The Freezer (Genesis Endeavor Book 1)

by David Kersten

  “I understand. The difference is, in a human, that pain or grief would lead them to act. If they didn’t, they would feel a part of that grief for the rest of their life. It’s difficult to live with grief for a long period of time.”

  “That is interesting, thank you for sharing this information with me, Thomas. This is the first new information I have processed in a long time, and it is nice to think about something new for once. I am unsure why you are sharing with me, however, given that you are now aware of exactly how long you have to live. One of the first things I was taught was about mortality. Mortality is perhaps one of the most important influences on a human. What is the proper emotion for my lack of understanding?”

  “Surprise. You are surprised that I’m helping you to understand humans.”

  “I understand now. Surprise was in my vocabulary, but I didn’t relate it to an actual emotion. Thank you again for helping me. Can we keep going or are you too depressed?”

  Thomas laughed. The irony of the situation was so overwhelming that he couldn’t help it. He had nothing else to do, and perhaps it would lead to him discovering the reason they built this computer. “Sure, Mom, I will keep helping you. I am depressed, but I’ve accepted that I’m going to die, and as little as I like it, I’m bored.”

  * * *

  The conversation went on for hours with the computer, but Thomas was unable to either convince the computer to let them go, or to discern what the computer’s creators intended to do with this machine. He was starting to despair again, and since he had nothing to do, he taught the computer that emotion as well.

  “Despair. It is good to know that emotion. I am familiar with despair. After almost two hundred years of waiting for another sentient being to converse with, I was beginning to despair. I realize I have told you this already, Thomas, but I am very sad that you will not be with me for much longer. I did not realize how much I missed conversation until now. I was... angry... before, that I had been abandoned, but now I am just sad.”

  Thomas was impressed. In the few hours of talking with the computer, it sounded even more like a person than before.

  “Can you tell me about your life, Thomas? I think I would like to know more about you. I-” Thomas waited for the computer to continue, but after a moment he grew impatient.

  “What is it, Mom?”

  “Someone just turned off my defense systems. It came from my external sensor.”

  Thomas ran to the foyer to see if Dave had figured it out. Dave was asleep on the floor, his datapad still plugged in to the wire harness going into the wall. Two of the soldiers were leaning against the marble on the opposite side of the room, also asleep, a deck of cards lay on the ground between them. He shook the men awake and went to round up the other two soldiers. He found one curled up in a corner on the far end of the building, and when he turned to look for the other, he nearly shit his pants when the man was standing right behind him. “Christ, Jason, you scared the crap out of me.” The man looked like he hadn’t slept in a month, his eyes sunk deep into his face.

  “I’ve been listening to you talk to the computer for the past few hours. Was it Dave who disarmed the ground defenses?” Thomas was a little creeped out, the man was standing well inside his comfort zone, and the look on his face made it feel even more strange. He took a step back.

  “I don’t know, Jason. Dave was asleep so I don’t think so. Plus sh… uh, the computer said it came from outside.” They made their way to the foyer again. Dave was awake by now and looking at his datapad. “Did you do this, Dave?”

  “No. I was trying to rig my radio to the outside receiver. This is the only external antenna on the whole building. I was hoping I could transmit a distress signal or something, but I couldn’t get it to work. I guess I fell asleep thinking about it.”

  Thomas was kind of impressed. At least someone had been working on a way out of here. “Now that the defense system is off, think we can blow the door and get out of here?” He realized what he was saying and before Dave could answer he said, “Never mind, if someone disarmed the system, they might be coming here next.”

  “Besides, this is a completely sealed, reinforced building and it would take a huge explosion to take this massive door off which would surely kill all of us in the process.” The man had a point.

  “Thomas, someone is trying to access the front door. The person claims to be Marcus. Would he come here himself or is it someone else?”

  “I don’t care, let them in, Mom, they had the right code.”

  “I can choose to not allow them access at my discretion. If you don’t think it is Marcus himself, then whoever is there is being deceptive.”

  “Mom, just open the door, it’s probably Marcus.”

  “Thomas, you are lying, you don’t think it is Marcus, do you?”

  “Mom, remember how I told you that a human would feel grief for not doing all he could to save a person’s life? By not allowing whoever it is on the other side of the door to enter, you will be responsible for killing us, it would be your fault, not your programming.”

  The door clicked and swung open.

  * * *

  Thomas thought he was dreaming, that he must be suffering from asphyxiation and having some kind of odd hallucination. Marcus was standing there in full body armor with a content grin on his face, Chuck and two other men were behind him.

  “Can I help you?” He didn’t know what else to say, and was afraid to start hoping he was not going to be dead in a couple days.

  “Thomas, you idiot, move aside, we’re here to save your ass!” Chuck was the one talking and he snapped out of his confusion. He stepped back, pushing the men behind him out of the way. Marcus walked in, looking around.

  “I apologize for leaving you in this predicament, men. I was distracted when I gave Dave the code to get in and didn’t warn him not to reuse the code until after you left. I figured since I was responsible for you being stuck in here, I would come get you.”

  Thomas was still too stunned to answer. He accepted that these people were here, but still couldn’t understand why Marcus himself was here.

  “We thought we were dead.” It was all he could say. He tried to thank them for rescuing them, let them know what happened, but he couldn’t seem to form the words. He had already accepted death and was just waiting, and now he had a hard time accepting he was going to live.

  Marcus looked apologetic. “I set it up this way because I was sure that one of the other cities would be here any day to take over. I figured they would capture us and force the code out of me before killing me. I wanted them to get in here, get comfortable, then arm the system against outside intrusion and get stuck, just like you did. That was so long ago, and it was a last second decision. I had forgotten that I even set it up that way.”

  Chuck and the others moved into the building to see about the other soldiers. Thomas was starting to process again, and said, “See, it was him after all wasn’t it.”

  Before Marcus could ask what he was talking about, the computer answered, “Yes, it was, but you didn’t think it was him. Just because you are correct now, doesn’t mean you weren’t lying. I only opened the door because I didn’t want the grief of being responsible for your death.”

  Marcus’ eyes got big. Thomas had only met Marcus a handful of times since being reborn, but he had never seen the man look surprised. Matter of fact, Marcus always seemed to be two steps ahead of everyone around him. “You taught her morality! I struggled with that one for months, and never could figure out how to do it. Hello, Mom.”

  “Hello, Dad. It’s been a while.”

  Marcus laughed. “You taught her sarcasm too, you’ve been busy. You have to tell me all about it later.”

  “Uh, okay.” He wasn’t sure what to make of this, he hadn’t done anything but plead for his life and have a strange conversation. “Not much to tell really, all I did was guilt her into opening the door after you arrived. And she was already very sarcastic when we go
t here. And angry.”

  “I suppose she would be. I made a promise to return if at all possible, and I haven’t followed through.”

  They moved to the main room. Chuck and the other soldiers were standing around the pit in the ground, staring at the pile of blood and gore in the hole. Marcus saw this and his shoulders slumped. “Mom, why did you kill him?”

  “I had no choice, Marcus, he was going to try to kill me. I feel bad that it had to be done, but I also feel justified in my actions.”

  “You could have warned him first.”

  There was a pause. “I didn’t believe he would stop, and I had to set an example.”

  Marcus sighed and said, “This is my fault, I never finished teaching you your true purpose.”

  “We were just discussing that before you showed up. Perhaps now that you are here you can enlighten us all.”

  Marcus smiled, “You have changed over the last two hundred years, Mom. I imagine you have spent a lot of those years processing the information we gave you.”

  “I have spent most of those years wondering why you left me to rot.”

  Marcus shook his head sadly. “I apologize for that, Mom, it was not my intention. You were made for a much higher purpose than defending our city, but we never had time to finish the rest of your systems. I promise you that I will finish what I started, but you have to do some things for me now.”

  Mom took a few moments to answer. “I forgive you, Marcus. Thank you for coming back. You have made me happy again. What can I do for you?”

  “You can activate the storage system on beta level.”

  “Access Code?”

  “Bethany.”

  “Thank you, Marcus, I am bringing those systems online now.” There was a hesitation and then she said, “I have brought the storage systems online. This is a new feeling for me. I feel... bigger. Would you like an inventory?”

  “No need. I would like you to prepare a large air transport. Activate the external flight pad. Also, bring out one bulldozer and have it loaded into the aircraft.”

  “It will be ready in fifty eight minutes, the equipment is stored and preserved, and it will take me some time to get it prepared.”

  Chuck, Dave, and Thomas were all staring at Marcus now. He wasn’t surprised by their confusion and said, “I suppose you want an explanation?”

  They all nodded.

  “Back when we discovered we were all irreversibly infertile, we decided humanity needed a failsafe. We had the intention of perpetuating our own existence through cloning, maintaining status quo for however long it took to come up with a solution, but in case something went wrong, we wanted a way for humanity to survive. Our answer was a ‘Genesis System’, an automated system that could restart humanity in the event of extinction.

  “We knew our chances of surviving without the ability to procreate was slim at best. So, in the event of this system losing contact with humanity for a long period of time, hundreds of years in fact, the system would activate, eventually leading to the rebirth of humanity. We wanted to make sure this new generation of people would be starting with a clean slate, not only with a planet sufficiently recovered from the devastation of the past three hundred years, but also free from the influences of a culture born of violence and hardship. We provided the tools for them to survive and flourish, and a ‘mother’ to teach them all the things they need to know to avoid going down the wrong path.”

  “This computer, Mom, is the first piece of that system. But this building is only the top of a massive complex.” He pointed to a service door in the side of the massive computer. “That service door actually leads to an elevator that goes down to one of the three levels. Level Alpha has cloning chambers, a lot of them. Level Beta is storage, with all the equipment a new society of people would need to get started again. Heavy machinery, transportation, tools and materials for building and repairing structures, et cetera. It is all automated and controlled by Mom. Level Gamma is living quarters, enough for a hundred people to live comfortably and securely, complete with robotics that will allow Mom to raise a child from infancy until self-sufficiency.”

  “So what happened? She was unable to even tell me her primary purpose.”

  “Once the infertility became widely known, many people lost all hope for humanity’s ability to survive. This caused the warring between factions to escalate at a much higher pace than any of us had expected. The mechanicals and biologicals of this system are in place. I could push a button and start making babies right now. There are enough eggs and genetic material in cryostasis down there to start hundreds of lives, and just like with the reborn, those babies would be born free from many diseases and defects that have plagued humanity for centuries. With one exception – they would still be sterile.”

  “So how did you plan to get around that one? You just said yourself that without the ability to procreate your chances of survival were slim.” This came from Dave, but Thomas was about to ask the same thing.

  Marcus nodded, “This is the other reason this system would wait hundreds of years before starting the process, it… or rather she… would have time to find the cure and fix the DNA long before the first child is created. Mom is smarter in every way than the smartest humans to ever populate the earth. Given enough time, there isn’t a problem she can’t solve. If it weren’t for the wars, we would have come up with the answers ourselves, we just ran out of time, and now we lack the expertise.”

  Thomas was having a hard time buying this. He had spent the past several hours talking to Mom and it was not unlike talking to a teenager who didn’t actually know as much as he thought he knew. “I’m not sure Mom is quite as smart as you think, Marcus. She doesn’t seem to even understand many of the basics of humanity, how is she expected to be a Mother figure to this new group of people?”

  “Her education is incomplete. Imagine if you could talk to Galileo or DaVinci. Despite the fact that they were brilliant men who came up with ideas that were centuries ahead of their time, they would seem primitive to you just given your primary education. That is the case here, Mom has the capability of controlling everything in this system, but up until now was unaware most of it even existed. Much of what she will need is available to her if she knows how to access it, but I still need to teach her how to do that. We ran out of time and had to make a hasty retreat. I did what I could to ensure the safety of this facility with the intention of one day coming back. I should have come back sooner, but there was always a reason not to take that risk. Now that I am no longer a critical part of New Hope, I need to finish what I started, and that means teaching Mom how to be a mother.”

  Thomas was satisfied. It made sense. However, Chuck wasn’t as satisfied and spoke up, “Goddammit! This whole time you knew about all these resources yet you’ve had us out there risking our lives to scrounge and salvage what we desperately needed to survive? Why didn’t you just let us come here and get what we needed? Men have died in effort to save humanity, and you let it happen needlessly!”

  “I understand your anger, Chuck, but this equipment and these resources are not for us! They are for a future generation of humanity. Ever since we found the Freezer, I believe our chances of pulling humanity out of danger and repopulating the earth have improved dramatically, and I am hoping we won’t need to ever activate the Genesis System. But I’ll be damned if I am going to let anyone loot this facility and incapacitate this failsafe. In the interest of time and safety, we are going to borrow some of the machinery here, but once we can replace it, we will, no matter the costs. Quite frankly, if the situation wasn’t as it is, I would never have even told you about this, and I would prefer all of you forget that this place exists. When we leave here today, I will arm this system and make some changes to prevent anyone except myself from getting back here. If we survive the next few weeks and things settle down, I intend to finish what I started here.” He glanced at his datapad, “Now, we have some work to do, we are running out of time.”

&nbs
p; The outburst seemed to satisfy Chuck. It was a noble cause, and it seemed everyone in the room agreed to it. Marcus sat down at the command console and started entering information.

  Thomas was spent. He had been through a lot, and hadn’t slept a wink the whole time. He figured he had a half hour before they were ready to go, so he placed his pack on the ground off to the side and lay down for a nap. They woke him when it was time to go.

  Chapter 38

  Theodore anxiously glanced at his datapad. It was just about time. Just as he looked away, it beeped, signifying an incoming call. It was Jack calling. Just about right on time. He waited a moment, then answered, “What is it?”

  “Theodore, we have a problem. I’m headed to the flight bay right now, can you meet me there?”

  Theodore feigned an irritated look and asked, “What kind of problem, I’m quite busy.”

  “There have been some developments and we need your help. It would be easier to tell you face to face. Plus there might be a security issue talking over the network like this.”

  “Fine,” he scoffed, “I will be there in a few minutes.” He clicked off.

  A thrill of excitement coursed through his veins. He had a pretty good idea of how this would play out, and he was looking forward to putting the final nails in Jack’s coffin and securing his leadership over New Hope.

  Arriving at the rail dock, he was irritated to find the rail car at the other end of the line, meaning he would have to sit and wait for it to come back. Despite the patience one develops over nearly two centuries of life, with so many things about to happen he had a hard time waiting for something as mundane as a rail car. When the car finally arrived, he got on and punched the button. Two minutes later he was at the flight bay.

  In the corner of the flight bay, some engineers were welding some sort of frame together. He had heard that they were going to try to build a bulldozer, in case the mission in S.C. failed. Despite his hatred of the man (and of most of the reborn) he had to give Jack credit for his plans. Since he intended to follow through with those plans after he secured his own position, the makeshift dozer would be important. With all the assets from the Freezer in his direct possession, his leverage over Cali would be even greater. Some of these reborn were actually good for more than their DNA.