Confrontation

by William Hayashi

  “We should get some plywood to cover the insulation so it doesn’t get torn up when we load up,” Lena suggested.

  “I’m low on cash,” said Neil.

  “I’ll go. Just let me check where the nearest lumberyard is,” Albert offered.

  Neil tossed him the keys to the truck and went back to his welding, adding a channel through which the electrical wiring would run.

  Albert grabbed his tablet and found a home improvement superstore a few miles away. He was only gone for forty-five minutes. Once he returned, Lena and Neil helped unload twenty sheets of plywood, three dozen two-by-fours, a couple of drills, bits, extension cords, screws and bolts, and a circular saw. In no time at all, Lena and Albert had the interior walled in. Then Neil attached the frame to the top of the container and then the three hoisted the refrigerator to the roof for him to mount and run insulated mini ductwork front and back along the roof.

  As they were testing the system, Lucius and Julius returned. They pulled inside to unload a full trunk and back seat.

  “Whatcha got there, fellas?” Lena asked, grabbing a stack of boxes Julius handed her from the back seat.

  “Mostly luxuries on the wish list,” answered Lucius. “I’ll tell you this, cash is a great price reducer! By the way, I’d like everyone to be cleaned up and ready to go to dinner by seven, I have reservations for eight o’clock. As I said this morning, clean is fine, it’s not a jacket and tie kind of place, but the steaks and seafood are excellent.”

  Lena, Neil and Albert showed Lucius and Julius what they had completed already. Lucius couldn’t believe how much they had accomplished, telling them their progress made him have to step up his game!

  They knocked off, locked up and returned to the motel to clean up.

  When everyone was ready, they piled into the car with Julius behind the wheel. They wended their way toward the downtown city lights, taking Lake Shore Drive north, ending up not far from Chicago’s famed North Michigan Avenue shopping and entertainment district. They gave the car to the valet and once inside the restaurant, were seated almost immediately. They relaxed, ordered drinks, except for Julius, and spent time looking over the menu. As they waited for the food to arrive, they chitchatted about the differences and similarities they found being back on Earth, always mindful to be discreet in case someone overheard their conversation.

  The food was a great change for them, since beef wasn’t available yet at the colony. And the fact that they were on Earth, and probably the subject of one of the biggest manhunts in history, made them a bit giddy. Lucius regaled them with stories about his recruiting days, and the kinds of legal work he did in the field of social justice. Everything was going swimmingly until an older black couple stopped as they were walking by and the man put his hand on Lucius’ shoulder and said, “Lucius? Is that you?” Everyone at the table froze.

  Lucius stood, looking closely at the man’s face. Then he burst into a huge smile and hugged the man, saying, “Daniel, Daniel Martin, it’s been a coon’s age!” He pulled back and kissed the woman on the cheek, then said, “Sadie, I have no idea why you haven’t traded up yet.”

  The woman gave Lucius a hug, and said, “We’re not interrupting, are we? I knew it was you, but Dan said he was sure you were dead!”

  “That’s only because I hadn’t seen or heard of you for, what now? Ten years or so? You’re looking well, what have you been doing since you retired?” Dan asked.

  “Little of this, little of that. Let me introduce you to some friends of mine. They’re working on a research project in social justice. This is Lena, Julius, Albert and Neil. I was treating them to dinner.”

  The couple said their hellos and briefly chatted with Lucius before excusing themselves, extracting a promise from Lucius to call ahead the next time he was in town. After the couple left everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘What are the f-ing odds of that happening?” Albert whispered.

  “I’m just as surprised as you are,” Lucius confessed. “I really had no idea Dan and Sadie were still alive. But before you all panic, we’re just a few friends having a nice dinner out. No one knows anything different.”

  They finished the meal slightly more subdued after the reminder of what their mission was, who they really were and what the risks were. When they were stuffed, Lucius paid the bill, tipping generously, and they headed back to the motel.

  When he got in the room, Julius called Sondra and recounted his day. He told about Lucius being recognized so casually that it took a few moments before she realized what he had said, then freaked out about the whole incident. Julius laughed and tried to calm her down. All the while she was shooting questions at him about using their own names, were they followed back to the motel, did anyone else know what they were up to, until Julius finally had to tell her to quiet down so he could at least answer one of her questions before she asked the next.

  As he was in conversation with Sondra, Lucius was outside sitting on a lounge chair by the motel’s pitiful little swimming pool, bringing Chuck up to date on the incident.

  “You think there’s anything to worry about?” Chuck asked.

  “Definitely not. After all, who are they going to tell? There’s nothing really on this mission I’m worried about, especially given how well today went. These kids are unbelievable, if I do say so myself. The only thing that may slow us down is when I pick up that research equipment out in Batavia. Genesis sent them a slew of paperwork, but they do a background check for a lot of the more advanced equipment we ordered. Anyway, anything they do a search on, G2 can redirect if needed. Did you hear anything about the Russian bird arriving?” asked Lucius.

  “Watched it, although with a twelve minute delay. They parked only fifty miles from the habitat. That Russian has balls!”

  “What’s the council decided about talking to either or both of them?” asked Lucius.

  “From what Chris said, Sydney may want to talk to Joy’s father, but no one else wants to parley with either mission. Neither of them have anything to offer us in the short or long term. Besides, Chris says that we’d never be able to trust them.”

  “He’s right. It’s never going to happen,” agreed Lucius.

  “What’s on tap for tomorrow?”

  “More shopping. The others are going to start loading up the containers. The last thing we’ll be doing is picking up the perishables, probably Friday. If all goes well, we’ll be ready to blast off Sunday.”

  “Go get your rest, you’ve got a few big days ahead …”

  “Will do. Good night, Chuck.”

  “Night, Lucius.”

  The next morning the ground crew started loading crates into the containers while Lucius left on an all-day shopping excursion.

  With Lena wheeling the forklift and the others using two-wheeled carts, they made good headway. Just before midday, Neil took the truck and made a beer run. The crew was in a great mood when he returned to the warehouse. They continued to load and inform G2 of every item that went into each container. By the time Lucius returned, they estimated that they were between a third, to halfway done with loading.

  While Lucius was shopping, he visited a well-established jewelry store in the downtown area, one in which he did business before he left Earth. While he was there, he contacted Chuck, and using his tablet to “take pictures” of the items he inspected, Chuck was able to choose a tasteful diamond ring with four rubies bracketing the central setting. Paying cash, Lucius received a discount and a gift card for his next purchase. He almost laughed out loud, knowing that this was truly a one-sale deal. But he graciously thanked the salesperson and the owner, who had wrapped the box containing the ring personally.

  Back at the warehouse, while the crew was taking a very late lunch, Neil wondered out loud if someone should swim down to the whale and get a couple of the heavy-lifter G-wave devices to make moving the shippin
g containers easier. He even volunteered to make the swim that night under cover of darkness.

  After talking it over, they reached the consensus that to bring colony technology, other than their disguised tablets and comm devices, was far too risky.

  Lena said, “It’s no big deal, I like tooling around with the lifter!”

  “But what about when we have to load them on the barge? If we do it at night, someone’s bound to hear that crane. And if we do it during the day, we’re right out in the open,” said Albert.

  “I say go ahead and load during daylight. There’s nothing more innocuous than acting like you have nothing to hide. We’ll have to leave under cover of darkness, though,” Julius admitted. “In any case, I’m going to have to make a trip down to the whale to get the propulsion units for the barge. I looked up and down the river early this morning and didn’t see any sign of a tug we could use to push the barge out into the lake. And if we just use our own tech, no one has to return the boat before we take off.”

  “If we found one, what’s wrong with leaving it adrift?” Albert asked.

  “Because the last thing we should be doing is causing property damage because we’re either lazy or careless,” Lena answered. “It could be pushed by the wind and run aground before someone sees it in the morning. Will you need any help getting the units off the whale, Julius? If so, I can come with.”

  “Maybe so. Getting them out of the whale’s not the problem, dragging them up the channel to the barge is what I’m worried about. I have no idea how long that’s going to take.”

  “Will they show when they’re attached?” Albert asked.

  “They shouldn’t. They attach magnetically, so I’m going to put them on the bottom of the hull,” Julius responded.

  “I see what Albert’s getting at. If it takes too long maneuvering through the channel, we can get them situated on the barge one night and leave the next,” said Neil. “And I think we should return the barge to the landing once we unload and destroy the propulsion units. We never know if we’re going to have to pull this same stunt again in the future.”

  “I have to agree. Though we do have our needs, we would be greatly diminished if we satisfied them without regard for others. I know that’s how the whole country operates, but we’re supposed to be better than that,” Lena said.

  “We are better than that. If we’re not observed loading the whale, I’ll guide the barge back, destroy the engines, and then swim back out to the whale. But the whale should be back underwater when I’m doing all that,” Julius offered.

  “I’ll go with you,” said Albert. “There’s really no sense in you having to do it all alone. We should use the smaller units to get us back out into the lake, it’ll save time and we won’t get so tired.”

  “Then it’s settled,” said Julius.

  With the plan agreed upon, the four turned their conversation to fantasizing about things they’d like to do while on Earth. Lena mentioned wanting to go to the zoo. Neil wanted to visit the Museum of Science and Industry not very far away on Chicago’s south side. Albert was torn between just lying out on the beach, even though it was kind of early in the season, and finding a forest preserve in which to wander about. When asked what he wanted to do, Julius thought about it, then said he wanted to visit the Art Institute downtown and spend the day there.

  Left unsaid were the wishes that everyone privately had of visiting people from their past, whether it was to say goodbye, or try to convince them to come back to the colony. No discussion of further recruitment had been mentioned prior to their departure from the colony. Everyone knew that there were talks about the feasibility of doing so, but no safe means of accomplishing the task had been found.

  Just before they were going to knock off for the day, a large delivery truck showed up with eleven crates, two very large and heavy, containing upright pianos. The other crates were filled with brass, woodwind and percussion instruments.

  “I guess this is one of the reasons the cargo hold of the whale will have atmosphere the whole way back,” Lena said, looking over the manifest. They also discovered a dozen high-end, programmable electronic keyboards in one of the crates, along with tools and spare parts for maintaining the instruments.

  Lucius returned with another carload of items from the list, mostly luxury goods, no less important for their personal nature. The next day he was scheduled to take the truck out to the far suburbs to pick up research equipment, far easier to purchase than to fabricate at the colony, though not everything acquired was of such a technical nature. There were a dozen huge rolls of newsprint that had already been loaded into one of the containers. This paper was for the younger children, as well as several hundred boxes of crayons.

  Managerial and research operations for the colony had eliminated the need for paper, finally achieving the decades-old Earth promise of the paperless office. And, with the ubiquitous high-definition display screens located everywhere in the colony, changing artwork in homes, corridors and offices was simply a matter of having Genesis change the display to anything on file. Any visual image or video could be displayed on any colonist’s datapad as well. The entirety of Earth’s art collection, if it had been photographed, was available instantly. However, bringing paper and crayons would be a welcome surprise for the colony’s children who hadn’t been lucky enough to get their hands on part of the scarce supply.

  One serendipitous result of an all electronic data environment was that the colony’s children were exposed to creative digital applications far earlier than their Earthborn contemporaries. They also began their understanding of drawing, writing and programming via computer almost as soon as they were able to read and write.

  TJ had joked more than once that their children could make a fortune writing games and productivity applications for Earth’s smart phones and tablets. What the colony’s schooling produced was a spate of digital productivity not seen anywhere on Earth. With the assistance of Genesis, school-age children were turning out their own games, from the simple to the complex that multiple players could enjoy. And many exceeded the quality of those available to users on Earth. TJ was always fascinated when the colony’s students latched onto a game from Earth, and then would see that game converted to a computer-based variant. Monopoly was a favorite, with the children choosing their own Earth locations for the electronic playing board. Simpler puzzle-based games were very popular, as were graphical shape-matching games for the very young.

  The colony was a true digital society, due in no small part to TJ’s early vision for an artificial intelligence capable of monitoring the habitat’s control systems, complete with a personality capable of communication with the residents by voice. As with Christopher’s G-wave technology, their advances in computer technologies were extremely significant in the futuristic nature of their community.

  Feeding the creativity of their children was a top priority in their community. In addition to crayons, Lucius bought a crate of colored chalk, glitter glass beads, a thousand pounds of popsicle sticks with glue and all sorts of materials that would certainly brighten up the school, giving the teachers a number of new and different projects they could offer the students.

  As they unloaded the art supplies that packed the trunk and back seat, Albert told Lucius that the instruments had arrived.

  “Great, I was getting worried. Were there two pianos?” Lucius asked.

  “According to the paperwork, there sure were. A bunch of those electronic keyboards too.”

  “Good. I have nearly two thousand pounds of painting supplies on the way too,” said Lucius.

  “What kind of paint? We’ve got paint for days. The colony is full of color,” Albert said, confused.

  “I meant for art classes. I know they’ve been using the industrial paint for art, but I did a bulk purchase of oil and watercolor paint, brushes and a thousand square feet of canvas. It won’t last foreve
r, but it should keep our artists busy for a while. That all should be arriving this afternoon. I see a lot of the crates are loaded up. What else has been going on while I was out?” Lucius asked.

  “Julius is going to be the one to get the propulsion units for the barge; maybe one of the others will go with him, but probably not. He might be wanting some time alone with Sondra. We’ve had no success finding a tug to borrow, if you know what I mean, so we’re going to outfit the barge to make it out and back on its own,” said Albert.

  “I figured as much. We can’t very well trust a commercial tug to take us out in the middle of the lake and leave us there in the middle of the night,” Lucius said, shaking his head. “Do me a favor and let everyone know we’re going out to eat out again if it’s all right with you all.”

  “No problem. You got these last few things? Don’t want you hurtin’ yourself!”

  Lucius laughed and said, “Yep! Now git!”

  The art supplies arrived just before they decided to knock off for the day. Once the delivery truck was unloaded, they all trooped into the office and found Lucius on the computer. He looked up and said, “I have another place to eat I think you’ll enjoy.”

  “Where’s that?” Neil asked.

  “It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet on the northwest side specializing in Polish food.”

  “Never had it,” Albert admitted.

  “Sounds great,” Lena said, “We don’t get anything like it back home.”

  “Good, everyone get cleaned up and we’ll head on out,” said Lucius, turning back to the computer.

  Julius and Neil secured the warehouse and they all piled into the car to run back to the motel to get cleaned up. When they returned, they found Lucius leaning back in the chair, his feet on the desk, obviously talking to someone through his communicator. When his conversation concluded, he explained that he had been bringing Chuck, Todd and Sondra up to date, and was checking to see if they had anything specific they wanted him to pick up. He held up a small piece of paper with their requests, folded it and tucked it in his shirt pocket.