The Infinite Evolution - Conversion (30 page)

Spencer snapped back, “I’m not
here to get into a philosophical debate with you. I apologize if I
started anything or said anything that might have offended you. I
just want to do my tasks and then be free to live whatever life I
can.”

“
Typical of your generation, a
bunch of hypocrites, always starting something you can’t finish.”
Oliver made a transition, “Ah, forget about it, back to the matter
at hand. We all know the government is lying on how this all
started, so we need you to accompany a small team to make sure the
government hasn’t actually learned anything more.”

Spencer decided to ignore the
comment made about his generation and felt it was best to stay the
course,
,
“Ok, so how is this going to be achieved?”

“
We’re going to
Australia.”

“
We? Australia?”

“
Yes, you and I are going to
Australia, so no sly remarks about how you think I’m too old to
travel.”

“
You said it, not me,” laughed
Spencer.

Finding no humor in Spencer’s
remark, Oliver continued. “We will be traveling as a small group of
interns, I myself being the university professor, on a medical
visa. We have obtained permission to go into the quarantine site in
order to assist with medical aid. With these credentials we will
also have diplomatic immunity.”

“
I don’t know the first thing
about medicine, I’m not going to be of any use,” argued
Spencer.

“
Don’t you worry, you’ll learn
what you need to know. For the next few nights we will be
downloading information to your brain regarding basic medical
care.”

“
You can download information in order to make
me understand a certain subject matter?”

“
To a point, yes. We can only
download so much information and only so many times until the host
has a fatal seizure.”

“
Excuse me, are you saying I can
go into a seizure if I obtain too much of this downloaded
information?”

“
Calm down, you’ll be fine, we’ve
been doing this for thousands of years. We being the movement of
course. And there is a very low percentage of
fatalities.”

“
Small percentage, what do you consider a
small percentage?”

“
Very low, four to six, don’t you
worry. It mostly happens to humanoids who have a poor synaptic
response.”

“
Four to six percent! That wasn’t
very low for those people who made up those percentages. I think
I’ll keep whatever knowledge I have to a minimum, no one will need
to be downloading anything,” advised Spencer.

“
Sorry my friend, you really
don’t have much of a choice. Once you fall asleep they own you and
the downloads begin.”

“
Who owns me?” asked Spencer.

“
Command.”

“
Who is command?”

“
The ones who give us orders, you
know the ones who command us. You’re really not that intelligent.
Maybe some downloads will do you good.”

“
Very funny, but seriously who runs command
and where are they?”

“
I’m assuming humanoids from Tureis run
command, I’m not sure. As for their location it’s somewhere on
Earth, exactly where I don’t know. I’m sure Serafina can fill you
in more when you see her next.”

“
That’s highly unlikely. Serafina
doesn’t share much information,” said Spencer as he gave a nervous
laugh.

“
Why do you find that funny?”
asked Oliver who realized this topic matter was starting to get
underneath Spencer’s skin.

“
I don’t know. Can we just change
the subject?” asked Spencer.

Spencer’s inability to disguise
his personal feelings through his facial expressions confirmed
Oliver’s suspicions about Spencer having an attraction to Serafina.
So Oliver figured he would amuse Spencer a little more with his
purposely-odd behavior.

“
Most certainly my fine feathered
friend.”

“
Are you ok?” asked Spencer.

“
Of course, why would you think
otherwise? Now let us examine some of the intel given to me by my
local eccentric homeless colleagues.”

“
What?”

“
Intel, you know it’s short for
intelligence,” laughed Oliver.

“
I know what intel is, but who are we getting
it from?”

“
Certain humans who are mentally
artistic.”

Spencer started to contemplate if
Oliver may have a split personality and asked, “Are you suggesting
crazy people, present company excluded of course, talk to
themselves and hear voices because they’re getting messages from an
alien species?”

Oliver looked at Spencer with his standard
emotionless face and said, “In some cases, yes.”

“
Occam’s razor.”

“
Occam who?” asked Oliver.”

“
Wow, you’ve been alive this long
and you never heard of Occam’s razor? Maybe you are in need of some
downloads yourself.”

“
Ah yes, finally, a sense of humor, a poor one
at that, but it’s a start,” smiled Oliver.

Spencer smiled back and went on to explain, “Occam’s
razor, the simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best
one.”

After Oliver finished his coffee
and soda mix, he stood up, walked to the kitchen door and said,
“That couldn’t be more true. By the way, I’m also one of those
crazy people who hears alien voices, and soon you will be one too.
Enjoy the rest of your day, oh and your insulin is in the fridge. I
need to go shopping now; I’m running low on breadbaskets. Make sure
you go to bed early tonight, you will have a lot to process,”
smirked Oliver.

“
Breadbaskets? What in the world
are you talking about?” asked Spencer.

“
Don’t you worry about my
breadbaskets, you just take care of yourself. We’ll talk tomorrow,
now go and get some rest. I promise I won’t bother you until
morning. Sweet dreams,” said Oliver as he headed for the front
door, ignoring any further questions from Spencer.

After he left, Spencer walked
over to Oliver’s bedroom and found the door to his room locked. As
Spencer explored, he found the basement door and all the bedrooms
locked except for his own. He continued to investigate his
surroundings in hopes of finding anything that would resolve some
of his questions, but was unsuccessful. Therefore, he went into the
kitchen to find something to eat and located a pizza with mushrooms
in the freezer. He patiently removed the mushrooms and, after
fighting with the oven, he was able to heat it up and ended up
having quiet meal to himself. Once finished, Spencer went back to
his bedroom, relaxed, but tried not to fall asleep, due to his fear
of dying from unwanted downloads. After approximately thirty
minutes, his body ended up giving in and Spencer passed out due to
mental exhaustion.

“
Good evening Spencer, nice of
you to participate in furthering your education for the betterment
of this mission. Please relax and allow the information to absorb
naturally into your mind. This will be one of three lessons. No
need to ask any questions, they will all be answered in due time,”
said a voice inside Spencer’s head. As he processed the mellow
voice's comments he started to experience a euphoric sensation,
followed by a flood of information regarding humanoid diseases and
viruses.

“
Tonight you will be learning
about viruses and how they operate. A virus is not a bacterium, or
an independently living organism. It cannot survive in the absence
of a living cell and it needs a living cell’s parts in order to
replicate itself. A virus becomes harmful by killing the healthy
cells it has invaded. Viruses may enter the cell completely or
inject their genetic make up after they attach themselves to that
cell’s exterior. Humanoids soon become protected when a substance
called interferons, which are proteins, develop. These proteins
will interact with nearby cells helping them become more resistant
to infections by attacking the virus. When these proteins do not
fulfill their job, humanoids begin to feel sick. This is when the
humanoid’s immune system decides to take over and our white blood
cells start killing the virus that is sitting on the exterior of
the host’s cells, as well as the already infected cells. When the
infected cells are purged, this prevents the virus from spreading
to other cells and eventually the virus is removed. When
Tureissians infected Earth humanoids with the E13245VI, or better
known as the HIV virus, it was purposely designed to destroy the
immune system and white blood cells, which normally would have
cleansed the Earth humanoid body of most diseases. After these
white blood cells are destroyed, the Earth humanoid would die via
another sickness.”

As Spencer continued to sleep, he
absorbed more and more information on viruses and how they
operated, to include how they mutated in certain environments. Once
the download was completed, Spencer fell into REM sleep and dreamed
about how he loved to visit Vermont during the fall. This was the
first time in a very long time he felt at peace.

Concern

Mileva woke up, dressed, and put
in her enhanced telecommunication earpiece in an attempt to reach
Quartus. After a number of unsuccessful attempts, she left her
underground residence and moved to an overlook, which rested right
above her Tureis covered home. She walked over to a panel, ran her
hand past a reddish beam, a bluish capsule enclosed around her, and
she was transported to the council chambers, inside the large
pyramid shape, known as
The
Ark
. Upon her arrival she immediately
headed to Quartus’ personal reflection room. Mileva announced
herself five times until she came to the realization that either
Quartus was purposely avoiding her or he was not there. She chose
the latter of the two. As Mileva walked back to her reflection room
she saw Shiphra plucking at the flowers in the gardens that lined
the corridor, so she stopped to inquire as to why. Shiphra was a
beautiful vibrant woman with long reddish hair that dropped passed
her buttocks. She wore a slightly transparent floral print skirt
with dark green sandals.

“
Good morning Shiphra, why are you pulling the
buds off of those flowers?”

“
Oh, hi, Mileva. These buds need to be removed
so they do not reseed themselves and overpopulate the rest of the
garden.”

“
Interesting, you know we have Tenders who do
that?”

“
I am aware, but there is no reason why I
cannot help now and then. So, what are you doing here so early?”
asked Shiphra.

“
I was going to ask you the same.
I am looking for Quartus. Have you seen him?”

“
As a matter of fact, I
have. I ran into him when I came in the front entrance of
The Ark
.”

“
That is strange. Quartus never
enters this facility through the front, he usually streams in, as I
do,” replied Mileva.

“
I thought that was strange too, but then I
thought maybe he realized walking in is much more comfortable. I
never understood why people preferred streaming to walking. Walking
is so much more personal and you get to interact with so many
diverse groups of individuals. Oh well, to each their own,” said
Shiphra with a smile.

“
Did you see him with anyone?” asked Mileva
abruptly.

“
Not until he came up to this
floor, at which point I saw him speak with Kyria for a few minutes,
and then they left together. Why are there so many council members
around today? I figured everyone would be getting ready for the
double eclipse coming up in a few cycles,” inquired
Shiphra.

“
I do not know, why are you here?
It is not because you are helping the Tenders,” pointed out
Mileva.

“
Your observation is a
correct one, but please do not tell anyone. If you must know, I am
not only removing the buds so they cannot reseed, I am also taking
them home with me so I can expand this particular species in my own
garden. Did you know if they receive more then four hours of direct
sunlight they will change their color from light blue to dark
purple and lastly to yellow all in one day? It is amazing the
versatility of colors these flowers can produce if allowed. I find
it unfortunate that such a beautiful species is so restricted while
here in
The
Ark
. You would also think they would have
come up with a better name then Shadingblooms. When I create my own
string of unique flowers I will give them a name which will travel
through our language like a shockwave,” lectured
Shiphra.

“
You do know these flowers
are only supposed to be grown here inside
The Ark
?” asked Mileva
sternly.

“
Yes,” replied Shiphra without any
concern.

“
Interesting, so do you
normally come to
The
Ark
and steal seeds?” asked
Mileva.

“
Excuse me, I am not stealing, I
am spreading seeds of life, literally. Moreover, who is going to
miss a few buds? They would have destroyed them anyway. Look at me
as their savior.”