Chapter 8
Later that night, after everyone had returned to the mansion, Carl got Father alone to ask a question that was bothering him. "Father, why is everyone acting like the four of us are royalty? The only thing special about us is that we have active mental powers; powers we can give to anyone else in about thirty seconds"
"Sir, please try to understand that you are becoming their leader. You have certain traits that make you a good choice. In fact, I haven't seen the character traits you exhibit since the last Emperor. In addition to that, you and your sisters have the highest metasynth readings I've ever seen, including those of the Illuminati.
"Past Emperors were very strong; however, they were not always the strongest of the people. In fact, they were only slightly above average in metasynth strength. It was other qualities that make a person a good leader, and you share those qualities."
"But what happens if I make a mistake? For Christ's sake! I'm only a seventeen year old boy that hasn't even graduated high school yet! I don't know how to lead anything," Carl said, fear written on his face. "People will die if I make mistakes."
"Son, I'm afraid it's not if you make them, but when. You have to realize the mistake, and work to not let it happen again. All leaders make mistakes; it's unavoidable. You just have to trust yourself, and the people around you, to try to minimize the damage when it happens, and work to keep it from happening again. Yes, this is an awesome responsibility for one so young, but I believe you are well suited to the task. Trust yourself, and your instincts. Listen to the advice of your friends and family."
"Thanks, Father. I think I need to sleep on this and try to come to terms with it. Would you please ask everyone to hang around after breakfast tomorrow? I'd like to talk to them."
"Certainly, Highness," Father replied with a smirk on his face.
"Don't even start that shit! I'll probably get us all killed long before you can start calling me that."
"You are what you are, Highness. You became that when you accepted the responsibility," Father replied. "Will you accept the job, but not the title?"
"The title has certain... biases in our culture that make people nervous. With the powers that we have, it could easily be misunderstood. I don't want people to think I am a monster that wants to take over and make myself the Emperor," Carl explained.
Father chuckled. "Highness, you're not a monster, but what exactly do you think we are going to be doing?"
"I'd like to thank you all for sticking around. Last night I had a talk with Father about responsibility. Without going into detail, he basically convinced me I should take responsibility for what we are about to attempt. I want you all to know that if you disagree with that or anything I suggest, please don't hesitate to say something." Carl stopped to take a drink of his orange juice; he was suddenly very nervous.
"Last night, I thought a lot about what I think we are going to need. I found that I would like to have more information. Father, I need to know — exactly — what your capabilities are, and those of your ship. Mike, I need to know what we have in the form of military and research assets. Wally, could you and Wanda go over our finances and give me an idea of how much money we have for this? The main problem I can foresee is a lack of space for training and research. The biggest issue with that is going to be shielding it from the Antioch," Carl said.
"I may have some suggestions for that," Father said.
"Good; I'd like room for training: metasynth, hand-to-hand, and weapons. We'll also need room for research, though I have no idea how much room we will need for that, so please leave room to grow. We'll also need a residential and medical area," Carl said.
"Carl, it sounds like you're asking for a full military base; the only thing missing is an armory," Mike said.
"I guess that is what I'm asking for, and you're right, we'll need an armory too, as well as a place to make the weapons we can't buy. Eventually, we'll need to expand; create more bases like this one all over the world. If we are going to kick the Antioch off our planet, and keep them off, we're going to need everyone to do it," Carl finished.
"Who do you see handling what? This could turn into a cluster fuck if we are all trying to do the same tasks," Mike said.
"I think you would be best suited to external security and military operations — pretty much what you're doing now. I think Rose would like to handle research, Anne Marie and Bree — training, Brian — household and personal security for this group. Wally and Wanda — logistics, and finally, Tabitha I'd like to handle medical. Of course, there will be some cross advising, but I think we could handle it. One more thing; unless someone objects, I'd like everyone here metasynth active and trained. If you'd like hand to hand or weapons training, just ask," Carl said, and smiled. "I think Maria would like to work with Wally and Wanda, but if anyone would like to do something else, just say so."
Timidly, Maria raised her hand. "Seniõr Carl, what is a 'cluster fuck'?"
Wanda had gotten the information she asked for from Father the night before. Like Carl, she had been working on it all night. She had come up with several more questions than she had when she started. However, as Father had warned, he had given her all the information he could. As the meeting was about to end, she asked if she could have a moment of everyone's time before they left.
"I've been going over the information Father had on the Antioch. Needless to say it leaves me with a few more questions. However, this is what I have figured out so far.
"The Antioch social structure is clan based, but the political structure actually resembles the Catholic Church here on Earth. The Pontiff (the actual name doesn't translate, but this is close) is the leader. There are the differing levels all the way down to the heads of each household. However, different houses are responsible for different duties. The head of each household has ultimate authority within the bounds of its own house or clan. While it is possible for a head of household to advance to the next level of government, it must give up the former title when it does so. No one official can have more than one title. However, when that happens, the newly promoted official is no longer subject to the dictates of the head of its clan unless it deals strictly with clan business. The clan heads answer to what I call bishops, the bishops answer to what I call arch-bishops, and those answer to cardinals, on up to the pontiff.
They do have wild cards, like an inquisitor. As far as I can tell an inquisitor handles anomalies in the over-all scheme of things. These beings have no more social standing than a household head, but can wield the power of a cardinal. They answer directly to the Pontiff. There are more strange nuances, but that gives you an idea of their culture." She paused to change her train of thought.
"The questions started popping up when I looked into the belief structure of this 'religion'. It seems that the Antioch believe that the Metasynth energy is God. They believe that they are born from it, and carry it with them during their lives. They are the chosen of God, since none of them are ever born without the essence of God in them.
"I had to extrapolate some here, so forgive me. It seems that a number of strongly worded protests from the Pontiff were filed with the Imperial ambassador regarding the Illuminati's blasphemous usurping of God's gift among the race's 'chosen'. It seems that some Illuminati were born without metasynth potential and had to be adjusted in order for it to function. The Antioch had a major problem with this practice, among others, stating that if God had willed the Illuminati to have the life essence, it would have given it to them. The Antioch were a very peaceful people. Until the death of that Pontiff, they only had enough warships to ensure their own security. The last of the data Father had told of the election of a new Pontiff, one that espoused the concept that only those beings born with God's essence were truly alive. Those that had not been born with the essence, but were using dark technology to steal it, had to be destroyed as they were an affront to the chosen."
"That seems pretty cut and dried to me, how can you have any questions?" Mike asked.
"Easy," Carl answered. "If the Antioch believe that only beings born with metasynth potential are truly alive, why are they here? Every person on this planet is born with it to some degree or another. In their eyes we should be considered alive and therefore left alone."
"Not only that, but the information Father had was almost two hundred years old by the time he was sent here. When he was mothballed, his net access was downgraded, so he didn't have access to the most current data. If this new Pontiff was so hostile toward the Illuminati, why didn't they prepare better for it? They had to know the attack was coming," Wanda said.
"Which also brings up the question; if they knew, but didn't stop it, were they really destroyed or are they hiding?" Carl asked.
Two days later, the guard shack called to ask if a Miss Abigail Donahue could be admitted. Wally allowed it and shortly she was ringing the doorbell. Wally answered the door with Brian out of sight behind it.
"Welcome back, Abby. Is something wrong?" Wally asked.
"Yeah, you could say that. The day before yesterday, I filed a complaint with the captain about my partner's behavior while on your case. The short story is, I'm now looking for work," Abby replied.
Wally looked in her mind and saw she was telling the truth. The captain informed her this morning that she was fired for gross insubordination. "Come in, we're having a meeting in Carl's office."
As she followed Wally away from the door, she noticed Brian replacing his pistol as he headed back to what he had been doing. "I see you've increased security around here a bit. That's probably a good idea, but I don't think it'll help much."
"What do you mean? Aren't the police dropping the investigation now?" Wally asked.
"The police are, but I don't think the feds are. Just before the car wreck was found, they had been making noises about invoking some Homeland Security clause that would allow them to use covert security measures against you."
"Wonderful. Well, we already assumed our phones were tapped. And our Internet and emails were being monitored. I wonder what else they can do?" Wally said.
"Plenty, they can search and detain any of you at any time without stating a reason, or allowing you an attorney. They can turn your cell phones into listening devices, and they can use satellites to watch this place. They can even shoot on sight if they even have any feasible suspicion that you are terrorists," Abby explained.
They had arrived at the downstairs bedroom that had been converted into Carl's office. "Hi Abby, welcome back," Carl said from behind a desk.
"Abby came looking for a job. They canned her for filing a complaint against that asshole, Winters. Do we have room for her yet?" Wally asked.
"Actually, we might," Carl said as he looked at something on the laptop computer in front of him. "But what about Renee? Do you think she's ready for this too?"
"She's just finishing up her Doctorate, she's spent the last few days glued to her computer. She's writing up her thesis. She said she would be done with it today, and would have to go get it printed up. I'm supposed to be home in about two hours to pick her up," Abby said.
Carl smiled; "Excellent! We'll activate both of you at the same time. When you pick her up, bring her back here. We'll print her thesis up for her while the two of you get oriented. I hope you don't mind, but you and Renee will be sort of our guinea pigs for the orientation spiel, so please let us know what you think."
"I take it you're going ahead with the whole recruiting and building an army thing?" Abby asked.
"Something like that; you two will be our first people through the process. So if you see something that could be improved, please let us know. As for a job, we can give you the cover job of working as driver and personal security for Wally. Of course the other question then is, what do you really want to do?" Carl asked.
Abby was a little stunned by the change in this young man. He went from a quiet-seeming newlywed to a take-charge leader in two days. "Uh, I suppose security would be the best for me, since I've been a cop for the last ten years. I'm not really a bad investigator either. I'd like to continue with that if I could."
"I think we might be able to do that; we are going to need someone to check out the people we are interested in recruiting. Normally Mike would handle that, but he's got his hands full with other things. Tell you what, why don't you relax around here for a while before heading out to get your wife? We can hammer out the details later."
"Okay, but does anyone around here need some help? I have way too much energy to be sitting around not doing anything," Abby admitted.
"Anybody need any help?" Carl asked telepathically. "Abby wants something to do for a couple of hours."
"She can go shopping with me, I'm going to need someone to help carry stuff anyway," Bree answered.
"Would you mind helping Bree with some shopping?" Carl asked. "She's going out to grab a few office supplies and some other stuff."
Abby grinned; "You should know better than to ask a woman if she wants to go shopping. Where can I find her?"
Carl felt the chuckle from Bree in his mind, since he was letting her hear the conversation. She told him to send her to the garage.
After she left, Father knocked on the door and gave Carl a slight bow. "Highness, Minister — I have something I think you might like to see."
He led the two men downstairs to Wally's brightly lit basement, and over to a seemingly blank section of wall. "I've installed a small gate device in this wall. I'll explain how it works once I show you what's on the other side. All we have to do is walk through it; I've already told it where we are going." Father gestured for Wally to step through the wall.
Looking slightly confused, Wally hesitantly walked into the wall and... walked right through.
"Highness?" Father asked, deferring to Carl.
Taking a deep breath, Carl followed Wally. One minute he was walking into a wall in the basement and the next he was standing beside Wally in a largish room. It was somewhat cool, and the air was kind of stale, but it was as brightly lit as Wally's basement. Scattered around the room were comfortable looking lounge style chairs and a few couches. Carl almost jumped when Father suddenly appeared beside him with a slight popping sound.
"Gentlemen," Father said, spreading his arms. "Pending your approval, welcome to the new Easter Island research and training facility."
"Easter... We're on Easter Island?" Wally asked, stunned.
"Not exactly. We're about two thousand feet under it. This is the facility the Illuminati used when they were researching your ancestors. It was already shielded because they didn't want the research to interfere with the activities on the surface. It also had a full medical facility. Granted, most of what went on down here was medical research, but from the outline of what was decided, this place should suit our needs with plenty of room to grow. Please follow me, and I'll show you some of the areas. I don't think we have the time for a full tour today, as that would most likely take a couple of days."
"We just moved half the way around the planet and the Antioch couldn't trace it?" Carl asked.
"Point to point teleportation is usually easily traceable. However, it's the origin and terminus that create the flare in the metasynth. This place is shielded, and Wally's house is on a natural metasynth flow where such flares are common. Since I couldn't trace it, the Antioch couldn't. However, if we wanted to teleport off the planet, or to an unshielded location, it would show up as a bright flare of metasynth energy," Father explained. He led them out a sliding door and down a corridor. "Currently, we are on the third level. The medical section is above us, and Admin is on level one. Level three houses only the teleport room, a large storage area that we could easily use as a training facility until other arrangements can be made, and the commissary. Below us are level four research labs and two levels of residential apartments. I've set a few of my drones to creating a seventh level to use for training, but it won't be ready for a couple of weeks." Father hesitated as they stopped before what looked like an elevator. "Highness, one of those residence levels is really more like a prison area. Your ancestors were considered very barbaric and hostile. The area was more of a holding area for the test subjects."
"You mean we were nothing more than a lab experiment to the Illuminati? Talk about barbaric! What all did they do here?" Wally asked.
"Subjects with high metasynth potential were brought here to attempt to understand why the abilities hadn't manifested in your race. One final attempt would be made to awaken the ability, then the subject would be euthanized and dissected. Then the awakening procedure would be altered and they'd try again."
"That's horrible. Why would the Illuminati do such a thing? I thought they were supposed to be..."
Father looked uncomfortable as he interrupted Carl. "Highness, I didn't even know about these experiments until I queried the facility's computer. I don't think it would have been approved of had it been known to the Senate. This is something my people did not condone. The Illuminati were looking for a viable work force to mine gold and to run the metasynth transmitters. I believe they were trying to make a race of slaves."
The doors slid open to a small room that was obviously an elevator of some sort, though there were no buttons for selecting the floor. They entered and turned around. The doors slid shut and they could feel the lift rise.
"Well, we are not the Illuminati, and we still have to deal with the Antioch. What's been done in the past can't be changed. We have to concentrate on the present. Why are there no buttons in this elevator?" Carl asked.
"As with the transporter, you have to tell it what floor you want. I believe it was one more way to keep your people from escaping. Do you want control panels installed for the various systems?" Father asked.
Wally was looking all over as they walked. "This place is nice, but a bit dreary. I think I would go crazy staring at white walls and blue carpet all day long. Do you think we could get some color down here?"
Father smiled and at intervals screens came to life with color; some of them were paintings, while others seemed to have changed into glass windows looking out onto a mountain vista complete with sunlight streaming in. "Of course, the view can be set to anything you would prefer, and the paintings can be changed. We can even add a portion of the 'window' that can open to allow a breeze in. Once the system is fully operational, it will even have the smell of the flowers and trees available." They stopped at a door at the end of the hall. "This was the director's office. There are other offices on this level as well, and I'll get telephone systems and your Internet installed in here without compromising the shielding."
Carl looked around his new office. To the left was a glass wall with a patio door opening out onto a balcony. The balcony had a view of an immense open cavern. He walked over and opened the door, then stepped out to look over the railing.
Above him maybe one or two floors was a huge domed skylight. The far wall had a smallish waterfall spilling down a rock wall from the top of the cavern to the floor at least six stories below. At various places on the wall, vine and other tropical plants grew, giving the impression of a tropical setting. Below, on the floor of the cavern, was what appeared to be a park, but it looked cluttered and the plants needed tending to. On the other three walls of the cavern, balconies like the one he stood on were visible.
"Father, is this an illusion like the 'windows' in the hallway?" Carl asked. Wally and Father had followed him out.
"Only partially. The skylight and sunlight coming through it are holograms. However, the cavern is real. The Illuminati preferred a tropical setting, but it can be adjusted to anything you would prefer. The same can be done for office furniture and the furniture in the individual apartments."
"I was going to ask how we were going to get all the furniture in here. The elevator is too small to move anything very big," Wally commented.
"Items here can be created; replicated, if you prefer. While it does somewhat limit your choices, it does make moving easier. The replicator in the commissary uses a lot of energy, and it's huge, which is why there is only one here. It's also one of the main reasons I picked this place. There are only two replicators on this planet. The other is located at the main metasynth transmitter and that location isn't shielded for obvious reasons." Father led the two men back inside. On the opposite wall were two other doors. Father pointed to the one closest to the entry door. "Through that door is your private lift to your quarters, and access to the conference room. That other door is your private bathroom and a closet. The Illuminati used a type of sonic shower. Sound waves in the water were used instead of soap and shampoo. The recycling system should have no trouble removing the extra contaminants from the water, though."
"Let's head back; the girls might be getting worried. Father, we'll need a map of the facility until we get used to its layout. I would like to get those controls we talked about earlier installed as soon as possible. For the control's at Gran's house, they'll either have to be hid really well, or left for mental control only," Carl said as they began to retrace their steps to the transporter. "Something we'll all need to decide at our next meeting."
"Father, you mentioned earlier about the replicator limiting our choices; why? If it functions like the one in Star Trek, we should be able to get anything we ask for," Wally said.
"In order for a machine like the replicator to work, it first has to scan a pattern for the object to be replicated. Not a picture, but the actual object. For example, if I asked for a mahogany desk, it wouldn't be able to form one because it has no idea what that is. We will have to go someplace that has mahogany desks, and have a drone scan one. We'll have to do that with every item we'll want the replicator to reproduce — including food."
"So why didn't the Illuminati just replicate the gold they needed?" Carl asked. "It is a basic element."
"Economics. It cost too much energy to replicate what could be mined in the quantities needed," Father explained. "If they had used the power to replicate the amount of gold they needed, they would not have had even a fraction of the power required to power up the defense grid made with that gold. Replication takes different amounts of power for different objects. For example, the amount of power required to make one small ring for Maria would take many times the amount of power needed to furnish Carl's new office. Add a diamond to that ring, and we could use the power to furnish the entire facility. On the other hand, if you gave the replicator a large lump of coal and asked it to create the diamond, it would take considerably less power, and the diamond would be of a higher quality."
"So if I asked it to create the coal?" Wally asked.
"It would take the same amount of power as creating the diamond to begin with, there's no way around it," Father said.
"What about food items? Salt and sugar are both crystals like a diamond," Carl asked.
"Food items are a different case. The food in question only has to taste
like the food it appears to be. It doesn't have to actually be
the food ordered." "I don't think I want to know. Let's just get home
before the girls realize we're not there and panic," Carl said.