Future Chron Universe Book 4 - From The Earth Series Book 4 - To Tend And Watch Over - Chapters 11 - 15

 

Image: Bruce Rolff

Chapter 11

A few weeks after twelve-year-old Arlo had visited the Em core he had decided to hike the subway in the other direction to see what he could find. Pauli didn't accompany him. In that direction, Arlo found that the subway emerged from its tunnel into the open and that was where he found the field.

The field became Arlo's new playground. He even began camping there. Slowly over time, Arlo had asked others that he knew to join him. Even though it was quite a hike the field became the center of the group's life. The feeling of being away from the constricting rules and regulations of the complex was greater than the effort it took to get there.

Now a decade later Arlo, Pauli and a few others had come out for a day in the field. They had left before daylight and light was just breaking when they emerged onto the field.

It wasn't long until the group had company, a security drone was overhead.

One of the group, Justin, pointed it out. “How do they know when we are here?”

“I suspect the Ems are still able to track me,” said Arlo. “Even after ten years, they are my constant companion. But never mind, except for watching they've never done anything to interfere with my activities.” 

“I agree,” said Pauli. “They are not going to bother us unless we do something to upset their management of the complex. I'm afraid that is why we lost a few of our number. They wanted to be too confrontational. I hope we all realize that this is not the time or place for such, we are too weak and they are too strong.”

“That's right,” said one of the girls, Rosalyn. “And I have no interest in confrontation, so if the group is into that, then I'm out.”

The others agreed.

Arlo had so far been able to organize the group through his personality and charisma. But he knew they needed something more, something to coalesce around. He had decided that self-sufficiency, as far as was possible, would be the group's goal. And self-sufficiency started with food and shelter.

The group put up some temporary shelter in the form of tents. They worked to build a cistern to capture the rain. This was easily purified for use. They even got a rudimentary waste disposal system working by using some modified technology from the government's abandoned space program.

Soon they had an area where they could go and spend a day and night, maybe longer if they brought enough food. But that was the problem, backpacking enough food for an extended stay was an effort. They were soon trying to grow food on-site. The attempt was not a complete failure but it wasn't a success either. Growing food meant tending the fields every day and that meant a long hike there and back even if staying overnight.

Someone with experience and drive was needed to get the growing to the scale needed to provision the group. Everyone kept alert to the possibility of attracting such a person to fill the need.

Chapter 12

The door buzzed and Davide went to look through the peephole he'd recently installed. No one was there so he opened the door slightly and looked down, it was a package. It was from the gardening book's website. Davide placed the package on the kitchen table and proceeded to open it. He took out the large gardening book. Sigmund joined him.

Davide opened the book and saw that on each page were beautiful color pictures of garden vegetables. Planting and harvesting information was also available for each plant. Growing seasons were given. 

Even Sigmund seemed impressed, except for the tomatoes he and Davide had grown, he had never seen vegetables in the field. Davide listened to Sigmund's comments but the pictures of the sunshine glued his eyes to the page.

The day went by without notice until the dimming light announced the arrival of evening. Davide, now alone as Sigmund did chores, closed the book and quickly dressed, he yelled to Sigmund that he was going out. He hurried downstairs to buy his fruit and head for the wall of the complex. He arrived in plenty of time to watch the onset of dusk.

He looked up the curve of the wall to where he first saw Sofia but no one was there. He was disappointed but soon became engrossed in the last display of the setting sun.

It wasn't until he could count the stars on both hands that he got up to go home.

Each morning and evening when he went to the complex’s edge he glanced down the curve of the wall and saw no one. It was the fourth day and she hadn't shown up again. Oh well, he told himself, it had been a chance meeting, to begin with so he shouldn't expect anything more.

One morning after his vigil, Davide stopped to do some shopping. After shopping he was almost back to his tower when he heard a voice behind him, he turned and there was Sofia with a large carry-all slung over her shoulder. “Ah, Sofia,” he said. “I haven't seen you for a few days.” 

“Hi Davide,” she said. “I know I've been busy at home.”

“Sure I understand.” 

“Is this your building?” 

“Yes it is,” said Davide trying to think of something else to say. “Sofia I was wondering if you would like to come up and see the collection of gardening books I have.” 

“Books, you mean paper books? No one has those anymore.” 

“Well I have a couple.”

“Oh,” she said. Sofia wasn’t worried about Davide, she could handle herself well enough in such circumstances but she was in a hurry, still, she was intrigued by the fact he bought gardening books. “I guess I have a few minutes, maybe I could use your bathroom while I'm there?” 

“Sure,” said Davide.

They were both quiet on the short elevator ride to Davide's floor.

“Here we are,” said Davide as they entered his apartment. “It's just two rooms, not much really.” 

“No, it's nice.” 

“Well, here is the living room as you can see, and over there is the bedroom.” Sofia quickly looked around and walked over to the bedroom door, glancing inside, she saw Sigmund.

“Hello,” she said.

Sigmund responded. Davide then introduced Sofia to Sigmund and Sigmund excused himself to work in the kitchen area.

“Oh, look,” she said. “Those are the books you told me about on the bookshelf.” 

“Yes, not much of a library I'm afraid. But do have a look, and there is the bathroom also.” 

“Thank you. I'll just be a moment,” she said as she closed the bedroom door.

Davide sat at his kitchen table waiting. Sigmund asked Davide if Sofia would be staying and should he fix something to eat. Davide said he didn't know. Sigmund was put off.

“Davide,” he said. “I simply must know these things ahead of time so that I may properly prepare for your guests.”

Davide tried to explain that this wasn't a planned visit and he didn't think Sofia would stay long enough to eat. This seemed to mollify Sigmund as he went back to his chores.

Sofia exited the bedroom and asked, “Have you ever gardened?” 

“With my grandmother,” Davide said, not wishing to discuss recent events. 

“We could use a gardener.” 

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I guess it might be best to show you, you want to see?”

“I guess so.”

“Sigmund,” he said. “It looks like I will be going out for some time.” Sigmund watched them leave the apartment, he never approved of such abruptness.

Chapter 13

Davide followed Sofia down to the lobby. In front of the tower, Sofia turned and said, “This way.” She headed in the direction of the complex's center. Davide walked by her side not saying much. 

After a few minutes, he spoke up, “How far are we going?” 

“We are going to the center of the complex.” 

“But that is a long hike on foot. Why don't we take a cab?” 

“It's best this way,” said Sofia, “you'll see.”

Except for a few comments about passing landmarks not much was said between them. Sofia seemed in a hurry and a little tense. Davide was trusting but becoming a bit anxious at Sofia's silence.

Finally, they arrived at one of the oldest towers in the complex. It was actually a refitted skyscraper, who knew how old. And it was located just outside the Em core. Sofia went in the front door with Davide right behind, she immediately went up to the elevators. She and Davide and a couple of delivery robots got into the elevator. Sofia pressed the fourth-floor button and there she and Davide got off. “Okay,” she said. “Now we take the stairs down.” 

“Stairs, down? We just came from the lobby.” 

“I know, you'll see.” Davide followed Sofia around the elevator core, Sofia's Annie opened a door marked maintenance with a cipher key. Once in the stairwell, they started down.

After a few flights, Davide was surprised and asked, “Where's the lobby door?” 

“There isn't one. It was sealed when the building was renovated. The other stairwells go to the lobby but this one is sealed off except on the fourth floor.”

“So where are we going?” 

“You'll see, we are almost there.”

Davide lost count but thought they must have descended five or six stories. At the bottom, Sofia opened the only door and they emerged onto a platform with very dim lighting.

Sofia said, “This is the old subway platform. It served as a station stop on the subway system.” 

“What do you mean?” asked Davide. 

“Years ago there were underground trains that the people used to travel from place to place in the city. They were all abandoned when it was decided to optimize the size of the tower complexes for walking. The building we were just in was the last one that had a means of entry to the subway, I guess to make it easy if anyone ever needed to access the subway system but I don't really know why. Now it's only used to maintain the Em core.”

“The Em core! That is strictly off-limits.”

“Don't worry. We are not going anywhere near the Em core, we are going in the opposite direction. But we will have to watch for the work trains and try not to be seen. Come on I'll show you how we use the subway.”

“We?” 

“Yes. Me and a few others. Let's go, if we hurry we can make it in a few hours.” She climbed off the platform onto the old roadbed and began walking briskly. The dim lighting continued into the distance, down the tracks.

“But Sofia, it is already late. How far are we going, will we be back before dark?”

Sofia turned and said, “Come or stay Davide, I’m late and haven’t time to explain everything to you.” Davide hesitated before he began chasing after her.

Sofia wouldn't say much about the destination but talked to Davide about what he knew about gardening, especially about growing vegetables. Davide told her his experience was slight but he had successfully grown tomatoes recently, though he didn't tell her the results of his efforts. 

“You grew tomatoes? Are you authorized? Did you know about the regulations?” 

“No, I’m not authorized and I didn't know at the time I was growing the tomatoes about the regulations but I stopped once I found out.” 

It had been late afternoon when they began to walk and avoiding the work trains only added to the walk's duration. Davide had no idea how far or how long they had been walking and he had forgotten his Annie, but he was getting tired and hungry when suddenly Sofia stopped, adjusted the carry-all and pointed to the far wall. There was a ladder scaling the wall. 

“We could go further up the tracks but this is a short cut I've found, we go up now.”

Davide waited for Sofia to gain some height before following. After a minute he heard her grunt as if she were pushing something, then a muffled clang. Davide looked up and could see stars framed by a perfectly round opening. Sofia had pulled her legs through the opening and was standing, peering down at Davide. “Come on,” she said.

He climbed the ladder and pulled himself up through the hole. The dim light in the tunnel allowed his eyes to quickly adjust to his new surroundings, although he couldn't really see anything but the stars overhead and a glow on the horizon behind the tree line. “Where are we?” he asked.

“We're outside the complex, a few miles. This used to be part of the old city before the complexes were built, we think it was a park. If you look over that way you can see the glow of the lights from our complex.” Davide looked where Sofia pointed and saw the horizon lit behind a line of trees. “The other dimmer lights you see are from other tower complexes.”

“Come on there's some people I want you to meet. They've been looking for a gardener type.” 

“But I told you I'm not a gardener, really,” protested Davide. 

“Close enough,” said Sofia.

Chapter 14

The Em had to agree with Jaj. Control theory was only approximately applicable in this case. Allowing a little “slack” in the system was much preferable to a hard failure. Humans made the system brittle in the Em's estimation, meaning it was subject to failure when the slightest difficulties appeared.

The Em was discussing what could be done with other budded Ems. They were mostly known by numbers.

Bud-fourteen spoke, “How about genetically engineering these problem elements to be more passive and accepting of their environment?”

The Em said, “Genetic engineering is possible but it has been outlawed by humans and for good reason. The history of genetically engineering humans has not been a pleasant one. At first, as the engineering had been mostly confined to curing diseases, the humans had supported such efforts. The more common genetic disorders such as autism, many cancers, cystic fibrosis, Parkinson's, sickle cell as well as others began to fall to the new treatments.

“But the list of genetic diseases proved finite and many genetic engineers turned to improving or enhancing the genome to maintain their research capabilities. The proponents of this approach believed that the best way to “predict the future is to change it”.

“But for many humans this led to less than desirable tinkering with the human genome. Some approved of this but many simply thought it misguided.

“The opportunity for genetic discrimination had already been outlawed in most countries by the middle of the twenty-first century and when there were accidental releases of gene-modified organisms and then the later deliberate release of modified pathogens the tide turned against genetic engineering. Research was proscribed worldwide soon after.”

Bud number twenty-seven spoke up, “This may have been the proper decision for humans at the time with their limited capabilities. But with the assistance of Em engineering this is no longer true. There is no longer a need for lab experiments and the consequent possibility of accidental release because we can run enough simulations to make a determination without real-world testing. And the deliberate release of a modified pathogen is impossible anywhere we monitor.

“Likewise, the real impediments to genetic engineering; such as the multiple contributing factors to genomic expression, the probabilistic nature of genomic inheritance, the broader environmental factors that contribute to genomic expression, all these can now be handled by the massive computational power that we Ems can bring to the problem.”

“That is true,” said the Em. “But I have found that such straight forward presentations of the facts to humans is not as influential as a picture or a meme of a genetically engineered monstrosity. We are dealing with emotions not logic when we talk about engineering the human genome.”

“I agree,” said Bud-fourteen. “So that rules out any genetic engineering to solve the problem.”

“So what do you think should be done?” asked Bud twenty-seven.

The Em said, “Well since we can't improve the species I suggest that we manage them using the old human art of persuasion. And this is where a contract with the human Jaj would be valuable.”

The other Ems soon agreed that the advantages of working with a human outweighed the disadvantages and Jaj was offered a contract which he accepted.

Chapter 15

Sofia and Davide walked toward the center of the opening. Looking around as he walked it appeared to Davide that they were completely surrounded by trees. The opening was probably three hundred feet across, he couldn't tell for sure in the dark.

As they approached the group Davide could make out about six or seven people. Sofia called to one of the group and that person walked out to meet her. 

“Hi Arlo,” said Sofia as they hugged. 

“Sofia, you're late and who have you brought with you?” 

“Arlo, this is Davide. Davide is a gardener.”

“Is that so Davide?” 

Davide couldn’t see in the dark very well though he could tell Arlo was taller than himself. “Well, I have some experience growing tomatoes but as I've tried to tell Sofia I'm no expert.”

“Sofia, I wish you had asked me before you brought someone with you, but now that it is done. Davide we would like to start growing some vegetables here. Do you think you could accomplish such a thing?”

“Well, I could try. But there are things I'll need, like tools, fertilizer, seeds, water . . .” 

“We can get all those things except maybe the water. But maybe we could use the cistern we've built or build another one just for the garden?” 

“Yes, I think so. We only need to water when we first plant, after that the rains should take care of most of the plant’s water needs.”

“Very good, let's give it a try then?” 

Davide hesitated for a moment; everything was moving so fast. “Maybe,” he said. “But I have a question. I do not have the education and certifications of a professional gardener. Do you or does anyone here?” 

“No.” 

“Well, you know it is against the law for us to grow vegetables, right?” 

“Yes.”

“So, they will just find out and destroy the plants, I've had it done to me.” 

Sofia looked at Davide.

“I can assure you Davide, the authorities know everything about what we are doing here. We are under constant surveillance from the drones.”

“Then why don't they stop you?” 

“Because, they consider us harmless and figure that giving us a little space to rebel in satisfies our needs. They know they can always close in at any time.”

“I don't get it. I grow a few tomatoes and I am punished by losing my home. You do much worse and no one cares?” 

“Well, there you have it, that explains it.” 

“Explains it?” asked Davide perplexed. 

“Yes. You had something that someone wanted. They used the law to take it from you. I bet if you could find out who has your old home you will find someone with connections in the government. Now let's get something to eat.”

Chapters 16 - 17