Excolopolis_Poles of Enforcement

by Jack L. Marsch

  *

  Within days, the manufacturing plant was moved into the first sector at ASEC. Staff retraining began and, to be sure, their number was doubled. The organization signed new contracts with the former suppliers, to which ASEC supplied the raw materials from the neutralizing plant. By taking these measures, the manufacturing process was made much shorter, not to mention the reduction in costs and the elimination of the external risk factors that had concerned Steersman. Dylen Rentz became head of the unit. He later admitted that he had been glad to be rid of his unctuous partner, who had more often than not been a hindrance rather than a help.

  The logistics of GlideCraft production was standardized within half a year and worldwide distribution began that autumn. By the first quarter of the new year, the finely tuned manufacturing machine had produced more than 50 million units, far above any conceivable expectation.

  Steersman, however, remained unhappy with the scandalously slow decision making in some countries and in response he had complimentary copies sent to the world's most important economic and political decision-makers, including the most influential industrial and commercial giants. As about half a billion people were to receive models in a similar way, political leaders could not use them publicly and at the same time prohibit others from doing so. As a result, the decision to promote the expansion of DCG technology became relatively easy.

  Although the new technology heralded a more beautiful and sustainable future and people happily turned toward the cleaner, more efficient means of transport, still, a series of parallel events was beginning to take shape, drawing the unsuspecting world ever closer to a cataclysmic event. An event that would freeze the blood, and make people try to convince themselves that it had all been a huge mistake.

  ***

  Chapter 9

  Sector Two

  Patricia Griggs loved the early spring sun. It didn't burn and didn't dry her already very sensitive skin. She was just enjoying the fact that the temperature was just as she liked it. At this time of the year, she always felt as if she was in heaven and she never missed the chance to be out in the open air, for the little spare time that was left to her after studying. Her graduation exams were coming the following month, so she was focusing all her energy on success. In fact she was doing it at that very moment: absorbing the suns energy, ‘photosynthesizing’ self assuredly.

  Meanwhile, she had to babysit her five-year-old nephew, Cole, in a city park. Cole was playing joyously with his playmates in what was known as the tower maze, a part of the play castle. From time to time, he emerged to wave to his aunt. Pat waved back to him. At these moments, she was never able to wipe the smile off her face.

  At this season, the fruits of the effort that were invested in the city's parks and gardens became obvious. The fresh, green shoots on the trees, the colorful plants and the heady, fragrant breeze aroused fairy tale feelings. A little further on, the passing morning city traffic could be seen, but here no one could hear their noise. Anyway, in Excolopolis seven cars out of ten were GlideCrafts so there was very little noise pollution. It had almost become an embarrassment to appear with one of the old obsolete cars. They seemed so noisy and dirty.

  Jeff Hayes didn't place so much value on the change however. He loved his truck, but when his family won a floating ‘marvel’ they decided not to keep the fuel-guzzling monster. Because of that, a week-long feud had descended on the Hayes household. Jeff felt deprived of his rights, felt as if a part of him had been torn out and thrown away, like an old rag. Even his friends couldn't make him see reason. He didn't care about how lucky they thought he was. He didn't listen to anyone. All cared about was that he was forced to commute in a bubble instead of his big strong truck.

  Even when he took the new car for a test drive he didn't change his mind, even when the car roared into life and accelerated at a touch. He disguised his surprise with a couple of discontented grimaces and a few weak remarks.

  As it was, he seemed to have problems with the way the car looked. It was partly the fact that it looked the same as everyone else's. No way did that suit his personality.

  “What sort of a car is it that even a child can drive?” he moaned continually.

  His anti GlideCraft fixation was unbreakable, but still the car stayed.

  He had been finding it difficult to get together with his friends lately and because of study, they hardly met. Now, however, they had managed to hang out at the city park, amongst an army of infants. As far as the eye could see, there were moms and grandmothers with their offspring everywhere, walking in the fresh air. At this time of day, it was only them and a few other students who had taken a break from studying to spend a bit of time off, relaxing.

  Patricia was sitting on a bench at the upper end of the giant, violin-shaped lake that stretched almost one kilometer across the park, when the guys finally arrived.

  “Hi, Pat!” said Archer. “Hello Cole,” he shouted and waved to Cole who was just about to ‘kill the enemy’ with a spade. Cole had always liked him.

  “All right?” asked Jeff.

  “Hi guys. Yeah, I am fine. You know, it feels like we live at least a thousand miles away from each other. It's getting so difficult to organize get-togethers,” she complained.

  “We went back to see the family for a week, visiting,” said Archer.

  “Really? Where, to Argentina?”

  “Yeah. My old man got a holiday bonus from his company, so we packed up and took off to Mendoza to visit his roots.”

  “I'm jealous. And here we were, slaving away back here,” Pat pouted grumpily.

  “Yeah, right! You look like you're really suffering.”

  “This is my first day off since the break, and I'm always having to looking after this little guy!” She nodded her head towards the playground.

  “What do we know about this new university, not far away from here,” Jeff cut in.

  “You mean PrEUST?” asked Pat.

  “Is that its name?”

  “It's an abbreviation, dickhead,” Pat nodded, “real name is the Prime Earth University of Science and Technology. Some Japanese professor's the rector, something like, Hashimoto, if I remember rightly.”

  “What do you know about it? What faculties will it have?” asked Arch. He was one of those people who loved to study and bury themselves in books, websites, anything that has to do with new tech and gadgets.

  “There's going to be a grand opening, over a few days, where the whole institution will be presented to the public, and there will be presentation about entry exams and stuff for students who want to enroll. There are a whole lot of massive preparations going on at the moment. Lecturers and students are being recruited from all over the world.”

  “They're starting the first year in September? So soon?” wondered Jeff.

  “Well, as far as I know.”

  “That's interesting.”

  “I'm interested …” said Arch, “especially in the engineering faculties.”

  “You'll get in for sure, a geek like you,” said Jeff rolling his eyes, “I mean … genius,” he added with a grin.

  “What's eating you?” Pat asked suspiciously.

  Jeff wasn't in a good mood at all, and at times like that he always behaved in such a way that he always felt bad afterward. He wasn't used to apologizing, but if he knew he was wrong he would always do something to be forgiven. Archer wasn't the touchy type, and he knew his friend pretty well.

  “I don't know. Lately I can't seem to relax. I guess I miss hangin' out with you guys,” he said more kindly.

  “Yeah, me too,” agreed Pat.

  Cole, having had enough and realizing that the two guys were still here, started vigorously waving, climbed down from the tower and ran towards them shouting loudly.

  ”Uncle Jeff! Uncle Jeff!” his voice blared across the playground.

  “Uncle Jeff, hah?! I love it,” laughed Arch.

  “What's up little man? How are you?” Jeff asked as Cole jumped onto
him.

  “Great … can we eat some ice-cream now?” The boy got down to the point.

  “What, an ice-cream? Are you allowed to have ice-cream?” Jeff looked at Pat.

  “As long as he doesn't gulp it down too quickly, so that he doesn't get a sore throat,” she shrugged.

  “Come on, dude, let's find some ice-cream,” said Jeff and took the little boy by the hand.

  “I saw an ice cream man from the top of the tower, just over there,” said Cole beaming.

  “I was pretty sure you had it all planned out.” Jeff smiled back, and they walked in the direction Cole was pointing.

  Pat could hear Cole chattering away in the distance as they walked further and further away with Jeff patiently listening to his adventure stories.

  Then she turned to Archer.

  “I'm worried about Jeff.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “Somehow he looks lost, wandering without a purpose. I understand that he's studying and stuff, but does he know for real what he wants from life?”

  “I really don't know, Pat. But he is strong enough. I'm sure life will take him to a good place.”

  “Well, that's what's bothering me, and worrying me. Sometimes you achieve more by being flexible and going with the flow. That's something he can't easily do.”

  “Yeah, that's true.”

  “I don't see any middle road for him. Either he's gonna be hugely successful, or have a fate more miserable than most people.”

  “I don't think he'll get lost. All he needs is a chance and he'll take off. As to the rest of us, we'll work hard as always,” Archer smiled.

  “That's life, I guess.”

  “And you? What do you want out of life?” Arch looked over inquiringly.

  “Hmm, tough one. I am into a lot of things. I love maths and chemistry and you know, you can do a lot with those.” Pat's face was getting dreamy. “I can imagine myself in some lab too, maybe doing investigative work, or code breaking, I don't really know yet, exactly. You know me, I love puzzles.”

  “Yeah.”

  They both fell silent and watched the toddlers tearing their toys apart in the fenced playground area. They made a hell of a racket!

  Meanwhile Jeff and Cole arrived back, Cole's face thickly covered in melted chocolate. It was all over his face, even on his nose. They'd bought ice-creams for Pat and Archer too.

  “Hey guys, soon it'll be a floating ice-cream truck!” Jeff remarked.

  “How come?”

  “We have just seen the gardener's truck, loaded up with trees, floating across the grass. Isn't that right, Cole?”

  “Yeah, it was sooo cool!” The little boy's face lit up with a huge grin and he tried to imitate the humming sound that the truck made.

  “Even little Cole is more open to novelties than you,” noted Pat, enjoying her strawberry-passion fruit ice-cream, her favorite.

  “Everything is a novelty to him. Whatever. Shall we have a look at the skateboard track?”

  “Yeah!!! Let's go!” Cole jumped up in excitement.

  “They won't even let you in!”

  “Yes, they will!”

  “Yeah, there's a track for kids under ten. He loves it,” said Pat.

  They walked to the lakeside promenade at the bottom of the violin. Indeed, gardeners could be seen maintaining the park, planting trees and cultivating grass swards with the help of floating equipment. Even the park guards were gliding past mobile salespeople on floating carts.

  Negative influences

  Oliver Trenerry, chief of the communications unit, was just approaching Steersman's office when Jim Hols came out of it. Surely they had been talking about the university town. Jim looked haggard but at the same time satisfied.

  “Hi, Jim,” Trenerry called out. “I got the drawings, and frankly, PrEUST is incomprehensible, even on paper.”

  “Hi, Oliver. That's right, it's massive. To build it will be a real challenge, but I can't get my head around how it's going to be possible to run such a beast. There are so many laboratories, warehouses, corridors, and, lecture theaters, offices, rooms for who knows what, that there will be as much attention devoted to fire safety as is needed for a whole city suburb. It'll need a serious set of regulation systems.”

  “That won't be a problem. You'll know exactly who goes where and what they are doing on the territory. There will be a monitoring system that ensures that little freshmen won't even be able to lie about not doing their assignments,” smiled Trenerry.

  “Awesome,” said Jim.

  “Okay, I'll catch you later,” replied Trenerry

  “Okay, see you soon.”

  Jim went on his way, and Trenerry went up to see Karen.

  “Hi, how are things going?” he asked cheerfully.

  “Hi Oliver. Never boring, you know. Getting a university started is not such an easy job. Mr Hashimoto's attention is spread pretty thin everywhere and his requests require some serious organization.”

  “I'm happy he gave in. I've heard a lot of good things about him. I'm sure he'll give all he's got to get the first semester started on time.”

  “He's traveling round Britain as we speak, meeting some of his colleagues and offering them positions at the university,” said Karen.

  “I heard about that,” he said, becoming serious. “Is Mr Steersman waiting inside?”

  “Yes, go on in.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  Oliver Trenerry stepped through two heavy, brown wooden doors and entered what was perhaps one of the world's most peculiar rooms. He felt a sense of alienness that he'd never felt during all of his years in intelligence. He couldn't put his finger on what might be causing it. He didn't feel nervous or uncomfortable. It was simply as if he had stepped into a place beyond anything earthly.

  Perhaps it was the walls, with their graphite grey sheen, strange lights, strange noises; and then there was the smell. Yes, a smell that he couldn't place. It wasn't like anything he had experienced before.

  Steersman was sitting behind a desk that might have been more accurately described as a console. Built-in screens would slide up out of the surface from time to time and then sink down into the desk, depending on which was relaying information. At each side there were robots standing like two giant statues with a dull orange glow coming from deep inside them.

  In fact, other rigid monsters could be seen dotted around the room. They looked like titans, standing immobile, disciplined, waiting for their orders.

  Trenerry, despite his strange feelings, was drawn to the atmosphere because he felt the desire for action that had always driven him forward in his life. Secretly, he yearned to prove himself by doing things that others didn't dare. Here, he wasn't faced with the risk of being burnt out that had suffocated him for years; here he did not suffer from the earthly hell that he had met so many times before in his work. Here and now he was at peace.

  “Where are we with the Expo organization?” Steersman got straight to the point, without any preamble.

  “More companies have shown up out of the blue with requests to participate in the exhibition. What's more surprising is that they are from Western Europe and North America. Seems to me that it's only the big multinational automotive companies that are not in a hurry to be a part of it.”

  “The big ones will all finally come. They are undertaking some pretty big developments as well.”

  “I am sure they have their reasons for being circumspect.”

  “The territory for the Expo has been laid out and we'll soon have the plans as well. When we are done with the PrEUST opening, we'll be onto that. We have plenty of time: four months. By that time, all of the manufacturers should be ready.”

  “Will ASEC present vehicles?”

  “No, the GlideCraft has been promoted enough. We won't be producing another one. This Expo is not about us.”

  “That seems fair enough.”

  “Is there anything bothering you?” asked Steersman.

  Trenerry co
llected his thoughts on what he had wanted to say it for quite some time.

  “Mr Steersman, I would not be doing my job properly if I did not keep track of what influence ASEC's activities are having. Being aware of this effect can help me make communications decisions that we can really benefit from.”

  “Would you care to share your thoughts?”

  “We have noticed some negative influences arising,” Trenerry began, “the development of which we might later have to face. They could even have some very serious negative consequences.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There is a direct correlation between the appearance of the GlideCraft, and the fall of energy company shares on stock exchanges around the world, as well as in the redundancy of some industrial concerns. Market restructuring has begun, the early influence of which is that companies are less likely to sponsor charities and do not support educational institutions with the willingness they used to have. In addition, PrEUST has also caused other institutions to suffer setbacks in its gathering of students and faculty.”

  “We have taken this factor into consideration. This is why I don't wish to take more of a share in vehicle production. We only needed it to introduce the technology and spread it. The DCG does indeed mean a threat to the energy sources that the world uses now, mainly burning fossil fuels, but burning fuel to obtain energy is obsolete, stone age.”

  “I agree with that, but the ASEC's energy supply is vulnerable because of this, if I'm not wrong,” said Trenerry.

  “You're not. This will soon change. The energy research unit has recently discovered a new property of the DCG spheres, to be more precise, in their interaction with each other. Two spheres began to circle each other in vacuum and gravity independent environment. Unfortunately, by themselves, they fell apart, but in a grid structure made up of these pairs the system remains stable and, more to the point, it produces energy. The head of the unit, Neil Gibbs will show you how it works.”