DR O and the ECO-X

by Aaron T Knight

  Maggie continued her story.

  “Your gape-mouthed look is common when anyone learns about my past. Your original impression of me was correct. I’m the daughter of a Navy admiral high up in defense tactics administration. We lived in San Diego for the latter part of my life. I hated all of the rules of conduct that applied to an admiral’s daughter and the mandantory appearances at various military social functions.

  “ On the surface my two brothers and older sister conformed to the military life without any complaints. They were smarter than me. Silence was the only way to cover up their activities. But not me. At sixteen I took my stand for individual freedom and the right to make my own decisions. Action was immediate and I was sent off to a girls school known for its ability to keep a lid on such as I.

  “This place was on the California coast north of San

  Diego and close to the beach. Slipping out at night to smoke dope with the surfers and partying until dawn was a regular part of my school life. I was caught more than once and the family was informed of my surfer girl activities. I lost all privileges and was cut off from my allowance. Bent but not broken, I became cleverer.

  “ An example of the new reality in our family was a Thanksgiving at home. Two of my uncles, me and my siblings stood in the back of the house swapping drugs, buying and talking about supply connections. The race was on and I rather recklessly married a young finance genius to get away from home.

  “ My husband worked with banks to put together financial packages to be sold to stock brokers. It got excitng when hubby brought me into the business to visit banks and brokerage houses all over the world. As a courier I delivered deals and transported contracts. It was that simple. It was fun to play in dozens of famous places in nearly every country in the world.

  “ The business was becoming more intense as my husband expanded his network of contacts. Then came 2008 when the bottom fell out of the finance games. Within a few months auditors were working on our records. My husband was indicted for fraudulent investments and money laundering. Imagine my surprise when they arrested me too for my role as the courier of millions of dollars carefully hidden among the contracts and paperwork. I didn’t have a clue about the laundering deal. I was an innocent “mule” carrying money taken fraudulently and then laundered.

  “ My ex husband is still in the slammer for another ten years at least. My court trial was swift. I had no way of persuading law enforcement I was innocent. I learned how to live in prison without getting involved in the gang stuff from my roommate. She was a middle aged lady serving 20 to life for causing her husband’s life to end prematurely. An irrevocible trust set up for me by my grandmother bought this cruiser.”

  Chapter Nine

  By the following morning, the cruiser was approaching the southern California coast. Maggie eased off on the throttle and turned to Joe.

  “ Well, what now? You can’t return to Hawaai for sure. I brought you here so you can decide what you intend to do. Since I volunteered to get involved with your life I think I have the right to give you some advice. Agreed?” Joe nodded and replied,

  “ I welcome some ideas.”

  “Although you have been ducking around the Eco-X dilemma, if you’re the man I believe you to be you must help Dr. O. There really isn’t any other course for you.”

  Joe knew she was right. He was ducking this responsibilty because of the enormity of the problem. But as Maggie had already surmised, he had to find O.

  “ Thanks for the push Maggie. I have to help O. I’ve been thinking about finding him, I’m almost sure I know where he would go. I’m the only one who would know about his hide out.”

  Another day’s cruising brought them to the area where Joe would leave Maggie

  He waited with her while she had the cruiser fueled for her return to Hawaii. Joe would miss her.

  “Will I be seeing you again Maggie? I’ll miss you.” “I’m not changing my life for now Joe. I’m sure if I

  decide to travel around and explore a new place I can find you. That is, when you’re out of trouble with the feds. I’ll miss you too. You have my cell number, use it.”

  He was back in the college town where it all began. When he first worked as an assistant for Dr. O his lab was on the second floor over a pharmacy in the town. It was all O could afford at the time. Joe doubted anyone knew about this place where O had started his experiments.

  Joe went up the backstairs of the pharmacy building. He didn’t knock on the door because he was sure O wouldn’t answer. Pressing his face to the door he yelled out. “Open up O it’s Joe, please let me in.”

  It was few minutes before he heard any sound coming from inside. Then there was a shuffling noise growing louder as it came toward the door. He said reassuringly.

  “ You can open up O, it’s really me, Joe.”

  He was shocked when O entered the room. He was like a wraith. Thin to near transparency his eyes were barely visible in their shrunken sockets and the lopsided grin was definitely gone. Joe was agonizing over his friend’s terrible condition, it was a graphic representation of the murderous pace O was maintaining.

  They sat down in the cramped front room. O looked at Joe and there was relief in his eyes. He said. “ Thank you for showing up I need your help. I have just completed my work on the Eco-X problem. I verified what I had suspected happened while working on the reproduction phase. It was the difficult juncture that I couldn’t solve, then it seemed to come together by itself. I should have stopped right then. But my vanity and the pressure for more Eco-X made me move forward without examining what had occurred.

  Now it’s obvious. Nature closed the gap and added some features I didn’t see.”

  Joe was hesitant to find out what O had learned. By the look of him, he thought to himself, the news isn’t good. He needed Joe desperately to help him find ways to gain control over the egg bearing Eco-X. Dr. O continued.

  “ Some of the changes and how it was done is beyond my scientific knowledge. I did learn what the major differences are from the embryo Eco-X. The changes were created in the neurological system of the animals. The most troublesome ones are strong survival instincts which I didn’t create in the egg bearing creatures. It’s why they wouldn’t automatically respond to our signals.

  “ These complex alterations means they have a degree of intelligence to make the survival instincts workable. The other major change is their ability to work together for protection similar to the instincts of other animals.”

  Joe’s wasn’t aware his mouth was open as he digested the enormity of the situation O was describing.

  “No wonder they outsmarted us on every attempt to capture them. Do you know how intelligent they are?” O hestitated trying to figure out how to tell Joe. “I have been studying the Eco-X night and day to learn about the creatures. I ran many experiments and tests to gain some insight into their characteristics. Their response to problems has been impossible to determine.You know about their clever tricks to evade capture in CRAP, but I need to tell you about the latest developments.”

  Joe went into shock when O told him about Disneyland and the ECO-X’ apparent gesture of defiance. .He was really rocking now. Illogically, he thought to himself, I must shut him up. I can’t stand to hear anymore. It wasn’t necessary, O was done and then some.

  The lab was silent. Each of them was working on the problem in his own way. All of the incidents sunk in to Joe’s fevered mind. Would the Eco-X run amok trying all sorts of things using their ability to fly, walk, run, swim and burrow into the ground? Why not? he thought to himself, the world was foreign to them. Surely curiosity would go along with their measure of intelligence.

  He suddenly had a powerful longing to be back in his shack in Hawaii. Steadying himself, he asked O. “Where are the Eco-X now?”

  “They left Disneyland and returned to the CRAP site.

  I instructed our crew to continue their work with the embryo creatures and let the coast guard monitor the wild
bunch.” O replied

  “ You know O, we must meet with the government and WAMI to discuss the, uh, problem. Now we get some rest. It will probably take several days to hammer out a plan to take over the responsibility for managing the Eco-X crisis. Like it or not, we own this catastrophe.”

  O slowly nodded his head in agreement. Joe had forced him to face the reality of the growing Eco-X crisis.

  To his credit Dr. O plunged right into the history of the egg bearing ECO-X for the parties assembled for the meeting. Nothing was left out about the trouble the species had caused so far. Then O told them about his recent work to understand the creatures he had created.

  He didn’t attempt to excuse himself for failing to detect the work of Nature.

  He reported the actions of the ECO-X in evading capture and annihilation. They were obviously intelligent and had strong survival instincts. How clever and how good their problem solving abilities were appeared to be considerable. O enumerated their actions from the hoola hoop incident at the CRAP site, escape from the fire and Disneyland disaster.

  While O was giving his report regarding the ECO-X crisis, the expressions on the faces of his audience changed. Everyone in the room was anxious to hear what O had to tell them. Their eager looks when O began talking gradually disappeared as the scientist enumerated the problems the ECO-X had created so far. Smiles evaporated replaced by uneasy surprise then distress by the time Disneyland was mentioned. Images of a beloved wonderland being desecrated brought on outrage and dirty looks at O.

  Joe stepped in quickly to help O when the group began to eye the scientist much like the lynch mobs portrayed in western movies. It was certainly a “let’s string’em up!” atmosphere. He walked boldly up to the lectern,

  “ First I’d like to remind all of you about the pressure put on Dr. O to generate ECO-X at a much faster pace. That demand came from the group in this room! I don’t know anyone more honest and sincere than Dr. O. His only quest was to help humanity cope with a bad problem. People like him are rare in this world in fact he’s the only person in this room with such qualities. I mean that statement to include everyone in this room!

  “ We have been working over twelve hours a day on a strategy to first control them by restricting their area of movement. Then we will work to shrink the plastic supply. The objective is to capture them and stop reproduction by introducing sterile mates until the population disappears.”

  Before Joe could say any more several officials of the corporation stood up and interrupted him. One protested. “ Your so-called plan is ludicrous Joe. All the efforts to contain the ECO-X have failed miserably.

  What’s the new miraculous idea that will work this time. Or is it just a way to pacify us?”

  Joe took pleasure in answering him with a solution. “Thanks for bringing that up. You interrupted me before I had a chance to explain what we are planning. We are looking at a species of unknown properties. So Dr. O and I had to consider all possibilities. Scientists from a number of disciplines were recruited to study our creatures. Although there are still many unknown factors about the creatures we are confident there is a way to control them.

  “ In the first phase we will introduce ECO-X that are sterile to breed with egg bearing animals. The population will begin to shrink slowly at first then the geometric growth factor will accelerate every day. We estimate the problem will be solved within two years as the life spans ends.”

  One man reacted to Joe ’s plan and protested.

  “But the animals can do a great deal of damage in two years. Look what they did to Disneyland in two weeks! I say we gas them out of existence right now. Who wants to explain it all to the public when they find out there’s a wild bunch of ECO-X destroying property. It will get worse when they find out capturing them seems impossible.”

  The CEO of WAMI countered the man ’s protest. “Sounds like a simple quick answer. But the ECO-X has become a popular animal giving hope of cleaning up the country. Extermination is risky if the public finds out we’re killing them off. They would never understand if we tried to explain the differences in two ECO-X species. I like the program Joe has outlined because we can continue the ECO-X CRAP project with the embryo animals, It’s a safer route even though it will take more work trying to keep the people in the dark. And it doesn’t help that they’re damned cute.”

  The group got down to business. Arguments and discussions continued so long they actually had take-out food brought in twice.

  In the end Dr. O’s attrition plan was adopted. Joe promised research would continue to try to find a quicker solution than attrition.

  Chapter Ten

  And so the plan agreed upon was immediately put into action. Hard, grueling work had been mentioned when the project was discussed and they were right. Trying to round them up on the water required great patience. The animals were difficult to herd into a designated area so some maneuvers often had to be repeated. There were always members of crews quitting the job out of frustration.

  The ECO-X seemed to be enjoying the game based on the loud chirping. Dumping water on the boats was their favorite game, so the crews were always soaking wet. One day a crew member stopped working to locate where loud laughing was coming from on the boat. It was the crew members on the deck laughing and pointing at him! What? he thought and checked himself out. Finding nothing he gestured angrily at the other men. One cackling man pointed at his head. Reaching up he touched something up there. It moved to his touch then chirped as it flew away.

  This was new behavior indicating the ECO-X were learning from experience they could easily elude capture. This was more evidence they could react to new experiences and respond of their own volition. How smart were these frustrating animals?

  Now Dr. O began to introduce the sterile creatures and the.size of the herd nearly doubled. Containment efforts became almost impossible. After a month of a losing battle, the extermination solution was brought up again. Containment was becoming alarmingly expensive with only limited success. Dr O and Joe doggedly fought off efforts to wipe them out here and now! They were sucessful in getting a temporary stay of two weeks to show impressive progress in containing the ECO-X.

  Suddenly, without any change in operations the area was beginning to shrink in size every day. This was heady stuff but no one could take any credit since there were no procedural adjustments. They quietly enjoyed the phenomena. As the circle shrank and the boats were closer they had a chance to observe the swarm.

  It didn ’t take long to realize at least one half of the population was gone! Many questions came to mind: where are they? were they still together as a group? why hadn’t there been any reports of ECO-X from anywhere? It was unsettling to say the least.What little control they had over the ECO-X appeared to have vanished.

  Acting covertly an alarm was sounded confidentially to all groups involved with the CRAP project to organize search parties in their area. Heightened street activity anywhere naturally arouses the curiosity of the residents. Along the Pacific coast additional police cars and vans of all types trying to look inconspicuous, were prowling the streets. No one knew anything about the intense search for something.

  For the first two days there was silence. Not a single ECO-X was spotted anywhere on the mainland. Then a report came in from Seattle about a bizarre happening in the city. Production of baked bread had been halted because plants manufacturing the plastic wrappers had been cleaned out over night. Delivery of bread stopped.

  Confusion and accusations erupted over responsibility for the disappearance of all the plastic bread wrappers. Some of the bakeries kept their cool and ordered truck loads of plastic wrappers from near by cities. But the mystery remained regarding the disapearance of the plastic. Joe suspected the ECO-X were responsible and he flew up to Seattle to confirm his suspicion.

  He toured the plants with the police looking for clues. At one plant there was a warehouse for plastic storage given a cursory look earlier. Joe asked the company pres
ident to have the main doors opened for inspection. One little touch of the doors caused a tidal wave of water to engulf the search party and push their vehicles up against a fence.

  Joe being right produced good and bad results. They knew the ECO-X had eaten the plastics, the good news. The bad news was the resulting injuries to the search party and the total destruction of ten vehicles. And the animals had flown away to somewhere else.

  Joe had a broken wrist, thankfully his left one, and he got busy contacting the corporate attorneys to handle the coming law suits. Joe became apprehensive about the changes in the ECO-X behavior. The swarm didn’t appear to be together now. It was a major change in behavior. But why?

  Incidents involving ECO-X exploded along the Pacific west coast. Size of the swarms reported ranged from 1000 or better down to 2 animals. Several toy chain stores had been subject to hit and run attacks by ECO-X on their plastic toy inventory. They efficiently ate nearly all of the toys in a matter of minutes then left the premises flooded with water.

  Schools were also targets for the playground equipment. Students were fascinated with the ECO-X. They learned the creatures were cheerful and playful as they chirped loudly. Everyone had seen pictures of them but up close they were even cuter. A new problem arose when the children played with the creatures then decided to take them home. It certainly killed Dr. O’s containment idea.

  It was difficult to organize an effective round up of the loose ECO-X in towns on the West Coast. People were playing with them and the animals didn’t seem to have any fear of humans. They loved to perform for an audience. Chirping loudly and doing loops and dives in the air. On the ground they tumbled around and initiated chases with young children. The most popular was the game where the ECO-X stopped chasing and the child became the chaser.

  This new development made it urgent to increase production of the sterile ECO-X. Dr. O was ordered to triple the output. Joe was more pessimistic than O. How could they manage to reach all of the animals to introduce the sterile type into the groups?