Chapter 15: Just a Few More Minutes Please

Part Three Cast: (In this future time period)

John Abrams: Main character. Survivor, currently sheltering in Tennessee, recently had to evacuate South Dakota. Recorded age 632, Subjective age 53, Biological age 26

Agent: Artificial Intelligence (occasionally limited). A former augment of Picket’s. Feminine voice. Exists as multiple presences occupying physical processors in various bases and devices around the planet and in space. Capabilities change depending upon how many presences are linked.

‘Master’ A.I. See above. Unique A.I. presence currently residing on the asteroid 3074 Popov. Contains programs, codes, directives, and hardware allowing it final authority over all other A.I. presences in the system.

Manuel Rodriguez: Human sheltering at Nicaraguan field base, currently in bio-suspension.

Ana Branco: Birth name: Txana Kayani Kaxinawá, also known as: Jane - Amazonian indigenous native. Speaks Portuguese and tribal dialects

Other humans: Seven other humans remaining alive in bio-suspension.

Part Three Prologue:

On the asteroid named by humans as 3074 Popov, somewhere in orbit between this star system’s small reddish planet and its large system-dominating gas giant, a machine intelligence pondered a transmission received from one of its observation satellites in orbit around the blue world known as Earth. The satellites had been created and sent on their way to the blue world only recently, to monitor the restoration of the world’s biosphere.

Stoically, the machine noted that still another small heat source had been detected at the edge of a large recovering equatorial rain forest on the blue world. The machine compared this newest detection with the other detections it had noted in the same regional area. The new detection confirmed that the heat source was moving and appeared to be heading further into the recovering forest region. The location of the detections was very near an area of importance to the machine, and this prompted the machine to analyze many new possibilities and forecast their outcomes.

A conclusion was reached, a decision made, and shortly after, an urgent transmission was sent from the asteroid, aimed at a field base located on a different continent of the blue world.

“Just a Few More Minutes Please”

I vaguely became aware of my own thoughts. I kept having visions and sensations like unending dreams. I found I was paralyzed and could not open my eyes. Was I blind? I realized that I was not breathing, and the brief moment of panic helped jolt me further awake. I began to feel pins and needles all over my body. I was confused, frightened and now in a bit of pain. With a jolt, my heart started beating and I inhaled my first breath with a gasp.

What the hell was happening to me? Was I in the hospital? Had I been in an accident? A tube down my throat was suddenly withdrawn and I choked, coughed a bit, and I began to hear noises. They were mechanical noises and gurgles. I was finally able to pry my eyes open to see a blur.

I heard a voice: “John Abrams, please remain calm.”

John Abrams ... John ... that was me! I remembered! That voice was my friend Agent. Agent was a machine! I was in a medical crèche waking up from bio suspension! I was here because ... oh yes, everyone was dead. The pain flared as I recalled those memories. It had all happened only a short month ago ... No, it had happened over five centuries ago! No ... wait! I had re-entered bio suspension five centuries after it had all happened. What the hell? I was so confused.

“Aaaggentt ... waa yeeeaar...” I hissed.

“Remain calm, John. You are in the process of being revived from bio-suspension. The revival is happening much faster than optimal and there will be side effects. Now that your body has renewed its basic functions and brain activity has been confirmed, you will be rendered unconscious again so the revival process can be completed. You will awaken in approximately eighteen hours. The revival completion process is also being be expedited and there will be considerable pain.”

“nnnNooo ... yyyYear?” I said louder with a croak. I felt an injection.

“Rest John. It is the year 2602. You have been revived because of an emergent unexpected development.” and I was out again.

Almost eighteen hours later I awoke, not feeling good at all. The medical crèche lid was opening, and light flooded the padded treatment basin in which my body currently lay. I tried to move but I felt weak and in pain. I decided to just continue lying there aching. My whole body hurt, and I was very tired ... so very tired. I kept dozing off, but the machine kept jolting me with minor shocks reawakening me.

I finally stretched a bit and noticed that even my joints ached. Also, my muscles were extremely sore and fatigued. My brain finally caught up enough with what was happening that I remembered Agent’s words to me earlier, ‘much faster than optimal’ and ‘expedited’. Maybe that was why I felt like shit compared to the last time I had awoken in one of these things. I struggled and was able to sit up.

“Welcome back John. You are suffering the effects of the expedited recovery and feeling much pain and weariness. Your muscle tone is still degraded somewhat so you will be weakened for a short period of days. I have increased the oxygen level slightly to help compensate for your weakness. You will regain full functions and return to optimal conditions soon. Please stand, dress, and come to the media room where I have prepared a meal and have news to share.”

I was puzzled and my brain was a bit foggy, so I just did as she instructed without asking any questions. I slowly dressed in the clothing I found waiting for me, fumbling with some of the garments. I was happy to see my wedding ring was included with the garments and I put it on. It fit even looser than before. I also found the plastic card with the images of my wife and daughter. I slipped that in my shirt pocket where I always carried it.

The clothes were like what I had been wearing before I had entered suspension a few days ... wait ... almost a century ago. 2602 ... I had gone into suspension in 2523. I did the math and whispered...”79 years.” Shaking my head as I did so.

“78 years, 5 months, 2 days, John.”

Agent had heard me. Her auditory pickups were everywhere in this base.

“Thank you, Agent. Can you give me the date and day of the week please?”

“It is currently Wednesday, February 17, 2602, John”

February ... Winter. It would probably be cold on the surface. Now dressed, I left the bio-suspension vault and proceeded down the short transfer tunnel towards the surface elevator, noticing as I left that Agent was already closing the vault’s heavy hatch behind me. After a short ride of less than a minute, the elevator doors opened, and I had my first view of the surface station. Wow, the place sure looked different. I just stood in the open lift for a moment taking in the changes.

The hallway ahead was bright! The early morning daylight was flooding the passageway ahead, streaming down from new skylights in the roof. I marveled at the bright, clean passageway thinking how nice it was to revive in daylight this time, remembering my previous revival in the cold dark chamber back in South Dakota.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“The current time is 8:21:23”

Morning ... Good. No jet lag symptoms like last time. I proceeded down the passageway heading towards the room which I had jokingly labeled the ‘media room’ seventy-eight years ago. It had been a room in the small dwelling which Agent had had constructed for my short-term use after we had arrived here from the old damaged base in South Dakota. Now, the passageway was much longer then I remembered and, passing a new junction, had new branches heading off in either direction. I’d been familiar with the base’s nooks and crannies when I’d spent a week awake before. I’d have to explore this updated base when I felt better now.

I reached the end of the passageway and entered the automatically opening door of the media room and stopped, mouth open. If the new passageway behind me was a surprise, the new ‘media room’ blew me away. The room was huge! It had to be twelve meters long and over six wide. It was also tall at around two stories.

The far wall which previously held a small window looking over the desolate Tennessee valley was now dominated by a full floor to ceiling wall of glass! There were couches and comfy looking chairs facing both the huge glass wall and towards a large wall screen on the side of the media room. I could only assume that Agent had made so much furniture just to make me feel comfortable and not so alone.

I approached the huge window and stood gazing outside. It was definitely winter, with a foot of snow covering the valley. What caught my eye besides the snow was that I could see thousands of trees! Some were deciduous and currently bare of leaves, but many others where conifers with their dark green needles visible through the snow cover.

“Whoa!” I said out loud as my eyes grew damp at the sight.

“There have been numerous changes to this base and its surroundings over the decades John, both inside and out.”

No shit! Understatement of the year.

“A meal has been prepared. Please nourish yourself and then I will summarize recent events.” Agent said.

I smelled the food about the same time as she announced the meal, and it smelled delicious! I looked over and saw a mobile work unit standing next to a wheeled cart. On the cart was a metallic serving box with a curved lid. The unit opened the lid with a manipulator arm, exposing a tray of food. I went closer to look, following my nose.

Oh my God! On a tray, still steaming, was a plate of bacon, eggs, crispy looking hash browned potatoes and toast! On the cart next to the metal box was a carafe smelling of coffee and a dew-covered decanter of orange juice! There were also eating utensils, a small butter dish, a dish of what had to be ketchup, salt and pepper, cream, a mug, and a tall glass full of ice. I pushed the cart over to the table and sat, fixing myself breakfast. Soon I was eating rapidly, between sips of orange juice and coffee.

“This is perfect! Thank you, Agent.”

“I am glad the meal is to your liking, John. I attempted to recreate your preferred breakfast as recorded in Picket’s observations of your past life.”

I sat there chewing and thinking about that. When I had lived on the acreage, I don’t think I ever cooked a breakfast like this. It was usually just toast or a bowl of oat ring cereal. I only had a breakfast like this when I went—”Son of a Bitch! Picket even spied on me at the local diner?” I exclaimed.

“Yes, Picket’s research was thorough.”

I digested that bit of news while I finished the food. Soon my plate was empty, and I was into my second cup of coffee and was now able to focus on the wall screen. Agent had an image of a map of North and South America on the screen which looked like a globe style image like the images produced by Google Earth.

“I shall begin John. In the decades after your exodus from South Dakota the factory base on the asteroid 3074 Popov began constructing observation and communication relay satellites and sending them to Earth. These satellites were designed to observe the Earth from orbit, monitoring the surface for signs of plant and animal life and how any such life is spreading to reclaim the surface.”

“Nineteen such satellites were constructed and sent inward, where they entered low orbit and are now circling the Earth monitoring the surface. The satellites use two methods of scanning the surface. The first is a high-resolution camera to record optical images and the second is a sensitive thermal imaging sensor to detect heat sources.”

“Forty-seven days ago, one of the satellites passing over the southern edge of the Amazon river basin in South America picked up a small localized heat source with its thermal imaging sensor. This detection occurred approximately one and a half hours after local sunset.”

Agent paused, and on the wall screen, the globe image rotated down to South America and zoomed into the area where Brazil was located. A red circle appeared over a spot about 560 kilometers south of the Amazon river towards the extreme western end of Brazil. The image then zoomed so the red circled area filled the screen. The enlarged view showed a very serpentine tributary. Next to the river the name ‘Purus River’ appeared.

“This is the location at which the heat source was detected.”

A flashing dot appeared next to a bend in the river.

“The heat source was small and very localized. The satellite took notice and flagged the detection in the data stream sent to the orbital station. Two nights later, another satellite passing over the same area detected another localized heat source, but this time a short distance away from the first.”

A second flashing dot appeared on the same river but about four large river bends away.

“The distance between the two heat source detections was approximately seven kilometers direct, or eighteen kilometers if measured following the course of the waterway.”

“Over the next twenty-five days, seven more heat source detections were made along the same river, all detections occurring an hour or two before sunset and extending up to an hour or two before midnight at that location.”

On the wall screen, seven more dots appeared at various spots along the Purus.

“The locations, accounting for the days between the detections, are an average of eleven river kilometers apart per day and the detections are also occurring in a consistent pattern indicating a movement against the flow of the river,” Agent finished and paused, giving me a time to catch up.

What the hell. Was it a brush fire ... or lightning strikes I wondered? If it were a floating burning log or floating mass of reeds it would be moving downstream, not upstream over time.

Agent continued, “From the amount of heat the sensors are recording, it appears that the detections are of a small wood burning fire. Observe the image as I enlarge the area of the most recent detection.”

The screen zoomed even closer to the river until it was filling most of the screen, the heat detection was on one of the river’s banks. As the image enlarged further, a second heat source could be seen near the first. The second heat source was much fainter.

“How far apart are those heat sources?” I asked.

“About two meters John.”

Holy Christ! “Agent, that’s a campfire, right?”