Sentinels of the Cosmos Trilogy

by John Anderson

  Ivan was standing next to the committee looking through the glass. He said, "I was careful pick people who had no family and represent many diverse groups so can see if effects of virus vary, not only virus I wished to demonstrate, but make sure everyone open envelope. I have solution you will see demonstrated. Following may even be very disturbing to some of you; I mean we are human beings with feelings. The young panel director stood, looked around the room and began: "Good morning. I am Dorothy Winston and this morning we will be asking you to give us your feedback on the envelopes that are in front of you. Please pick up your packet. You have twelve envelopes in all and each one has a different adhesive. The paper to the right is your rating sheet. Please rate each envelope on a scale from one to ten with one being the easiest to open and 10 the most difficult. Please don't talk among yourselves, as it’s important that we have your personal opinion exclusively. Remember your opinion is very important to us. Do any of you have any questions?" One man asks "Why are we in a room that looks like a shower room?"

  Dorothy, who was very frustrated replied, "I believe it's because that was all that was available this morning. I apologize for the surroundings"

  "It seems very strange, what was this room used for?" another questioner asked.

  "Yes, I guess it does," Dorothy said puzzled looking around the room herself.

  The rest of the group are growing impatient with what they felt were stupid questions. They wanted to rip open their packets and start offering their opinions so they could get their money and leave.

  "We're each getting $500.00, right? asked one. "Yes, that's right," Dorothy says.

  They started opening the envelopes and writing their answers on the rating sheet.

  Senator Burnside said, "Charles what are they doing?"

  Senator Lee interrupted, "Where are Beneizen and Sam, I thought they were heading this project." “Sam is on assignment, dealing with the Chase affair and we don’t know where Beneizen is, frankly he has disappeared. Maybe he just wanted to be alone for a while. He is very eccentric,” Charles said.

  Ivan is transfixed looking through the one-way glass. All those people down there opening his envelopes and about to die, he had worked very hard for this moment.

  “You can see its starting work,” Ivan reports excitedly.

  Several of the members of the focus group were beginning to show signs of nausea.

  Everyone edged closer to the glass. They all were very interested in the proceedings.

  The panel members first started to have problems breathing, and then started to sweat. They grabbed their throats and started to turn red. One after another they fell to the ground writhing in pain, unable to speak, unable even to squeak, and then they died. A few moments after they stopped moving blood began to flow from their eyes, mouth, butt, and nose. In less than ten minutes they were all dead, lying in pools of blood on the floor.

  The doors in the back of the room opened and several Guards dressed in white coveralls entered the room and began removing the bodies.

  Dorothy was just standing in the middle of the room screaming "Oh, my God, what's going on?" One of Guards took out a small black box pressed it and with one click she stopped moving. They immediately carried her out of the room as well. Another group, also dressed in white, entered the room, connected hoses to the faucets on the walls and started to wash the room down.

  Charles looked disgusted, "Very messy Ivan, much too messy. I like Sam's Bumba much better; make that work with the envelopes."

  "You think that everyone is going to believe that all those people died of a heart attack?" Ivan asked. “Ivan this is much too messy. The cost of the clean- up and the outrage from the media would defeat the purpose of the whole thing. I want clean deaths, no blood; just carry out the bodies looking like they’ve had a heart attack, understand? Ivan, think about it, do you think that thousands of people bleeding out in their homes is not going to cause a panic. Years ago one person in the U.S. got Ebola and it was on the news for months. The news media caused sixty percent of the population to think they were in danger. No, we need neat, quiet, and serene deaths.” Charles says.

  Ivan looked at the committee that was sitting stunned and horrified by the carnage, they couldn’t even move.

  “That was horrible. Can’t you kill them more neatly, with less mess?” Kathryn asks.

  Charles jumped in, "I know how you all feel. This was not the original purpose of the EOJ, but look at the ramifications of increased world population." “I can’t support brutally murdering citizens Charles. I’m resigning from the committee, EOJ meant “Equality of Justice.” This is genocide,” Senator Burnside blurts out.

  All the committee members start to move to the exit. "The problem is that there are too many special interest groups. The church, the anti-abortionists, the fatalists, the East-West Liberation from too Much Fast Food Foundation…" Charles expounded. "I don't like it one bit Charles, and I have no intention of being part of it or any of you that intend on being part of this kind of murderous rampage. I'm going to the President." yells Senator Burnside.

  Ivan takes out a small gun the size of a lighter and shoots Senator Burnside in the neck with a pellet the size of a pin head. Burnside grabs the back of his neck and leaves the room. Neither he nor anyone else saw the shooting.

  "He'll be dead before leaving the building," Ivan whispers into Charles’ ear.

  "You didn't shoot him with that messy virus did you?" Charles questioned.

  "No, it was Bumba, untraceable," Ivan says disappointed.

  "Well, that should tell you something Ivan, or did you do this because you wanted to watch all those people bleed out?" Charles smiles bleakly.

  Kathryn turns to Charles and says, “Doris would never have stood for this, for what we just saw happen. Can’t this be achieved with another population control method, or a lottery for not having children? I can think of a dozen ways better than this.”

  Charles had a big voice from years on the house floor. He used that big voice to say, “Wait! All of you just for one second.”

  The group stops filing out and turns to listen. “There isn’t time; the reports show that if something isn’t done now, right now, terrible things are going to happen.”

  “This is a terrible thing in itself, a country killing its own people for a test, my God, what could be more terrible than that?” Senator Lee asks.

  “Ah… all kinds of terrible things; I don’t have the report in front of me, but you are all welcome to read it,” Charles replies.

  “Charles, we’re not killers, we’re legislators, elected by the people to solve these problems. Let us all try and come up with another plan, a more sensible plan, not this,” Senator Lee says.

  "Ladies and gentleman I know you all think of yourselves as lily white, but we have all been conspirators in ordering the deaths of thousands of people. Among other things, EOJ is a kind of league of assassins. You're all kidding yourself if you think you have a conscience left. There has to be a balance. That’s what we’re about," Charles speaks out. Kathryn says, “Charles, we know you’re under a lot of pressure. We all know that the loss of Doris weighs heavily on your heart. At least let us read all the material and make another recommendation, alright?” “Alright, I agree this appears a bit excessive. I'm also concerned about how to contain the response from the press to so many people mysteriously dying all at once, no matter how humanely it's done. We may need to think further about this,” Charles concedes. "That’s right Charles we need to re-think this," Kathryn adds.

  Charles mumbles to himself, "Yes Kathryn we need to think about this, thinking is overrated; Doris where are you?”

  Kathryn hears something, and asks, "What were you saying Charles?"

  "I was just agreeing with you and praying at the same time," Charles responds.

  “Burnside, you’re not looking at all well,” Lee says. “I’m having trouble breathing,” Burnside says. “I think he’s having a heart attack,” blurts o
ut Kathryn. “Call 911, someone please call 911!” Kathryn turns and says to all present, "What ever happened to truth, balance, responsibility and conscience?"

  Chapter 18 Flashback : Twenty years in the past, at the headquarters of the EOJ Doris sits at the great round table. The conference room at EOJ was very unusual and different from other conference rooms. It was round in shape. In the center was a large all-glass table above which a large projection cube was suspended from which everything could be projected on any surface in the room. The chairs were all high backed and everyone could see everyone else very clearly. The members were all invited by the President and appointments were for life regardless of political position or party.

  Doris Dean sat in the chairman's chair. She was an elegant woman, tall, white haired with a thin face and warm blue eyes. She had very few wrinkles and walked regally. Next to her sat Beneizen, then her husband Congressman Charles Dean, Sam Nichols, Senators Kathryn Bennett, William Lee and Richard Burnside and last was Dr. Toby Fineman. It was a beautiful spring day and everyone was anxious to get topside to enjoy the budding flowers and fresh air. Doris spoke to the group as a whole, saying, "I’m very sorry to bring you all down to the lower depths for a meeting on such a lovely spring day, But Beneizen is ready to bring the Guard program on line and I wanted him to tell you himself just how the program works.

  Beneizen quietly begins to speak. "Thank you all for coming. The Guards are not complete androids or robots. They are modified humans. Their DNA has been modified. Their bones are titanium. They have two hearts and two brains. Since all Guards have almost identical DNA all of their body parts are completely interchangeable and replaceable. Their eyes are cameras with up to 600mm lens. Their first frontal brain lobe is completely human but they have a second brain that controls the first. Essentially they receive their assignment and believe in it completely. They instantly have available to themselves an assigned career and identity as though they had been that person for years, they instantly know any language as though they were native speakers, they adapt perfectly to any social situation and when their assignment is over their brain is re-modified digitally. The entire process is completely controlled by our main computers here at EOJ. They have no will of their own. There is one small problem. There is a very faint residual memory at the end of each assignment which causes them to start to have vague memories. If these memories start to cause problems a new implant needs to be installed. Now, what are the Guards for? Doris this is where you take over.”

  Doris stood, placed her hands flat on the table and looked at everyone and started, "We have a grave and even fearful responsibility. We are being asked by our nation to take care of problems outside of the realm of politics. We all must ask ourselves, ‘What is justice, what is objective justice?’ It's not about who we’re angry at, or whose opinions we don’t agree with. It's not personal. We have been asked to make decisions for the greater good of our planet and the human race as a whole as well as our country. We as species have to decide our own state rather than have it thrust upon us.

  Here are the rules!

  All decisions are unanimous.

  No one is harassed about their vote. All decisions are final.

  We are responsible for all our decisions.

  Where other countries are involved, they must agree with our decisions.

  Guards are potentially the most dangerous weapons since the atomic bomb. Even the knowledge of their existence is dangerous... May God help us to use them wisely, any questions?” Doris asks.

  "Who among us has control of the Guards?" Senator Lee asks. "We each will have assigned cases and our own squad of Guards handling our cases. We each have an assigned team in our own control room," Doris responds.

  "Where and how are the Guards kept when they’re not on assignment?" Senator Bennett asks. "It depends, some will live in society, functioning as normal humans, with jobs and families and some will live here, and further decisions will be made as time goes on." Doris answers.

  Beneizen stands and says, "Excuse me Doris, but we must also have a set of principles. Our responsibility is to keep the balance; the balance among humans, the balance in nature and the balance among nations. If we don't accomplish all of these goals terrible things will happen. Remember

  Truth

  Balance

  Responsibility Conscience”

  Charles stands and says, "Let’s all stand together and pledge! I give you truth, balance, responsibility and conscience!"

  They all stand and raise their fists in the air and yell the pledge; a pledge that sadly was to prove too difficult for humans to keep.

  Chapter 19 Chase awakens slowly aware that Ally is asleep in his arms. He realized that he craved the touch of her skin against his, that, there was something magical about being close to her. He just lay there holding her and not wanting to move. It’s amazing how he could have such feelings for someone or something that could be programmed at any moment to take his life.

  Morning light began to flood the cave. He eased his arm away and pushed out into the morning sunlight. There was a grassy knoll right in front of the cave. Chase could hear the waterfall cascading just in front of where he sat. He crossed his legs, straightened his back and sat in a meditative lotus position, gradually becoming aware of his inner space; he just wanted to watch what was happening inside his body, dispassionately.

  Suddenly, as though watching a movie he saw memories, random thoughts, and then a clear vision appeared, complete with the experience of parachuting onto the roof of a large skyscraper alongside a tall, blonde, muscular man. He remembered the man grimacing as they folded up their chutes and giving him a ’thumbs up.’ They entered a roof door and ran down the back stairs three floors. They removed their coveralls leaving them in black from head to foot complete with black gloves and hoodies with only their eyes showing. Chase took a small canister from his pocket, pressed a button and a long needle extended from the canister. He then made a hole into the room behind the wall. Pressing another button the canister released some kind of gas into the room. He removed the needle from the wall and they both looked at their watches. Chase continues to glance at his watch as they each take out their automatic pistols, then pulling out gas masks and putting them on. They went to the door at the end of the hall and he kicked the door off its hinges, bursting into the room. There were three men sitting around a card table, unconscious, one man’s head had fallen onto the table and one had fallen backward in his chair. The third man was just sitting in the chair with his mouth open and his head hanging back. Chase then shot him right in the center of his temple. The blonde man shot the other two exactly the same way. Across the room were piles of hundred dollar bills stacked neatly on a table against the wall next to several clear bags of white powder. The blonde man took a small duffle from the black metallic case he carried, stuffing the money and powder into it. Then he took the guns and put them in as well. They pushed over several lamps to make the place look ransacked and left the way they came. Back in the hallway they took off the black outfits, replacing them with ultra-thin silk clothes. He took the used clothes, added them to the bag and then, going back up to the middle of the roof. The blond man laid the black case down, stepped back and took out what appeared to be a key chain and squeezed it. The case simply vaporized - no smoke and no fire... Then they both ran to the side of the building and jumped off into space...

  The vision faded. ”Was it a real dream or an implant?” Chase asked himself, “How can I know what is true and what’s not?”

  Ally came out of the cave and joined him, they both sat for a moment just enjoying the rising sun. It brought a renewal. The morning light broke over the trees.

  “We need to be on our way,” she said and then continued, “Have you ever before made love to a woman or wanted to?”

  Chase was startled by the question, saying, “I don’t know, I have memories of making love to a woman but I don’t even know if it’s even possible… maybe, why are
you asking?”

  “I don’t know, like you I don’t know if my memories are implanted or true, how does one know what is true. I walk through life as if I'm asleep,” she says. “I have the same questions, what would it mean not to be a machine?” Chase answered.

  They both got up and began a routine of stretching of their bodies.

  “I’m hungry, let’s eat,” she said.

  They found a nice Greek diner just north of the park. New York City is endowed with an endless supply of Greek diners that serve a great breakfast. After their hunger was satisfied, Ally led Chase to a garage nearby where they got into her SUV. She said she had a plan, and they began driving down to Washington, DC...

  “Oh I almost forgot” Ally said, “I picked up two Dr. Boner’s.”

  “Great, I was craving one of those.” Chase said as he ripped open one of the small cans and drank it down, saying, “I don’t know why everyone hates this stuff except us,”

  Ally responds, “That’s because it would kill a human being. If you haven't figured it out yet. We're not human in the traditional meaning of the word and besides have you ever read the list of ingredients? You’ll notice the print is very small; use that super eyesight of yours to read it.”

  Chase reads from the back of the can, “Titanium, sodium fluorite, potassium nitrate, bromide sulfate,” and saying, “What is this stuff?”

  “It’s what our bodies need, Chase, Look at the wound from the gunshot on your leg, you’ll see it’s completely healed, gone, not a mark. That doesn't happen to humans,” Ally says.

  “Don’t we have some kind of manual stuffed away in our heads, or a book on ourselves to study, or is this total selfinquiry?” Chase asked.