Chapter Six
LIVE WIRE
JUNE 12th, 2369
After the sun had set and the night was full, the pair of scientists finally put down their tools. Irene’s head is swimming, she was here, working with The Doctor Esienmann, saving the planet together.
She felts like a school girl sitting next to her crush.
“Is that it?” Irene asks
“I think so, I hope so.” Felix says. “Now we just need to wait for the Nanites to do their part and fuse it to their world.”
“Sounds simple enough.” She jokes as her stomach rumbles.
He raises an eyebrow at her, “We should get something to eat, and drink.”
“Yes,” She gasps, “I’m famished.”
He leads her out of the lab and through to the main room.
“Ivor,” Felix says, “Fix us up some dinner.”
There is a hum from a space within the wall and a moment later, a full dinner materializes. He picks it up and takes it over to the table.
Lifting off the covers he reveals a collection of synthetic meat and vegetables, with accompanying sauces.
“Oh this looks amazing,” She says, picking up a few select pieces and devouring them.
He joins her and for a few minutes, they silently enjoy the meal.
“Whoa…” Irene says, her eyes wide, “What is this?” she asks
He takes a similar piece of meat off the table and tastes it.
“Oh that’s just lobster.”
Her mouth hangs open, and he feels compelled to explain.
“Not real lobster of course, but I had Ivor synthesis a close approximation to it.
“It’s amazing she mumbles through a full mouth, then swallows before speaking further. “So… We’ve only been looking at the converter, how have you gotten on with the other projects? Have you managed to grow any extinct species yet?”
“Yes and no,” He says before another mouthful, which holds in the air as he talks. “I can get some to grow in their natural habitat, but when I’ve tried to splice them with other genomes, nothing happens…”
“Hmm.” She sounds, thinking. “There might be something missing something in their growth cycle.”
“Or maybe the samples I have are incomplete, or have degraded over time.” Felix says.
She nods, “What about museums, and universities?, would they not have samples we could use to compare?”
He stares at her, the thought had never occurred to him for some reason, then he nods.
“I’ve just been running off the government systems, thought that would be have enough.”
She takes a drink, “What about the other projects, how’s the solar shield coming along?”
“It’s not.” He admits, “I gave up on that one a few weeks ago, the size and cost just couldn’t justify it’s use. It would only have been a temporary measure until the ozone layer was repaired, then it would be nothing more than space junk.”
Felix puts down the food he’d been holding. “And freezing the ice caps directly would take a tremendous amount of power, beyond anything possible with our current technology.”
“Well then, you’ll just have to show me the plants and… animals?” She grins at him and he returns the gesture.
“Yes, I have a small collection of insects and bees starting up, but again, the problem is getting them protected from the environment, same with people.”
“What do you mean?”
Felix sighs, “We know the world is only going to get worse before it gets better, in a few months no one is going to be able to survive outside without a suit. And in a few years the buildings wont offer enough protection.”
She watches him push food around on his plate. He continues. “I don’t know how, but somehow we need to keep not just civilization, but the ecosystem alive long enough for the planet to heal. Otherwise what’s the point in all this?”
What was the point? He knew the outcome of the future, why was he trying so hard to ignore the truth? He decides to change to subject before she can anwer.
“So how are the Arcs coming along?” Felix asks.
“Good,” she says, through a mouth full of food. “The final preparations are taking place now, then we can start filling them up and get them ready for launch.”
He taps on the table, not looking at her.
“Whats wrong?” Irene asks.
“I just… I can’t see the science. How can you believe they’ll be able to break away from the planet? Their size, their mass, you’d need a nuclear reaction just to move them.”
Irene stares at him, “I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Of course your not.” He grumbles.
“Hey! I came here to help you, if you’re going to keep giving me attitude, I can just leave.”
He looks at her, she’s serious, he hated to admit it, but he needed her, alone he had only scratched the surface.
“I’m sorry.” Felix mumbles.
“So you should be,” Irene says, “We haven’t got all the time in the world to mope.”
“I know…” He says, “How long-“
One of the hovering House Bots chooses that moment to descend from the ceiling where it had been cleaning, and hovers between the two of them.
“Fuck off!” Felix barks as he bats the droid away.
It makes a high toned trilling noise as it weaves out of his reach.
“Hey, leave the little guy alone.” Irene says.
The droid hears this, looks between the two humans, and then zips behind Irene, hiding. Felix frowns at this behavior.
“Looks like I’ve made a friend.” Irene says as she turns to look at the droid. “Hey, it’s okay little one, I’m not going to hurt you.”
It responds with a few bleeps and bloops, but remains behind her. She turns back to Felix, “Sorry, what were you asking?”
“How much time,” Felix growls, still frowning at the droid. “does the government think we have left?”
She looks down at the food on her plate, spearing a piece of meat, thinking.
“About four years.” She says in a quiet voice.
He nods, that wasn’t far off his estimate.
“Jon must be happy to be leading the project.” Felix says.
At the mention of his name, she freezes, hesitating.
“What is it?” He asks, worrying he’d said something wrong.
“Nothing,” She says, “he’s busy these days, I’m not involved in the same area so I don’t see him much.”
“What was your job?” He asks.
“I oversaw the acquisition, transportation and housing of animals. Outside of that I have no idea whats going on, but I trust Johnathan.”
“And they’re going to put the animals in stasis as well?” Felix asks with concern.
“No, there are some volunteers, and those who refuse to be put under due to morale or religious beliefs-”
Felix laughs, and has to cover his mouth from snorting all over the food. “Sorry.” He says after calming down.
She continues, “There is a group of people who will not be entering stasis, and instead will rear the animals and cultivate plants and vegetables, for the future colony.”
“Sounds fascinating.” Felix says.
“You really don’t believe this will work do you?” She says, eying him.
He leans back in his chair, “At this point, I really don’t know what to believe anymore.”
The conversation gives way to silence, save for the occasional click and beep from the technology surrounding them.
After another moment she speaks, “I think we’re done with the meal, how about you show me the rest of what you’ve been working on and then I can really get to work helping you.
“Yeah.” He says, quickly getting to his feet and almost falls over the table. “Yes, I mean, shall we? Shall I give you the grand tour?”
He wobbles a little as he steadies himself, and holds out a hand for hers. She smiles and takes it.
The House Bot chirps at Irene as she gets up.
“I’ll be fine little one, wait here for me yeah?” The House bot whistles a short musical tune, causing Irene to chuckle.
***
Felix leads Irene through a door and down some stairs, descending deeper into the mountain.
“Just how big is this place?” Irene asks, taking the stairs with care in her work heels.
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“There was a large cavern and a network of tunnels already dug out when I got here. I believe they had been made during the last global conflict.”
“You mean, World war four?”
“What I mean, if you’re going to push me, is the completely ignorant genocide, backed up by lies and politics that became a near extinction event.”
Irene laughs, “That’s what I said.”
“Sure.” He mumbles, stopping at the next floor and opening a door which leads to another corridor. The darkness inside is cast away by the automatic lights as they enter.
“So, fixing the atmosphere is only the first step,” Felix starts, “and we can’t rely on the devices alone. We need to kick start the ecosystem to take over the job proper.”
Irene nods, “Even with these units, it’ll take years before the atmosphere is able to sustain life again.”
“Exactly. Oh, you’re going to love this.” Felix says stopping at a door, which has ‘Hydroponics lab’ written on it, and places a hand on the panel, granting them entry. “Welcome, to floral ground zero.”
Irene gasps as she steps inside, first the intense smell of fresh life hits her, then the colors wash over her.
“How…” She gapes at the greenhouse of extinct plants, now growing again. She stops at a bright red one, feels it’s velvety petals against her finger tips, brushes it’s stem and yelps, pulling back her hand.
“A rose.” Irene breaths, as she watches a drop of blood form on her fingertip.
“The modest Rose puts forth a thorn.” Felix says.
“I never imagined how… Beautiful it was,” Irene says.
“We rarely do.” He says, walking down the corridor of vegetation. “The plan is to build large scale versions of this greenhouse all across the world, packed to bursting with new life. When the atmosphere is at an appropriate level, they will automatically unlock and release all the plants onto the world, spreading out like wild fire to reclaim their home.”
She looks at him, “I can assume that the task is highly impractical and expensive?”
“You assume correct.” Felix picks up a bottle and begins spraying water on the flowers. “This is the only one I’ve been able to build. If I could get them to survive outside, I wouldn’t need the greenhouses…” He tails off again.
Irene picks up an open notepad and skims over his handwritten notes. “You know,” She starts, holding up the notepad and the pen, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use such ancient technology.”
Felix frowns at her, then seeing the items in her hand, smiles, and turns back to tending the flowers.
Irene puts the notepad and pen back on the desk and marvels at the other plants “I still can’t believe it, these have all been extinct for centuries.”
“All they needed was a little bioengineering,” He brushes the leaves of a large plant, “life is desperate to grow, it just needs a chance, however small.”
Irene puts a hand on his shoulder. “And we will be the one’s to give it to them.” Then leaning in close. “I’m excited now, if you’ve brought back flowers from the past, what else? Dinosaurs?” She grins.
“Oh come on, I’m not that stupid.” He says.
“Oh I don’t know about that, you do live with an AI.”
“Don’t worry about Ivor, he’s under control, couldn’t take over the world even if he wanted to.”
Felix puts down the bottle, “Come on then, the tour is moving on,” he says, leading her to another door.
He opens it, and the room is filled with the sound of buzzing, squeaking and chirping. The shock of the flowers was one thing, but now Irene stands in the presence of more insects and animals than she’s ever seen in her entire life.
“I have… No words…” She whispers, stepping inside.
Irene holds out her hand to touch the glass, housing a collection of butterflies. Felix leans past her and slides the glass to the side. Half the residents take the chance for freedom and flutter around her, she spins, watching them dance through the air.
“This is just… Incredible.” Irene gushes.
A butterfly floats around her still outstretched hand and lands on her finger. She freezes, like a statue, while a quiet, yet high pitched squeal leaks from between her pursed lips.
Felix can’t help but laugh.
“What?” She snaps at him, her stern face returning, yet her hand remained steady, supporting the multi-colored beauty who once lived hundreds of years ago.
“Just that, behind the stern scientist is still the innocent little girl of her youth.” He says.
Irene scowls at him and he shrugs.
“Is it a crime to be cute?” Felix asks with a smile.
Irene returns her gaze to marvel at the butterfly and it’s wings, ignoring Felix as he passes by her to another enclosure across the room.
She hears him sigh and turns her head to look. He’d tapped on a panel attached to the enclosure and was reading it’s display.
“What’s wrong?” She asks.
Felix taps on the glass for a moment before turning to her. “Admire these while you can…” He takes off his glasses and pinches his nose, closing his eyes as he speaks.
“Ironically, resurrecting the dead species of a full ecosystem wasn’t that difficult.” He returns his glasses to his face and looks about the room, “None of these will survive outside… Not the plants, not the bugs, not even us, in our current state of being anyway.”
She moves towards him, letting the butterfly leave to join it’s family, Felix continues talking.
“I wish I had more time.” He breathes through his nose, “I wish I could just… they’re not ready, none of this is, and honestly I’m starting to doubt it ever will be.”
“Don’t say that,” Irene grabs his hand, snapping his attention onto her, “I am here now and we are going to save the world.”
He smiles at her, and she finishes.
“And if we don’t, at least we can say we gave it our all.”
His smile fades and he lets go of her hand.
“I’ve been giving it my all, all my life, and it’s never been enough.”
Irene frowns, “What do you mean by that?” she asks.
He purses his lips, thinking.
“Not…” he starts, “no, it’s…” he looks at her, “it doesn’t matter,” he moves away from her, “Besides, there’s one last stop on the tour, if we’re going to do this together, I guess there’s no reason to hold back.”
Her brow only furrows more as she glances into the glass unit he’d been looking at. Inside buzzed at least a hundred bees, they’d started to build a hive but they seem to have given up on their task, as they were just aimlessly wandering around.
“You coming?” Felix asks, stifling a yawn.
“Yeah, ‘course.” She says, following after him out the lab.
***
The pair of scientists descend yet another floor deeper, leading to another corridor, identical to almost every other one they’d been through. Cold steel walls, white and silver, must be his only palette of choice Irene wonders as she follows.
Felix stops at another door, punches in a code like before, but then leans forwards so a camera can scan his eye. A chill creeps into Irene’s mind, was this to stop people getting into steal something, or was there something he didn’t want getting out?
Or even, something he didn’t want anyone else to know about?
She follows him in, not willing to give up due to irrational fears.
Inside, the room had been kitted out into a mechanics dream. Three flight suits, in various states of construction and modification, hang from chains in the center of the room.
He picks up a sonic screwdriver and continues work on them. He says nothing, letting Irene’s inquisitive mind do the work for him.
She looks about, there are blueprints and plans for the suits on the wall, he’d already admitted to her back at the conference that he had been the one to design these, so it only made sense he’d have the blueprints and knowledge to build them himself.
But these plans were very different, even from the military suits designs. She picks up some files and skims through, finding drawings of energy weapons, estimations of nutrients for a human body, and even one cataloging survival skills.
She puts them down and walks over to a workbench, on which the fore arm piece of a suit lies. She picks it up, admiring the differences from the regular suits. The main alteration which drew her attention, are the exit ports for an energy weapon. Not even the military had this sort of fire power in their suits.
Irene glances at Felix who continues to work, ignorant to her investigation. No wonder he lives alone up here, she muses.
Then she notices that the wall on one side wasn’t complete, there is a long narrow alley, the end of which is marked in black scorch marks.
She glances at Felix again before slipping the piece onto her arm, she flexes her fingers and lines glow green across it. Then she makes a fist, aiming it down the firing range, but nothing happens. She opens her fist and looks inside, there are no buttons, no controls, not even one’s for flight.
She looks back at the workbench, and finds notes there, with a drawing of what looked like a metal box with a sucker on one side.
It takes her a few minutes to rummage through everything, but she does find the device on the table which matches the diagram. It is really small, and she is only able to use two fingers to grip it.
According to the paperwork this was connected to the glove, it’s control unit, but the sucker appears to be made to attach to the users temple.
With only a moment of hesitation, she puts her trust in the mad genius and sticks it to her head.
The lights on the glove start to trail and move around, signaling it’s connection. Then she raises up her fist again, and thinks about releasing a blast from her hands.
A ball of red energy erupts from a point above her fist and propels itself down the corridor and into the wall.
“Wow.” She says, “Mental manipulation of technology, and a single person use energy weapon.” She walks back over to him and takes the glove off. “As amazing as that is, it isn’t in line with the project… Or is it?”
“Not the official one, no.” He admits.
She replaces the arm onto the workbench and sits next to him.
His hand holding the screwdriver is shaking, it seems he hadn’t actually been doing anything to the suit, just pretending to. She places her hand on his to steady it.
“I saw the videos,” She starts, “What you saw in the future, must have been terrifying.”
He nods.
“They haunt me, in my nightmares. I know it’s only a matter of time until they arrive, and no matter what we do here, if we save the planet or not, it won’t matter if we can’t defend ourselves against them… It’ll all be for nothing.”
Her other hand goes to wrap around his shoulders, then stops, waiting, before deciding to commit to the embrace, squeezing him.
“I can’t imagine how… hard that must be, but if there is a chance we are able to come out of all this alive, it will be because of us and what we do here in the coming months. We can’t give up.”
He looks up at her, his eyes red from worry and lack of sleep. “Can’t give up.” He repeats back at her, his voice cracking.
“That’s it,” She looks at the suits hanging around them. “So are these suits close to sustain human life? What are our chances of just surviving this world?”
“For most of the environment shielding, I’ve got that down, but, with keeping someone alive, alive and not just in stasis…” he sits up straight, Irene’s arm falling off of him, “I thought I had a bit of a breakthrough…” he tails off.
“Go on, it’s OK.” Irene says.
“So, when I returned from that conference, I… crashed.”
“Again?” she chuckles.
“Yeah, but this time I seriously damaged myself, broke bones.”
“What?” She snaps, looking up and down his undamaged body.
“That was when I first discovered their abilities to heal, the Nanites, they repaired by body within minutes. Naturally that lead to the idea to install them into the suits, so no matter the environment, they’ll be able to repair the body, keeping everyone alive and safe.”
“For how long?” she asks.
He turns to look at her, “Indefinitely?” he says. “In theory we could live forever.”
“Is that even safe?” She can feel the blood drain from her face. “What about the psychological impact?”
He looks away, “Still working on that, it’s all still theoretical.”
“Why?” she asks.
He drops the screwdriver, taking a moment to lean forward and pick it up.
“I need more funding,” Felix says, “I need to get more materials, these suits need way more testing, and when they’re done, they’ll need to be mass produced for everyone who’s getting left behind.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Irene says after a moment, putting a hand on his shoulder again. “I could try to persuade them that this tech could be useful, I might be able to get something thrown your way… no promises though.”
Felix remains, staring at the three suits in front of him.
“What is it?” She asks. Then when he doesn’t answer, “I can’t help if you don’t tell me everything.”
“It’s the Nanites, everything seems fine in the simulations, but when I implant them into the suit they refuse to follow any commands… and that worries me.”
“Wait…” Irene looks hard at the suit then back at Felix. “Ivor is one thing, but they are many… and with their manipulation of the quantum level…” cold sweat layers her skin as she speaks.
He turns, holding up his hands, “Wasn’t on purpose, but the whole union thing Ivor was talking about… If we can’t control them…” he swallows, “They’re all that is making this possible.”
She rubs at her temples, “Do you always make things this hard for yourself?”
“No I…” He rubs his head now. “Yeah, maybe I do…” He admits before stretching and yawing again.
“Dr Eisenmann-” she starts to say, but he interrupts.
“Please, just Felix will do, we’re partners in saving the world after all.”
“Felix,” she says, “Thank you for the tour, now go get yourself some sleep. I’m going to get start familiarizing myself with the projects a bit more. See you in the morning?”
“Yeah, sounds great.” Felix mumbles.
They leave the lower levels together. Irene sets herself up in the main lab, where Felix usually works, and has Ivor bring up fresh white board cubes for her.
Felix stumbles his way through to his thinking room, then making a clumsy move he redirects himself towards the bedroom, deciding to give them both privacy, and collapses onto the bed, sleep taking him in seconds.