Stryker #5, At the End of Eternity – Chapter 15

“Something else that really puzzles me about Tikal is the complete absence of any large repository of information. We have found a library and a university, but neither of them have as much as a single book on their shelves. I suppose it’s possible that in the old days books were stored digitally on computers. If that’s the case then everything might have been lost forever, because the city’s data center doesn’t include any books or historical records. Oh, if only they had used printed words instead of digital ones! Then their writings might have been preserved until today. Information stored digitally is easily and quickly lost, but books can last pretty much forever.”
–Noel Lawson
June 11, 7243
 

Two days later, General Maldonado was standing in a high-security laboratory that was in the heart of Adrasta’s military sector. He was talking to the head of his nuclear research division, Ken Ochoa.

“Are you quite sure that there was nothing wrong with the lithium?” the general was asking. “You did double-check it, didn’t you? It hadn’t been poisoned or altered?”

“No, sir, it had not. We ran the quality assurance tests on the entire load three times, just as you ordered. Its purity has not been compromised. We have also posted guards and no one has attempted to breach security. The lithium has been under constant surveillance 24/7 and there have been no incidents. Everything is proceeding according to plan.”

“That is good to hear. We can’t afford to have any more of these accidents. The council is keeping a close eye on this. They’re not happy about how much this is costing. How long will it take to replenish Adrasta’s oil supply?”

“I don’t know, sir. You’ll have to talk to Meyers about that. He’s in charge of the refinery. From what I’ve heard it’ll be another six days before the next shipment arrives. But that’s really not my department. My specialty is nuclear engineering.”

“Fine,” the general grumbled. “But I’m telling you we can’t afford any slip-ups! Are you absolutely sure that everything is working?”

“As I said earlier, we have not had any issues. The processing of the lithium is proceeding according to plan. It will take several weeks to process the entire shipment into the fuel for the neutron bombs, but we should have some weapons-grade material available in two days.”

“Several weeks! I can’t afford to wait several weeks! That is just not good enough. Isn’t there a way you can beef things up so you can process the entire batch at once? Do you really have to do it a little at a time?”

“It’s entirely up to you,” the scientist replied. “If you want we can shut down this lab and perform a major upgrade. It is possible to increase the throughput of this laboratory, but it would take at least eight weeks to do that. If you are willing to wait–”

The general interrupted him. “No, I’m not willing to wait. Are you out of your mind? I’ve got to start the bombing campaign as soon as possible! In fact, I’m not even going to wait for all of the bombs to be completed. I want you to start building them as soon as you can – one at a time, if that’s all the lithium you’ve been able to process. As soon as you’ve finished one I’ll go drop it. If I start using them as soon as I have them then the council will have no choice but to let me finish what I’ve started. How soon can you get me a functional weapon?”

Ochoa paused for a moment to think. “Hmmm. Well, we’ve already started preparing the first batch of weapons-grade material, so in two days we should have enough fuel to build four bombs. If I have the bomb-building team start the assembly process now, they can build the outer shell and get it ready for the fuel. It will take some time to add the fuel and complete the assembly, but if all goes well you should have four bombs ready to go in about three days.”

“And you will make sure that all goes well,” the general said firmly. “There is no room for error here! The landslide was bad enough. We don’t need a nuclear incident as well. If anything goes wrong I will hold you personally responsible.”

“As I said, everything is under control,” Ochoa replied. “There is no cause for alarm. If anything comes up you will be the first to know.”

“Just make sure that nothing comes up. Oh, and have your men begin the bomb assembly. As soon as those bombs are ready I’m going to hit the nearest targets. I’ve got to get the public back on board. The longer we wait the more time Monroe has to come up with ways to stop us.”

Ochoa nodded, then stepped over to one of his assistants and began talking with him in low tones. Evan walked over to the cluster of lithium processors and eyed their display monitors. He was not a technician, but he had studied the blueprints Elwood had given him and had some idea about what was going on. After all the incidents that had happened he no longer trusted his men. He wanted to personally make sure that nothing went wrong.

As he stood there watching the panels he heard a voice call out behind him. He turned around and saw a young girl standing there. She had dark skin and long black hair, and she had a serious expression on her face. “Excuse me,” she said. “We need to talk.”

“What?” the general exclaimed. “Who are you and what are you doing here? Are you one of Ochoa’s employees?”

“No, I’m not. I didn’t want to interrupt you so soon but you’re moving faster than I expected. I thought I would have more time.”

Evan looked at her, confused. “Are you from the council? You can tell them–”

“No, I’m not from the council, but I have a message for you and for them. You must stop your bombing project immediately or you will face serious consequences. I will not allow you to massacre the tribes. This has to stop now. I am prepared–”

“Guards!” the general shouted. “GUARDS!”

The door flew open and six guards rushed in. The general glared at them. “Are you out of your minds? Why did you let this girl in here?”

The guards looked at her, confused. “She didn’t come past us, sir. Is she with you?”

“What do you mean, she didn’t go past you? Of course she went past you! Do you think she just magically appeared out of nowhere? I’m not paying you to sleep on the job, you nitwits. If you can’t manage to keep your eyes open then I will fire all of you. You are not to allow any of Monroe’s people into this lab, do you hear me? I don’t want to see any more of these infantile protestors in here. Now get her out of my lab!”

“And as for you,” the general said, looking the girl in the eye, “you can tell Monroe that I will kill every last one of the savages if it is the last thing I do.”

The girl quickly glanced around the room and made an almost-unnoticeable motion with her right hand. She then looked back at the general. “We’ll see about that,” she said coldly.

The guards grabbed her and ushered her out of the lab. General Maldonado locked the door behind them as they left and turned his attention back to the monitors.

After leaving the laboratory the guards walked the girl down the hallway and through the military sector. As soon as they turned a corner, however, the girl simply vanished. The guards looked at each other, astonished.

“Where did she go?”

“I don’t know – I thought you had her!”

“She was right here!”

“What do we do now?”

“I don’t know,” one guard said. “But I won’t tell if you won’t tell.”

“Well,” the other guard said, “she is gone, and that’s what the boss wanted. I say we go back to our posts.”

“Agreed.”

* * * * *

Over the next hour General Maldonado continued to monitor the lithium conversion process. Ochoa had finished giving instructions to his assistant, who then left to go tell the assembly team to begin the construction process. The general settled down into a chair and decided to wait. This time he was going to keep a firm hand on things. That’s what these clowns need – someone to keep an eye on them. As long as I’m here they’ll watch themselves.

As he watched the screens he saw a warning light appear on one of the monitors. A moment later one of the panels began beeping, and a line of data started flashing. The general immediately sat up. “What’s that?”

Ochoa glanced up at the monitor. A look of concern immediately appeared on his face. “That’s not right,” he muttered. He sat down at the panel and adjusted some of the equipment settings. He paused, looked up at the screen, and saw that more numbers had started flashing. A second later the numbers turned red.

“Well, what is it? What’s going on?”

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Ochoa replied, as he furiously worked the panel. “That shouldn’t be possible. We have constraints in place for that! How can that be happening? What happened to our filters?”

As other scientists rushed to the panel the general began to get worried. “What’s happening? What filters are you talking about? I demand that someone tell me what is happening right now!”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Ochoa repeated. “It’s as if the laws of physics suddenly stopped working. This reaction should be completely stable! We’ve done this before and it worked fine.”

One of his assistants interrupted him. “Sir, take a look at this.” He grabbed a knob and slid it all the way to the right. The numbers on the panel remained unchanged.

Ochoa’s eyes grew wide. “So it’s the control board! The board isn’t responding to our input anymore. It’s ignoring our commands and is feeding random instructions to the lithium processors. No wonder it’s not working!”

“What does that mean? I demand that someone answer me!”

“It means that we’ve got to evacuate this lab immediately. We have to abort this! We don’t have any control over what’s going on.”

“Absolutely not!” the general shouted. “Just override the panel. Use the manual override!”

“There is no manual override! Our equipment is all digital. Our only choice is to hit the kill switch. We can’t save the equipment but we can at least save the lithium.”

“Don’t you dare touch that switch! You find a way to fix it. Now! I’m not paying you to run away the minute something bad happens.”

Ochoa looked at him and then glanced up at the monitors. Now every line of data was blinking red. “Don’t you see that? The reaction is becoming unstable! In a few moments radiation levels are going to start increasing. If we kill it now then we can shut it down and repair it. If we don’t then–”

“You are not shutting it down,” the general screamed. “We are not going to have another incident! I refuse to be dragged in front of the council again. You morons must have pushed the wrong button or something. I demand that you fix it now!”

A warning siren went off. Red lights descended from the ceiling and began flashing. Ochoa paled. “We’ve got to evacuate. We don’t have a choice!”

General Maldonado walked in front of the door and stood squarely in front of it, blocking the way. “No one is allowed to leave this room. You don’t have the option of evacuating. I demand that you fix this!”

One of Ochoa’s assistants bolted and made a run for the kill switch. The general quickly pulled out his gun and fired its entire clip at the switch, destroying it before the assistant could reach it. The bullets went clean through the switch and sank into the giant steel tank behind it, creating a rupture. Poisonous gasses began seeping out of the rupture and the tank started rumbling.

At that point the entire lab panicked. The scientists in the room jumped Maldonado, knocking him aside. They unlocked the door and ran for it. Ochoa got on the intercom and ordered an immediate evacuation, then dragged the injured general out the door and down the hallway. They had only made it partially down the hallway when there was a giant BOOOOM. The ground shook, the windows behind them were blown out, and the lights went dark. As poisonous vapors drifted down the hallway Ochoa struggled to drag the unconscious man to safety.