Chapter 6: Road Trip!

The group decides to start moving towards their escape from Earth but has some unusual encounters as they begin their journey.

“OK Kate, let’s look at the options here, we have three days to get to this rocket…Let’s pull all data on transportation from here to the rocket…and is there anything we need to accomplish before we leave earth?  What are your thoughts?”  “Need all data…need secure transport…need move now.”

 

“Understood.”  I couldn’t tell if she was just putting in her input or issuing marching orders.  Didn’t matter, she was right, we needed to get there early, and if we are leaving the planet, we need to take as much information with us as possible. 

 

“OK, let’s look here….”  As usual, Kate projected every available form of transport, schedules, flight plans up on a really cool map display.  Cars, buses, trains….no brainer, they’d take too long.  I noticed there were two scheduled flights leaving St Vincent’s this morning too.  One was headed to Emmanuel Hospital across town, on the passenger list was one Dr. Satyendra Bose, “the creator”.  The good news, they had him listed as stable.  Apparently, he was not just important to us, but to Intel Corporation as well.  A note on the chart made it clear; the company would spare no expense in making sure the creator would survive including flying in burn experts from New York City and Miami.  Nice, but all of his transport was heading the wrong way…”at least they are taking care of him” I told Kate.  She actually looked soft in the morning light, a little relieved I guess.  She wanted to help the creator I could tell, but he was now on his own.

 

The second flight was leaving right after the creator.  Last night, during the thunder showers, a motorcyclist lost control as he took the off ramp from Hwy 26 East to Hwy 217 South; looks like he hit a bridge support pretty hard and sustained a traumatic brain injury.  He survived the initial impact and since he was so close to the hospital, he was in the ER very quickly.  The surgeons worked on him through the night but, he was declared dead at 4 am this morning.  Conveniently for us, he was an organ donor, and a perfect match for a recipient located in Seoul, South Korea.  They need his heart for a soldier with an accidental shrapnel injury.…the report goes on.  There is a C-20 transport aircraft waiting at McChord Air Force base so, that’s confirmation of the helicopter’s destination.  The helicopter we  looked at is an Astar B3, highly reliable, rigid rotor head…fast, so good.  That’s our ticket.  “McChord,” Kate said, “Good”.  From her map, it was obvious that transport from there would give us many options.  “Right, so we have about 2 hours to catch the helicopter.  Let me think a little more here.”  On the McChord flight line right now….four C-17’s, two C-5’s, and a hodge-podge of smaller aircraft, F-16’s, F-22’s, some more helicopters…and a Navy F-18?  What’s he doing there on an Air Force Base?  No matter, let’s see where they are all headed…

 

Alaska, South Korea, Hawaii, Japan, and two to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and Christchurch, New Zealand?  None of the big transports are going our way.  Let’s look at the smaller ones.  F-16’s are not going anywhere until tomorrow afternoon, looks like they are headed to Mountain Home AFB in Idaho…that’s no good.  F-22’s are headed back to Anchorage...  The Navy F-18….is leaving early the next morning, wow, he can make it a long way for a small aircraft, must have drop tanks.  He’ll be stopping at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma for fuel…and get this, he’s diverting south to do a fly by for an airshow in Atlanta, GA, and then staying overnight at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, FL, before he heads back to Naval Air Station Oceana.  NAS Jacksonville gets us pretty close.  “What do you think Kate?”  “Good.”  She smiled at me, “data at McChord… good.”

 

This is actually working out for us I thought.  And Kate will get access to probably the largest opportunity for data.  Bandwidth and access will be at a premium and she’ll be able to soak up a lot overnight.  It’s not just satisfying her thirst for knowledge anymore, now it’s all about preserving information, archiving the history of a planet and life that might cease to exist in days.  I think we now have an important mission to carry out….bigger than ourselves.  Much bigger. 

 

So, we pulled together for a meeting and talked about all the options…no one had any objections.   I mentioned to everyone that we need to think hard about what things need to be taken care of before we leave.  The biggest item being just plain data, but I left it up to the group to think about it as it pertains to their area of expertise.  We wanted as much information on the rocket itself and anything to do with space flight, but, I also stressed, we need to download as much of the culture, libraries…any form of knowledge as we could…anything we can find because it may be the only record of earth’s existence at worst.  At best, it may be needed to help restore what was lost.  So, any chance anyone had for a breather, we all needed to be downloading…well, those of us who had that capability anyhow.

 

Lastly, I told everyone, we don’t want any confrontation so be careful to not make contact with the collective or the hive bots.  Chances are, we are nowhere near them I figure, but it’s always good to be prepared.  I sure would like to know more about the hostile nanobots I thought….we may have to deal with them at some point.

“Is everyone ready to roll?”  I looked at our group.  They are not much to look at as far as functionality goes but, I think they were now my friends.  I was attached to them.

 

“OK, we have to make our way back to the helipad….or better yet, get on the organ transport case.  Looks like there is a waiting area right by the doors out to the helipad and the box should be delivered there.  The helicopter is coming from Hillsboro Airport, just refueled, and will fly direct to McChord.  So, there are a lot of opportunities to move through the hospital, if we get separated….Kate, make sure everyone has the floor plan.  Get there as you can but, my plan is to just ride shoes.  Let’s meet on the handle of the organ transport case.  After that, we’ll meet on the pilot’s optic nerve again ok?”  Everyone kind of looked at each other, “OK, let’s do this.”

 

As usual, Kate and I brought up the rear.  We shut down all the terminals and headed over the side of the desk and slowly across the floor and under the door to the main passageway.  Brando and Liz were on their game today….as soon as they were in the hallway, they were the first to hitch a ride.  Everyone else followed, but before we totally lost communications and contact, I could tell that just about everyone was headed in a different direction.  It’s fine I thought but, it would have been safer to travel together.

 

Kate saw the cart first and put a hand on my back, I looked at her, “yep, this is our ride.”  I jumped onto the wheel and looked back for her and as usual, she was right there.  We climbed up the cart and onto the attendant…and of course, up to connect into the optic nerve.  We didn’t have Octo with us so, all we had was a visual display but that was good.  From this perspective we could clearly see everything for quite a distance.  For the time being, we were headed the direction we wanted so we took the time to look around a bit. 

 

The brain is an amazing processor and database storage device.  Not much to see at first glance, but the electromagnetic fields that it produces is as beautiful as any fireworks or lightning display.  The optic nerve itself is interesting too.  Not only does it transmit data from the eye to the brain, but there is also a feedback signal from the brain coming to the eye.  Almost as if the brain was creating images, or possibly correcting errors in the data stream from the eye.  I don’t know…but I  wondered if we could not just use the data that a person was actually seeing, but also get a visual of images that the brain was thinking or dreaming about.  No time to study that further but…something to think about.  It could be useful in determining whether someone in a coma was actually alive or not. 

 

So…the cart made its way through the main corridor but stopped to drop off laundry, pick up some clean linens and head to the elevator.  So, we got off at the elevator and picked up an EMT on his way to the helipad.  Looks like he was going to assist the creator in getting him situated on the helicopter.

 

He waited by the elevator doors and sure enough, the creator was on a gurney.  We made our way back to the creator.  Looking around his brain, everything seemed to be much better but running unusually slow.  I looked at Kate just before we left him, “what do you think?”  “Fight infection, but operational.”  “I think it looks good,” I said, “they probably have him on some sort of medicine that has slowed down his processor….but other than that, like you say, barring infection, he should make it.” 

 

We then made our way off the gurney, and now in the center of the holding area, waiting for the organ transport case and the rest of the crew.  I took a step back from Kate and just looked at her…truly, she was a work of art.  Clean lines, rigid structure and yet soft…skin just shimmering in the light…just beautiful.  I just relaxed for a moment.  Suddenly, I felt a smack on the back of my head, “hey, you awake?”  It was Brando and Liz.  Brando asked, “she’s a beauty isn’t she?  I’ve been trying to get her attention for a long time but she’s so focused…plus I think she finds my music quite annoying.  You do know she is your sister right?”  “Sister?”  Evidently, in our production process, they make batches, families and siblings.  It has to do with the formation of the molecules themselves, right down to electron spin.  Siblings are manufactured side by side, and I’m still not sure of the process or how it works, but it has to do with entanglement of the electrons.  Sibling electrons are entangled from conception.  Depending on how close the two nanobots were at that point, determines the amount of electrons that are entangled.  I learned later that this was the “flaw” in the design process.  If there was a strong family relationship, entanglement, then the nanobot was more likely to show loyalty to its family than to any other authority…the more entangled, the more the nanobot was likely to show symptoms of individuality….and that’s a problem if the intention is for the nanobots to be part of a collective.  It’s also possible, through contact, that entanglement of the electrons can occur causing the same symptoms of what the collective would call misplaced loyalty…or, what we individuals call friendship and love.  Quantum entanglement, look it up.  Brando and Liz for example, were not even in the same batch, but they were entangled to a much greater extent than a lot of siblings.

 

“So, sister Kate huh?” I poked her in the arm.  “Did you know I was your brother?”  “Yes.”  “And you didn’t tell me?”  “Why?” she asked.  “Why, you ask?  Because…well, never mind.” Kate smiled, “I your little sister.”  I didn’t know where she got the idea of ‘little’…still don’t.  Still, I could spend hours looking at her.  To me she was like a famous Greek statue or a masterpiece work of art.  Sister or not, she’s a great and powerful friend…and now I understand her level of loyalty.  You can pick your friends they say, but not your family.  In this case, I think I made out pretty good. 

 

The organ case made its way into the holding room, and the four of us jumped on.  As we had talked about, we made our way to the top and the rest of the group was already there.  CC greeted us, “what took you so long?”  CC, Octo and Taran all took a different route and followed the electrical cables in the ceiling which turned out to be much quicker.  Tata got separated initially, and ended up in the ER thinking she had found the creator but it was a man with a malfunctioning artificial heart valve.  In the space of a few minutes, before they cracked open his chest, she was able to make quick repairs to the valve.  The doctors noticed the immediate improvement in heart rhythm and blood pressure, so…they didn’t operate.  “I fix him.” Tata said.  “Yes!”  I put a hand on her shoulder, “nice work Tata.”  We really do have remarkable capabilities, I can see what the creator was thinking when he designed us.  As a CC511, Tata has the ability to create matter out of energy so, that was a skill I thought to be extremely valuable.  Unfortunately, Tata normally needed to be told in detail what to do by the engineers so; proactive behavior on her part was not the norm.  This was a step forward for Tata. 

 

CC mentioned that some of the cables were getting old.  She noticed that if they all stayed close together and used the electromagnetic field in close proximity, it would cause excess heat to build up in the conduit.  Good safety tip I thought at the time, we don’t want to be leaving a wake of burnt buildings along the way.  We will have to be mindful of that.

 

As planned, the helicopter arrived and we made our way up to the best seats in the house, full vision, smell, taste, sound, hearing….Octo was becoming a master at getting us all set up inside human brains.  Brando found an Ipod in the pilot’s pocket, 7,000 songs, a nice score for Brando as he started his search for art and music to download.  At the next opportunity, his plan was to hit all the music web sites.  As an engineering bot, Brando had a very sizable database to use.  Not as large as Kate’s, but plenty large enough.

 

The helicopter lifted from St. Vincent’s and headed north.   The pilot was flying VFR, visual flight rules, so basically, as long as he avoided controlled airspace, he didn’t have to communicate and his transponder was set to the code, 1200, which told air traffic control that he was in fact flying VFR.  And it was a great day for it too.  Clear skies.  As we lifted from the helipad, we had to climb about 120 feet immediately to clear the Douglas Fir trees that bordered the hospital to the north.  After that we flew over a running track and then climbed to 500 feet AGL, or, above ground level.  As we climbed and headed north, we could see the coast range to our left, and the mountains of the Cascades to our right.  Visibility was perfect and we could see Mt Hood to the East of Portland, Mt St Helens, and even Mt Rainier already.  We crossed the Columbia River and picked up the highway, Interstate 5 and followed that, pretty much all the way to McChord AFB, deviating only to avoid the 5 miles of controlled airspace around operating airport control towers.  I’m glad Kate gave me the data on flying and airspace, it all made sense, especially now. 

 

It wasn’t long and we took a turn to towards the east to avoid Olympia.  We flew over Tenino, then Rainier and Yelm.  Mount St Helens was just off to our right and even though it has been decades since the volcanic eruption that blew the top of the mountain, it was still smoldering, and the destructive path was still very evident.  All I could think was, as massive as this looks, it’s nothing compared to what is coming.

 

“McChord Tower, this is November 587, 10 miles to the south, VFR, 500 feet, squawking 1200.”  “Roger 587, radar contact, you are clear to enter the class delta airspace.  The pattern is clear and you are clear to land at the base of the tower.   Do you require fuel?”  “McChord, 587, Affirmative, once my pax has offloaded, I’ll be shutting down.”  “Roger, please let your pax know that he will be escorted directly to his flight.  No delay.”  “Roger, and I have the tower in site.” 

 

It was a nice quick flight and it was so clear, we had a beautiful view of the mountain range and Seattle to the north in the distance.  Beautiful.  They nick-named it “The Emerald City”, for a reason.

 

Once on the ground, we had no problems finding our way into base operations.  We picked up on some flight line communications that got our attention.  Kate gave us the floor plans of the building and the locations of all the work station computers.  There were some nice terminals in communications but we decided to not disturb terminals that were in use.  Kate had her eye on one particular terminal which had superior bandwidth, but it was in use for a few more hours.  We went ahead and sent the others to the communications room and in the meantime, investigated this strange radio transmission.  

The maintenance crew for the C-17 was working furiously because one of the engines had sustained a compressor stall on start up.  Evidently, the stall was so bad that the engine blades were damaged causing the need to replace the engine which, because of a lack of an immediately available spare engine, the aircraft would have been grounded for a few days.  The maintenance crew confirmed the damage by using a borescope to see inside the engine.  Once the decision was made to replace the engine, the crew went back to their shop to download the damaged engine and in the time it took to eat a sandwich, get the engine stands, tools and scaffolding, the engine magically repaired itself.  “Listen!”  We heard a voice scream on the radio, “the engine was bad, and now it’s good.  I’m sorry about ordering the new engine and now we don’t need it, but I have the before and after pictures to show you.  It’s as if the engine was never damaged.”  “OK, can you do this for me, take the borescope, and check all the engines for damage, and recheck the one you thought was damaged.”  “If you don’t find anything, get the pilot to do a 15 minute ground turn on the one you thought was bad, shut it down, and then check it again.” “Roger, out.” 

 

This was the C-17 headed to Christchurch, New Zealand.  Kate and I looked at each other, this sounds like something we are capable of….who do you think is out there?  Kate shrugged,”let’s find out.”  So, we hitched a ride on a baggage/cargo handler.  The C-17 was loaded down with gear headed towards the United States outpost Antarctica.  Christchurch, New Zealand is a logistical staging base…

 

We looked at the aircraft electrical system for anomalies and found a few, looked like overheated wires in the navigation system, the #1 engine, and the whole cockpit.  So, we figured there were nanobots pretty much all over the aircraft.  “So Kate, what do you think?”  She turned to me with a smile, kill them?” “No, Kate…No.  How about we collect data?  Figure out how to collect data.  We need to know who they are and what they are doing.  What is their mission?”  “Collect data…ok.”  Kate looked like a kid being told “no ice cream for you.” 

 

“Conduit to #1, we go.”  “Ok, hold on now, so the plan is to not alert them.  Are you thinking that we can isolate one or two of the bots there?”  “Yes.”  “Ok then, let’s go.”  We followed a flight control conduit through the fuselage and into the wing.  We saw no unusual activity on that part of the wing, then, between the two engines, we waited near the #1 engine’s wiring harness.  Sure enough, once the engine had completed the 15 minute ground turn and shut down, we detected a stream of about a hundred CC511’s heading back to the fuselage.  Kate turned to me, “don’t move.”  As long as we moved slowly, and deliberately, and the nanobots were not alerted, they would not detect our presence.  Kate moved towards the engine harness like a big cat on the hunt.  She allowed all the bots to pass, and then with a clean and smooth motion of her cutting blade, sliced into the last two in the line, immediately disabling their communication and motivation.  Quickly, she pulled them away from the wiring harness, “help” she said, as she approached.  I grabbed onto one and pushed him back near a hydraulic solenoid.  Kate then went to work.  I just stood there, staring at her as she approached each one, skill of a surgeon, beauty of a ballerina.  One at a time, her blade attached to their data modules and motor cortexes. 

Once done she asked, “kill them?”  “No.  They are no threat to us.”  Kate seemed adamant, “we kill them.”  “Kate, no, we just need their data.”  “So, she put them back as normal but waited to reattach their cortexes.”  Here’s the data.  She then touched me and downloaded their data.

 

These CC511’s were members of the hive, and sure enough, they had just completed repairs on the #1 engine.  Unlike the collective, members of the hive do not have a complete download.  Their data is mostly contained by the hive leader who looks at all the information, and then directs exactly what needs to be done.  If the hive leader is disabled, another leader steps up, sometimes after a battle.  At the top of the hive hierarchy, is a council that puts the leader’s plan into action.  The value of this method is that the hive is extremely quick to make decisions and move on them, as opposed to the collective, which also has a hierarchy but no clear leader.  They look for consensus throughout the collective.  The downside to both groups is, there is not much room for individuals or creativity.  That all said, these two construction bots had some information.

 

The hive was also aware of the impending impact but instead of escaping earth, their plan was to head to the south pole.  Made sense, the impact was most likely going to occur in the Northern Hemisphere and the colder it gets, the more efficient nanobots are.  So, if you are going to stay on the planet, that would be a good spot to set up shop.  They too were avoiding confrontation with the collective and had orders to avoid contact.  OK, so we know what their basic plan was….and we also know that the collective had begun a migration as well….to the North Pole.  The hive witnessed a large group of the collective moving along powerlines.  There was a battle just outside of Tacoma and many of both the collective and the hive were destroyed…it was at that point, the hive leader decided to change their plan and head south.  Now was not the time for confrontation, or assimilation.  Members of the hive had no desire to be assimilated into the collective and becoming mindless followers.  On the other hand, members of the collective were afraid of the enforcers within the hive.  If you step out of line, the punishment was swift and painful.  Ironically, as we observed both groups, the individuals seemed to be ok with giving up their freedom and individuality in order to have the perception of security that centralized authority promises to provide.  I wondered how many of them were secretly like us; individuals.

 

“OK Kate, time to let them go.”  “OK…”  I still don’t think I have totally convinced Kate of the value of preserving lives, especially those of the hive or collective.  We pushed them back to the conduit, and reset their cortexes and stepped back as they rebooted.  The first one came alive quickly and spotted us before we could move.  “Intruders!  Intruders!”  The alarm within the hive was sounded, and like a wasp nest that just got poked with a stick, there was an immediate and overwhelming response as the electrical conduits throughout the aircraft immediately heated up.  “I’m sorry Kate, you were right…”  “No time, we leave now!”  Kate grabbed me by the back of my neck and we both headed to the trailing edge of the wing…”Hold on to me!” she said, and then we jumped.  Because of our size, we were at the mercy of the wind which had picked up to about 15 knots.  Dust in the wind…and since the wing was high off the ground; we were floating for about 10 minutes.  We ended up on a fence at the outer edge of the field finally.  We made our way to the nearest power line pole, which seemed to take forever, and then rode the electromagnetic field around the wires back to base operations.  “Sorry Kate…” I said again, “No sorry…you right.”

 

The rest of the evening and into the early morning was spent downloading everything….and I mean everything.  If it was on the internet, siprnet, or even the secret files of governments around the world, we had it…thanks in large part to our own National Security Agency database….  Kate was awesome too…she downloaded the entire Library of Congress in 15 minutes!

Author's Note

This was fun to write.