Home Planet: Arcadia (Part 3)

by Sedgwick, T. J.

  “Just wanted to check how long I have left.”

  “Appreciate you asking, Dan. I guess Mike told you about the whole time allowance thing.”

  “Yeah, and much as I like shooting the breeze with him, I have some family I need to look up.”

  “Okay, well you’ve got another ten minutes before the next booking’s due. So go ahead, make the most of it.”

  I re-donned the headset, Mike sat there watching people and cars go by. My avatar had stayed put, unresponsive while I had the headset off.

  “Hey Mike, I’m back,” I said. “Got ten minutes, so let’s just go for a walk. You can show me more some other time. I’ve got a couple of things I need to discuss.”

  He turned around.

  “Okay, let’s walk and talk,” he said, getting up to pay the bill before joining me at the door.

  We took a right and strolled along the sidewalk of downtown. The sunlight reflected from the mirrored glass of a tall skyscraper up ahead. It seemed like a late afternoon in summer with workers making their way home on foot and in taxis and private pods. I still gazed around in wonder at the rendering, indistinguishable from real life.

  “So what year is it in the Forever World?” I said.

  “Same year as in the real world: 2584. But what I think you mean is what year is it all modeled on?”

  “Yeah, exactly.”

  “2074—the last update before the impact. No one’s got any reason to be building more stuff anymore. The economy works differently.”

  He raised his arm and tapped on his watch.

  “Don’t you have a deadline, brother?”

  I’d almost forgotten, so taken was I with the virtual world.

  “Thanks for the reminder.”

  “Here to serve,” he said grinning.

  “Yeah, so you’re a cop. You know this world. I need you to help me track down my family, Mike. How would you go about that? Do you just look them up or what? Can Patton or someone on the outside do it?”

  “No one from the outside can without a court order. If they could, then it’d be too easy to just delete minds at will. There was this case of this one woman who tried it in the early days—some kind of family feud. Damned crazy bitch nearly erased all her enemies’ ancestors. But I can look up your family for you. I’m assuming this is your Mom and sister that you told me about on the ship all them years ago?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Do you know if they had their minds uploaded before the impact?”

  I shook my head.

  “No, I don’t know.”

  “Well, as I’m sure you can imagine it became kinda popular after we discovered the asteroid. Then only some of the minds that were uploaded made it to the branch facility in Hawaii. Don’t go raising your hopes, brother—most people died for good when that asteroid hit.”

  I cast my eyes down, thinking about what he said.

  “Look where you’re going!” came the voice of an angry woman as I bumped into her.

  I turned around to see her giving me the finger. She’d obviously felt my avatar’s mass even if I hadn’t felt hers.

  “Sorry!” I called out before turning around to rejoin Mike.

  “They were in LA, right?”

  “Yes, LA.”

  He patted me—my avatar—on the back, smiling.

  “Then you are in luck, my friend. LA is one of seven cities they saw fit to keep going. There’s also New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, Seattle and Miami. Don’t ask me why they included DC.”

  “So there’s a chance then?”

  “Yeah, it sure improves the chance. That’s not to say you had to be a resident of these places to get your mind uploaded, but it helped. There’re plenty of others from all around the country and the world living in the Forever World. But it ain’t really a world, just a collection of cities and some National Parks to give the city folks their dose of nature.”

  “So how do you travel intercity if the rest of the country isn’t modeled?”

  “We got O’Hare, so we mostly fly. We can take the train too, but you ask me it’s a little too weird, that sleeper. One minute you’re leaving the city, next you’re waking up at the new city a day later.”

  “So how long you need to find them?”

  “Who knows? Could be a day, could be a month. If they’re in the directory then it’ll be easy. If they’ve opted out then I might need to fly out to LA and go find them.”

  He checked his watched.

  “Your time’s about up, man. Before you go give me their details, including last known address if you can remember it.”

  “Sure, I can—it’s only been a few months,” I said, considering the time since I’d left Earth and actually been awake.

  I gave him their full details and the address of Nikki’s home in South Beverly Park hoping she hadn’t moved in the four years between 2070 and 2074.

  “I really appreciate you doing this for me, Mike,” I said, shaking his hand.

  “It’s okay, man. We cops gotta stick together,” he said with his wide grin.

  The scene flashed to blackness and I heard Patton behind me.

  “Okay, time’s up Dan.”

  I removed the gear and stood, taking a few moments to readjust to the confines of the long narrow room. A young man waited by the door, looking at my VR gear expectantly. I shifted aside to let him dive into the alternative universe.

  “How’s Mike?” said Patton.

  “He looks different, but he’s still Mike.”

  “Wanna see the mind uploaders?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  He led me to the end of the long room and a door marked Upload. It was a small space, maybe fifteen by fifteen feet and consisted of two old car seats against the rear wall with a whole bunch of equipment suspended above them from a frame. The main part hanging just above head height was some kind of tube big enough for a head. According to Patton, this was the mind-scanner. Connected to the mind-scanner were hundreds of cables, which coalesced to a thick trunk that continued down the spine of the frame and snaked along the skirting and out through a hole in the wall toward the server room. Other than the scanning chairs, there was just the terminal in the corner and a chair and desk beside it.

  “Before the impact they had full-body scanners that looked like MRI machines. Those babies could scan the body as well as the mind, recreating a real good model of bone and tissue and skin. Rumor had it that some clients paid to have their avatar body sculpted and improved.”

  “And now you just upload the mind?”

  “Yeah, people can choose an avatar from a database and alter a few things. Most people chose a rough likeness of themselves, but they don’t have to. Key issue these days is that not everyone can get in. People are uploading older and older as the population grows inside the Forever World. People don’t die in there, but here on Hawaii babies get born and we can’t make new servers fast enough. Even maintaining the ones we’ve got is a mission. We’d better—”

  His two-way radio crackled to life.

  “Yeah, he’s with me,” said Patton.

  He paused, listening for a moment.

  “Yeah... yeah okay, I’ll tell him. Thanks.”

  And he clicked off the walkie-talkie, replacing it in his pocket.

  “Dan, Laetitia wants you in the shuttle. She’s on the line to Arnie in orbit and wants you to join before he’s over the horizon.”

  We left the Silicon Life Works and Patton left me to traverse the darkening under-dome city alone. I was fine with that and it showed they were a trusting people. Always a sign of a good society in my book. The implications of seeing the Forever World with my own eyes had yet to sink in. The possibility of a reunion with my family meant more to me than I could say, but it was far from assured. First Mom and Nikki would’ve needed to have been uploaded before the impact. Then if they’d been successfully transferred to the Hawaii facility they would’ve needed to survive fifty years of code viruses. And ther
e was always the chance they couldn’t be found even if they were in the Forever World. Perhaps they’d moved or something. I had to maintain hope, though. Wherever I’d end up living out my days I needed to know what happened to them.

  5

  Light from the dome spilled from glass frontage, supplementing the fading daylight around the shuttle. The outer doors whooshed open to present a wall of cold air, prompting me to don my fleece. Dense clouds raced across the early evening sky. Trees on the ridge swayed in the strengthening breeze. I walked to the shuttle door and tapped on it several times before it eased down, Laetitia waiting at the top of the steps.

  “Arnie is on the line, Mr. Luker,” she said, moving aside to let me in, before directing me to the terminal up front.

  “Are you still there, beautiful?” came the irritating voice of Reichs.

  “Yes, Arnie. Mr. Luker has just joined us,” she said as the cabin door closed, shutting out the weather.

  “Hi, Reichs, how’s it going?”

  “It’s Mr. Reichs to you, peasant! Thought I already told you such. Did you know what I was worth before I got inside this hunk of metal?”

  “No, but I got the feeling you’re gonna tell me.”

  “Seventy-five billion United States dollars, peasant.”

  “All that money won’t do you much good now. Far as I can see, the only thing you’ve got going for you is standing next to me. Once she gets tired of you...”

  There were plenty of other things I would have liked to say, but there was no point. And being an android—even an AI android—I couldn’t see her running off with another man.

  “Enough of your frivolity peasant. We have business that needs discussing.”

  “Oh, yeah? Care to elaborate?”

  “It’s called Project Phoenix and we need you on board Mr. Luker.”

  “Oh, so now it’s Mr. Luker is it?”

  “Just hear me out, will you? Right, so as I was saying, Project Phoenix, my plan to resurrect the Juno Ark.”

  “Okay, go on.”

  “While you and my lovely wife have been vacationing on Earth, I’ve not been resting on my laurels. Oh no, I haven’t. You see, I’ve been documenting all that’s wrong with this old lady with the conclusion that she is for saving.”

  “So you’re saying you can fix her?”

  “No, I am saying that with some help of the peasants down there, we can fix her and get ourselves to where we should be—the Aura system.”

  Are these the rantings of a mad man or does he actually have a plan? I thought.

  “Most of this stuff Laetitia and I already knew. I’ve just been taking the time to write it down since she’s been away. Now, she will explain the details of my report, but here’s the outline, cowboy. First, this old lady’s got no fuel. We’re talking deuterium for her fusion reactors. Second, that military module’s got to go. There’s no way she’ll survive the acceleration with that ugly breach in Module 2. Thirdly, our fabricators don’t work, so we can’t make spares. And there’s a whole bunch of chicken shit stuff, too. But fix the big three and I can take my place among the stars. A new leader of men on Aura-c, yes sir!”

  “Okay so assuming you’re right, how do you propose we fix these things? Or is that in the report?”

  “You catch on fast, cowboy. My lovely lady can explain the details—that is more her forte than mine. But like I already said, we need you and the other peasants’ help to solve these little engineering challenges, if you take my meaning.”

  I’d need to put it to Hawaiian leadership on what help they could give. Ultimately, having a working Juno Ark had to be a long-term goal that I was sure the locals would support. To have the option of escaping the ravaged Earth—despite the oasis of civilization at Koko Crater—had to be in humanity’s interests. Whether it was possible or not, we’d need to determine. In a way, I admired Reichs’s determination to get the ship working, even with his less-than-appealing manner. But it made me wonder once again about his motives. The case of his missing wife and her replacement with the android Laetitia smelled fishy as hell. Then a thought occurred to me: perhaps they’d managed to discover what happened to her in the years between departure and impact. There was another way the Forever World could help us, too, and by putting it to Reichs’s I felt it might tell me something about his motives.

  “We peasants can sure try to help solve the Juno’s engineering challenges, but—”

  “Always a but with you isn’t there, cowboy?”

  “But, there are minds here far wiser and more learned than any living human.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah. They’re over five-hundred years wise and they live in a place called the Forever World.”

  And I went on to explain to him and the attentive Laetitia. His response was tepid, to say the least.

  “I heard about virtual worlds like this before we left Earth. You know, I think telling those old Yodas will just complicate matters. They aren’t even alive for goodness sake!” he said, roaring with laughter.

  “They’re alive as much as Laetitia’s alive and, according to you, she’s your wife. Hey, maybe they tracked down your human Laetitia or at least found out what happened to her.”

  He said nothing.

  “Reichs, you still there?”

  “Yes… Don’t be disrespectful, peasant. I have nothing to hide, but being a billionaire like me... Well, you do make enemies. My enemies may be alive and well in that world of yours. They may be out to get me. And like you said yourself, they’re gonna be five-hundred years smart.”

  I didn’t buy it for a second, but making enemies of Reichs and Laetitia might end up costing the ship. It wasn’t my right to jeopardize that chance for everyone here.

  “Okay, okay, I’ll help Laetitia here and put it to the Leadership Council, see what they say.”

  “I thank you, young peasant.”

  “Say, why don’t you come down here and take a look-see for yourself? I’m sure Laetitia’s told you how nice it is.”

  “Yes, I have described the city’s virtues, Mr. Luker. Arnie has work to complete on board the Juno.”

  Sure he does, I thought.

  “Yes, I’m thinking—it, peasant. Now you—on—document—l”

  “You’re breaking up, Reichs.”

  “That’s—”

  “The ship is moving out of range, Mr. Luker.”

  A few more wordlets came from the Juno Ark, but then nothing.

  “Come on, let’s take a seat,” I said and we sat side-by-side in the front row of the passenger cabin. “Question…”

  “Go ahead,” she said.

  “Do you think Reichs’d stay here, on Hawaii, if he actually saw the place? He’s no spring chicken and it’d be kind of a nice place to retire… at least compared to everywhere else on Earth these days.”

  She shook her head resolutely, a wan smile on her lips. “You don’t know Arnie. Once he puts his mind to something, he rarely changes it. Starting a new life as a leader on Aura has been his dream since they announced the Juno Project. He will do everything in his power to go there.”

  “So tell me about this Phoenix that he’s dreamt up,” I said, changing tack.

  “In Greek mythology, a phoenix is a long-lived bird that is cyclically reborn. It is—”

  Ask an android a question, get an android answer, I thought.

  “Okay, now tell me about Project Phoenix. What does the ship need to get it going and how we gonna do it?”

  “The first problem is fuel. The ship’s tritium generator is still functional. This is an unstable radioactive isotope of hydrogen used in the fusion reactors. It is formed by the tritium generators on-demand. Small quantities are required in comparison to deuterium.”

  “And deuterium is the main fuel, right?”

  “Yes. It is also an isotope of hydrogen used in far higher quantities than tritium. With the right equipment, it can be made from seawater. If the locals are using geothermal power, it is unlikel
y they know anything about nuclear fusion technology—”

  “But if the right scientists live on in the Forever World then maybe…”

  “That would be helpful, but not a requirement as I have plans for a Girdler sulfide process.”

  “And this produces deuterium?”

  “The Girdler sulfide process makes heavy water, which can then be hydrolosyzed into deuterium and oxygen. We can then compress or freeze the deuterium and ship it to the Juno Ark.”

  “Okay, I’ll take your word for it. What else?”

  “The second problem is removing or repairing Module 2—the partially-destroyed military module.”

  “You know, I never understood why we even had a military module.”

  “I understand it was to do with funding and to safeguard the colonial government against insurrection,” she said.

  “They’d never heard of military coups then?”

  “I don’t know their reasoning, Mr. Luker…”

  She awaited my response. Sometimes it was easy to think she knew everything, which she didn’t. I nodded to continue.

  “It is Arnie and my proposal that due to the lack of facilities in orbit, we cannot repair the module. Therefore, we must remove it. First we—”

  A rap on the door. I opened it to find Kale Patton standing there in the darkness, wind blowing his hair.

  “Come in out of the cold,” I said.

  “Hey thanks, but why don’t we go back under the dome. I’ve got your quarters all arranged,” said Patton.

  “Laetitia, let’s continue this once we’ve settled in a little,” I said.

  She nodded and we followed Patton through the half-light and biting wind into dome city. Streetlamps lit the pedestrian walkways bringing a warm, subdued glow to the balmy inside air. People walked alone or in couples, their pace more leisurely than during the working day. Children still ran around full of energy, bringing life and happiness to the place. A smile formed without me realizing as I watched two little girls run from a boy in a game of tag on the playground green. I thought of my son that never was. Ryan would have been four if he’d come on the Juno with me. Then I shook my head. I wouldn’t have even contemplated going if he and Juliet hadn’t...