Encompassing

by Richard Lord

  As the fond moment in his mind is painted over with the reality of the horrors his two girls have seen, Solstice awakes with a startle and looks at him. Her startle causes Illumna to move, but she doesn’t’ come to full consciousness until she hears her sister say, “Are you ever going to just die and leave us alone?” Solstice leaps to her feet and into her father’s arms.

  Illumna is already there and looks at Solstice. “That was mean! He deserves a proper hug from the one that loves him!” She sticks her tongue out at Solstice. Solstice shoves herself in anyway. Renfield looks down at his blessings then states, “I honestly wasn’t sure if this would be. I’m glad it has come to pass.”

  Solstice looks up at her father’s face, then to Illumna then back at her father. “We weren’t sure either.” Solstice begins to cry and Renfield realizes the pressure that was on both of them. Illumna begins doing what Renfield told her he called ‘the pee dance’, when she was young.

  Renfield looks up at the ceiling and says, “Go Illumna!” Illumna clicks away. Renfield is fully aware she really just wanted to cry privately. He again thinks about the pressure on his daughters, but he knows they would be more upset if he left them out of this. He also realizes they’re very smart and they think of things he doesn’t. Consistently. He squeezes Solstice to him. He realizes he has few choices in the matter. She finally looks back at him as Illumna clicks back into the room.

  “How many did you get?” Solstice asks while wiping her eyes.

  Renfield replies, “I had time to pull out more than twenty. I’m guessing you girls grabbed some too. I’m sure we have enough to figure out how they work and what frequency they are on. Consider it’s based around your concept for encrypted, but fast communication between your mind and your AIs. SO if anyone is going to figure out their frequency and how they work, it will be you.”

  Solstice nods and replies, “Do you think we took enough of them out to slow them while we reverse engineer their ‘zombie’ network?”

  Renfield stares at the wall in deep thought, a trait he’s clearly passed on. Then he looks over at Illumna looking at him with inquiry painted across her face. He breathes in and replies, “It will be close. It won’t be long before they figure out the true nature of our assault and start pouring R&D funding at changing their technology and frequency. You now I want to stay on this timeline, so we can’t take an advantage there. I didn’t get the impression any of the ‘zombies’ have begun learning that trick. If they had, they would have used it. I wasn’t listening to them, but I could certainly sense their desperation for self-preservation.”

  Sara enter and says, “There you are! Did you wake the girls?”

  Renfield bows his head in guilt.

  Sara says, “Well now I have to make more, but I used all the meat in yours!”

  Renfield still holding his daughters close to him looks at Sara and says, “Did you make anything for yourself?”

  Sara replies, “No.” Then considers why she didn’t think of that.

  Renfield says, “Okay, so then…” he clicks away and then returns directly in front of Sara with 3 more sets of silverware and holds them up as if giving a production, “…we split that four ways and I will go make more. Then he growls and chuckles, “Even if it’s just eggs and crackers in my special super peppery dish that no one likes.”

  Sara begins to tell him that she will just go make something else for her and the girls, but she understands he wants to spend time with the three of them by the way he is clinking the silverware together over his shoulder as he walks to the deck. The girls follow and she realizes that he also feels that he is pressuring everyone and trying to do his pressure valve thing. She smiles to herself knowing he’s not as good at it as he thinks, but she knows he tries. Then she yells after him, “Because you can’t add salt anymore. It doesn’t taste as good as it used to.”

  Renfield turns to give Sara a disapproving look and moves his eyeballs gesturing to the girls. He notes that they aren’t paying any attention to the comment and makes a gesture with his hand for Sara to keep walking with them.

  While they are eating, Solstice looks at Illumna and says, “We need to focus more on cooking!”

  Illumna looks at her sister and says, “Do you really think that will get us boys?”

  Solstice replies, “Sure. What’s the old saying?”

  Renfield chimes in, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach? I don’t know if that really works.”

  Sara laughs and adds, “It does.”

  Renfield laughs and looks up at the sky. He watches the clouds move past each other at varying levels and contemplates the concept of three dimensions far more in-depth that the situation calls for. He smiles and looks at his daughters. Then he puts out a hand for Sara to hold. He reminisces on how many times and iterations of his life Sara has been by him and never left his side. He feels blessed by how well she understands him. He looks over at the sliding glass door that leads in and out of the deck. Renfield notices Christina standing in the doorway smiling at them all. He gestures for Christina to join them. She opens the door and walks out to take a seat at the table that seems abuzz with talk. As Christina sits he moves what remains on his plate to her. “Well now, I better get busy! A lot of mouths to feed. I suppose Brady and Angela will be up soon too, so I better get hopping!” Christina and Sara both begin to stand. Renfield looks at them, with an oddly pleading looks, “Don’t rob me of my culinary moment in the sun. According to the girls, it’s the way to a man’s heart.” They all laugh and he jogs in to the kitchen and begins. Then he thinks back to Illumna and Solstice, “About what time do Brian and Persistence wake?”

  Illumna thinks back to him. “Probably in about an hour, but they’re too young to eat your slop. They were born lucky.”

  As he starts to comment back Brady leans over his shoulder, “Please tell me you're not on KP this morning?”

  Renfield grins and says, “Indeed I am. We need more meat in this house! Coffee is done.” As he begins to inquire about Angela being awake or asleep he sees her head to the deck. Then he adds to Brady, “I’d grab her one too. She doesn’t seem as spry as you this morning.”

  Brady smiles as he moves to the pot of coffee and then inquires, “So what’s next, Adam? I know part of you had been considering that they have resources we can’t begin to match. Not just manpower, they have funding and you’ll run out soon. Which, by the way is why there isn’t endless meat in the house. I obviously can’t get a job. It would seem strange that I was running command at my post and at the same time flipping burgers hundreds of miles away.”

  Renfield nods while concentrating on filling plates. “So, you think flipping burgers will make a difference in this scenario?” Brady turns to defend his quip, but Renfield grins at him.

  “My ideas is this: I know you have a long term plan Adam, but we have to keep them weak, on their toes. We have to keep their resources wondering how to spend.”

  Renfield nods, “Yup. Been thinking about that. I can do most of that solo and keep everyone else out of harm’s way. I don’t want to risk losing one of us. That literally cuts into manpower, not to mention, I don’t want anything to happen to any of us.”

  Brady holding two cups of coffee looks at Renfield, “Hey buddy, you’re one of us. You forgetting that in your plans is what caused the issues of people breaking orders and acting on their own to protect you. Consider, as much as you were a success in that mission, you too were a failure because you didn’t take that into account in your super plans.” He sips from one of the mugs with his eyes firmly on Renfield as he walks past him to deliver the goods.

  Renfield considers his words and begins to think on them deeply. He turns to Brady’s back walking away from him and yells, “Hey! Come back once you drop those off and help me get these plates out there!”

  Brady smiles as he continues walking and yells back over his shoulder, “And here I thought you could do everything by yourself?”

 
Renfield goes into deep thought trying to balance Brady’s words with risking people he loves so deeply.

  CHAPTER 73

  “The miracles of, what many religions refer to with different names as one person or sometimes many, still happen. We have come together, holistically, and named them science.” – from the book of Illumna

  Renfield descends the stairs to “S.I.R. Labs” as he’s decided to name it. He chuckles to himself as his mind wanders back to the day he reserved that name. The girls liked the name a lot. It stood for ‘Solstice, Illumna, Renfield Labs’.

  Rounding the bottom of the stairs he goes into command mode and asks, “”Okay, where are we with weapons development?”

  Illumna states, “I’m working on the big boom stuff and I have some pretty cool toys ready that are small and portable.”

  Solstice replies, pointing to her screen, “And this is one of the neat toys you’ll be carrying.”

  Renfield leans in and stares at a mini-assault rifle with a hydraulic-based buffer to accept the shock of the bottom mounted grenade launcher with a short barrel. He notes the laser on top and asks Solstice, “Is that for aim? If so, I don’t need it.”

  Solstice proudly points out the butt of the weapon and notes, “It has a lithium-ion battery in the butt that is large enough that you will be able to cut one or two more things in half with it. Since that is a short fast burst energy source, it won’t do more than that, but it’s there if you need it.”

  Renfield grins, but looks at Solstice and then points to the screen, “There on the end of the butt. Can’t you shape that into a can opener?”

  Solstice looks at her father, “Umm sure, should I also shape the trigger to work as a bottle opener?” She frowns at her father with the sarcasm intended.

  Renfield ignore the obvious sarcasm and pats her on that back, “Good idea!” Then he stands and moves towards Illumna’s workstation to see what she’s been working on.

  Solstice yells out at him, “You do get sarcasm, right?”

  Renfield turns to her, “Huh? Yeah. But it’s a good idea anyway.” Solstice shakes her head at him and decides sarcasm or not, she’s going to add that in and a few other things just to make her point.

  Illumna shows him several devices that are extremely small in size that make for huge explosions. She runs a few simulations for him and he stares down at her and asks, “How can you make those so small? If that were possible, everyone would be doing it.”

  Illumna leans over her should to look at her father, “Everyone isn’t us.” She replies.

  Renfield nods and thinks, “It makes sense, her mind is about accuracy. She thinks in smaller increments and this is just an extension of that.”

  Illumna looks back, “Want to see your shirt and pants?” Renfield nods. Illumna brings up the design for new pants and a shirt.

  Renfield nods, “Good lots of pockets for your devices.”

  Illumna holds up her pointer finger and says, “Wait! Watch this.“ She then plays a simulation of a bullet striking him in the back. It becomes lodged in the shirt, but doesn’t pass through it.

  Renfield looks at her and asks, “Does that really work?”

  Illumna responds, “It depends on several factors, but under all simulations it slows a bullet knife, etc. down drastically on impact. You’ll still feel it, but it will do a lot less damage to you. Best is that it’s flexible and lightweight, so it won’t slow you down.”

  Renfield begins to question her how it’s better than Kevlar, but then he again realizes that micro threading is something Illumna would master due to her natural mind for accuracy. He smiles, impressed by his daughters as Brady enters. “Have you seen what they have created?”

  Brady responds, “What part? I’m guessing you liked the Superman suit the most?”

  “Okay, so you have seen all of this before I did.” Renfield responds and looks back at Illumna’s monitor.

  “I was the first to tell them what I thought was missing from our bag of tricks. The rest they have done in only nine months while raising kids that are now walking. And yes, I am as proud of them as you are.” Brady mentions.

  Renfield looks up as if startled and looks down at his watch. “Speaking of which, I promised Christina, Sara and Angela, I would watch the kids while they went shopping. Gotta run!” He scans the room to be sure his departing doesn’t annoy any of them. Not getting an immediate response he clicks upstairs immediately.

  Brady leans in to looks at the changes Solstice is furiously making and then says to the two girls, “He’s feeling guilty for everything. He shouldn’t, but that’s him. I know you girls made your own decisions but he feels like he dragged all of us into this. What he doesn’t realize is that all of us would again jump at the chance to save the world.” He pauses then continues, “He proud of the two of you. I am too. Your shining lights, girls. The world may not ever know that we all gave up on normal lives to do this, but we’ll know we did the right thing.”

  Illumna replies, “No reward. Weird life. Yeah, great plan.”

  Solstice looks across to her sister. “I owe. I almost did it myself. Why do you do it?”

  “Because you pulled back from the edge and changed direction, Solstice. That’s more than admirable, it’s heroic! Most people can never admit their mistakes. Most people never look inside to what they did wrong when something goes wrong. It’s inspiring.”

  Solstice looks up from her monitor to her older sister and explains, “Wasn’t it Dad who said, ‘While doing something wrong, the knight doesn’t realize his folly. It is a true knight who can look back and realize he is not pure and resolves to change that.’ I am far from pure, by some standards. By my own, I’m working on who I will be. Day by day.”

  Illumna sits silent for a moment and then says, “Well some would certainly think some of your thoughts are impure!” She laughs.

  Solstice looks back at her and replies, “I’ve decided. Yours are worse!” Then she looks at their monitor than back up at Illumna. “Intention isn’t the road to hell. Intention speaks to the soul and judges. Religion, politics, things like that. They try to guide. However, they are always influenced by people who use them to both make their own opinion and rules. It may not be the intent of the founder of a religion, but those who swear to follow re-interpret the goal to garnish personal power.” She stops for a second and swallows then she continues, “Personal power is not in and of itself a bad thing. It equates to survival. When used to mislead, it is evil. At least I never did that.”

  Illumna responds by quoting their father, “You are responsible for your wake.”

  Solstice looks back, “Exactly. Although I think someone said that to him about driving a boat and he took it to have a deeper meaning.”

  Illumna asks, “Do you remember who?”

  Solstice shakes her head. “No idea, but obviously he’s had his influences in life as he is one to us.”

  Brady moves forward and leans in over the center of their duo desk and orders, “Okay, enough philosophical speeches for today. Let’s get to work. The first thing I have to do is figure out where we are going to get the metals and other materials from. I do have some ideas. I need you two to start working on a very specific list for me including amounts, weights or whatever. Angela and I can work on that while you two modify your designs to what I can actually get. Deal?

  Both girls look up at him, “You’re starting to think like him.” Illumna says to her grandfather. “However, I understand the logic.”

  Solstice looks up and says, “Yeah, hadn’t thought about that. Basically; so far all we have is rough drafts until we know what you can actually get. Then we modify based around that.”

  Brady shrugs and says, “Life didn’t change, you…”

  Solstice interrupts, “Play the cards your dealt. Did Dad get that quote from you or the other way around?”

  Brady looks at Solstice and responds, “Him, he said someone gave that quote to him and he remembers it every day. In fac
t, if I’m not mistaken, I’m pretty sure he said that the night you were created. Which was the night before he went to get you.”

  Then, as if a lightbulb went on over his head, he looks to Illumna, “Illumna, you can travel back into previous versions of yourself, right?”

  Illumna looks at her grandfather and tries to get where he’s going with the thought that just animated him. She answers, “Yes. It’s a form of time travel, but it’s rudimentary.” She answers. She sits for a moment while Brady looks at her and adds, “Plus it would break Dad’s rules against time travel because he’s trying to keep to this timeline.”

  Brady responds, “Maybe not. I have an idea.”

  Solstice replies, “Uh oh, a cop, a map and a plan, this can’t go well.”

  CHAPTER 74

  “Before a storm the ions in the air charge and make your hair move. You shouldn’t be able to feel your hair, but you do, despite the fact they are your dead cells.” – from the book of Solstice

  As they all sit around on the deck talking and eating burgers Renfield is flipping over his shoulders for them to catch on their plates, Angela stands.

  “I can’t take this anymore!” Angela bursts out. “Brady, I truly do love you. I would never have married you if that weren’t true, but I can’t take this anymore! Renfield knows more than one future. It’s why he recruited me.”

  Renfield whistles and then adds, “And now we get to the juicy part. Who likes their burger rare?” He turns and leans against the railing with his elbow while holding his chin and crossing his left leg around his right. “Go on Angela.”

  Angela looks at Brady pleading for his understanding in her eyes, but pointing over and over at Renfield, “You want to know who’s behind the ‘enemy’? It’s him! Not him, the him now, but him! He knows!”

  Brady looks at his wife and then to Renfield. Renfield shrugs with is face. Then he stands straight, arms crossed. He looks remarkably relaxed when everything has suddenly gone so drastically south. Brady turns back to Angela and says, “Go on dear. I suppose this explains why you have always looked at him with such anger. It’s not like I didn’t notice. I just assumed it was something else.” Brady sees her panicked looks and holds out a hand to her, “I’ll believe you, but I need you to explain.”