Tripple Chronicles 1: Eternity Rising (5 page)

Damn!
Ganesh thought.
Why couldn’t this kid have introduced
himself a week ago
;
like he had said?
At the very
least, Ganesh realized he must decide quickly where this young soldier’s
loyalties might lie
;
to the science of the project, or
to the government.
 
As he stewed
over it, he wondered exactly when his own loyalties had shifted.
 
Such a good soldier, no one would
expect him to become an anarchist.
 
Not even him.

Ganesh stood
up and prompted the young Sergeant Bearden Leitner to the door. They walked
side by side to the elevator that would take them to the ninth subfloor
basement labs. Bearden stuck his access card into the slot this time to call
the elevator.
 
They stepped inside,
then
just as the doors were closing, Major Mace Magner
squeezed in between them.

It was now
10:00 A.M. and Lee was frantically running in circles around his lab, trying to
save the embryos in their test tube environments. He reset the temperatures of
their chambers, rebalanced their nutrient levels,
checked
their gene functions on the monitors, injected electric stimulus….
 

No matter
what he did, they were dying, one at a time.
 
He put his hands on his head and grabbed onto handfuls of
graying hair.

“Not
again!”
 
He yelled.
 
“I need more adaptable donors…or a more
habitable environment!
 
Perhaps a
different combination of nutrients, or maybe tweak the DNA a little more.”
 
He continued yelling at no one,
attempting to keep the last few embryos alive, but it was a hopeless effort.

By 10:30,
they were gone.
 
Lee picked up one
of the test tubes and threw it against the wall behind him.
 
It shattered into a million tiny
pieces, which made him scowl.
 
He
stormed back to his office and pulled out his electronic notebook.
 
He started writing feverishly,
detailing the exact stage when the embryos ceased to live and all the
surrounding data that accompanied this formidable phase of his project.
 

Fifteen
minutes later, he laid his head on his desk and fell asleep, glasses askew on
his face, and pen still in hand.

Camden
looked at himself in the mirror, straightened his collar and smoothed his hair
with his hand.
 
He rested against
the side of the lavatory and leaned in close to the mirror.
 
He sighed deeply and took extra notice
of the deep lines that had settled in his forehead.

“Time to
change the world,” he said to his reflection.
 
Camden walked out of the bathroom and downstairs to his
lab.
 
He collected his packed
samples of the organic biomer metal and a stack of notebooks, full of data from
the past couple of days, along with his data from eleven years ago in a rolling
briefcase.
 
He picked up the phone
to call his driver, Ari.
 

“I’m
ready.
 
Pick me up in five
minutes.”
 

“Of course,
Mr. Riles,” Ari replied and hung up the phone.
 
Camden grabbed his coat and hat and proceeded to his private
rooftop-parking pad where his transport awaited.
 

Ari, who
lived with his family in a much smaller apartment in the same building, arrived
on the rooftop seconds after Camden.
 
He rushed ahead to open the door for his employer. When Camden was
seated inside, he walked around and started the engine to this luxury
craft.
 
It was a beautiful day, sun
shining, light wind, and the kind of day when Ari particularly enjoyed his job
of flying this magnificent machine. Inside the passenger cabin, Camden wrestled
with last minute doubts of handing his important research data over to Lee.
 

The transport took to the sky
and was soon at the same altitude as dozens of others.
 
Camden pressed a button that activated
a media player and his cozy cabin was filled with the soft melody of an
uplifting piano concerto.
 
The
music was soothing to him as he looked out of his window to try to enjoy the
beauty of the day.

About five minutes later,
Camden noticed a government transport riding along outside of his window,
recognizable by the
tri arcs in a diamond
government emblem etched on the door.
 
He turned his head to look in all directions and saw that there were
three others nearby.
  
Camden’s heart dropped to his knees as he looked back into the cabin at
his suitcase containing the biomer sample. Several thoughts began to race
across his mind at once and a wave of panic swept over him.
 
What
has Ganesh done?
was
the first thought as he
quickly put together the now obvious secret nature of their meeting. The biomer
sample must have been stolen from the government labs.

They may know nothing.
 
It
may just be a coincidence that four official transports seem to be surrounding
me.
 
Unfortunately, Camden
didn’t believe in coincidence and he knew he would have to act coolly and
quickly.

First things first,
he thought and called Ari on the intercom. In a
forceful and snappish tone said,

“Drive me to the nearest
rooftop coffeehouse.”
 

Ari was a little taken aback at
Camden’s tone, but answered back in his usual friendly way.

“Of course, sir, an unexpected
stop.
 
I see we do have some extra
time before your …”

“Oh, just shut up and do what
you are paid to do…drive…and make sure you stay on your course today!”
 
Camden abruptly cut him off mid
sentence.
 
Ari was shocked at Camden’s
sudden rudeness.
 
In the ten years
he had worked for him, he had never found Camden to be unfriendly like this, a
little moody sometimes, but never downright rude.
 
And what an odd thing to say, he questioned,
“Make sure you stay on your course today.”
 
What did Camden even mean?
 
Ari realized that something was
definitely not right and looking around, he too noticed the government
transports that were in obvious pursuit of them now.
 
He gripped the steering unit tight and wondered what Camden
could have done to warrant this much company.
 

Meanwhile, Camden was
scrambling to open a safe unit under his seat.
 
He had never used this hidden compartment before and he
struggled to remember the combination.
Damn!
The first set of numbers he tried failed to unlock it.
 
His transport was custom built, so no
one, aside from him and Ari, knew this little hide-a-way even existed.
 
He worked quietly and quickly, knowing
that whoever was inside of the pursuing transports had probably been listening
in for quite a few minutes.
  
4
..
7
..
2
..
9…2
..
3
..
he thought as his fingers frantically pressed the
numbers into the safe’s keypad.
 
“Click!”
 
It opened.
 
“Yes!” Camden said under his breath and
quickly forced his rolling bag into the compartment, pulling a small notebook
out of the front pocket as he did so.
 
He slid the notebook inside his jacket and then tried to close the
compartment door.
 
The case was a
little too large and he had to push and push to force it in.
 
Finally, after a
short struggle…success.
  
The safe door snapped into place and automatically re-locked.
 
He replaced the upholstery over the
keypad and sat back in his chair.
  
He shut his eyes for a second and took a deep breath.
 
He must look calm and unsuspecting when
they stopped.
 

Being cool did not come as
naturally to Ari as it did to Camden, and he began wiping beads of sweat off
his forehead when he spotted below him a trendy looking coffee house and herbal
supplement shop. Every surface of this small rooftop attachment, including the
doorway and arches was painted a different bright color.
 
The lighting inside was changing its
shade in a rhythmic pattern, set to match the blaring music.
 
Ari directed the transport to the
parking lot without confirming the location with Camden; something he wouldn’t
do under normal circumstances.
 
Especially with a boisterous place like this, it wasn’t exactly Camden’s
style.
 
The parking lot was
relatively empty even though the place itself looked like it was teeming with
life.
 
The offices in the building,
no doubt, provided a steady stream of clientele for this local jumping hot
spot.
  
The four government
transports patiently followed Ari and landed discreetly around the lot.
 

Camden opened the door to step
out, rolling his eyes at Ari for the choice of location.
 
He had a hard time believing anyone
would buy that he would actually choose to be here.
 
But he stood up straight, put on his best smile, and walked
with purpose toward the colorful coffeehouse, pretending not to notice the
government bodies emerging from their transports.

“Professor Riles,” a gruff
voice called out from behind him.
 

Here we go,
Camden thought as he turned to respond to the
gentleman.

Major Mace
Magner stepped into the closing elevator where Colonel Ganesh and Sergeant
Leitner stood.
 
He gave a quick
salute to Ganesh and acknowledged Bearden with only a glance in his
direction.
 
Ganesh’s face turned
from optimistic to cold in an instant.
 

“Major,” he
said.

“Good morning, sir,” Bearden said to him, not noticing the sudden
shift in Ganesh’s posture.
 

“Level five
B,” Mace commanded the elevator.

“Ahh,
visiting the labs this morning,
Major
?” asked Ganesh.

“As are you,
I presume,” He replied.
 

“This is
your first time down there since you have come aboard this project, isn’t it
Colonel?”

He knows something,
thought Ganesh,
and he is keeping track of my comings and
goings here.
He wondered how much of his conversation with young Sergeant
Leitner he had overheard.
 
He caught up to us too fast to have been
just walking by.
 
His office isn’t
even on this floor.
 
He could have
been outside of my office for several minutes.
 
Does he make a habit of listening to my private
conversations?
 
Is my office
bugged?
 
Does he know about my trip
down here last week, when I acquired the biomer sample for Camden?
 

As these
thoughts were racing through his head, Bearden, who was oblivious to the
tension in the elevator, chimed in.
 

“I am giving
him the grand tour, sir.
 
I mean,
who better to give him his first look at the labs than the man who discovered
the catalyst, himself!”
 

He certainly likes to toot his own horn.
Ganesh thought and let out a defeated sigh.
 
It wasn’t Bearden’s fault.
 
Scientists were often clueless to the political interactions
around them.
 

“I see,”
said Mace, looking questionably at Ganesh. “How lucky he is, to be in such good
hands.”
 
Bearden beamed at this
compliment from a superior, still unaware of the tense eye contact between Mace
and Ganesh.
 

Ganesh
played innocent with Mace, knowing that he would not dare blatantly disrespect
his superior, and especially in front of a sergeant.
 
Mace was too good a soldier for that.
 
He would have to keep up his subtle
games to try and score the information he wanted from him.
 
And Ganesh would play…for now.

When the
elevator arrived on level five B, the lowest lab level in the building, Mace
turned sideways and held his arm out of the door as if to say, ‘After you,’ to
an eager Bearden and a hesitant Ganesh.
 
Bearden practically bounded out of the elevator ready to lead the way
around his natural habitat.
 
He was
obviously thrilled to be accompanied by two such important people but he was
most eager to make a good impression on the illustrious Colonel Ganesh.

Ganesh
looked around at the massive lab area and tried to look interested, as if
seeing it all for the first time from this ground floor perspective.
 
It
was
quite impressive.
 
Out of the
elevator was a large half circle atrium that opened up to the three floors
above it.
 
Around the perimeter of
the atrium on each floor were marble corridors that held offices, supply rooms,
and smaller, more private lab spaces.
 
For being so far underground, it was lit as bright as day and the air
smelled crisp and sanitary.
 
The
shape and depth of the atrium created a bit of an echo and the sounds of shoes
walking on marble, low muffled voices, and metal lab instruments clicking
together filled Ganesh’s ears.
 
There was a straight wall on the opposite side of the elevators that
spanned the height of the three levels. Its purpose was to separate the labs
from the robotics and weaponry unit, which occupied the other half of the
circular building.
 
Locked doors on
each level marked the entrance to the
top secret
experiment that was taking place simultaneously only a few feet away.
 
The lower ranking scientists knew of
the weaponry unit, but did not know the full scope or logistics of the project.
Only the higher ups from the team passed back and forth between the two sides.

Right away,
Bearden started leading them through the atrium, explaining the reproduction
process in the world of fungi and nodding hello to his fellow scientists, who
began talking amongst themselves as they took notice of the two superiors
following Sergeant Leitner.
 
Ganesh
was certainly impressed at how alive this place was.
 

“There sure
is a lot of energy in here,” he said out loud, and then thought,
Not at all like this in the middle of the
night.
 

Glass cases
containing plants and fungi in different stages of growth on round tables
occupied the outer edge of the atrium floor.
 
Scientists attended to some while others recorded data in
electronic notebooks.
 
In the
middle was a hexagonal glass room that stretched clear past the floor
above.
 
This was where the active
biomer samples were being worked with and monitored.
 
Inside, the scientists wore facemasks, gloves, and clean
suits that covered their clothes so they would not risk contamination to either
the samples or to themselves.
 

Ganesh’s
sample had come from one of the storerooms on a floor above, however, where
clean suits were not required.
 
Those samples were all in airtight containers in climate-controlled
rooms.
 
They were ready to be put
to use at any time, successfully activated by their growth catalyst. Every
couple of days, upper level scientists would enter this store room, or one of the
many others like it, and remove several samples to the robotics and weaponry
side of the atrium, through the locked doors.
 

From there,
the samples would be molded and grown into weapons or further bonded with the
metal mixture that was used in the fighter robots.
 
The indelible properties of the biomer and its powerful yet
natural growth hormone, when combined with the fungi, created a flexible and
nearly indestructible outer shell allowing the robots to heal spontaneously in
battle.
 
The greatest thing about
the biomer, though, according to someone like Mace Magner, was that it would
regenerate back into its original molded shape if traumatized or partially
destroyed.
 
This meant that the
robots could re-arm themselves, bullets could be re-used, and a finite army
could act in infinite battles.
 
If
this project proved successful, it would save the military incalculable amounts
of time and money while creating an undefeatable, as well as un-fatigable
army.
 
It was pure genius.

Ganesh was
imagining these single minded killing machines suddenly being set loose on an
unsuspecting civilization and cringed.
 
He hoped that his small act of thievery would ultimately end in
good.
 
Surely Camden Riles and Lee
Tripple would discover certain other properties in the biomer that these
government scientists would not.
 
They would certainly learn its weaknesses, just in the course of their
own research and experimentation. And if the time came, they could be called
upon to stop the mess that was, in Ganesh’s mind, being made right here…right
now.
 
It was his secret back up
plan.

The trio was
more than halfway around the perimeter of the atrium and Bearden excused
himself to speak with another scientist for a moment.
 
Major Magner turned to Colonel Ganesh and said,
 

“You know, I
just have a hard time imagining,
sir,
that you have not been down to the lab levels before today.”
 

“Well, I
guess an old dog like me just takes his time at getting acclimated to his new
environment,” Ganesh replied.
 
“I
have been next door to the weapons unit.
 
Was given the grand tour my first day here.”

“Yes.
 
An impressive operation, don’t you
agree?”

“Absolutely
impressive,
Major
. I can see that you have put a great
deal of effort into the weapons unit.
 
But I wonder…how are the space travel and medical units advancing with
their portion of the funding and biomer?”
 

A slow and
nasty smile crept across Mace’s lips and he stared straight into Ganesh’s
eyes.
 
He hated that Ganesh
outranked him.
 
He was proving to
be a thorn in Mace’s side, just as the two other colonels warned him he would.
 
He spoke his answer to Ganesh’s
question quickly and with finality.
 

“The space
travel unit is our ‘back burner’ project and the medical unit gets what it
needs for now.
 
We have a war
coming and our attention and rations are rightly focused.”

Humph,
thought Ganesh, knowing he was
here solely to try and redirect that focus.

“We keep a
tight inventory on the biomer too,” Mace continued. “We have to. The samples
don’t stay stored for long, especially with the medical unit constantly
appealing to General Pike for more rations.”
 
Mace paused and looked Ganesh right in the eyes. “Still,
nothing gets moved around here without me knowing about it.”

Ganesh was
certain now that Mace suspected him of the biomer theft.
 
It was not yet public knowledge that
someone had even robbed the storeroom, but that was how the government
worked.
  
They would try to
discover their thief in secrecy for as long as they could.
 
It would inevitably get out, but
usually the culprit was placed in custody before that happened.
 
Ganesh wasn’t worried about being
caught.
 
He was smarter and more
experienced than Mace.

Bearden
re-joined the two men and apologized for his brief absence.
 

“Sergeant
Leitner, I would like to take a tour of the storerooms next if you don't
mind.”
 
Ganesh said.
 
He smiled at the young sergeant and
gestured for him to lead the way.
 

“Certainly,
sir. This way.”
 
They walked to the
outer ring of the perimeter and stepped onto a moving ramp that
zigged
and zagged between the floors of the atrium, right
lane going up and left lane going down.

As they
toured the storerooms, Ganesh asked questions about the catalyst and the
medical progress.
 
His interest in
Bearden's work seemed genuine and not at all suspicious.
 
This frustrated Mace who was waiting
for Ganesh to slip up by accidentally knowing his way around the corridor.
 
They came to the room where the biomer
had been stolen.
 
Mace watched
Ganesh's face closely...nothing...not even a sideways glance.
Damn, he's good.
Mace thought, convinced
of Ganesh's guilt. When Ganesh turned to examine a freshly prepared sample,
Mace caught Bearden's eye and gave him a nod, as if urging him to move on with
the tour. Bearden nodded back.

“I'd like to
show you the medical wing now, if you have the time. Colonel? Major?” Bearden
said.

“Yes, of
course,” replied Ganesh.

“I have a
meeting in fifteen minutes but I am dying to hear your feedback on our
operations here, Colonel,” Mace said in a voice that did not hide his sarcasm.
Bearden pretended not to notice the now obvious tension between his two
superiors but
none the less
, his eyes darted back and
forth between them.

“Always a
pleasure, Major.” Ganesh's voice was even and polite.
 
Mace turned and left.

“Now, show
me the medical unit, Sergeant,” Ganesh said.

“It's really
not that impressive anymore,” Bearden said. “The lab space keeps getting
reduced and scientists are being transferred next door to weapons. A year ago
it was a different story. But now everyone is worried about the war coming up
so we do what best serves us.”

“And you
believe that creating weapons serves us better than our own evolution?”

“That's why
I need your help with Dr. Tripple, sir,” he whispered, “because I don't believe
that.”

“Humph.
Well, good for you son, good for you.”