Chapter 4: Old Friends

Nine days after the global forum I was sitting on a wooden stool in front of my shop enjoying my midmorning cup of coffee. It had been raining off and on all morning so I kept under the large awning of the outdoor patio attached to my beach-area workshop. From this vantage, I could see the northeast beach with the guest bungalows two hundred meters away through the scattered palm trees. It looked like the rain was keeping the visiting Forbin vacationers indoors this morning.

Today was Saturday, which meant that this current batch of vacationers would be departing on the electro-jet just before sunset. That would give Ohmu and her mobile units about twelve hours to clean and refurbish the guest bungalows and outdoor entertainment areas before the next group arrived early tomorrow morning.

I had avoided the rain by keeping busy in my workshop this morning. My current project was a small carving of the ultradolph Ticklefin in local Albizia wood. The tropical hardwood was native to the islands and abundant enough that downed logs and branches were easy to come by. I did most of my work with knives, chisels, and other hand tools but the dense, tight-grained species sometimes required a power-carver to remove the bulk of the excess wood.

I enjoyed the carving process, as I loved the feeling of something taking shape in my hands. It was my preferred method of artistic expression. A century ago, during the time when my daughter Larissa had been young, I’d spent a decade learning drawing and painting. I’d begun those hobbies so as to have something creative to do with my young daughter. I’d gotten pretty good but was pragmatic enough to know that I should keep my day job.

I had been no stranger to woodworking and crafting over the two centuries of my life but I had never before taken the time to master the artistry of intricate hand carving. My recent near-decade-long nomadic wanderings around Mongolia and China had cured that shortcoming. Boredom had caused me to start whittling by my evening campfires to pass the time. Over the years my skills had grown. It had been the only hobby (other than drinking) that I had enjoyed during that time.

The subjects of my carvings had been mostly animals but I had developed the skills enough to do folksy human-like figures and faces. I’d had to leave the completed small totems behind as I’d wandered, committing them to the elements with only the slightest of chances that some future passersby would find and wonder about who had created them.

Imagine my shock when just a few months ago, I had stumbled upon them all here, vacuum packed and stored on shelves in one of the island’s lower storage vaults. Apparently, the mobile quadruped units which had guarded my wanderings had also collected the left-behind carvings. They had all been preserved, packaged, and sent to this island as it had been my most-utilized residence over much of the past century.

After I had discovered the stored carvings, I had placed a few dozen of the better specimens on display in my great room. I was still surprised at how much pride and joy seeing them brought me. The rest (which contained a surprising number of duplications, as I’d clearly not been in my right mind) I cleaned up and left in the guest bungalows sometimes as gift souvenirs for the few vacationers who I’d become friends with.

Each had small, encoded markers embedded in their bases which contained the story of their creation and to prove their authenticity. Those guests who’d received the gifts loved the small souvenirs and word had quickly spread. Soon after, messages began arriving from strangers offering generous payments if I would make them something similar.

Who knew, right? But I was not about to turn my relaxing hobby into a job by carving for profit or on a deadline. For now, what new carvings I created here, along with my remaining nomadic inventory, went only to my friends. Some of the better carvings were set aside to become gifts for my family. A few went to the various historic tourism sites I’d been a part of to be placed on permanent exhibit.

For the Sri Lankan experience, I’d made a matched set of four carvings which included a gull, a jackal, a monkey, and an otter. These animals had made up the team of bio-drones which had accompanied me on the mission to find and scout the hidden Hemru bunker.

Likewise, another set of carvings that included another gull, a scoot, and a mongoose had been sent off to the Galapagos Islands historical experience. These matched the bio-drones which had helped me bring down the Master AI during our infiltration of its launch facility there.

I would have to visit both sites sometime, to see if the carvings enhanced the displays. The last time I’d been to either place had been when I’d taken my youngest daughter, Charity, on an around-the-world tour. That had been well over four decades ago and I was again surprised at how fast time flew by!

Adele had mentioned that I should take her along to both. She wanted me to recap my experiences at both places and record my insights and recollections. I’d deferred for now. Maybe I would visit those places again. I had promised to bring her if I did.

My coffee mug was nearly empty and I was about to get back to work on the ultra-dolph carving when I noticed one of the vacationers walking this way along the hard-surfaced path. It was an older woman, but I could not see her face clearly due to the umbrella she carried. Normally, the vacationers kept their distance as it was known that I liked my privacy. But, to be honest, I didn’t mind the occasional chat if I was not too busy. This slow, calm, and rainy morning fit that category perfectly.

“Good morning,” I said politely as she reached the covered patio.

She stopped and shook out her umbrella before extinguishing the static shell which kept the bubble canopy rigid. It popped like a soap bubble and she collapsed and stored the slim handle in her pocket. Now that her face was revealed, I realized that I knew her.

“Good morning to you also Mr. Abrams. I hope that I am not intruding,” she replied.

“Call me John, “I replied. “No, you are not intruding. I was taking my morning coffee break. Would you like some?”

“If it’s no trouble I’d love a cup. Black is fine.”

I got up and stepped inside the large open front of my workshop and headed to where the kitchenette unit was located. Luckily, I had made a full insulated carafe earlier so my visitor would not have to wait for the brewer. I filled a clean cup for my guest and added a fresh splash to my own. Returning to the patio I motioned her to take my stool while I sat on the large stump I sometimes used as a makeshift low bench.

She sipped the coffee and smiled. “This is good! Thank you.”

“The beans are locally grown,” I explained. After a pause, I added cautiously, “I remember you. How are you doing, shift leader Zabel?”

The last time we had met I had restrained her struggling body as Ohmu drugged her unconscious. She had been the shift leader on duty in the Forbin control room when we had infiltrated the complex and taken temporary control of the experimental data center.

“I’m doing well John. Please call me Zee. I wanted to stop by and tell you in person that this island vacation has been great. It’s completely removed all the urges I’ve kept for revenge.”

She said the last with a smirk so she must have noticed my nervousness.

“Well, I’m glad,” I said with amused relief. “I’m also still sorry we had to manhandle you like we did when we borrowed your facility. It was certainly not fair to you.”

“Yeah, I was pretty pissed right after your raid. But finding a hefty monetary bribe ... err, settlement offer, already in my inbox helped. Then, after eighteen months of listening to returning vacationers singing praises about this place, I decided to bury the hatchet and come see for myself what your island was like.”

“Well, I’m glad you came and glad you are over your hurt,” I said sincerely.

“Yeah ... It all turned out well. No lasting harm, either to me personally or to humanity overall due to an accidental Forbin emergence.”

“I guess we were lucky on both accounts. Although in our defense, we did put a lot of thought into how to pull off the experiments in a safe manner. In the end, it’s looking like the data we extracted will save us from the Assemblage,” I stated confidently. “I for one think the risk was worth it.”

She nodded at that. We continued to chat politely while we finished our coffees. She had simply wanted to thank me for allowing the Forbin personnel to use my island. I confided in her that I found I enjoyed the guests coming here. Even though I planned to only offer the vacation service for a few years, I was seriously considering extending the offer to other groups in the future.

Maybe the visits would be on alternating weeks instead of every week though, to give me a mix of privacy along with the intrusions. I said as much to Zee who thought that was a great idea. She even added a few suggestions of her own. One of these was to have someone here in charge of activities and entertainment.

I’d already thought of this and her bringing it up only reinforced that the idea had merit. Maybe I could get one of my younger offspring or someone who had freshly passed their BM to take the job. Full room and board on a tropical island would be a great starter job and the excitement of youth would stimulate the likely older guests who would want to come on vacation.

As we warmed to each other I learned that her first name was Eydís. I loved the exotic name but she didn’t and preferred the nickname “Zee.” She was on her second shell and had celebrated her first century birthday just a year before.

She confided that she loved her work at the complex. Her work had just the right mix of relaxing drudgery along with enough intermittent danger to keep her interested and alert. I also found out that she had been more than just a little thrilled at the experiments Uxe and I had run at the complex.

“I’d been pushing for more interactive experiments for years. Maybe not quite as interactive as the one you performed but a bit further than we had gone in the past,” she admitted.

“Do you think what we did will lead to a lessening of the current safety procedures?” I asked, curious and maybe a bit worried.

“Possibly. They are studying a few changes right now. But, they will move very slowly and cautiously. There are still too many risks from a runaway emergence to do otherwise,” she replied.

I was glad to hear that as thinking about the place still made me nervous.

She continued, “It’s too bad the facility is stationary. If we could move it to within close proximity to the enemy ark, I bet the full active processor array would fry their controlling AIs almost instantly if we could somehow link them up.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I bet it would. That would be quite a thing to see. Maybe we could miniaturize it?”

“I don’t know how. The processor modules are already as dense and compact as we can make them,” she explained. “You’d also need nearly the full lattice to have a large enough evolving sentience to overpower and dominate the enemy’s viral defenses with the speeds required.”

We talked of less weighty things after that and soon finished our coffees. Zee rose to depart and surprised me with a quick hug when I moved to politely shake her hand.

“Thank you John ... for everything,” she said before heading back down the beach path. It had stopped raining so she did not have to reset her umbrella. I watched her for a while. It was clear that either my bold actions had made fans or my vacation offers were gaining me good karma. I’d take either reason, as it was always nice to have friends.

I put the mugs into the kitchenette’s reducer and got back to work on my carving. My hands were soon busy shaping the wood while my mind roamed, thinking of other things. Not only was I still mulling over the testimony and debates from the recent global forum, but also I was wondering what Hannah had so urgently wanted to see me about.

I’d spoken with her a few days ago and we had scheduled a visit. She was insisting on a face-to-face meeting so I would soon be leaving to travel to her current location. Tomorrow, just after noon when the electro-jet had finished ferrying the next batch of vacationers to Heels in the Sand, I would be using it to travel to Old Utah, the location of Hannah’s current isolation lodge.

I would be going alone, as Adele had left the island a few days ago and had not said when she would be returning. She had wanted to meet with a few of her history friends and had also wanted solitude to do some final writing and video composing on the story she was working on about me. We were still getting along just fine though, and I smiled thinking of the ‘goodbye’ she had given me before she had left. As I said, it was good to have friends.

At 13:40 I was sitting in the middle of the electro-jet’s passenger cabin as it flew north-northwest and approached the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Ohmu was in the front galley preparing me a light lunch. I’d be calling it supper, as I intended to be horizontal and zonked out shortly after consuming the meal. Our flight path would take us up through Sweden and over Greenland before descending into Utah via Montana and Wyoming.

The distance this way was just shy of nine thousand nautical miles, nineteen hundred nautical miles shy of halfway around the planet. Our Mach three speed and westward displacement meant we would be chasing and catching the sun, so after our five-hour flight, we would be landing just after noon local time. I planned on sleeping at least four hours of the flight, so I’d be fresh and able to stay awake when we landed.

After finishing my supper and using the lavatory, I returned to the main cabin to find that Ohmu had prepared a fully reclined bed in place of one of the other passenger seats. I stripped and slid into the cool sheets as the cabin windows dimmed to near-full opaque. I said good night and seconds later felt myself drifting away as Ohmu used my implant to quickly put me under.

Four-and-a-half hours later I awoke. I felt refreshed as if I had gotten eight full hours of sleep. My implant had accelerated my entry into REM sleep and kept me there for the full duration of the nap. The cabin brightened and I could smell the fresh coffee which Ohmu had almost finished preparing.

“Where are we?” I asked the android.

“Over central Canada. We will begin to descend in fifteen minutes.”

I used the can, washed my face, and brushed my teeth before returning to the cabin to get dressed and enjoy my coffee. Ohmu relayed that Hannah was planning a lunch upon my arrival so I would skip breakfast. I sat sipping my coffee and using the jet’s external camera system and my smart irises to watch the view of Montana and Wyoming passing below.

Ten minutes later we were flying lower and slower over southern Utah where Hannah’s retreat was located. I had never been to her current lodge but she had described the place back when we had raised Larissa Daring together. She had simply said that she had built herself a minimalistic isolation lodge near the location of the field base where she had been sheltered during the original attack.

Later, when the original nine humans in suspension had been thawed, cloned into copies, and placed into the forty-seven template colonies, one colony had also been established in this area. If I remembered correctly, the three isolated parts of that colony had been located closer to the remains of the town of Saint George, Utah. The field base which had overseen them had been located about thirty kilometers northeast of Saint George.

That base was our destination, as Hannah had relayed that my electro-jet was too large for her lodge’s smaller landing platform. She would meet us at the field base in her short-range hopper. The area surrounding the base held a great deal of spectacular scenery, including many natural wonders, so it saw a good deal of tourism. The base acted as the main landing location and included guest lodging for dozens.

The electro-jet slowed even further and dropped to land in the valley where the field base was located. I saw off to the east the spines and peaks of an impressive series of rock formations. The map overlay showed that these were located in the old Zion National Park. Below us was a long flat plateau. At first, I thought we would be landing on the plateau, but we overflew its southern end and dropped even further into the valley beyond.

Now I could see the actual base landing pad area next to a group of structures. The buildings were located a few hundred meters north of a small river, which the overlay said was the Virgin River. The waterway was lined with green shrubs and bushes and stood out clearly against the dry sandy scrub-covered brown desert landscape typical of the southwest areas of the former United States.

We landed on the hardened Earth near a long row of smaller hoppers. I saw a woman was seated inside the closest hopper. It must have been Hannah as I caught her waving vigorously. There were other humans at the base. Fifty meters beyond the row of hoppers I saw a small group of people entering the base lodge. Their light clothing and wide-brimmed hats along with the shimmering heat told me that it was hot outside at this base.

When the electro-jet had settled down and stopped moving, I unstrapped and got to my feet. Ohmu led our way off the aircraft. The android was carrying my light travel pack, which contained a jacket and a pair of full-length trousers.

I was wearing only shoes, shorts, and a light shirt as the afternoon temperature here was in the high thirties. The wave of heat at the open hatch confirmed it. “But it’s a dry heat!” I muttered, as I chuckled at the old clichéd response.

Once we stepped off the electro-jet’s stairs, Hannah popped open the bubble of her hopper and exited to meet us. A medium-sized dog jumped out of the hopper following her. I smiled as it ran around her parked hopper and anointed its rear landing leg. I’d wondered if she had waited in her hopper until we were out because of the noise and down blast of our landing or the heat of the landing pad.

I was also surprised at Hannah’s appearance. Instead of a maternal-looking woman in some stage of pregnancy, she was in a younger, leaner, and very-strong-looking shell. I’d never seen her looking so buff and powerful before. Her shell was also, while not exactly unattractive, plainer than most. It was unexpected, as it did not resemble the woman I’d seen many times over the almost two centuries since we’d first met.

It was also very unlike the young teenage blonde girl who had testified in virtual at the global forums a week ago. I was curious about her shell’s appearance but decided to be polite and keep it to myself for now. Her dog finished its business and had run ahead of Hannah to check Ohmu and me out. It gave Ohmu a sniff but quickly dismissed the android. I was far more interesting to the dog and its tail began thumping as he sniffed my legs.

I bent down and let it sniff my hand in greeting. “Hello there, fella! Who’s a good boy?”

It woofed back. –Hello man! I be a good boy!—

I had heard the dog’s translation in my implants. It did not surprise me that the dog had an augment, as most pets did these days. It made them so much easier to take care of. I had had a few dogs over the centuries, but they had gone with my kids as they moved off. I stood up as Hannah reached us.

“Hello John and Ohmu!” she said.

She gave Ohmu a quick handshake before embracing me in a strong hug. She had never felt as comfortable with my android friend as the other humans I had known. I think it was a hold-over from her traumatic past. As expected, her tough-looking shell felt solid and strong. She also felt cool and dry which answered my question about why she had remained in her hopper up until now.

“Hello Hannah,” I said politely.

She must have caught my involuntary glance at her shell as we broke apart.

“Yes, I look strange. I’ll tell you why later. For now, let’s get out of this heat and into my hopper.”

She gestured us towards the small aircraft. It was only a two-seater, but it had a larger cargo area behind the seats. Her dog easily hopped into the back area and Ohmu climbed in with it. I took the copilot’s seat leaving the pilot’s seat for Hannah in case she preferred to fly manually.

We strapped in and the bubble hatches closed and sealed. The cabin fans increased to maximum, blowing cold air to purge the cockpit of the heat it had gained during our entry. The clear canopy also dimmed as the window tinting increased. I looked back and saw Hannah’s dog sitting on his haunches and with a happy, tongue-lolling look on its muzzle. Ohmu knelt beside it. The android flashed a quick, panting dog expression across her illuminated facial features.