by Clay Moore
John put his left hand over his mouth to sti fle the laughter that was there. The person who was the receptionist was exceptional and required a rather easy job. That just showed you what the planetary director thought of what ordinary people's expectations were. He must've worked very hard with his receptionist so that having an exceptional receptionist would be okay.
"Yes, I am John Hardesty." The receptionist picked up the communicator and dialed the code to get his boss’s communicator in the office. There were a couple rings that John could hear. Then someone picked up the communicator and announced himself as the planetary director.
"Sir, there is a man here who says that he is John Hardesty — yes sir he meets the description as you told me. He is, however, a little bit younger than the picture you gave me — no sir he does not look like a 40-year-old agent. He looks more like a thirty-year-old.”
The planetary director's of fice door slammed open. The very familiar face of Caldwell Johansson looked around at the men standing in front of his receptionist. His eyes rested on John for just a few minutes more than Daniel. Johansson knew Daniel, but he only had a little bit of dealing with Hardesty. The image from the Eridani Secret Service did not match up very well with John. Also, the last time that Johansson met John his first name was Ian. Also, the image was a man of 40 years of age. The man that was standing in front of his receptionist's desk had to be no more than 30. Somewhere, someone had achieved a miracle.
"John, what is it about your name that you changed it to John?" "My name is John Hardesty. I was known as Ian when I had a bit of a problem with my father. When my dad died, a lot of bad feelings were removed. And so I decided to be known as John, which is my real name."
Caldwell Johansson had thought in this day and age of electronic ID that it would be tough to change one's identity back and forth. Then he realized just who it was that he talked to. When he had finished talking to this person, then that person set into motion sending him John.
"Okay. John, come into my office." * * * "I promised Daniel that he could come and hear the truth. I'm going to need people that I trust to keep their mouth shut. That's Daniel, Cheri, and Daniel Junior."
"That's reasonable. Daniel is also a member of our legislature. Right now I think we meet for couple weeks a year. He has the right to know, and the privilege of letting the other aldermen know what it was all about. Come into my office.
John picked up his attaché case. He negotiated through the swinging door and walked through the door being held by the planetary director.
Caldwell Jones waited until Daniel was through the door before he let it go and sealed it shut. Daniel then went to his desk and sat in the chair behind it. He touched a few buttons on a console on his desk. John could hear the door to the office door locking. By the timbre and note of the lock, he knew that the lock was a substantial one. John sure hopes that there were no power outages while they were inside the office.
"Why don't you begin, John,": said, Caldwell Johansson. "Okay, let's start this by setting our way back machine to about 14 months ago. This was the period that Planetary Interests was trying to buy an old battle cruiser owned by a different company. At that time the Eridani High Guard did not like people to sell old battle cruiser hulls. The Eridani High Guard would sell such a shipwreck to other planetary governments, or companies that the EHG knew could not complete the refurbishment. For the Eridani High Guard, the sale of old hulls was a substantial amount of the bottom line. When the Eridani High Guard discovered that Planetary Interests had purchased the shell. The Eridani High Guard was not sanguine about a corporation that formerly belonged to the Theodosai criminal gang.
"Now this sets up the elements of what happened when Vivana and I arrived on Faraway. We had to know if there was anything else that Planetary Interests might find interesting, sorry for that pun. What we discovered was that there was an actual physical guard against some buildings that were left over from the previous owner, Genetic Concepts. We have been told that previous to that month the scientists at the old Genetic Concepts company were producing fruits, vegetables, and cuts of meat. So much time as it was used to do that we had no problem. It was when we discovered that the genetic concept building was still producing genetic robots.
"We could not continue the investigation because we were under orders to pinpoint the battle cruiser. We decided to do the next best thing which was fire naval 30 mm blasters at the buildings. This had the desired result of destroying the old wombs. For all intents and purposes, we had destroyed the genetic robot problem on Faraway.
"Vivana and I flew out and was able to get the battle cruisers space fix. We sent that to our response unit, which had been whittled down to a single battle cruiser. We were captured. We were then set loose by director Caldwell and his soon to be son-in-law. We got into our Battlesuits. We set our explosive charges on the reservoirs for Radamite. We flew out of that battle cruiser and into infamy.
"So, the situation is now a little different. Too many people saw the suppose it twins for it to remain a secret. All kinds of newspapers, two dimensions, and three dimension video did their level best to get the governments of the planets to come here and do the same thing you did the first time.
"The biggest problem with that is that you are people will be in the way of bombs and blaster bolts periods they're going to park a cruiser in the atmosphere and rain down blaster energy on this little bitty spec of your world. The Emir has managed to talk some sense into the other worlds. You might see some other tangible results. Until it is well known that I succeeded in what I want to do.
"What I want to do is to go to the former Genetic Concepts buildings and set some bombs to destroy all of the mechanical wombs. I also need to kill as many of the genetic robots as I possibly can. The look of the genetic concept buildings is very unique. I would imagine that the children want to play dare to touch the building."
"For the man who has never had the privilege of children,": said Caldwell, "you certainly know them quite well."
"One of my jobs as the second son to my father was that I helped my brother raise his own children. To them, I was known as uncle John. When my dad decided that I had to kick my brother in the ass to get him to do anything. He sent me to make new farmsteads to increase my father's wealth, and the wealth of my brother."
"That sounds like Corrigan," said Caldwell Johansson. "And you would be right. That is the reason why I joined the Eridani High Guard as a Marine. I didn't become a spy until after I retired from the Marines."
"Okay so here is a general plan of action. I don't know how they are protected, or whether there are any super soldiers. I rather doubt that there's any kind of super soldier there because it is hard to hold control over such an egotistical genetic robot. The first time that someone has tried to penetrate the old Genetic Concepts buildings all she had was a knife and a big bore blaster pistol."
"That was Vivana?" remarked Daniel. "All we were trying to figure out was what was going on in that building. What threw us off was Genetic Concepts, their production of food for you. As soon regular shipments of food base got to your planet, the old Genetic Concepts building was put into place to build genetic robots. The primary reason for that was to crew and man the battle cruiser.
"Now let me make something perfectly clear. I have no problem in somebody producing genetic robots. The only thing it does for me it opens up a few worms. This makes it somewhat hard for me to ignore. That's the idea of slavery of humanity. Those that produce genetic robots will indicate that this is not real slavery. None of the robots have full freedom of will. They call this thing they do as a program. Most of the worlds have declared this as anathema. I cannot ignore the siren song of over 10 trillion people."
"This history brings us all to today," said Caldwell Johansson. John sat in the chair opposite Caldwell Johnson. Stone called Daniel over to sit next to him. John reached into his coat" from the inner coat pocket a sheaf of paper. He opened the bunch of paper and set it on t
he desk. The first picture was of the two genetic robots, apparently. That was found in the trash heap.
Daniel had not seen this before. The planetary director used his personal authority to quash the news. Daniel picked up the photo on the ordinary paper. He noticed a couple of things. These twins were in fact twins with Cheri. Daniel sat down the paper as if it were a snake about to strike.
"I'm sorry to have to do that too,": said John. "I recognize them from the beginning as being the same root stock as Cheri. I know that yours are different because you have given her freedom and you have let her continue to grow."
"Did this photograph and his wife's image prove that they are building genetic robots in that building."
"What do you want me to do about it?"
"Destroy them!" "You would have me destroy them with what? I am a single agent. You need to start thinking in those terms, especially if you want to be one of the upper-level worlds."
"What would you need to destroy that Factory?" asked Caldwell Johansson. "You all want me to rush out there and do you don't know what. I'll rush out there, but I'm going to rush out there wondering how I'm going to do this job. I do have some resources that I brought with me. If it that is not enough resources I may have to ask you to get some for me. Is that a more acceptable way of doing something?"
"Yes, I understand,": said, Caldwell Johansson. "I would imagine that having a government official tell you to do this when something else is required to achieve the result. I almost succumbed to that. To deal with the Genetic Concepts that means you have to have some sort of explosive. There is some explosive left over from the mining operation of a former corporation. The explosive artistic explosive used in mining. Would that be at this no material that you could use."
"What is the kind of fusing that it uses,": ask John of Daniel.
"Yes, are you using electric detonator controllers?"
"Yeah using a timer to send an electrical pulse." "If you use one stick per womb, you could probably do all of the mechanical wombs with a few leftover to make sure of certain thing like computers, and power systems."
"Okay, I think we jumped in a little too fast. I still haven't determined if these are in fact genetic robots. This is a lot easier to do when they're alive I tell you that."
"We still have the bodies in our morgue. We held them in the morgue until we could determine whether not they were genetic robots. Even our code of laws discriminates against the genetic robot. Daniel's wife was excluded from the definition of a genetic robot, by the mere fact that she is a pig-headed woman. In other words, she's very much a human female."
John looked at Daniel who looked at him with a smile on his face. Yeah, the right woman for the good man brings that smile of contentedness and sometimes exasperation.
John said: "Now we have to see the bodies. Are they still available?"
Dir. Johansson gave a small chuckle. "The man in charge of the Eridani Secret Service called A?."
* * * "Yes, that's the terrifying man." "He said that you might want to see the bodies. We've kept them in our morgue which also happens to be inside the structure. I can take you there in a matter of minutes."
"I don't need you for this if you would rather not see the bodies, Daniel."
"No, I must see the bodies. I must see what Cheri might have been." At the director's quizzical glance John realizes he needed to resolve that issue. "Cheri started out life as a genetic robot. They pretty much ended up giving her all of the human features and no program. She's a woman that had no childhood."
"She did have a childhood. It was about six months. I bought stuffed animals, baby dolls, and simplistic games. After that period of six months, she seemed to put away the toys."
"No wonder it took you so long to produce a son," said Johansson. "When she did have Daniel it was like something turned on in her mind. She became a mother and a wife of mine. I tell you the first time I took her I felt like I was raping a child."
"Cheri's root model are the two bodies that were going to see in your morgue. Daniel still permitted to not have to go through that."
"I want to go. I have to go. Someone has to witness what happened to the genetic robots, and also see what happened to them in finality."
Johansson shook his head. He walked over to the Starport owner. Caldwell put her right hand on Daniel's left shoulder. He bowed his head to say a little prayer for Daniel.
Daniel said: "thank you for that Director." "I knew that you had a genetic robot as a wife. I did not know how much the Genetic Concepts people gave her, They gave much more natural life."
John said: "By the time I made it down to Faraway little Danny was already a very precocious child. I did not think him unusual at all. When I met his mother and found out what she was, I believed that Danny was from another marriage."
"This is the problem with small colony worlds. We have enough men to do all of the jobs. But we don't have enough of our women that want to do this kind of colonizing work. Marriage with a lady that wants to be on someplace like Faraway only wants to do things on their timetable."
"So the offer of a real wife from Genetic Concepts was something that they could do. In reality, it was probably an experiment. They wanted to know if by creating genetic robots at the physical age of 20 would there be any problems in their bearing offspring."
Johansson said: "sometimes I think the scientists at Genetic Concept took on too much. It could've all gone wrong with Cheri. After six or seven months her life could've been ended by one of many diseases. That would've left a husband with an emotional hole in his soul. Let me take you all down to the morgue. Let me show you the depravity of the human condition."
Johansson stood up he reached into his safe and produced the keys for the morgue. He took both men with him as he left his office. Caldwell told his receptionist where Johansson was going. Then he took them to a staircase. There was one stair up. There was one stare down. They took that stare down into the depths of the basement. As they took that stare down into the basement, John could feel the bone chilling cold of where they chose the settlement to be. Johansson noticed that John was getting a little cold.
"We use this basement as a morgue because it is always cold. The need for refrigeration does not exist. Although, we do have the cooling equipment necessary. We can freeze the body and then send it to a more equipped lab."
"I noticed the quality of work that your medical examiner's performed. You have a right to be proud there. We were almost able to agree that those two women were genetic robots. The picture that I saw was not one of the two twins who were out of the hole. They all had that pallid look."
"In the 15 years of my tenure as Director, I can count on my hand the number of actual murders. When Planetary Interests came over us, I asked for and received the grant to get a real medical examiner, a lab for him to work in, and an actual working morgue. At least there is one thing that came from Planetary Interests."
Danny Krieg said: "Is that how you were able to get that kind of spending? If I had known that I could have gotten a lot more for the Starport."
"I don't think that Anton Hecton would have listened to your needs for the Starport. It sure seemed like he was trying to bring this refurbishment of the battle cruiser under a certain number. If he couldn't get that number down, then he was going to go ahead and sell it on as he had it."
"In many ways, I prefer how we are operating now," said John. "In the other intelligence system, the premium was put on get in and get out fast. With how the Eridani Secret Service operates it makes absolutely sure. Then use your blaster or explosives."
Director Johansson shook his head in a mild reproof. Clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Let's get into the morgue, shall we gentlemen?"
* * *
Johansson took his key that he had retrieved from his safe and inserted it into the lock on the door. This was a situation in which a physical lock was all that was needed. He twisted the knob and pushed the door open.
&nb
sp; Danny pushed ahead. John did not know what he was thinking. Perhaps Daniel thought that the bodies would still be outside on the examining table. When he saw that they were no longer on the table, his shoulders wilted. He had worked himself up to a fever pitch so that he could see these relatives of Cheri. John came up to the young man. He put his own right hand on Daniel's right shoulder.
Daniel turned around and faced John. "I thought I had prepared myself to see these bodies. I don't know now." "You made it this far, Daniel. It seems a waste if he suddenly chickened out at the last moment. I'm starting to think that maybe Cheri should have been here."
"I told her I was coming here to see these bodies. She did ask to come and see them. I told her I didn't think it would be wise for her to come. I knew that these bodies were genetic robots, but I did not know that they were of the same family as Cheri. Does that make me a heartless man?"
Johansson said: "it is hard to know what is right for one particular person. She's going to need to know how to deal with this emotionally. You are male and subject to a shorter lifespan than females. She is going to have to come to the morgue at some point to identify your body. It would be fascinating to know who she wants with her when she goes to the morgue.
The door to the morgue opened, and the public medical examiner enters the lab. He looked at all the gentleman in his lab. When Director Johansson gave him a heads up that some talented people might be coming down with him to see the bodies he decided that he was going to be nearby.
Director Johansson said: "gentlemen, this is Dr. Howard Shaw. To bring Dr. Shaw here I had to tell to him that his employment would come to an end. His term ends in about four years."
John took the doctor's hand and shook it. It always seemed that the medicos handshakes were limp and of a consistency of a fish. This Doctor put proof to John's idea.
The doctor also shook Daniel's hand. Then the doctor went over to the lockers where bodies were stored. He opened one cabinet and pulled out the gurney. The two young ladies were covered up in plastic wrap. He opened up the plastic wrap so that the bodies can be seen better.
