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Children
Luxury
Conference Room C
They all gathered together the next morning
for their second meeting. Keith and Kara
sat together near their parents. Jared
and Michelle sat together, and Carmen sat next to Michelle.
Jared began the meeting by stating,
“Thanks to Carmen we now can make water!”
Aaron said, “That’s great!” Aaron turned to Carmen. “Good job.”
Carmen smiled and said, “I really didn’t
do much, but thank you.”
Aaron asked, “What else can you make?”
Jared replied, “Well, I only had time to
make salt and sugar. Sugar took some
time because the formula is a bit complex.”
Sarah asked, “Is it going to take a long
time to build up a database of molecular formulas? What happens when you get into
multi-molecular items?”
Jared nodded solemnly, “It will take a
while. Everything has to be coded from
scratch. Also, at the moment I’m doing,
well Carmen and I really are doing, detailed tests to make sure each item was
built correctly. After awhile we can
relax on the testing, I think.”
Aaron asked, “How long would it take for
you to program food? Say, for example,
bread?”
“It would take a long . . . long
time. It might take me a day just to
figure out how the bread is put together.”
Carmen whispered something to Jared. He whispered something in reply.
Carmen said aloud, “I think there may be a shorter way. The builders need to record all sub-atomic
locations in the structures it takes apart as part of the tracking
process. If we kept that information, we
could remake almost anything. In fact,
maybe we could remake anything.”
Jared agreed, “She’s right. It would take some work, but in the end it
would save an infinite amount of time.
We could reduce the number of supplies we took in. Well, except for plants and animals, of
course.”
Michelle asked, “Can you use the builders
to make living things?”
Jared said, “I doubt it. Maybe, but even if we could it would be like
mass instant cloning. There would only
be one sex and no genetic variety. It
would all die out after the first generation!”
Carmen added, “Plus there may be more than
molecules that make up an animal. It’s
hard to say what would happen if you made a copy of a brain like that.”
Michelle said, “Plants though?”
Jared nodded, “Probably.”
Aaron said, “That’s great. The less people we need to bring in to help
set us up, the better. Now we had
discussed biologists. Let’s get a plant
biologist and a vet.”
Jared said, “Sounds good. You’re right about the vet. The vet is our best bet to take care of
animals.”
Sarah asked, “Are we sure we want a
hacker? It might be more trouble than
it’s worth.”
Aaron said, “As much as I hate the idea,
we do.”
Sarah asked, “What will prevent him from
messing with software we make?”
Jared replied, “Probably nothing. Hackers tend to believe information should be
freely accessible. We need to find
somebody who isn’t destructive, just curious!”
Aaron said, “OK, so to summarize, we need
three to four more couples with two or more children. In the bunch, we need a hacker, a doctor . .
. a medical doctor, a vet, a programmer and finally a plant biologist. Anything else?”
Keith asked, “Don’t we need like a
carpenter or architect to make sure as we expand we don’t kill ourselves?”
Kara asked, “What do you mean?”
Keith answered, “Well, if we are going to
be there for generations our . . .
population will increase. We’ll need
more room.”
Aaron said, “That’s a good point. We don’t want the structure to collapse, and
we need somebody who will know how to make repairs. Most architects aren’t used to dealing with
special places. These facilities took a
long time to build because we had to get just the right people.” Aaron snapped his fingers, “Actually, that’s
the solution. We might be able to get
one of them.”
Sarah said, “Just because they can keep
quiet doesn’t mean they will want to leave with us.”
Aaron replied, “We’ll have to look
carefully.”
Michelle said, “We still need a location!”
Aaron added, “We need to pick a country to
locate ourselves. I think it should be
close to the places where fixes will be needed the most.”
Jared said, “
Kara asked, “You’re just going to abandon
the
Sarah said, “Yes, we are. The
Kara said, “But I don’t want to leave!”
Aaron asked, “Do you mean you decided to
go?”
Kara blushed. “Well, yeah.
I think Keith is going to go too.”
Keith nodded, “Heck yeah, count me in!”
Sarah said, “Are you sure? You haven’t had much time to think about it.”
Keith said, “I’m sure. This is going to be one adventure I won’t be
missing!”
Kara said less enthusiastically, “At first
I was against it. Plus, I really like
this country. But you’re my family and
I’ll go too.”
Aaron said, “OK, but let us know if you
change your minds.”
They nodded in agreement.
Jared said, “That should be true for you
as well, Carmen. If you change your
mind, let us know.”
Carmen smiled, “Nobody will be changing my
mind.”
Keith looked relieved. In fact, everybody but Kara seemed relieved
that Carmen wanted to go. The ‘adults’
all knew she would play an important role working with Jared. Carmen would probably take over his work when
he got older.
Sarah had her concerns about both Keith
and Kara. Her first concern was that
they agreed! It was so rare they
agreed. They were like two stubborn
politicians of opposing parties. It
baffled her that at times they could still be friendly. Kara didn’t seem too sure she wanted to
go. Kara’s life was full of activity and
friends; she would lose that by going.
Then on the other hand, her feelings came through with her words, and
Kara had probably been honest. Keith,
though, never agreed to something so easily and so decidedly. Sarah wondered if it was Carmen. Sarah knew he liked her, even if he kept it
to himself, or at least from her. Carmen
was the only girl Keith ever talked
about. She could imagine Keith wanting
to marry Carmen. Carmen, though, would
Carmen love Keith? She seemed to treat
Keith more like a little brother than a potential love interest. Sarah wondered if Carmen already liked
somebody. Then she realized if Carmen
did like somebody she would not have been so ready to go with this plan.
Jared brought the meeting back on track by
saying, “How about
Keith said in a mock Swedish accent, “Ya, ve vould
lofe to go to Sveden!”
Kara pinched him, and he squealed. That was the Keith and Kara their parents
knew and loved!
Michelle said, “It’s too far north. How about
Carmen said, “It’s a good choice. Heck, that’s where the UN went!”
Aaron nodded in agreement, “They won’t
harass us. The French, or at least the
Parisians, are as leery as ever about Americans. The
Sarah nodded, “I agree. I think that’s why the UN chose it. Who knows, maybe if the UN improves and
becomes a major force we might visit to make a fix from time to time.”
Michelle said, “Sounds good to me.”
Kara asked, “What language do they speak?”
Keith said, “Does it matter? We have translators.”
Kara said, “Yes, what if they break?” Translators were headsets that not only
translated any words out of hundreds of languages to the wearers’ native
language but also translated the whispered speech of the wearer and output it
to whatever language the person wearing it had selected
Aaron interrupted the squabbling, “Since
the UN moved in, they speak some English.
Plus, the internet has made English more popular. Previously they mostly spoke German, French,
Italian and Romansch.”
Keith asked, “Roma what?”
Carmen said, “Romansch. It’s the Roman language. I think the Swiss are the only people that
still use it. Don’t worry, it’s not that
popular.”
Aaron asked everybody, “So, do we agree on
Everybody nodded.
Aaron said, “OK, I’ll do some work to find
property there to build.”
Michelle asked, “If we seal ourselves in,
how will we get out to make . . . fixes?”
Sarah said, “We’ll make a few exits that
work like submarines or space ships. So
basically we will have anti-chambers.”
Michelle said, “How do we prevent people
from finding them?”
Aaron said, “That is going to be
tricky. One important thing is that we
need to stay away from the
Sarah said, “OK, I’ll start putting
feelers out for people who fit our needs.
I’ll start with an architect.”
Jared said, “OK, I’ll be working on the
builders . . . of course.”
Michelle had been wondering where she
would really fit into the picture. She
had only worked for a few years when she was younger. She had been a 6th grade teacher until
they moved to
Jared said sarcastically, “Woman, you
should cook, clean, and bear me children.”
Michelle replied, “Well, I’m trying to get
that last part down.”
Aaron said, “Weren’t you a teacher once?”
Michelle nodded yes.
Aaron said, “Carmen, Keith, and Kara can
probably learn on their own anything they will miss by leaving. Your children and possibly some of the other
children however will need a school. To
make a school we’ll need books, and lesson plans and whatever else teachers
use. We will also of course need a
teacher.”
Michelle said, “OK, I’ll start gathering
materials for teaching. If we do 12
whole grades, it’ll take a ton of books.
That’ll keep me busy for a long time.”
Jared added, “If Carmen and I can get the
builders to record and replicate we might need only one of any book.”
Michelle nodded, “It’s still a ton of
books. Plus there are subjects that will
be important that I don’t even know, like languages.”
Keith said, “What about me? Carmen has something to do, so can I help
too?”
Sarah said, “The three of you can help,
but you need to learn as much as possible in school now. Also, you have to act normal.”
Kara said, “Keith can’t act normal.”
Carmen countered, “We have to act like
ourselves. We have to fit our own
version of normalcy.”
Kara rolled her eyes.
Aaron said, “Well, we should do some
research into biospheres. Keith, want to
take a crack at it?”
Keith said, “Consider it done.”
Kara asked as if she didn’t want to be
left out, “What about me?”
Sarah said, “Why don’t you make lists of
items we’ll need and want: clothing, food, toys, kitchenware, and so on.”
Kara said, “Sure thing.”
Aaron asked, “Is there anything else we
need to discuss?” They all nodded no. “OK, let’s meet again Wednesday.”
Kara said, “I have a rehearsal on
Wednesday.”
Aaron frowned. “We’ll take notes for you.”
The meeting dispersed. Jared talked to Aaron. Keith and Kara went back to the house. Sarah went off to use a computer. Carmen waited for Jared but then Michelle
started to talk to her.
“Carmen, can you help me with my project?”
She smiled, “Sure, Mrs. Miller, what do
you need?”
“Ick, don’t call
me Mrs. Miller. Do you call Jared Mr. Miller?”
“No, he won’t let me.”
Michelle said, “Call me Michelle.”
“OK.”
“So anyway, I think I can deal with the
subjects from kindergarten to maybe eighth grade . . . but I really don’t know
what to cover for high school.”
“Oh.
So how can I help?”
“Could you get me a list of the classes the
average high school has? Then can you
rate their importance.”
“OK, so like trigonometry will be very
unimportant in our colony. However
geology and biology will be very important.”
“Yes, exactly.”
Carmen asked, “Can we really afford to
omit some subjects? What if in a few
generations we need some?”
“Good point. I think in a generation or two most of the
subjects can be taught, in which case hopefully enough of us will still be
around to teach them.”
Carmen and Michelle continued to talk for
some time. Eventually Aaron and Jared
stopped talking and Jared joined the conversation. The three of them talked until it was time
for Carmen to leave for work.
“Jared, I need to head to work. I’m sorry I can’t help today. Do you want to e-mail me some of the code?”
Jared shook his head no. “I’ll be OK.
Will we see you Wednesday?”
“Yes.”
“Then you can take a look on Wednesday.”
She hugged them both and got Aaron to help her get back and to her car. As the week progressed, they all got working on their different tasks.
Copyright (C) 1998-2001 East Coast Games, Inc. and 2001 - 2006 Forest J. Handford
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