Many thanks to Grundy_Golem for his help with the editing of this chapter

Progenitor


Chapter 9

After the three of them arrived at the pits, Amy and Jake both explained that John couldn't tell anyone about what he was about to see. After John had agreed, he was surprised when a door appeared to open about 20 yards away. Amy and Jake went that way and told John to hurry up and that he would get a real surprise. Upon the entrance of all three, the door shut and they heard , "Welcome aboard, John. Please be seated and prepare for take-off."

"AL, scan area for any other life signs; hold take-off until Jake and I can talk with John," Amy ordered.

"Acknowledged; no other human life signs found," intoned AL.

"John, what we are about to tell you will seem unbelievable," Jake began, but please hold any questions until we finish. To start with, this is not your regular airplane -- it is a shuttle from an alien base. I was contacted by the Artificial Intelligence of that base after I made a computer program that broadcast on a special frequency that somehow 'awakened' the AI. After communicating with him, I agreed to meet him, thinking it was a joke being played on me. It wasn't a joke. Amy and I have both been to the base and have renamed the AI as AL. It seems that the aliens who originally occupied the base more than a million years ago had come to this solar system exploring for a planet that could, hopefully, provide a new home for their race. Due to sabotage, they were stranded here and unable to communicate back home. The captain finally had no choice but to abandon the base due to limited resources and a failing power system. The crew was 'seeded' here on earth with minimal equipment and supplies. Come to find out, Amy and I have enough of their genes that the base recognized us as members of the crew. It seems that I have the genetic markers of the Chief Engineer and Amy has the markers of the captain. When you were over at my house the other day, you were scanned and it seems that you have the markers of the Science Officer. We would like for you to come to the base and let AL confirm that. If it is correct, then you would be able to take on the job as Science Officer. Even though Amy is the captain, I've had more contact with the base, and the computer system; that's why I'm doing all the talking right now. Amy and I had discussed this earlier and she thought that it would make it easier for me to do the talking. Now, we both know that you probably have many questions, and we will, with AL's help, try to answer them. But only if you agree to come to the base. We shouldn't be gone more than a couple of hours and if anything comes up, Kate can get in touch with us. Even if you decline, you can't ever tell anyone, they wouldn't believe you anyway. So, what do you say?" Jake asked.

"John, we both know how confused you might be as we've both been through this ourselves. Jake didn't even go into as much detail when he told me about it. Just please keep an open mind," Amy added.

"You weren't kidding when you said it was unbelievable. But, if what you are telling is correct, then I have to see this for myself. Are you sure we will be safe and that Kate can get in touch if needed? I can't believe this; but lets go, before I change my mind." John replied.

"AL, lift off as soon as possible. What is the travel time to the base, for John's information," Amy inquired.

"Travel time to base is 30 minutes; lifting off now," AL replied.

With that said, the shuttle lifted off and started towards the base. Upon arriving there, John was still in shock but very curious. They went straight to MedBay for the conformation scans. When they entered , they were greeted by an exact replica of the "Holo Doc" from Voyageur. This surprised even Jake and Amy. The AutoDoc placed John on the exam table and started the scans while Amy and Jake watched. After about 10 minutes, the "Doctor" said he was finished and that John was indeed a descendant of the Science Officer, about 90% as opposed to Amy's 96% and Jake's 94%. Also, the Doctor said that John needed some work done on his teeth whenever he had time to return and he would take care of it for him, it would only take about 30 minutes.

After that, the three of them went to the Captain's ready room. This was the first time even Amy and Jake had been there. Once inside, Amy offered John and Jake refreshments and then asked that John voice some of his questions.

"Boy, you guys weren't kidding again. This is fantastic; I don't know where to start. Let's see, I guess first off is where are we? I mean it only took 30 minutes to get here so we must still be on Earth," John said.

"Actually, we aren't on Earth. Due to the speed of shuttles, it doesn't take long to get here from Earth. If I understood AL correctly, it takes longer to leave the atmosphere than to travel here. That is due to the need for secrecy and the wish not to be detected by any of the governments," Amy replied.

"Yeah, can you imagine what would happen if the government found out about this place? Not to mention if it was someone like China and they had a way to get here," added Jake.

"Well no one is going to find out anything from me. What would I be doing as science officer? What about my family, especially my sister Sally? " John asked.

"AL will explain all about your duties. Even though I'm supposed to be captain, I'm still new at this and haven't learned everything yet. Speaking of learning, you will be surprised at how fast you learn things here. You go to sleep with a headband on and wake up with knowledge. At least that is what has happened to Jake and I so far. As to your family, even they can't know about this place. As we asked earlier, what would you think about just disappearing and living here on base?" Amy replied.

"I think I could live here; but I don't want my family to worry. When would I start this learning?" John asked.

"I would think you could learn some today. AL, can you arrange for John to have a learning session today?" Amy replied.

"Some of the knowledge has already been implanted in John while he was being examined. All that has to be done now is to 'unlock' that knowledge. If John would place this headband, as you call it, on, I will unlock that knowledge," AL replied.

John was surprised when a headband just appeared on the table in front of him. But he placed it on his head. After about a minute, he removed the band and said he understood quiet a bit now. He even knew where his quarters were and where his workstation was located. After telling Amy and Jake this, he asked if could go see his quarters and workstation. Amy said sure. After John had left, Jake asked what Amy thought about John's reaction. Amy was quiet for a few moments then stated that she was kind of surprised by it and was worried about John talking too much when he got back home.

AL spoke up and said "Captain, I have placed a block in John's mind that will only unlock when he is talking with you, Jake, or to me. Also, he has already begun working on a way to adapt some of the power systems to atomic power and has requested several scans on the planet. I have informed him of the risks involved with so many scans being detected by the governments of your planet. He will be asking for permission from you to do the scans."

"Thanks AL; that relieves much of my stress about the situation," Amy replied. "Also, did you put a transceiver in John like Jake's, Kate's, and mine?"

"Yes, as soon as I scanned him and determined that he wasn't a real threat, at least not with the block. The block will be removed if he takes up permanent residence here on base or on your order. I've also place the same block in you, Jake, and Kate. This is per the security protocol that was instituted by Captain Tuvok prior to evacuation of the base," AL replied.

"AL leave all blocks in place until a person is in permanent residence here, that includes Jake, Kate, and myself. I agree that we must be very careful about discovery," Amy instructed.

Just then the chime for the door sounded. Knowing that it had to John, Amy allowed entry. John appeared very excited and immediately started talking a mile a minute. Until Amy told him to slow down so that she and Jake could follow along.

"Sorry, I guess I got carried away. This is great; I still can't believe the things I've learned here and seen! I was asking for some scans of earth but the computer said it was too dangerous. Amy, Jake, we need those scans to find enough atomic material to create our own reactor. A reactor would supply all the power we could ever need. The only other thing I can think of is to steal one from somewhere," John exclaimed.

"Hold on John; do you know how to build a reactor? I don't and I don't think Amy does either. What about leakages of radiation, the materials to construct it, not to mention the risk to all of us and the base," Jake injected.

"Oh, I didn't think about those things. No, I don't really know how to construct a reactor; and I'm not sure what materials we would need. You're right, I guess I don't know enough to help you out like I thought I could." John replied.

"John, AL has already given some thought to the use of atomic energy. It seems that the people who were originally here on this base were well past using atomic energy and didn't even think about it, nor did AL. Right now what we need is some samples of that pitchblende you mentioned. That way we can have AL analyze it and see if it can be used to increase power. The solar cells are already supplying more power than what AL had before Jake and I came up here. But it still is lacking as far as getting the whole base working or repaired," Amy added.

"John, also AL has inserted a subcutaneous transceiver in you so that you can communicate with him, Jake, or myself after we get back on Earth. In fact we probably need to start heading that way now. If we are gone too long someone might get suspicious and start checking up on us or following us. I want to caution you again that we all must be careful not to betray the base or let anyone know about it or the transceivers. Once we get back to Earth, we should stop at the site you found the pitchblende and load a nice sample in the shuttle for AL to test out," Amy added.

"Amy, you and John go on back; I need to check on a few things up here. Tell Kate I'll be home in a couple of hours, just wait until you are away from Sally or anyone else to tell her. Of course, you can contact me if anything comes up," Jake said.

After Amy and John had departed, Jake went to engineering to do some research. The first thing he did was start a complete diagnostic on the power systems, including the new solar panels. While the diagnostics were running, Jake went and took a look at the central computer core to see if there was anything that looked out of place. In one corner of the room he noticed a box that didn't look like it belonged. As he looked closer he noted that the writing on the box was different from the writings he has seen through out the base. Jake called AL and asked how long the box had been there. When AL told him that the box was in an area that he couldn't scan Jake told AL that he thought they had a problem. Jake went back to engineering and retrieved a portable, non-handheld, scanner and returned to the box. Upon starting the scan Jake noted that there appeared to be an explosive device inside the box.

"AL, why are there explosives connected to you?" asked Jake.

"There are no explosives allowed in this room Jake; if you found explosives then it must be left over from the saboteur that tried to escape." AL replied.

Jake repeated his scans and made sure to make two different copies. He then exited the core room and went to engineering, connected the scanner to the computer input, and asked AL to do a complete analysis of the data. Jake also pulled up the layout of the room and indicated exactly where the box was located and where it appeared to be connected to the core mainframe. He had AL include this information in his analysis.

It took AL several minutes to complete the analysis; the results were very disturbing to both Jake and AL. It appeared that the explosive was not the typical compounds used by the original crew's many races. Also, AL reconfirmed that the box was specifically placed so as to avoid the base's scanners. AL concluded that whoever had placed the box there had intended to activate it remotely; but it appeared to be in a standby mode at this time.

When Jake asked for suggestions, AL considered for a few seconds before answering.

"Jake, the captain must be informed of this immediately! I would suggest that you use a maintenance droid with sensors to remove this box. That way I can monitor the connections and direct the droid so as to minimize the danger of triggering it," AL replied.

Jake immediately contacted Amy to see if she was still in contact with John, he didn't want to call John directly just in case this call startled him and someone noticed. It took several minutes for Amy to reply. Once Amy did reply, Jake told her what was going on and asked if she could get John and come back right away as he thought that John's help would be needed. Amy said she would turn around and go back to John's house and tell him once Jake explained why he had not called John directly.

"Jake, I have noticed something about the box you found and the connections. I did a reverse track on the connection and found that the mechanism is monitoring the transporter circuits. It appears that it is waiting for a specific bio-pattern to appear. I was able to gain access to the programming and extract the template that it was looking for. The pattern matched that of engineering tech Bartuk. It appears that once Bartuk transported the mechanism would start a 1 hour countdown that could only be stopped by Bartuk retuning before the countdown reached 5 minutes." AL informed Jake.

Jake relayed this new information to Amy and asked that they delay their return; he also told her that he might have overreacted. Jake was informed by Amy that she didn't feel that he had overreacted and said she would wait, as she had not reached John's house yet. Amy also said Kate wanted to know when they were moving to the base.

With great caution, Jake had a maintenance droid that he had upgraded the sensors on disconnect and remove the box from the core room. He had the droid to take the box well away from the base, about 2 Km, so as to decrease the danger to the base, himself, and the rest of the crew. After the droid returned, Jake again made a visual sweep of the core room and had the modified droid make a slow and detailed sweep of the whole base. Jake left instructions for AL to alert him of any abnormalities detected and to monitor the scans closely as there might be other devices on the base. Jake went to his quarters, then contacted Amy to bring her up to date.

After he finished talking to Amy, and Kate, Jake decided to take a nap while the droid finished the mission he had given it. It was about two hours later when Jake was awaken by a call from Amy wanting to know what was going on and when he would be back. Jake told her that so far it seemed that the droid had not found anything suspect. Jake told her that unless something came up in the next 30 minutes, then he was coming back down then. After disconnecting from Amy, Jake contacted AL to see how the scans were progressing. Jake was informed that there had not been anything found thus far, but it would be at least another three hours before the scans were finished. AL then asked Jake if he would access his terminal to review a suggestion that AL had come up with. When Jake pulled up the screen, he saw that AL had come up with a plan to replace several of the satellites in orbit around the Earth. This would allow for extended scanning with a decreased chance of detection. Jake told AL to start making the arrangements, but hold off on deployment until Amy had a chance to review the plan. AL also informed Jake that the pitchblende wouldn't be usable as fuel or power source; but that he had found a moderate amount of atomic material that would be useable. Jake asked for the location and a display came up showing a barge on a river. With a little manipulation of the scans, he determined that the river was the Mississippi and the barge was going upstream for New Orleans. When asked what type material was present Al told him that it was a fairly pure grade of Plutonium. This surprised Jake, so he had AL keep a close eye on this barge. Jake then checked one last time on the progress of the base scans and had AL ready a shuttle to take him back home.