get here as soon as they can. What’s going on?”

  “You’ll find out at the meeting. Have the ones outside of Earth Station get here as soon as possible. I have a feeling that the entire religious leadership of Bodhi will want to have a get together after they find out what I have to tell them.”

  “Alright, I’ll get right on it. Oop, here is the notification from Mike about the meeting, see ya soon.”

  I hurried back to my office. When I got there, ESSI was waiting. “I’ve got a preliminary report from Carlos.”

  “That was fast.”

  “You have to remember; Carlos is like a computer now; in fact, a very powerful one. He can process information much faster than he could when he was in his body.”

  “Don’t distribute that information yet. I’ll let you know when and who to give it to during our meeting.”

  The next hour went by slowly. Finally, everyone arrived except for Barry and Paul who were on the space station. They have been notified and ESSI can send them a summary after the meeting. Charlie managed to get five clergy together. I had them wait outside the conference room until we were ready for them. They seemed very confused and I can understand why. Meeting with the executive committee is something that is not even remotely on their radar.

  “Thanks for coming on such short notice. Rather than trying to explain what is happening, I will show you.” With that, I brought up the recording of what happened down in the computer ring earlier. After the recording finished, all of them looked at me with a stunned expression on their faces. “Well, anybody have anything to say?”

  “You know, when this gets out, the shit is going to hit the fan. I for one, would like to keep this under wraps,” Maggie finally said.

  “She’s right,” Mac added.

  “Eventually, the people will have to be told. At this point we don’t know enough and can’t even begin to answer the questions that will arise. That is why I have our clergy here. They are the ones that are going to have to come to grips with this and be able to relay this to their followers. Are you ready to let them in?”