Chapter 3: How Long Do We Have?

“I’m sorry John for the loss of your home.” Agent said, after a few minutes had passed and I had calmed.

“It’s all gone now. I knew it was going to happen. It just hit me when I realized that the photographs of my family are now gone also. It caught me off guard, I guess, as I had not expected to be alive when my possessions and home were destroyed.”

“Were the images like these?” Agent asked, and images of my wife and daughter appeared on the screen above the console, replacing the frozen video of my destroyed home.

My god! There they were! All the photos I had lost plus dozens and dozens more!

“YES! Where did you get them?” I asked, shouting.

“I have access to all the data of your family stored on your internet as well as all the surveillance records of your home and its contents. Soon after you moved here, Picket had every item in your home scanned and inventoried. He also performed extensive background checks on you, your family and reviewed your activities for ... basically your whole life. He is thorough that way,” Agent explained.

That sneaky bastard! He had been in my house I hadn’t noticed. Part of me wanted to be upset at his intrusion, but what did it really matter now?

“I’m surprised. I hardly saw him around. I didn’t think he noticed me much”

“Picket did notice you because of your proximity. He also needed to evaluate you closely to determine if you presented a risk to him and his activities here. He noted your reclusive lifestyle and understood that you were isolated and somewhat depressed. Those factors worked to his advantage and he chose to disturb you as little as possible. He did continue to monitor your situation though as your depressive lifestyle concerned him.”

“What was he worried about?” I asked, suspecting I knew the answer.

“Many things, though I surmise that he was mainly worried that you would become further depressed and either become violent or out of control, possibly falling addicted to drugs or alcohol. Suicide was an ongoing concern. Any of those actions would have brought attention to the area and possibly to Picket and his activities.” Agent explained.

“He did note and express interest in the curious devotion you seemed to place in performing yardwork, however. He considered it an interesting contradiction to your state of existence and made a special note in your file stating ‘Keep off his grass’”.

Was that a joke? I shook my head. “Ha ... ha ... funny guy that Picket.”

“Picket even contracted to increase the frequency in which his own yard work was performed as he had observed you grumbling towards his property whenever you were working near the fence line.”

“Huh,” I muttered, and recalled that a year or two ago, I had noticed that Picket’s yard seems to have begun to be better maintained. Something else occurred to me that seemed suspicious at the time.

“Say Agent. Did Picket arrange for his snow removal guy to approach me a few years ago and offer to do my drive for a ridiculously low rate?” I asked.

“Yes John. Though that transaction served a dual purpose. Picket sought to reduce your frustration with the chore but also wanted to eliminate the weeks in which you would... “Hunker down” to use an Earth expression, after a heavy snowstorm occurred. Your unplowed drive limited the ability for Picket’s remote units to sneak close to your house to perform routine surveillance.”

Yep ... he had been a busy, busy beaver. I sat quietly for a minute deep in thought, occasionally giving a glance at the images of my wife and daughter on the screen above. Agent remaining quiet as well, somehow understanding I needed time to digest all that I was learning and what was happening.

Finally, I stirred. “Agent, I have to take a leak. Do you have a toilet, or corner somewhere for me to handle that chore?”

“John, if urination is all that is required, I suggest simply urinating into the collection hopper by the door. I will then process and render your waste as I do other refuse. Beware of the possible floor tremors though. Don’t fall in!”

Was Agent trying to be funny? I laid the shotgun down on the floor beside the chair, stood and walked over to the grate. I stood next to the access door so I could hang on to one if its massive hinges if the floor started heaving and proceeded to piss into the grate. I noticed that my wiz seemed to run down the walls of the hopper as if the surface were waxed or were actively repelling the urine. Frictionless surfaces ... wonders never cease. A perfect bachelor’s toilet.

My business completed, I returned to the padded chair at the console. “Do you have anything to drink Agent? Maybe a cold Beer?” I asked.

“John, I have access to most chemical formulations including beverages such as ‘beer’. If you state the type by brand name, quantity and temperature, I can create and provide the beverage in approximately twenty minutes.” Agent answered.

I frowned. Twenty minutes seemed like a bit of a wait, but I guess when you consider it was a miracle to create beer from thin air, a short half hour is not much to complain about. Maybe I could have her create a full six pack, so I only had to wait once? I continued thinking. Did I even want a beer that bad? Especially a beer of unknown taste made from a machine that for all I knew, used the urine I had just provided as its base? I looked at the shotgun on the floor. Did I want to wait around for anything really?

“I guess I’ll pass on that beer Agent, I can suffer with my thirst.”

“I understand John. As for your thirst, I can offer you pure water in a few seconds If you desire,” Agent inquired.

“Sure, I’ll have a glass of water. Thank you.”

“The water is being created now John. Note the active device.”

I looked around the room and saw a large closet sized device light up. It also began emitting a humming noise. I guessed this was the replicator or creation device. I also noticed over at the far end of the room the large cylinder with the red lit band seemed to pulsate faster. The cylinders to the left with the blue lights remained inactive.

I stood up and approached the replicator device. As I neared, a panel slid open and there was a fairly large sized mug of water sitting on the floor. The mug appeared to be frosted glass and I was surprised to find that, when I reached to pick it up, it was cold and felt like ice! Feeling the slick cold start to form moisture in my grip, I realized it was in fact ice. What the hell? I asked Agent about it.

“John, in order to provide you with water as fast as possible, I also created the vessel out of water in the form of ice. It should remain solid long enough for you to consume the contents. Once you have quenched your thirst, simply toss the ice vessel into the collection hopper and it will be reduced to base elements again. If I had not chosen ice and instead created a vessel of glass or some other material, the creation time would have been almost twenty minutes, similar to the time it would have taken to create the beer,” she explained.

I guess that made sense. Clever machine! I quickly drank the water (it was flat and tasteless ... probably distilled, but it was cold!) and did as suggested, tossing the empty ice mug down the disposal hopper. Returning to the chair I thanked Agent again. I wondered if the beer could have come in a frozen mug made out of beer. That would probably have been messy to hold. Though, now that I considered it, an ice mug out of frozen water would have worked fine for a quick beer also. I decided not to express my thoughts on the matter to Agent.

“That replicating machine is sure an amazing contraption, Agent. Say, what is that big cylinder at the end of the room with the pulsating red panel?” I asked because I noticed the pulsing had changed.

“That cylinder and the five next to it are the main Energy Storage Units for this field base. They function in a manner similar to how your world’s batteries function, storing and releasing energy over time, though these units have energy storage capacities many orders of magnitude greater than the best of your world’s current energy storage technology.”

Show off. “Do they create energy like a generator or something? Are they nuclear?” I asked, interested but also slightly concerned.

“No, they only store the energy. But a vast amount of it.”

I considered big cylinder further. Energy storage units ... huh.

“I’m going to call them ESUs Agent, where does the energy in the ESUs come from?” I asked.

“Picket purchases much of the energy to maintain the ESUs, as you say, from your local power grid. Not all though or the heavy current draw would be noticed. Picket also periodically has fully charged portable energy storage units delivered from the main base to this field station when needed to top off these energy storage units.”

“Initially, when the base was created and the power demand was greatest, power was more of a concern. The ESUs were brought to this location fully charged and almost all were fully depleted during the base construction. After that time, it took over two years before the local grid and the portable ESU deliveries were able to fully recharge all six base units.”