The Gift (37 page)

“Where are they now?”

“Presumably in the ship. It exited the mountain where it had entered it. It has not moved since.”

There was a long pause, but Web knew better than to continue before his boss had a chance to speak his thoughts.

“Okay, Eric. I don’t see how you could have seen that coming, but it doesn’t change the fact that the only thing the NCA is going to believe is that you failed. Ultimately, Sam was a member of your team and you have been incapable of either convincing him to act rationally or capturing him. Unless you’ve got a really big card up your sleeve, I don’t know how I’m going to be able to keep you in command of this operation.”

Web expected to hear that. Failure was failure, but he wasn’t out of the fight quite yet. “I understand your position, Sir, but we still have options. We’ve been focused on capturing Sam. I don’t think we have to. We can end all this by taking him out.”

“You told me that if we lose him, we lose the Worldnet and that without it we can’t engage in the most important construction projects.”

“Yes, Sir. That’s true now, but I know Sam. He always wants to be the hero. He can’t be that in his mind if he leaves us without the Worldnet. He won’t leave until he’s found a way to replace himself as its controller. He’ll be vulnerable then.”

“He’d still be the first…”

Web very uncharacteristically interrupted his superior. He had a nibble. Now it was time to set the hook, and you just can’t set the hook too hard. “Which only matters if we care about launching a gift ship. We can build ships. We don’t need the gift ship. If we take that out of the equation, we’re left as the only country with all of the Maker’s knowledge. We’d be invincible.

“Think about it, Sir. What do we care about the damn gifts? How do we know it isn’t the launching of the gift ships that brings the group minds? Couldn’t they consider the very process of arming species like us a hostile act? We need to be able to defend ourselves now, not some time in the future after Sam’s bunch of misfits maybe succeeds in getting into one of these academies, if they exist. They’ll probably fail, but just the attempt could result in our destruction.”

“Even if he were to succeed, it could be years before they return, if they ever do, and we have no control over that. In the meantime, every country in the world thinks this is another American power grab. Thanks to Sam's theft of the landing site ships, even our allies are suspicious. We have no choice. We have to shut him down.”

Web stopped talking. Overselling is as bad as not attempting to close. It took even longer than usual for Campbell to reply.

“You make a compelling point. You may have actually found that card. What do you propose?”

“Staging myself with the device in a camouflaged position far enough away from the ship to avoid detection and waiting until Sam transfers control of the Worldnet. When he does, I’ll get it into position near the ship, arm the device and depart. It will only take a few minutes for me to get far enough away to survive the blast at its lowest setting.”

The device, a W80 nuclear warhead, had a user-selectable variable yield ranging from 5-150 kilotons. At its lowest setting, it would create a nuclear fireball 140 yards in diameter, with an almost universally fatal air blast radius of three-quarters of a mile.
 

“Can you move that thing by yourself?”

“It’s less than three hundred pounds, Sir. That may sound like a lot to you, but it’s do-able with this new body. I can do it.”

“What about civilian casualties?”

“This place is almost empty. The closest town has only a few thousand people in it, and they shouldn’t experience more that what they’d go through in a bad storm. Sam’s team would be destroyed along with him, but they made the decision to be traitors.”

“It’s a crazy plan, Eric, but I’ll take it to the NCA. The president will either think it’s brilliant or conclude that we’re both out of our fucking minds and fire us. Proceed as if you have approval, but be prepared to pack your shit.”

Web told his gift to increase the enhancements to his body, to make him as strong as possible while still looking human.

C
HAPTER
F
ORTY
-O
NE

For those who were conscious, the sense of falling was over almost as quickly as it began. They found themselves in exactly the same positions they had been in less than a second before, apparently still inside Sam’s headquarters in the Judith Mountains. Those who had experienced travel within Jordan before realized what had happened immediately. For the rest, even though they’d been told of the others’ experiences, it took a moment. The fact that the soldiers were gone and the furniture was back in place helped.

Lisa was the first to move. She took a step forward and sat down beside her father. Lifting his head onto her lap, she placed her right hand on his forehead and reached out with her left to hold Esther’s limp hand. Matt stood behind her, looking lost. Sam’s first thought was that none of it was real. Lisa, Jim and Esther’s bodies were somewhere inside of Jordan, presumably immobile, as were the bodies of all of the rest of them. What difference did it make if her virtual body touched theirs?

His second thought was that he needed to revise his opinion of what was real. Lisa’s concern for her father and Esther was real. The fact that all of them could live the rest of their lives in such an environment was real. The importance of his, and their, physical bodies was becoming less so.

Then his thoughts turned to Matt. Sam wanted to comfort him, but he had no idea how to do so. Jim and Esther would recover in a few minutes. Adia had confirmed that for him immediately after Lieutenant Evans shot them. Everyone on the team had observed Web’s team testing their CGRs. Sam wanted all of them, especially the boys, to understand that the government was willing to hurt them, but wanted to take them alive. Most of them had never been in a life-threatening situation before. Sam had learned the hard way that most people did not handle such experiences well, so he wanted them to know that was not what they would be facing. He had needed them all to stay calm and they had done remarkably well. He was proud of them, but that didn’t change the fact that Matt had been the focus of the soldier’s attentions and he had seen his mother threatened and his grandfather hurt as a result. He decided to give him something to do.

“I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think it would be a pleasant surprise for Jim and Esther if they were to wake up somewhere nicer than our little man-made cave. Matt, do you remember your grandpa’s favorite fishing spot up here?”

It took a moment for Matt to process the question. When he did he answered, “I think so.”

“Would you mind working with Jing-Wei to change this place to be a version of that with some comfortable furniture and shade?”

Matt looked at Jing-Wei. She smiled and nodded. He looked grateful to have a purpose. “Sure. I can do that.”

“Thanks, buddy. We don’t have much time, though. They’re going to wake up soon. So you better get started now.”

“Okay.”

Sam looked around at the rest of the team. “I hope you all don’t mind. Eventually, we can each spend time in whatever environment we wish, but I think it’s best if we stay together until we finish the ship.”

Lisa looked up. It was not lost on her that Sam had attended to Matt while she was caring for her father and Esther. “Of course, Sam.” The others nodded.

“All right, then. While we wait for Jim and Esther, I’m going to see what’s going on with our belligerent hitch-hiker.”

Closing his eyes as he usually did when talking with her, he asked, “What happened to the sergeant, Adia?”

“He is physically adjacent to you, but experiencing a different virtual reality.”

“Does he pose a threat to us or Jordan?”

“No, Sam.”

“Then when we get out of the mountain, please ask Jordan to release him, without his weapons or equipment.”

“As you wish.”

“Thank you.”

Returning his attention to the team he faced them and said, “You all did very well back there, especially you two.” Sam gestured toward Matt and Jesse. “How are we coming on our new shared experience?”

Matt looked at Jing-Wei. She indicated he should answer, so he did. “Watch this!” As he said it, the space around them all instantly transformed itself.

They were now on a grassy salient surrounded on three sides by a burbling creek. On the land in front of Sam, behind the rest of his team, there was a nice selection of what looked to be very comfortable outdoor furniture. Jim and Esther were resting comfortably on two adjacent deck chairs near the back of the collection.

Sam walked over to the closest piece, a round table painted a clean white and covered by a matching umbrella emerging from its center. There was a crystal bowl of fruit on one side of the table and a plate of various cheeses and crackers on the other. He reached out and touched the fabric of the umbrella. It felt as real as the grass giving way under his feet, as real as the breeze ruffling his hair. Sam couldn’t explain it, but seeing this, feeling this, changed him. He knew he could start walking in any direction and the world around him would be a perfect recreation of Earth, if he wished, for as long as he cared to walk. There would be no terrorists. There would be no one from the government trying to take him into custody. There would be no threats that could really harm him, and he could live like this forever. They all could. Going anywhere they wanted. Doing anything they wanted. Forever. Another test.

Setting such thoughts aside for the moment, Sam turned back toward his team. “Very nice. Good job, Matt. I’m sure your grandpa will love it. I do.”

When Jim and Esther recovered, Sam let everyone spend some time talking about their escape. He was anxious to get back to the task at hand, but knew they needed time to share their thoughts and feelings of the experience. For most of them, it had been the most threatening event of their lives. He knew it was time to speak when the topics of conversation started to include other, less stressful events.

“If you guys are ready, I’d like to continue the discussion we were having before we were so rudely interrupted.”

That earned him a light chuckle from Jim, who had elected to stay in the chair next to Esther, holding her hand across the small divide that separated them. Everyone else had selected a chair of some kind and moved such that the entire team was in a roughly circular formation.

Jim had been the first of the two to recover. When he did, Lisa told him how Esther had come to be incapacitated as well. It was clear to everyone on the team that what had been affection between them was rapidly transforming into love. Sam was happy for his friends. The analytical part of his mind noted that it would also make the rest of their job easier.

Into the new born silence, Sam continued, “Even with all of the excitement, I’m sure some of you have been wondering what this is.” Sam pulled the dull black marble-like object out of his pocket and held it between the index finger and thumb of his right hand. “Before, I said I wondered if it would be possible to create a gift-like clone of myself and Adia. The journey toward finding that answer is what led us to create something much greater than those words imply. I can’t tell you specifically how Adia and I did what we did, nor can I guarantee that each of you will be able or willing to do the same. I can tell you that all of you must if we are to succeed, and we are vulnerable until that happens. So, I ask that you all make it your highest priority to pursue understanding of how this came to be,” Sam turned the small sphere in his hand, “and what purpose it may ultimately serve.”

“Like you, Adia and I had all the knowledge we needed. What we lacked was understanding. It took me a while to realize that Jordan was telling me that, unlike knowledge, understanding cannot be taught. It must be achieved. You must all achieve it in your own, unique ways. Two of the things Jordan said to me helped me to do so. In the hope that they may help you as well, I will repeat them. The first was that our success in overcoming this challenge would result in greater diversity within the existing controlling entities’ ranks. The challenge he was referring to was the creation of the eighteenth controlling entity for the new gift ship. When I asked him how we were supposed to do that, he told me that we must do what their makers did in order to create them. At the time I was quite frustrated with how little I thought he was telling me, so I’ll forgive you if you are as frustrated with me as I was with him, but I can tell you no more until you reach your own understanding. Of course, then you will no longer need to hear it from me.” Sam smiled.

“That’s it, folks.” Sam put the sphere back in his pocket.

“What do you mean that’s it? You can do better than that, Son. At least finish telling us how the Maker’s reproduced,” Jim said.

“You can learn it from Adam. In fact, I guarantee he’s waiting for you to ask,” Sam replied.

“Humor me,” Jim said.

Sam thought for a moment before he replied, “You will all still have this conversation with your gifts?” He waited for confirmation from them before continuing, “Okay. Since this is an area where it is your gifts who must achieve understanding, I see no harm in telling you some facts. I suppose it might even help in some way I can’t anticipate.

“The Makers reproductive cycle was complex compared to ours, but the gist of it, using human terms for a decidedly non-human process, is that the dual gender carried their young, but was only capable of providing the first half of a two-step fertilization process. The senior dual would then fertilize the other two duals and be fertilized by them in turn. Although this typically resulted in multiple potential young within each dual, only one ultimately survived. The resulting three children were cared for by all nine of their parents.

“Obviously, this required a great deal more cooperation than human reproduction. It’s also important to note that every child contained the genetic material of three adult Makers and that the genetic material of the senior dual was always one of those three.”